[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
18
in the most competent and considerate manner is our constant study.
Irving
INjational Exchange 5Bank
West Broadway and Chambers Street New York City
RESOURCES TWENTY - NINE MILLIONS
The LIVE STOCK Exchange National BANK
of CHICAGO
Volume of Business for Year 1908 Exceeded
One Billion Two Hundred Million Dollars
California Banking News
By WILLIAM J. HOLLISTER
nese government, and $4,620,000 in roubles as a reserve fund.
Mercantile National
The executors of the estate of the late Claus Spreckels filed a petition in the superior court yesterday for permission to join in the plans of the directors of the Mercantile Trust Co. for the organization of a national bank. The petitioners say that the Spreckels estate, as the holder of 500 shares in the trust company, would be benefited by the proposed organization. The plan is for the trust company to pay a dividend of $100 a share, with the understanding that the stockholders give the money for the organization of the proposed bank. The trust company will then reduce its capitalization to $1,000,000, the surplus thus created to be returned to the holders, who will turn it over to the new bank. The bank is to be called the Mercantile National Bank, and it is said that nearly all the signatures to make the organization have been obtained. Consolidate Three Branches
The Central Trust Co. and the Swiss-American Bank, which recently effected an affiliation, have called in the business of their branches in 16th, Fillmore and Montgomery Streets, San Francisco, and after January 1, 1910, will do practically all of the banking and trust business at the main institution, Market and Sansome streets. The branch in Van Ness Avenue will be continued for some time to come. The officers of the bank feel that this action will work for the best interests of the institution and for its customers, as it will have a commercial, a savings and a trust department, all under one roof. Each department has been separate; especially capitalized and with separate sets of officers. Under the new arrangement the bank now has a capital of $1,250,000, a surplus of more than $600,000, and total assets of more than $7,500,000.
To Arrange for A. B. Convention
The executive committee which will make arrangements for the entertainment of the members of the American Bankers Association, which will hold its next convention in Los Angeles, has been appointed as follows:	W. H.
Flolliday, chairman; J. A. Graves, Stoddard Jess, J. E. Fishburn, Wm. W. Woods, J. F. Sartori, M. P. Snyder, W. E. McVey, Willis Booth, James B. Gist, secretary.
Increase Capital
The capital of the German-American Savings (Continued on page 28)
Investigate Condition of Industrial Bank
Alden Anderson, state superintendent of banks, is expected at Fresno soon for the purpose of going further into an investigation of the condition of the Industrial Bank, which recently closed its doors. While there, Supt. Anderson will meet with the directors of the institution and discuss future actions on their part. It was stated that the bank will in all probability be liquidated and placed in the hands of a receiver.
To Nationalize
Directors of the Broadway Bank and Trust Co., Los Angeles, are considering the question of converting the bank into a national institution. It is expected that the change will be made about January 1st. The board of directors are: W. Gillelen, R. C. Gillis, Arthur Letts, Ben Williams, W. E. Cummings, E. P. Clark, George W. Walker, R. W. Kenney, Robert F. Jones, George I. Cochran, Dr. W. W. Beckett and A. W. Redman. The bank has a paid-in capital of $250,000 and its surplus and undivided profits amount to $215,000.
Two Russian Banks to Consolidate
Information has been received by S. T. Stepanov, local manager of the Russo-Chinese Bank, San Francisco, that a consolidation of its interests has been effected, through the medium of the main office at St. Petersburg, with the Siberian Bank of Commerce, having its active headquarters at Vladivostok. The consolidated institution is to be known as the Russo-Asiatic Bank, and will have a working capital of 50,-000,000 roubles, or approximately $27,000,000 in United States gold coin. The preliminary agreement for the amalgamation of the two banks was signed on the sixth day of last month. The Siberian Bank of Commerce has no representative in San Francisco, but brings to the new corporation a capital of about $10,000,000. To this amount will be added the $17,520,000 capitalization of the Russo-Chinese Bank, it being divided into a valuation of $7,500,000 in Russian roubles, $1,400,000 in Shanghai taels, $4,-000,000 in Kuping taels contributed by the Chi-
The affairs of the insolvent State Savings and Commercial Banks, San Francisco, were again brought to the front by the filing of a suit by Arthur Crane, a stockholder, praying that he be appointed sole trustee of the estate of the institution. Crane asserts that as a matter of fact he is the only bona fide existing stockholder of the bank. The others who claim to be stockholders have lost whatever right they had, according to Crane, by acts of contributory negligence, in that they failed to pay into the treasury of the bank the amount of their subscriptions or any part thereof. When Supt. Alden Anderson took charge of the bank on July 17th last the directors were W. C. Haves, C. T. Hasshagen, H. M. Webster, T. A. Bechtel and G. W. Emmons. Crane contends that they usurped the management of the bank and wasted and dissipated the assets. The remaining assets of the institution are $68,510.64, and the total liabilities $134,-334.59. Crane states he owns three shares, one of which he bought January 18, 1909, and the other two April 2, 1909. He prays for a declaration that he is the sole beneficial stockholder.
Citizens Savings Bank
President F. McCutchen of the Citizens Savings Bank, Long Beach, announces that $62,-517.40 in assessments have been collected from the stockholders, $17.40 more than enough to open the bank. An application has been made to the superior court, through Alden Anderson, state superintendent of banks, for the discharge of the receiver, Frank Kelsey, and permission to open as a savings bank. The directors will elect a cashier at once and an assistant.
Bank Cashier Missing
William J. Dowden, collection teller of the Crocker National, who had years of faithful service to his credit, has been absent from his post for six weeks. There is a shortage in the funds of the institution of between $20,000 and $30,000. This, it is believed, is directly chargeable to delinquencies on the part of the missing employee. The horse-racing game is believed to be responsible for his downfall.