[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
8
THE FARMERS' AND MECHANICS' NATIONAL BANK
OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.
427 CHESTNUT STREET
Capital -	-	-	$2,000,000.00
Surplus and Profits	1,369,000.00
ORGANIZED JANUARY 17, 1807
Dividends Paid $12,917,000.00	־
OFFICERS
Howard W. Lewis, President
Henry B. Bartow, Cashier	John Mason, Transfer Officer
Oscar E. Weiss, Assistant Cashier
ACCOUNTS OF INDIVIDUALS, FIRMS, AND CORPORATIONS SOLICITED PRESENT NUMBER OF STOCKHOLDERS 930
STATE BANK OF CHICAGO
ESTABLISHED 1879
S. E. Corner La Salle and Washington Streets
$1,500,000
1,500,000
20,000,000
Capital
Surplus and profits (earned) Deposits over
OFFICERS
FRANK I. PACKARD, Asst Cashier C. EDWARD CARLSON, Asst. Cashier SAMUEL E. KNECHT, Secretary WILLIAM C. MILLER, Asst. Secretary
L. A. GODDARD, President JOHN R. LINDGREN, Vice-President HENRY A. HAUGAN, Vice-President HENRY S. HENSCHEN, Cashier
YOUR CHICAGO BUSINESS RESPECTFULLY INVITED
Prospective Financial Legislation
are some minor defects, it is so well appreciated how great is the service that the national banking system has rendered the country, and how successfully under it the most colossal financiering has been done. Criticism is made that no other nation has a banking system like ours as one of the reasons why it should be abolished. Experience is not only important but is often very instructive as a safe-guide. No banking system has so thoroughly protected the bill-holder, not only as to the ultimate payment of the notes at par, but in saving him extortion in the brokerage or exchange that had to be paid under the old state bank system. The depositors have been amply protected, as a stockholder in any national bank is liable for an assessment of one hundred per cent to make good any deposits; and the experience of forty years is that a loss of one-twentieth of one per cent would amply pay all such losses, and in the past ten years this percentage has been reduced about one-half.
Mr. Treat alluded to the fact that not only was the bill holder and the depositor protected, but that the stability of this guaranty, and its world-wide reputation that the United States government was behind it, made it very convenient to travelers and merchants in their being able to pass any kind of United States notes easily without deduction. In fact, they found it easier to use the paper issues of the United States government than they did to exchange American gold for foreign gold.
Mr. Treat also alluded to the charge that the national bank; system was lacking in elasticity, in freedom of retirement as well as freedom of issue. He shows this statement was untenable inasmuch as the bankers only utilized the retirement of about $108,000,000 to one-third of the privilege, and if bankers would not retire the notes the public could not be expected to do so. He also alluded to the fact that there could be no further currency famine as the Aldrich-Vree-land bill enabled any individual bank which had
Address delivered by Ex-Treasurer Chas. H. Treat, at the anniversary of the Board of Trade, New Bedford, Mass., November 22nd.
present, makes it a combination of knowledge that is much more fascinating and instructive than the average financial treatise.
In my personal inquiries, and by correspondence, I have been deeply impressed by the fact that so many of the bankers of the country are averse to making any radical changes just now in our monetary system. They realize how delicate and portentous a task it is, and how many elements might be aroused that would awaken uneasiness in the public confidence, and in the end, perhaps, might be a great factor in so disturbing existing conditions and values as to lead to a check on the present business prosperity that is now so apparent.
It is notable that many of the advocates of the elimination of the present national banking system for that of a large central bank of note issue that shall supply the entire currency for the country’s needs, are prone not to give adequate credit to the merits of the present national banking system. While it is acknowledged that there
Cutter, May & Company
INVESTMENT
BONDS
The Rookery	CHICAGO
Telephone, Harrison 7660
The recent tour of Senator Aldrich throughout the West in behalf of banking and monetary reform has excited no little curiosity as to what his real intentions are, and the plan that the monetary commission might recommend at the coming session of congress. The fair and interesting hearing that has been given here indicates that the people are deeply interested in the solution of the financial problem. The discussion has taken more of an inquiring turn instead of positive declarations or recommendations. General statements of the importance of amendments to the existing law seem to have been used for the purpose of encouraging criticism or suggestions as to what the prevailing sentiment of the press and the people at large is as to the proposed legislation. It seems quite certain that the public are in no mood to accept anything but the most conservative changes and those changes must be on lines with regard to existing currency conditions ; that such amendments that may be proposed must be dovetailed and supplementary to the present monetary system. Americans are notably conservative in anything with regard to radical financial changes, and they prefer a long time to thresh out the ills and benefits that might accrue.
The honorable senator is a well-known pacifier, of a very receptive mind and kindly entertains for review any ideas that may be given him. His patience is proverbial, and his good nature immediately wins his auditors. His is a laudable ambition, of being one of the chief instruments of securing such a reorganization of our financial system as shall meet the great and growing exigencies of our business life for the next half-century. The multitudinous accumulation of knowledge by the monetary commission will, no doubt, be boiled down to suih an extent that the average man will find time to read it, and it is hoped to digest it, with intelligence. To the financial student the accumulation of so much valuable information, both from the writers of the past and the living monetary actors of the