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t At a meeting of the Execative Anmittee of the Federal deserve Board held in the office of the Governor of the Board on Thursday, April 12, at eleven a.m., PA1.21.=: Mr. Harding, presiding, Mr. Delano, r. 4arburg, illls, Secretary. Present also during the latter part of the session, Mr. Hamlin and Mr. Mier. Business was presented by the Governor of the Board ...Lnd disposed of s follows: A letter from the .Amptroller of the currency and a memorandum of the Icting Chief of the Issue Division, asking that some other arrangement be made for safeguarding the safe of the Gold settlement 'and, were read. It was agreed to suggest temporary postponement of the matter until it could be seen what disposition Congress would make of the Board's amendments to the 2edera1 eserve Act. A telephone messa,;€ from Vice President Jae of the visory Council Was read, Mr. ue having stated that he would like to have all suggested topics sent to him in Mew fork. It was agreed that this be done, and there was informal t") expression of opinion that care should be taken to bring out in connection with the forthcoming meeting of the Avisory Council the fact that the Board was in no way responsible for pending Government loan plans, and that its iniairies on the subject were directed merely to the question how such plans would affect the banks. letter from lovernor Aiken of Boston with reference to rates of interest on government bonds as affected by the savings banks situation in Massachusetts, was read, and the matter placed in the hands of the Governor for tunas-cment as he might think best. L letter from ?ederal deserve Agent Jay with reference to depositing trust company reserves with reserve banks, and transmitting u letter passed at a meeting of trust company representatives in New York, was read and noted. copy of a letter addressed to the secretary of the Treasury by the ?irst National Bank of Renovo, Pa., suggesting that bank reserves be carried in part in government bonds, to' read and noted. A letter from LI.. G. 2.1. Dahl of the Chase National Bank as to granting Federal charters to b',nke organized 38.3 (0 for foreign trade, was read and the matter referred to the LLT ommittee to report upon. ,t letter informally iniuiring as to the number of members of the Board ho would be- able to attend the meet- ing of the Imerican Bankers ,ssociation Executive ..lommittee at Briarcliff "Jodge, were read, and the opinion was informally expressed that a committee of two would suffice. Various communications from the State Department transmitting re aests from foreign governments having to do with financial affairs, were read, the Governor informing the Jommittee that he had acknowledged the same. Lr.uarbarg expressed a wish that the letter to the Banco de la :acioh of Argentina with reference to relations with the reserve system, be sent in the State Department's private pouch. It was agreed that he should make arrange- ments to thtt effect. " letter from Senator Poindexter as to the establishment of a branch for the Pacific Uorthwest at Spokane in the State of Jashington, was read and noted. ,t this point :r. :flier, who had entered the meeting was called upon for a report as to the results of his visit 384 to San Francisco, from whence he had just arrived. 7:!r. Lliller'prefaced his .:an ?rancisco report with the stateMent that while en route to the East he had stopped at the Federal ;deserve Bank of Chicago, and had discussed with them the following topics: Faulty vault protectIon, and the desire of the bank to improve conditions in .this respect; _1 recent error with regard to the release of Federal reserve notes, due to the use of an erroneous test word in the transmiscion of the message of the Comptroller of the Currency; The prohrJoility of number of State bunk members, including the ,Tnion Trust Company, the Standard Trust Company and the 1:erchants Loan & Trust Company. Mier then sketched the Fan ?rancisco He said that on the first afternoon of his stay he sat with the bot,rd of the bJak for four hours, and found the bo„rd generally adverse in its attitude, thinking that the branch was not needed, that an agency was enough, and thAt if established the deserve Board must take the responsibility for creating a branch. The cost of an agency was estimated , 425,000 in addition to rentals. • t -14)') On the follo,Jing afternoon occurred an informal hearing on the views of bankers from Seattle, 2ortland and Spokane. :r. 1-ills of 2ortland who was prevented from being present. filed a good statement by mail, -dale a satisfactory statement was also made by Spokane. Seattle was represented by Maenzie of r. Spangler and others, -nd did not present so strong a case as either ''ortland or Spokane. The statement of Portland was long, while that of Spokane NUS vigorous and presented a strong argument, with speci,11 promises of large business for the branch pxo-ing oat of local needs. The hearing proved educative to the board of directors of the Federal A.serve Bank of San Francisco. On that evening all the visiting bankers were enter- tained by ::1r. Perrin at the Pacific Union :lab. on the fol- lo,ing morning the hearing was continued, stress no,: being laid upon the aspect of the Federal reserve system as 4 regu- 1.r operating ffctor in the financial markets of the country. and not a mere emergency proposition. The Board of the San ?rancisco Bank then (o. ,ednesday, _pill 4) held a meeting with reference to the 4uestion of the establishment of a branch. 386 Messrs. 1.:cIntosh and Moore were still strongly opposed, while L:essrs. Perrin and Kains and Lynch were favorable. The final voting approved the estnblishment of a branch, but the vestion where to place it was left open. After a day out of the city, Mr. Miller reported, he spent Saturday morning (April 71 at the bank, telegraphing then to 1:r. 'Farding that Spokane proposed that should a branch be established there, it should take over all the local clearing house functions, while it was understood that all local State banks would agree to be members of the System, the branch to be reimbursed for the expenses incurred for the examInation of clearing house banks. Seattle would undertake to offer the same proposal as Spokane; and later Portland bankers were expected to agree to do likewise. Finally the whole situation was left as follows: It was proposed to establish a branch for the Pacific rorthwest with offices at Seattle, Portland and Spokane. Each such office would take over the local clearing house, and nt each place the State banks would be expected to become members, the national bankers undertaking to induce 434,-)Pwl them to come in. Each place would be assigned two di- rectors, and a seventh, who should be manager, would be named by the parent office. Miller having finished his report, Governor Harding stated to the 'Jammittee that he had just been informed by Sir Hartman Lever that information h.,;(1 been received to the effect that the delegation of English statesmen and financiers whose coming had been announced in the newspapers, would arrive shortly. He suggested that the Board consider the Liuestion of suitable -entertainment for the Governor of the Bank of England, who was a member of the party. On motion at 1Z.15 p.m. the Jourlittee adjourned. -vit :19 TY1 ( NA Secretary.----7 A4P220VED:
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