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January 16, 1940 FILES Mr, Clayton Telephone conversation between Chairman Eccles and Comptroller Delano on January 15, 1940 Shortly a f t e r 5*00 p.m. on January 15 I was i n the Chairman's o f f i c e when he c a l l e d Mr. Delano. As I l i s t e n e d to the Chairman's p a r t of the conversation and made mental notes, he asked me to make a w r i t t e n report from memory. The Chairman said t h a t he c a l l e d to advise t h a t the Board had received a copy of an o f f i c i a l r e s o l u t i o n of the board of d i r e c t o r s of the Bank of America r a t i f y i n g the request made e a r l i e r by the bank over the signature of Mr. C o l l i n s , the bank's Washington Counsel, t h a t the bank be examined by the Federal Reserve. He added t h a t a. copy was being sent over t o the Comptroller. A f t e r t h i s beginning the Chairman then advired Mr. Delano t h a t the Eoard assumed t h a t i n view of the sending out of the order to show cause on,Friday of l a s t week, the Comptroller was not expecting the Board to r e p l y t o the two questions whici had been presented t o himself and Mr. McKee a t the Treasury aeeting l a s t Monday, a week ago today. The Chairman went on to say t h a t i t tas assumed by a l l the r e p r e sentatives of the Board who attended t h a t conference t h a t the answers to the two uestions were desired f o r the purpose of a s s i s t i n g the Comptroller i n deciding whether t o put i n t o e f f e c t the proposed procedure r e f e r r e d t o . Also i t had been stated a t the time tJh.it the Board would l i k e l y require a reek to prepare i t s r e p l y . Since the procedure had already bean adopted and set i n motion before the Board had an opportunity to r e p l y the Chairman f e l t c l e a r l y that as to the f i r s t question, namely whether the Board approved of the proposed procedure, there would be no purpose i n aaking any r e p l y . As t o the second question, namely what a t t i t u d e the Board would take w i t h reference t o the request of the Bank of America f o r an examination by the F e d e r a l Reserve, the Chairman s t a t e d t h a t he thought t h i s question was l i k e wise t i e d i n w i t h the a c t i o n already taken. Obviously t h e r e would be no point i n giving any answer now since i t must be assumed t h a t the Comptroller decided t o pot the proposed procedure i n t o e f f e c t whether the Board intended to examine the Bank of America or n o t . As I heard only one side of the conversation I d i d not know what the Compt r o l l e r ' s r e p l i e s were t o these various statements by the Chairman but the Chairman added a t the end t h a t he was t e l l i n g him these things so t h a t the record would be kept s t r a i g h t anc t h a t l a t e r i t could not be said t h a t the Board had been expected t o r e p l y t o the two questions r e f e r r e d t o . The Chairman a l s o added t h a t the Board would keep the Comptroller advised as to any a c t i o n i t took and c e r t a i n l y would not leave him i n a p o s i t i o n where he would l e a r n of Board a c t i o n by reading of i t i n the newspapers. LC/fgr
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