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Form No. 131 f\ £* ! • • f% "• Office Correspondence "o From Governor Eccles Lauchlin Currie FEDERAL RESERVE — Subject: D,te_ __Aaenrt „ , W5, Present Statti^ of the White-Collar Project* «PO 16—852 Acting upon your suggestion, I have interviewed various bankers, with none too encouraging results* Mr* Golt evidenced a good deal of interest in the project and said that he thought results might be very well worthwhile from the bankers1 point of view* He thought, however, that the Hew lork banks would be adverse to allowing any white-collar workers access to their back ledgers* He suggested* however* that if I pointed out the value of the study to individual bankers and then asked them to transcribe a limited number of accounts that I might get a pretty good response* He said that he would be glad to put a good man on the job for me* Mr* Emerson concurred in Mr* Colt1 a views* Today Dr* Goldenweiser and I had a conference with Mr* Hecht and Mr* Fleming* They seemed to be much more cooperative and interested than the Hew lork people* although they likewise felt that many bankers would be reluctant to use white-collar workers* Mr* Hecht, however* suggested that a possible mode of operation would be to give the bankers a choice of having workers supplied by us or of supplying the information themselves* He felt we might find that in many cases the banks would not be adverse to taking on former trusted employees* They took along a description of the project and promised to get in touch with me after they had gone over it thoroughly* Offhand* they saw no objection to the A*B*A* endorsing the project* I also obtained an interview with the Controller of the Currency, after having first discussed the project with Mr* Await* Mr* 0fConnor expressed himself as interested* and said that he would be glad to cooperate with us in the study* and in so far as the receivers were agreeable* permit the transcription of the required information from the ledgers of the suspended national banks* He suggested that I work out the details later with Mr* Await and Mr* Gough* It would seem* therefore* that although the project may have to be restricted in scope* there is still a chance of obtaining some information on the behavior of deposits by classes* in the period from 1928 to the middle of 1931* then you get back from your vacation I expect to have ready for your consideration a revised plan of procedure*
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