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740 A meetinP,* of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve SysWas held in Washington on Monday, May 24, 1937, at 3:00 P. m. PRESENT: Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Eccles, Chairman Broderick Szymczak McKee Davis Mr. Morrill, Secretary Mr. Carpenter, Assistant Secretary Mr. Clayton, Assistant to the Chairman Mr. Thurston, Special Assistant to the Chairman Mr. Wyatt, General Counsel Mr. Goldenweiser, Director of the Division of Research and Statistics Mr. Broderick moved that, inasmuch as the Board has excused from work on May 29, 1937, such of its employees as can be spared on that date, it authorize the Fiscal Agent to issue to employees on May 28 salary checks for the last half of the month. Carried unanimously. At the suggestion of the Chairman, Mr. Goldenweiser outlined his 1r; "'ews as to actions that :night be taken by the System in the light rk'esent conditions and possible developments throughout the rer44111(ler of the year. Following Mr. Goldenweiser's statement, there was a di scussion of the advisability of reductions by the Federal re- 4'crie banks of their discount rates and effective buying rates on "cePtances and the desirability of the adoption of a practice on Part of the Federal reserve banks of making purchases of Treasury 131118 Of relatively short maturities from member banks under repurchaza a greements at established rates. In this connection reference 741 54 /37 made to the manner in which the purchases of acceptances are IlEtnciled in the New York market. It was suggested that a schedule of biring rates on Treasury bills might be desirable because of the klella volume of bankers bills in the market and in order to stimulate bx ' °"er interest in the Treasury bill market. At the conclusion of tile di• scussion Chairman Eccles suggested that these matters be taken 143 for further consideration at the meeting of the Board on Tune 1, . 1937 At this point Messrs. Thurston, Wyatt and Goldenweiser left the ra eeting and consideration was then given to each of the matters herm ''llefter referred to and the action stated with respect thereto 14118 t• aken by the Board: The minutes of the meeting of the Board of Governors of the l'erlex'8.1 Reserve System held on May 21, 1937, were approved unanihlouair. Telegrams to Messrs. Peyton and McKinney, Presidents of the ?ede , Reserve Banks of Minneapolis and Dallas, respectively, statih. ti• lst the Board approves the establishment without change by the 154114 t a ' c d-Y of the rates of discount and purchase in their existing Behest:141es. Approved unanimously. Letter to Mr. Strater, Vice President of the Federal Reserve ktk , Cleveland, reading as follows: "As requested in your letter of May 18, the Board ap-" /ves the continuation of the assignment of Mr. Harry IL 742 5/24/37 "Ostendorf to the position of Supervisor, Loans and Discounts, Cincinnati Branch, at his present salary of $3,000 per anWhich is 4250 in excess of the maximum provided for that position, for a further period of six months beginning 'Tune 1, 1937." Approved unanimously. Letter to the Presidents of all Federal reserve banks, reading as follows; "The Board's letter of August 18, 1936 (X-9673) stated, ara°ng other things, that X,-letters which do not contain Ulings or interpretations would not be affected by the new procedure outlined therein but would continue in each case to bear only an X-number as in the past. It also stated that thereafter X-numbers would be applied only to comuunile3eti0n5 sent to all Federal reserve banks so that the numon such communications would run consecutively in all " e "SOS. "Recently, in reviewing material to which X-numbers have been assigned, it was noted that many routine items were beinR designated by the 'X! symbol and investigation crlisclosed that during the past two years approximately fortyPer cent of the items assigned X-numbers were of a routine character. It seems desirable, therefore, in the ilture, to segregate all circular communications sent to all Federal reserve banks into two classifications, one orltaining rulings, interpretations and instructions and other including all routine items. To this end it has been suggested that the 'X.' series of numbers be discontinued 4s of the close of May 31, 1937 and be superseded by two new Series of numbers which shall be known as the 'S' and 'R' eries respectively. The Board has approved this proposal, nd beginning June 1, 1937 (1) S-numbers will be assigned '° 8 ell mimeographed communications sent to all Federal re!rve banks which contain rulings and interpretations of the statutes and the Board's regulations, and instructions : 13 1ting to policy or administrative matters, and (2) R-num' I's will be assigned to all routine mimeographed matters, stat ements, press releases, etc. sent to all Federal reserve banks. "As a general rule it will be the intention to limit it ,_ems to which S-numbers will be assigned to those which may usZ. literally classified as rulings, interpretations or ine rUctions, but it will be necessary to exercise some disretion as to whether 'instructions' are of a sufficiently 743 5/24/37 -4- character or of such a continuing nature that they should be preserved by the Federal reserve banks and possibly indexed and digested for their future guidance. In other words, letters containing instructions which are limited to Short periods of time or to compliance with a single request for information or reports would not represent the type of instructions which it is proposed would fall within the 'S' classification and, therefore, such items will be given R-numbars. In addition, items such as those listed below which liave been assigned X-numbers will, beginning Tune 1$ 1937, be classified as routine matters and assigned R-numbers. 1. All statements for the press (including National Summary of Business Conditions) 2. Letters designating code words to cover new issues of Treasury bills 3. Letters listing holidays to be observed by the reserve banks and branches during the ensuing month 4. Letters to all Chairmen levying assessments on the reserve banks for expenses of Board 5. Letters reporting on expenses of main lines of leased wire system for preceding month 6. Letters transmitting statement of Bureau of Engraving and Printing covering cost of preparing Federal reserve notes for preceding month. 7. Letters advising of changes in interdistrict time schedule 8. Letters transmitting copies of auditor's certificate in connection with periodical audits of Board's accounts 9. Letters transmitting summary of monthly reports received regarding bank and public relations activities of the reserve banks 10. Any other mimeographed communications sent to all Federal reserve banks which may be regarded as Purely routine, such as, letters requesting specific information, letters of transmittal, etc. the "Certain other items sent to the Federal reserve banks in di_.Past bearing designations prefixed by 'B', 'Exam' or other al ' rision symbols will in the future be given S- or R-numbers, both°11-gh 8- or R-letters may occasionally transmit inclosures TI-llring I symbols used by the various divisions of the Board. ese sYmbols are as follows: 'Z' - Office of the Secretary; 744 5/24/37 -5- Office of General Counsel; 'B' - Division of Bank Operations; 'Exam' - Division of Examinations; 'RS' - Division of Research and Statistics; and 'SL' - Division of Security Loans. However, the '5" and 'R' series will be confined strictly to mimeographed material sent to all Federal reserve banks and the numbers in each classification will run consecutively, therefore each bank should have no difficulty in checking the completeness of its files of such items. "The Board has also approved the discontinuance, beJune 1, 1937, of the series of numbers heretofore assigned to so-called 'trans wires', and thereafter routine ?legs sent simultaneously to all Federal reserve banks Will not bear any distinguishing symbol or number. However, 411 telegrams containing rulings, interpretations or instructions sent to all Federal reserve banks will be assigned S-numbers at the time they are dispatched. The trans'ission of the S-number will have no significance other than t° Put the Federal reserve bank on notice that the particular elegran has been dispatched to all of the other Federal reserve banks and to indicate that in due course a mimeographed ??IlY of the wire will be forthcoming for the completion of file of 'S' communications. Under the present procedure tt has been customary to send out mimeographed copies of _balegrams bearing an appropriate X-number in all cases where rulings or interpretations are involved. The proposed IThod of handling S-telegrams is in reality a continuation the existing procedure which is being modified only to Z!la extent of eliminating trans numbers and substituting 1.114 Proper S-number at the time the wire is dispatched, oEfither than indicating it only on the mimeographed copy „. the wire, Since no good purpose would be served by disbut1ng to the Federal reserve banks mimeographed copies Foutine telegrams, the revised procedure contemplates, i ndicated above, that R-numbers will not be assigned to -voutine telegrams." Approved unanimously. Thereupon the meeting adjourned. Chairman.
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