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Eleventh Year. Des Moines, Iowa, December, 1906. Hanover National Bank. OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK Nassau and Pine J A S . T, W O O D W A R D , P resid en t J A S . M. D O N A L D , V ice P resid en t W M . H A L L S . Jr., V ic e P resid en t W M . W O O D W A R D , V ic e P resid en t E L M E R E . W H I T T A K E R , Cashier W M . I L IG H T H IP E , A ss’ t Cashier H E N R Y R . C A R S E , A s s ’t C ashier A L E X A N D E R D, C A M B E L L . A s s ’ t C ashier C H A S . H. H A M P T O N , A ss 't Cash. Established 1851 Capital, Surplus - - $3,000,000 6,500,000 Iowa National Bank oi Des Moines H, S. B U T L E R , P resid en t C. C. P R O U T Y , V ic e P resid en t J. H. C O W N IE , V ic e P resid en t H. T. B L A C K B U R N , C ashier Sept. 4, 1906 $ 2 , 6 6 1 , 0 4 7 . 7 5 no" 2- ' o6$ D E P O S IT S 1897..................................................... $ 1900....................................................... 1903...................................................... 1906.................................... CAPITAL, - = $200,000 SURPLUS, - - 100,000 2 , 9 9 5 , 9 3 8 -<m E D W A R D S. L A C E Y , P resid ent. JO H N C. C R A F T , V ice -P re sid e n t F R A N K J. JU D SO N , C ashier, C H A S , C. W IL L S O N . A s s ’ t Cash R A L P H C. W IL S O N , A s s ’ t C ashier SHOWING J. G. R o u n d s , P resid en t G e o . E . P e a r s a l l - C ashier G e o . Co o p e r , A s s ’ t C ashier $1 , 8 6 8, 8 4 5 . 1 1 sept- 4,1904 $ 1, 8 3 5, 1 8 9,8 6 sept. 4,1905 $ 2, 341,454 . 60 I Capital, Surplus and Profits, $3,167,164 I INCREASE. 6,247,604.98 10,832,709.37 12,265,964.71 17,417,596.95 New Business Desired and Unexcelled Facilities Offered. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis DES M O IN E S , IO W A $4 4 7 , 7 7 0 . 7 0 $ 1 .1 3 4 ,0 7 7 .2 4 $ 1 ,1 6 1 ,9 1 8 .6 1 $ 1 ,5 1 0 ,2 3 4 .3 6 O F C H IC A G O , I L L . N ovem ber 12, N ovem b er 12, N ovem ber 12, N ovem ber 12, Citizens National Bank D E P O S IT S Jan. 1,. 1900 SeDt, 4, 1900 Sept, 4,1901 Sept. 4,1902 Sepf. 3,1903 Bankets National Bank STATEMENT, (V^U.S D E P O S I T O R Y ^ THE --------------------- T H E ---------------------- COMPARATIVE Number 12 (^ A C C O U N T S SO LICITED ^ 9 Davenport Savings Bank D A V E N P O R T , IO W A Capital, Undivided Profits Deposits, - ¥f $ - 300,000.00 219,912.03 - 3,875,173.53 Officers mr WILLIAM O. SCHMIDT, Pres. LOUIS HALLER, Vice-Pres HENRY C. STRUCK, Cashier. OTTO L. LADENBERGER, Teller. *r Directors «r A. B u r d ic k L o u is H a l l e r T h eo . K rabbenhoeft W . H. W il s o n A, Steffen W . O. S c h m id t J. F. D ow H. K ohrs H. C. S t r u c k Per Cent Interest Paid on Deposits. M o n e y Loaned R eal Estate Security in the State of Io w a . MT on MF THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. 2 December, 1906 The Banker’s Chicago W h e n o f C H IC A G O Capital, Surplus and Undivided Profits, $ 3 , 9 0 0 , 0 0 0 Deposits, $ 3 9 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 JA M ES H. E C K E LS , P r e s id e n t N A T H A N IE L R. L O S C H , C and meet y ou r friends. stop there. stop / at M ost N orthw estern Bankers T h e m ost convenient h otel to the finan cial district. U N E X C E L I v U D S K R Y I C E a s h ie r H. D. C O P E L A N D & CO . DIRECTORS FRAN K LIN M A C VE A G H W ILLIA M J . C H A L M E R S R O B E R T T . L IN CO LN C H I C A G O T H E G R A N D P A C IFIC H O T E L T h e Commercial National Bank in Hotel E. H. GARY W ILLIA M Y . K E L L E Y DARIUS M IL LE R JO S E P H T . T A L B E R T C H A R L E S F. S P ALD IN G JA M E S H . E C K E LS This bank is pleased to place at the disposal of its customers the facilities gained during forty yeqrs of continuous service and growth 181-183 UNION STOCK YARDS Chicago Live Stock Commission Merchants B an kers d esirin g to m ake loa n s on L iv e S to ck o r R anches o r h avin g loans they wish in vestiga ted should corresp on d w ith us W e are up to date in all lines o f the L iv e S to ck busin ess and our ch arges w ill he reasonable. REFERENCES N ational L iv e S to ck B an k, C hicago N a tion a l B an k o f R ep u b lic, C hicago L IV E ST O C K S H IP M E N T S SO L IC IT E D . THE The Thin Back Kind A. now Removable Leaf memo made especially for i ocket use. Very durable. Leaves never tear out. Bound in black water-grained leather. One thickness only, 50 leaves. NO H U M P :. v . —■■ ■ A.H. Andrews Co. , 171 Wabash Avenue, Chicago the pocket with the THIN B A C K KIND C h o ic e o f 3 styles ruling R ecord $ and Cts. Quadrille Size of leaf 2% x 5 Open side GOc Open end book, size 2% x5 GOc Cash wilh order. Money refunded if you are not perfectly satisfied. Designers and Manufacturers of Fine Bank Counters and Fixtures IN WOOD, n A R B L E , BRASS, BRONZE AND IRON. Tables, Chairs, Etc. Office I H L I N G BROS. & E V E R A R D https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Desks in Greatest Variety. , LOOSE L E A F DEVICES Kalamazoo Mich. W r ite fo r C atalogue, A n n ,U U U B an ks F itte d up b y us since 1865. T IM A T ES fu rn ish ed on app lica tion . DESIGNS:AND E S : : : THE December, 1906 NORTHWESTERN BANKER. 3 Established 1868. FULL PAID CAPITAL, ONE MILLION DOLLARS Now is the Time for Live Agents to Join the Agency Force of Jam esB.Forgan D a v id R . Forgan F .O .W e tm o re P residen t V ice-P residen t Cashier THE, NATIONAL LIFE. INSURANCE COMPANY ot Me United States oí America TH E F IR S T N A T IO N A L B A N K O F C H IC A G O Assets Insurance in Force $5,246,863.48 Capital, $ 8 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 . Over $43.000,000.00 Nat’l Life Building, - W elcomes and appreciates the accounts of banks and bankers believing that its extensive clientele which has been grad ually developed by more than forty years of consistent, con siderate service is splendid en dorsement of the agreeable and satisfactory accomm odations rendered to its customers. C H IC A G O The Great National Temperance Beverage T h is is beyo n d q u e s t io n th e m ost Surplus, $ 5,0 00 ,0 0 0 . po pu lar ; D R I N K IN A M E R IC A T O D A Y ! Its deliciou s taste; in v ig ora tin g q u a lities, and fine d igestive p rop erties, m ak e it p a rticu la rly suitable to the a lm ost un iversal A m erican dem ands fo r a d rin k that is h ea lth y, d elig h tfu l and refresh in g . T w o hundred m illion o f glasses sold last year show s it pre feren ce ov er all oth er drinks. 5c. On Sale Everywhere 5c. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis A. MOORMAN & GO. Designers and Makers Bank Fixtures and F urniture C O M P L E T E EQ U IPM EN T Bank W ork of All Kinds. \ R osabel Street, between Sixth and Seventh. Catalogue Mailed. ST. PAUL MINN. THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. 4 December, 1906 / A Insure In T h e Capital Insurance Company D es M oines, la. Questions to bankers. Do you know why Manganese Steel is the only metal of which burglar proof safes can be properly made? Can you tell genuine Manganese Steel from imitation? Do not buy a safe until you can answer both questions in the affirmative. It will do you no harm to examine this safe. By so doing you may prevent your depositors and stockholders from criticising you later, after burglars have visited your bank. Fire, Lightning and Tornadoes. S. T. B E R R Y , President. J. J. DERIGHT & CO., Safe Dealers, C . S . B E R R Y , Vice-Pres. OMAHA,NEBRASKA J. D. B E R R Y , Secretary. Large stock of New and Second-hand Safes of different makes. J. J. TOW N, Treasurer, N E W LO C A TIO N N E W E Q U IP M E N T IT O W E l G ROW IN G DALY W R IT E US X itb o q r a p b in g P R O G R E S S IV E ALWAYS ^ SE E US C o m p an y BANK AND OFFICE STATIONERS, 7 0 7 =9=11 L o c u s t S treet, = = D es M o in e s, Iow a. \ H O M E W A R D FROM C A L IF O R N IA Com plete you r pleasure trip b y retu rn in g via the N o r t h e r n P a c if ic -S h a s t a R o u te . Stopovers perm it you to see P ortla n d and the bea u tifu l C olum bia R iver R eg ion ; T acom a, Seattle and the P u get Sound C ountry; Spokane and the Inland Em pire, and H elena and Butte en route Best o f all, you m ay stop at L iv in g s to n and make the d elig h tfu l side trip th rough Y E L L O W ST O N E PARR N o finer scen ic or tourist region in all Am erica. B E S T OF T R A IN S — B E S T OF S E R V I C E F or “ Wonderland lg o6" and “ Eastw ard th rough the Storied N orth w est” send six cents each. F o r rates and fu ll in form ation, write H. D. R O C K W E L L D ist. Pas. A g en t, 318 Citizens Bank B ldg. Des M oines, la. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Northern Pacific Railway A . M. C L F L A N D , G eneral P assen ger A g en t, St. P aul, M inn. T i ) e Northwestern P>anher. E leventh Y ear. -4 B a n k e r s J ou rn a l fo r th e N o r th w e st _______________________________ D E S M O IN E S , IO W A , D E C E M B E R , 1906 TH E NORTHW ESTERN BANKER, PUBLISHED BY The Northwestern Banker Publishing Company, DES MOINES, IOWA. A' monthly Bankers Journal devoted to the interests of bankers in the Northwest. , Communications and news items of local interest to bankers in this territory are requested. Entered at Des Moines, Iowa, as second class matter. Subscription, $2.00 per annum: single copies, 20 cents. Advertising rates on application. ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE TENTH AN NUAL CONVENTION OF THE NEBRASKA BANKERS ASSOCIATION, HELD AT OMAHA, NOV. 21-26 The President’ s Address I esteem it not only a great pleasure, but a privilege, to preside at this, the tenth annual convention of the Nebraska Bankers’ Association, and upon this occa sion to felicitate you upon the progress of the associa tion along the various lines, wherein abound its great-» est usefulness. With the impetus imparted by previous strong ad ministrations, together with the efforts of our able and efficient secretary, and the co-operation of a strong and aggressive membership committee, we are able at this time to report an increase in membership from 573» which was reached at the time of the holding of the last convention to 675 at the present time. The total number of banks in the state is 7&°> an(l there are, therefore, nearly 85 per cent of them en rolled as members of our association, which is an excellent showing, and causes us to take rank among the strongest associations in the country. That our membership is not larger, is due mainly to the fact that of the banks still outside of the asso ciation, a considerable proportion have been organ ized, and transacting business but a comparatively short time, and are therefore either strangers to the advantages which a membership affords, or are reluc tant to incur the expense incident to becoming a mem ber, until they are established on a profitable basis. No efforts should be spared, however, to induce the non-members to become members, for the highest efficiency of the association cannot be attained until the entire banking fraternity in the state is united https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . NüMBER 12 30 cts. per copy under its banner, and working together for the common good. A great factor in the upbuilding of the association* and one that will be more apparent each year, is the group meetings. The wisdom of reducing the number of groups from nine to six, was manifested this year in the increased attendance, more general interest, and the complete success that characterized the meetings of the various groups, with but one exception. Heretofore it has been the practice for each group to select a date for its meeting, regardless of whether or not it might conflict with that of some other group; but this year, acting in accordance with a recommenda tion adopted at the last convention, we arranged a schedule of dates, with the co-operation of the presi dents of each group, that placed the various meetings about one week apart; and this arrangement, by enabling the bankers from Lincoln and Omaha, and from outside the state, to attend each one, contributed ma terially to their success. I personally attended each meeting, except that of Group No. 6, which was un avoidably held on the same date as that of group No. 1, and can testify to the interest and enthusiasm that was manifested at them all. It is gratifying to report in the matter of burglary insurance and fidelity bonds, that the members gener ally during the past year have exhibited a disposition to favor the association with their business, and as a result, the income from that source, as will be shown by the secretary’s report, has been largely increased over previous years, but at the same time, it is a mat ter for regret that all the members have not appre ciated this branch of the association work, and encour aged it by lending their earnest support. It does not occur to me that any' of -our members are under the least obligation to place their insurance with any par ticular company, or through any particular agent, and when the secretary of the association is in a position to quote as low a price as can any of them, we should all be glad to give him the preference, and especially in view of the fact that it is entirely due to his activity, that all the companies operating in the state, have been compelled to make substantial reduction in their rates. As a matter of fact, however, numerous instances have occurred where the secretary, in competition with out side companies, obtained favorable rates for a member, only to find that on even terms the business was given to the competitor. I wish to submit, gentlemen, that this is not the spirit that should animate the members of this associa tion. To make our organization most effective, and to place it upon a plane where it can render the highest 6 THE Fort Dearborn National Bank & Chicago N O RTH W ESTERN CAPITAL, , DßCGTCiber, 1906 BAN KER. ............................................................................. SURPLUS and Undivided Profits DEPOSITS, $1,000,000.00 318,184 - 11,735,054 Accounts of Banks, Corporations, Mercantile Firms, and Individuals Respectfully Solicited t L. A. Goddard, Nelson N. Lampert, Henry R. Kent, Charles Fernal Colin S. Campbell, O F F IC E R S ; - President Vice-President Cashier Assistant Cashier Assistant Cashier We Have Every Facilty for Handling Country Bank Accounts, Appreciate them, and Give Our Personal Attention to the Interests of our Depositors. service to its members, demands not alone absolute bers may have a broader conception of its aims and loyalty on their part, but they must be in sympathy purposes. with all its aims and purposes, and ready and willing I have already alluded to the reduction in rates on to give their hearty and earnest co-operation to what burglary insurance accomplished through the agency ever proposition receives its endorsement. In other of the association, and this is one of the practical bene words, we must “ stand up for the association” first, fits secured for members. Another is the protective last and all the time. fund which has been built up by the commissions re Our organization is not designed to benefit a few, ceived on both the insurance and fidelity bond business nor are its affairs conducted in the interests of any written for members, and which enables the association clique, but for the benefit of all its members, irrespec to offer suitable rewards for the conviction of crim tive of their geographical location, or their financial inals who have robbed or victimized its members, there standing. by tending to make them less subject to attacks of this Politics have never played any part in the delibera nature. Another is the time lock contract, entered into tions of our conventions, and I hope never will, for if by the association with F. E. Davenport & Co., of once injected therein, in my judgment, it will prove a Omaha, whereby the time locks of members are cleaned disintegrating force. I am moved to so express myself at an annual expense of $7.50 instead of $10, which has at this time, on account of having been an eye witness heretofore been the charge, and at the same time, giv to the manipulations indulged in by the leading officials ing them better service than can be obtained through of the American Bankers’ Association at its convention any other agency. This saving alone, to the majority recently held in St. Louis. It was apparent to the most of the banks, is equivalent to a 50 per cent reduction superficial observer that the rank and file of the dele in the annual membership dues. gates in attendance thereupon, were regarded as so These constitute the tangible benefits which all can many automatons, to be moved at will in response to see and appreciate, and during the coming year, if the requirements of the leaders, and to meet the exig plans now under consideration by the executive council encies of the occasion. It follows naturally that this are successfully carried out, other tangible and still knowledge on the part of the delegates was not calcu greater benefits of a practical nature will be secured for lated to increase their loyalty to the association, but members. tended rather to increase the ^dissatisfaction which was But all the advantages of a membership does not lie expressed on every hand, at the way its affairs were with these things that can be seen; on the contrary, the being conducted. intangible benefits are fully as important. Among Let us then, gentlemen, labor unceasingly to keep out * these are the results of the work of our standing, and of our association all disturbing elements, and let us other committees, such as the legislative and educa adhere to the wise policies established by its founders, tional. And still others are derived from attending for its control and management, and which have been these association meetings, which permit of the inter found so effective and satisfactory in the past. change of ideas, with the result among others, that I am aware that, in the minds of many, doubts exist lessons of conservatism are often learned by those who as to the practical utility of our organization, and even might otherwise be recklessly inclined; and these les among our members, I have become impressed, during sons being applied to the conduct of their business, my term of office, that many of them are luke-warm in makes better banks and better bankers, and in turn, their adherence, and that but few comprehend the our entire banking system, in consequence of this scope, and importance of its present sphere of useful strengthening of one of its integral parts, is likewise ness, or realize to what extent this may be magnified strengthened. in the future. It may, therefore, not be inappropriate We may confidently expect to see all these direct and at this time, to consider briefly the present and the fu indirect benefits which a membership affords, multi ture of our association, to the end that all our mem plied in the future, but gentlemen, I believe a larger https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis THE December, 1906 N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 7 he National Bank of the REPUBLIC C on fidently b elie v es it can meet every re quirement of the most discriminating bankers. w . T. F E rergrep v i c e -p r e s i d e n t R. M . ^ KIMMFYj C A S H IE R field of usefulness, and a higher destiny is marked out for this association. We have in this state 780 banks, all operating under state or national law, but each independent in its char acter, and the sole arbiter of its own future. These banks range in capitalization from $5,000 in the smaller towns to $1,000,000 in the city of Omaha, and while varying in like degree in importance, and in the volume of business transacted, yet the smallest of these may, through incompetent or reckless management become a menace, not only to the largest, but to all the con servatively managed banks in the state. Should the bank fail, this menace becomes a reality, for with the news heralded from one end of the state to the other, and embellished with the usual press no tices, the natural fears of timid depositors everywhere are augmented, and as a result, the integrity of all banks is brought into question. It is a matter for con gratulation, not only on the part of this association, but on the part of the public as well, that outside of the O’Neill and Tecumseh tragedies, there has not been a genuine bank failure in this state for years; and this would seem to indicate that we have a high grade of bankers in the state, which as a whole, they undoubted ly are, but we must remember that these are prosper ous times, and that under existing conditions the results of incompetent and reckless management are not easily discernable. But, granted that there may be banks in the state that are today suffering from bad manage ment, it is a fact that, under the present system of supervision employed, no means are available for cor recting such evils, except when the solvency of a bank may be questioned, or its management has been guilty of violations of the la w ; and attention is seldom di rected to the latter until insolvency, which naturally follows, has become an accomplished fact. That there should be, however, some restraining in fluence thrown around banks which, although solvent, and operating within the law, are still chargeable with the offense of bad management, cannot be gainsaid, and, to my mind, this association offers the best me dium, through which the correction of this evil may be accomplished. This may be regarded as an impracticable suggestion, but I offer it in the belief that it is practicable, and in https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis R, L. C R A M P T Q N i A S S T . C A S H IE R ^ o H .-S W A N ; ASST CASHIERS TH O S. J A N S E N , A S S T . C A S H IE R ' Á the hope that it may appeal to the sound judgment of this convention. To realize the condition indicated, it would be neces sary in the first place to make the tangible benefits of a membership a little more attractive than they are now, so that all the banks in the state would, of their own volition, seek to become members, but at the same time, the association would impose certain conditions that must be met before they would be eligible for member ship ; and among these, and of the highest importance, would be one requiring them to submit to an examina tion by an expert in the employ of the association. In the event that all the banks could not qualify, it is a self evident fact that those failing to do so would be forced by public opinion to meet the requirements of the Association as speedily as possible, or get out of business. When all that were eligible were enrolled as members it would naturally become the concern of each one to see that the others lived up to the requirements, and failure on the part of any to do so would permit the filing of charges, which if sustained, would result in the offending member being dropped from the rolls. It can readily be seen that such action would be as disastrous to the offender as is now the expelling of a member from a clearing house, and it is a foregone con clusion that none would invite such a disaster. It is my opinion that such regulation by the asso ciation, coupled with that employed by the state and federal governments, would so strengthen the banking system in our state, that failures from other than un avoidable causes would become a practical impossibil ity. However divergent may be the views entertained towards this proposition, we must all agree that this would be the ideal condition to be realized under our present system of independent banks, furnishing, as it would, protection alike to the depositor and the stock holder ; and if the idea is practicable, as I believe it is; I wish to ask if any grander work could be undertaken by our association. Of one thing we may be certain, and that is, if we do not voluntarily adopt some measure calculated to afford greater protection to depositors, we will, sooner or later, have forced upon us a law providing for assess ments, for the purpose of creating a guarantee fund for the protection of depositors in failed banks. As you s THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. THE December, 1906 Banks and Bankers will save time on their Live Stock Business by having an account with O F T H E C I T Y OF NEW YORK THE National Live Stock Bank Resources $25,000,000 FOR OVER A CENTURY particular attention has been paid to com m ercial and bank accoun ts, and we are still prepared to extend to M ercantile and B a n k in g in stitu tions every fa c ility consistent w ith sound ban kin g. T h e capital and surplus offer a stron g re serve fo r our depositors, who w ill receive as liberal treatm ent as their credit and balances warrant. R O B E R T M. G A R R A W A Y , President. E G B E R T A . B R IN C K E R H O E E , V ice-P res. Z O H E T H S. E R E E M A N , Cashier. A R B E R T S. C O X , A ssistant Cashier. are aware, a bill for such a purpose was introduced during the last session of our legislature, and I recently received the synopsis of a bill of this character, that is to be introduced at the coming session of congress. It is a notable fact that many sincere advocates of this proposition are to be found among the bankers them selves, and the public generally, as well as many of the leading papers throughout the country, are outspoken in its favor. None will oppose the theory upon which this propo sition is based, for it is sound; neither is the tax feature in it, calculated to incite opposition; but upon the prin ciple that, by legislative enactment, all banks' should stand on the same footing in their relations to the pub lic, it must receive now, and for all time, the active opposition of all the strong and censervatively man aged banks in the country. Our committee on national legislation should take cognizance of the purpose to push a bill of the nature indicated, through the incoming congress, and should take such steps as may be deemed necessary to line up the legislators from our state in opposition thereto. It is likely also that a bill of the same character will again be introduced during the coming session ofjaur state legislature, and I would recommend that a legis lative committee be appointed, to look after this, and such other legislation as may be proposed that in any way affects the banking interests of the state. It occurs to me that the influence of this association should be used to secure an amendment to our state https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OF CH ICAGO Capitaf and Profits - - $2,300,000.00 O F F IC E R S S. R. FLYNN, President G. A. RYTHER, Cashier G. F. EMERY, Assistant Cashier banking law, requiring all banks operating thereunder to be examined twice a year, and to make five reports to the state banking board, instead of four, as the law now provides. Also the law regulating the com pensation of examiners should be amended, and an in crease provided for therein, commensurate with the character of the work performed, and sufficient in amount to enlist the services of men of recognized ability. All this with the view of strengthening our banking system, and thereby affording greater pro tection to depositors. Along the line of remedial legislation in the inter ests of all the banks in the state, there is much for which this association might justly petition, but I be lieve our efforts had best be concentrated upon obtain ing a modification of one of the provisions of the pres ent depository law, which requires security bonds to be furnished in double the amount of a county deposit. This requirement is indefensible from any standpoint, and serves no other purpose apparently than to swell ‘ the premium income of the bond companies. It is certainly patent on its face, that if the bond accepted by a county is not good for an amount equal to the amount of the deposit which it covers, then doubling or trebling it would add nothing to the security which it affords, but does subject the banks to additional, and entirely unnecessary expense. This is a matter that directly affects a large proportion of the banks in the state, and all, whether members of this association or not, should unite in an earnest effort to secure an December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 9 N E W YORK N A T IO N A L E X C H A N G E SURPLUS $ 7 5 0 ,0 0 0 C A P IT A L $ 1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 R O L L IN P. G R A N T _ C A S H IE R L E W IS E. P I E R S O N President D . H . G. P E N N Y A S S IS T A N T C A S H IE R J A M E S E. N I C H O L S VI CE P R E S I D E N T C O L L E C T IO N BANK . OF B IL L -O F -L A D IN G FO R E IG N AND D O M E S T IC BOUGHT AND D R A F T S O U R S P E C IA L T Y A C O M M E R C I A L B A N K IN T H E H E A R T O F N E W Y O R K ’S G R E A T EXCHANGE SOLD M E R C A N T IL E C E N T R E nu amendment to the present law, limiting the amount of the surety bond required, to the amount of the deposit which it covers. No provision having been made for the appointment of delegates from our association to the convention of the American Bankers Association held in St. Louis on October i6th to i8th, I assumed that prerogative, and appointed the following delegates: S. H. Burn ham, C. F. McGrew, L. Drake, J. T. Trenery, E. F. Folda, Geo. L. Missner, S. K. Warrick, W. A. Taylor, C. Hildreth, J. W. Welpton, H. W. Yates and C. F. Bentley. The full delegation was in attendance at the conven tion, and did effective work in securing the election of Mr. J. T. Trenery to a position upon the executive counsel, thus giving our state representation thereon after a lapse of two years. I would recommend that hereafter the president of this association be empowered to name the delegates to the conventions of the American Bankers Association, and that he himself constitute one of the delegates. The absorbing question that agitated the minds of the delegates to the St. Louis convention was that of “ currency reform,” concerning which the dominant idea embraces the proposition of an asset or emergency currency. The strongest advocates of these measures are to be found, naturally enough, among those bankers that are the most closely allied to Wall street, and apparently without division among the bankers of the South ; while the bankers from other sections of the country may be said to occupy neutral ground. So far as the banking interests in this state are con cerned, I can see no reason why this association should recede from the position it has heretofore taken on this question; although there is, no doubt, a growing senti ment among the bankers of the state, favorable to some special form of credit that may be availed of in time of panic. It is not, however, such a measure of relief that is sought by the New York bankers, and the bankers of the South. The former desire the privilege of issuing an emergency currency that may be used in maintain ing the equilibrium of the stock market during the period when western banks have withdrawn their bal ances for use during the crop moving season, and the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis latter for their use in the handling of the cotton crop of the South. So that, in both cases, the advantages of an emergency currency in time of panic would be dis counted in advance, and as a consequence, neither would be in a position to avail themselves of it, when such an emergency should arise. From the standpoint of conservative banking, as it is understood in the West, it would seem that, instead of clamoring for more credit money, the prudent thing for the New York banks to do, would be to divorce their business from Wall street manipulation, and for the bankers of the South to increase their available banking capital to a point where it would be on a par ity with that employed in other sections of the country. And until this is done, it is needless, in my opinion, to indulge the hope that the bankers of the entire coun try will ever unite on any measure of currency reform. It is a matter for congratulation on the part of this association that, owing partly at least, to the interest manifested by it, the authorities of the state university have included in the course of study for this year, spe cial instruction in the department of political economy and commerce; the same being classified in groups, as follows: The financial group, the commercial group and the great instrustrial problems. The courses of study under each group are most comprehensive, and it is to be hoped that they will appeal to a large sec tion of the student body, as there exists great need for education along these lines. I desire in conclusion, to extend my sincere thanks to Secretary Hughes, to the members of the executive council, and to the membership and other committees, for their co-operation in carrying forward the work of the association, and to whose efforts principally are due whatever measure of success has been achieved under my administration. Depository and Other Bonds for Banks Address by F . McGivern, President Commercial Na tional Bank of Fremont. The subject at the head of this paper ought to be of interest to most bankers of this state. I only wish I had the ability to write a paper that would appeal to you as this bond matter appears to me. In regard to depository bonds : Our law makers, in their judgment, thought best to so amend the deposi- IO THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 The Nauman Co. 420-428 Cedar St, W A TER LO O , IOWA. Manufacturers of Bank Fixtures Catalogues Free PLANS tory law that a bond, to secure county or state depos its, could not be signed by any officer, director or stock holder of a bank, which practically compels a bank to give a bond issued by a guarantee company, some where in the East, and, as the old law provided for a personal bond in double the amount of the deposit, someone seems to have seen to it that that part of the law was not repealed. So we have to give bond for double the amount and pay the bond company’s price for the same. I will say that, in our own case, the bond is seventy thousand dollars. Our deposit, due the county, is about twenty-one thousand dollars. This guarantee company, remember, has first bonded the county treas urer in double the amount which has been paid by the county or the treasurer, as the case may b e; thus mak ing four dollars guarantee bond or more for every dol lar the treasurer deposits in a depository bank. Nor is this alh In many instances the guarantee company has required and received a personal bond from the officers and directors of the bank, in addition to all this, to indemnify them -against loss; and after trying sev eral companies, to get better rates, I find that their rates are practically all the same. Now, gentlemen, the question seems to be up to us to decide whether we will do as we are told by these bond companies or arrange some way to procure bonds out side of these companies, or continue to be held up and say nothing. Then, also, there have been no bank failures, that amount to anything, for the last five or six years; and, just now, I cannot think of a dollar loss to these bond ing companies, in the last five years, so would think that the money we have been paying to them must be all clear profit to them and their agents. It seems to me that we ought to arrange to save this money, in some way, either by organizing a mutual company or by having the law changed so as to permit the county commissioners or the state board to accept state, county or municipal bonds, or any others ap proved by them, instead of a guarantee bond; and also to make the security the maximum amount, instead of double the amount, as it now is. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis AND E S T IM A T E S F U R N IS H E D Now, as to insurance against burglars. The most reliable statistics that I can get show a loss by burg lary, in this state, in the last ten years, of about fortyfour thousand dollars, of which the insurance compan ies were called upon to pay between nineteen and twen ty thousand dollars. These companies are collecting from the banks that carry insurance about nineteen thousand dollars per annum, and, as they have paid less than two thousand dollars per annum for the last ten years, it seems that the profit in that business is much greater than in any other legitimate business that I am acquainted with, and still their rates are not regu lated by law, as the interest rate is. These rates are fixed by them and run, as you well know, from 1 1 1-2 per cent, on steel-lined, burglar-proof vaults, up to 12 per cent and possibly more. Now, I believe that if the bankers of this association will stand together and or ganize a mutual company, their, insurance will not cost one-half of what it now costs. I will say that I am not acting as agent for any in surance company, but there is a new company, recently organized at Minneapolis, with, I think, one hundred thousand dollars capital and fifty thousand dollars sur plus, by the men who control the American Bank Pro tection Company. They have organized the company for the purpose of insuring against burglars all banks that have the American Bank Protection system. Their rate is ten dollars for the first five thousand of insur ance and one dollar and fifty cents per thousand for all above five thousand. While this rate is probably onethird of what we are now paying, for country banks, I think it will cost less if we do our own insuring. I think very well of the American Bank Protection System and believe that it is nearer to being burglarproof than anything I have seen or heard o f; and I have not heard of a successful burglary where one was installed. Then we have another section of bank insurance, in bonds for bank officers and clerks. I have no statistics in regard to this part of it, but have no doubt that the bonding companies are charging enough to come out even, at least. December, 1906 FRANCIS B. REEVES. President. THE N O RTH W ESTERN li BAN KER. RICHARD L. AUSTIN, Vice-President. THEO. E. WIEDERSHEIM, 2nd Vice-President, JOSEPH WAYNE. JrCashier. THE GIRARD NATIONAL BANK --------PHILADELPHIA, PA. CAPITAL, $2,000,000. SURPLUS and — ------- PROFITS, $3,308,229 DEPOSITS, $33,328,873 A C C O U N T S OF B A NK S AND B A NK E RS SOLICITED I think it safe to say that dishonest men are scarce among the Nebraska bankers, and for that reason they could be bonded at a very low rate by a Nebraska com pany, which would not have to collect enough to make good the shortages of other bankers, in Chicago, or Joliet, or Philadelphia and other places where the bankers, or some of them, get imbued with “ Frenzied .Finance” and thus go wrong. Now, in conclusion, I wish to say that I am very much interested in this subject and think we can do much good if we can take hold of this matter in the right way. Let us stand together and organize a com pany, either a stock company or mutual, and insure none but members of this association. Then, I think, the banks outside of the association will be trying to get in. I would like to have the members of this association think seriously of this matter, for I believe great good can be accomplished and that it will be, at least, a step in the right direction. Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention. Protection for Bank Depositors Address by Henry W. Yates, President Nebraska National Bank, Omaha. Plans for the better protection of depositors in banks have been numerous and opinions upon the subject dif fer greatly. The attention of the public is periodically directed to the matter when some large institution goes down entailing heavy losses upon the community. The almost coincident recent failures in Chicago and Phil adelphia—both accompanied with scandalous develop ments—have focused public attention at this time and have naturally induced the cry, “ What safety is there in banks ?” “ Of what value are banks examinations ?” An editorial in a leading Omaha newspaper, which is not given to hasty and ill-formed conclusions, shows the prevailing thought. Amo\tg other disparaging things it say s: “ The truth which none are in better position than bankers to know is that official examina tion, both state and national, is mere meaningless form or farce, going no further than to touch superficial ap pearances.” Now as a fact, we as bankers know that https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis this statement is not correct and does injustice to both banks and examiners. Examinations as a rule are far from being mere meaningless form s; on the contrary, doubtless many of us at times think the examiner goes farther than necessary in endeavoring to get at the true inwardness of things. Neither of the two cases referred to was a national bank and it is possible that the regu lation of banks in the respective states is not as thor ough and complete as under the national system or that of Nebraska. But granting that there is no special weakness in the law governing them and that the same thing may have occurred with banks anywhere under the laws and practices in force, the question arises, what more can be done to prevent similar occurrences in the future ? The cry is on for a more rigid examination. Some would go so far as to require examiners to ascertain from the makers of paper held by a bank under examin ation, whether it is genuine or not and to do other things in connection with the examination of notes and bills necessary to fix definitely its goodness and character. Such a requirement would not only involve an endless amount of work for the examiner, but would be an in tolerable annoyance to both the banks and their cus tomers. No class of business maintains such close and confidential relations with its customers as the banks and procedure of this kind would involve an amount of publicity which would not be endured. It is a bank ex aminer’s duty to more especially investigate a bank for the purpose of seeing that its business is conducted ac cording to law and in its operation that it conforms to the rules and principles of sound and safe banking. In cidentally he may discover fraud and it follows without saying that it is his duty to report and denounce it, but it is going too far to say that it is his special duty to detect fraud, and that therefore he must adopt modes of procedure applicable to all banks and branding them all alike, for the reason that one time in a thousand a thief has been discovered among the officials conduct ing a business. Another cry is to have “ directors who will direct.” It is asserted by some that it is solely due to their care lessness that such losses occur. That frequently the most casual attention on their part would have pre vented the operations which wrecked their institutions. 12 THE N O RTH W ESTERN December, 1906 BAN KER. ITbe The Continental National Bank Chase fla tio n a l Bank ------------------- OF CHICAGO------------------- ©f the Cit£ of 1Re\v I£otk. CAPITAL, $4,000,000. SURPLUS, $2,000,000. Statement November 12, 1906. RESO U R CES: L o a n s and d iscou n ts.............................. . .$35,788,121.76 S tock s and bon d s......................................... . 1.570,165.45—$37,358,287.21 U . S. bonds to secure circu la tion -------3,000,000.00 P rem iu m s on U. S. B on d s........ ............ 101,250.00 O v e rd ra fts .................................................... 3,857.47 Due fro m ban ks and U. S. T reasurer, 9,599,488.63 C ash................................................................. . 13,118,235.47-$22,717,724.10 '$63,181,118.78 L IA B IL IT IE S . C apital s tock paid in S urplus fu n d ................ U ndivided p ro fits ...... C ircu la tion ................... D e p osits........................ .$ 4,000.000.00 2 . 000 .000.00 . 377,065.77 . 2,994,400.00 . 53,809,653.01 _______________ «63,181.118.78 U N IT E D S T A T E S D E P O S IT O R Y C L E A R I N G H O U S E B U IL D IN G O F F IC E R S . G eorge M. R e y n o l d s , P resid en t, A l e x R o ber tso n V ic e P resident. W . G. S c h r o e d e r , Cashier. I r a P . B o w e n , A ssista n t C ashier. B e n j , S. M a y e r , A ssista n t Cashier. H. W a l d e c k , A ssista n t Cashier'. Accounts of Banks, Bankers, Manufacturers, Firms Corporations and Individuals Solicited. November 12, 1906 CAPITAL. . . . SURPLUS AND PROFITS, (earned) DEPOSITS . . . . $ 1,000,000. 6,136„000 64,029.000 A . B. H E P B U R N , P res. A . H. W IG G IN , V ice -P re s. E . J. S T A L K E R . Cashier. C. C. S L A D E , A ss ’t Cashier. S. H , M I L L E R , A s s ’t Cashier. H . K . T W I T C H E L L , A ss ’t Cash D IR E C T O R S HENRY W . CANNON, GE O R G E F. B A K E R . O L I V E R H. P A Y N E . G R A N T B. S C H L E Y . CHN. iA M E S J . H IL L . A. B A R TO N HEPBURN. V J O H N I. W A T E R B U R Y . * A L B E R T H. W I G G I N . G E O R G E F . B A K E R . JR. a Ib It is therefore proposed that directors shall be made sire to engage, would simply rule them out as direc tors. personally responsible for losses incurred. Legisla The membership of a board of a directors would be tion of this character would merely result in lowering confined to those actively engaged in the prosecution of the personnel of boards of directors. the business. This would not be an unalloyed benefit It is true that directors are by law the governing to the public. It has been frequently found to the de power, they are supposed to represent the ownership positors’ advantage to have as directors, men who of the corporation. But nevertheless it is well known plainly have not directed, but who in an emergency that this is not always the case. From time immemor acting under the propulsion of a moral law, higher ial, both in this country and in England and other for with many than any legal enactment, have come to the eign countries, directors for financial corporations have rescue and advanced from their personal means to been selected not for any personal service in the de maintain the honor and credit of their bank. tails of management they may be able to render or for It is not a difficult matter for an examiner or a large personal holdings of stock but for the credit and board of directors to control and regulate a legitimately standing the use of their names may give the institu conducted business; but it is an entirely different thing tion. By this use it is declared to the public that they to guard against fraudulent management, and all the have a financial interest in the institution, and have failures which have so shocked the public have been confidence in its management, and that so far as it may caused by the dishonesty of the bank officials. The be in their power in the ordinary acceptance of a di comptroller of the currency, I think, in one of his pub rector’s duty, they will see that its affairs are properly lic reports or addresses has declared this to be the case. conducted. Sometimes they are selected for the benefit By imprudent management or unfortunate business en of their knowledge and experience concerning the terprises a bank may lose the money of its stockhold standing and credit of others engaged in their partic ers, but if its capital bears any reasonable proportion ular line of business, or the influence they may have to to its liabilities, it is almost impossible that its losses bring such business to the bank. should be so large as to effect the depositors. The To ask such men to give to the affairs of the corpor most careful and cautious of bank officials cannot ation that close and careful attention, necessary to guard against all the forms of dishonesty and fraud prevent or required to detect fraudulent practices, to which may be practiced in their own institutions— how familiarize themselves with the clerical details of a much more difficult must it be for the examiner or the business in which they have no experience and no de director to discover them. When the officials them https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis THE December, 1906 N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 13 SEABOARD N A T IO N A L B A N K T h e OF THE CITY Capital, $1,000,000. OF NEW YORK Surplus and Profits (earned,) $1,260,058. ACCOUNTS S O L IC IT E D S. G. BAYNE, President. S. G. NELSON, Vice-Pres, C. C. THOMPSON, Cashier. W. K. C L.EVER LEY , Ass’t Cashier. J. H. DAVIS, Ass't Cashier, selves are the swindlers, the difficulties for detection by outsiders are almost insurmountable. For instance, in the Chicago case. How was it possible for the ex aminer to learn that the paper was fraudulent which constituted the greater part of the delinquency when it was so skillfully forged, that even the reputed mak ers, of some of it, hesitated to deny the signatures. There can be no sure protection against fraud—if blocked in one way it will turn up in another. But be cause this is the case we cannot abolish trust. The basis of our business is trust and without it a man would be unfit for the banking business. We cannot live always in an atmosphere of doubt and suspicion, and must place some confidence in those engaged with us in the prosecution of business. The difficulty of providing or enforcing any system which will prevent bank failures has led to the ad vancement of schemes for guaranteeing bank deposits. A fund is proposed for the purpose to which all banks would be required to contribute in proportion to their deposits. This idea has merit and deserves con sideration. In the banking of the future when our widely extended system of independent banks shall assume greater coherency and stability something of this kind may be welcomed and adopted. But we are very far from that suitable condition at present, and to my mind the objections to the scheme are now insur mountable. The amount of the proposed fund is usu ally based upon the losses of the past. This seems reasonable and it would be ample if existing conditions continued without change, but this would not be the case. The confidence which the public would be inclined to place in all banks, if satisfied with the guaranty, would create of itself a different situation. There would be more banks and a larger ratio of failures and the fund would be found insufficient. Conservative banking in many cases would give place to something different and the results would be disastrous. Almost anyone could go into the banking business and hope to achieve success in obtaining deposits. The glibbest talker and largest promisor would have an equal chance with the oldest and most experienced banker. The cost of disastrous competition would in the end fall alone upon the better banks. It would prove to be https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis very much like assessment life insurance. All would, go well for a time, but in the end if continued so far, the business would be destroyed, for good bankers would give up the contest and seek other means of livelihood. - Recognizing then the situation as it is, the question arises, what may be done now to give better security to bank depositors and to lessen the occurrences which so discredit the banking business. It is a subject de manding the most serious consideration on the part of bankers. They are in a better position than any out siders can be to suggest practical things, and their in terest in the matter is even more vital than that of the depositors, for in protecting them, they advance their own interest and protect themselves. Whatever I may be able to advance upon the sub ject would be based upon my long experience in the banking business, now passing forty-three years of constant service. I realize, however, that that exper ience may be very ineffective to meet the crowding problems of the business of today. I have nothing new or novel to advance and no methods to suggest, but what are doubtless practiced now in numerous banks. Whatever is done, however, must be done in my judgment along the lines of what we now have. I would have no loosening of the restrictions now imposed by law and would have bank regulations im proved wherever it is manifest that it can be done to advantage. The examiners should not be permitted to relax any of their vigilance and the directors should be urged to direct to the fullest extent that can be reasonably expected of them. But I am myself firmly convinced that real and practical reform lies in the establishment and the enforcement of certain and fixed methods in the clerical conduct of the business, which will place a proper responsibility and accountability upon every employe who has anything to do with the bank’s transactions. No one from the president down should have the power to take a cent from the bank except through the regular channels reached by the public, and no credit or deposit to any account should be permitted except made in the same regular manner. The note teller or discount clerk in entering loans should be required to have with every bill the written approval of at least THE 14 WNI. H. BRINTNALL, President. EDWARD TILDEN, Vice-President. Tile N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 Drovers Deposit National Bank... UNION STOCK YARDS, CHICAGO. _____________ WM. A. TILDEN. Cashier. GEO. M. BENEDICT, Assisiant Cashier. CAPITAL AND To Banks and Bankers Having- More or Less Live Stock Business this SURPLUS. Bank Offers Exceptional Advantages, and Solicits Correspondence as to Terms and Facilities. Also acts as Reserve agent for National banks. two of a finance committee who might be officers or persons actively engaged in the business, by whose authority to pass or approve should be distinctly en tered in the bank records. A similar requirement should be applied to all entries in the general books relating to securities or invest ments. In other words, every transaction of the bank, recorded or entered in any of its books, should be fenced with requirements that would demand collusion between at least two and perhaps more, in order that a fraud could not be perpetrated, and it would be easy for the examiner in his visits to ascertain if these fixed regulations were duly observed. It has been suggested in this connection that em ployees should be required to divulge to the proper official anything coming to their attention as irregular or out of the usual course of business. I would go farther than this and thereby relieve them of the dis agreeable duty suggested of “ telling” upon their asso ciates. If everything was obliged to follow a regular course, there could be nothing irregular to report and I would make every employe a particeps criminis in the act should he omit to exact any requirement. Reg ulations of this character must of course take into con sideration the fact that the managing officers have ab solute control over their employees and as usually ar ranged in most banks few of these would venture to question any order or direction they might receive. But if these regulations were in force, no officer cer tainly would be disposed to ignore them except for a dishonest purpose, and to accomplish this it would be necessary for him to expose his action to the employe concerned. The initial act of dishonesty is usually of a trivial character and often thoughtlessly committed. This would certainly be prevented if these forms were in force, for it would require the concurrence of another and we cannot conceive of two joining in the commis sion of an act of this character, especially where only one would be the beneficiary. In order to further enforce these requirements, the employees should all be bonded, and the expense of the bonds should be borne by the bank. This much pro tection is due to the depositors in any event and should be enforced upon all banks by law. $900,000.00 Twenty Years of Banking- in Nebraska spect sometimes aids in forming conclusions as to the prospect. Men are guided largely by experience gained from the past in planning for the future. Occasionally a brilliant plunge into new and untried fields brings fame and fortune, but more often disaster. In the main the bank management that lays well the foundation of its institution, weighing all the resources and environ ments upon which it must rely, is the one that weathers the storms. It may be in staid old New England, where I am told the word “ hurry” is unknown and unused ; it may be in the speculative whirlpool of Wall street; in the cotton belt of the South; among the mountains and mines of the West, or on our plains of Nebraska— wherever it may be that we launch a bank, its life de pends upon a full understanding of the conditions and resources of the locality in which it is situated. In this state our resources are purely agricultural, and the banker of Nebraska from the beginning till now and the same will hold true for some time to come—must accommodate his institution to that kind of resource. I know of no safer or better foundation for a bank than agriculture gives. The banker of Nebraska who for twenty years in the sunshine of pros perity, or under the storm clouds of adversity held his bank open and solvent now knows that in the end he has been fortunate in the kind of resource upon which his business depended. As stated before, our dependence has been agricul ture. The farmer in a new and developing state like tins has been, knew not the vicissitudes and changes that were to come. They had to learn by experience, and the banker learned, side by side with the farmer. When we consider all that has been accomplished in the last twenty years, it speaks volumes. But none will ever know but those who held the helm of banks through all that time the nerve strain that sometimes came to the banker. For the purpose of showing what has been accom plished in twenty years, and to demonstrate the changed condition of banks then and now, I have com piled for the purpose of comparison, the relative con dition of the banks in 1886 and 1906, and to Mr. E. Royse, the efficient secretary of the State Banking Board, I owe much for his aid in furnishing the data of the conditions of state and private banks. The following shows the conditions as to capital, deposits, loans and borrowed money : By P. L. Hall, Cashier The Columbia National Bank, Lincoln, Neb. It is profitable to make comparisons, and the retro Number of banks .................................... 303 L'oans .......................................................... $11,162,428.73 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis DECEMBER, 1886, STATE AND P R IV A T E BANKS • THE December, 1905 N O RTH W ESTERN 15 BAN KER. The The National Bank Farmers’ and Mechanics’ of North America In New York OF IN CO R PO RATED 1851. ALFRED H. CURTIS, National Bank P H ILA D ELPH IA , PENNA. 427 Chestnut S treet CHAS. W. MORSE, Vice-President, President, EDWARD B. WIRE, * Cashier. HENRY CHAPIN, Jr., Vice-President. J.FREDERICK SWEASY, CAPITAL, . . . SURPLUS AND PROFITS, DEPOSITS, . . . ■ . $2,000,000.00 2,172,088.15 15,966,771.18 Organized January 17 1807 DIVIDENDS PAID, - - $12,497,000.00 Assistant Cashier. WALTER W. LEE, ADOLPH RADO, Vice-President. Assistant Cashier. CAPITAL $2,000,000. DEPOSITS, $24,543,935. SURPLUS AND PROFITS, $2,197,786. O F F IC E R S HOWARD W. LEWIS, President. HENRY B. BARTOW, Cashier. JOHN MASON, Transfer Agent. OSCAR E. WEISS, Ass’t Cashier. Travelers’ Letters of Credit Issued, Foreign Exchange Bought and Sold. Accounts of Other Banks Invited, Foreign Exchange Dept., Edward D. Shotwell, Mgr. Capital paid in ............................................ Deposits ...................................................... Notes and bills rediscounted and bills p a y a b le ................................................ 5>S3I >2° 4*1 1 7,840,208.51 1,609,478.23 N A T IO N A L B A N K S Number of b a n k s...................................... 88 Loans ........................................................... $18,967,286.33 Capital ........................................................ 7,183,900.00 Deposits ...................................................... 18,069,253.57 ■ Bills discounted, bills payable.............. 99°>567-°2 T O T A L S T A T E A N D N A T IO N A L B A N K S 1 8 8 6 Total number of banks............................ 39 1 Loans ........................................................... $ 3°>I2 9 >7 I 5-°6 Capital ......................................................... i35OI5T°4-1 1 Deposits ...................................................... 25,909,462.08 Bills discounted, bills payable................... 2,600,045.85 August 28, 1906: S T A T E A N D P R IV A T E B A N K S Number of b a n k s...................................... 578 Loans ........................................................ $ 45>I I 3>579-89 Capital paid in ........................................ 9>35°>64°-00 Deposits ......................... ........................... 58,744,221 -67 Notes and bills rediscounted and bills p a yab le .............................................. 90,876.32 N A T IO N A L B A N K S Number of b a n k s............................... Loans .................................................... Capital .................................................. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 179 $ 69,005,810.26 11,607,500.00 Accounts of Banks and Bankers Solicited. Deposits ..................................................... Notes and bills discounted and bills p a yab le.............................................. 96,052,904.01 T O T A L S T A T E A N D N A T IO N A L B A N K S 48,080.00 1906 Total number of banks........................... 757 Loans ......................................................... $114 ,119 ,39 0 .15 Capital ...................................................... 20,958,140.00 Deposits ................................................... i 54,797T25-68 Notes and bills discounted and bills p a yab le.............................................. I 38,956-32 This summary shows the loans increased $83,989,675.09 Capital increased ...................................... 7>943>°35-89 Deposits increased .....................................128,887,663.60 Bills discounted and bills payable, de creased ................................... 2,461,089.53 Per capita deposit, 1886........................... 34-00 Per capita deposit, 1906........................... 123.00 In 1886, one bank to every 1,868 people. In 1906, one bank to every 1,651 people. Your attention is particularly called to the item of notes and bills discounted, and bills payable, which in 1886 with total deposits of twenty-five millions amounted to $2,461,089.52, while in 1906, with total deposits of one hundred fifty-five millions, this item has decreased to $138,956.32. There is a significance in this showing that none can fail to appreciate, for much of the trouble that came to us in 1893 to 1896, was due to this one item. I find on further investigation that this item in 1892 amount ed to $1,475,845.34. This we had to pay at a time THE N O RTH W ESTERN TH E THE: C E N T U R Y SAVINGS DES M O IN E S , December, 1906- BAN KER. BANK - - CAPITAL, IO W A $ 100.000.00 O F F IC E R S W . G. K a r v is o n , P res, L . E . H a r b a c h , V ice-P res. H. M. W h in e r t , Cashier. D. A. B y e r s , A ss’t Cash. Liberty National Bank OF N E W YO R K . Capital, Surplus, Und. Profits, - $ 1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 1 ,5 0 0 ,0 0 0 7 2 4 ,9 3 3 F . C. Co n v e r s e , P resident. Ch a s . H. St o u t . V ice-P resid en t. D a n ie l G. R e id , V ice-P resid en t Ch a s . W . R ie c k s , C ashier. F r k d P. M c G l y n n . A s s ’t C ashier. H e n r y P . D A v is o n , C hairm an E x ecu tiv e C om m itte. DIRECTORS. Geo. F. Baker, P res. F ir s t N ational B ank, N ew Y o rk . E. F. C. Young. P res. F irs t N ational B ank. J ersey City. Arthur F. Luke, D arr, L u k e & M oore, N ew Y o rk . Henry C. Tinker, N ew Y o rk . J. Rogers Maxwell, P res. A tla s P o r t d ir e c t o r s : land C em ent Com pany. W . G. H arvison, P . C. K en yon, G eo. M. C hristian, J. B . U hl, J . W . R udebeck, J. B. Sullivan, L . E. H arbach, H. H. T ea ch ou t. W , G, B urnside. D. G. Reid, C h’m B oa rd o f D irectors, R o ck Island S ystem . E. C. Converse. P resident. Francis L. Hine, V ice -P re s. F irs t N a tion a l B an k, N ew Y o rk . T. A, Gillespie, P res, T h e T. A. G illes pie Co., N ew Y o rk . Charles H. Stout, V ice-P resid en t, Charles A. Moore, M anning, M axw ell & M oore, N ew Y o r k . Henry P. Davison, V ice -P re sid e n t F irs t Accounts of B&nks and Bankers Solicited. Sup erior Facilities for Collections. Interest Paid on Time Deposits. when the deposits were declining. The candle burned at both ends. It is to be remembered that in 1886 this state had unrestricted banking outside of the national system. Very little, if any, safeguards were thrown around state and private banks, by law. A banking room, sign, counter and safe often represented the capital of a bank. Examinations by state authorities, so far as state and private banks were concerned, had yet to come. Then, too, that banker was considered a suc cess who had the credit to borrow money to lend his patrons. The demand for money was pressing and deposits were scarce. The people needed money, and the banker felt it incumbent on his bank to furnish it so far as he could, and he borrowed to lend. How our ideas have changed! Now, bankers will resort to al most any subterfuge rather than show a rediscount or bills payable, except in seasons of heavy demand to move crops and feed cattle, and then, they halt far on the safe side. There are other conditions that have changed ma terially during the time covered. Then we looked to the East for help to move our crops. When Wall street took snuff, we sneezed. All that was experienced in finance and profound in economics, was East; the “ Wise Men” were there; out here we were supposed to accept in silence the dictum of our more experienced brothers. Now, all this has changed. The voice of the West is potent in the councils of the nation, and the call of the times is answered in the high places of fin ance by western men. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N a tion a l B ank, N ew Y o r k . Chas. H. Warren, T rea su rer M utual L ife Ins. Co.. N ew Y o r k . Frederick G. Bourne, N ew Y o r k Charles Steele, J. P . M organ & Co. N ew Y o rk . Ambrose Monell, P res. In ternational N ick el Co. Today it is estimated we could liquidate our debts with our bank reserves and other debts due us from outside of the state. Massachusetts, Mississippi and. Idaho pay annual tribute to the school fund of Ne braska. These things are not told in a spirit of boast;. but are hard cold facts. We have come to our own. The road has not always been smooth, nor has sun shine been ours all the way, but the results compen sate for much that has occurred in the past. We have been building an empire, and in forming our crude undeveloped resources into wealth, who will have the hardihood to say we were not justified in our faith in die future of the state and its possibilities. We have considered the retrospect and know some thing of the prospect. We have eighty thousand square miles of hill and valley, river and lake, sand hill and farm land—every acre capable of producing some thing to feed the world, and a market for it is at our doors, but in this complex civilization we cannot live isolated and alone. Provincial we cannot be. What ever affects the country at large affects Nebraska and her resources. Means of communication and transportation make all the world akin, and out of this mighty development come new questions. Experience called the people of Nebraska to her school in the development of the state the past twenty years, and she is running a university now with all the civilized world for a school. For ten years we have had unexampled prosperity, and the wealth producing possibilities of the state have been developed and demonstrated to a degree surpris- THE December, 1906 N O RTH W ESTERN 17 BAN KER. SE N D U S YOUR T h e Hamilton National Bank of Chicago. Capital, $500,000 „W IS C O N S IN BU SIN ESS,, Y M a v& m X Modern Facilities Satisfactory Service. Surplus, $125,000 $3 0 0 ,0 0 0 $50,000 CAPITAL, SURPLUS, Geo. Brumder, Pres. A. G. Schultz, Cashier. - MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN D IR EC TO R S. F- A. Delano, President Wabash Railroad Company. Wallace Heckman, Business Manager, Chicago University. Charles L.Bartlett, Mgr. Proctor & Gamble Distributing Co. T. A. Shaw , Jr., of T. A. Shaw & Co. A. A. Sprague, 2d, of Sprague, Warner & CoLouis E. Laflin, Manager Estate of Matthew Laflin. Charles B Pike, PresidentJ. H. Cameron, Vice-President. Henry Meyer, Cashier. C. J. Eldredge of Merrill & Eldredge, Com. Merchants. Frank Cuneo, of Garibaldi & Cuneo. Edmund A. Russell, Otis Elevator Co. W C Brown, Vice-Pres. New York Central Lines. John F. Wallace, President of the Electric Properties Company. We Study the Requirements of the Banks in the Northwest and Endeavor to Meet Them in Every Reasonable Way. Citizens Savings Bank D E C O R A H , IOWA. j C A P IT A L , - $ 5 0 ,0 0 0 .0 0 | Special Attention Given to Collections. Send Us Your Decorah Items. EL J. C U R T IN , P r e s. O G D R N C A S T R R T O N , V ice-P resid en t. B. J. M cK A Y L C a sh ier. EL U. A M U N D S O N , A s s ’ t C a sh . It was the call of reason that dethroned the insur ing even to ourselves. We must not forget, however; ance kings of the East. It is the call of reason that that the last ten years has been marked by a world wide prosperity, the immutable laws of economics have insists on regulation of corporations, and fixing a limit been vindicated again, in that the people schooled to to their power. It is the call of reason that demands retrenchment and economy in living, by adverse condi equality before the law, and it will be the call of rea tions brought about by previous violation of those laws, son that will summon the best of the land to stem the have been accumulating again an earned increment or tide once turned, that all which has been gained in this reserve, which has gone into trade, commerce and period of prosperity may not be lost. And, bankers of land, resulting in rising prices and activity almost un Nebraska, schooled as you have been, you ought to be as formidable a bulwark in the protection of all inter paralleled. Resultant of these conditions in the country at large, ests, corporate or otherwise, as you were two years ago vast individual fortunes are being built up, and power in the fight for any against asset currency and branch ful combinations are being formed, bringing a wave of banking. Wise through experience, you ought to discontent, not to any particular class of people, or stand for conservatism now while these great questions party, but sweeping the country in a tide of so-called are being settled right. There is a possibility that financial reverses may fol reform. Some pseudo-scientists characterize it as hys low. The country at large cannot suffer without hav teria. The economist knows that it is vsot hysteria. He knows that the iron law of necessity is forcing a de ing its effect on Nebraska. Not only should we take a fense against the exactions of organized commercial hand in settling these questions, but we should be ready interests. He knows that wrong and oppression in to meet the consequences that may follow their ad every land and in all times has followed in the foot justment. It is believed we are on the crest of the present wave steps of wealth and power, and he knows that the pro of prosperity, that the years of flow tide are soon to test of Roosevelt and Bryan are an absolute economic be followed by years of ebb. It may be so, and if it necessity. He knows that not hysteria is playing a is, while we cannot escape our share of trouble, yet part in this great commercial pageant, but insanity— that form of insanity known as monomania, a mania twenty years from now some member of this associa for more commercial power and more wealth. Let us tion will take up the history of banking in Nebraska, not deceive ourselves as to which is the patient, nor as where I leave off and tell a story of growth and de velopment that now seems an idle dream. to possible results. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis i8 THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 Handling the Detail Many fail to grasp just what it means to have a machine that will add and list in one-sixth the time of the human machine. A young op erator in a certain Pittsburg Department Store added and listed 20,000 items a day on the Burroughs Adding and Listing Machine which would have required at least seven accountants if it had been done by the old method of long hand and mental addition. Consider what a saving that would mean to you. We much prefer to have you try the machine, to find out how it fits into your system of work—this trial costs you absolutely nothing —and we do not consider you under any obligation to buy As the machine is about the size of a typewriter, it takes up but little room. 41,000 in daily use. "Burroughs Adding M achine Company Formerly American Arithmometer Company, S t. Louis, Mo. Detroit, M ichigan, U. S. A . Bank Advertising Address by W. E. Rhoades, Assistant Cashier U. S. National Banky^Omaha. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: When I was advised that I had been selected as a representative of the Omaha banks to perform this task, I urged Secretary Hughes to select in my stead someone else who was accustomed to duties of this kind, and naming over one after another and meeting with no response, I remarked that I had never under taken work of this nature and could not do it. Where upon the secretary informed me that the committee were familiar with all of that, the matter had been considered and they selected m e; and by way of good cheer told me the following story which he credited to Secretary Sh aw : A prisoner was brought before the bar in a criminal court in Iowa, but he was not represented by a lawyer. “ Where is your lawyer?” inquired the judge who presided. “ I have none,” responded the prisoner. “ Why haven’t you?” “ Haven’t any money to pay a lawyer.” “ Do you want a lawyer?” asked the judge. “ Yes, your honor.” There is Messrs. W . T. Smith, John Brown, George Green, said the judge, pointing to a lot of young at torneys who wer6 about the court waiting for some thing to turn up, “ and Mr. Alexander is out in the corridor.” https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The prisoner eyed the budding attorneys in the court room, and after a critical survey, stroked his chin and said, Well, I guess I will take Mr. Alexander.” The subject assigned me is bank advertising. In the consideration of this subject, we are con fronted with a decided opinion as to the propriety of banks advertising except along certain prescribed methods. While there are those who believe it improper for banks to advertise along what might be termed com mercial methods, I believe I can safely assert that every banker, if he is enterprising in the least, is in favor of, and is constantly endeavoring to increase and improve his business by adopting some form of adver tising. Advertising has certainly grown to be an art, and the day has passed when it can be resorted to in a careless and indifferent way, without proving very expensive for those who try it. Successful advertisers become so only as people be come successful in other lines by an intelligent and careful handling of the matter under consideration-. No rule can be laid down that will apply to all. Every ' banker must carefully study his business with reference to its needs and the necessary remedies, if he would decide properly, how and when to advertise; and turn down a solicitor or a questionable advertising propo sition as quickly as he would a questionable loan. A thing that is worth doing is worth doing well and if the banker has not the time to give consideration as to how to advertise intelligently, he had better not ad- THE December, 1906 N O RTH W ESTERN E S T A B L I S H ED 1853 The Oriental Bank 19 BAN KER. & R obinson Fisk O F N E W YO RK BAN KERS 175 Broadway C A P IT A L. $750,000.00. * DEPOSITS MAY 9, 1903, DEPOSITS MAY 9, 1904, DEPOSITS MAY 9, 1905, S U R P L U S , $1,100,000.00. : : : $5,809,314.68 8,001,823.17 11,080,949.46 R W J O N E S , Jr., P res, N E L S O N G. A Y E R S , 1st V ice-P res. L U D W IG N IS S E N , I E R S K I N E H E W I T T . VV ice P resid ents. C H A R L E S J. D A Y , ) G E O . W . A D A M S , C ashier. R . B. E S T E R B R O O K , A s s ’t C ashier AND O TH ER * Investment Securities, D IR EC T O R S: N elson G , A yres, V ic e P resid en t, , , C harles K . B eekm an P h ilb in B eekm an & M enken, A ttorn eys. S am uel B ettle, C hairm an A d v isory F re ig h t C om m ittee, International M erchantile M arine S team sh ip Co. _ , E ugene B ritton , V ice-P res. N a t’l C ity B ank. B rook ly n : T reas, B ro a d w ay S avin gs In stitu tion . N. Y S tephen R , H alsey, C apitalist. E rsk in e H ew itt, M anufacturer, w ith C oop er-H ew itt & Co. R, W . Jones, Jr., President. H ugh K elly . M erchant. 71 W a ll St. R ich a rd B, K e lly , V ice-P res,. F ifth N a tion a l Bank. Chas. E. L ev y , C otton M erchant, 30 B roa d S t,, o f M. L e v y & Sons, N ew Orleans, La. A lex a n d er M cD onald, C apitalist, W m . M cCarroll, V ice-P res. A m erican L ea th er Co. L u d w ig N issen, Im p orter o f Diam onds. A n d rew W , P reston , P res. U nited F ru it Co,, B oston and N . Y. J oh n C. W h itn ey, A u d itor N ew Y o r k L ife Ins. Co. Isa d ore H erm sh eim , C apitalist. W illia m B . P u tn ey , A ttorn ey-at-L aw , Your Account is Respectfully Solicited. vertise at a ll; for it would not be very long before ad vertising agencies would discover him, and be receiv ing more than their share of the bank’s earnings. A few years ago I heard an idea advanced that a bank should turn its advertising over to someone out side of the bank. This plan would certainly be a great relief to the banker, but it seems very absurd to think that one on the outside, unacquainted with the condition of the bank and its needs, could handle so important a matter to a satisfactory conclusion. Assuming that all progressive bankers are in favor of some form of advertising, I will now consider the different forms. As they are so numerous reference will be made to them under a few general heads. 1. Printer’s ink. 2. Souvenirs. 3. Co-operation in public affairs. 4. The manner of dealing with one’s- customers. Advertising was originally confined to newspaper notices and the like, then came the circular and hand bills, and later the souvenir, and, as the last two forms referred to produce the same general result, I think we may also consider these as forms of advertising. Printer's ink we will find made use of in a great many ways. There is the card or display ad in the daily, weekly, society and church paper, magazine and directories; the statement card in its various forms and the bank’s stationery. Much money is spent advertis ing along these lines and some of it is spent without bringing proper returns, principally because many in advertising, like sheep, follow the lead of others and https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Members New York Stock Exchange. I N E W YO RK BOSTON ^ I _ , ,’ 2 >■4 I' Ì j Represented in C h icago h y Fred-f j ericK C h ild s, 1 3 5 A d a m s St. fail to give it that personal attention which is needed just as much in the advertising as in any other depart ment of the bank. I believe in printers’ ink, but not in a reckless use of it. The banker has no bargains to offer. In these strenuous days people have not the time to read the entire contents of the mammoth newspapers, and hard ly find time to read the portions that especially inter est them. Through the channel of the newspaper the housewife may find satisfactory bargains, the unemployed desir able positions, the investor suitable investment and SO’ on through the list; but how often have you heard of a bank obtaining a customer because of the bank’s card in the paper. There is, however, one point in the proposition that we must admit, and that is, the keeping of a name of a bank before the people is desirable and very necessary. This can hardly be done, at least in the cities, by the simple card of the bank buried among a great many others. If such advertising is resorted to, make it effective by having it sufficiently attractive and prom inent enough to be seen and remembered. This appliesnot only to the newspaper and magazine advertise ments, but to the statement card and similar methods as well. It is the man who is persistent and keeps everlast ingly at a thing who accomplishes what he sets out to d o; and the same thing is necessary to accomplish de sired results in advertising. Banks engaged in a commercial business find it much’ THE 20 N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 FlBurlington Is i j CAPITAL, $ 1 0 0 .0 0 0 ?? j Capital, $1,000,000. Surplus, $500,000. Undivided Profits, $738,445. = D IR E C T O R S: STEPHEN BAKER, P res, B an k o f M anhattan Co., N. Y. S A M U E L G. B A Y N E , P res, S eab oa rd N ational B ank, N , Y . J A M E S G. C AN N O N , V ice-P res. F o u rth N a t’l. B ank, N. Y . E D M U N D C. C O N V E R S E , P resid ent. H E N R Y P . D A V IS O N . V ice-P res. F irs t N ational B ank, N. Y . J A M E S H. E C K E L S , P res. C om m ercial N a t'l B ank, C hicago. W A L T E R E. F R E W . V ice -P re s . Corn E xch an ge B ank, N. Y . A. B A R TO N H E PB U R N , P res. Chase N ational B ank, N , Y , TH OM AS W . LAM O N T, S econd V ice-P resid en t. G A T E S W , M cG A R R A H , P res. M echanics N a t’l B ank, N. Y . E D G A R L. M ARSTO N, B la ir & Co., B ankers, N. Y . IN T E R E ST ALLO W ED BURLINGTON GEORGE W . P E R K IN S , J. P. M organ & C o., B an kers, N. Y . W I L L I A M H. P O R T E R , P res. C hem ical N ational B ank, N , Y . D A N I E L G , R E ID , V ice-P res. L ib e rty N ational B ank, N. Y . F R A N C IS H. S K E L D IN G , P resid en t F irs t N ational B ank, P itts b u rg E D W A R D F. S W IN N E Y , P res. F irs t N a t’l B ank, K ansas City. JO H N F. TH O M P SO N , V ice-P resid en t. G I L B E R T G. T H O R N E , V ice-P res. N a tion a l P a rk B ank, N. Y . A L B E R T H. W IG G IN , V ic e -P re s . Chase N ational B ank, N. Y . R O B E R T W 1N S O R . K id d er, P e a b o d y & Co.. B an kers, B oston. SAM UEL W OOLVERTON, P res. G a llatin N ational B ank, N. Y . E D W A R D F . C. Y O U N G , P res. F irs t N a tion a l B ank, J ersey City. UPON D E P O S IT S . 1 O W A = Pays 3 per cent Interest on Saving-s Accounts and 4 per cent on Time Cer tificates of Longer_____ Deposit 6 Months or wi G. H . H IG BEE. Pres. JOHN J. FLEM IN G, Vice-Pres. GEO. O. SW ILER , Cashier. E. C. C O N V E R S E , P r e s i d e n t . J. F. T H O M P S O N , V. P. T . W . L A M O N T , 2 N.°V.P. D. E. P O M E R O Y , T r e a s . B. S T R O N G Jr. S e c y . H . W . D O N O V A N , ASSt.Tr. F. N . B . C L O S E , Asst.Tr. QifV more difficult to find interesting advertising items than do the savings banks and trust companies. This is due to the character of their business and the class of peo ple desired as customers. In following this form of advertising there are two principal results to be obtained : First, the fixing of the name of the bank in the minds of the greatest n u m ber of people, and second, acquainting them with the financial strength of the institution. With this latter object in view we are led to reflect upon the true condition of our bank, and, if it is not what it should be, there is great need for our careful attention. Be not content with making people believe you are stronger than you are or in knowing you are as strong as you are, but make your bank stronger than it ap pears, and as the community in which you are located become acquainted with your true condition, you will realize, in contemplating the results of your advertis ing, the value of being a strong and stable institution^ I f the people lose confidence in a banking institu tion, because of its weak condition, all the advertising one could do would not restore confidence and would not justify the expending of money in advertising ex https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis cept as conditions are improved and it is desirable to call attention of the public to it. Souvenirs—Except in some cases among a particular class of customers and certain localities it is very ques tionable as to whether this form of advertising pays. The souvenirs come to us in many form s: the calen dar, purse, key ring, lead pencil, dictionary, memoran dum book, and many, many others and the list would be still further increased if the bankers were in greater sympathy with this form of advertising. How few there are of us, if any, who reside in the larger places where these are freely used, have room for the many articles of this kind that reach our desks. Many of the articles referred to are good advertisers if used in the proper places; particularly the calendar which is sent out by many of our Nebraska banks, the purse and memorandum books, bearing the name of the giver, and welcomed and made good use of by many who receive them. To obtain good results from the use of the souvenir great care should be exercised in its distribution, with special consideration as to the character of the people and the locality in which they live. There is, as I stated before, value in keeping the THE December, 1906 N O R T H W E ST E R N 21 BAN KER. f A „A<4==;, - 3 Ì , V TH E People’s a/ Savings f j Bank D E S M O IN ES, IOWA: Capital, $ 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 Surplus and Profits >1 C ffr O F F IR E ! F IR E ! Like the cry of “ Burglars! Burglars!” will not pre vent the loss, unless given in time. Notifying the people thru the destruction of the ordinary bank safe means that the burglar has the booty. If people did not sleep there would be no bank burglaries. People do not sleep while the gongs of our Electrical System are sounding. Burglars know this, therefore tbey attack only banks that are without our ELECTRICAL STEEL VAULT Deposits - - - 8 3 ,0 9 4 1 ,4 2 3 ,5 9 1 .2 5 ©fficere: C, H. M A R T IN , TH OS, F L Y N N , F R A N K P. F L Y N N , E . A . S L IN IN G E R , P re sid e n t V ice -P re s id e n t C ashier A s s ’t Cashier LINING T w o attacks were sufficient to sa tisfy all burglars that our electrical system is what we claim for it. H ow can we con v in ce you that the the people are you r on ly protection against burglary, and to be effective must be able to readily disting-uish betw een the report o f a pistol and an attack on y ou r bank? AMERICAN BANK PROTECTION COMPANY., Minneapolis, Minn. name of the bank before the public, and if this form of advertising is adopted I believe it needs more careful consideration to obtain desired results, for the money expended, than does the form referred to under the head of printers’ ink. Co-operation in Public Affairs—The working of this form is found in donations for the support of enter prises of a public character and personal and active service in such enterprises. It seems a little “ raw” to suggest donations as a form of advertising, but the fact remains that much of such co-operation results in that. The responsibility rests on the one who thus co-operates to do so in a manner so as to free himself from the suspicion of being mercenary in what should be his duty as a loyal citizen. Personally, I dislike very much to consider this as a form of advertising, but in these days of the chase for the mighty dollar, people are often more ready, upon your failure to contribute .to objects of public interest. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to make a greater effort to place you before the public as an unenterprising and disloyal citizen than they are to give you any special mention when the reverse is true. This leads many to thus co-operate when other wise they would not. What you do along this line, whether it is money or service, do cheerfully and do not spoil the effect of the gift by giving it unwillingly. When a banker co-operates in the affairs of a com munity solely because of his loyal interest in the ad vancement of the community’s interests, with no idea of doing it because of any personal or partisan motive, but because of the broader and more liberal idea of benefiting and upbuilding the community as a whole, even at an expense or sacrifice to him, then will the banker realize that not only has both he and the conu munity been indirectly advertised, but honored as well. The Manner of Dealing With One’s Customers— The consideration of this form of advertising brings before us one of the most interesting forms and is, I THE 22 "It is more economical than other systems, as it is a great time saver" W e hardly feel that w e could do business without the BakerV aw ter system, and know that ev ery modern bank would feel that it was money well invested to adopt this up-to-date system of accounting. Yours very truly, J. W . Duengan, Cashier." T h e First National Bank of Stevens Point, W is. Established 1883. N O RTH W ESTERN December, 1906 BE ECONOMICAL Shorten the W o rk and Improve the M ethod. DO NOT EXPERIMENT - INVESTIGATE W rite us for Information as to the Best Plan for Individual A ccoun ts Tellers’ R ecords Remittance and Collections General A ccoun ts C om bined Registers O r A n y Other R ecords U sed in a Bank IT W I L L P A Y Y O U B A K E R -V A W T E R C O M P A N Y 3 N5™ i?wR,y believe, the best and most successful bank advertising. The officers and counter clerks of a bank are con stantly advertising a bank by the manner in which they treat its customers. If their treatment such as could be considered good advertising, the. customers not only continue their business with the bank, ¡..but will adver tise it by referring to that treatment in' their conversa tion with others, and what is more pleasing to a banker than to have a customer voluntarily bring to him a new customer because he is pleased with the treatment he has received and can assure his friends that around the bank’s counter he will find that warmth and sun shine that makes business easier, more pleasant, and, I believe, more profitable. Some time ago I read a criticism of “ Sunny Jim ” who was, as the critic said, always smiling, even in the presence of death or at a funeral. While there are times when “ Sunny Jim ” should straighten his features, I think there is more need for the encouragement, rather than the suppression of the disposition and the manner that produces “ Sunny Jim .” The best advertisement a bank sends out is its own customers and these become so by the kind of treat ment they receive at the hand of not only the officers of the bank, but those clerks with whom they come in contact. This manner of dealing with one’s customers might be termed modern, as there are few people, even among bankers, who do not think of the banker of the earlier generations as an austere, cold, dignified and unap proachable individual, before whom the customers shiv ered and shook as they presented their request for a needed accommodation. What a time the earlier banker would have amidst the competition of today! He could not cling long to his old methods, but would necessarily need to modernize them, or see his business gradually slip away. I believe that in the introduction of this modern manner of banking there is need for caution, just as there is need for caution in any advance movement, for fear that, led by the desire to please, one will go too far and be led away from strong and conservative action. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BAN KER. Department of Bank Accounting T™ ^ d ° g Even the banker who is in hearty sympathy with this modern manner of banking constantly criticises the advance movement of a few, beyond what the great ma jority are willing to admit is sound and conservative banking. In conclusion I wish to add: We have instances where the public have been drawn into the clutches of the unworthy banker and probably through advertising methods of some kind, but in such cases the public find out the importance of becoming acquainted with the true condition of banks and not being carried away by the unbusinesslike methods pur sued by many. Because we have, and will always have, around us those who are attracted and held by noise and glitter and never look beyond the outward appearance, but accept the impressions created by those as an indica tion of what is beneath, good and constant advertis ing may increase the business of a weak or unworthy institution, but it will not strengthen nor cleanse one; that must be done by the officers in charge, and when done, the banker is in a position to reap the greatest benefit from his advertising, whatever form he may adopt. Address Delivered by James H. Eckels President Commercial National Bank, Chicago. I accepted the invitation to address the bankers of Nebraska upon this occasion because it seemed to me that both time and place were opportune for a discus sion of the question of a reform of the currency system under which we are attempting to carry on the vast business transactions of our business world. I think I am quite within the bounds of truth when I say that there nowhere exists serious difference as to the eco nomic wisdom and soundness of maintaining as the fundamental basis for our monetary and currency is sues the gold standard of value. It is immaterial so far as the present is concerned by what process of reason ing those who opposed such a standard have brought themselves to accept it; the important fact is that it is accepted and the error of the doctrines and theories' with which it was opposed has been cast aside and bur ied in the grave with the hundreds of other economic THE December, 1906 N O R T H W E ST E R N BAN KER. 23 STATEMENT OF THE CONDITION The Security AT THE CLOSE Bank ^Òf ^Minnesota "T" OF BUSIN ESS, November Overdrafts, . . . . . . . . $ 9 ,8 79 ,3 7 8 .3 3 . Bonds, Stocks and securities, Cash on hand, and due from banks, . , . . Reserved for unearned discount, 4 ,0 6 8,78 0 .8 0 Deposits, . . . . . 4 ,- Surplus and undivided profits 99,9 11 .2 1 . $ 1,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 .0 0 . . . ,v . £».. * *i ’ ,, h . (Y~ 8 05 ,18 3 .3 5 5 0 ,0 0 0 .0 0 12,200,398.43 14,055,581.78 4 s O F F IC E R S P resid en t P e rr y H arrison V ice-P resid en t J. S. P o m e ro y ; . A ss’ t C ashier G eorge L a w th er, heresies which have from time to time been set up in opposition to the immutable and unvarying laws of trade and commerce. The elimination of this fruitful source of bitter discussion, personal recrimination, and party fury has carried with it the destroying element of political bias and partisan desire from all that which af fects the treatment of monetary and banking problemsin the United States, and we can approach their solu tion upon the sounder basis of merit, historic accuracy, scientific truth and economic fact. I can conceive of no happier situation in which to consider and deal with a question which easily ranks with those of the very first importance among all with which our governmental au thorities have to do. The currency question ought nev er to be a partisan political one, and now, least of all, for the differences between contending political hosts in the arena of public affairs turn on other things which appeal more to partisan imagination and partisan cu pidity. I am not unmindful of the fact that the attacks on what are termed the evil effects of so-called trusts, the inequalities of taxation, and the wrongful follies of tariff schedules, together with the dreamy and charmingly pictured benefits of governmental and municipal control and ownership, today attract the attention of men in public place and more fill the public eye, but taken by and large no one of them is of more far reach ing importance or affects more greatly the underly ing conditions of prosperity in the country than does the less alluring subject of currency reform. It is a happy^ circumstance that the need of a more responsive character of bank note issue and a better adapted rela tion of government finance to daily business undertak ings demands attention at a time when the prosperity of the country is undoubted, its agricultural, manufactuiing and financial activities everywhere apparent and substantial and its credit conditions healthful and sound. The demand for better things springs neither from panic nor threatened distress. It is not the far cry of the banker in the first instance, but of the men who outside the distinctive realm of finance feel how inadequate are the banks of the country, upon whom the business interests of the country rely to fully and cheaply meet the varying demands of trade and com merce. The man who has something to exchange with https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Capital paid in 7 ,511.44 $ 1 4 ,0 5 5 ,5 8 1 7 8 F . A . C ham berlain, E . F .M e a r k le , F red Spafford, h-iv-A/W .i- 1906 l i a b i l t t j .e s R E S O U R C E S Loans and discounts, 12, V ice-P resid en t C ashier A s s ’t C ashier his fellow, whether it be the produce of the farm or the product of the factory, whether it be daily labor, less exhausting character of work, finds when he studies it that both in the first and in the last analysis his inter est is concerned more in the extended usefulness of the bank than in any other institution in the community. It is to the advantage of all who would buy money and credit that they be obtainable when needed at no greater cost than safety and prudence make necessary, and in a form which best answers the ends to be accomplished. We are apt to lose sight of the fact that the bank was the outgrowth of the necessities of the business world and that through the activities of this “ handmaid of commerce” the innumerable transactions of barter and trade in every portion of the globe may have been made not only possible, but an accomplished fact. I some times believe the very frequency of banking institu tions and the close relations which exist between them and the daily movements of trade, have caused the pub lic to look upon them as a matter of course, classing their field of endeavor and their sphere of usefulness with that of every other avenue of undertaking. This failure to differentiate between the pre-eminent posi tion of the bank as the potential factor in the upbuild ing of a community, by intelligently fostering and use fully directing the investment of credit, which a bank buys and sells, and general business operations, has not been wholly free from harmful effects. It at least has caused not infrequently both the people and the peo ple’s representatives in legislature and executive, places to be wholly indifferent to the granting of such exten sion of powers ta banks as would enable them to be of greater service, in wider fields, at a less cost to the public. And, after all, it is to the interest of the pub lic at large more than the banker in particular that banks should increase in strength, become far reaching in influence, and more capable of granting, on safe and conservative lines, the credit which is so much an essential necessity in the maintainance of the complex machinery of a world wide as well as a local exchange of the things which are to be sold upon the one hand and bought upon the other. The usefulness of the bank finds its fruition in the growth and success of the farmer not less than that of the merchant, the manufacturer not less than that of 24 THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 LEOPOLD DESK COMPANY. Manufacturers BURLINGTON, IOWA. S A L E S AG EN TS. S- Davidson Bros., Des Moines, Iowa. Lindholm Furniture Co., Sioux City, la. Drake Furn. & Carpet Co., Davenport, la. Jones & Luberger, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Schneider Bros., Iowa City, Iowa. Hall-Fkfeld Furniture Co., Ottumwa, la. Duncan Schell Furn Co., Keokuk, Iowa. Omaha Printing Co., Omaha, Nebraska. Miller-Davis Ptg. Co., Minneapolis, Minn. Brown & Saenger, Sioux Falls, S. D. the corporation which controls the country’s transpor tation lines. It is as essential to labor as it is to capi tal, and through its instrumentality adds to the ef ficiency of both. I am certain no banker fails to appre ciate, though the public too often seems to, that the bank is the one place where the idle money and credit of every locality where a bank exists finds lodgment not for idle purposes, but that they may become active forces in the daily affairs of such locality. It takes the dollar of the single transaction and makes it bear the burden of many transactions with more direct benefit to those who buy its use by payment of interest thereon than to the bank which in its turn borrowed it from the depositor. The impossibility of there being suf ficient capital at any time in any one person’s posses sion, or in any place, to carry on a single day’s ex changes, must suggest itself to the person who will give the subject even the most casual investigation. The manufacturer must needs have the intervening power of purchased money and credit from the banker to make possible the meeting of a multiplicity of expen ditures that are made between the period of the obtain ing of the raw material and the manufacture, sale of and payment for the finished product ; so, too, the mer chant, between the receipt of the finished product and the distribution of it to the jobbing or individual cus tomer. And so on through all the gradations of the world’s business life, the control and utilization of money and credit through the organized methods of the modern bank, grows more and more important to every person no matter how rich or how poor and takes a commanding position in the affairs of every in telligent, industrious and prosperous people. The na tion which is unmindful of the far reaching force and unconquerable power of a carefully guarded, efficiently equipped and fairly treated banking institution, cannot but at the critical time fall behind and ultimately fail in every contest with a people who value and foster them. If it be true that in the arbitrament of war the government which commands money and credit beats down its adversary, it is not less true that upon the fields of peaceful endeavor amid the forces of trade and commerce, the nation of great banks, utilizing https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis every refinement of credit will gain the vantage ground and ultimately triumph in all that goes to make up that prestige which springs from accumulated wealth, in dustrial supremacy and financial power. It is because of a full faith and an unshaken confi dence in the truth of these assertions, coupled with the thought that the American people have been almost wholly unmindful, in the past, of how essentially nec essary is a wise consideration of legislation which touches upon banks, money and credit, that I am here to urge an awakening of the nation’s legislative body to the vast importance of it all and an insistence that it be given precedence over mere expenditure of public funds, the creation of official place or the formulating of issues for future political campaigns. The impor tance of legislative action both as regards the note issues of the nation’s banks and the better and more scientific handling of the nation’s public funds on the P?rt of the Treasury Department, has been emphasized by the recent action of the country’s greatest commer cial body, the Chamber of Commerce of the City of New York, and the country’s most important banking body, the American Bankers’ Association, who jointly, through representative men of high character, wide experience, extensive research and practical knowledge, have formulated and presented a plan, enunciating principles, which, if crystalized into law, it is believed will remedy existing defects in our treasury and cur rency system and be productive of general good. I accept the judgment of these men as sound and the principles enunciated as a basis of legislative enact ment as being as nearly correct as is possible under conditions where ideals cannot be attained and perfec tion cannot be had. It is possible that a great central bank might better accomplish results more satisfactory, but a great central bank is an impossibiliy in this country where political issues always prevail and where individuality in every part of the country will not sur render itself to concentrated power in the field of bank ing, no matter how carefully such power is dealt with or how perfect and beneficial might be the result of its use. The legislation that is the most nearly perfect and improves existing conditions and remedies present December, 1906 THE N O R T H W E ST E R N E sta b lish e d BAN KER. 25 1885 P u rely NORTHW ESTERN N A T IO N A L IN S U R A N C E C O M P A N Y M utual L IFE M IN N E A P O L I S LEONARD K.. T H O M P S O N , P r e s i d e n t A W E S T E R N C O M P A N Y FOR W E S T E R N PEOPLE D I R E C T O R S F. A . C H A M B E R L A IN P re sid e n t S ecu rity B ank B. F . N E L S O N N elson -T u th ill L u m b er C om pany N. O. W E R N E R P res. S w ed ish -A m erica n N a tion a ank C. T . J A F F R A Y V ic e P resid en t F irs t N a tion a l B an k defects must commend itself as a practical thing and the country can better afford to take the nearest ap proach to the best thing than to wait still longer years for legislation without defects and enactments that are beyond question in every word and line. The commission which sat at Washington under au thority of the Chamber of Commerce and the American Bankers’ Association, proposes legislation which will emasculate the sub-treasury system and place the bank ing business of the government of the United States upon the same rational and common sense line as is that of the banking transactions of the man of everyday affairs, that of every state, county and municipality in the country. And why not? What is more sacred about the revenues collected through the tax levies of the national government than those of the individual states, or of our great cities or of the accumulated funds of private capital? Is it a question of safety of funds deposited with banking institutions which are under direct supervision and control of the federal authorities? If it is, there is a remedy and the gov ernment can readily avail itself of it. The government method of banking its receipts of revenues is the irra tional method which if followed by the individual would spread disaster everywhere and make daily bus iness impossible. It converts the dollar of activity into the dollar of idleness, and takes out of the channels of trade the force essential to a continuance of the flow of business undertakings. As long as the nation takes, through force of law, from the individual citizen more than the government needs for legitimate governmen tal purposes, it ought in justice to him at least attempt to minimize the wrong it inflicts by permitting the bus iness world of which he is a part to have the benefit of the daily use of the surplus revenues which are accu mulated. The wrong is doubly inflicted when the citi zens’ capital is directly lessened on the one hand, and indirectly injured on the other. If on revenues de posited in the banks by the secretary of the treasury interest is paid, there can be no complaint about such deposit nor change of governmental favoritism. It, too, will put an end to the continual appeal to the secretary to aid the money situation, for day by day the govern ment will bank as others bank and all will know what the conditions are and will not dwell in continuing ex pectancy of relief being granted from Washington. It it unfair both to the secretary of the treasury, no matter https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis E. W . D E C K E R V ic e P res. N orth w estern N ational B an k S. A , H A R R I S P resid en t N ational B an k o f C om m erce W . J. G R A H A M V ic e P resid en t and A ctu a ry L . K. T H O M P S O N P resid en t and G eneral M anager who he may be, and to our business undertakings, no matter what they are, that the law should necessarily create so close an intimacy between the two. Under trying circumstances Secretary Shaw has conducted the duties of his great office with rare skill and judg ment, but it would be infinitely better to make the ap peals in every trying time an impossibility, and such a thing can only come about by either the complete abolishment of the sub-treasury system or the render ing of it an unconsequental force in monetary move-» ments. I wish now to turn to a discussion of that which con stitutes the more important provisions which this com mission on behalf of the commercial and banking in terests of the country will ask congress to enact into law, namely the enlarging of the note issuing function of national banks by granting them the right, under well conceived and conservative restrictions which as sure safety to the public and guard the banks against misuse of the power given, to put forth promissory notes of small denominations without a specific deposit of assets to secure the same. I am aware that there are many both in and out of banking circles who either doubt the wisdom of such note issues or protest against them altogether. They take counsel of their fears and fortify themselves by harking back to periods where conditions existed which are now impossible. The era of wildcat money has gone by as effectually as has that of the irredeemable greenback fallacy, and the silver heresy. The world of business has moved on to more intelligent periods, better devised monetary and currency methods and a saner understanding of bank note values. It is impossible to believe that in more than fifty years of national and business life we have made no advance as against the dangers of an ill ad justed, badly protected and speculative currency issue. If such is the case there is little ground for boasted American enterprise and keennees. I am unwilling to believe that such is the case and I am equally loath to think that from the conservative councils of carefully trained men of affairs and finance should come any plan that is not only sound in principle, but safe in practice. These men have brought to their years of study and historic research equal years of practical and technical experience in dealing with money and credits and the former fits to the latter and the latter finds proof in the former and I set over against doubts 26 THE K EN N ET H C LA R K , Pres. N O RTH W ESTERN G. H. P R IN C E , Vice-Pres. BAN KER. H. W. PA R K ER , Cashier December, 1906 H. VAN V L E C K , Ass’tCashier The Merchants National Bank of St. Paul, Minnesota, C A P IT A L , Si.ooo.ooo United States Depositary. SU R PLU S, 8500,000 D IR EC TO R S: Charles P. Noyes Louis W. Hill V. M. Watkins W. B. Parsons Geo. H. Prince L. P. Ordway Crawford Livingston J. M. Hannaford F. B. Kellogg Kenneth Clark Thomas A. Marlow C. H. Biglow J. H. Skinner E. N. Saunders D. R. Noyes Correspondence and Personal Interviews Invited and fears of the timid the findings of these men who have both acted and studied. No one complains of the absolute goodness of pres ent bank notes. They are sound beyond peradventure, but they bear no relation in volume or activity to the varying wants of business conditions. They are meas ured by the single standard of the price of government bonds as reflected by the daily quotations. It is ab surd to contend that such a bank note issue is scien tifically correct or can possibly adjust itself to the busi ness growth of an expending country. We can better afford to try something seemingly new which research and experience proves fundamentally right than go on with measures which though sound in a single regard are inadequate and wrong in every other respect. It seems to me that we have reached a point in dealing with currency questions where we can well afford to try and reach conclusions through an intelligent anal ysis of the facts as they are and not as we either think they are or wish they were. There is no doubt but that ultimately the knowledge of what constitutes the underlying principles of bank note issues will control and we will free our minds of many misconceptions that both hamper and confuse us. I am sure the pub lic will at no distant day accept as axiomatic the fact that bank notes are nothing but mere promissory notes issues by an institution and of value because they are redeemable upon demand in that which has recognized value. They are no more money than a bank check is money, they are only a promise to pay money and are redeemable in money. They differ only from checks because they circulate as money, are not al ways presented so quickly for redemption and are of smaller amounts. They are a liability of the bank just as a book entry of a deposit in the bank’s ledgers is a liability, or as checks are only far less important as a part of the maintainance of the transaction of busi ness. They are good or bad when not specifically se cured to the same extent as bank deposit and bank checks are good or bad, and we go to the extremes of fear and anxiety when we worry over the promissory note of small denomination and accept without ques tion the greater indebtedness of the bank as it finds ex pression in the book entered liability and the check in dicated liability. The vast usefulness of a deposit cur https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis rency and a check currency is acknowledged, why not supplement these efficiency agencies by adding a responsive bank note currency which is essential as an element to meet needs which neither the one nor the other can always provide. But the argument is advanced that the proposed un secured bank note suggested by this commission will become the means of an inflation of our volume of cur rency which will encourage speculation on every hand and work out panic and disaster. I challenge the ob jection thus made as unsound because inflation never comes through an issue of notes which are quickly con vertible on demand, with redemption agencies near at hand, and where the monetary standard of value upon which such notes rest is not debased. The inflation of the currency comes from a debasing of a country’s mon etary standard of value and never from the issuance of convertible bank notes. And it is equally true that speculation bears no relation to the putting out of con vertible bank notes but finds its birth and growth and final development in the unwise and abnormal exten sion of bank credit, as that credit is represented by check and deposit currency. It must not be assumed that if authority is given to the banks to issue such notes, thus creating other liabilities for those issuing them, that the banker is going to become either reck less with or destructive of his own property. He, at least, will still retain some sense of duty towards his stockholders and be possessed of some degree of en lightened selfishness as regards his own interest. In the past banks which have been successfully conducted through long years have not been so managed because they have only put forth bank notes with collateral se curity deposited with the government, to be sold for their redemption in case of failure. What the banker has found a correct rule of guidance in the past will be accounted a safe rule in the future, and those who think a different course of conduct will intervene wholly underestimate the banking intelligence and patriotism of the country. The banker will not give these notes marking his liability away for nothing. He will sell them as the merchant sells his obligations, and he will issue them against actual existing values and he will redeem them on presentation on demand at the place appointed in the instrument which he has sold, just as THE December, 1906 N O R T H W E ST E R N T h e Irving N ational B an K N ew A ] BAN KER. E S T A B L IS H E D 185I Capital; $ 1 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 - •*• '*> Surplus, $ 1 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 Y o rK CH ARLES F . M A TTLA G E , Vice-Pres. SAM UEL S. CONOVER, Pres. CH ARLES L. F A R R E L L , Vice-Pres. BENJAMIN E. W E R N E R , Cashier. EU GENE VAN ZAND T, A ss’t Cashier Active and reserve accounts of Northwestern Banks and Bankers especially solicited. the merchant does. The difference will lie in the smaller amount alone, and no wise in principle. Neither will the banker issue more notes than he can redeem, nor will the public accept more than the public can use and pay for, and the fact is not altered by whether the bank note is a secured or an unsecured one. I do not overstate when I say that the attempt to charge a con vertible bank note so safeguarded as it is proposed that this suggested note shall be either as a scheme for in flation or for wild speculation, is wholly without the bounds of careful thought and well considered reason ing. There is no safeguard which conservatism demands which has failed of provision in permitting such an issue. It will have held against it a reserve of the same character and as adequate as the bank deposit liability. For its redemption there are to be agencies conveniently located so that there will be no delay in quickly converting it into money. It will be issued only against existing values and at times when there is a demand for its use. The competition of one bank’s issues against another’s will give added safey to the holder of it and warrants the assertion that redemp tion will be speedy and effective. It will be taxed that it may to an extent be regulated and it will have as an added assurance to those who hold it, the immediate redemption of it by the government, who in turn re coups itself from a tax provided safety fund, in case of failure on the part of the issuing bank. I can think of no other protective features which could be thrown about it which would more carefully regulate its issu ance or insure its daily and in case of failure immediate redemption. I have but a single other suggestion to make, and I am done. It is upon the necessity of granting this more adequate power of note issues to the banks. To day there is no adequate means in this country outside of artificial and unnatural ones, of meeting the chang ing needs of business requirements. The granting now and then of government deposits means nothing under existing conditions. In every season of extraordinary crop movement or manufacturing activity the banks find themselves either unable to properly provide credit to those who deserve it, or if they do so the strain is so great as to cause such high rates of interest as to lay https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis an added burden upon every customer. The bank’s assets, no matter how good, are dead in so far as being available for purposes of relief of a situation which ought without difficulty to be corrected. They cannot discount their paper without causing comment and criticism, and they cannot encroach upon their reserves. The resort to a bond secured note is expensive and far from speedy and so in more than one instance the country in the midst of unprecedented prosperity has stood in tne shadow of disaster because of needed bank ing relief. It is because of this fact that there is the demand that the banks, the properly organized agen cies for caring for the needs of business, be granted the power to provide a credit currency which is not only possessed of the quality of safety, but adds to it the no less important quality of being responsive to the re quirements of our highly developed and complex busi ness world. Such a bank note system we do not have, and un til we are possesed of it we must look for high rates of interest when we least should have them, and recurring periods of uncertainty and doubt, the stopping of one undertaking here and another there will mark our bus iness and financial career. It cannot be otherwise. In conclusion, permit me to quote as embodying the truth of the whole matter a single sentence from the work of a distinguished writer on political economy whose authority is recognized on two continents: “ First, assure the permanence of the standard, then remove all shadow of doubt as to the immediate con vertibility of the media of exchange into that standard* and the expansion and contraction of the media of exchange, the currency, can be with confidence left to take care of itself.” I cannot believe that the plan which is offered for legislative sanction fails in any of these respects. What Disposition Should Be Made of the Unappropriated Government Lands C. H. Cornell, president First National Bank of Valentine spoke upon the above subject and said in part : It is estimated by best authorities, that when all the millions that it is proposed to expend, both in National 28 THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. December, 1906 TheDes Moines National Bank Ut uh J ARTHUR M O IN E S , I O W A . ---------- ------------------------------------ R E Y N O L D S , P resid en t. JOHN H. B L A IR , A . J. V ice*P res. ZW ART, Cashier. T h e D es M o in e s N a tion a l Bank Solic* its a Share o f Y ou r Business Upon the Basis o f Sound and P rog ressive Bank* ing, Liberal a n d A c c u r a te T rea tm en t. and private capital, in the reclamation of the arid and semi-arid lands by irrigation, shall have been dis bursed, that not to exceed ten per cent of said lands will have been brought under subjection. That is, that irrigation cannot possibly cover more than ten per cent of that vast area; consequently the ninety per cent remaining cannot be depended on to furnish homes in such quantities as has heretofore met the requirements of the homesteader. Even though a large area should become subjected to the “ Campbell system” to an ex tent that a homestead would grow enough farm prod ucts to prevent its occupant deserting it in the hope of better results with each suceeding season, there would then remain a very much larger area that could by no possible means become agricultural lands. The sand hills of western Nebraska; the bad lands of Dakota and Wyoming; the rocky, craggy canons of almost every state containing arid lands; and those millions of acres are used and will continue to be used for graz ing only. Those are the lands that are in question at this time. Strange to say, there is no authority in law for pre venting trespass upon strict public or government lands. Reservations, under special enactments, con fer authority upon some governmental department to exercise jurisdiction, as for instance the Interior De partment over Indian, War of military, and the A gri cultural of the recently enacted forest reservations. But the decisions are that people have trespassed upon the public lands since the foundation of the govern ment, and although the public lands are under the control of the Interior Department, that department is not in position (by reason of U. S. Supreme Court decisions) to say to a cattle man or sheep man that he cannot graze his herds upon nor drive them over said lands at his pleasure. It can say to him, due to the V an Wyck law of February 25, 1885, that he cannot fence the land, thus keeping off the other fellow, but he can stay there if the other fellow cannot put him off. Also, no authority is conferred on any person to collect any revenue, and under present laws, neither https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N O V EM B ER 12, 1 9 0 6 . Capital, * $ 3 0 0 ,0 0 0 .9 2 Surplus an d Profits = 7 5 ,0 0 0 .9 2 Deposits, --3 ,4 2 0 ,3 2 7 .2 ° ----------- U N IT E D S T JIT E S D E P O SIT O R Y . C O R R E S P O N D E N C E SO LIC IT E D . nation, state, county nor any other authority can levy a cent of revenue for use of those lands. While formerly those arid plains had no value be cause there was a surplus of acres, now the stockman occupies them, conducting a more or less paying busi ness, each anxious to increase his area, with no one to adjust differences; consequently chaos. My position is that congress should enact laws vesting in some branch of the government, preferably the Interior De partment, the right of absolute control over the same, to the extent of depriving any one of the use of any part of the government domain if found necessary, but since it is better for the land itself that someone should occupy and control it, said department should be au thorized to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the same. Since conditions differ so materially in the several states, I shall not attempt to deal with the manner of disposition of the lands as a whole, but confine myself to the sand hill counties of Nebraska, and for illus tration, take Cherry county. Cherry county is sixtythree by ninety-six miles, comprising 3,684,000 acres. The records show that at present there are approxi mately 1,157,869 acres held under homestead entry. It would require one familiar with the county to be very optimistic to predict that more than fifty per cent or a little more than half a million acres of that now under homestead entry would ever pass to patent. The re maining one-half of course would finally revert back to the government as “ unappropriated.” That added to the 1,314,322 acres, no one wants sufficiently to pay $ 14 for opportunity of trying to acquire title by five years’ residence, would make at least one and one-half million acres in Cherry county alone to be disposed of, and this is the land in question. How shall it be dis posed of? It cannot be sold, since congress rightly thinks that as conditions change due to settlement, that little by little these lands will become subjugated sufficiently for settlement and that every acre of the remaining public domain should be withheld for the actual set tler. It therefore would appear that leases say for December, 1906 THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. [liarles Hathaway <£ Co 29 First National Bank OMAHA, NEB. CAPITAL-SURPLUS-UNDIVIDED PROFITS $1 ,000,000 Th e First Bank in Nebraska. Th e First National Bank in Nebraska Th e First Bank in Nebraska to Exceed $11,00 >,000 Deposits J . A . C R E IG H T O N , V ic e -P re s . F . H . D A V IS , C ashier D E A L E R S IN COMMERCIAL PAPER C. T . K O U N T Z E , A s s ’t Cashier L - L . K O U N T Z E . A s s ’t Cashier D E P O S IT S CHAS. W. FOLDS, Resident Partner. 205 LA S A L L E STREET, C H IC A G O NEW YORK OFFICE, BOSTON OFFICE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - - 45 Wall Street - 27 State Street - 408 Olive Street twenty years, somewhat similar to the leases of state school lands, subject to homestead settlement or other necessary appropriation, would be the most practicable. It cannot be leased to the highest bidder, per acre, since the opportunities would be too great for the owner of large outfits to acquire all the range to the destruction of the “ little man.” After having spent six weeks at Washington last winter in the interest of a bill I had drawn looking to leasing, I have concluded that the land might be apportioned, at say one cent per acre per annum rental, after substantially the follow ing manner: ist Referendum: When the voters of any precinct (or precincts) desire that said lands come within this proposed act, that upon a petition signed by one-fifth of the voters of said precinct, the county commission ers be required to submit the question of leasing, at any regular election, a majority vote being necessary to carry. That upon the returns showing the same to have carried, the county canvassing board certify the same to the local land office, in which district the land is located, which in turn shall certify same to the gen eral land office. 2d. The general land office shall require that the local office give thirty days’ notice to all who desire to lease five sections (3,200 acres) or less. Provided al ways, that none but actual homestead entrymen or own ers of real estate or lessees of state school lands com tiguous shall be eligible to apply. That upon said day applications shall be opened and the local land https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis D ep ository o f the U. S., S tate o f N ebraska. C ounty of D ou glas, C ity o f Omaha. KOUNTZE BROS. FOREIGN CIRCULAR LETTER OF CREDIT. Liberal in P olicy, Conservative in Management, W e make a Specialty of accounts, of Banks and Bankers. Exceptional Facilities for making Collections Throughout the W est. office shall proceed to apportion said lands between said applicants, giving each as nearly the amount ap plied for as conditions will permit, always keeping in mind contiguity; subject to appeal. Note—The reason 3,200 acres is named is because it is believed that since the land cannot be farmed in cereal products and must necessarily be devoted to cat tle, that it will require at least six sections (one home stead and five leased sections, 3,840 acres) to main tain a family. 3d. Those requiring 3,200 acres or less having been provided, thirty days’ notice should be given to those who desire 6,400 acres or less, qualifications being the same and land apportioned in same manner as in former instance. This would enable those having a little larger herds to provide for their requirements in grazings lands. 4th. After the two former classes had been pro vided for the remaining lands could be offered and ap portioned in same manner to the owners of larger herds. It should be understood that any one being apportioned lands under any one offering could not in any way participate at any future offering. In this manner the small man would be given the preference both as to location and quality of the lands. In this manner also every acre would come under lease, with out the acrimony and fear for the small man, lease to highest bidder would certainly engender. One and one-half million acres at one cent per an num per acre would yield an annual revenue of $15,000. THE 30 N O RTH W ESTERN December, 1906 BAN KER. ■ THE PEOPLES TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK OF CLINTON Statement at the Close of Business, August 8, 19O6 L ia b ilitie s C ap ita l............................................................................................. $ 300,000.00 S u rp lu s ........................................................................................... 190,000.00 U ndivided P r o fit s ............................................. 14,784,54 R eserved fo r T a x e s ..................................................................... 6,000,00 D e p osits........................................................ 4,224.151,38 $4,734,935.92 A sse ts L oa n s and D iscou n ts.................................................................$4,193,922.05 Cash and Due fro m B an ks....................................................... 541,013,87 $4,734,935.92 Solicits profitable and conservative business and promises its customers liberal accommodations at all times. G A R R E T T E . L A M B . President. C H A S . B. M IL L S , Cashier. Of this $15,000 it occurs to me that an equitable dis tribution would be about as follows: One-half to the general government for reclama tion fund .............................................................. $7>500 Of the remaining one-half of $7,500, one-fourth to state f u n d ........................................................ $1,875 One-fourth to the county general fund............... 1,875 And one-half (or one-fourth of the entire rev enue) to the support of schools within the said leased territory; or where no schools are main tained, to the country school fund................... 3,75° $7,50° If the vacant lands in a single county can at this very low rental be made to yield $15,000 per year, why is it not logical they should do so? If that small area can be made to turn that amount into the treas uries annually, what possibilities cannot be looked for ward to in revenues, when the entire public domain shall have been leased say at same figure. The government having in recent years begun the enforcement of the Van Wyck anti-fencing law, cattle men of all degrees of importance have been removing fences until the cost and annoyance has driven many out of business. Where they have not quit many have been forced to adopt new methods; for instance, a man owning about 150 head of Aberdeen Angus cattle has sold them at auction and replaced them with grade Short-horns and Herefords, of course at a sacrifice, for no other reason than that with his fences down there was no way possible for him to continue that strain, a mix up due to open range being inevitable. From the standpoint of a citizen with no ranch inter est whatever, but with an intimate knowledge of con ditions, I believe the public lands should be leased first in the interest of good order and more stable con ditions ; and second, as a source of revenue in which every citizen of this great country has the right to share. Aside from the revenue feature, the land should be under private control, in order that necessary fire guards be plowed and prepared annually, thus pre venting their impoverishment by fire. Also, at present, those public lands are nothing less than a menace to the ranch property which they surround by reason of https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CH A S. F. A L D E N , Vice-President W A R D W. COOK, Assistant Cashier. the danger of communicating fire. Also, some form of private control is imperative, since so soon as a man is allowed to fence and occupy to the exclusion of others, just so soon will he begin to preserve, perpetuate and increase the grasses, in quantities and varieties, and not permit the lands to be grazed to the very grass roots and the grasses then tramped out in an endeavor to get more off the land than the other fellow, and as David Harum says, “ get it first.” Therefore, in the interest of the lands themselves, with the view to their occupancy at some future time by the homesteader, they should be so disposed of in the meantime as not to invite a free race between cattle, horses, sheep and conflagration. At present a premium is placed upon devastating and the time has arrived when the intelli gence of congress should be invoked to an enactment looking to cash returns and the enhancement in value at the same time. In an article of this character many matters of detail must necessarily be omitted, but I believe a measure should be enacted embodying the principle features herein, always keeping in mind that the Rase should be subject to homestead entry and appropriation by the government for irrigation or other useful purpose. The Progressive Banker By Carson Hildreth, President Franklin State Bank, Franklin. Mr. Hildreth spoke of the changes which have taken place in our economic system and called attention to the various obligations which the modern banker owes his community. He said in part: Incumbent upon the banker is one of the most po tent and important economic functions in modern con ditions, and that is the gathering up of the surplus earnings of the people and throwing them back into trade and into the development of the industries. This can be fully done only by educating the people to un derstand the profit Ho the banker of their small deposit and the economic value to the community of their de posits in the aggregate. If it be said that the people are thoughtless or sel fish in the hoarding and secreting of their funds then THE December, 1906 REPORT TO N O RTH W ESTERN THE COMPTROLLER BAN KER. OF THE 31 CURRENCY (CONDENSED) O F T H E C O N D IT IO N OF THE N A T IO N A L PARK BANK OF N EW YORK A T C L O S E O F B U S I N E S S N O V E M B E R 12, 1 9 0 6 . RESOU RCES S pecie and U . S. N o te s ....................... ........... $19,156,041.48 Due fro m B an ks and C. H. E x ch a n g e s — 17,656,584.59 D em and L o a n s .................................................. 21,079,380,85 57,892,006.92 L oa n s and D iscou n ts............................................................. 44,601,040.17 B ond s w ith U . S. T rea su rer.............................................. 3.978,000.00 O ther B ond s and S to c k s ..................................................... 505,090.52 B an k in g H ou se....................................................................... 2.567,037.05 D ue fro m U . S. T rea su rer...............-..................................... 364,000.00 L IA B IL IT IE S C ap ita l....................................................................................... .„.$ 3,000,000.00 S urplus and U ndivided P r o fit s .......................................... 8,144,210.40 C ircu la tion ......................-.......... ............................................... 2,977,000.00 D e p o s its ...................................................................................... 95,785,964.26 $109,907,174.66 O F F IC E R S ; R ich a rd D elafield, P res. M aurice H. E w er, Cashier. G ilbert G, T h orn e, V ice-P res. W illiam O. Jones, A s s ’t Cash. the banker’s problem is to educate them to realize their interest in the banker and their obligation to the com munity. But they are not, at least in the agricultural district to which my experience is limited, selfish. The most serious charge that can be brought against them is that they may not fully realize their relation to the banker and community. Over against this mild in dictment they must be credited with a willingness to properly fulfill these relations when they understand their friendly obligation to the banker and their eco nomic obligation to the community. About a year ago I made a test of the fact just stated by sending out a circular letter in which appeared the following paragraph: “ The bank appreciates small accounts. Do not carry the money around in your pocket, but put it in your deposit at the bank each day and check it out as needed. Men often carry money in their pockets without think ing of the benefit it would be to the bank. If ioo men who carry $20 each in their pockets would all keep this deposited and check as needed it would mean $2,000 additional deposits for the bank. There are many thousands of dollars today in the pockets and in the houses of our friends that would be of value to the bank and to the community if it were deposited in the bank and put into circulation in the community. Much of this idle money is not purposely withheld, but it is because these friends have never thought of the bank and community side of it. I cordially invite you to carry an account with us, however small it may be. This will be of value to our bank and of benefit to the community.” For days and weeks following the sending out of the above circular letter men continued to drop into my bank and make $20 deposits. The response be came so pronounced that it touched a tender spot and made me feel a closer relation and greater obligation to my depositors because I saw in this response a gen uine friendship for my bank and a desire to subserve the general community interests. A very large percentage of the money of today is in secret places and not in banks. This not only cur tails our circulation, causing trade to suffer, but our industries are getting along in a halting manner be cause of the inactivity of these unproductive funds—• https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis $109,907,174.66 Joh n C. M cK eon, V ice-P res. W illia m A. M ain, A s s ’t. Cash. Joh n C. V an Cleaf, V ice-P res. F r e d ’k O. F o x c r o ft , A. Cash. one part of the community’s resources not performing its function. Our community ledger is out of balance because of this suspense account. The banker of to day is concerned in gathering the multitude of these small and hitherto undeposited amounts and through his loans and discounts pouring them back into the channel of trade—to the benefit of his community and the profit of his bank. The progressive banker has other relations to the community than those of a material nature. The banker is clear of thought, practical in his conceptions and prudent in his counsels. If he is willing to deny his community the benefit of his abilities and labors he is a selfish man and not a progressive banker. If it is within the comprehension of the banker’s brain and if his pulse beat is responsive to the commer cial, moral and benevolent needs of his patrons and community, then the banker approaches the fulfillment of his true functions of banker and citizen. In passing I cannot forego digressing a moment in which to say that while Nebraska bankers have long discussed possible measures to protect depositors of defunct banks it behooves them to follow up this dis cussion with persistent efforts to reach the correct so lution of the problem, and have proper laws passed. There are three reasons for this : First, that our banks may draw into their vaults the large increase of de posits which will surely come when the people know there is absolute security to them; second, to prevent the government from going into the banking business, which may result if we fail or neglect to provide this absolute security that the growing public sentiment is going to demand ; and third, to justfy our claim that bankers themselves are undertaking to secure legisla tion to guard the public interests. There will continue to appear the Hippies and the Stenslands. The legitimate banking interests will con tinue to be curtailed and injured by derelicts. Distrust will still be sown. The agitation for safeguards will go on. Wisdom and self-interest dictate that without further delay we pause in our busy haste and help to evolve the needed safeguard. If we do not do this thing the people will do it. The sentiment is crystal lizing every day. It does not take the prophetic vision of Elijah to see the cloud above the horizon already 32 THE N O RTH W ESTERN larger than a man’s hand. The result of our neglect will be a postal savings bank system. I hasten to disclaim self interest in discrediting a postal savings bank system. It is not a question whether such a system would work an injury to the present banking interests, but whether it would in its entirety benefit or injure the community interests. The government system would take the deposits from the local banks, raise the rates of interest which the people would have to pay, and even render the local banks unable to fully meet the demands for loans. It would destroy the present provision against emer gencies continually arising amongst people of all classes, and take away the possibilities to the people of the extensive and profitable use of loans for their in vestments. The government would be taking a posh tion as inimicable to the interests of our agricultural districts of Nebraska as are the great mail order houses to the ultimate welfare of the farming districts of the West. The mail order house principle pushed to its limit would close up the country store, destroy the country town, reduce the selling price of the farmers’ land, isolate his home and in general react upon the interests of the patron of the mail order house of the distant city. The government savings bank system is a parallel case. A postal savings bank system would have just two virtues: First, it would assure perfect safety to the depositor; and second, it might in some measure en courage saving and thrift. Whatever our present banking system lacks of these two virtues can be sup plied if our bankers will realize the necessity and en gage their efforts to evolve the remedy. Why not the bankers of our state, under the author ity of this association, work out the solution of this and other important financial questions, carry the recom mendations to our state legislature and to the Ameri can Bankers’ Association, and justly earn the name of the progressive bankers of Nebraska? It has long been in the minds of bankers that they should stay out of politics—but this was of the old school. This belief is now but a tradition. We Amer ican people play too small politics. The caucus, con vention and election must have our vigorous care. Too momentous are the results of indifference and neglect. From no class of citizens can the public justly and rea sonably expect greater service in the political affairs of the community than from its bankers. As in the community so in the state and in national affairs. Fear of injuring the business? I f a man as banker cannot safely assert his convictions and freely carry out the duties of common citizenship, if he must thus be sub ordinated by his business he better speedily enter some other line of business. However, this is not necessary; this fear is but a shadow, there is nothing to it. On the other hand his constituency will in the end give him greater respect and more loyal support. To sum up, the progressive banker is a banker who recognizes the economic relation of his bank to the community; who looks upon his bank as a clearing house, a public institution established and maintained to daily meet the public needs, and hence loses sight of https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BAN KER. December, 1906 his personal ownership ; who regards himself as a pub lic official, as a steward handling and protecting the public funds ; who aggressively enters the field of bus iness activities, not to take business from rival banks but to create and develop new business ; who is con scious of his personal obligation to public interests'; who, while first safe-guarding and conserving the sacred interests in his hands of both depositor and stockholder, devotes time, energy and money to public affairs ; who is not forgetful of the needs of the bank’s constituency; who has ability and judgment, supple mented by integrity of life ; who emphasizes good citi zenship ; who is willing to share in the financial, moral and political demands of his community and state and throw his personal influence into the equation for pub lic and private good ; who attends bankers’ conven tions and keeps abreast of the best banking customs and thought. This paper premises that members of the Nebraska Bankers’ Association are progressive bankers. Yet withal there is a new field, by virtue of the new West. The West from its swaddling clothes has now the vigorous adelescent assertiveness of prosperity and growth. There is perforce of these changed condi tions a new classification. The banker of today, the progressive banker, is an exemplification of conserva tive power and aggressive force, a brain for business and a heart for the humanities. Prominent Bank Largely Increases Capital The Chase National Bank has declared a dividend of $4,000,000, being 400 per cent of its present capital ization. The capital stock of the Chase National was $1,000,000, and the surplus $5,000,000. The net profits were stated as $1,136,989. From the surplus $4,000,000 is taken as a cash dividend and applied to the capital stock, leaving $1,000,000 as surplus. This action on the part of the bank is in line with similar steps taken by many of the large banking in stitutions following a ruling by the comptroller of the currency. This ruling limited the amount to be lent to one borrower to a fixed percentage of the capital stock, The consequence was that many banks immediately began to increase their stock. Meeting of Des Moines Club The regular meeting of the Des Moines Bankers’ Club was adjourned from November 1st to November 7th. At this meeting the views of George E. Rob erts, director of the mint, as set forth in a letter to J, D. Whisenand, and a copy of a letter to Frank Vanderlip of the New York chamber of commerce, formed the basis of the evening’s discussion. The problem of how the proper elasticity of currency necessary for fall crop moving may be obtained, Roberts settles by pro posing a great central bank under direct control of gov ernment officials, and with its capital stock of $50,000,000 distributed among the national banks throughout the country. Arthur Reynolds, chairman of the cur rency reform committee of the American Bankers’ December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN Association, expounded his views on the subject as partly set forth in the report of his committee, and the discussion of his points was general. Growth of Minneapolis Banks The deposits of the fifteen Minneapolis banks have passed the seventy million mark—the largest total ever shown. Since the last call, September 4th, the de posits have increased by $1,841,836.77, and now stand at the total of $70,614,631.29. The commercial banks hold $53,825,357, an increase of $1,708,956 since September. Every bank shows a reserve well within the legal requirement and a large available cash balance. Burlington Bank Sold The Burlington Savings Bank recently changed hands, H. D. Copeland and John C. Blaul having transferred their interests to Colonel G. H. Higbee, John J. Fleming and C. H. Walsh. Colonel Higbee is president of the new organization; Mr. Fleming vicepresident, and Geo. C. Swiler will continue as cashier. The board of directors at present is made up wholly of representative local citizens. Mr. Copeland will devote his time to looking after his commission busi ness in Chicago, his farms and other interests in Iowa, Mr. Blaul also withdrew on account of other pressing https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BAN KER. 33 business interests. The new officers of the bank are well-known citizens of Burlington, men with substan tial interests there and their connection with the bank will have the effect of increasing the prestige it al ready enjoys. The bank was organized two years and a half ago and from the start its business has prospered and its career has been a highly satisfactory one to its founders. Daily Press Misrepresentations Secretary Brown of the Minnesota Bankers’ A s sociation calls attention to the shameless manner in which the daily press have been misrepresenting the numerous bank burglaries that have occurred recently. The daily papers have printed most sensational reports of whole towns being held at bay while burglars robbed the banks. Mr. Brown has investigated each of these sensational reports and finds that in each case the citizens were not alarmed until the robbers had fled. He says : “ It is our belief that the men who have been implicated in the numerous bank robberies within the past few weeks, would not, and could not have plied their game with the citizens to contend with, and, furthermore, we feel that the security of our institu tions largely depends upon the alertness and courage of our towns-people, against whom when fully awake to the conditions, the “ yeggman,” or any other evil doer, will stand small chance to work his plots.” THE 34 N O RTH W ESTERN S E C U R IT Y National Bank SIOUX CITY, IOWA. Capital, . . Surplus and Profits, Deposits, - . - - 8250, 000, 00 147,780.56 3.019.565.95 W - P. M a n l e y , P residen t C. L . W r i g h t , V ice P res T . A . B l a c k , V ice-P resid ent. C. N. L u k e s , Cashier. C. W . B r it t o n , A s s ’ t Cash. Omaha National Banks D E P O S IT S Nov. 9, ’05. First National ........ •$10,551,562.13 Omaha National . . . . 10 ,0 13,118 .15 U. S. N atio n al........ . 8,500,201.23 Merchants N ational. . 4,943,226.92 Nebraska National.. • F 875G 5I -99 Nov. 12, ’06 $10,657,711.90 10,685,869.78 8,724,371.94 5,441.517.25 1,823,715.08 Totals ............... .$35,883,660.42 $ 37,333, 185.95 L O A N S A N D D IS C O U N T S .$ . . • 6,088,717.20 6,422,102.15 5,680,006.52 3,333,375-08 1,018,182.92 T o t a ls ..................$22,542,383.87 CASH Totals https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis $ 6,878,101.02 6,598,004.12 6,304,953-38 3,726,861.72 1,019,964.61 $24,528,883.85 A N D S IG H T E X C H A N G E First National .......... $ Omaha National . . . . U. S. N atio n al.......... Merchants National. . Nebraska N ation al... December, 1906 T Y P E W R IT E R S Large stock of slightly used and rebuilt typewriters of all makes sold on a liberal guarantee, shipped anywhere on approv al. Write for stock list before buying. Typewriters of all makes sold without traveling salesmen means more sales and a lower selling cost, y o u g e t th is s a v in g . B. F . S W A N S O N C O . 213 Fifth St. - Des Moines, Iowa. T O T A L RESOURCES Omaha banks keep steadily growing-. Total deposits in the five national banks at the close of business No vember 1 2th were $1,449,525.53 greater than on No vember 9th of last year; loans and discounts were $1,986,499.98 greater than a year ago; total resources were nearly $2,000,000 larger than a year ago. On account of the call for money to move the great crops of the country the deposits in Omaha banks at present are about $2,000,000 less than at the last call, September 4th, and total resources are naturally de creased by that amount. The country banks have taken that much out of Omaha to do their fall busi ness. In the late winter that money will begin to come to the city again. The condition of the five national banks of Omaha at the close of business November 12, 1906, compared with that on the date of the corresponding call last year, November 9th, is shown to be as follows: First National ........ Omaha National . .. U. S. N atio n al........ Merchants National. Nebraska National.. BAN KER. 4,439,173.41 3,569,823.13 3,157,809.27 1,935,449.73 851,755.16 $ 3,808,726.69 3,884,100.63 2,707,246.00 2,129,431.81 988,670.30 $13,954,010.70 $13,518,175.63 $11,892,775.62 First National ...........$11,628,363.96 12.596.616.37 Omaha National . . . . 11,870,406.87 10.054.249.38 U. S. National............. 9,580,815.94 6,301,518.63 Merchants National. . 5,737,138.88 Nebraska National........ 2,359,836.22 2,3iA 559-09 Totals ..................$41,176,561.87 $43,062,719.09 The German National of Milwaukee This bank was organized in 1903. Its deposits are over $2,600,000, with total resources of over $3,000,000. Its rapid growth since organization has made it nec essary to enlarge its offices nearly three-fold. In ad dition to enlarging the departments already established, they have a thoroughly equipped foreign department where letters of credit and foreign drafts payable in any part of the world can be purchased. The savings department has been placed by itself and greatly en larged to meet the demands of this rapidly increasing branch of their business. Nothing has been over looked that will facilitate prompt and satisfactory at tention to all business entrusted to them. The bank has also increased its official force, by the appointment of M. W. Tobey as assistant cashier. Mr. Tobey began his banking career in 1894 as messenger in the Sterling National Bank of Sterling, 111., rising steadily to the position of assistant cashier. He left there in 1903 to take a position with the Milwaukee Trust Company, where he was manager of the Sav ings Department until he went with the German Na tional. He began his present duties October 15th. Condition of Chicago Banks The Chicago state banks and trust companies on No vember 13th show an aggregate increase of $2,000,000 in deposits, a decrease of $1,800,000 in their total loans and an addition *of $3,150,000 to their total cash means, as compared with their figures of September 5th. These changes compare with decreases of about $5,000,000 in the deposits and $4,500,000 in the loans of the national banks for the same period. The state banks have not been drawn upon by country corre spondents, of course, to the same extent as have the national institutions. December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN Compared with the totals as of a year ago the pres«111 figures of both state and national banks show in creases of $28,000,000 in deposits, $12,000,000 in loans and nearly $23,000,000 in cash resources. The com bined figures of both state and national institutions show the banks of Chicago to be in splendid position. Their loans are conservative and their cash means are about 34 per cent of their total deposits. The total Chicago deposits on November 12th were $670,375,106; the total loans $447,601,799, and the total cash resources $234,228,531. Clinton Bank Remodeled The building of the Peoples Trust and Savings Bank of Clinton has been remodeled and refitted and now stands as one of the most perfectly equipped banking homes in the state. The woodwork throughout is of genuine mahogany, handsomely and artistically fin ished. The facilities for serving the public are doubled so far as the windows are concerned. The entire vault system of the bank is practically new, being constructed in the best known manner of concrete and is so far as known practically fire and burglar proof. The floor of the lobby is constructed of marble and mosaic. Cus tomer’s desks of the latest improved design are pro vided and the ladies are provided with commodious parlors in blue and white. The safety deposit vaults and coupon rooms are also furnished for the quiet use of customers. The directors’ room into which there is a private entrance, is a beautiful room 20 by 26 feet, finished in Flemish oak and green and cream sanitas. There are cathedral glass skylights and windows and on one side of the room is a handsome fireplace of pressed brick. A private telephone system has been installed, en abling the officers to communicate directly with every department; the most perfect system of ventilation is used; in short, every convenience and device for the handling of a modern bank business and for the com fort of the working force is now to be seen at the Peoples Trust & Savings. The boys will show you all about it at the convention next year, and sooner if you visit Clinton. D AKO TA N E W S AND N O TES. A new bank building at Bergen, N. D., has been erected. The new state bank at Douglas, N. D., has opened for business. The Bank of Bristol, N. D., will be changed into a National bank. The Bank of Ryder, Ryder, N. D., has been formed. Capital, $5,000. John Engerasther and others have opened a bank at Petersburg, N. D. Rev. Fr. Wagner will open a bank in the new town of Kenaston, N. D. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BAN KER. 35 A state bank at Olmstead, N. D., has been organ ized. Capital, $10,000. The Tallman-Felton-Beecher interests will start a new bank at Clyde, N. D. The First State Bank, at Kenaston, N. D., has been organized. Capital, $10,000. The Dogden State Bank, of Dogden, N. D., has erected a new bank building. The Newark State Bank of Newark, N. D., will erect a new concrete bank building. The Woonsocket State Bank, at Woonsocket, has been organized with a capital of $10,000. Mr. Dunton, of Marshall, has bought a half interest in the Dickey State Bank, at Dickey, N. D. The contract has been let for the new bank build ing for the Beecher interests at Clyde, N. D. G. L. Bickford and others are planning to establish a state bank in the new town of Coteau, N. D. The State Bank of Goodrich, Goodrich, N. D., has opened for business. J. P. Thompson is cashier. W. J. Heberlein of Wessington Springs has bought an interest in the Virgil State Bank and will be cashier. Articles of incorporation have been filed for the Merchants Bank of Seneca, with a capital of $5,000. It is reported that G. M. Gray and others wTill erect a building and open a bank in the new town of Coulee, N. D. H. A. Warner of White Bear, Minn., has bought a controlling interest in the First State Bank of Roscoe, S. D. The First National Bank of Forman, N. D., has decided to erect a new brick bank building in the spring. The Security State Bank of Ethan, S’. D., has opened. O. P. Skaggs is president and W. H. Shaw, cashier. The Western National Bank of Mitchell, S. D., is planning the erection of a four-story bank and office building. The German State Bank of Java, S. D., has been chartered. Capital, $10,000. F. Spiry and others are interested. The Warner State Bank of Warner, S. D., has been incorporated. Capital, $5,000. C. E. Barkl and others are interested. The State Bank of Brinsmade, N. D., has been con verted into “ The First National Bank of Brinsmade.” Capital, $25,000. The Aberdeen National Bank of Aberdeen, S. D., has chosen the Capital National Bank of St. Paul for a correspondent. 36 THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 The First National Bank of Bristol, S. D., has been authorized. Capital $25,000. T. Strandness and oth ers are interested. The Chase National Bank of New York and the First National Bank of Minneapolis have been ap pointed reserve agents for the First National Bank The First National Bank of Deadwood, S. D., has chosen the First National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, for a correspondent. The Farmers & Merchants Bank of Geddes, S. D., has opened for business. Capital, $12,000. F. L. Lar son, is president, and W. W. Wedding, cashier, of Milnor, N. D. The Merchants State Bank, of Hebron, N. D., has been formed. Capital, $10,000. E. Schweigert and others are interested. S. A. Schneider of Mason City, is starting several new banks on the new extension of the M. & St. L. from Watertown, S. D. The State Bank of Ray, N. D., has been chartered. M. E. Wilson, of Minneapolis, will be president and L. C. Wingate, cashier. The Farmers Merchants State Bank of Sheyenne, N. D., has been formed. L. B. Garnaas is president and J. E. Johnson, cashier. A gang of masked men recently blew the safe in the Sawyer State Bank and took from it $4,500. The robbers escaped on horseback. The Akaska State Bank has been organized in the town of Akaska, S. D. Capital, $25,000. John Bibelheimer and others are interested. Articles of incorporation have been filed for the Citizens State Bank of Seneca, with a capital of $5,000. Charles A. Wolley, John Berdahl and others are in terested. Edmund Cook and others have bought the First State Bank of Wilmot, S. D., and Mr. Cook will be president. The new Wilmot State Bank proposed by them will be abandoned. H. E. Baird has been elected president of the Na tional Bank of Lakota, N. D., in place of A. O. Whip ple ; and Howard Whipple, vice-president, in place of H. E. Baird. H. E. Baird has been made president of the First National Bank of Devil’s Lake in place of A. O. Whip ple; and Howard Whipple, vice-president, in place of H. E. Baird. E. B. Maris has been elected cashier of the First Na tional Bank of Wessington Springs in place of A. R. McConnell, and Rose Groth, assistant cashier, in place of Cora Dewey. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Abercrombie, N. D., and the First National Bank of Toronto, S. D. The First National Bank of Abercrombie, N. D., has been organized. Capital, $25,000. The officers are A. K . Tweto, president; Ingval Johnson, vice-presi dent ; H. H. Hafstrom, cashier. The Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis has been appointed reserve agent for the First Nation al Bank of Washburn, N. D., and the German Ameri can National Bank of Redfield, S. D. The First National Bank of Bristol, S. D., has been incorporated. Capital, $25,000. T. Strandness, Frank Stevens, G. A. Bennett, E. Larson, N. C. Hagey, R . W. Handke and R. S. Sigdestad are the promoters. T. E. Cassill, cashier of the Hudson State Bank,. Hudson, S. D., has resigned in order to accept the po sition of Deputy State Treasurer of South Dakota. The change will take place about the first of the year. H. E. Baird has been made president of the First National Bank of Starkweather in place of A. O. Whipple; and Howard Whipple, vice-president, in place of H. E. Baird; Chas. A. Potter is the assistant cashier. The new bank at Gregory has been incorporated under the name of the Gregory National Bank. The bank occupies temporary quarters but plans have been drawn for a new $10,000 building for a permanent home for the institution. The three national banks of Pierre, S. D., show de posits at the date of the November call of over $1,300,000. The banks of Fort Pierre show deposits of over $700,000, making the savings of the people of the twotowns reach more than $2,000,000. S. Vandervoort, cashier of the Lakeside State Bank, recently shot and instantly killed himself with a 45caliber revolver. No motive for the act can be found December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 37 i Northwestern National Bank M IN N E A P O L IS, M IN N . 1872-1906 Capital, - $1,000,000. Surplus and Profits, Deposits, $12,092,782.00 - $971,981 OFFICERS Wm. H. Dunwoody, President. Joseph Chapman, J r„ Cashier. M. B. Koon, Vice-President. Frank E. Holton. Assisant Cashier, Edward W. Decker, Vice-President Chas. W. Farwell, Assistant Cashier, A n A vera g e o f o v e r 8 p er cen t A nnu al D ivid en ds P a id to S to ck h o ld ers S ince O rganization in 1872. D ividen ds P a id S in ce O rganization, $2,410,000. I f you con tem p late m ak in g a change in y ou r b an k in g con n ection s or th in k o f op ening a new accou nt, w e w ou ld be p leased to co n fe r w ith you in person o r b y letter, except that he had not been feeling well for some time. Everything at the bank was found as usual and ac counts all right. C. W. Hastings, of Minneapolis, president of the First National Bank of Bemidji, is dead. The Farmers State Bank, at Brentford, S. D., with a capital of $io,ooo,has commenced business. The officers of the new banking institution are: President, R. C. Styles, cashier, N. S. Hegnes. Brentford is one of the new towns on the extension of the Minneapolis and St. Louis railroad. The Manchester State Bank of Manchester has opened for business. Henry Soth is cashier. M IN N E SO T A N E W S AND N O TE S. The Citizens Bank of Pine Island has been incor porated. The Rock County Bank of Luverne is being re modeled. The State Bank of Isanti will erect a new brick bank building. G. Eliason’s bank at Montevideo was recently de stroyed by fire. H. E. Keller, of Albert Lea, is talking of opening a bank at Bruno. The Citizens State Bank of Gibbon has moved into its new building. The First National Bank of Stillwater has moved into its new building. The Merchants & Miners State Bank of Hibbing will erect a new bank building. A. E. Smith has erected a new building and will open a new bank at Puposky. The Isanti State Bank of Isanti will erect a new bank building to cost $3,000. The First National Bank of Bemidji will increase its capital from $25,000 to $50,000. The Northwestern State Bank of Cloquet will erect a new building. J . H. Ellwood is cashier. The contract has been let for the erection of a new building for the First National Bank of Chaska. J. F. McGinnis has sold his stock, a one-third inter est, in the Citizens State Bank of Brainerd, to C. N. Parker. The First National Bank of Walker was authorized. Capital, $25,000. E. I. P. Staede and others are in terested. G. A. Lee has resigned as cashier of the First Na tional Bank of Hawley and is succeeded by S. B. Widlund. A. Soderlind and others have sold their interests in the National Citizens Bank of Lake Benton, and may start a new bank. * The Commercial National Bank of Chicago has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Royalton. Jacobson Bros, have sold a controlling interest in the Villard State Bank to Theo. Aune who is building a new bank building. The Merchants National Bank of St. Paul has chosen the Citizens Central National Bank of New York for a correspondent. The Manchester State Bank of Manchester has been authorized to begin business. Capital, $10,000. C. E. Paulson is president, and H. Soth, cashier. J. C. Utton has accepted a position as cashier of the Security State Bank of Beaudette. Lake Benton is to have a third bank. The new bank will be known as the Farmers State Bank. A l fred Soderland is cashier, and R. S. Castle, president, December 3d is the date set for the opening. R. H. Harkens, of Long Prairie has been elected cashier of the Bank of St. Michaels. The First National Bank and the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis and the National Park https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis THE 38 N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 Bank of New York, have been appointed reserve agents for the First National Bank of Granite Falls. The First National Bank of Granite Falls has been organized with a capital of $25,000. The officers are: D. A. McLarty, president; A. E. Batchelder, vicepresident; O. H. Sorlien, cashier; T. H. Sorlien, as sistant cashier. The plan which members of the clearing house asso ciations of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been consid ering for some time is likely to be carried out by the employment of an expert whose whole time shall be taken in examining the banks in the agreement. The inspection of a special examiner is expected to insure 'to Minneapolis and St. Paul an effective protection against any possible circumstances which would re dound to the discredit of the city, such as have been developed at times in other large money centers. The Stockmans Bank of Rushville will erect a new building. The sentencing of Thomas B. Clement, the aged Faribault banker, to eight years in the penitentiary by the United States circuit court was recently affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. The opinion is by Judge Adams, and Judges Sanborn and Hook concur in the opinion. Clement was indicted for making false entries of funds and credits of the First National Bank of Faribault, of which he was president. He demurred to some of the counts and moved for a continuance of the case at the time it was first up for trial on the ground that his physical infirmities prevented his being present at the trial. He interposed at the close of the case a demurrer to the evidence on the ground that it failed to establish the commission of any offenses charged. He then filed a motion in arrest of judg ment on the further ground that the indictment charged no criminal intent. All of these were overruled in the circuit court and the defendant was found guilty on twenty-four out of twenty-seven counts and sen tenced to a term in the penitentiary of eight years on each count. But there was a provision attached to the sentence that time should run on all concurrently. The case was then brought to the circuit court of appeals for review by a writ of error. The Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Indianola has been incorporated. Capital stock, $25,000. N E B R A S K A N E W S AND N O T E S. Work has been started on the new bank building at Miller. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The Bank of Swanton has amended its articles of incorporation. Work has been started on the new building for the Greeley State Bank. A new bank building at Arcadia is under construc tion by G. H. Kinsey. The Sutherland State Bank of Sutherland will erect a new brick bank building. The Crete State Bank has put in safety deposit vaults for the accommodation of patrons. The First National Bank of Wolbach has chosen the City National Bank of Lincoln for a correspondent. The Commercial State Bank of Grand Island has recently increased its capital from $30,000 to $50,000. The Bank of Bazile Mills has been converted into “ The First National Bank of Bazile Mills.” Capital, $25,000. The Omaha National Bank of Omaha has chosen the Consolidated National Bank of New York for a corre spondent. The First National Bank of Lincoln has been made a correspondent for the German National Bank of Johnson. The Hanover National Bank of New York has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Wolbach. The new building for the Bank of Howe has been completed. It is equipped entirely with new furniture and fixtures. The Merchants National Bank of Omaha has been appointed reserve agent for the Farmers National Bank of Madison. T. S. Braithwaite of Fremont has been made cashier December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 39 of the Tamora State Bank, succeeding Wm. Reynolds, who recently resigned. son, and J. W. Wilson, vice-president, in place of V. E. Wilson. The Bellevue State Bank oft Bellevue has been or ganized with a capital stock of $10,000. C. F. Floren and L. D. Spalding are the organizers. The Corn Exchange Bank of Spencer has been in corporated with a capital stock of $25,000, of which amount $15,000 is paid up. Edward Renard and others are interested. The Marion State Bank of Marion has been incor porated with a capital stock of $10,000, paid up. S. W. Stilgebouer and others are interested. The First National Bank of Bertrand has been or ganized with a capital stock of $25,000. Roscoe J. Slater and John A. Slater are interested. The State Bank of Dunning has been incorporated with a capital stock of $10,000, paid up. Homer J. Southwick will be the new bank’s cashier. The People’s Bank of Upland has been incorporated. Capital stock, $25,000. Remi D. Choquette, J. H. Chevalier and B. M. Chevalier are the incorporators. The Central has chosen for National Bank Bank of Kansas City National Bank of Central City correspondents the Drovers Deposit of Chicago, and the First National City. The Trenton Commercial Bank of Trenton has been organized. Capital stock, $25,000, of which amount 30 per cent is paid up. The incorporators a re : D. J. Gates and R. O. Adams. The statement of the Nebraska National Bank of Omaha issued under date of September 4th, shows a capital stock of $200,000; deposits, $1,825,268; cash, $ 9 &7 >9 5 9 > and total resources of $2,320,952. I. E. Atkinson has purchased a controlling interest The board of directors of the Nemaha County Bank in the Farmers and Mechanics Bank at Havelock, and of Auburn recently held a meeting and George E. Codwill succeed H. K. Frantz as cashier of that institu dington, an ex-treasurer of Nemaha county, was elected tion. cashier in place of William Gaede, deceased. V. E. Wilson has been elected president of the First National Bank of Stromsburg in place of J. W. Wil- C 0 I u m b i a IB a t i on a I B a n k O P K IN CO EN , N E B R A S K A (Capital Surplus anh unòilidirò profits # 5 fl,nn0 Srpnstts #2,mm,non © fíícers J o h n B. W r i g h t , J. H . W e s t c o t t , J oe S a m u e e s, P . K. H a t e , W . B. R yons, W . W . H a c k n e y , J r ., https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The U. S. National Bank of Omaha, the Citizens Central National of New York, the Trust .National of T r u s t Companies M agazine T h e on ly p u b lica tion in the U nited S tates p u blished exclu siv e ly in the interests o f tru st com panies and allied banking, and officially endorsed b y the E xe cu tiv e C om m ittee o f the T ru st C om pany S ection , A m erican B an k ers’ A sso cia tio n . : ! ; : : Every Trust Company and Bank Official Should Read the Articles by Eminent Authorities on Finance and Practical Trust Company W ork. O nly d irect m edium fo r ad vertisers d esirin g to reach trust com panies o f the U nited States. P resident 1st V ice-P resident 2nd V ice-P resid ent Cashier A ssistant Cashier A ssistant Cashier A n n u a l s u b s c r ip t io n s , th re e d o lla r s : S a m p le C o p y a n d a d v e r t is in g r a t e s o n a p p lic a t io n . Trust Companies Publishing Association 8 1 5 W illiam St. N E W Y O R K C IT Y THE 40 N O RTH W ESTERN December, 1906 BAN KER. MERCHANTS NATIONAL BANK OF OM AHA, N E B R A SK A . CAPITAL. 2775 LUTHER DRAKE, President. FRANK T. HAMILTON, Vice-Pres. F. P. HAMILTON, Cashier. B. H. M E ILE , Assistant Cashier U. S. Depository. - - Accounts Solicited. Buchanan County, St. Joseph, have been made reserve agents for German National Bank of Johnson. Richland is have a new bank. The institution will be known as the State Bank of Richland and will have a capital of $5,000. The promoters are connected with the Schuyler National and Schuyler Savings Banks. The Citizens Bank of Ogalalla has been incorpor ated. The capital stock is $25,000, of which amount $11,000 is paid up. The officers are E. M. Sarle, Jr., president; J. H. Orr, vice-president, and Theo. F. Gould, cashier. Frank Jouvenat and J. A. Reichenbach have sold their interests in the Bank of Angus to P. Baird, of Ruskin, and G. Ewing, of Nelson. The new officers are: P. Baird, president; M. D. Aitken, vice-presi dent; G. Ewing, cashier. The parties who contemplated putting in a second bank at' Odell have given it up. The state bank at that place is one of the strong banks of Gage county, and the people of that place did not have much en couragement to give a second bank. Secretary Royse of the state banking board has is sued a charter to the Farmers State Bank of Calloway, Custer county. The capital stock paid up is $10,000. The incorporators are John Frederick, president, T. H. Fonda, Jr., vice-president; John Frederick Jr., cashier, and James E. Ogden and John Ralston. Since its organization in 1899, the City National Bank of Lincoln, with a capital of $100,000. has earned $153,000, $100,000 of which now constitutes its sur A B udrick, P res. J oe R . L a n e. V ice-P res. J oh n P . V an P a tten , V ic e -P L . J. Y a g g y . C ashier. First National Bank OF d a v e n p o r t . Capital, $200,000. - - UNDIVIDED PROFITS, DEPOSITS, - $500,000 $200,000 - - $30,000 $5,444,517 plus and undivided profits account. The bank now has deposits of $1,177,535, and the total resources aggregate $1,458,892. Conservatism has always been the prominent characteristic of management. W. T. Auld is president and L. J. Dunn, cashier. Secretary Royse of the state banking board in issuing a call for a statement of the condition of state and private banks at the close of business, November 12, announced that he would enforce the law which provides a penalty for delay in reporting as requested. The law provides a penalty of $50 for each day’s delay. The reports must be filed with the banking board with in five days after the receipt of a request to report. The officers and employes of the First National Bank of Lincoln, some thirty in number, recently held an enjoyable banquet. A number of interesting talks were made along the line of more efficiency in work in different departments, and a united working together. The office force of the First National will consider more of such meetings in the future, and they have now in contemplation the joining of the National Asso ciation of Bank Clerks. Owing to the large increase in its business the Crete State Bank has decided to double its capital on January 1, 1907. The present capital is $50,000 with surplus of an equal amount. The deposits are $547,664. Affiliated with the Crete State Bank is the Con servative Investment Co., with a capital and surplus of $100,000. This company’s record of nearly twenty years shows it to have placed over $5,000,000 in farm loans without loss to any client. At a recent meeting of the board of directors of the Public Auditor::Accountant C. A. MAST, Surplus and Undivided Profits, $160,000. Send us y ou r D a v en p ort business. T h e first N a tion a l B an k in op era tion in the U nited S ta tes https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis SURPLUS, - REFERENCE: B A N K S IN D A V E N P O R T , DAVENBORT, IOWA. December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN The Union Stock Yards National Bank BAN KER. Packers $ Surplus, - Deposits - - - National O F SOUTH OMAHA, CAPITAL. UND. PROFITS $150,000. $40,324.00. South Omaha, Neb. Capital, 4i Bank N EB. SURPLUS, DEPOSITS, $100,000. $2,009,844.00, O F F IC E R S : 300.000.00 60,000.00 JO H N F . COAD, P resid en t A . W . T R U M B L E . V ic e -P re s , F J . M O RI A R T Y , Cashier. CH A S. A . D U N H A M , A s s ’t Cash J. F . COAD, Jr, A s s ’ t, C ashier W e in v ite the L iv e S to ck B an kin g busin ess o f Io w a and N ebraska B ankers, 2.815.135.00 Iyocated at the yards. Has exception al facilities fo r h a n dlin g prom ptly and efficiently the ba n k in g business arisin g out o f the purchase or sale o f Hive Stock at the South Omaha Market. G U Y C. B A R T O N , P resid en t, E , A . C U D A H Y . V ic e -P r e s , J. C. F R E N C H , C ashier, H. C. B O S T W IC K , V ice-P res. T R U M A N B U C K , V ice-P res. H. C. M I L L E R , A s s ’t Cash. Tbe South Omaha national Bank ACCOUNTS ARE IN V IT E D JOHN A. CREIGHTON, President. F. H. DAVIS, Vice=President. E. F. FOLDA, Vice=Pres. F. R. HEDRICK, Cashier. Aurora State Bank at Aurora, A. G. Peterson was elected president to succeed D. E. Thompson. The holdings of Mr. Thompson have been acquired by Mr. Peterson and the former is no longer connected with the bank. The election of Mr. Peterson to the presi dency creates a vacancy in the position of cashier which will not be filled until the annual meeting of the direc torate in January. In the meantime C. S. Hull and W. C. Keck will jointly perform the cashier’s duties. Every Iowa Bank not now a member o f the State A s sociation should remit fv e dollars to the treasurer, J . D . Easton, o f Waterloo, and “ get in.** A s a matter o f prof it and loss in money you can't afford to stay out. IOW A N E W S AND N O TES. The new bank at Nevin is about completed. The First National Bank of Riceville is erecting a bank building. The First National Bank of Burlington will remodel its bank building. The Ogden State Bank of Ogden is erecting a hand some new building. The Peoples State Savings Bank of Baxter is now https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis South Omaha, flebraska. C A P IT A L, $250,000 SU R PLU S, $250,000 PROFITS, $ 78 ,071 I A C C O U N T S o f B an ks transacting business w ith the S to ck Y a rd s receiv ed on the m ost fa v o ra b le term s. In terest allow ed on b a l ances. C ollection s receive p rom p t a tten tion and fun ds d isp osed o f as requested w ith o u t loss o f tim e. in its new quarters. No money was spared in making its equipment the best. W. A. Heyer has been made assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Sumner. The German Bank of Schleswig will be organized as a national bank with a capital of $50,000. The deposits of the Iowa State Bank of Osceola have been increased over 40 per cent during the past year. The Merchants National Bank of St. Paul has been made a reserve agent for the First National Bank o f Sibley. The First National Bank of Lake Mills has opened a savings department in connection with their banking business. The National Bank of Sidney has chosen the Tootle Lemon National Bank of St. Joseph, Mo., for a corre spondent. F. F. McElhinney and W. R. Jameson of Waterloo, are organizing a state bank at Hollon. It is capitalized at $20,000. The Hamilton National Bank of Chicago has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Algona. i THE 42 A Bank is Strong or Not in N O RTH W ESTERN Proportion to its Capital December, 1906 BAN KER. and Surplus and Ability of its Management to Invest its Funds DES M O IN ES SAVINGS B AN K Statement of C ondition RESOURCES B ills R e ce iv a b le ................................$5,993,993.75 O v erd ra fts........................................... i an F u rn itu re and F ix tu r e s .................. Cash and E xch a n ge.......................... 1,394,i5o.su T o t a l..........................-........$7,396,776.22 ,, _ , „ . P . M . Casady, P resid en t, at C lose of Business N o vem b er 12 ,. 1 9 0 6 . L IA B IL IT IE S C apital S to c k .................................... $ 500,000.00 275,519.41 S urplus and P r o f i t s ....................... D ep osits: D em and..........$4,253,313.73 T im e ................ 2,367,943.08 $6,621,256.81 $7,396,776.22 W ith the la rgest com m ercia l busin ess in the state and an equipm en t un surpassed w e feel able to handle s u cce ssfu lly any branch o f you r business, inclu d in g you r fa rm lo a n s: we ask you fo c y o u r p atronage h on estly b e lie v in g we can m ake an a ccou n t w ith us o f im m ense advantage to you. OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS — ------------------------------------------------------------- ------dim on C a s a d v V ice-P resid e n t, H om er A . M iller, C ashier, C. T. Cole, A s s ’ t C ashier, Jas. A . B e rry h ill, S im on w i n d e r E d w A . T em p le, E . C. F in k b in e. N . S. M cD onnell, G. M. H ippee. The National Live Stock Bank of Chicago has been appointed reserve agent for the Citizens National Bank of Hampton. The Deleware County State Bank of Manchester with a capital of $60,000 and surplus and profits $60,000, has deposits amounting to $502,182. The Cedar Rapids National Bank of Cedar Rapids has been made a reserve agent for the First National Bank of Manilla. Wm. Weller has been selected president of the New London National Bank in place of W. W. Lee, who has resigned prior to his removal to California. The Merchants National Bank of Cedar Rapids has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Elkader. The Citizens Savings bank of Mt. A yr has been in corporated. Capital, $10,000. H. M. Whinery of Des Moines is president and W. S. Monger, cashier. The National Bank of the Republic of Chicago has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Thornton. The Des Moines National Bank of Des Moines has been appointed reserve agent for the First National Bank of Cherokee and the First National Bank of Sheldon. The Commercial National Bank of Waterloo has chosen the Fourth Street National Bank of Philadel phia for a correspondent. John Barr has resigned the position of deputy treas urer of Adair county to accept a position in the First National Bank of Greenfield. The Cherokee County State Bank has deposits of $113,997. Quite a remarkable showing when the town has a population of only 252. The recent statement of the Commercial National Bank of Waterloo shows loans of $ i ,465>595> deposits, $1,300,428, total resources $1,768,997. The combined statement of the Ottumwa National and the Wapello County Savings Banks shows total deposits of $1,055,959 and total resources of $ i ,37L ° 57The Citizens State Bank at Benton, has been author ized by State Auditor Carroll with a capital of $10,000. M. H" Whinnery is president and Walter S. Monger cashier. The Security National Bank of Sioux City has chosen for a correspondent the Burns National Bank of St. Toseph and the National German-American Bank of St. Paul. The combined statement of the First National and the German Savings Banks of Preston shows a total capital and surplus of $47,000, deposits $326,637, cash $67,951. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The First National Bank of Davenport distributed $6,000 to its shareholders November 1st. This was in payment of a three per cent semi-annual dividend which had been declared. Henry Dewitt, assistant cashier of the bank at Sully was instantly killed as a result of an automobile acci dent. The driver lost control of his machine, which plunged into a ditch. The Citizens Bank of Ossian continues to make good gains. Their statement of November 20th shows a capital of $10,000, deposits $176,233, cash $31,776, to tal resources $201,536. The First National Bank of Brooklyn with a capital of $50,000 has $343,138 in deposits; cash, $155,549 5 total resources $420,303. W. T. Holmes is president and B. M. Talbot cashier. S. A. Schneider of Mason City is starting a num ber of branch banks on the new extension of the M. & St. L. R. R. from Watertown west through the north ern part of South Dakota. At a recent meeting of the board of directors of the Iowa National Bank of Des Moines, Gus A. Nelson was elected assistant cashier. A semi-annual dividend of 10 per cent was declared. Oscar J. Whitson, president of the Whitson & Dob bin State Bank of State Center, was recently found December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN dead in his bed. Heart disease is attributed as the cause of his sudden demise. A new bank project is under way at Walker. Capi talists from Dubuque and Waukon are the promoters, and the purpose is the establishment of a national bank with a capital stock of $25,000. BAN KER. 43 A set of new safety deposit boxes has arrived for the Scott County Savings Bank of Davenport and are installed. These boxes are made of steel. They are the best made, being superior in many ways to those formerly used by the bank. The front is being put in the new Bennett building at Sioux City. The trust company, which will be or ganized by A. T. Bennett, owner of the building, will not open its doors until January 1, 1907. Rodney Hill, cashier and manager of the Citizens’ Bank of Britt, has been ill with typhoid fever for the past three months. He is now slowly recovering. With his wife he will spend the winter in Florida, leaving Iowa about December 1st. The Oxford Junction Savings Bank at Oxford Juntion, commenced business October 1, 1901, with a paid in capital of $15,000. On November 12, 1901, the de posits were $23,519. That item now stants at $140,386. The First National Bank of Lyons is now finishing a new stone building for their occupancy which is being built at a cost of $30,000. Over each window of the bank building is a large lion’s head, symbolizing the name of the town—Lyons. The statement issued by the State Savings Bank of Modale in response to the recent auditor’s calls shows a capital stock of $15,000; sight deposits, $56,203; time deposits, $23,588; cash, $ 19 ,1 15 ; total resources, $99,95i- J. K. Hamilton has resigned his position as cashier of the Clearfield Bank, this action being due to the fact that he is not in the best of health, and his inter ests in the West demanding more time than he can spare while confined in the bank. Total resources of $2,364,343 are reported by the First National Bank of Fort Dodge in its excellent ex hibit issued under date of November 12th. The de posits are $1,846,868, cash, $439,847, loans, $1,592,-* 425. The directors of the Union Savings Bank recently held a special meeting at Wilton, at which time the resignation of H. Wildasin, as vice-president and director, was accepted, and D. G. Agnew was elected vice-president to fill the vacancy. The Cedar Rapids National Bank of Cedar Rapids, the Citizens National Bank of Des Moines and the First National Bank of Omaha have been made cor respondents for the First National Bank of Guthrie Center. The First National Bank and the affiliated Farmers and Citizens Savings Bank of De Witt report total resources of $1,057,749. The deposits of the First Na tional are $310,876 and of the Farmers and Citizens Savings, $516,793. Arrangements have been completed for a bank at Beaver. The articles of incorporation have been filed, and the following officers have been elected: E. D. Carter, president; J. R. Doran, vice-president, and L. D. Henry, cashier. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis H. M. Whinery, the well known Des Moines banker —cashier of the Century Savings Bank, has just been elected treasurer of the Des Moines Department Store Company, who are arranging for the opening of the largest department store in Iowa. At a recent meeting of the Board of Directors of the Moulton State Savings Bank, the resignation of A. H. Corey as cashier was accepted. Mr. Corey held the position three years and was unusually successful. J. B. Sneed, the assistant cashier, was elected his suc cessor. Not wishing to have Mr. Corey sever his re lation with the bank the directors have retained him as second vice-president, thus assuring his good will and co-operation. Mr. Corey is now Supreme Secretary of the Homesteaders, Des Moines. 44 THE N O RTH W ESTERN Iowa BAN KER. December, 1906 National Bank ------------------------------------ D AVEN PO RT, IOW A------------------------------------E xten ds to banks and bankers every fa c ility de sired in a corresponding- bank, and every ad van tage that our sound and con servative business m ethods ju stify . C ollection s and accou n ts solicited Capital, $100,000. Surplus and Profits, $74,860 Deposits, $1,204,503. A. P. DOE, Receiver C. F. Andrews of the defunct Corning State Savings Bank will pay a fifth dividend of ten per cent to the depositors. This will make a total of fifty per cent paid back to the depositors, and under favorable circumstances they will receive another small dividend. Articles of incorporation were filed recently with the secretary of state by the Citizens’ Savings Bank of Anamosa. The bank begins business with a capital of $50,000. The officers are : W. A. Cunningham, presi dent; William Thomas, vice president; E. K. Ray, of Vinton, cashier. The report of condition issued by the Woodward State Bank of Woodward in response to the recent auditor’s call, shows deposits of $143,000, an increase of $33,000 compared with the statement of a year ago, and a gain of $9,000 since September 4, 1906. S. O. Conger is president and H. S. Taylor, cashier. An unsuccessful attempt was recently made to burglarize the Northwestern Bank of Sidney. The vault door was blown open and the outer steel plate had been blown from the door of the safe, but the rob ber failed to get the door open. About fifteen dollars in small change was taken from the tills at the cash ier’s window. Under the name of “ The Peoples Savings Bank” a new financial institution at Blakesburg, has filed ar ticles of incorporation. The bank is capitalized at $10,000. The officials who are to serve until the first annual meeting of the board of directors are W. B, Bonnifield, Jr., president; W. H. Hurst, vice-president, and cashier, W. S. Cash. The safe of the Citizens’ Bank of Henderson, was blown by robbers on the night of November 16th. The robbers made their escape with $2,200 in bills, gold and silver. The town was not alarmed by the explo sion and the robbery was not discovered until the next morning. The bank has a capital of $10,000 and is pro tected by burglar insurance. O. J. Gibson has sold his stock in the First Na tional Bank of Red Oak and has ofifered his resignation https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President. --J. E. JOHN D. BR O CK M AN N , Vice-President. B U R M E IST E R , Cashier____ = as cashier. He has arranged to engage in another line of business, the announcement of which will be made in the near future. The continued close confinement to business has told materially on Mr. Gibson’s health and he makes the change for this reason. That R. F. Graeber, the Sheldahl banker, is warmly appreciated in his community was demonstrated re cently when a half hundred farmers of near Polk City who have long been doing business with Mr. Graeber, presented him with a valuable Jersey cow, as a slight testimonial of their appreciation of the various accom modations for which they were indebted to him. The directors of the State Savings Bank of Hamp ton have made arrangements for a new location, and on March 1st that institution will be moved into the building formerly occupied by the Bank of Hampton. The building is one of the best in the city, and the interior will be completed, overhauled and equipped with the latest improvements for the State Savings Bank. Geo. L. Brower, president of the Security Bank of Rockwell City, has just closed another real estate deal, whereby he sells 368 acres for the sum of $36,800, or an even $100 an acre. The land is all under cultiva tion, but has no building of any kind. Only a few years ago the entire section of land, of which the 368 acres sold to Mr. Ehler was a part, was bought for $4,166. The motion for a change of venue in the case of Edwin O. Soule has been granted and the case will be heard in Hamilton county district court should it ever come to trial. The case is on an indictment returned by the grand jury in Hardin county several months ago. Soule has already served eighteen months in the penitentiary for his misdeeds while cashier of the Home Savings Bank of Iowa Falls. E. H. Mitchell, vice-president of the Swanson Man ufacturing Company recently purchased one hundred shares of stock in the First National Bank of Shenan doah from Mr. Royce, who retires from the bank and will return to his former location at Harris. This THE December, 1906 N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 45 ............................................ .. T he C edar Rapids National Bank . ------ '------ -------- — direct C°/*NECT'Or4& O F C E D A R RAPID S, IOWA. ------- WITH CAPITAL, SURPLUS AND UNDIVIDED PROFITS OF $250.000 , AND RESOURCES OF $4.000,000, GIVING IT UNSURPASSED FACILITIES FOR THE PROPER HANDLING OF EVERY BRANCH OF COMMERCIAL BANKING; INVITES ACCOUNTS FROM BANKS and BANKERS. F O R N A T IO N A L B A N K S . h b i b i i h amount of stock represents nearly $20,000. It is said that Mr. Mitchell will be made vice-president and will enter the bank as one of the active managers. The first annual meeting of the Peoples Savings Bank of Hardy was held November 6, 1906. The fol lowing board of directors were elected for the ensuing year: G. H.,Cheever, J. T. Nervig, H. B. Cole, R. R. Smith and A. H. Morse. A. H. Morse was appointed president, R. R. Smith vice-president, G. H. Cheever cashier, J. T. Nervig, assistant cashier. The Peoples Savings Bank succeeds the State Bank of Hardy. The place of Hugo Krohn, who left the Scott County Savings Bank of Davenport to become cashier of the Citizens Trust and Savings Bank, will be taken by Gus Stueben, formerly assistant teller and mortgage clerk. Mr. Stueben’s place will be taken by Julius Kerker, formerly first bookkeeper. This position will be filled by Harry G. Sears, who has been with local banks and is now with the First National Bank in Min neapolis. The abstract of the condition of the national banks of Cedar Rapids at the close of business on November 17th was reported to the comptroller of currency and shows the average reserve held at 20.49 Per cen6 against 22.26 per cent on September 4th ; loans and dis counts decreased from $5,503,810 to $5,484,648; gold coin from $153,705 to $15 1,7 6 2 ; lawful money reserve from $671,454 to $590,970; individual deposits from $2,089,669 to $2,088,164. Receiving a message early in the morning that an attempt was being made to rob the Tabor Bank, C. L. Hall, the cashier, hurried to the place with a Win chester and stationing himself in a window across the street poured volley after volley into the building. The plate glass front was shattered and the door and in terior badly damaged. The bombardment created much excitement, but an examination proved no one had attempted an entrance. Four Sac City men, together with four men resid ing at Warner, S. D., are establishing a new bank at the last named place. The Sac City men are Charles E. Barkl, cashier of the Farmers’ Savings Bank at https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis I Sac City; F. R. Stearns, assistant cashier of the Sac County State Bank, of Sac City; E. C. Stearns, and John Anthony. The new bank is capitalized at $10,000, which is all paid up. Charles E. Barkl will be the president of the new bank, and E. C. Stearns will be the cashier. It is reported from Sioux City that negotiations are pending between James E. Toy, president of the First National Bank and Farmers’ Loan and Trust Com pany, and A. T. Bennett, who will be president of the Bennett Trust Company, for the erection of a fine sixstory bank and office building upon the ground owned by the First National Bank and the adjoining lots which were purchased recently. A building six stories in height and covering’ all this ground would be one of the largest in that city. The supreme court has reversed the lower court in the tax ferret case of the Security Savings Bank against the county treasurer. The ferrets reported for taxation some $2,000,000 of loans originally made by the bank, but afterwards disposed of. The bank re fused inspection of their books to see where the loans are now held and they were then arbitrarily assessed with the amount of the suit. The lower court held for the bank, the Iowa Supreme Court reverses and there will now be a new trial. Washington, D. C., Nov. 22.— Special: The abstract of conditions of the national banks of Dubuque at the close of business on November 21st as reported to the controller of the currency shows the average reserve held at 24.35 Per cent against 22.22 per cent on Sep tember 4th; loans and discounts increased from $2,472,459 to $2,487,288; gold coin increased from $145,137 to $ 154 ,14 2; the lawful money reserve increased from $278,410 to $341,768; the individual deposits in creased from $1,955,486 to $2,071,495. James L . Denmead, of Platte, S. D., will be asso ciated with' A. T. Bennett in the ownership of a trust company which will soon begin business at Sioux City. Mr. Denmead is the son of D. T. Denmead, president of the City National Bank of Marshalltown. The father and son have jointly owned the Bank of Platte, 4Ö THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. December, 1906 M E R C H A N T S N A TIO N A L B A N K OP , CEDAR R A P ID S IO W A . D E P O S I T S ........................................ 92,950,000.00 The best proof of good service is constant growth. JOHN T. HAMILTON, Pres. JAS. E. HAMILTON, Cashier. EDWIN H. FURROW, Ass’t Cashier. Platte, S. D. The son has disposed of his interests in the bank of Platte to associate himself with Mr. Ben nett. Mr. Denmead probably will be the secretary for the trust company and Mr. Bennett the president. The abstract of the condition of the national banks of Des Moines at the close of business on Nov. 12, as reported to the comptroller of the currency,shows the average held at 21.0 1 per cent, against 21.57 per cent on Sept. 4; the loans and discounts increased from $ 6, 861,241 to $ 7, 103, 530; gold coin decreased from $ 212,901 to $ 134, 869; the lawful money reserve de creased from $ 800,470 to $ 745,349; the individual de posits increased from $ 3, 201,176 to $ 3, 288, 832. Polk county has lost $1,200 as interest on the $35,000 which the county treasurer loaned the defunct Colfax bank several years ago. Judge Scott at Newton has held Polk county is entitled to no more money from the bank over which the suicide, Geo. D. oods, presided. As all the principal has been repaid to the counjy un der a preferred claim, the decision bars only the $1,200 which is still due the county as interest. Judge Scott’s ruling covered a similar case with Jasper county and the First National Bank of Brooklyn, both of whom had, like Polk county, loaned money to Cashier Woods, thus assuring his good will and co-operation. The Nebraska Bankers Convention The tenth annual convention of the Nebraska Bank ers Association was a great success. Nearly 350 were registered ; the addresses were timely and full of most valuable information and useful suggestions and the social features left nothing to be desired. Senator Millard welcomed the bankers in which he noted the rapid growth of wealth in Nebraska in recent years. He congratulated the bankers on their present prosperity. S. H. Burnham, president of the First National Bank of Lincoln, responded to the address of welcome. He referred to the days of ’93 and the lean years thereafter and explained in a humorous way why six years in the ’90’s had passed without a convention being held by the association. “ Banks and bankers were then at a dis count; it was thought a disgrace and somewhat dan gerous to be seen with a banker. If one or two of us https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis P. C. FRICK, Vice-Pres. JOHN S. BR0EKSMIT, Ass’t Cashier. L. H. BUSH Special Loan Agent Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Com pany of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Invites applications for farm loans from Iowa banks and bankers. Rate 5 per cent net Liberal options. A ddress, 3 0 3 Y o u n g e r m a m B u ild in g , Des Moines, Iowa. wanted to talk things over we sneaked out after night and did it. No conventions for us then. Yet I realize that those six years were a most valuable asset in the banker’s experience.’’ The secretary’s report showed a total membership of 677 out of 785 banks in the state, a gain in member ship over 1905 of 96. The total membership in 1903 was 296, in 1904 it was 406, in 1905 it was 581. The treasurer reported a balance on hand of $827.28. President Howey appointed the following commit tees : On nominations— George L. Meisner, Crete; C. F. McGrew, Omaha; Charles Iv. Hart, Prosser; J. W. Welpton, Ogalalla; H. A. Cheney, Creighton; Frank McGiverin, Fremont; R. S. Rising, Ainsworth. On Resolutions—Henry W. Yates, of Omaha; J. T. Trenery, of Pawnee City; P. L. Hall, of Lincoln; C. F. Bentley, of Grand Island, and A. L. Clarke, of Hastings. Julius Beckman was reappointed to the educational committee, J. W. Steinhart, of Nebraska City, and V. B. Caldwell, of Omaha, continuing on unexpired terms. S. H. Burnham, of Lincoln, was reappointed to the committee on national legislation, Henry W. Yates, of Omaha, and R. S. Rising, of Ainsworth, continuing. As a membership committee the president appointed Carson Hildreth, of Franklin, for three years; J. W. Welpton, of Ogalalla, for two years, and Thomas Mur ray, of Dunbar, for one year. THE December, 1906 NORTH W ESTERN German Savings Bank D A VEN PO R T, 47 BANKER. CASH C A P IT A L , $600,000.00 S T A T E M E N T , N O V E M B E R 12, IÇ06. IOWA. ASSETS. CHAS. N. VOSS, Pres. A. A. BALLUFF, Second Vice-Pres, F. C. KROEGER, Assistant Cashier. JENS LORENZEN, Vice-Pres. ED. KAUFMANN, Cashier. R. ANDRESEN, Assistant Cashier. D IR EC TO R S. N. V O S S L IA B IL IT IE S . F . G. C L A U S E N CH AS. JE N S LO REN ZEN . H . O. S E I F F E R T F . H. G R IG G S H. U. B R Ä U N L IC H T. A. M U R P H Y J. J. R IC H A R D SO N O SW A L D SC H M ID T Exceptional equipment and facilities for handling your Iowa business. Correspondence invited. Authority was given the president to appoint dele gates to the conventions of the National Bankers Asso ciation, and it was voted that the president should al ways be one of the delegates. Following the report of the educational committee, recommending the establishment of a department of commerce and banking in the University of Nebraska, C. J. Ernst, a regent of the university, informed the convention that such a department had been in opera tion since the opening of the institution in September. In an address on “ The Modern Tendency of the Pub lic as Regards Banks,” F. H. Claridge, of Blair, dwelt on the duty of the bankers to consider deposits in the light of a trust fund, even though the courts rule that the relation of banker and depositor is merely that of debtor and creditor. He declared the idea of the bank should be to make its deposits safe first and make money afterward. The only tendency on the part of the public in the last forty years toward the banks, he said, is to deposit money in them. The features of the convention were the various ad dresses on the desirability of currency reform and the open discussion of this important matter when resolu tions opposed to it were presented by the committee on resolutions. The resolutions as offered w ere: Resolved, That we are opposed to the issue in time of financial peace, like the present, of any bank note currency, except that now authorized, secured by a deposit of United States bonds. Resolved, That we favor legislation by congress au thorizing the issue of an emergency circulation which will be taxed so heavily that it would not be issued except in time of great commercial stringency and im pending panic and would be retired when the condi tions requiring its issue no longer existed. Resolved, That we favor the repeal of the clause in the national currency act limiting the redemption of national bank notes to $3,000,000 a month. A. S. Clarke, of Hastings, at once objected to the “ impending panic” stating that those words publicly used as a reason for taking out additional circulation would at once produce the panic the bankers were seeking to avoid. E. R. Gurney, of Fremont, moved an amendment to the resolutions which was in reality https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis $9,101,575.86 909,294,76 5,351.95 33,258.85 $10,049,481.42 L oa n s and D is c o u n t s ....... Cash and Due fro m B an ks O v e rd ra fts............................. R eal E sta te .......................... S avin gs D ep osits ................ C om m ercial D e p o s it s ......... $7.937,467.37 893,634.11 C apital S to c k ............. ........... S urp lus..................................... U nd ivid ed P r o fit s ................ T o ta l L ia b ilitie s $8,831,121,48 ... 600.000.00 .. 300,000.00 .. 318,359.94 .$10,049,481.42 a substitute as it endorsed the plan as presented by the recent currency commission of the American Bankers Association. Mr. Gurney followed his motion with an able impromptu address advocating his amendment. P. L. Hall, of Lincoln, followed, opposing the measure, and he in turn was followed by D. R. Forgan, of Chi cago, who happened to be in the room. Mr. b organ spoke very briefly of the work of the currency commis sion and the urgent need of a more elastic currency. H. W. Yates followed in defense of the original resolu tion in opposition to any but a bond secured currency. Mr. Yates charged that the American Bankers conven tion at St. Louis had been packed by those favoring the proposed currency legislation and that such speak ers as were opposed to the measure were practically cut off from its discussion. He asserted that the busi ness of the country could be conducted on a much less volume of money than we now used and that the United States already had the largest per capita circu lation of any country in the world. He said that in some instances the deposits of New York City actually increased during the crop moving season. The resolutions were finally adopted as presented by the resolution committee. The nominating committee reported the following names for the various offices and they were unanimous ly elected: President— P. L. Hall, cashier Columbia National Bank, Lincoln; Henry W. Yates, Chairman Executive Council; W. D. Hughes, Secretary; Frank T. Hamilton, Treasurer. New members Executive Committee for four years—V. B. Caldwell, Omaha; Frank McGiverin, Fremont; C. E. Burnham, Norfolk; F. M. Davis, Beaver City. Treasurer’s Report Omaha, Nov. 20, 1906. To the President and Members of the Nebraska Bank ers Association: Gentlemen: I have the honor to submit to you the following account of receipts and expenditures since the last report: G E N E R A L FU N D Balance in hands of treasurer Oct. 1, 1905. . . .$ 827.31 THE 48 N O RTH W ESTERN First National Bank OF SIO U X C IT Y . IOWA. CAPITAL, $300,000.00. BAN KER. December, 1906 SECURITY SAVINGS Cedar Rapids bank SURPLUS AND PROFIT, $55,618.69. Capital and Surplus, Deposits, - DEPOSITS, $2,839,335.00. A ccou n ts o f B an ks receiv ed on liberal term s. A la rge list o f par p oin ts in Iow a , M innesota, D a kota and N ebraska. C ollection s ca re fu lly and p rom p tly made. J A M E S P . T O Y , P resid ent. A C K L E Y H U B B A R D , V ice-P res. F . B . W A T S O N , A ss ’t C ashier. G E O R G E C. C A L E , V ic e -P re s J. F R E D T O Y , Cashier. F . W . K A M M A N , A ss’t Cash. Receipts ................................................................. 3,858.20 T o t a l...................................................... $4,685.51 Disbursements— Sundry Warrants paid......... 322.15 Balance, Cash on Hand....................................... $ 837.28 P R O T E C T IV E FU N D Balance in hands of Treasurer Oct. 1, 1905. .$1,783.77 Receipts, Commissions on Bonds and Burg lary Insurance ................................................ 1,486.03 Disbursements— Sundry Warrant Paid........ $3,269.80 322.15 Balance in hands of Treasurer Nov. 14, 1906.$2,947.65 Respectfully submitted, F. T. H A M ILT O N , Treasurer. Important Iowa Bank Decision A Des Moines bank had a loan, made to the Corning State Bank, secured by certificates of deposit to the amount of $16,000 and guaranteed by the president. Another Des Moines bank held certificates of deposit assigned to it by the person to whom they were origin ally made. The bank failed several yea-rs ago and suit was brought to have the above made preferred claims. Judge Evans has just held that the claims cannot be considered preferred. The case will be carried to the supreme court as there is a principle involved of great importance to all of the larger banks. Judge Evans holds that no low a bank can loan money to savings banks, nor can the savings banks borrow excepting for deposits, expenses of management, or to pay obliga tions incurred to obtain money to pay depositors. The Supreme Court decision on the case will be awaited with much interest. - $150,000,00 1,441,172,00 Does no Commercial Banking, but offers for Iowa business the services of a careful competent and exclusive Savings Bank, paying interest on deposits at the rate of Pgr Cent G. F - VA N V E C H T E N , President E. M. SC O T T , Cashier a debt a man gave a check for $ 1,3 17 , which was the amount he held on deposit in the Buck Grove Bank. At that time the Buck Grove Bank was still doing business. The check was deposited with the Denison Bank, which forwarded it to Council Bluffs for collec tion, instead of sending it to Buck Grove, which was but a short distance away. The Council Bluffs bank sent it to Buck Grove. In the meantime the Buck Grove Bank closed its doors. Claim is made that the two banks are responsible for the delay in cashing the check. South Omaha Banks The statements of the South Omaha banks this week show a nice increase in deposits compared with last year. The total increase is $227,370.95. Loans and discounts show an increase of $917,060.04, and the total resources have increased $371,576.35 dur ing -the same period. A detailed statement follows: d e p o s it s 1905. Union Stock Y ard s........... $2,854,316.91 South O m aha.................. 3,282,196.70 Packers ........................... 1,545,629.32 1906. $2,815,135.80 3,084,533.88 2,009,844.20 T o ta ls ....................$7,682,142.93 Increase, $227,370.95. $7,909,513.88 E O A N S A N D D ISC O U N T S Union Stock Y ard s........ $1,768,471.77 South O m aha................. 1,414,766.30 Packers ........................... 1,350,215.99 1906. $2,020,147.46 1,825,814.36 1,604,552.28 T o ta ls ................... $4,533,454.06 Increase, $917,060.04. $5,450,514.10 1905- TO TAE RESO U RCES 1905- Delayed Presentation Case Suit has been brought against a Council Bluffs bank and a Denison bank for the loss of money caused by the delayed presentation of a check for a bank that failed, written a few days thereafter. In partial payment of https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Union Stock Y ard s......... $3,305,086.36 South O m ah a................. 4,049,194.50 Packers ........................... 1,860,981.46 T o ta ls ...................$9,215,262.32 Increase, $371,576.35. 1906. $3,371,162.45 3,865,507.62 2,350,168.60 $9,586,838.67 December, 1906 THE N O RTH W ESTERN The Chamberlain Des M oines, Iowa TH E TH E N EW EST EUROPEAN PLA N TH E O N LY FIR EP R O O F H O T EL IN BEST IOWA 49 BAN KER. 1907 One Column Bank Ads For Newspaper Publicity Jl book of newspaper ads full of plain “ bank talk” for the people Would it not be an excellent plan, for 1907, to keep your newspaper space filled with “ live’ copy? 1907 ONE COLUMN B A N K AD S will furnish you with good copy for your local newspaper for one year. The ads are the result of actual banking e x perience and a close study of bank advertising. 1907 O NE COLUMN B A N K AD S contain new features over last year’s1book. It has more and better ads, with a variety of models. ^ You can get exclusive right to publish these ads in your local newspaper. Write now, only one book sold in a town. Price $ 1. 50, prepaid. I want you to see this book of newspaper ads. It will be sent to any Bank or Banker for examination. P o s it iv e ly F i r e p r o o f; C onstru ction S tone, B ricu and S teel. N o W o o d , ex cep t d oors and fra m es; A ll S tairw ays M arble anu I ro n ; A ll F lo o rs T ile and C em ent; P e rfe c t S an itary P lum bin g. 150 R oom s, 75 w ith B ath. R ates, $1.50 to $3.50 p er day. Cate p rices reasonable and service excellen t, W . L B R O W N Prop, a n d M gr. Burglars blew open the vault and safe of the Citi zens’ Bank at Henderson November 16th, and suc ceeded in escaping with $2,200 in cash. The men worked so cleverly that no one in the town had a sus picion of the robbery until morning. At least two charges of nitro-glycerine were required to open the vault and safe. The money secured was $1,200 in currency, $500 in $20 gold pieces and about $500 in silver. The job was a skilfull one and bears the marks of experts. The interior of the building was badly wrecked. The bank has a capital of $10,000. It was protected by burglar insurance. The officers are M. C. Harver, president, and Homer Sickle, cashier. Iowa State Savings Bank, Grand R iver; First National Bank, Marengo; Des Moines National Bank, Des Moines; First National Bank, Mt. Pleasant; Farmers Savings Bank, Wilton Junction; German American Savings Bank, Burlington; Iowa State Bank, Mt. A y r ; First State Bank of Adair County, Orient; Merchants National Bank, Burlington; Bank of Merrill, Merrill; Marshalltown State Bank, Marshalltown; First Na tional Bank, Norway; Moville Bank, Moville; Citizens Savings Bank, O lin; Onawa State Bank, Onawa; Peo ple’s Savings Bank, Nevada; State Savings Bank, U te ; Clayton County Bank, Guttenberg; Ralston Sav https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis B anh A d vertisin g . L IS B O N . - IO W A . Tngs Bank, Ralston; Ringgold County Savings Bank, Kellerton. Another Iowa Bank Burglarized Burroughs Adding Machines Sold in During October to Banks C. E. AUR ACH ER , First National Bank of Omaha The First National Bank of Omaha was the first national bank to be organized in the state of Nebraska. From a small frontier bank, with $16,000 in deposits in 1863, it has become a metropolitan institution, with thousands of depositors and more than $11,000,000 in deposits in 1906. It no longer buys gold dust from the miners that come in over the plains with their little yellow hoards, as it once did, but it transacts the great and intricate business of a bank of deposits and loans, with the buying and selling of exchange, the discount of notes, the collection of checks, drafts and other commercial paper, doing business in a single day with banks and bankers all over the world, as well as with thousands of customers at home. From the time that the First National Bank of Omaha was established, forty-three years ago, there have been surprisingly few changes in its directory or in its officers. Augustus Kountze died three years ago and so did Edward Creighton and L. J. Ruth, and the recent death of Herman Kountze, who has been president of the bank from the beginning, closed the career of one of the oldest and most successful western pioneer bankers. F . H. Davis for many years has been cashier. Edward Creighton was succeeded many years ago by John A. Creighton as a director and in recent.years C. T. Kountze and L. L. Kountze have grown into the busi- 50 r THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906- Œbe Bankers Bxcbange r\ [R e a d in g lo c a ls in t h is c o lu m n w ill b e p r in te d at a c o s t ot 5 0 c . a lin e fo r l i r s t in s e r t io n ; 2 5 c . as lin e f o r s u b s e q u e n t in s e r t io n s .] In answering1 advertisements in this depart ment where letters are to be forwarded the necessary postage should be enclosed. Wanted— Second-hand nearly new bank fixtures. Mallard Savings Bank, Mallard, Iowa. FO R S A L E — Good second-hand bank outfits, one in plain oak and one in quarter-sawed oak. A bargain. The Nauman Co., Waterloo, Iowa. Wanted.— Position as bookkeeper or teller in city bank. Have had five years’ experience. Address O. H. G., by letter or wire, care N. W. Banker. Young man 21 years old with some experience in the business wants position in small bank. Best of refer ences. Address L. G., care Northwestern Banker. experience, and three years city, and at present teller in large city bank. Familiar with all agricultural se curities, notary, insurance, collections, and real estate. Expert penman, rapid, accurate and systematic account ant, and good counter man. Very best city and coun try references; satisfactory work guaranteed, and sal ary reasonable. Address W. S., care N. W. Banker. P A R T N E R W A N T ED in one of the most prosperous country banks in eastern South Dakota. Must be an experienced and successful banker with a clean record for honesty and fairness in business, and with $10,000■ to $ 15,000 ready cash. Stock carries position of Pres ident and residence of retiring President is included in deal. Don’t reply unless you can qualify; the man will be carefully chosen. Bank established 25 yearsand business is attractive enough to secure the best talent. Correspondence must be confidential. Address J. E. E. care Northwestern Banker. W A N T E D —Cashier in small country bank or assistant cashier in larger bank, to take position of teller in large city bank. Address “ National” care this journal For Sale.—$25,000 bank in central Iowa town of 3,000. A bargain. Officers will continue with pur chaser for a time if desired. Address X , care N. W. Banker. B A N K W ANTED .— Owner of a good 400-acre farm. located in central Minnesota wishes to exchange it for controlling interest in a good country town bank Address Lock Box 7, Lamoni, Iowa. Desire to buy controlling interest in good bank or will assist in organizing new bank if good location can be found. Have plenty of capital and long banking experience. Address Andover, care Northwestern Banker. For Sale— Fine set of modern bank fixtures, now in the American National Bank, St. Paul. Possession given about December 10th. Fine cherry; old wrought iron grille, about 50 feet. Inquire A. Moorman & Co., St. Paul. I f you want to sell your bank quickly and have the negotiations conducted in a business-like and con fidential manner consult Chas. E. Walters, Council Bluffs, Iowa. He has the buyers and the system. “ Get on the Live and Confidential Wire.” He fu r nishes high-grade references and gets results. Wanted.— Position as cashier of small bank, or as sistant cashier or bookkeeper of larger bank, town of 500 to 2,500, West or middle West, by reliable young married man of 30, with seven years’ country bank https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis P H O T O BY W E B S T E R W h e n in D es M oines h ave y ou r p h o to taken BY W E B ST E R “ I o w a ’s L ea d in g P h o to g r a p h e r” Mr. W e b s te r ’s w ork is superior, he is know n as the “ Man P h o to g r a p h e r.” S tu dio 312-314 S ix th A venu e. D es M oines, Iow a. December, 1906 - THE N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. 51 Report of the Condition of ESTABLISHED 1884 1 The C I T I Z E N S ’ C E N T R A L N A T I O N A L B A N K of N ew Y o rk I D . < 3 . H l f o r t » S U C C E S S O R TO THE O SBORNE CO., STATIONERY made to the Comptroller of Currency, at the close of business Nov. 12th 19C6. DEPT. RESOURCES S ’t a t i m u 'r Time Loans and Discounts, . . U .S Bonds, . Stocks, Securities, etc., . . Due from Banks, . 3 ,3 5 6 ,6 6 1.7 9 Demand Loans, . 2 ,4 7 1,6 8 0 .7 2 Cash and Exchanges, 8 ,4 4 3 .8 3 7 3 4 $ 14 ,5 4 6 ,9 7 4 .7 4 1 , 9 7 9 ,7 5 0 .0 0 . 649.424.O O 14 ,2 7 2 ,1 7 9 8 5 5 6 -5 8 MURRAY S T. P. LIABILITIES O. BO X 1 6 7 4 NEW YORK LETTER $ 3 1,4 4 8 ,3 2 8 .5 9 Capital, Surplus and Profits Circulation, . Deposits, . . . . . . . . . $ 3 1,4 4 8 ,3 2 8 .5 6 ENVELOPES, BUSINESS CARDS, ENGRAVED, $ 2 , 5 5 0 , 0 r'0 .0 0 8 9 0 ,5 7 6 .0 2 1,5 7 2 ,7 9 7 .5 0 2 6 ,4 3 4 ,9 5 5 :0 7 . HEADS, NOTE HEADS STATEMENTS, ETC. PRINTED OR S. S c h n e c k A l b i o n K. C h a p m a n , J e s s e M. S m i t h E DYESTAMPED J Use the famous Chancery Bond STANDARD WEIGHTS WHITE OR BLUE ness each as assistant cashier and director. For many years Hon. W. A. Paxton has been a director in the bank, and W. S. Poppelton succeeded his father, the late Hon. A. J. Poppleton, as director many years ago. The latest addition to the board of directors is T. L. Davis, son of F. H. Davis, who is actively identified with the institution. It is this element of permanence and stability as much as the wealth of the chief stock holders which has given the First National Bank of Omaha its place as one of the strongest national banks in Nebraska and one of the oldest and strongest in the United States. Year after year, upon the same corner under the same able management, it has pursued the same careful but progressive policy which has made its name a synonym for strength and permanence throughout the West. Through the days of the Civil War, through those of western development, through the boom days, through the panic of ’93, the First Na tional of Omaha has stood at all times a tower of strength to the business interests of Omaha and the mid-West. Warnke Has Not Resigned In our last issue we published the report that E. F. Warnke, cashier of the Maynard Savings Bank, had resigned. Later advices proved this report to be in correct. Mr. Warnke did not resign and has no pres ent intention of doing so. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . d w in a s - M c A l l is t e r . . . - . - - - - - President Cashier Asst. Cashier Asst- Cashier Efficient service in the handling of Mercantile Accounts through perfect Organization and Central Location. 320 Broadway At Pearl and Thomas Street * Money Conditions in the Northwest There is less outside money being used this year in moving the northwestern crops than ever before. This condition indicates more money in the local banks and a splendid financial condition among the farmers. Money rates continue fàirly strong with indications of a greater supply and easier rates through the win ter. Comparatively little grain is moving yet. The farmers of the Northwest have reached that happy con dition where they are not obliged to sell immediately after threshing, but can now afford to store their grain and await better prices or a more convenient season for hauling. Deposits in the banks of the Northwest are increasing and some time during the winter will prob ably assume record-breaking proportions. Minneapolis Rank Occupies New Quarters After long and weary waiting the quarters for the Security Bank of Minneapolis in the new Security Bank Building were finally completed and on Novem ber 19th the bank opened for business in their own home. We will not attempt at this time a detailed de scription of the new bank offices. Suffice it to say that they rank with the very best and most modern banking offices to be found in America. Neither time nor ex pense has been spared to give the Security Bank model quarters and the most complete equipment for the safe and expeditious handling in every department of the business of a great modern bank. THE 52 N O RTH W ESTERN BAN KER. December, 1906 ------------ -T H E NATIONAL BANK OF- ........— COMMERCE ----------- IN ST. LOUIS.------- — = = T H - $16,186,166 = Scott County Savinas Bank D A V E N P O R T , IO W A I. H. S E A R S, Capital, Surplus, Profits, E President. Capital, Surplus, and Undivided Profits, Deposits, - - - $49,573,555 H. F. PETERSEN , $441,298.89 Vice=President. Two Per Cent interest on Bankers’ Balances Three Per Cent Interest on Time Deposits An Iowa Farmer’ s Accumulations Much has been said of the wonderful fertility of Iowa soil and the regularity of bumper crops. That no misstatements have been made is plainly evidenced by the report on the estate of farmer Wells, of Grundy county, whose death and a partial list of whose hold ings was noted in the last number of the Northwestern Banker. Mr. Wells was a farmer all his life. He left 3,365 acres of land in Emmet county, Iowa; 4,680 acres in Kossuth county, Iow a; 1,430 acres in Grundy county, Iow a; the old homestead in Newington, Conn., about 100 acres; some town lots in Germania, Wellsburg and Steamboat Rock, Iowa; also stock and ma chinery in Kossuth county, Iowa, appraised at $5,760; stock and machinery in Emmet county, Iowa, $5,546.50; stock and machinery in Grundy county, Iowa, $1,847; secured notes, appraised at $45,651.94; unsecured notes, appraised at $28,953.90, and bank stock as follows: 327 shares First National Bank, Grundy Center, Iowa .............................................. $ 45,125.00 10 shares Wellsburg Savings Bank............. 1,150.00 170 shares Farmers & Drovers Bank, Ger mania, Iowa ................................................ 17,000.00 Certificate deposits Germania Bank........... 33,984.63 Certificate deposits First National Bank, Grundy Center, Iow a................................ 56,285.51 Certificate deposits Wellsburg Bank........... 12,097.50 Cash subject to check, Wellsburg, Iowa. .. 5,188.22 Cash subject to check, First National Bank, Grundy C e n te r............................................ 2,675.44 Cash subject to check, First Trust & Sav ings Bank of Chicago................................ 71,612.85 Cash subject to check in Continental Na tional Bank of Chicago............................. 128,639.75 showing the agregate appraised value of all the per sonal property belonging to said estate to be $465,518.24. The real estate, is worth over $600,000. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Deposits, J. H. HASS, Cashier. $4,114,988.73. A Note of Warning’ Prolonged prosperity, says the Youths Companion, is likely to be accompanied by extravagance. The longer good times continue, the dimmer grows in the public consciousness the need of laying something aside for a rainy day. If this need be forgotten, prosperity defeats itself, and the manifestation of defeat is in business -depression. A banker recently discussed from a financial and economic point of view the notorious extravagance of the American people— “ the ominous cloud that hangs over our prosperity today.” This extravagance is vis ible in all classes. People with a little money spend lavishly, and thereby unwittingly push up the cost of living. Confident of continuous success, the man of fairly comfortable means mortgages the future to pay for the present. Bankers note with alarm the decreasing demand for good securities at small interest, like municipal bonds; the withdrawal of money from savings banks which pay small interest, and the increased demand for risky investments that pay five and six per cent. Security is sacrificed for income; money goes more and more into insecure and speculative enterprise. Today lives at the expense of tomorrow, and sooner or later will come the morrow which will fail to meet the obligations put upon it. All this may seem a very abstract discussion, far removed from most of us who have no part in the large money dealings of the world. Yet it is the people of small means who suffer from extravagance; the rich usually ride the storm. Moreover, the danger and our responsibility for it come home when we remember that every dollar spent in foolish luxury and every dol lar needlessly borrowed help to make inevitable the day of business depression, a day which not even un told wealth of crops can prevent. The only sure pre vention lies in the caution and frugality of the people as a whole. December, 1906 THE NORTHWESTERN BANKER. Des Moines Chapter A. I. B. C. One of the most timely and valuable addresses with which the Des Moines Chapter American Institute of Bank Clerks has been favored was that of G. A. Nelson, recently elected assistant cashier of the Iowa National of Des Moines. Mr. Nelson’s address showed much study and careful research. He traced the origin and development of “ Currency” in America from the time of the early colonists through the financial growth and changes to the present time. In conclusion Mr. Nelson spoke of the present agitation for currency re form and gave some interesting statistics relative to the matter. Farmers and Mechanics National Bank, Philadelphia The Farmers & Mechanics National Bank has just in creased its dividend from 6 per cent to 7 per cent yearly, and has also added $50,000 to its surplus fund, making that fund $1.150,000. The Farmers and Mechanics National Bank is one of the few very old banking in stitutions of Philadelphia, having been organized in 1807, and having paid in dividends to date, the large sum of $12,497,000. Its stock is widely distributed, there being more than nine hundred stockholders, and much of the stock has been held for generations in the same families. U. S. National, Omaha One of the most valuable addresses made at the Ne braska Bankers Convention just closed was that of W. E. Rhoades, assistant cashier of the United States National Bank of Omaha. Every progressive banker believes in good advertising. Mr. Rhoades has given this subject a great deal of study and he has also gained much practical experience. His address can be studied with much profit. The November 12th statement of this bank shows cash and exchange amounting to .$2,707,246. Loans and discounts of $6,304,953 and deposits of $8,724,371. The capital stock of the bank is $600,000 and the surplus just half that sum, or $300,000. The undi vided profits are $31,177. The United States National has enjoyed a very healthful growth during the past year. It is well or ganized and ably managed. Recognized now as one of the leading banks in the West, the progressive spirit of its managers assure even greater success in the future. A Joke on Burnham The Burlington Gazette is authority for a rumor that L. B. Burnham of that city is to be appointed a state bank examiner to succeed D. H. McKee, of Mediapolis. Dave McKee has proven to be one of the best exam iners Iowa ever had. There will be no vacancy in his position as long as he can be induced to remain and he has no intention of resigning at present. Brother Burnham will be obliged to attack the pie counter at a different place. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 53 Passing of Pioneer Omaha Banker The ranks of the pioneer bankers of the West— those who started the business in territorial days—are fast being depleted by the grim harvester. The latest to yield to the scythe was Herman Kountze, for more than half a century one of the prominent bankers of the West. Although his home was in Omaha and his direct business that of the First National Bank of that city, through his connection with brothers— the firm of Kountze Bros., New York—and with one of the large banks in Denver, he .was in direct influence with the large monetary and commercial affairs of the country. For forty-three years he was president p f the First National of Omaha. He was careful and judicious, but not unprogressive. He avoided publicity and his work was not always recognized. He took an active part in the development of Omaha and in the charities and benevolences he was an active worker and a gen erous contributor. Union Stock Yards National of Omaha The Union Stock Yards National Bank of South Omaha in anticipation of the Nebraska State Conven tion sent out an invitation extending the courtesies of their bank to visiting bankers and including also a card of admission to the Armour packing plant and a ticket good for meals at the Hotel Department. Must Give Names of Correspondent Banks In the call which State Auditor Carroll has issued to the state and savings banks of Iowa for November 12, attention of the Iowa bankers has been directed to the code provision that they report the names as well as the location of the banks in which they have funds on deposit. Many bankers have been interpreting sec tion 1872 of the banking laws to require the naming in their statements of only the cities where they have de posits without specifying the banks. Attorney General Mullan has interpreted the section to require the names of the banks, and State Auditor Carroll is now requiring strict compliance. Many country bankers have seemed to be reluctant to make known the names of their correspondent banks, but the statements will all have to contain these names here after. Week End Rate via M. & St. L. R. R. On Saturdays and Sundays the Minneapolis & St. Louis R. R. will sell round trip excursion tickets Des Moines to Waterville and Montgomery, Minn., at one fare plus $2.00. Return limit seven days, including day of sale. Buy tickets at City Ticket Office, 512 Walnut St., or Union Station, Des Moines, Iowa. THE DETROIT COIN WRAPPER M illion s are used annually b y B anks, T ru st C om panies. R ailroa d s, E tc. M ade to b o ld all silver coin s, nickels, pennies, etc., in am ounts fro m 25 cen ts up to $20.00. S am ples, p rice list and d escrip tiv e circu lar free. W e also m ake coin b ags in tw en ty sizes and special sizes to order. W rite the DETROIT 18 J O H N R ST.. COIN DETROIT, WRAPPER MICH. CO. T H E N O RTH W ESTERN 54 BA N K ER. December, 1906 The Victor Manganese Steel Bank Safe W a s the only Manganese safe at the W orlcfs Fair, St. Louis 1904 to take the Grand Prize and High est Award in Department D, Group 41, Class 238. The only official classification, and the only group in which all the safe companies competed. The Victor Manganese steel is made by the Hadfield Process, and is the only safe that has never been opened by burglarious methods. Write for catalogue 57 B. Im proved a n d p a t e n t e d The Victor Safe and Lock Co. . C I N C I N N A T I , O H IO . “ W IN TER QUALITY NEVER F IX T U R E S .” SLIGHTED FOR PRICE. M. Winter Lumber Compa’y S h e b o y g a n , W is ., U. S. .A.. Established 1865. D E S IG N E R S A N D M A N U F A C T U R E R S O F HiQh-Grade Bank. OiTice and Commercial Furniture Special Bank and Office Fixture Catalog. Special Chair Catalog. Special Desk Catalog. Sent on Application. E ag le P a ss, T exa s, July 22, 1905. T h e M- W in ter L u m b er Co.. S heboygan , W is., G e n tle m e n :—W e b eg to hand you h erew ith our d ra ft on N ew Y o r k fo r the am ou nt o f you r hill. W e have the furnitu re in place and are very m uch pleased w ith it; you certa in ly gave us a go o d jo b and it arriv ed here in fine con dition. Y ou rs truly, S. P . Sam pson, Cashier, B ord er N a tion a l B ank. The Fidelity and Casualty Company, 97 TO 103 C E D A R S T .. N E W YORK C IT Y . ASSETS.....................................................................................................................$ 7,683,067.93 CAPITAL AND SURPLUS...................................................................................... 2,986.463.85 LOSSES PAID TO JANUARY 1, 1906................................................................. 21,742,060.27 T H IS COM PANY G R AN TS IN SU R A N C E A S FO LLO W S: Bonds o f Suretyship fo r persons in position o f trust, F id elity Bonds, B urglary, P late Glass, Steam Boiler, F ly W heel, E m ployers, P u b lic, Team s, W ork m en ’ s C ollective, E leva tor and Gen eral L ia b ility , P ersonal A ccid en t, H ealth and Bonded A ttorneys L ist O F F IC E R S : GEORGE F. SEWARD, President. ROBERT J. HILLAS, Vice-Pres., Sec’y. HENRY CR0SSLEY, Assistant Secretary FRANK E. LAW, 2nd Assistant Secretary. GEO. W. ALLEN, 3rd Assistant Secretary D IR E C T O R S: W illia m P. D ixon. D ix on & H olm es; A lfred M, H oyt, B an k er: A urelius B. H u ll. R etired M erchant; G eo. E. Ide, P res. H om e L ife Ins. Co. W illia m G. L ow . C ounselor-at-law ; John G. M cCullough, E rie R ailroad C o.: W illia m J, M atheson, M erch an t: H enry E, P ierrep on t, R etired ; A n ton A. R aven, A tla n tic M utual Ins. C o.; John L , R ik er, o f J. L . & D. S. R ik e r; W . E m len R oosev elt, B an k er; D u m on t Clark, P res. A m eri can E xch an ge N ation al Bank; A lex an der E. O rr; R etired M erchant; G eorge F . Sew ard, P resident. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis T H E NO RTH W ESTERN BAN KER, December, 1906 55 R E P R E S E N T A T IV E IO W A BAN K S BENNETT — Bennett Savings Bank. INDEPENDENCE — BOONE — Boone National Bank. KLEMME — First National Bank. LE MARS— National State Bank. MASON CITY — C apital, 150.000. Surplus, $100,000. .U ndivided P ro fits, $53.189. D ep osits, $1.210,968 John T. R em ey, P res. J. W . B rook s, V ice-P resand Cashier. M. C. S telle, A sst. Cashier. CASTANA — Castana Savings Bank. First National Bank. MILFORD — Citizens National Bank. MEDIAP0LIS — People’s Trust and Savings Bank. M0NTICELL0 — Winneshiek County State Bank. MARSHALLTOWN — Marshalltown State Bank. C apital, $100,000. S urplus and P ro fits, $50.000, D ep osits, $750,000. A . F . B alch , P res., G. A .T u rn er, V ice-P res. P . S. B alch , Cash,, C. C. T rine, Asst-Cash. NEW HAMPTON — C apital, $100,000.. Surplus, $25.000. U n divided P rofits, $25,000. D ep osits, $825,000. E . J. W eiser, P res. E . W . D. H o lw a y , V . P . R . A lg y er, C ashier. A . A n kin son , T eller. ELD0RA — First National Bank. Iowa State Savings Bank. POCAHONTAS — Forest City National Bank. REINBECK — First National Bank. ROCK RAPIDS — First State Bank. SIOUX CITY — The Peoples Bank. VICTOR — https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Commercial State Bank. Capital, $100,000. Surplus, $20,000. U ndi vided P rofits, $29,845. D ep osits. $343,818. O. M. G illett, P res., A. J. B arnihart, V . P. C. E . P u rd y , Cashier. Farmers Savings Bank. C apital, $25,000. Surplus, $15,000. U ndivided P ro fits, $3,500. D eposits, $400,000. H. C. P h elp s, P re s., L e v i L ew is, V ice-P res. H. L . M ussetter, C., F lo re n ce M ussetter, A . C. WILTON JUNCTION--Union Savings Bank. C apital, 100,000. S urplus, $50,000. G. L . Trem ain, P resid en t W . W . Sterns, C ashier. A ll busin ess giv en good attention. INDEPENDENCE — Live Stock National Bank. L o ca te d at S io u x C ity S to ck Y a rd s. Capital, $100,000. Surplus, $75,000. Geo. H . R athm an, P res., F . L . E aton , V ice-P . M elvin E . B auer, Cash,, J. H . O sborne. A ss t C C apital, $50,000. Surplus, $84,616. U ndivid ed P rofits, $9,315. D eposits, $285,000. O. C. P errin , P res., M. J. P errin . V ice-P res. T, L . S tob er, Cashier. HUMB0LT — Lyon County National Bank. M iller & T hom p son . C apital, $75,000. O. P . M iller, J, K . P . T hom pson . M. A . C ox, Cash. F . B. P a rk er. A sst-C a sh , Capital, $200,000. Surplus, $50.000. U ndivid ed P rofits, $55,000. Deposits. $1,850,000. W e b b V in cen t, P res., J. L . M ulvaney, V . P , E , H. R ich , Cash., Geo. L . R ich , A s s ’t. Cash, GREENE — Bank of Reinbeck. C apital, $100,000. Surplus, $40.000. N. R. P ie rce , P re s ., Joh n W ils o n , Cashier. E . P . B ieb er, A s s ’t Cashier. C apital and S urplus, $65,000. G. S. G ilbertson, P res.. W . O. H anson, V . P . C. H. K elley , V ice-P res , C. A . Isaacs.C ashier. M. J. Joh n son , A s s ’t C ashier. FORT DODGE — City Exchange Bank. W ill D. M cE w en, P res., H. C. D oyle, Cash. B an k in g and R eal E sta te, C ollections a s p e cia lity. G eneral b a n k in g busin ess trans acted. C apital, $60,000, Surplus, $60,000, U ndivided P ro fits, $30,000, D ep osits, $600,000. J. E . R oth , P res. E. A . H ow ard, V ice-P res. C. P .H ague, Cash. F . E. C allister, A ss ’t, Cash. FOREST CITY — First National Bank. Capital. $50,0000. Surplus, $10,000. U ndivided P rofits, $5,000. D eposits, $300,000. A . E. B igelow , P res. T im D on ovan,’V ice-P . C. A . L a rson , Cashier. G ran t M. B ig e lo w A. C C apital, $50,000. Surplus and P ro fits, $35,000. J. H. B ales, P res., D. E , B yam , V ice-P res. W . J. M urray, Cash., W . E . R athbone, A , W . C rossan, A . C ashiers. Y o u r business solicited. FAIRFIELD — The Monticello State Bank. C apital. $100,000. Surplus and P ro fits, $150 000. D eposits, $1,348,000 S. S, F a rw ell. P res. W m . S tu h le r, V ice-P res. H. M. C arpenter,C ., H .S. R ich a rd son , A -Cash. C apital, $300,000. Surplus and P rofits, $190,000. D eposits, $4,250,000. G , E . , L a m b , P res. C. F . A lden, V ice-P res. C. B. M ills, Cash. W . W . C ook, A sst. Cash. DEC0RAH — Citizens State Bank. C apital, $50,000, Surplus, $20,000. D eposits, $350,000. D. H. M cK ee, P re s., J osep h B arton , V . P res. M. U . B ridw ell, Cashier. C apital, $200,000. Surplus, $40,000. U ndivided P rofits, $15,000. D eposits, $1,400,000. J. R . A m idon. P re s ., T . C. M unger and C. E . P utm an , V 'P resid en ts, R . T. F orbes, C. CLINTON — First National Bank. C apital. $35,000. Surplus, $7,000. U ndivided P ro fits, $5,000. D ep osits. $125,000. P . R asm ussen, P res., C. F orsten son , V . P. C. F ,M a u ss, Cash., V . D. F lem m ing, A . Cash. Capital, $50.000. Surplus, $35.000. U ndivided P rofits. $7,000. D eposits, $550,000. N . T . B urrou gh s, P ., W . A . S anford, V ice-P . R , H, S crib n er, Cash., C. Sullivan, A ss ’t C. CEDAR RAPIDS — First National Bank. C apital, $150,000. Surplus. $150.000. D eposits, $1.800,000. C. H. M cN ider, P res. W . G. C. B agley. C. A . P a rk e r, A s s ’ t Cashiers. Capital, $50,000. S urplus and U ndivided P rofits, $15,000. D ep osits, $150.000. W , T. D ay, P res., S. S. W illits , V ice-P res. E ,E . W ile y , Cash., H a rry W h ittie r, A ss’t. C. CHEROKEE — First National Bank. P . F . D alton, P res. G. L . W e rn li, V ice-P res? E . A. D alton, C ashier. J. A. H offm ann, A sst. CashC apital, $100,000. Surplus, $20,000. U ndivided P ro fits, $8,000. D ep osits. $1,085,000- Capital. $60,000. Surplus, $40,000. U ndivided P rofits, $20,000. D eposits, $340.000. S. S. S w eet, P res,, F , E , Z a lisk y , V ice-P res. G . R . Ahrens, Cash,, W . A . W a ll, A ps’ t. Cash. B U R LIN G T O N - State Savings Bank. C apital, $15,000. Surplus, $2,500. U n divided P ro fits, $1,000. D ep osits, $90.000. W . R. B loom , P ., D. D. R oss, W m . K a tter. V . P ’s., P . M. G uesem er, C., F . J. W en ch , A. Capital. $100,000. Surplus. $25,000. U ndivid ed P ro fits . $10,000. D ep osits. $410.000. E . E. H ughes, P res. E . C. F u rrow , V ice-P res. T. L. A sh ford , Cash., A . W . B runside, A Cash. BELLE PLAINE — First National Bank. C apital, $100.000. S urplus, $60,000. U n d ivid ed P ro fits. $40,000. D ep osits. $655,000. W . G. D on non, P res., R. M. C am pbell, V . PR . B. R aines,»C ash.. W . G. Stevenson, A. Cash. C apital, $20,000. Surplus, SlO'OOO. U ndivi-d ed P rofits, $3,000. D ep osits, $220,000, D. H Snoke. P r e s ,,0 . W . S chiele, V ice-P res. J. P . M yers. C ashier, A , B rand t, A s s ’ t. Cash. C apital, $40,000. Surplus, $20,000. U ndivided P ro fits $2,500. D eposits, $400,000. A , R . L eith, P res., H . W elda sin , V ice-P res. W . D. H arris. Cashier. WESLEY — Security Bank. C apital, $30,000. S urplus, $7,900. U ndivided P ro fits, $1,346. D ep osits, $159,825. R od n ey H ill, P re s.. G eo. B. H all, Cashier, L o u is B. R asm ussen, A s s ’ t Cashier. 56 T H E N O RTH W ESTERN fi Golden State BAN KER. December, 1906 Ï Anything Limited . . . IN THE WAY OF It is contem plated to resum e d a ily service o f this popu lar train on N ovem ber 11, 1906, fo r the fifth season. W e take pleasure in an n ou n cin g that it w ill be com posed o f entirely new equipm ent th rou g h ou t—the latest design s from P u ll man shops, in clu d in g m any new features. M ission style d in in g cars, state-room and draw in g-room sleepin g cars, and new u n i q u e bu ffet-observation c a r s — a l s o finished in M ission style. D aily from C h icago, St. D ouis, and K ansas City, to D os A n g eles, Santa Barbara and San F ran cisco. A Q uality train fo r the “ Q u a lity ” W ont Y O U plan to try it this season? G EO . R. K U N E , Walnut Des Moines, Valley : “ Soo” Line IN THE STATES OF T H E P E E R O E A L L G U ID E S Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan. For Hunting Folder Send Two-cent Stamp to W. Street : IS EASILY REACHED BY THE ^ Agent. 423 GAME R. CALLAWAY S. P. A., MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA. Iowa National Bank... Second National Bank of OF D E S M O IN ES Condensed Statement, November 12, 1906. COMPTROLLER’S CALL Dubuque, Iowa. Report of Condition at Close of Business N o v . 12, 1906. RESOURCES Loans and Discounts....................................................... $1,250,190.17 Overdrafts......................................................................... 1,383.73 Municipal and other Bonds....................... '..................... 184,634.85 Banking House................................................................... 20,000.00 Other Real Estate....................... none Furniture and Fixtures..................................................... none Premiums on U. S. Bonds................................................. none United States Bonds.......................................................... 295,020 00 Cash and Exchange.'......................................................... 546,820.16 Total ......................................................................$2,298,048.91 L IA B IL IT IE S Capital Stock.................................................................... $ 200,000.00 Surplus................................................................................. 100,000.00 Undivided Profits (net)..................................................... 22.000.38 Circulation.......................................................................... 193,70000 Deposits............................................................................... 1,783,348.53 Total........................................................................ $2,298,048.91 RESOURCES: Ca s h — On H a n d ..............................................— ............... $121,390.00 W ith Other B a n k s................................................ 416,662.41 W ith U. S. T re a su re r........................................... 15,000.00 553,052.41 I nvestm en ts — L o a n s ....................... ................................................. 929,533.58 B ond s and O ther S e cu rities.............................. 446.250,83 O v e r d r a fts .............. 538.21 B an kin g H ouse and R eal E sta te__ -................ 50,000.00 1,426,322.62 T o t a l................................. $1,979,375.03 LIABILITIES D e p o s it s — Ind ivid u a ls.........................-.....................................$645,596.34 B an ks —i.................................................................... 563,218.33 U n ited S ta te s ..................... 62,838.48 $1,171,653.15 Ca p i t a l — P a id in ................................................., ................... 300,000.00 S urplus and P r o fits .............................................. 107,721.88 $407,721.88 Ci r c u l a t i o n .................................................................................... $300,000.00 T o t a l ...................................................................... $1,979,375.03 T h is B an k transacts a com m ercia l busin ess on ly , and p a ys no interest e xce p t on b alances o f o th e r hanks. R. A. CRAWFORD, President. f D. S. CHAMBERLAIN, Vice-President W. E. BARRETT, Cashier. o e f ic e s : J. K . D e m in g , P re s, W . H. D a y , V ice .P re s . H e r m . E s c h e n , C ashier ACCOUNTS OF BANKS, F IRMS AND INDIVIDUALS SOLICITED https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis AND GIVEN CAREFUL ATTENTION. d ir e c t o r s : Chas, H . B rad ley, Jam es M. B u rch , J, K . Dem ing, P , A . R um p f, W . H. D ay. H. B , G lov er G eo, W , K ie se l.
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