The Arkansas advocate., 1833-04-10

of agricultural produce iii tue West as, tor instance, at Nashville, within three months in 1881, from S36o,OOO to SI,O62,O00. Aud again, at the same place, in 1882, within about hail year, from S2,760,000 down to Se05s 000. End. That of the easy reduction, during the last year, of about one-eIghth of the whole amount of the bank oebt el.-~- sf 4l TT .,ei a o'''il a tbe amount reduced III the Western oi- fees. Sd. To the very small amount of losses which have occurred Tor some time past in those offices, and the faclll- ty with which, in addition to the aggre gate reduction of loans there, a very considerable proportion of the local debt, on promissory notes, has been con verted into the more secure aud n4an- ageabie form of domestic bills of ex- change.
 If these statements, and this evidence, can be relied upon, the available and secure resources of the Bank amount ed, on the first of January last, to eigh- ty million eight hundred and sixty-ilve thousand dollars, whilst all the claims against it, for bills, debts, aud deposits, including those of the Government, and for the redemption of public debt, were but S37, ,S00.000. leaving aheve forty : sn.c1 uishfoBs as guarantee 10 the na- ton against any losses. For as the whole amount of debts, bills, and de posits, must be paid before the stock holders, the whole capital and the sur plus must be considered as pledge for the debts due to individuals and the Government. As the capital consists of thirty-6ve millions of dollars, il would appear, from this statement, that the Bank had earned, and then possessed, surplus of taeeftg tato per cent. above the amount of it's capital. Whether that surplus could or could not be real lzed, al final winding up of the Bank, is a subject only interesting to the buy CTS, sellers, and holders of stock. The single point of view in which 1t IS im- Porlant 10 the nation, is in regard to its Bank, and tlle consequent saicty of the public deposlteq, and the sound state of the currency. For these objects, it is sufficient to inquire, whether this sur plus does or does not afford sufficient guarantee that the original capital of S35,Oo0,00D IS unimpaircd.
 i'he whole aneuntof bills and paper held by the Bank, on the lst January last, was S6l ,695,000; of which SS,- 2i6.O00 IS stated to be the local debt oi Inc Western States, leaving S53,- I49,000 as the debt of the Atlantic commercial cities, and that in the shape ot domestic bills, between them and the interior. There seems no reason to doubt that the paper of the description last mentioned, is of the same general character as that of other city banks, managed with ordinary dfscretion.-
 Now, It IS we'll known, that, in our great eiaes, business paper is constantly gaarantied by commercial houses of prudence, stability and wealth, for, a del credere commission of tseo and kqlf per cent. On much of the better class of paper, and In some of our Northern cities, upon most of it, the ordinary charge Is much less: but greater pro portion of loss than this ought certainly not to occur in a well managed city bank, where the judgment and i8forn1a- tlon of Board of Directors is com blned with that of it's officers. In point of fact, if is believed That two and ahalf per cent. on their discounted paper actually exceeds the losses of prndentTy managed institutions in our cities But, allowing the loss on the Atlantic and commercial debt, to reach four times that amount, say ten per cent. then S5,370,000 of the surplus, would be an ample guarantee against such loss. This would leave S2,6S0,O00 as Il surplus, which would meet the loss of about one third of the local Western debt, without impairing the original capital of the Bank.
 The committee do not mean to be un- derstood as asserting their belief that the Western debt is more hazardous than that in any other part of the Un- ion. The Bank Directors express their conviction that it is not so; and the agent appointed by the Treasury does moi hesitate to say, ''that he considers that deht in safe and wholesome state, and that a greater amount of loss need not be apprehended from 1t, than from a similar mass distributed in the cities of the Atlantic frontier.n But this esti- mate has been made, because the ex. tent ot. the Western transactions of the Bank has been mentioned as one of the subjects peculiarly calling for investiga- tion.
 These general views of tha sit,.t;o,