New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-12-16
The Clearing House and the Banks.


Tho REPUBLICAN stated ON Saturday
| morning that
All the banks in the city are in line and
fuly competent to resume payment, except
one, which, it is stated, in indebted to the
Clearing House some $685., 900, with nothing
To meet it with, and that the Cleariu :
House has decided to ''carry" the bank
through to prevent its absolute bankruptcy
A committee of the Clearing House has
been appointed to report on Monday on the
propriety Of resuming, and it is thought bv
those best informed that resumption will
not be delayed beyond next week.
On Sunday morning Messrs. Schneider,
Jonas and Irwin, trustees of the Clearing 2
House, published card in reference to this
article, in which they state that
Every Clearing House certificate issued
to any debtor bank IS fully secured by un-
doubted cnllarerals, valued at thirty-three
and one-uhird per cent in excess of such
certificates, and that said article is entirely
untrue.
The REPUBLICAN is pleased that the re-
sponsible gentlemen of the Clearing House
have been induced to coma to the front.
Now il they will go further, and publish a
statement of the condition of all the bank
in the Clearing Honse Association as they
stood at the hour Of clearing on Saturd ay
morning, they will be doing what the pub
lie ask, and have right TO demand. Eithe r
these banks are IN danger of crumbling in to
bankruptcy upon resumption, or else they
are boarding Up the peoples money for i'm
proper purposes. Which is It2
,
''Star Chamber" very much as we are, and
the Hera!d of the eleventh makes this de-
maud upon it:
The banks ATE said to be still increasing
in their gain of legal tenders. 1t would be
eminentiy satisfactory to the public if a
daily statement of the condition of these
institutions were made known, and as soon
as there is complete recuperation-a con
dition of affairs which will ena ole some fl-
ture Committee of Nine" to declare that
the Clearing House Association ia not car
rying as dead weight one fifth of the tidu-
ciary institutions of the city-we trust the
policy will be adopted and perpetuated.
The business men of the country would like
to know the status of their financial repre-
sentatives.
We hold that the public have a right to
know these things, and d newspaper is un-
true to its readers that neglects to furn ish
the facts when it is in its power to give
them. We know the gentlemen of the
Clearing House do not take this view of it,
otherwise they would not have kept secret
the condition of the New Orleans Banking
Association so many days previous to its
failure, after they had exhausted its last
avsilable collateral.
The trustees Of the Clearing House pro-
nounce our article Of Saturday false AS
TO this, time will tell, and the public shall
be the judge. We gave as the reason why
the banks did not resume that one of them
was weak and was indebted to the Clearing
House in the sum of 1922 900, with nothing
to meet it with" Perhaps these were not the
words that should have been used to convey
our meaning. Perhaps the bank has fur
nished collateral-apd It is pretty well un-
derstood what that collateral consists Of
but we assert that al the time the article
was written and printed the figures were
correct; and this fact we are prepared
to prove by one Of the very men who
"eutirely false" for it was from his own
lips the statement came. We assert,
furthermore, that at the hour of clearing,
say eleven o'clock, yesterday morning, the
amount had been decreased only $1,000, leav-
ing the amoun; Of the banks Indebtedness
to the Clearing House still exceeding $685.
coo.
We assert, furthermore, that, although
the three banks which these gentlemen are
at the head of, are shown and believed 10
be fully capable of resumiug any day, and
have been SO for nearly month, they have
made publicly the same excuse for them
selves that we have made for then-that
-hey were waiting for other banks to get in
inc with them; aud because certain other
banks could not resume, they would not.