New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-06-12
SAYINGS BANK TRUSTEES.

Bank Superintendent Ellis estimated that tho
unfc.tunate dcpositors in the six savings banks
which failed last year in this city would
recover three-fourths of their deposits. The
dividends which the receivers are slowly pay
ing. as well as the revelations which followed
close scrutiny of accounts, Indicate lower
figure. But the actual loss of money, con-
siderable as it is represents only portion OF
the injury inflicted on depositors. large
proportion of them had laid aside their
money, not with an indefinite idea OF
saving it, but for specific purposes. The
mere delay, even if the bank could pay
in full, would be to them a serious matter.
Anxious, needing their money for some emer.
gency these people cannot wait. They sell
their accounts to brokers at a sacrifice meas
ured by their fears and necessities. Among them
there are many who will never again deposit
in n savings bank. They would rather, they
say, squander money themselves, than give
it to Others to squandcr. They become mission
aries of this bad doctrine, and discourage
others who might otherwise lay aside their
savings. The failure of one of these banks is
felt not only at the time, but indirectly for
months aftcrward, by the rest OF the savings
banks in this and adjoining cities.
While variety of circumstances contributed
to the failure of the broken concerns, 1t has
been shown that in some of them there was
stealing and in others almost equally criminal
carelessness. There should be little distinc-
ton between the treatment of the thief who
robs TILL and Of the trustee who assentS to
acts that steal the money of savings bank
depositor. Until the passage OF the general
act of 1875, there were several grave defects
i'm the laws and charters of savings banks.
They could put up extravagant buildings with
out regard to their means; AMI as n specimen,
the Central Park Bank, with deposits amount
ing to about $4,000, invested $4,000
in q lot and banking house. Superin-
tendent Ellis characterized the perform
ance as a piece of corporate stupidity,
approaching the marvellous" They
could invest their available fund In al
most any sort of securities; and the Third
Avenue Bank showed what the law did permit
by lending hundreds of thousands of dollars
on the stocks of tho Atlantic and Pacific Mail
Steamship Companies with slender margin.
They could cover up their deficiencies by the
hocus- pocus of fraudulent bookkeeping nnd
| false statements, and, when trustees and OFF,
GERS made oath to these lies, way was found
| by shrewd lawyers to protect the false swearers
against the penalties OF perjury. Let us hope
| that the trial of that case will not end there
| The trustees who wlnkcd ut wrong cannot plead
ignorance 1t was their business to know.
Failing to find out the actual condition Of the
funds in their safe keeping, they became part
ners in the crimes by which those funds were
stolen or lost.
The trustees Of the older savings banks had
a very different idea of their duty from that
which has obtained in many of the younger
institutions. When the first savings banks
were organized in this city, their trustees set
forth in their applications for charters that the
bank. were designed to cultivate habits Of
thrift among the poorer classes; to invest
their money for them to the best possible adj
vantage and, in short, that the aims sought
were purely benevolent. Those respectable
old merchants who undertook the task of
| founding our first savings banks gave their
own personal labor, absolute clerical toll, for
years. without reward The notion that bank
might be formed to give employment to q
real-estate lawyer in searching titles, and to
provide salaries for officers and clerks
who would otherwise be burden to
their families or their patty, had not yet
dawned upon tho community. 1t was one OF
the discoveries Of the Ring era in this city.
Here and at Albany that era was marked by a
succession of efforts of politicians to get con-
troll Of savings banks funds. The banks that
were then created would have had hard time
since, even if well managed. The rate of in
terest on the investments to which they are
now restricted is, at present, below that which
the savings banks are paying to their depostOrs.
The surplus which the older banks possess
yields them an additional income from which
they can pay nearly or quite the old rate of
interest to depositors; but the younger banks
are severely strained by the competition Until
there is more activity in business and the price
of money rises, this strain must continue.
There has never been period when the best
of management was so imperatively required
of savings bank trustees there has never been
a period when carelessness their part so
deserved the penalties of crimo
|
"GONE on A TISIT"
There was an amusing morscl of news in the
| morning Dapers the other day and much longer