The Russellville Democrat., 1876-04-13
NO. 12.

manu. uc fcSluue, Do i,JoJI
 consisted of post notes not yet
 arrived at maturity. The cofidi|
 tion of the institution at this timd
 was one of great strength, and or'
 the first day of January, 1889, thd
 principal bank at Little hock, and
 the branches at Fayetteville and
 Batesville commenced paying spel
 cie on all notes, they had then
 in circulation, including post
 notes that were not due till tweltd
 months after date. The brancli
 at the Post of Arkansas, which
 commenced diseounting on the 3dl
 day of January, 1889, never issued
 post notes. At this session thd
 Legislature, by an act passed De-
 cember Is, 1888, made an effort
 to extend the supposed adYantag
 es of the system, by authorizing
 the establishment of an addition Il
 al branch at the town of Washing
 ton, with q capital of $500, ,000, to| be raised by sale of new six peri cent. bonds. They also dircctcd| such of the five per cent. bcnds| as remained undisposed of to bel cancelled. The branch at Arkan
 sas Post commenced business oh| the 3d of January, 1859. On| that day it discounted notes ted the amount of $60,950, all having| six months to run. In granting| loans for such a long date, it acted on the principles of a loan oflice| rather than of bank; and thus the directors, by the first step| they took, laid the foundation for future difficulties. Before thc| close of the month they added $3l 300, to these loans and dis counts, none of which were for less than six months. January 24, the president stated that "from the apparent difficulty of obtain ing a circulation of our paper at| the present time, he felt it his| duty to apprise the board that it| would be necessary to restrict the loans to shorter period. That the loans for twelve months should not exceed $100,OO0, including those taken by directors, and that it would hereafter be necessary to discriminate between appli- cants as well as counties" Jan
 uary 3l, the president made a
 still longer eXhortation to the board. In 1t he said: You will sec by the statement just made that our circulation is $64,O00. Could we reasonably calculate on this sum being in actual use,, passing from hand to hand as a circulating medium, it would af- ford me pleasure to recommend 2 continuance of the liberal policy heretofore observed in respect to,| discounts. But the daily demand at our counter, leads conc.usively to the opinion that not more than $15,000 or $l6,000 of that sum is in actual transit from hand, to hand, the remainder being held up in large sums for the purpose of calling on the bank for specie or eastern exchange" April 24th the president said "embarrass- ment in the south continues to in- crease daily. Most of the banks in Mississippi which had resumed
 specie payments in January last have again suspended, and others have come to the alternative of issuing post notes. Also some of the banks in Louisiana, as l am creditably informed, are issuing post notes to protect themselves from the great demand for specie. The banks in Arkansas sometime back stopped discounting, and so far as 1 can learn, the demands upon them have been such as considerably to diminish the spe- cie fund, and greatly curtail the circulation. The statement Of this bank just read, shows to you that the specie continues gradu- ally to diminish without anything that may be considered run"
 Notwithstanding this, the di- rectors took immediate measures for the erection of a costly bank ing house. May 30, the presi- dent said: "Here, and in every part of the state to which my in formation extends, there appears to he a great scarcity of money; am, however, happy to inform you that the situation of the principal bank and branches is such as will enable them to meet any crisis or
 emergency that may or can pcssi bly happen. In con
 sequence of the protest of bills of exchange belonging to this bank
 in New Orleans, our resources are
 not so great at this time as we had
 good reason to expect they would be. I also am afraid that the great scarcity of menoy will cause many of these persous who ob- tained discounts on notes payable at maturity te ask for renewal or further extension of time to pay them." Get. 3l, the branch re- solved to suspend specie pay ments."
 Such is briefly" continues the report from which we copy, "the
 history of the only office of the hank nf tha sinln nf Al.EanSao