Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-02-14
I. TAPE IN BANKS.
An Emphatic Protest Against the
Identification Nuisance.
How Man May Have Millions In His
Pocket and BE Unable to Buy
MeaI-Banling Experiences In
Our Cities and Abroad.

! A rich man compelled to pawn his watch
/ for a square meal and nights lodging.
| That, writes the New York correspondent
/ Of the St Louis Globe Democrat was the
strange situation in which young English
man who had just landed in New York
found himself the other day. He had ar
rived from the West Indies, where he in
vested nearly all the money on his person in
a draft for goo on a New York bank.
Anxious to get a train for St Louis the
same day he hurried to the bank for his
money. The teller refused to pay the draft
until he was identified
And the young man was an absolute
stranger in New York;
Your people in the West Indies took my
| good money for that draft and l want it
back again Am l to infer that this is a
bankrupt institution"
He got no satisfaction, lost his train and
mad top pawn his watch for meal and bed
A fellow-passenger identified him the next
day | was discussing this matter the other
! day with very liberal American who has
had much banking and mercantile expert
ence here and abroad. Americans said
he, "are the worst bankers in the world
lhey don't know the first thing about bank
! ing Even TO the smallest details foreign
| ers can give us points. The methods pur-
sued IN the mere paying and receiving of
money in New York suggest the idea that
every man who enters bank is possible
thief This" he continued, Judging from
the numerous defalcauons, might apply to
! the officers of the bank, but il is most
unjust to the public. person who goes
into store where he is surrounded on all
sldes by valuable goods is not supposed to
De there Tor purposes of robbery-and why
should 1t be different In a bankl Indeed,
| new ork in this respect never seems to
nave gotten beyondits village days. Nothing
looks more ridiculous to a London mercan-
tl!e man IMAM TO see long string of persons
WIN DOCKS IN their hands waiting to make
a deposit through cubby hole with a soil
tary receiving teller-andi it is the same with
the payment of money A bank with a
large business ought to have half a dozen
receiving and as many paying tellers
| at large, wide, open counters WHY all
these cages and ratings and bars and peep
holes through which you are occasionally
| permitted to catch glimpse Of the teller's
nose who suddenly and unwillngly hands
| you your moneys They don't have these
lhlngs IN England, and robbcries in banks
there are rare. Here, despite all these pre-
cautions, they are frequent, and a large pro
portion are committed by those inside of
the railing and not outside of it,
u don't like TO be looked upon when en-
ter New York bank stranger as if l
had natural prediction for perjury and
forgery, for the teller is not satisfied if YOU
tell him your right name and even sign 1T
you must be identified. In England checks
are usually made payable to bearer. Shall
cross it?' asks the drawer, which means
that by drawing two lines across the check
and inserting the words Bank and Co
between the lines the money can only be
collected through bank or banking firm.
Otherwise any bearer can get the cash at
the bank without any questions being asked
except, How will you have itp | may send
any body with my check payable bearer
for $4,000 to a bank and he will get tho
money without any trouble. In n New York
bank such an amount would create the ut
most CONSERVATION. All the detectives in
New York would be Immediately rung up
TO aid the officers of the bank, from presi-
dent down to janit0r, in watching the rash
Intruder Here a check of draft is usually
made payable to order, but stranger may
indOrsc it in the presence of the teller and
he'll never get the money without identih-
cation, no matter what ordinary proof in
the way of letters or cards the hold
or of the check may have about
his person. OF course if q paying
teller has good reason to think that
a check or draft has been stolen or
found he would be justified in refusing pay
ment and holding the party who presented
it; but in ninety-nine cases out of hundred
there are no grounds for suspicion. For
eigners are always grumblng at our stupid
rules, and if it were once known abroad
that there was a banking house in New
York that would pay drafts to people with
out identification such concern would soon
have the cream Of the Travellers draft
business ~
This attack on the system pursued here,
which is certainly unworthy Of a great me
trOpolis, recalls an experience Of my own.
A friend of mine some years ago gave me n
check for 200 payable TO me or bearer, on
the Sixth National Bank of Now York /
presented it, Don't know YOU" said the
teller. "Neither have | the pleasure OF
your acquaintance was the answer, "but
my name is on the check and | am also the
bearer Cant help it; it's too large an
amount TO give TO a stranger, and you must
be identified" "My friends are out Of
town." said /, and President Arthur Is In
Washington. | can't very well send for
him. "Well, won't give you the money"
"Then write your reasons on the check"
"No, | won't do that" "Thpn." sald /, ~
am newspaper man. | shall protoat this
check and proclaim in Wall street this after
noon that the Sixth National Bank refuses
10 honor the checks drawn on IT," got the
money