The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-25
Observation-Disclosures
SAFEGUARDS USED BY BANKS TO
PREVENT CHECK RAISING.

PREVENT CHECK RAISING.
Frauds on Checks OF the Present pav
Almost an Impossibility-N
Per Cent. of New York Bills Paid By
Checks.
From the Neo York Press
Tho forty-eight national banks of New
York city have a combined capital of all
most $50, 900. 900. The forty-fve state bank.
have combined capital of about SIS. 600
COZ. This gives a total capital, when saw
iugs banks and the numerous private insti-
buttons are excluded, Of Sos, 0o0, 900. The
aggregate of business which occu-
pies this enormous amount of money
is appalling 10 think Of The first
picture 1t calls to the mind OF the
layman shows vaults full of coins and green
backs. drays with springs bent under the
weight of bags Of money and weary count
ings Of bills and countings aud weIghinRs
OF coin. As q matter Of fact greenbacks
and coin play an Insignificant part in these
vast transactions. One small draw could
hold and one horse could pull the mediums
by which niueteen-twentieths of all last
years business In the state and national
banks Of this city was done. The load
would consist OF little packages Of different
colored paper, not bags OF coin or verdant
bundles of legal scrip.
Ninety-five per cent of be money trans
actions In the associated banks of New
York are accomplished by means OF checks
and drafts, leaving per cent of the total
business to be represented by coin or paper
money. Finance has been reduced 20 a sort
of socialism.
If actual gold and actual silver were
passed from hand to hand with each pur-
chase and sale, the juggling stream would
actually choke the channels OF trade and
make business Of one-half the existing
volume impossible. The manual labor Of
handling and guarding the precious bits OF
metal and conveying them from buyer to
seller would absorb one-tenth Of the money
itself. All prices would increase and no
one would be benefited for the money
spent would be paid for useless labor.
NO RISK is INVOLVED.
Some one has called these transactions In
checks a grand exhibition of the confidence
which business men have in each other.
There is, necessarily, certain amount of
reliance placed by one business man in the
honesty OF his associate, but it need not be
one whit greater if their dealings are by
means of checks than il they actually pass
the cash back and forth with the consum-
nation OF each bargain, for the reason
where the payee is in doubt as to the
responsibility Of the maker Of the check be
simply presents the check TO the bank and it
is certified, and the bank takes the place of
the maker of the check. Thus. assuming
that the bank is doing sound business,
checks may be said to be as safe as real
monay. By reason OF the safeguards
thrown about and the precautions taken by
well -regulated banks the. signature of a
small merchant is as sacred and his trans
action is thus made as safe and secure as
tn Sc Of the largest merchants or the gov
eminent itself. .-'.....-.....-
In fact it may be safely said that less
money is lost every year throughout the
country through forged or altered checks
than there is through counterfeited coins
and bank and treasury notes.
HOW FRAUD MAY BIZ DONE WITH CHECKS.
There are only two ways of committing
fraud with check. One is by forging the
entire document signature aud all, and the
other is by raising the amount called for by
altering or adding to the genuine figures
marked on the check by its. maker. Any
person who reads the newspapers knows
that both are practiced, but the extent Of
this evil doing is greatly overestimated.
There are hundreds of ways Of committing
fraud with a coin or a bill, and the chances
lOT Qot0CtlOn are lnQeIlUlCeIy sU16li9r.
A fraudulent check finds its way at once to
the cashier of the bank on which it is
drawn, and long training has made him ex-
pert in detecting such methods of cheating.
The machinery of the bank traces the check
back 60 the man who received it with swift
and unerring certainty. Counterfeits OF
real money are passed on the needless and
non-expert public. On the other hand
transactions by check are, therefore, not
only the most convenient, but the safest
way Of making payments of money.
NOT ONE FORGERY IN $3.50, 0O0, 900.
Edwin Langdon, vice president of the
Central National Bank, which does an
enormous business for its thousands of de-
positors, said yesterday to a Press reporter:
THE idea that forged or raised checks
are plentiful" said Mr.. Langdou, lis mis-
take. The aggregate of such frauds is
marvelousIy small when compared to the
aggregate OF the loss that the public suffer
every year from counterfeit money. In
the current year just past we paid checks
aggregating more than 1850, 000, 900, yet
during that period there was not one check
paid by US, so far as we know, that his
been pronounced a forged signature.
OF course many checks are brought
to our windows which have been drawn
by people having accounts smaller than the
amount the checks calls for, or none at all;
but there is little danger of loss through
them. That is avoided by the right identi>
fication which every bank demands of peo-
pie to whom its pays money. This has been
the cause of much grumbling and discon-
tent among those Inconvenience by it, but
it is very necessary for the protection of
our customers as well as ourselves. The
great virtue of a check is that 1t is payable
only to the person to whose favor it is
drawn, and if lost losses nothing OF value
Forged signature are infrequent, when
the enormous aggregate of business is con.
sidered. Once in a while one will turn up,
Of course, but even then the chances are ten
to one that it will be discovered before the
check is paid. Altered amounts are occa~
sionally in evidence, but they are easily pre-
ventable.
HOW ALTERATION MAY BE PREVENTED.
Almost every business man nowadays
who has an account at a bank and q check
book. provides himself with some one of
the numerous appliances which have been
invented to prevent raising or alteration Of
the figures If always used they are GER
tain safeguards.
Among the first of these schemes was
the stamp, which; by means of brass dies
roughens and perforates that portion Of the
check on which the amount is written.
This is effective, for it makes ii impossible
Tor forger to ramper with the written
figures by adding to them or altering them
L.. 4.