Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-24
FIGHT WITH SILVER.
A Bank Hurling Big Round Dollars
at an Express Company.
THE LATTER DOESN'T LIKE 1T.
1t Has Hired Notary and Taken other
Steps for Protection.
COIN HAULED BY THE CART L0AD

NEW YORK, Jan. pa silver war is
being waged on Long Island. 1t is carried
on by the Far Rockaway Bank against the
Long Island Express Company and the
Queens County Bank, in Long Island City.
Brand new silver dollars are being used by
the Far Rockaway Bank in the fight, which
has now been going on for about two
months. During that time tons of silver
dollars have been shipped to and fro be-
tween New York and Far Rockaway.
The Queens County Bank is the only bank
on Long Island, outside of Brooklyn, con-
nected with the New York Clearing
House. In consequence great many
checks from New York City on Long Is
land banks pass through it. Until recently
it has been the custom of country banks
doing business with each other to pay
their accounts with checks deposited with
them, receiving in return cashiers checks
or checks on banks in New York. In this
way the banks handling the checks made a
small percentage on the transactions. The
Queens County Bank, however, concluded
it could make its collections more conven-
iently and promptly by turning its checks
over to the. Long Island Express
Company for collection, and allow
ing that company to make the
percentage instead of some small bank.
Dumped In Lot of Silver.
Cashier Smith of the Far Rockawav
Bank objected to the express company
getting the percentages he considered due
his bank, and he set about making the
company earn its money. He filled the
safes of his bank with silver dollars from
the Sub-Treasury of this city, which under
the law the Government ships free to its
customers. The morning after the first
supply was received an expressman hustle d
into the bank with big check to be cashed.
Cashier Smith put one of the teilers counting
out the amount in silver dollars, one at a
time. For more than an hour the express
man stood outside the grating balancing
himself on one leg and then on the other,
while he gazed in at a big pile of glittering
silver dollars which teller was counting
AS all the money paid out has to be
counted over twice it takes considerable
time to count out several thousand dollars
in silver one dollar at time. From that
morning up to the present time the same
scenes are repeated daily at this bank.
1t finally became so bad that it
took all the time of ore express
man to get the checks cashed.
The Fight Getting Hotter.
Then the express company tried the plan
of sending man for each check. Almost a
dozen expressmen besieged the window one
morning with checks They blocked out the
private customers of the bank, and then the
expressmen smiled.
As the season opens and business becomes
more brisk the fight wakes hotter. The e1-
press company now sends a man to the bank
when it first opens with checks to be cashed.
Several hours later an express wagon drives
around and the silver is loaded on and carted
away. The amount of silver paid out is
sometimes so great that it takes more than
two men to lift it into the wagon.
The express company has made new
move in the fight by having one of their
employees, c. w. Smith, of Lawrence, made
a notary. Mr.. Smith will carry his Office
in his hat, but his headquarters will be the
Far Rockaway Bank. 1t is the intention of
the express company to have him accom-
pany the expressmen with checks to the
bank, and if they are not promptly paid to
protest them at once.