The morning call., 1893-12-16
UNCLAIMED MONEY
That in Savings Banks Is
Small.
THE PUBLISHED STATEMENTS
Dormant Accounts Are Not a
Possibility.
ALL ACCUMULATING INTEREST.
Specimen Case of How Profits Piled
Up for Thirty Years on
"Dead" Account.


Total ............-.... ........-.... $344S Sl 81
This sum is the untold millions" lying
apparently dormant in the savings banks
of San Francisco. the fortunes of sun
known owners" which public admins
traitors have been trying TO get hold of
since a time when the memory OF man
runneth not the contrary: the savings of
miners whose bones lie mingled with the
soil of every country on the globe, and Of
sailors who found grave at the bottom of
the sea; the boarded money upon the use
of which the banks have grown rich.
The statement of the Hibernia Bank of
depositors who have not made deposits or
Withdrawals during the last ten years.
published yesterday, excited surprise by
the comparatively small number of names
in total OF more than 1900 depositors,
and of the small sum involved as COM
pared with the exaggerated ideas in the
public mind. 1t has been street talk that
the present bank building at McAllister
and Jones streets was paid for out of the
profits on unclaimed money. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Soon after the Legislature passed the
law (March %, 1893 requiring publication
as made this week the banks generally
made particular effort to find and commu-
nicate with depostors from whom they
had not heard for ten years. For want of
suitable name these are called dormant"
accounts. but in reality all accounts are
Give" as will be explained. The Saw
mant" accounts, and by systematic in
Quiry reduced them to less than thirty.
The German Bank had about 300. and
these were reduced to thirty-one. That is
to say, the depositors either withdrew or
put in a sum OF money, thus making their
account "lve" within the meaning of the
law for another ten years.
About sixty DAYS ago the Hibernia Bank
had over 81, $4,000 on deposit 20 the credit
of persons from whom it had not heard
In the last decade. Answering the adver-
tisements then published and written in
Quiries more than five-sixths Gin amounD
of these depositors made new deposits or
withdrew nominal sum, leaving the total
OF dormant accounts last Tuesday
S2300OO.
Said Robert j. Tobin, secretary of the
Bank. yesterday to CALL reporter:
There can be no such thing as dormant
account. Every deposit we have draws in
terest. which is added to the account every
six months and so entered in our ledgers
and in the depositor's passbOok. If the
book is not presented it is entered only in
our ledgers."
To show how accounts of "dead' per-
sons are kept. Secretary Tobin asked
clerk to produce the passbook of a man
whose last transaction with the bank was
dated December Is, 1865. He had left his
passbook with the bank. On April 8. 1862,
there was a credit entry of $500; May Z
1862, S168 Sc; then semi-annual entries
Of interest for three and a half years,
bringing the total up 10 SS2S 33; then the
last deposit, December Is, 1865. Of S762 81,
which made his balance twenty-eighs
years ago S1571 IA. This has been at
compound interest ever since, and on June
80, 1S93-the date of the last interest
entry-had reached the sum of ST. 1Si "a.
The account had been transferred to new
ledgers twice.
About two weeks ago the deposition, now
living In Oregon, saw the banks adver-
tisement calling for communications from
dormant" depositors, and answered it.
de was then requested to make new
deposit or withdrawal, so he drew SIS,
ana MS account is once more alive. But,
so far as the bank is concerned. his de-
posit was just the same as that OF man
VINO puts his money in every Saturday
night. The leather binding OF the pass
book was worn through from age and
handling. but every entry is there. Ii was
little singular to note that the mans
signature 10 a letter written last week
from Portland was perfect counterpart
OF the signature written in the banks
register more than thirty-one years ago.
Il think We will hear from every ac-
count" said Secretary Tobin, ''either
from the depositors themselves or their
heirs. Ii any In the list published to-day
are dead we do not know it,
The sworn statements OF deposits In the
name of unknown owners" will no doubt
be great surprise to members OF the
Legislature, who were LED to believe that
the sum was away up 10 the millions.
The publication will have the good effect
of showing that all the banks take the
same care Of the trust of absentees as of
Those who regularly call at the counters.
Recent efforts TO learn the whereabouts of
depOsitors have shown that persons with
more than 81, 100000 in one bank felt so
secure that for ten years at least they
have given their savings no thought ex-
cept to allow the money to remain where