The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-02-14
MUST PAY CHARGES
MEETING OF MERCHANTS, J0BBERs
AND BANKERS YESTERDAY.
Business Mems Meeting Called to
Protest Against the New Clearing
House Rules, But the Matter
Was Presented in It's True
Light to Satisfaction of ALL.

The new rules of the Wichita clearing
house caused little furor of excitement
| among the wholesalers and jobbers yes
terday morning when they read them in
! the EAGLE and the result was a meeting
at ths Wichita Wholesale Grocery house
| yesterday afternoon.
Fifty wholesalers and jobbers were pres.
| ent and an invitation was extended to
! representatives OF the banks to be present
also. The Wichita National, the State
National and the Kansas National re-
sponded to the invitation.
The fact that the merchants and jobbers
invited the bankers to meet with them
demonstrated the wisdom of the policy of
kindred interests getting together when
jar of any kind occurs. When both sides
had heard one another everything was
satisfactory all around.
The particular rule of the clearing house
association that affected the interests Of
the wholesalers and jobbers was the one
which imposed charge of Is cents on
drafts. The wholesalers and jobbe.s
thought that this would hurt the business
interests of Wichita with outside local
merchants, but this the bankers assured
them would not or could not be tue case
when the outside local merchants thor
oughly understood the matter. If Wichita
charged Is cents on drafts and other
wholesale business centers did not, then,
of course, the imposition of such charges
would, perhaps, injure Wichita, bat the
rules adopted by the Wichita Clearing
House association are the same as those
adopted by the other commercial centers,
including Kansas City and all the Mis-
souri, river centers. The fact is, this
is movement of the bankers
association of the United States, and the
Wichita banks are compelled to impose
these charges or be driven out of the asso-
citation.
Heretofore the Wichita bankers have
been handling and collecting the checks of
country merchants for nothing. These
checks were sent to the wholesalers and
in turn deposited in the banks here. The
result was that the banks had to forward
these checks back to the local banks
against which they were drawn, and the
expenditure Of stamps, stationery and
labor was their loss. 1t is to cover this
expenditure that the fifteen cent rule was
adopted by the clearing house association.
Besides this the banks were often times a
week or more without the use of the
money. For instance A deposited
in the bank 500 in the checks of
country merchants on Monday and
drew on that money Tuesday the banker
was out the use OF the 500 for perhaps
week until it could come in through the
machinery of banking from the country
banks against which the checks were
originally drawn. In one or two cases
this would not amount to much but peo-
pie have habituated themselves to doing |!
business by personal checks that the |
business in the course of year is enor-
nous and will cost an ordinary bank in |
a wholesale business center not less than |
81 900 or 81, 500 year to look after and |
collect them properly. All these matters |
were discussed at the mesting and the |
wholesalers and jobbers saw at a glance |
that the action Of the bankers was by no |
means unjust.
Wholesalers have only one thing to do, and |
that is to present the case candidly and i
fairly before the customers and rely on
their good sense and regard for fairness |
and justice for a proper view of the |
matter The Wichita wholesalers, by |
reason of the unfriendliness of the rail- |
roads and their determination to sell goods |
in the Wichita commercial territory |
cheaper than any other wholesale center,
necessarily do business on such light |
margin of profit that they can't pay the
charges for cashing and collecting checks |
and will inform their customers that they |
cannot take anything but New York ex-
change,i in che shape OF paper.
The country merchants in many places
cannot avail themselves of the New York |
exchange. Up till year or so ago there
was a bank in every small town, but
owing to the stringency many of them
went out of business and the result is that
in the smaller towns the merchants
can't obtain New York exchange. AS
general thing they deposit their money in
the nearest banking town, and that is the
cause of so many personal checks floating
in commercial channels; for, in payment
of a bill, they send check against this
bank to obviate going there, getting the
money and expressing it. !
The meeting was very pleasant one,
after the business men and bankers began |
to understand one another, which was q |
very easy matter. owing to the clear pre-
sentation of the case.