The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-11
BANKING IN AZ AND 'o7.
Statistics Showing Financial Facts
Then md Now.

Ahcn ana NOW.
From the st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
New York.-The report just made by
Controller Eckels. showing that the ma
tional banks now have $1,77O, OoO, OOO-over
one and three-quarter billion donars-in
deposits and S29S, 100000 in reserves, makes
a highly interesting and instructive con-
trast with report of the condition of the
: banks Of the country made just fifty years
ago In lS47, the era of what is sometimes
called free banking" the banks were op-
Grating entirely under state charters and
the federal government gives no stats
tics of their condition, but the figures were
collected for the year 1S47 from official
sources for the Bankers Magazine"
That report now open before the writer,
furnishes material for an almost complete
education in the finance of the year.
The total cash C'specie) in all the
banks OF the country was then 1922 600
less than third of the reserves now held
by the banks of New York city alone
Against this there was issued a total of
Via, 2SS,OD in bank notes. This cannot be
called dangerous imitation in gross but
the realities of the finance of the time
appear only when an examination is made
of the statistics in detail
1t has been repeatedly asserted that the
state banks of Massachusetts were a
model OF soundness in every way before
their state notes were forced out Of cir
culation by the federal tax The settle
ment of that question may be left to the
experts, but the figures of 1917 are highly
interesting in that connection. They show
that while the banks Of Boston had So 1885,
0OO in cash. with only $7,20S0OO in paper
issued against tia very conservative
busiuess-the Massachusetts banks outside
of Boston had but sos, 600 in cash, against
which haX had fe-gt, g lalQs
That Is, While the Boston banks issued
barely 81 in notes for each dollar in cash
in their possession, the banks outside of
Boston issued on the striking bass of
sixteen in paper to one in cash.
New York presents the same interesting
phenomenon. The city banks held $6,574,,
600 in specie, against which they issued
only $685., 600 in notes-a basis still more
Conservative than that of highly conserva-
tive Boston. But outside of New York
city the country banks OF New York state,
with only $2,533O0O in cash, issued S1927O,,
COO in paper, or al the rate of about $l927
in notes for every $2.53 in cash.
In Philadelphia the notes issued against
A,2000O0 in cash amounted to only 81 800.
goo, while the Pennsylvania banks outside
of Philadelphia issued S6400,0O0 in notes
against 81, 100000 In specie. The statistics
tell the same story everywhere-that the
cash was carried into the city banks by the
natural course of trade, and that, while
some of the country banks did a safe bust
ness, a great many of them issued notes.
not because they had the cash to secure
them, but simply and solely because they
did not have it. Wishing to lend out money
and not having 1t to lend they proceeded
to print it-in Massachusetts, outside of
Boston, at the rate of ''16 to l."
1t will not doubt crafty st. Louis that
in the same year Massachusetts was do
I'M inc on hoe ri hor,
had issued only 81, 40i 900 in notes, against
$2,31S,000 in cash, virtually holding a dol
lar in specie for every dollar of paper out
against it.
The record made in that year by the
hnanciers of Massachusetts outside of
Boston was hard pushed by Maine, but no
other state approached it, 1t is surpris,
ing to find that Louisiana, including New
Orleans, had nearly twice as much cash
rs Massachusetts, including Boston, and
that it issued only so cents in paper,
against each dollar of it's cash. In 1917
the south and west were well supplied
with cash, and the heaviest issues OF
bank notes, indicating scarcity of cash,
were in Massachusetts. outside of Bos-
ton, and in the New England states gener-
ally.
This report, made for the Bankers Mag
azine, and reprinted in full in the Amer-
can Quarterly Register for May, 1S4S, is
too long for publication in full in the
Globe-Democrat, but it is now a very rare
document, and some philanthropist ought
to reprint and circulate 1t in a pamphlet
for public information.
At the close of 1t will be found a hardly
less interesting table of wages paid in
that year. In Maine and New Hamp-
shire mechanics got 81 a day, laborers 62
cents; in Massachusetts, Rhode Island
and Connecticut, MECHANICS SLIPS, laborers
70 cents; in New York, mechanics rs cents
to $1.50 laborers so cents to rs cents; in
Pennsylvania, mechanics 81 to Slips, labor
ers 50 cents; in Iowa, Wisconsin and Mis-
souri,, mechanics $3.50 to 81, laborers IS
npnfs To 81