The record-union., 1897-08-19
Interesting Proceedings Of Yester-
days Session Of the Convention.
Several Addresses Delivered by Prominent
Men in Financial Circles.
Marked Improvement in Business
Conditions and Indications for
Better Things in the Future
Characteristic Features of All
the State Reports.

DETROIT CMich), Aug. 1S.-The first
annual meeting of the Association of
the American Bankers was held at the
Cadillac Hotel this morning.
Henry Deschert of Philadelphia,
Chairman Of the section, spoke of the
Importance of trust companies and the
diversified interests they represent. In
complete returns show that the capital
stock of the trust companies of the
United States is 1924 100000.
Mr.. Deschert alluded to the so-called
trust companies that had been organ
lied by scheming men for the purpose
of selling inflated debenture bonds and
mortgages, and he was glad to say that
most of those companies had been rout-
ed out and their organizers had fled or
been punished.
Breckenridge Jones delivered the re-
port of the Executive Committee. He
outlined the work that is before the
section, and hopes of the committee
that uniformity in laws of the several
States in regard to trust companies will
be promoted and greater similarity OBJ
tanned
The announcement that Comptroller
of Currency Eckels would make an ad-
dress drew to the mornings session of
the Bank Convention an audience un-
usually large.
The roll of States was then called
and from each State a member of the
new National Committee was named.
Each committee will meet tomorrow
to select new officers Of the association.
The representative of each State was
hen called n criUn a h,.i0f a
ment of business in his locality Marked
Improvement in business conditions
and indications for better things in the
future were the characteristic features
of all the State reports
Henry w. Yates of Nebraska said the
golden grain cf the ripened and ripen-
ing harvests in MS State aid not 1e-
fleet the calamity tint to which rumors
of so many of it's public men and the
vote of the State last fall had seemed
to point.
James Faxon of Chattanooga. Tenn.
derided Mr.. Bryan's claim that the
price of silver controls the price of
wheat and said the recent fall of one
and the rise Of the other offered con-
elusive proof of the falsity of that
claim.
When Comptroller Eckels came for
ward he was greeted with great APP
plause. Throughout the reading of his
address the large audience gave careful
attention.
(Mr. Eckels' address appears in an
other column of the Record Union"
this morning)
John II. Leathers of Louisville Ky.
read a paper entitled, 'Is a Credit Bu-
reau, or Bureau of Information to Pre-
vent Losses Fro n Pa 1 Debts Feasible
Among Banks?" He said in part:
Proper and systematic cooperation
in banking has become essential Quite
a large percentage of the losses sustain
ed by banks in the money centers of
the United States is due to the failure
of banks thr dghout the country who
borrow and re-discOunt with their city
correspondents. Under the present IS
tenn of banking credit must be extended
in the matters almost solely upon the
faith of the lender in the soundness and
reliability of the borrower. The diff
Guilty in obtaining accurate information
of paper offered for re-discount as we'll
as the collateral, which - usually OF
local character, places the bank at "A
distance at the mercy of the borrower
There are periods in the history of
many banks when it is not only neces-
sary and important, but wise to bor-
row temporarily from other banks
This character of lending should be the
safest and most satisfactory that could
be done The ratio is generally a low
one, because of the relations of the bor-
rover to the lender, and also because
of the belief that it is the best paper
that can be secured, and it therefore
becomes necessary that the fullest Sc
curity and protection should be given
to the leading bank. and every safe
guard be thrown around such loans.
Were protection freely given at ALI
times. banks desiring to borrow money
would find no difficulty in obtaining it
at all times, and the lending banks
would supply the money. not only at a.
low rate of interest, but with great
promptitude.
IF at an insignificant cost an agency
can be created that could furnish banks
which take loans to outside correspond
ents with reliable information as to the
standing of banks throughout the coun-
try such agency would be highly benefi-
cial to all the banking institutions of
the United States. and would result in
a saving to those institutions of i'm
mense amounts of money. The close
competition of banks has had a tenden-
cy TO discourage the creation of an
agency for common protection; but the
later frequent bank failures and the nu-
merous instances in which there has
been a total failure of assets, renders it
important at this time that steps shall
be taken by which information may be
obtained in regard to loans or redis-
counts made by banks. The amount of
these redisocunts or loans by any bank
large, in many cases is immediate and
conclusive evidence of poor manage
ment. Generally where trouble and loss
have arisen those loans or rediscounts
by banks have been conducted in such
way that information of their expense
was next to impossible to obtain Wher-
ever a first-class institution is concerned
there can be no good reason for the
least unwillingness on it's part to have
the banks that are called on for money
know the real expense of the loans or
rediscounts out
State and national banks alike
make these loans, and both kinds have