The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-15
NOTE. $1,000. NJ. d. L.,

Among the exhibits offered by the
state in the trial Of William F. Bicl1el,
late cashier of the late Minnesota Saw
ings bank. was a promissory note
signed by William Bickel, dated July
q. 1896, to the Minnesota Savings
bank. for 81 ,25O, due in ninety days, on
which there was a payment indorsed
of $1,000 Aug. 20, 1895. The note was
what is known as a collateral note.
containing the usual recital that there
had been deposited with the note as
security Mote $1,000, NJ D. X"
M. D. K" are the initials of Moses
Kenyon, then and for several years
and now bank examiner of the state
OF Minnesota, charged by the law of
this state with the duty of investigat-
ing the condition of all banks, ex-
aiming their securities to see if they
are solvent, and to see that the officers
of the bank are not playing ducks and
brakes with the money of the deposit
tors. AS such officer, finding bad con-
ditions of management, it is his duty
and he has the power to either compel
an Immediate rectification or a receiv-
ership. Nowhere that we can find is
there given him any margin of discre-
ton. William Bickel. we need hardly
say was at that time vice president
OF the Allemannia bank, which subse-
quently assigned, and he went to that
bank from the Germania, which he
had successfully steered into condi-
lions that compelled an assignment
after he transferred his financing abil-
tiles to the Allemannia. In all these
banks. and in whatever others he
could get access, he was a very gener-
Gus and industrious borrower, with a
fine contempt for collaterals. He Is
now, we understand, doing a banking
business in California, with three
golden balls for his office sign.
1t thus appears that William Bickel
chronic borrower, held a note of NJ
d. Kenyon, bank examiner of the state
of Minnesota, for $1,000, which he put
up as collateral to his own note for
81. $50 to the savings bank over which
his son, well, we will say, presided, and
OF which the father was a trustee. To
whom the M D. k note was pay
able does not appear; hardly to Bickel
,1No1N 10
which he was or had been connected
When it was made is also unknown,
but it is evident that it was paid 10
or the equivalent of payment was re-
ceived by the savings bank Aug. 20,
1896. That is undoubtedly what the
Endorsement of paid on the within,
81 900" means.
The Minnesota Savings bank, in
which NJ d. ks note for $1,000 had
been hypothecated- by the senior Bickel,
closed it's doors on its numerous de-
positors or Jan. Is, 1897, at the expira-
ton of the sixty days notice it had
previously given it's alarmed depositors
when they demanded their money. The
legislature was then in session, and it
appointed a committee of senators and
representatives to find out, if they
could, how it came about that the eX-
aminatens Of the bank examiner did
not examine; how it was possible that
these banks could get where they
couldn't pay their depositors more
than few cents on the dollar while
the state had an officer and assistants
to detect the beginnings of misconduct
and stop it. Among the evidence pro-
cured by that committee is a report
made to the bank examiner, Kenyon,
by Lonegren, his assistant of his ex-
animation into the condition of the
Minnesota Savings bank
This report bears date Oct Z, 1895.
1t "encIoses herewith schedules and
statements as to the true condition of
this bank" 1t closed with the state
ment that cit all depends on the value
of the real estate and loans if the as
sets are sufficient to pay the depositors
In, full and it is impossible to give any
correct valuation of the same" AS
one note was that of John F. Baker
and A. S Kittson for $22,410 and an
other was Hazel BickePs for S15,896.