Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-09-01
BIG GOLD INCREASE
IT GROWS 20 PER CENT. IN LAST
FIVE YEARS
BANKERS MEET IN DENVER
President Hendrix Delivers a Highly
Interesting Annual Address-Cir-
cu.ation in Past Year, He Says In
creased s2.17 Per Capita-Gold
Soon Amount to s1,097, 0O0, 900.

Denver, Col, Aug. 24.-The feature
Of Tuesdays session Of the American
Bankers association was the annual
address Of President Joseph C. Hend-
rix. He said in part:
'The money circulating in the past
year increased s197, 400 900, and most
OF it was gold. The per capita circu-
lation increased S2.17 for 74,522, 900
people. Two great harvests have been
cashed, and through the car windows
coming here we saw a third getting
ready. Less than per cent. of the
railroad mileage, out Of 20 per cent
in 1894, remains in the hands of re
ceiVers. Georgia has sold her peach
crop for S2,00O,00O, and is awaiting
the returns from the watermelon
And this is but half the story.
1T is no easy task to create a bank
currency system to fit 70,000,000 Of
people, distributed over an area of
100000 square miles, and to meet
the diverse needs of different parts Of
our country, and to have the system
administered under national control
through many thousand corporate
banks. Our complex monetary situa-
ton adds to the obstacles to be over
come. We should do all in our power,
by counsel and suggestion, to perfect
the meritorious measure now pending
in congress, and to encourage the pre-
vailing sentiment it represents. We
int n arIT~r
tenn suitable to our needs as a nation,
and our position among the advanced
nations, than we have in any profit
that may come through issuing a cur
rency based upon bank assets. We
have no interests as bankers to con-
tend for, against the common interest
Of every citizen.
"The net ealnis4gs on the money in
vested in banking. in capital and sur
plus, do not exceed, as a whole, 6
per cent. The net earnings in the
year ended June 80, 1897 on the cap
ital and surplus of the national banks,
we're ga per cent, and in % years
the average net earnings on the cap
ital and surplus Of the national
hanks have been rs per cent. Since
tie beginning Of the national bank
system 5,095 banks have been organ
ized. of which 3,617 are in operation.
There have been only 368 failures
among national banks in thirty years,
so that more than a thousand banks
have liquidated and paid all claims,
the inference being that they could
not make the business pay. The
national banks are owned by 281, 225
shareholders. Of these 101, 944 are
women. The average investment Of
each shareholder is $2,250. Over so
per C Mt. of the shareholders of ma
ton banks own ten shares or less.
Every banker has his eye on the
enormous gold production Of the
world. From figures at hand it ap-
pears that the worlds production of
gold for 1897 was $240, 100000. coinage
value, and that in less than 10 years
the annual yield has doubled, ard is
now greater than the combined pro-
ductioa of both gold and silver was
ten years ago. The estimate of the
gold production for 1898, based on the
large r turns already in, is $275, 000,
600. The money stock of gold on Jan
uary i, 1894, in the whole world
was 1896 900, 000-the supply accu-
INFLATED since gold began to be used
as money. The five years production
since, including the estimate for 1898,
will, on January I, 1899, be $1,097,-
100000 coinage value, Or q per cent.
of the accumulated gold money stock
of the world as it stood just five
years before. Of course, a large
amount of the annual product of
gold is used by the industrial arts;
but, making full allowance for this,
the fact remains that the money stock
OF gold has increased more than 20
per cent. in five years. If the in
crease continues we have a bigger
question than we now appreciate"
Delegations from % states met
last night and nominated five candi
dates for the executive council of the
American Bankers association. These
candidates. who will be voted on by
the convention proper, are: Charles
r. Hanna, Council Bluffs, Ia; II. H.
Mccoy, Peoria, H.; S. r. Shumaker,
Huntington. Pa; Robert McCurdy,
Youngstown, o.; A. ?. Woodbridge,
Austin, Tex.