The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-07
TAX ON COUNTRY CHECKS.


 Country Bankers.
 New York. June 1.-The bankers of
 group VI of the New York State Bank
 ers' association held their spring meet
 ing yesterday at the Murray Hill hotel.
 This group takes in the territory of
 seven counties along the Hudson rlv-
 ar north of New York county. There
 was first business meeting, then
 luncheon, and finally, over the cigars,
 series of informal addresses. c. F.
 Van Inwegen, the chairman of the group, presided, with Frank Barber as
 secretary. MT. Van Inwegen is the
 president of the First National bank of ! Port Jervis, and MT Barber is the
 cashier of the Sullivan county National
 bank at Liberty.
 When the informal speaking began, after the luncheon, it was soon made
 evident that the recent action of the New York Clearing House in imposing a charge for handling country checks was a subject close to the hearts Of most of those present. Even the New York City bankers who were present. as guests had something to say on the subject. MT. Van Norden, who was in troduced as man who had had some experience in our line of business, took up the subject at once. He made a number of jocose remarks on banking X in general and the relation of the coun- try banker to the city banker.
 Among other speakers were Alvah Trowbridge, president of the North American Trust company, who discuss ed the country check subject in this wise There are two sides to this ques- tion-and perhaps three. First, there is your side, and then there is ours. We all understand that. But there is third person, who makes the trouble for the other two and that is the man who makes a check when he has not go the money in bank to meet it. He sends the check to New York and calculates that by the time he gets back to his town--six, eight or ten days later-he will be able to raise the money. Three flfths of the checks that come to New York are not good when they start. You may doubt that, but I know it to be true. Well, some fine day a custonl- CT comes to you and explains that you will get a check of his the next day, and he has no money to meet It. "Oh, mo-" you say, 'it came in to-day" And such men send in more checks than others, because they have to buy in smaller quantities. Of course, your customer promises to make good to- morrow and the question is, Are you, in order to make twenty-five cents go- ing to accommodate him? It is the same way with drafts and notes, and you have more of it than we do. l ;n, fo 1,a cred. Banks in New York are not sell 1 ing merchandise. We don't care whether cotton goes up half a cent or codfish goes down cent, yet, because | we try to make an arrangement that | shall make our business pay, we are | accused of trying to antagonize the bus mess interests of the whole country. | Still another point is the position of the | postoffice and the express companies. | Often while a country banker is trying l to make little business with two or ! three checks, the express companies will | sell dozens of money orders at z or s | cents a piece. Tn 1898 more than TO- | 000, ,O0O postoffice money orders were is- sued payable in New York, and the ex- press companies did nearly as much | business in that manner. They come to us by the DaSketTul.
 I give you this to think about. While your customer is pestering you with checks that are not good the man whose check is good pays cents to the ex- press company. Let the country bank CT and others get together and talk this l over.
 The chairman read a letter from w. l E. Frew of the Long Island City bank MT. Frew advocated the establishment ! of a country clearing house, which would attend to these country checks. He said that such a clearing house would cost less proportlonately than the New York city clearing house.
 MT. Pugsley talked on currency re- form. He declared that this country should have a fixed standard of value unchangeable and the best standard in the world.
 Mr. Rhodes spoke briefly returning to the check question. He said it was simply matter of business and of get- ting educated up to the situation. If .he country bankers fail to educate the New York bankers up to the point of giving up their new regulation, he sup posed they would have to educate themselves to get fond of 1t.
 Mir Cromwell said the cost of col ecting a check was just as legitimately l l part of the banks expenses as rent or ,lerk hire. f.