The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-12
.15OO BANKERS
 IN NEW ORLEANS Largest Aggregation of Finan-
 ciers Ever Gotten Together MANY SPEECHES ARE MADE
John skelton Williams, in Replying to an Address of Welcome, Gives
 Some interesting Figures
 About Trust Companies.

New Orleans, November 1.-The twen- ty-eighth annual convention of the Amer ican Bankers association assembled in Tulane hall today beginning three days session. This is by long odds the larg- est aggregation of finanoiers ever gath cred at one time in the history of the country. Up to o'clock this evening there had been 15OO delegates registered and nearly 800 visitors and ladies. Seven special trains, a dozen private cars and every regular train for the past three days has been engaged in bringing the crowd, which has taken complete posses sion of the St. Charles hotel, the head quarters and overfowed into every other hotel in the city.
 The first days session was carried out in accordance with the programme with one exception. There was prayer by the Rev. Dr. Beverly Warner and then ad- dresses of welcome by Acting Mayor Will lam Mehle, City Attorney Samuel L. Gilmore, on behalf of the city; Prof W. c. Stubbs, on behalf of Governor Heard, and R. M. Walmsley. president of the
 
 the local bankers.
 John SkeIton Williams Speaks.
 John Skelton Williams in replying to the address of welcome. said in part:
 NO city in the country has known more vicissitudes and changes than yours; none has figured more grandly in our po- litical, our martial and our commercial annals. You represent here, as perhaps nowhere else on earth, the old times and the new impulses and purposes.
 Born French, New Orleans has grown to majesty and power-English and American, assimilating and governed by the best qualities and characteristics of two great races. Your story is vivid, crowded with incidents and pictures; with tragedy and comedy with heroism and patriotism, through all goS which runs the record of steady, ceaseless, untiring com mercial advancement.
 The government reports show that the past fifteen years have seen the foreign commerce of this city practically double itself, both as to exports and imports, and 1t is indicative of the wonderful growth of this section that In the value of exports New Orleans stands next to New York and ahead of Philadelphia, Balti- more, Boston and San Francisco.
 In the matter of favorable trade bal ance, that is to say, excess or exports over imports, New Orleans outranks every other port in the United States, including New York, and it Is an interest ing fact to note that the exports from New Orleans for the past year exceeded in value the total exports of all the ports of the great empire of china, with her 400 million people, for whose trade the 1R kl,o scrambling.
 The Trusts.
 You have done much in the past, and are destined to do more. I have the honor to represent here one of the means developed by modern necessities and de- vised by modern thought and experience which will aid your growth and enlarge your achievements-the Trust company the very name trust has been made odious to the American people, yet 1t is the Trust company that has made the impossible possible, 1t has gathered the capital of many investors and with ag- gregated and concentrated power it has done what no individual enterprise or for tune could do. They have collected and held money in vast masses, and made 1t effective for tremendous achievements.
 The Trust company as an institution has in comparatively short period, from a small beginning, advanced swiftly, until 1t has become today the most powerful engine of modern finance.
 The total resources of trust companies in the United States in 1880 was stated at only s126. 900. The reports of the treasury department at the present time show that the resources of the trust com panies of the United States have now reached the enormous sum of two billion dollars, which is more than the entire stocks of money, including gold and sil- yer and paper money, of the great Ger man empire and the empire of Russia combined.
 From 1880 to 1902, the capital stock of these trust companies, acording to the records of the comptroller of the currency, has grown from $18,0OOO0O to $l8O,OOO,OO0, whilst their surplus of $6,000,0O0, in 1860 has increased twenty-five 1old 10 Sloof44'- 900 in 1902.
 The record also shows that the number of trust companies has increased from 30 in 1880 to more than 400 today. There are more than 4300 national banks now in operation In the United States. The in dividual deposits of these banks in 1902 were s3,09S0 000 the individual deposits of trust companies at the same time were 1,252 million dollars-one-half as great as me deposits or national DdnhS, notWitu- standing the fact that there are ten times as many national banks as there are trusts companies The average amount of individual deposits of national banks was $79O 000 the average amount of in- dividual deposits of trust companies was $3, ,650,O00, or five times as great as the average deposits of national banks.
 Nearly All Enrolled.
 'It is a qualification to the Trust com pany section to know that nearly all of the trust companies of the United States are now enrolled as members of the American Bankers association. Your members are scattered through forty three states and territories, and we also have one valuable member in the Sand wich Islands"
 As one identified with trust company end banking interests. and with railroad interests, and as chairman of the trust company section of the American Bank CTS association, I say to you that the power of money ought to be restrained and the power of corporations properly controlled. I believe that the common sense of the American people can be re- lied on to discern the danger point and to draw the line there and announce the edict "So far shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves