The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-10-29

New York City.-Wall Street ex-
perienced the greatest sensation of d
generation when the suspension of
the Knickerbocker Trust Company
was announced. The shock that fol-
lowed the closing Of the huge con-
Aern, with its $1,000 depositors, re-
sources of $7o,000,0OO and deposits
of about $65, 600, 0Oo, rent the Street
from centre to circumference. Stocks
went down with a crash under tre-
mendous liquidation.
The suspension of the Knicker-
booker Trust Company followed run
on the institution, which was felt at
the main Office, at Fifth avenue and
Thirty-fourth street, and all the
branch Offices. 1t was most heavy at
the downtown branch, No. Sc Broad
way, which was established that the
officials might keep in touch with
Wall Street.-The relationship which
proved the undoing of the institution.
Bankers were in conference
throughout the day, discussing ways
and means to further strengthen and
safeguard the situation. The Treas
ury increased public deposits during
the day by $4,000, 900, and 1t was in
timated that these would be still fur
Their enlarged If the situation war
ranted the Government aid.
Secretary Of the Treasury Cortel-
you, after midnight conference with
j. Pierpont Morgan and other leading
hnanciers, issued a statement in
y, fnh =, - &c.
his department Is ready to use its IA
cilities to assist legitimate business
interests in every proper way. He
added that the national banks of New.
York are in an exceptionally strong
condition.
Optimistic statements issued by Of
ficers of the trust company and other
trust companies that SIS, 000s000 was
to be advanced to the Knickerboc
Trust Company proved unfounded.
The company had applied for a $3,-
100000 loan from the Clearing
House, which was rejected after an
examination of the loans and securi-
ties. Heavy Withdrawals Of funds
were pushed through the Clearing
House by banking depositors in adj
vance of others, and resulted in part
in causing debit balance Of $1,000
900 by the National Bank of Com
merce at the Clearing House.
Long before the usual hour for
opening crowd began to collect be-
fore the doors of each of the three
branches of the Knickerbocker, until
several hundred persons were wait
ing in line for entrance. Before an
hour had elapsed the lines had been
utterly lost in surging mob OF men
and women, each trying to get near
est the paying tellers. There was no
panic but hysterical anxiety SO close
to panic that the line dividing them
was hardly perceptible.
At 12 O'Clock, after q hurried tele-
phone consultation, the Fifth Avenue
branch, which numbers a large and
wealthy clientele, made the abrupt
announcement that it would no longer
continue payment on its certificates
of deposit. The report spread through
the crowd like wild fire and terrified
q number of women collected in the
women's writing room, who took 1t
to mean that all their money had
been lost. Protests by the score were
made, but the officers of the bank
continued firm intheir refusal to waive
the FIVE days notice clause on the GER
tificates. BY far the majority of the
crowd besieging their windows were
holders of certificates.
simultaneously similar action was
taken by the branches in Harlem and
downtown. But the run continued,
the certificate holders being forced
impatiently out of the way by the
other depositors with running ac-
counts. Fast as the money was
brought to the counters from the
vaults, It could not come quickly
enough to meet the demands of the
depositors. All the morning messen-
gers were kept hustling between the
downtown vaults and the other three
branch Offices with bags of coin until
the whole of the $8,000,000 surplus
was eaten up and there was still the
undiminished crowd of depositors
to get their money. The
iIilatory tactics Of tellers availed moth
ing any more than the futile expedient
of suspending payment on the certifi-
Gates of deposit. Not because it was
trying to check the run, but because
it had no cash left the company sus-
pended.
The effect of the newsson the stock
market was instantaneous. Call
money jumped to panic prices. Forty
and finally seventy per cent. was
asked and accepted for temporary ac-
Stocks had long be-
fore begun to feel the effects of the
run on the trust company and they
sold off lower and lower with inef-
fectual attempts to rally when the
"big interests" of the Street at
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