The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-11-13
KN|CKERBOCKER TRUST
AND BROKERS SUSPEND
-s6S,O0O,0O0 INVOLVED
New York Institution Forced to
Close Its Doors Because of a
Run by Scared D%spositors.
EIGHT MILLIONS WITHDRAWN

EIGHT MIlllUNS WITHDRAWN
Trust Company's Frantic Appeals For
Further Help of No Avail-Six-
Million-Dollar Failure of Broker
age House Increased the Days
EXcitement-CraSh in Stocks the
Worst Since the Northern Pacific
Panicof 19G1-Cortclyou Bushes
to the Aid Of Banks.
New York City.-W'all Street eX-
perienced the greatest sensation Of g
generation when the suspension of
the Knickerbocker Trust Company
was announced. The shock that fol-
lowed the closing of the huge con-
Germ, with its $1,000 depositors. re-
sources of $4,000, 900 and deposits
Of about $65,000.000, rent the Street
from centre to circumference. Stocks
went down with a crash under ire
mendous liquidation.
The suspension Of the Knicker-
booker Trust Company followed a 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. &C 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 it 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 a midnight conference with
+. Pierpont Morgan and other leading
financiers, issued a statement in
which he repeated his assertion that
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
ftcers of the trust company and other
trust companies that S15,00O,000 was
to be advanced to the Knickerbocker
Trust Company proved ~unfounded.
The company had applied for a S5,-
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 ad-
vance of others, and resulted in part
in causing a debit balance of $1,000
900 by the National Bank Of Com
merce at the Clearing House.
Long before the usual hour for
opening a crowd began to collect be-
fore the doors of each Of the three
branches of the Knickerbocker, until
several hundred persons were walt
ing in line for entrance. Before an
hour had elapsed the lines had been
utterly lost in a surging mob OF men
and women, each trying to get near
est the paying tellerS. There was no
panic but a hysterical anxiety so close
10 UdulC IuoI tuS INV
was hardly perceptible.'
At II o'clock, after a hurried tele-
phone consultation, the Fifth Avenue
branch, which numbers a large ana
wealthy clientele, made the abruP.
announcement that it would no longer
continue payment on its certlfcates
of deposit. The report spread through
the crowd like wild fire and terrlfled
4 number of women collected in q
women's writing room, Il TOOK IL
to mean that all their money mad
been lost. Protests by the score were
made, but the officers of the bank
continued firm intheir r~efusalto waive
the five days notice clause on the Ger
tifcates. By far the majority OF the
crowd besieging their windoW2 were
holders of certificates.
simultaneously similar action was
taken by the branches in Harlem and
downtown. But the u continued,
the certificate holders being forced
impatiently out of the way by the
other depositors with running &C
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 thu morning messen-
gers were kept hustling between the
downtown vaults and the other three
branch offices with bags of coins until
the whole of the SS,000,0O0 surplus
was eaten up and there was still the
undiminished crowd of depositors
struggling to get their money. The
iilatory tactics of tellers availed moth
ing anymore 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 Jews on the stock
market was instantaneous. Call
money jumped to panic prices. Forty
and finally seventy per cent. was
asked and accepted for temporary &C
commodation. 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
DECREASE OF PENSION ROLL.
The Fiscal Report Shows Less Names