The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-29
LOCAL BANKS INFORMED
 FOREIGN CASH LIMITED
President Harding Issues Statement To the Effect That Present Abnor-
 nal Conditions Will Prob
 ably Be Aleviated Soon.

house banks of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Or
 leans and other financial centers, in re-
 strcting their payments to certain amounts, and in declining to ship cur
 rency against balances with them, the as- sociated banks of Birmingham yestci-
 day morning adopted resolutions limiting
 their cash payments to any one depostor
 to $50 per day. ~ This does not include pay rolls and pay checks for railroad and industrial cor
 porations. Checks will be certified pay
 able through the local clearing house, and checks on New York and other reserve
 cities will be issued as usual, payable through their respective clearing houses. The banks win claim the legal notice ou all savings deposits.
 The Birmingham banks for some time
 have been restricting their loans, but the necessity of resorting to the resolutions
 adopted yesterday was not anticipated.
 Yesterday morning, at an early hour, the
 banks were informed by financial centers
 that cash ordered Saturday night against
 actual balance would not be shipped. This
 necessitated the meeting of the local as-
 sociation of banks yesterday, at which the resolution, mentioned above, was adopted.
 In an interview yesterday, W. P. G. Harding president of the First National
 bank, gave a statement of the conditions
 in the financial circles of New York and
 other markets, and causes, and gave in
 exact detail the local conditions
 MT. Harding's interview follows
 Harding Makes Statement.
 "The present financial situation is with out precedent in the history of this coun- try. The people of all sections of the United States are prosperous, and partic- ularly so throughout the south and west. In our industrial centers labor has been employed at good wages and commodities of all kinds command high prices. We are now harvesting in the south a cotton | crop of fully average proportions, and but | for the extraordinary conditions now eX- | istng the crop would bring more than | average prices. Southern banks are not | unduly extended and have carried all ! along in cash and with lawful reserve agents very strong reserves, in many | cases ranging from two to three times l the legal requirements. It seems, how | ever, that some financial institutions in
 the city of New York and possibly in | other money centers in the west have 1 fallen into speculative hands and have 1 been operated for the benefit of the en- ! terprises of those in control rather than | for safe and legitimate business purposes. | Institutions of this kind have during the | past week come to grief in New York | City, carrying along with them smaller l and doubtless innocent concerns. There ! have been tremendous withdrawals Of fa1 itacf itt1ti in New York and serious trouble there has | been averted only by the efforts of gov 1 ernment officials, sound clearing house | banks, and honest and patriotic finan- 1 ciers. These withdrawals, occurring at l q time of the year when money is natu.- 1 ally tight owing to the movement of the ! crops, made it impossible for New York l banks to care for their usual commit 1 ments and shifted the demand for cul- 1 rency upon banks in other financial cen 1 ters, such as Boston. Chicago, St. Louis, | Philadelphia Pittsburg, Kansas City and | New Orleans.
 Situation In Birmingham.
 ",rhe situation in Birmingham has been 1 all along distinctly sound and good. While 1 the banks here have been restricting their | loans for sometime past, they were taking | care of legitimate needs of customers and | were doing their full snare in the move l ment of our local cotton crop, as well as providing for the large pay rolls of the l district. On Saturday night and Sunday, 1 the 26th and 27th instants, the clearing l house banks in nearly every important | financial center east of the Rocky noun ! tains passed resolutions restricting pay mcnts of actual cash to limited amounts, ! and declining to ship currency to out-of- town correspondents against balances. | The banks of Birmingham are strong l in, chi in | steadily for the past two weeks, but when 1 they were notified this morning by tele- grams from various correspondents that | currency ordered Saturday against actual 1 balances would not be shipped owing to | these various clearing house resolutions, | the banks here saw that they were con- ! fronted with q condition that required prompt and decisive action.
 "A meeting of the Clearing House as- socaton was held this morning and reso- | lutions unanimously adopted providing for restricted payments of cash and for the ] certification of checks payable through 1 the clearing house. No restrictions are being put upon payments in clearing house funds or upon balances being
 transferred from one institution to another Merchants can secure ex- change to the full amount of their balances as heretofore Wa. which to make payments away from BIr- mingham and there is no reason why the business of the community should not readily adjust itself to the new ccnditions temporarily imposed upon us by force of circumstances. The banks have ample cash to provide for the pay rolls big and little, of the Birmingham district, ard 1t is gratifying to note the general approval of the large depositors and the public generally of the plan that kas been adopted by the associated banks of Bir- mingham. Under the plan adopted there will be no hardship on anyone, as 1t is the purpose of the banks to facilitate legitimate business transactions but to avoid the locking up of funds by nervous depositors.
 .'The advices tonight from all over the country indicate a tendency toward a restoration of confidence and improving conditions. Large shipments of gold are on the way from foreign money markets to New York, and there is no reason why unrestricted payments should not be again in cash all over the country in the course of the next week 10 days. Under our local clearing house arrangements parties having actual cash can deposit it as heretofore and it will not be subject t any limitations as to it's withdrawal, an, If the people cooperate with the bank and with 1e merchants for the common good there will be no disorder or de ransement of any kind.