The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-29
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
The Matter of Bank clearinas.

l tanee to comparative bank elearings. !" sald an old business man But the fact that financial journals give a good deal or attention to clearinghouse returns and the further fact that the Associated Press handles clearing house statistics. making comparison of the weekly clear ings of the principal cities of the country, indicates that the business public att taches some value to them. To me such statistics have always appeared mislead- | ing because, in the first place, local 1 banking conditions vary and one city with very large volume Of business car ried on through a few banks might show smaller clearinghouse total than an- | other city with less volume of actual ! business
 But l suspect that the chief reason why a comparative table is misleading Is because of a lack of uniform method in making up the returns I used to hear it said that certain ambitioue cities padded their bank clearings, but reputa- ble bankers would not be a party to pad ding in the sense of trickery or juggling, and so what seemed glaring inequality between the volume of banking in cities of about equal size and commercial inn portance was due, doubtless, to a faulty system. I am not familiar enough with the details of banking to know just how 1t Is, but in Birmingham, for example, only checks drawn on one bank and de- posted in another are cleared and totaled in the clearing house. I have an idea that in some cities exchange and out-of- town drafts and some other items are in- cluded in the clearings. In looking over the table of clearinghouse returns for the week ending December IS, find that Atlanta eonfesses to a method that ac- counts for what would otherwise seem abnormally large figures. Her clearings for the week were 13416,0s7, a gain of 121.7 per cent as against tine same week in 1908; but in foot note for the 1909 figures. the following statement Is made;
 This years clearings considerably increased by out-of-town clearings de- partment.'
 "Birminghams clearings made poor showing, not only with Atlanta, but other cities of the south. We are credited with only s2,e36,152 for the week ending December IS, whereas Memphis had S,- G6,154, Fort Worth ss,s10,0oo. Savannah s6,- 291. .1sO and Nashville S4617, ,1se. Birming ham was credited with only s2O.000 more than Augusta, Ga Birmngham's banking business is probably larger than that of any southern city between New Orleans and Louisville, and yet we look small in a comparative table of clearings I happen to know that in the week in ques- ton one Birmingham bank alone did $17,- OS2 ,23s in actual transactions, including deposits received and money paid out. One day of this present week the Bir- mingham clearing house returns totaled only about $500,0O0, when one bank alone had transactions amounting to about 10 times as much as the clearings for all the banks, or to be exact S,9S5,00o for the day.
 'On Monday the First National received in individual deposits ss25,013. being q net gain in deposits that day of s400,00o. To- day the same bank received in invidual deposits $77b,SsS. It's total deposits now reach about S, 250,000 Other Birmingham banks are handling large volumes of bus l figures.
 Now. in view of the magnitude of Bir- mingham's banking facilities and the actual volume of its banking houses, I would suggest that the financial pa pers take up the matter of comparative clearings and sec if a uniform system cannot be agreed upon As clearings are poor barometers at best, 1t would, in my humble Judgment, be better to cut out their publication, unless the system can be made uniform
 Regulating Gambling in Futures.
 "The plan of President Taft to hold a conference with certain officials and congressmen on the matter of regu- lating gambling in futures on farm products is not far-reaching enough, said man familiar with the workings of cotton future contracts.
 "The President would do better to call some of the southern congress- men rather than Lowering of Massa- chusetts as announced. Representative Scott of Kansas may know about gam bling in grain and hog products but the greatest evil is in the selling of cotton futures as practiced on the New York cotton exchange. The whole plan of sales there Is to discourage tAe taking of real cotton on contracts by rendering stun that is hardly spinnabfe. In New Orleans the future contracts call for the run of the market and an average of grade. And if a buyer receives a certain amount of cotton on his contracts that cannot be shipped on his orders there is a natural maSket for him to sell his 'overs' on, and to buy 'hl1-in.'
 If there could be Legislation had by Congress placing good tax on future contracts, with a rebate where there was a bona fide delivery, this would check some of the wild and harmful gambling in cotton futures. Also the cotton exchange should make some ruling to enable buyers of futures to demand an average of grade, even if a small premium is charged thereon.
 And speaking of wash sales,' rig ging' a market. look at the sales and