The San Francisco call., 1910-10-08
FINANCIERS FAVOR
FAIR but where?
Bankers Decline to IndOrse Any
City for Panama-Pacific
Exposition

Los ANGELES, Oct. IF. o. Watts
of Nashville, Tenn, was chosen presi
dent and William Livingstone of De
troit, Mich, vice president of th'
American bankers association for tn,
ensuing year at the final session O.
the convention of the association il
this city today.
Invitations sor the convention O.
bankers in 1911 were presented from
New Orleans, Atlantic City, San An
tonic; Richmond. Va; Niagara Falls
and st. Louis. but the matter of max
ing a selection was left to the execu
tive council. A decision will not b,
reached until the council meets in New
York next May
The convention of bankers went OF
record as indorsing a plan to hold al
exposition in 1916 in commemoratioI
Of the opening of the Panama canal
but no Endorsement of a site was made
New Orleans and San Francisco meI
had been lobbying with delegates fol
several days in order to get the In
dorsement of the convention for theil
cities, but it was stated in advanct
that the convention would not favor
either of the cities.
The address of Senator Theodore A
Burton of Ohio on the work OF the
United States monetary commission wa.
one OF the features of the closing da,
Of the convention. The speaker re
viewed the work of the commission an(
asked the hearty cooperation Of the
American bankers association. Arthul
Reynolds of Des Moines spoke on the
money question, in which he said tha
the apathy of the bankers was re-
sponsibie for the passage of the posta
savings bank act.
ADDRESS BY ANDERSON
Frank B. Anderson of San Fran
cisco, president of the Bank of Cali
fornia, spoke on the Pacific coast.
need Cor banking and currency reform
in which he urged the bankers to take
up seriously the question of having tht
national bank law amended so as tC
allow the banks to accept time drafts
in order TO build up discount market
He said in part:
For years we have been aware
that there was something radically
wrong with our banking system,
and your association from time to
time has appointed committees to
evolve some plan which would
make the system more responsive
to the demands of business, and
better able to exercise controlling
influence on those demands SO as
TO curb imitation before it reached
q crisis. For one reason and an
other, none Of the suggested plans
has been adopted, and we have
periodically getting into trouble,
and invariably abandoning the
system when the crisis came.
1 am satisfied that we have suff1-
cient circulating medium as long as
we have confidence, and we have
confiden.e until we are forced TO
stop loaniDg TO our clients. Our
circulating medium is unquestton-
respond TO the demands Of bust
ness. and too large proportion of
1t is based on debt. with no reserve
of gold back of il:
To my mind the question of
emergency currency or any addi-
tional currency is secondary to the
main necessity. What we need is
some plan that Will make every
idle dollar return to the central
reserve cities or to q central sank.
where it viii naturally be sought
by any section Of the country that
has work for II to do.
We need a reserve lending power
to be called into use, not when a
panic is In full swing, but to meet
legitimate borrowing demands,
which. If not met, will lead US into
a panic, and l believe we can OBJ
tain this power by taking steps to r
encourage and build UP a discount
system, which can be done without
ests blishinG a central bank and
now in existence.
Give US the power to accept time
drafts and we will gradually cease
to pay the tremendous tribute
which we pay each year to London
in connection with our commercial
letters OF credit. We are obliged
to force London credits on many
merchants who could use domestic
credits and prefer to use them
when they can, as IL saves them
from the uncertainty as to what
the sterling quotations may be
when thew are called upon to make
their payments. Gentlemen, we are
one OF the greatest contributors
TO the wealth and power of London.
Every pound of our imports pays
tribute TO that center and every
letter of credit creates a supply OF
exchange on London and a demand
for exchange on that center.
In my contact with the country
banker and the public. find that
both fear that Wall street" or
politicians" would gain control Of
g central bank and that the coun-
try banker feels that he would
have no standing with the central
bank or any Of its branches; the
men in charge would have no sym
pathy with them and no knowl-
edge of the securities which they
banker that he would continue to
deal with the same correspondents
he now has and convince him that
8 central BANK or reserve pank
could be formed which wall
street" or the politicians" could
not control. In addition. teach our
bankers large and small, that a
central ba nix would minimize the
influence which group of wealthy
men have il within their power TO
seucre under our present system,
and that central bapks are the
friends OF the small banks and
naturally antagonistic to the
growth Of large and powerful
banks. Let US get to point where
we can go before the public agreed
among ourselves, for until we can
do that. we will not make much
progress in any direction.
REFEREE SPEAKS
Harold Remington of New York, for
mer referee in bankruptcy in Cleve-
land, O., and referee in the famous
Cassie Chadwick case, read an ex-
haustive paper on Bankers and Bank
ruptcy Law"
A communication from the Academy
of Political Science inviting represent
atives of the bankers association to q
conference on the work of the none
tary commission, to be held in New
York in October, was presented to the
convention.
James h. Lynch. president of the San