The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-12-23
BRUNSWICK SAVINGS BANK
DIFFICULTIES
Partial Report of the Receivers
Books Never Balanced.


to some extent on Saturday last whel
the receivers submitted a partial state
ment as to the conditions of the Bruins
wick Savings Bank. The sum given a
liabilities is S235, 900 which is the amour
OF deposits, and is not expected to vary
it was not expected that the deposit.
would reach this amount, although il wa,
known that the bank had from 900 tC
1000 depositors including besides peopl,
! OF the town, many farmers in the count,
adjoining Brunswick and contiguous
counties of Virginia,
i he assets, SI65. 600, were less than ex
pected. This approximation is made or
the basis of what the receivers expect tC
realize on the 75o notes held by the bank.
They are mostly under seal and collect
BILE, few of which are already being paid
Some are recognized as bad. A remark
able fact is that some of the notes have
been allowed to run almost since the
bank was organized. is years ago. no
effort being made even to collect the in
terest. A note was discovered the signei
of which has been dead for some years
and his estate settled up and divided A
total of $50, 600 back interest is due the
bank on notes which the receivers expect
to collect.
Going over books of the bank has re-
vealed most complete lack of practical
knowledge in banking In the words of
one of the receivers, it is the worst mix-up
that could be imagined Notes were
allowed to run without even attention be-
ing paid to collecting the interest. Some
times checks of the same account coming
in the same day were figured into one
amount and entered on the ledger with
ont date. In the payment OF expenses
such as fuel and other charges Mr..
Schnauffer invariably gave his own check,
and the amount was charged to his per-
sonal account. No expense account
seemed to be kept. IN this manner con-
ditions went on until the new savings
bank law made an examination necessary,
and from the start it was found that the
bank was in bad shape The bank ex-
aminer, it is thought here, should have
closed the bank when he first discovered
Irregularities instead of permitting it to
continue open 10 days longer AS subse-
quent conditions revealed, the more he
Investigated the worse he found things,
and had lie gone further the fist day and
closed the bank many depositors would
have Jared better.
There are individual instances of much
hardship over the tying up of the deposits.
One man with s., 600 or more in the bank
had TO borrow money to pay his sons
board at school. A firm with 81, 900 bal
ance had TO borrow 81, 500 to keep their
business going William Gross. we'll
known merchant, deposited 81, 100 two
days before the bank closed, intending to
transfer it by check to the tank he dealt
with regularly in Frederick. Before the
check reached its destination the bank
was taken possession of by the deputy
bank examiner. A Mrs. Clay. an elderly
woman, has $1,000 on deposit. which rep
resents her savings OF long time, and
number OF young men have various
amounts running from SIoo TO 5000 or
500 on interest.
The churches, Junior Order of Ameri-
can Mechanics, Knights of Pythias
Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers, Bruins
wick Fire Company and Eagles have their
deposits there. DR.. Arlington G.. Horne.
Mayor of the town, together with his
family, have deposits aggregating between
Sc, 900 and 81. 900. Mllard F. Shafer and
his brother are said to have the largest
account-SS, 600. Practically no COM
plant has been made by any of the large.
depositors, and those who have talked on
the matter regard the failure as unfortu-
nate and regard Mr.. Schnauffer as per-
fectly honest.
1t was said at the bank that the day
book was always balanced but the large
ledger containing the deposits has never
been balanced. This last book has been
in use since the beginning Of the bank and
is confused beyond description. 1t is di-
vided off into account spaces, and about
a, 500 Of these spaces are in use. In some
places figures are blurred and pages so
Soiled that Accountant Price had to use
magnifying glass in making up his report.
This part of Strengthening the banks
affairs consumed most of the four weeks
that have elapsed since the doors were
closed, and it is likely that several days
must yet elapse before the exact condition
of the bank can be- submitted to the re.
ceivers. The fact that the public was
given in advance the figures concerning
the failure is due to desire of Mr. John
s. Newman, one of the receivers, to graft
fy those interested who were beginning to
clamor for information. While it has hit
hard the people now know the status of
dIdlIS anu are Olultlg tHeiT time untll tney
get what is coming TO them.
Cause of the failure is not laid altogether
at Mr.. William Schnauffer's door. 1t is
believed here that bad bookkeeping and
loose way in general of conducting a
bank are responsible for the trouble.
Under its charter depositors are required
TO meet yearly and name officials, includ-
ing nine directors. and make statement
of the banks condition. This was done
the first year-I8 years ago. Since then,
however, not once have the depostors
met and no statement of its financial
standing has ever been made. The books
we're kept in turn by Mr.. Schnauher,
Miss Ella Hogan and Mr.. Luther McKin-
ney, and no regular system was observed.
Miss Hogan, who has been with the bank
for 10 years, did the daybook work, in
addition to which she waited on the
counter and at times made entries on the
ledger She was an efficient clerk and is
one of the depostors who will lose. The
receivers are hard at work and expect to
finish their work in few weeks.