The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-08
Country Is Saturated With
Latent Prosperity.
WAGE EARNERSS SAVING
They Accumulate Over Sixty
Seven Million in New York.
Needed Reforms in the National
Banking Law.


of present and prospective business
conditions are tried to compact their
views into a sententious or epigram-
matte sentence. But it has been said
here today that none matched in
terseness and lucidity and epigramma-
tic force the brief comment made by
Theodore N. Vail at the beginning of
the year President Vail is quoted as
having said that the whole country is
saturated with latent prosperity. In
this laconic sentence he compacts and
assimilates the views expressed by the
great majority of the leaders in the
financial and business world of this
| city.
President Vail admits that there
| still still remains some hesitation
about investing large amounts of cap
ital in great undertakings, but he APP
parently is convinced that this hesita-
ton will not be prolonged. Since Pres
ident Vail spoke we have received
/ mum Der of. new evidences, officially
set forth showing not only that the
year 1911 was, from some points of
! view, of record-making prosperity, but
| also that this condition is likely to be
maintained and to be increased. Many
| regard the best evidence of this kind
| to be that furnished by the official re-
port of those in authority over our
| state-chartered financial institutions
as well as the official statements from
| Was hington which were made the lat
| ter part of last week
Big Saving by Wage Farmers.
| 1t seems almost incredible and has
| been spoken of as amazing that in the
| fiscal year of the state of New York
| which ended on Septem Der so, 1911,
/ the savings, chiefly of the wage earn
| ers, were a little over sixty-seven mil
| lion dollars. The superintendent of
! the banking department in order to
make these great figures the more
| easily eomprehended. states that they
are equivalent approximately to the
| saving of eight dollars by each one of
the inhabitants of New York state.
The largest part of these accunn- !
uIations was earned by the wage earn |
ers of the metropolitan district. This |
statement is easily explained by the |
| fact that the metropolitan district con- |
tains within its boundaries the out |
put of the manufacturing industries of |
the United States
To have been able, notwithstanding
the alleged high cost of living espec-
tally in the manufacturing centers, TO
accumulate so large q surplus from /
wages or small salaries as sixty-seven /
million dollars represents is prlma
facie evidence of great industrial ac- +
tivity and at remunerative wages.
The state savings institutions, al /
though the number of. them has been
some what reduced through LIQUIDATION
now have aim ost exactly Dlll1on ana
half of the savings of the people OF
New York state upon deposit. Much /
the greater part of these deposits is
earning interest at the rate of per
cent Some of the savings banks do /
not feel Justified in paying more than
8 ~ per cent
These savings, together with the
great resources possessed by the larg-
err life insurance companies, have sup
piled much of the money which has
been needed for the great building
operations which have been in prog
ress for the past year 1t IS not an
inaccurate statement to make if it be
said that the wage earners of New
York City and state, together with
those who pay premiums upon life in
surance policies, are indirectly the
owners of some of the greatest of the
modern business and apartment struc-
lures of New York City.
state Chartered Banks Do Well.
But in addition to the record
making deposits by wage earners of
their savings other state chartered in
stitutions occupied with receiving and
lending money have also made rec
plants of those who have insisted that
business has been very bad. 1t was
for the purpose of show
ing the prosperity of the state banks
that the superintendent of the bank
ing department, in addition to stating
the gross figures of resources, called ]
attention to the fact that state char
tered banks and trust institutions in 7
the latest fiscal year paid dividends of !
four million dollars-using round /
mum bers@and these dividends were Z
eight hundred thousand dollars in ex- !
cess of dividends earned and paid in
it is represents a little in excess of
5 per cent of the combined capital of !
the state banks of deposit and dis I
count Our state banks must have !
earned on the average 6 per cent of the :
capital since some portion of the earn :
lngs was applied to the surplus ac
counts. =
Every banker will appreciate the
meaning that lies behind this brief
statement. But for a public which has
been told over and over again that the
year was a poor one for business the
fact that our state banks were able to
earn and pay in dividends four million Y
dollars and were in addition to add e
sums to the surplus or
Undivided profit account, Will serve as
IN assurance that much of the COM p
olafnt of bad business has been I'M o
founded The superintendent of the t
banking department, in a roundabout [,
way, calls attention to the inconsist- n
.ncv between these complaints and the Il
-ecords made by the banks. For he G
avs that notwithstanding all that has n
been said in the past year Of de-
preston of business, nevertheless the t:
banking business was generally pros IL
porous Yet it will occur to every one RI
Who is interested in these statistics to a,
six. s.How could it have been possible b
or the banking business to be pros II
porous if general business was de- r
The state-cartered financial institutions y,
5 a whole report gross resources Of four = i
iIIion. hundred and tfdTty-four million =
dollars. And In that respect a new rec u
~ is made For these gross resources k
re approximately eighty millions larger pl
han the previous high record which was b
made in the year 1909 i
From washington came the OFFICIAL re- e e
ort in the latter part of last week that s
he total resources Of the national banks =
4 the United states are now almost ex-
city ten and ona-half billion dollars, SO fe