The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-29

make that harbor of equal if not pre-
eminent consequence so far as ocean
carrying freight from the northwest and
from the northern part of the west is
concerned.
Boston Their Ultimate Point
In this view President MelIen Is warmly
supported by the executive authorities of
the Grand Trunk. They now admit that
Boston IS their ultimate objective point.
They declare that if they can obtain au-
thorIty from the. states Of New Hamp-
sn1re and Massachusetts they will extend
the Grand Trunk system into Boston
Ihese OFFICERS base in part this determi-
nation upon what they allege to be many
requests they have received from ner-
chants and manufacturers SO to extend
their line in New England as to reach
Boston If they succeed in this purpose
other parts of the country, and especially
chicago, Indiana and Michigan, Will aid
IN the upbuilding of Boston as a COM
Inercial port. FIR although the Grand
Trunk IS chiefly a Canadian railroad and
IS one of the few transcontinental sys-
TENS of North America nevertheless 1t
IS also to greater extent than many
people imagine railway system of the
United States. In New England alone it is
now operating about seven hundred miles
of railway, inclusive of the Central Yer
mont and the New London line, and in
the United States it has in the aggregate
a little under three thousand miles of
railway and steamboat lines in operation,
while Its entire system in the United
States is operated by fourteen subsidiary
corporations which have received char
ters from twelve states.
For the country at large this attempt
of the Grand Trunk railroad to cross
New England and to establish vast terni-
nails at Boston is of interest since 1t
shows how real the tendency is to enter
into competition for railroad traffic, even
with powerful unified and thoroughly
concentrated railway system which con-
trols all but a very little of region like
that of New England.
Fruitful Field
1t is not easy to line out a method of
investigation for the committee which IS
to explore the mysteries of the so-caIled
money trust unless there be thorough
knowledge of banking and monetary
conditions in the state of New York. For
instance how can the surmised opera
tons of the money trust, if there be one,
be traced and exposed to I'll e considera-
ton of an investigating committee unless
some study of the condition of the saw
1ngS banks in New York state be made.
These institutions are presumed to be
heavy buyers OE certain approved Securi-
ties. The state of New York tried to find
a market within them when it offer
ing its per cent canal bonds for sale.
In the panic of 1907, when the federal
government was offering deposits of fed
erai money to banks upon the condition
that the banks would put up satisfactory
securities, the savings banks of New
York city and to some extent of the state
lent many millions of these securities to
the banks The savings institutions have
furnished one of the chief markets for
me purchase OF certain h1gh grace DOndS /
george C. van Tuyl, Jr., who IS Supe1ln- |
tendent of the state banking department |
mas just made a report which shows that |
on the first of January of this year the |
total resources in the savings banks in
New York state billion, seven I
hundred and eighty-one millions in round |
numbers. In single year these re- !
sources have increased by as much as
eighty-five million dollars. The daily |
wage earners of New York state, supple |
mented by those who receive small sal |
aries, have now on deposit in the savings |
banks one billion, six hundred and nine |
teen million dollars, and this is a. gain of |
SeVenty-SiX millions in a single year. A |
little under one-half of the total popula- |
ton of New York state are the owners OF |
these deposits. The aggregate deposit IS
equivalent to about one-half of the total |
money in circulation in the United States.
And it is for this reason that many per /
sons are asking whether there can be an |
exhaustive investigation of the money I
power, SO called. unless the relations |
which the savings banks of New York |
clearly understood. The savings banks |
of New York now carry nearly seven [
hundred and fifty million dollars of in
vestmentS in stocks and bonds These
stocks and bonds represent in part some
of the larger promotions although they |
are, of course, confined to securities ap-
proved by the state banking department
The savings banks of New York state on
January l had either in their vaults or
in the form of deposits in national or
state banks a hundred and one million
dollars. Ninety-one millions of this
money was deposited in state national
banks And it is inconceivable that there
should be gained any clear understanding
of the movements of money and the man
neT in which it is concentrated unless the
savings banks of New York state cordial
ly furnish all the Information which an
investigating committee of congress may
ask. HOLLAND.