The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-28

K T5W YORK, which is the most
M conservative city in America in
Il banking matters. viii make 6
radical departure about February l,
next. one of the banks in the heart
OF the uptown retail section is recon
strncting Its bank building in order to
accommodate women clients. The entire
second floor will be a womans bank.
A woman will be its manager. The
whole bank force employed ON that
floor. with two exceptions, Will be
women The two exceptions will be the
tellers. They will be men.
The manager of the women's depart
ment of this bank will be Miss Calrk
of Philadelphia, who has had a wide
experience In financial matters. Tho
womens department of the bank will
be more like a club than a financial
institution. There will be a library and
ladies' lounging room. All the mag
azines and principal newspapers viii
be there for the banks clients There
will be rest rooms and the most com
Portable of chairs. In the west wall of
the reading room there will be a large
open fireplace. There will be enough
rooms to accommodate scores of Wis
itors. An electric elevator will carry
the women up and down so they will
have no trouble climbing the stairs
while at the bank
This experiment in New York banks
will be watched with great interest by
banking men in general in the me
tropolis. New York never tries a thing
until it has been demonstrated and
proven good elsewhere. There are
scores if not hundreds of women bank
officers in the United States and Can
ada, but Miss Clark will be the first
one New York has known and this
bank will be the first in the Empire
state to give up half its space and
create a special department for women
Those who ought to know have no
doubt of the success of the woman
banker in New York. She has made
headway in every city in which she
has entered the field, except, perhaps,
in Boston. There the Old Colony Trust
company tried a womens department
with women officials in its Temple
Place branch. The women depositors
liked everything about the women's
department. except the women receiving
tellers and the women paying tellers
They wouldn't transact business with
them. When they wanted to draw
money they went downstairs to the
man paying teller or when they want-
ed TO make a deposit they went down
stairs to the man receiving teller. 1t
is because of this pecularity of the
women of the east that the New York
bank viii have men as receiving and
paying tellers in the womens depart
inert of it's institution.
Apparently this objection to women
tellers has not developed in other parts
of the country, for north and south and
west there are women who are cash
fers receiving tellers, paying tellers
and bank presidents, and the women
clients do not discriminate against but
rather seem to prefer them to men Of
ficials. There is one thing that the
bank in New York promises to do eN-
cry day for its women clients. That
Is to rive new, clean money to every
PERSON cashing a check in the womens
department. This is in recognition to
womens objections to soiled bank
notes.
1t is really remarkable how many
women bank officials there are in
Anerlca. The Cunningham National
bank of Joplin. Mo-, has seven women
among its nine employees, Mr. b. f.
two cashiers are Miss Tillie Muller and
Mss Blanche Jenkins Mr.. T. w. Gun
nirgham is the president. He is quite
old.
Mrs. Church is the active spirit in
the institution. She has been in the
banking business 23 years. Back in 1890
when she was graduated from the pub
Tic school of Joplin, it was necessary
for her 10 go to work to help sup
port her mother, father and four other
memners of the family. She didn't know
just what to do. She had check on
the Bank of Joplin to cash and when
she presented it she talked with Mr.
Cunningham and told him she wished
she could get a position somewhere.
Mr CUNNINGHAM informed her that he
was thinking of getting girl to as
slst the bookkeeper in the bank and
asked her If she would care to try it,
She was only too pleased but when
she started she had an awful time
s'nc found that she could neither fig