The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-19
Indications Are That They
Prefer to be Close to Busi-
ness Next Few Months
PLANNING TO MEET
DEMANDS FOR MONEY
Enormous Crops Anticipated Which
Will Require Larger Amounts
Than Usual During the
Harvest Period
ny HoIIANn

BY HOLLAND
New York, July 1S.-(Special)- the
list which contains the names of those
who depart for Europe for their summer
excursion there have appeared this sum-
mer very few names of men identified in
a large way with national bank manage
ment. Many American bankers are accus-
toned in the hot weather to visit Europe.
and it has been at times the case that a
majority of the chief executive os ers
of the more important New Y banks
have been at the same time ii Europe.
There must be, therefore, special reasons
which have prevailed upon bankers to re-
main in and near New York city, and
it is understood in or near the other
large financial centers of the country dur
ing the summer. There seems to have
been sort of tacit understanding that
the place for those who direct the larger
banks, and especially the banks which
carry many country or interior corre-
spondents' business is one which is with
in an hour or two's reach of their bank
ing homes.
This undoubtedly is a part of the gen
eral method of preparation which the
American bankers are now making so
that they may be in position to meet
whatever exigencies arise in the late sum-
mer and during the fall.
The statement has been so often made
that it has become almost monotonous
certainly automatic, that the offering of
securities is far in excess of the supply of
cash or credit with which to market
them, or, in other words, the demand for
credit or funds to be invested in securi-
ties is much greater than the supply This
condition is not the one which is persuad-
ing influential bankers to remain in or
near their city homes during the summer
season. For 1t is easy enough to say to
those who offer securities in large
amounts for sale to investors that the
present is no time to make offers of that
kind. Securities cannot be marketed, at
least new lines, unless very tempting
terms in the way of discount from the
par of the securities or high rates of in
terest be named.
A Stringent Market
It is also becoming almost .monotonous
to hear the daily and emphatic statement
that few or no accommodations are given
by the banks to those who seek time
loans, that is to say, discounts for paper
running anywhere from three to six
months. OF course, banks are taking care
of their regular customers They would
do that however severe the emergency,
but they are careful not to divert their
resources now in a liquid form into occu-
pations which they cannot control for four
or six months.
The preparations which are now under
way, and on a very large scale, refer al
most exclusively to the demands sure to
be made by those who have need of cur
It.
their crops or some part of them into
cash with which to meet the needed obli-
cations, such, for instance, as the payment
of harvest hands or transportation
charges.
The midsummer season has passed and
the dog days are at hand. Usually the
first call for funds which the farmers
need begins about the time of the reign
of the dog star. This year the demands
OF this kind have already begun, although
not in great amounts. Unless some cata-
clysm occurs or some almost inconceiv-
able blight of the late summer weather
covers the greater part of the agricul-
tural belts it is certain that the crops will
be large and some of them will make a
new record.
Estimating from the experience of the
past four or five years, many millions will
be needed for the late summer until the
end of autumn in order to convert the
crops into cash negotiable forms of
credit. These demands must be met.
Otherwise the business of the country will
be impaired. The banks themselves would
ultimately suffer.
In addition to conditions of this kind,
which are easy to forecast, there may
come serious emergencies in the fall due
to several causes. No one can predict con-
fidently what the immediate effect of a
new tariff law is to be upon business. 1t
may very greatly increase importations,
and a movement of that kind cannot be
handled without the assistance of the
banks. There may be for time set
backs in various kinds of manufacturing
business. At any rate, the transition pc
riod from the expiration of the old tariff
until readjustment under the new tariff
is completed is certain to be a session for
which bankers must be prepared.
The New Banking Law
Inquiry makes it certain that some of
our bankers are remaining at home this
summer SO that they may be able to give
counsel to those members of Congress
who are anxious to hear all sides before
they decide upon their own action when
the banking and currency bill reaches
vote. Then, too. there is not exactly ap-
prehension but feeling of uncertainty re-
specting the ability of the national banks
speedily ana edSliy 10 reduJuSt themselves
to a law similar in its principles to those
embodied i'll the banking and currency
bill now before Congress. 1t took more
than two years for the country to adjust
itself to the present national banking raw
of civil war days. although that law has
recently been described by Prof. A Platt
Andrews of Harvard university as the one
great. valuable and momentous advance
in American banking made within 100
years. Inquiry shows that bankers of
New York doubt the passage of the bill
now before Congress, at least through the
Senate, unless 1t be considerably, and in
one or two features vitality amended.
They do not believe that the administra-
ton will obstinately and defiantly persist
in attempts to force the measure through
the Senate substantially as the bill now
stands.
The Pittsburg Failure
The recent failure of one of the great
est banks in Pittsburg and of several cor
porations. allied with it coming so soon
after the floods which caused so much
dead loss in a considerable region just
west of Pittsburg, is certain to add some
what to the embarrassm of our bank