The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-11
Pay Rolls Make Up Chief Cash Transactions Over
 the Bank Counters
FACTS SHOWN BY
 REPORTS OF BANKS
Use of Cheeks Is Growing Constant. ly-Many Households in East Now Pay All the Servants
 by Check
By HOLLAND

ny nOLAAAND
 New York, July 1o. Especial. )-From one of the larger banking institutions of New York there issued a day or two ago all appeal for friendly assistance of a pe- culiar kind For some special reason there was need of a large amount, many thousand dollars in all, of gold certift- cates of the denomination of $500. The fnstitution which called upon its friends for assistance in this matter possesses very hrge resources and is one of the strongest banks of the United States. There must. therefore, have arisen some special or exceptional occasion involv- ing the need of gold certificates of this Amomination. It was possible through cooperation to give this aid-
 The incident has called attention, in the form of contrast. to the object lesson which fs furnished in the statements of banks made as of June 30 to the comp troiier o6 tho currency at Washington. It has sometimes been spoken of as some what significant of a special desire of the comptroller to obtain at this time detailed information respecting the condition of the national banks that there should have been a. request. of this kind made recently by him. The surmise has been that the information would be of great value for those who are speedily to organize the federal reserve board and the reserve dis tricts.
 It is, fin fact, no new thing. Comptrol- Iers of the currency long ago began to ask the banks to submit detailed reports so that the department could be able to secure accurate information respecting ha nl rfvsp h<,Au Af fha { currency has now done no more than follow the example set by enc of his pred ecessors, although the information that will be obtained is sure to be of timely value.
 The striking feature of the report of the leading banks of New York city and. presumably, of all the national banks, is the evidence which will be furnished of the fact that almost all of the banking business of the United States is carried on by means of checks, drafts or similar negotiable instruments. When the of ficers of the Clearing House association made their report a year ago of the az gressive amount of the exchanges which were made in the institution for the year they were able to say that only about 5 Ter cent of the stupendous total, reaching far up into the billions, of the years , transactions represented payments in cash Practically the entire transactions of the clearing house, transactions which reflect directly or indirectly no small part of the business of the United States, were perfected by means of an exchange of credit. In fact. from one point of view they were all thus perfected for the cash that vas paid in. about per cent of the entire amount, was in large part repre- sented by clearing house certificates. and these are really nothing more than drafts upon the gold held in the clearing house vaults
 Five Per Cent Cash
 The president of one of the larger banks of New York was asked this morn- ing if the daily transactions carried on by his bank showed about the same relation between cash and credit, represented by checks or drafts, which the clearing house report showed. In reply he said that cer- tainly 8 per cent, possibly a little more, of the transao tions dafly carried on by his bank were represented by checks or drafts and that not more than per cent, and often less than that, were represent ed by actual cash. After standing for a half hour in front of the receiving teller's window, where there was oppor- trnty for observation of the deposits W hich were received, it was made evident that by far the great er amounts of these deposits were in the form of checks or drafts with occasionally dividend coupons
 What Is true of this bank is presuma- ply true Of almost all the banks of the United States, both national and state The larger banks of New York city fur Fish evidence in their detailed reports to the comptroller of the currency state ments made under oath, which illustrates the magnitude of the utilization of checks or drafts. The greatest of American banks, which now possesses resources of over s350 0O0,000 ranking it with some of the great joint stock banks of London, possessed among it's resources on June 30 instruments of credit, presumably checks or drafts and exchanges for the clearing house of approximately $5OO00, 900, and among it's liabilities were certified checks and cashiers checks outsta nding aggre- gating S15000.000 The comptroller of the currency will have no difficulty in reading behind the formal statistical statement He will see that by far the larger part of the resources of this institution, exclusive of bonds and various securities and exclu- sive of the banking house property IS rep resented by checks or drafts He will be able to learn that much the greater part of the business carried on by this institu- tion Is facilitated by the use of instru- ments of credit.
 A careful scrutiny of the various re- ports which the comptroller will receive from all over the United States will show him that the amount of cash utilized in carrying on business in the United States