Evening star., 1915-12-28
COLLECTION SYSTEM
FOR RICHMOND BANKS
Clearing House Association Organ
lied to Do Work on Wholesale
Plan-Big Savings Expected.
Federal Reserve Boards Plan-Local
Securities Active and Firmer,
Washington Gas Leading.
BY I. A. FLEMING.

Bankers of Richmond. Va. have
formed the Richmond County Clearing
House Association, with w. NJ. Ad-
olson. cashier of the First National
Bank. as president; Conway H. Gordon.
cashier of the Planters National. as
vice president, and j. w. Sinton, vice
nres;dent of the National State and city
Bank, as secretary.
Offices have been opened ana a staii
of fourteen clerks engaged.
It is the nurpose of the association
%o collect all out-of-town checks for
the banks of Richmond, state and ma
tional, and for correspondents OF these
institutions.
Five of the largest banks formed the
,..o,i.tion hut checks will be collected
for all banks.
large saving in the cost of collec-
tions is expected to result Arrange
ments will be made with one pank III
each city to handle checks drawn on
banks in that city. the oank hhahins
the natural selection, all else oeihs
equal. .;.;.s
will then go out in one envelope Ior
each city for collection; one p1s.as e
instead of many payments. wholesale
collection rate, a saving from clerlcai
hire, etc, are among the suggested
In the initial collecting but $50
towns will be represented In the sys-
tenn, but ultimately 1900 important
towns will be selected. 1t Is expected
that 10000 checks day will be han
died.
II. as generally believed. the federal
reserve board forces the member banks
to join the regional and interreg,onai
clearings' collections, as Indicated py
the request for ruling on the rlent
to do SO from a.ocia,ion the Atdorne will % prob.
ably continue to collect checks LOT
state banks and trust companies, whlIe
the member banks will do business
through the clearing system OF tne
II is the desire Of the federal reserve
board to make checks worth their race
value, passing at par any place IN the
Member banks will strenuously OBJ
ject to surrendering collection fees, out
it is questionable il any organized op-
position to the ruling Will De Iouno'
even from the American Bankers AS
sociation.
Southern Railway Earnings.
Southern railway earnings. gross. for
the third week in December were
s1.4o3,oo1, as compared with $1.230,3s4
for the corresponding week Of 1914, an
increase of $172.607 or 1903 per cent.
For the fiscal year. from July l to
December 81. the gross earnings
totaied s32.2s7.s0s. as compared with
s31,0s0,670 for the same period OF lSl4,
a net gain this year OF Sl,ssS'SSs' OF
3.82 per cent
Local Securities.
There was a decided Improvement in
e.. inyestment demaud for local Sc
suri4ies on the local exchange today,
moderate record being made in the
trading In bith bonds and stocks.
Prices showed little or no change
other than on Graphophone shares,
which were slightly lower. the COM
mon selling at 1877 and the preferred
at 142.
washington Gas was the leader of
The session, with sales at Is; Lanston
was a close second at the same price
In the bond section a small bond OF
the Washlngton Gas COMPANY hpanybs s0,0 ,o7n e.
Railway As 81 and Potomac Consoli-
dated Power IS 99A to 997s.
Other orders for securities were un-
filed because OF difference IN buyers
and sellers views on prices. The un-
dertone of the list was satisfactory.
Condition Of the Treasury.
The condition of the United States
Treasury yesterday was:
Net balance in general fund, $685.
s32,so7.
Total receipts. $1.46s.413.
Total payments. s1,25s,Ss2.
The deficit this fiscal year is s49,622.-
15s, against a deficit of s56,7S7,s71 last
year, exclusive Of Panama canal and
doh