New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-08
Chicago Romance
In Andy Graham's
Bank Collapse
Financier's Faith in West
Side Led to lnstitu-
tons Ruin
Especial 20 The Tribunel

Chicago, July Back Of the failure
Of the Graham Bank here last Friday,
a $4,000 900 institution and the largest
private bank in this part of the coun
try, is story as romantic as the story
Of Chicago itself. with which it is in
extricably woven. Private banks are
an anachronism nowadays, a relic Of
tho day when financial honor and credit
were matters of individual establish
ment. before the time of government
check and control which makes IL diff
licult for financial institutions TO be
dishonest or even unwise.
But Andy Graham. as Chicago's West
Side knew him through the years in
which he built the fortunes of the West
Side, along with his own. was also the
kind OF banker that earlier days found
more common than those OF now For
half century he was the confident
and adviser OF the West Side. banker
whC could advise rich and poor alike
because he had once been poor and was
now a millionaire. He had made bank
out of a furniture store that his father
b had established, and through success
sive stages saw u grow from an
agency for steamship tickets into
financial institution with $4,000 de-
postors.
Died Burdened with Debt
year ago he died. IL is possible
that worry and anxiety over the future
Of the thing he had built had much 90
do with his death. For five years
debt OF almost three quarters of
million dollars had hung over his head,
a debt that his faith in the West Side
Of Chicago made il impossible FOR him
20 pay. But all that the public has
only just found out For Graham's
sons. men as devoted and square as
himself recent investigations go 10
show. took up the burden he had
dropped, and il was only when all their
eforts-eycn 20 pouring in 100000 Of
insurance money-wcre found ineheci-
ual, that they went 20 the courts ana
asked for q receiver.
The investigation which is going 20
be made into the aflirs Of the Graham,
Bank viii probably disclose that 10 was
misguided faith which wrecked The
bank. Instead Of the liquid securities
which state and national banks are
continually admonished 20 keep in their
vaults. the Graham Banks assets were
made up Of valuable but slow turning
real estate mortgages and deeds Andy.
Graham believed in the future OF Chi.
cago's West Side and he put much OF.
the banks morey into IL. But factory.
sites do not always move swiftly in the
real estate maiket. and there came a
time when wreckage was inevitable.
Liberty Campaign Final Blow
That time doomed over the horizon.
when the Chicago Clearing House de-
maHdcd certain cond tions 20 which
Andy Graham would not conform and-
he withdrew. clearing his own checks.
Then came the Federal Reserve sy,-
tern. strengthening national banks.
weakening private ones. The final blow
was the Liberty Bond campaign So
many of the $4,000 investors withdrew
their deposits 20 invest in the govern
ments war loan that the bank could
stand 10 10 longer.
There is no belief in Chicago that
irregularities of any kind have had
anything 20 do with the failure Of the
bark. And state banking officials be-
licye that the bank will pay out 10 its
derostors, perhaps even dollar for dol
lar The only fault any one can End
is with the old-tashioned methods Of a.
man who believed deeply in his own
judgment and against whom, until
death had first taken him. modern
methods Of state and private co0pera-
'iop were unayailing -