The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-11
BURDEN OF BANKS

or SUCn an lnSI1lullOn HeIS
 BURDEN OF BANKS
 MT Wells stated that the section to be served by the proposed branch bank would include all of Alabama except that part now attached to New Or leans, and all that part of Tennessee lying directly north of Alabama. It is burden on the banks to meet the weekly payrool, amounting to more than $2,100, 900, in Greater Birmin- gham Gadsden. Tuscaloosa and the Sheffield Florence district in addition to supplying the needs of the great agricultural districts of the .Tennes- see and Coosa valleys, the Black Belt and the Piedmont region in eastern and northern Alabama, he said. With branch banks in New Orleans and Bir- mingham and the parent in Atlanta, the requirements of the Sixth district could be amply supplied
 No group of banks with like deposits or assets has accounted for a larger list of Liberty Bonds, certificates, Red Cross and other government activities than those of Birmingham, said Mir, Wells, and that. too, without any gov ernment fayors in the Birmin gham dis trict and that no group of similar de- posits had paid more war taxes. In view of these conditions, he and his committee had urged before the re- serve board, that Birmingham was en- titled to a branch bank. and he said he felt justified in appealing to the bankers of Alabama to approve of their efforts to secure it.
 The resolution. prepared by Mir. Wells, | read by Secretary Bartlett and adopted, follows:
 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Alabama bankers in session May 9, 1U and Il, 1918. that we approve of the eff forts of Birmingham banks to have To- cated in their city branch of the feder- al reserve bank"
 FACING THE FUTURE George P. Kennedy, treasurer of the Guaranty Trust company of New York, read 9 most interesting paper on Facing the Future" America's problem at the end of the war will be big one, he said, but he believed she would solve it. We have heard at some length and learned at great cost the value of being
 prepared for war, he declared, but now Americas force is being felt on the western front. This country's foreign trade has reached stupendous figures, he said, and to maintain this trade after the war is proposition that will re- quire the greatest consideration. Every
 nation at war will make the greatest eff fort to get some of this trade. All the
 
 to devote considerable time to the de- | mobilization of their vast armies. not to pre-war standards, but to meet new con ditions, and this will take time. lie said that only three years of war were required in which to destroy the com mercial structure that the nations had 1 been 400 years building. America must build up an organization to retain the | billions of dollars of world trade that hoxy fo hay- eli uro she is in better condition to do this than any other country. Some of the prob l lems that will confront the country | when the soldiers return home, he said, i were the disposition of the vast number l of men released from service the thou | sands of women who have been doing mems work. readjustment of railroads and varied industries; to eliminate the useless, make every person and every l thing useful. Great Britain has ap- preached the solution of the problem and is already working on reconstruction plans to be put into the effect at the conclusion of the war. and there is no secret of her intention to reconstruct and retain Ter world trade when peace comes again. France. too. he said. is engag- ing her best brains in the problem, and so are the other countries at war. Amer ica can and will meet the problem and
 
 trade, in his opinion.
 TRADE ACCEPTANCES President Jackson introduced Frank K. Houston of the Third National hank of St. Louis. who had consented to speak on Trade Acceptances." Before MT Houston began his address, Presi- dent Oscar Wells of the First National bank of Birmingham offered a resolution, approved by the trade acceptance com l mittee of the American Banking asso- ciation, the Chamber of Comerce of the United States and other commercial bodies, irdorsing the trade acceptance system. The resolution was referred to the committee on resolutions to be re- ported back today.
 MT. Houston explained the system pointing out it's advantages over the present system of open accounts car ried on books of merchants and manufac- turers. He said there was nothing new in it, but it had been given new inn petus in recent years, and especially since the beginning of the war. not only as a war measure but as a business proposi- tion. Under the trade acceptance sys- tenn merchants. instead of carrying open accounts on their books, would require credit customers to execute notes which the banks would discount if necessary thereby making it possible to mobilize | the nations wealth. America is the worlds workshop, the banker. the hope