The Washington herald., 1920-11-07
SEEK ACTION
! ON one ISSUE
Question Of Saturday Evening Bank
ing Slated to Receive Thor
: oush Threshing Out.
CONTINUED EXCHANGE DROP
Election Fails to Stimulate De-
pressed Market and Result
Is Demoralizing.
CONTINUED EXCHANGE DROP

Washington banks have resolved
: themselves to settle for once and
all the question of whether they
= can reopen on Saturday evening
from 5 o'clock until $3.50 o'clock, 1t
developed yesterday. The question
of hours governing the opening and
closing on week days has been laid
aside until an official Interpretation
of section 1889 Of the code Of law
for the District of Columbia can
be had. Section 1889 reads as fol-
lows:
payable: Il
Every negotiable instrument is
payable at the time fixed therein,
without grace. When the day OF
maturity falls upon Sunday Or
holiday the instrument is payable
on the next succeeding business
day. Instruments falling due on
Saturday are to be presented for
payment on the next succeeding
business day. except that instru-
ments payable on demand may, at
the option of the holder, be pre-
sented for payment before IL o'clock
noon on Saturday when that entire
day is not a holiday. The following
days in each year, namely, the first
day of January. commonly called
New Years Day; the twenty-second
day of February. known as Wash
ington's Birthday; the Fourth of
July; the thirtieth of May, COM
monty called Decoration Day; the
first Monday in September, known
as Labor Day; the twenty-fifth day
~ har Nrr1n HlNy
Christmas Day; every Saturday,
after IL O'CLOCK noon: any day ap-
pointed or recommended by the
President of the United States as
a day of public fasting or thanks
giving, and the day of the inaugu-
ration of the President, in every
fourth year, shall be holidays in the
District for all purposes When
ever any day set apart as a legal
holiday shall fall on Sundays, then
and in such case the next succeed
ing day shall be a holiday, and in
such cases and in all cases in which
a Sunday and a holiday shall fall
on successive days all commercial
paper falling due on any of said
days shall, for all purposes of pre-
, senting for payment or acceptance,
be deemed to mature and be pre-
sentable for payment or acceptance
on the next secular or business day
succeeding"
Supporters of the Clearing House
Association contend that to accede
to the savings banks demands re-
garding Saturday evening hours
would be impossible, owing to them
not being vested with power to is
sue regulations which deliberately
violate the statutes of the District
The decline in the foreign ex-
change market, which had been in
progress before the Presidential
election, took on more momentum
later and on the closing day of the
business week the market became
fairly demoralized. AS an illustra-
ton, italian exchange, which had
closed on Thursday at a new low
record receded further on Friday
morning fifty-fve points. In French
exchanges similar acute weakness
was shown with a loss over night
of 81 centimes- Belgian exchange
was fully as demoralized, and all
Of the continental classes suffered
. equally. Marks reached 1.22h
compared with Las about two weeks
ago. Sterling, which a short time
ago had reached 3.45 for cables fell
to 3.40A and demand to 339X.
The weakness of the market was
variously attributed to the interna-
tional trade position and to the ap-
pearance of a large amount of COM
mercial' bills, particularly cotton.
Leading bankers who are familiar
with the copper industry continue
to lay stress upon the fact that an
Immense amount of the red metal
is needed in Europe, especially in
Germany, but that such purchases
could not be financed. Meantime
the larger producing companies in
this country have on hand an un-
precedented amount of copper with
hardly any outlet abroad. The other
causes OF the continuous weakness
in foreign exchange have been
dwelt upon for months past to the
fullest degree and contain no new
light on the subject. It would ap-
pear to be very simple that IL we
are to be relieved of our immense
production of commodities over and
above domestic needs some means
viii have to be contrived to provide
in some form or other credits to the
foreign purchasers who are so
urgently in need of a great number
sf products. At present these are
+, to be obtained only in this country.
In the smaller nation exchanges
some sensational declines occurred
on nominal transactions including
a drop and later recovery in Greek
FROM,