The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-20
RAPID GROWTH OF BANKS IN THE
 UNITED STATES

1 Washington, D. C., Jan 2o.--One of l the greatest evils connected with the former archaic banking system of the l United States was the steadily in
 creasing standardization of banking
 power, which was chiefly found in | New York City. This was one of the
 many things sought to be corrected
 when President Wilson and his lieu tenants in the Senate and House
 were drawing up the Federal Reserve | Banking Act, now in successful opera l |tion for more than four years and! the 1 admiration of fnanciers, the world over.
 The success that attended the de-
 centra:lizing efforts Of the President,
 Senator Owen and Representative
 Glass, now Secretary of the Treasury
 and Senator designate from Virginia,
 is strilkingly indicated in a statement
 made by John Skelton Williams iccmptroHer of the currency, as the
 result of an analysis of the geogra- phical location of the nations 120 1 largest banks. the list including all
 national banks whose resources on ! Nov IT, 1919, amounted to $25, ,0G0, i 900 or more.
 Comptroller Williams statement a1-
 so illustrated the wonderful growth | in the country's banking power in the 1 last 20 years, or since 1899.
 l On Sept ', 1899, there were 1s na- tional banks in the United States having resources of as much as $25.- 000,oO0 each, and Gf these IA, or 74 per cent. were located in New York city, one in Boston, one in Phila- delphia, two in Chicago and one in Boston, one in Philadelphia, two in Chicago and one in St. Louis. Con- trast those figures with those of Nov. ! r, 1919 when there were 120 national banks having resources of more than $25, ,000, 900, and their location indicates the decentralization of banking power that has taken place, the credit be- ing almost entirely due to the inaug- uration of the Federal Reserve Sys- tenn.
 Twenty-Five, or less than 21 per cent of these banks as compared with fl per cent. in 1SS9were located in New York city, 1T in Pennsylvania, 9 in California. each in Illinois, Mis- souri and Texas, s in Virginia each
 in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Ohio, each In Colorado and Ore gon, each in Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New l Jersey and Washington, and one each in Alabama. District of Columbia Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ten n6SSe0 anu WlSCOHSiH
 In reorganization, five cities In the United States contained the 19 na- tiona1 banks that in 1899 had re- sources of more than $25, ,OO0,G00, while today the 12O national banks of this description are distrfbutedl among g cities.
 'eThe big banks to a large extent are the logical result of the tremen- doals growth of our industrial and comm ercial units," commented Comp- 1 troller Williams. 'The banks Of the country have kept step with the ex- pansion in the business of their GUS toners, and by increasing their cap ital and resources are enabled to meet the increasing demands upon ! them for credit and loans. They facili- 1 tate local development by making it unnecessary for business men to go away from home for bank a'ccommo- dation, as has been usual in the past. ''The total resources of all the na- 1 tional banks on Nov. 1T, 1919, were
 s22 Al. .e92, coo and s1O 3s3, ATS, 900 of
 these resources were held '--- +aa 120
 largest banks; but these big banks
 were thoroughly distributed through
 out the country in every section, and
 there Is no longer that congestion of the countrys banking power in few large cities which had been in evil
 dence before the inauguration of the Federal Reserve System.
 i "The resources of the national
 banks, numbering about 7,s00, whose assets in the case of each bank are | less than $25, GOO, are now far
 greater than the total resources of all
 national banks, large and small, 20 years ago.
 1 Therefore the more than ten million
 dollars of assets of the 120 big banks
 represent only part Of the huge in-
 crease of nearly eighteen billion dol ! lars shown by national banks in the 1 last two decades.'