Evening star., 1924-03-18
COST Of OPERATING
GOVERNMENT DROP
Treasury Saves $179,791,-
81 in Eight Months Over
Last Year.

Cost of operating the United States
| government for the first eight months
| of the present fiscal year ending Feb
| ruary %, 1924, has been accomplished
| with a saving of approximately s17s,-
! fsl,sll, as compared with the CORE
spending period of last year, the
| Treasury Department announced this
| morning. Total ordinary expendi-
lures for the two-thirds period total
*l'954,1S4,s73, it was said, while those
Tor the corresponding months of last
year amounted TO $2,1i3,936,7s4.
n perusal Of statistical data re-
Veals saving of many millions in
! the legislative establishment. the War
and Interior Departments and in the
United States Veterans Bureau over
last year. Likewise, public debt in
terest fell off to the extent of about
| s64'ooo.0o0, while the governments
| operation in railroads and in the Wa
FINANCE Corporation was conducted at
| greatly lessened levels.
! On the other hand. increased wants
were met for the Navy and AgricuI-
ture departments, and for the tinted
| states Shipping Board
! iotal ordinary expenditures for
Fspr1ary. zsI T7a 1924. amounted to but s12s.
Ior the previous month.
| Ruling In Check Case,
Many and varied are the situations
| that arise daily in the transaction NJ
| panhlng and mercantile business in
| "hich the course of action followed
| mas become so fixed and esta ablished
[ that no one ever considers that the
particular situation could AT any time
De subject to discussion by the cour.S
as to the legal rights involved.
| VI such type, the general counse.
| pursh points out. is the question OF the
outy OF bank, especially in Pennsyl-
| Vanla, which receives in the same Clear
ing several checks of a depositor whose
balance is sufficient to pay some buf
not all OF the checks. The uniform
practice is for the banks to pick out.
arbitrarily, certain of the checks ara
pay tnem 10 the extent Of the balance.
| returning the others.
The case chosen for review follows
| A depositor in d bank issued seventeen
checks aggregating 1864. which reached
MS pank at time when his balancs
was SS2s. The largest check was for
SO, and the smallest for IS. The bank
declined to pay any of the checks ana
returned them all to the clearing house
In an action for damages brought by
the deoositor against the bank q YER
olct IN his favor was affirmed on appeal
The concluding paragraphs of tn.
| courts decision contain advice l..
those confronted with situations fo.-
which there are no precedents:
Wording of Legal Decision.
1T is true the bank officers were
| suddenly brought, without any faul
| of their own, to determine at thei;
peril how to meet an infrequent and
! unexpected difficulty where their
proper attitude had not been specially
/ defined by statute. by the courts o.
nj in
| their own commercial world. But the
obligation of their contract with their
depositor was simple. was ever pres
| ent, and, for aught we can see was
then operative, and it was sufficient
to be "a guide to their feet and a
lamp to their path
After allowing to the bank every
reasonable discretion in the way of
selecting which checks it would pay,
this obligation demanded of it that
1t should select and pay some of
them until the plaintiffs deposit was
exhausted. 1t could not and did not
as we view it, meet the obligation Of
that contract by rejecting all of the
checks
Plans for Forum Dinner.
Local bankers who expect TO attend
| the forum dinner Thursday, at pm,
! at the City Club, are urged to com
municate with W. ~. Dexter, mana
/ ger of the Washington Heights of
| fee of Riggs National Bank, at 2477
| 18th street northwest.
| Donald A Mullen, secretary of the
| clearing house section of the Amer
| lean Bankers Associa ton, will ad-
| dress the gathering on The Clearing
! House Examiner System and the
! Central Credits Bureau"
| Activities at Institute.
| Tho senior class of Washington
! Chapter, American Institute of Bank
! ing. will conduct an open meetInsz
] Thursday night, beginning at o'clock
at the chapter rooms in the New Ma
! sonic Temple. 5sI
| On Tuesday night +. Gordon Finley
+; will lecture 10 the elementary class
[ on Bank Ledgers-Reconciling Ac-
counts" An important quiz wiIi&he.
conducted on the General Ledger
Wednesday night Raymond B. Dickey
will lecture to the law class on Tia
bilities of parties, and Carl W Stark
loft will talk on the Influence of the
| Federal Reserve System to the
| credits class on Friday night
| PERSONAL Mention.
! L. Z. Breuninger. president of the
! Citizens Savings Bank, is sotournins
in Palm Beach. He is accompanied BY
! his family.