Evening star., 1924-07-27
BY 1. A. FLEMING.


of the Treasury. State. War and Navy
and the War Risk Buildings around
the noon hour on the 1st or 18th of
the month?
If you have you have seen them by
the hundreds, almost thousands, drop
ping into the various banks in the
vicinity depositing their pay checks 8,
| sometimes receiving part pay in cash.
not infrequently depositing the en-
| tire check
They" in this case refers to the
| army of young women enrolled in the
| service of your Uncle Sam. They"
blow into the banks singly, in twos,
threes and troupsI laughing, gay,
| sedate and serious, the styles of the
| day and the gay colors making a
| very picturesque scene. Occasionally
young man will work his way
| through the crush.
10000 Rush to Banks.
| Uncle Sam has a civilian army en-
I ployed in Washington of some 10000
boys. girls, men and women of all
| ages.
The younger girls generally rush to
! the banks at the noon hour to make
| their deposits while their elders gem
! orally await the after closing hour
| to attend to their business with the
banks.
! And the great majority of this
| civilian army is made up of serious
| minded, earnest capable workers, in
Guiding the butterflies" no less than
! their elders who have been much
! longer in the service.
Fathers and sons, husbands and
| wives and mothers and daughters and
not infrequently families work side
| by side. for it generally requires more
| than. one salary to maintain an estab-
| lishment in the National Capital.
This civilian army is the great
stablizer OF Washington. Other
cities sometimes find money scarce,
| Wa shinEton newer.
| Other cities, in times of stress ind
| trade always dull. Washington mer-
| chants always do fair seasonaDle
| business.
| When there is an unusual disturb
anCe on Wall Street il is attended by
| wild excitement and severe deprecia- :
| ton in prices; before the enactment
| of the Federal reserve act, these dis
| turbances amounted to panics. Dur
| ing panic, Washington securities
| have displayed steadiness as 10
/ prices that was very remarkable
| Joined Famous Buyers strike.
| The only notable exception IN
| Washington to the non-refectlon OF
4 ii
| tended the buyers strike of "A fe"
wears ago, and that affected the en-
] tire country from one end TO the o'her'
| 1t was the serving of notice that
| the era of imitation must end-"as
| in fact ended. and that from that
| time on silk shirts at $40 each and
| furniture at 500 per set was taboo
| That strike was, as stated before,
liar reaching and longtime reach
| ing" too, for it is stIll working and
| m
| to come The lessons OF that strike
are responsible for the fact that the
me rchants carry but one stock OF
| goods. that they do not need as much
| money assistance from banks as they
| did in the days when they carried
! three stocks. one on the shelves, one
/ in their Easements or in warehouses
| and the third out on credit or ordered
for speedy delivery. They had to
| have three stocks, for the buyers
| were on top of them.
| Since that strike money has been
| continuously eaSy-So easy that Sec
retary Mellon has reduced rates OF
interest on Government borrowings
from the So to per cent rate to
I2a. per cent, thereby giving new
| life and stability to the various Gov
| ernment issues of short-t1me paper
and Liberty bonds. which now COM
mand a good premium.
Pay Rolls Total Millions.
| But to return to the CIVILIAN army.
! 1t is not the army that stabli1zes
| Washington but the pay roll each
| month that keeps our banks with
| ample funds and makes trade good
| for the butcher. the baker and the
gas company.
Government monthly pay check is as
| good as any one elSeS, outside OF
| insiders" who know. If pay checks
for the 10000 average sl50 a month
that would give total of slo,5oo.ooo
| a month, and it would not be much
| stretching to make it Sll.O00,000,
which estimate may be further swell
ed by the salaries of the Army and
Navy, or that part of it that Is quar-
| tered in and around Washington
saw to sl3OoO,0oO a month, equivalent
| to the Rays roiE OF several large sized
| Industrial corporations.
1t also requires another CIVILIAN
army to care for the 10000 Govern
population will add greatly to the
monthly pay roll. These millions
are the stabilizers of Washington.
Some Valuable, Others Bookkeeping.
While the deposits of the workers
| of Washington are accepted at all
| banks with thanks, some of the
| bankers find that many of the de-
| posits are received pay days and
drawn out almost Immediately. In
other words, that the banks were
assisting the IONeTHI1eut "olhc 10 III
keeping their books for them.
other bank heads claim that many
of these accounts gradually grow to
fair proportions, but remark on the
speedy transfer to the savings sec
ton. Still others remark on the
steady growth of some accounts and
the fact that many of the depositors
are not infrequently introducing
friends in other lines of endeavor,
whose accounts are more than salts
factory.
With the high cost of living in
! Washington it is not to be wondered
at if some of the government en-
ployes and others, for that matter,
are unable to build up large deposits.
If they happen to be paying for
homes it would be impossible. But
the deposits in the banks of Wash
ington have shown the most remark
able gain in the last few years and
some part of it must be credited to
the government workers.
A bank official remarked the other
day that the population of Washing
tonn had increased 100 per cent in the
last ten years and If this statement
was true then the bank deposits
should also have increased 100 per
cent.
Deposits Gain 135 Per Cent.
They have said they have even bet
tered the 100 per cent ratio. Novem-
Der 10, 1915, the nearest 10-year COM
parison at hand, showed bank de-
posits of sS5,519,000 and all the real
estate people in the city bowling
over the scant supply of mortgage
money.
The national banks then held SAL
446,000; state banks and savings
institutions, $12,268,00 and the trust
companies, s31,s05,0o0 in round
On June 80, 1924, the total deposits