Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-30
BRANCH BANKING
UNDER u. S. URGED
Pole Tells C. of C. Plan
Would Decrease Dir: .uI-
ties of Depositors.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
ATLANTIC CITY, N. j., April 30
The belief that branch banking under
national sponsorship would do much to
decrease difficulties of the repositories
was advanced today by Controller Of
the Currency Pole.
Addressing the Chamber Of Commerce
Of the United States, Pole said he be-
lieved there was strong public support
for a program which would encourage
banking system to operate under
standards of the bigger institutions.
He said the great banks of the coun-
try successfully weathered the economic
depression while in rural communities
smaller banks had failed at the rate
Of 700 a year for the last 10 years.
The chief difficulty in considering
our banking system as a whole is politi-
cal rather than economic" he said. We
have, in fact. SO systems of commercial
banking in the United States. one for
each State. one for the District Of
Columbia, and one for the Nation as
whole"
Congress, he said, never has covered
the entire field, but has endeavored to
equalize opportunities TO national banks
with those given by State Legislatures.
Urges Banking Change.
Relaxation Of restrictions which pre-
vent country banks from combining and
from uniting with strong city banks
was advocated today by Edmund Plat,
vice president of the Marine Midland
Group, Inc, of New York. He spoke
before the finance department round
table
After pointing out that present laws
permit big business and people of wealth
to transact their banking business with
the strong institutions OF the largest
cities but prevent small business and
the smaller class of depositors from
having any access to them, Mr.. PIatt
said:
The restrictions Of the law have
been so oppressive in some neighbor-
hoods that group banking has been
devised as a means OF accomplishing
somewhat the same purpose OF branch
banking 1t has not quite the
same responsibility and does not take
care, generally speaking, of the smaller
places"
Advisory Planning Urged.
A tentative project for national adj
visory planning board today lay before
the United States chamber.
Something to bring about correlated
planning has got to be done l.. D. H.
Weld, director of research OF Mccain
Erickson Co. of New York. told the
chamber last night.
THE problem of American business
men is to develop some method OF
cooperation and coordination which
makes rational planning possible and
at the same time keep within the law
This might be accomplished by the vol
untary establishment of an advisory
planning board or economic council
within each industry, manned by the
industrial leaders and outside experts.
For example, if the steel industry
and the railroads had such planning
boards, these two boards could work to-
gether in parcelling out orders for new
rails several months in advance. Pos
sibly before long there might be Gov
eminent commission to cooperate help
fully with business in it's efforts to elm
mate the evils of cutthroat competition,
and to give constructive advice as to
what can be undertaken without in
fringing on the (anti-trusD law"
Consider Stephenson Criticism.
The business men also were consider
ing the drastic criticisms by Rome C..
Stephenson, president of the American
Bankers Association. of their part in
bringing about the depression and also
Mr.. Stephenson's statement that the
Continued on Page 2, Column 3d.