Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-06
G|BSON'S ADVANCE
IN BANKING RAPID
New Head of Manufacturers
Trust Co. Is Excellent
Executive.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.

SpeClal OlSpaICn 10 Inc star.
NEW YORK, January 6-Harvey D
Gibson, who resigned yesterday as
chairman of the Executive Committee
of the New York Trust Co. to be-
come president of the Manufacturers
Trust Co., always has been considered
a Morgan" banker, perhaps largely
because he succeeded Thomas Cochran
as president of the Liberty National
Bank when the latter resigned to enter
the firm of j. P. Morgan g. Co.
When the Liberty National Bank
merged with the New York Trust Mr..
Gibson became president and then
chairman of the Executive Committee.
Mr.. Gibson, 48, was born at Con-
way, N. H., and is graduate of Bow
doin College, Maine. He began his
business career as a clerk with the
American Express Co. at Boston. Later
he became assistant manager of the
financial department Of that company
at New York. In 1912 he left an
executive position with the Raymond
& Whitcomb Co, travel agency, to
become assistant to the president of
the Liberty National Bank. From that
time on his banking and business career
is well known in New York.
During the war he was a member ole
the War Council and War Finance
Committee and spent the year 1919
in Europe for the American Red Cross.
When asked who his associates were
to be, Mr.. Gibson replied that he did
not wish at this time to divulge the
names. Probably in the next few
weeks, or months, they will be an
nounced. Several of them will become
members of the new board of the
trust company.
Although it is known that the largest
-~fV of r1dif1o was
purchased from the Goldman-Sachs
Co. by Mr.. Gibson and his friends, Mr..
GibSon'S close association for many
years with the j. P. Morgan partners
leads many to believe that his flnan-
cial backing is not far away from %
Wall street Otherwise he would not
have left the conservative New York
Trust Co. at this particular time.
The New York banking situation
seems to be clearing up rapidly.
Brainard's Career.
Ezra Brainard, jr., the new chairman
of the powerful Interstate Commerce
Commission, is a Vermont boy who
grew up in the East, took law degree
at the University of Michigan and then
went to Muskogee, Okla, to carve out
a career.
In Muskogee he was a member of
an important law firm which specialized
in business and banking law. He prac-
ticed there until he was appointed
member Of the Interstate Commerce
Commission in 1927 and has been serv-
ing continuously on the commission
during the last three years.
Whether or not the four-System plan
for the East spells fight in Congress
against RECONSIDERATION legislation, 1t
is true that many members OF Congress
are backing the CouzenS resolution,
irIa aims m halt stan pOnSOlidat10nS'
pending legislation by Congress.
If the members of the I. G. G. ap-
Prove the four-system plan for the East
they will have to abandon their own
plan for fifth system, announced
year ago 1t also means the commits
sioners will have to modify the anti
trust orders against all the principal
roads involved Will they do it? APP
parently the administration believes
that they will, because during the last
year three new commissioners
Lee and Mahaffie-have been appointed.
The spotlight will be pretty much on
the commission, headed by Mr.. Brai-
nard, for the next few months.
Peak of Unemployment.
At what point in a business depres-
sion is the peak of unemployment
reached-in other words, at what point
in the depression does the greatest I'M
employment occur?
I asked Miss Frances Perkins. indus
trial commissioner of New York State, |
for an answer to this question. She
frankly admitted that she knew of no
figures available on the subject
I'VE do not know at the present time,
for example, whether the peak of I'M
employment has been reached or
whether it is still before u.s." says Miss
Perkins. Much of the best discussion
of the whole problem is found in the
volume by w. G. Mitchell entitled
Business Cycles In this volume the
records Of business depression in the
United States and In other countries
are reviewed.
Such general estimation as the au-
thor is willing to make, after examina-
ton Of these longtime records, are that
the average length Of periods of BUSH
ness expansion are 25 months and the
average length of periods of business
decline Is 10 months or somewhat
greater.
I'm other words, the periods of ex-
panston are somewhat longer than the
periods Of depression. The depression
periods seem, on the whole, to be some
what briefer in length and more violent
IN character than the periods of ex-
pansion.'
Apparently. Miss Perkins continued
there is no safeguard which one NAV
use to forecast the length of any spe-
cine period OF expansion or depression
It seems TO be true that in the United
States the periods of both expansion
and depression are somewhat shorter
than in other countries. This, in turn.
Is due TO the more rapid economic
transitions which this country under
goes than in older countries with more
definitely settled economic habits"
The United States Department OF
Labor. or some economic research bu-
reau. might, with profit, undertake
such study to find out.
BraziTs Business Problems.
Col. Getulio Vargas, provisional Presi-
dent Of Brazil, Is giving his full time to
the tangled business problems con-
nected with his government since he
took over the reins two months ago.
The strained credit situation growing
out of the failure OF the coffee valori-
cation is one; the large and excessive
taxes. which have retarded business ex-
pansion. is another
Closer cooperation between the fed
eral government and the various state
governments is still another, especially
as IL affects popular education
An illiterate republic is a weak re-
public. The census Of 1920 shows that
in Brazil rs per cent of the people
were unable TO read or write.
President Vargas, too, has announced
that the hope of the farmer is in a
more diversified crop" He wants the
great landed estates cut up into smaller
farms. attractive for the small holders.
Brazil's finances are not healthy.
She has large foreign debt, and the
slump in coffee-her largest export
has raised havoc with her balance of
foreign trade. If this trade balance
should swing against Brazil-and there
are prospects that it may during the