The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-08-31

various federal agencies dealing
with bank reopenings, putting
them all under one competent
head.
3. Have the federal government
carry for a reasonable time all
frozen bank assets to which value
will be restored by a rise in the
price level.
4. Make immediate use of en-
Urgency monetary powers to re-
duce the dollar to its normal pur-
chasing power and raise the price
level.
The treasury departments state
ments to the public, says the COM
mittee. do not disclose the real
seriousness of the frozen bank
situation.
Latest figures available at the
treasury the second week in Aug
gust showed 3,120 banks with de-
posts of ,498,OOO,00O, closed or
restricted as of June %. Since
then reOneningS have proceeded at
the rate of about 30 banks a week.
THE figures available at the
treasury" says the committee,
"dO not include the 5000 banks,
with deposits of about $4,000, 900,
closed during the depression but
before March 5th. These 5000 in
clude the great number of large
and important banks closed dur
ing January and February.
THE total of frozen deposits
in commercial banks alone is
around $7,5O0,O0O,0O0. The total
of deposits in all commercial
banks now operating without re-
strictionS has been reduced to
$31. $50, 100000.
Thus nearly 20 per cent of
the deposit circulating medium of
the country is frozen.
Furthermore, to get a true
perspective, we must take into
consideration $7,5OO,O0O,O0O of
deposits under restriction in saw
ings banks as of May 81, not in
Icluded in the TreaSury'S totals.
Release of this tremendous
purchasing power is dependent
upon government action. Without
prompt, decisive steps to raise the
price level and thereby restore
normal value to bank assets, de-
poSitors' and bank stockholders
money will be allowed to waste
away.
Bureaucratic control has made
depoSitors. stockholders and bank
management powerless to save
themselves from unnecessary loss
es. Although the salvaging of
bank assets is wholly in the hands
of the government. today, after
five months, no adequate machin-
cry to cope with this problem ex-
lists. The problem exists. The prob
lem is attacked piecemeal, and has
been handled largely under the in
fluence of the deflationary inter-
ests that have sought TO control
monetary policy.
1.-The closing of banks threw
upon the treasury department
such a burden as it had never fac
ed. There was no adequate organi
cation for handling this work. Let
tiers piled unanswered. Even con-
SENATORS writing on vital points
waited weeks without reply.
There has been not only disas-
trous delay but unnecessarily
harsh judgment in official salvag-
ING operations. Some banks have
been bled white by exaction of ex-
cessive collateral for government
relief" loans. Only recently Pres
ident Roosevelt caused this policy
to be relaxed.
"Had the monetary measures
necessary to correct the price lev
Ell been taken before commodities
and securities were allowed to slip
into a tail-spin, values would have
been restored to many bank port
folios.
1T is still not too late to cor
rect this situation. But depositors
while loyalty supporting the
government in it's constructive eff
forts-must demand that the mis-
take in policy and personnel shall
not be continued.
public opinion must therefore
recognize that innocent victims OF
banks closed by a drop in the
price level which the government
failed to forestall or promptly
correct, have u claim on govern