The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-14
HAPPY DAYS
BANK CLOS|NGS
JUST MEMORY
Business Beating Back on
Anniversary Of Michigan
Moratorium.
RECOVERY HELD YEAR
Deposit Insurance Act Is
Hailed by Senator
as Savior
By United Press

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.-Busi-
ness is beating back today on the
first anniversary of the Michigan
bank moratorium, which led ulti-
mately to the closing of every bank
door in the United States. President
Roosevelt estimates the net recovery
bill will be about $4,000 900 900.
BY June 80, 1885, the end of a
fiscal year, Mr.. Roosevelt believes
the emergency spending period OF
recovery will be over. Thencefor-
ward, the nation is to live within its
income, if administration plans dc
not miScarry.
The $40, OOO, O0O, 900 recovery bill
represents the difference between
our national debt before Roosevelt
$50, 537 ,931, 789-and what it is ex-
pected to be on June 80, 1885. BY
that date, we as a nation will owe
$31 1874, 000, 000.
Michigan banks did not open one
year ago today. A proclamation by
Governor William A. Comstock kept
them closed. Other states joined
with closing orders or restrictions
until Delaware became the forty
eighth in the parade of depression
late on the night of March 4. Pres
ident RooSevelt'S nationwide clos
ing proclamation issued the next
day Sunday prevented any bank
from opening for business on Mon
day morning, March s.
Price Gain Shown
Corn and cotton have doubled in
price since February a year ago
when the banks were on the verge
of collapse. Wheat has done almost
as well. Hogs are up. Government
agencies estimate the recovery pro-
gram has re-employed 6,000,0 900 per-
sons, about 4,000,00 of them in the
CWA which is to be disbanded
May /.
Some $4,000, 000. 900 still is tied up
in banks which did not open after
the March proclamation. The ag-
gregate value of stocks listed on
the New York Stock Exchange was
$23, 900, 900 900 in February, 1898, and
$4,000, 000, 900 this year.
Michigan, which brought bad
news a year ago, brings good news
today. Senator Arthur Vandenberg
(Rep., 'Mich.), author of the deposit
insurance amendment to the Glass
Steagall bank bill. saws:
1.-THE Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation not only has brought
insurance to 53,000,0 900 depositors
but it has made the banking struc-
ture sounder, in my judgment, than
banks have been in the past fifty
years.
Main Beam in Recovery"
THE administration swung over
from hostility to complete and en-
thusiastic use of the FDIC," Sen
ator V~andenbreg continued in an
interview with the United Press.
That corporation became the
major element in the administra-
tons banking formula. 1t was used
as a fulcrum for prying preferred
stock into all these banks. The re-
sultant cooperation between the
FDIC and the RFC has been
novel and refreshing.
"The FDIC has become and now
is the main steel beam in the re-
construction edifice. After all, if it
is conceded that the primary need
is mass confidence in our institu-
tons, there isn't any possible agency
or element that automatically
spreads confidence through the
whole mass of u people like the
assurance they can sleep nights
with respect to their bank deposits.
IF all the banks of the United
States had paid an annual premium
of just one-quarter of l per cent of
their deposits for sixty-eight years
up to and including the terrible per-
iod of 1882, every bank deposit loss
for sixty-eight years could have been
paid up to $4,000 and the insurance
fund today would have a balance of
81, 600, 900 ,O00."
The FDIC became operative on a
temporary insurance plan Jan. l..
1t has $500, 000, 900 on hand now to
protect deposits UP to $500.