Evening star., 1937-11-13
CHRISTMAS CLUBS
T0PAY S7,345,05O
.18 Capital Banks Prepare
to Send Out Checks to
82,858 Members. -
By EDWARD C. STONE.

By EDWARD C.. STONE.
Eighteen Washington banks which
have conducted Christmas savings
clubs during the past year will start
early next week making out checks
for the payment of $7,345,05 to 81, 1853
club members.
Members make their final payments
into the Christmas fund on November
Is. After that date the banks will
push arrangements for paying back
the full years yuletide savings in
ample time for use at the height of
the holiday season. In recent years
the banks have moved up the date
Of payment in order to give club
members the best possible opportunity
to select Christmas goods.
The amount pledged by Christmas
Savings Club members in Washington
: this year was 81, 1,084,310 more than the
sum subscribed in the 1886 clubs. The
number of thrifty Washingtonians
joining the clubs jumped from 77,614
in 1886 to the aforementioned 82,858
members for the present year.
Forward-looking Christmas savers
subscribed an average of $89 per
capita this year, an increase of 81
over what the average member put
into the 1886 clubs. This was also
about double the per capita amount
deposited in similar clubs in other
parts of the country.
Growth Due to Advertising.
Much of the glory for the amazing
growth in the popularity of Christmas
Savings Clubs in the Capital, as we'll
as the equally astonishing gains in
the number of members is due the
Advertising Committee of the District
Bankers Association.
The committee this year is made up
of G.. Stanley Hollard, American Sc
curity & Trust Co., chairman; Robert
L. Flather of the same bank, vice
chairman; Eliot H. Thomson, Wash
ington Loan g. Trust Co.; E. Percival
Wilson, National Savings & Trust Co.. :;
Hilleary G. Hoskinson, Riggs National
Bank and first vice president of the
District Bankers Association.
The great success attained by these
clubs over period of years was the
direct result of cooperative advertis-
ing carried on by the District Bankers
Association. Appeals through the
newspaper advertising brought in more
members in some instances than banks
wished to carry on their records be-
cause of the vast amount of bookkeep-
ing involved.
About half of the money saved
In Christmas clubs during the year
goes directly into the purchase of
yHletide gifts, bankers assert. The
rest is used to meet pressing bills,
insurance premiums, installments on
houses, bank loans and for education,
amusements and travel. In the past
many club members have switched
part of their funds into permanent
savings.
Christmas Clubs 81 Years Old.
christmas savings clubs are 81 years
old this year. Washington's first clubs
around 1912. The cooperative plan
of advertising was inaugurated in
1924 and the peak of club prosperity
was reached in 1882, when 102,246
members subscribed $8,689,575 to the
merry Christmas Fund"
The yearly totals are working rap
idly up to that high figure and are
likely to reach it soon. This years
total of more than $7,O00,000 is cer-
tain to play an important part in
the city's holiday trade, which is al
ready getting under way.
The Christmas club total for the
whole United States will be announced
shortly. Already the National Asso-
citation of Mutual Savings Banks has
announced that mutual institutions in
IA States will distribute S51 ,657, 1851 to
members, an increase of $4,000 900
over last year.
Maryland mutual savings banks
alone will distribute Sl,9O3, 900 among
54,243 club members. New York State
topped the mutual bank list with a
coming payment of $21 ,928,1 107.
Pressure for Lower Costs.
There is no evidence that business
sentiment is demoralized; that busi-
ness men are conducting their affairs
with less energy and application; or
that any significant number fear a
return to 1882 conditions. On the
contrary, says the National City Bank,
the most common sentiment is that
the stock market, perhaps for tech
nical reasons within itself, has over
done its decline and has spread an
unjustified peSsimism.
The reaction of most business men
has been to shorten up inventories and
wait until the situation is clearer, but
this policy is adopted out of common
prudence and recognition of the slack
eping now occurring, rather than any
belief that a major depression has
begun. In due course the abStention
from buying will correct the inventory
situation, and the correction has start
ed at rapid pace, both in the markets
and in industrial production.
Reductions in costs are needed,
especially in building and the decline
IN construction has already put pres
sure on building costs, the survey
concludes.
Heard in Financial District.
Henry H. Flather, connected with
the stock exchange firm of w. B.
Hibbs & Co., who has been i'll with
pneumonia at his country estate,
Tulip Hill in Maryland, has returned
to his Washington home and is ex-
pected back at the Office in a few
days.
Sales of American Stores for the
four weeks ending October 80
amounted to $8,568,O89, an increase
Of S173,243 over the like period last
year and an increase of per cent, it
was reported here today. Sales in
the first 10 months of this year to-
tailed $94,224,327, a gain of 0.4 per
cent.
Massachusetts, Investors Trust has
filed registration statement with the
s. e. c., under the Securities Act, cov-
ering 100000 shares of beneficial
interest tn he offered at tho rnorkat