Click image to open full size in new tab
Article Text
Annual Meeting of the State Bankers' Association.
IMPORTANT FINANCIAL QUESTIONS UNDER DISCUSSION.
Interior Bankers Desire a Modification of the Rule Relating to the System of Overdrafts—Programme Which Will Occupy the Delegates' Attention To-Day.
Special to the RECORD-UNION.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22.—The annual convention of the State Bankers' Association was held in the Chamber of Commerce rooms to-day. In the absence of Mayor Ellert, Lovell White of the San Francisco Savings Union delivered the address of welcome.
President Hellman of the Nevada Bank followed with an address which dealt largely with the recent financial crisis and tight-money period that followed it.
"We can be proud of how well our banks have weathered the storm," said he. "Our banks have stood better than those elsewhere, owing largely to the wonderful resources of the State.
"The crisis affected us here in California in a peculiar way, because we are so far off from financial centers. Ordinarily bankers' balances in New York or Chicago could easily be transferred here, but by reason of the great scarcity of the circulating medium in the Eastern centers we were even refused by our corresponding banks in New York to have our own funds transmitted to us. Another great hardship for California was that the Treasury Department, which had previously made transfers of money from New York to San Francisco by telegraph, had during the hight of the panic even refused to do that.
"It was said that of four banks that have closed their doors permanently two should have done so anyway, and would have done so ultimately without the aid of the panic."
Now that financial matters are easier, Mr. Hellman urged the importance of banks lending their aid to manufacturing and other enterprises. He condemned the practice of permitting overdrafts, and said also a law should be enacted that would prohibit a savings bank receiving more than $10,000 from any one depositor.
"Commercial as well as savings banks," said Mr. Hellman, "are again feeling the favorable effect of a change, and deposits are on the increase, especially in moneyed centers. I do not ascribe it entirely to the increase of trade, but partly to the emptying of stockings and the depleting of safe-deposit boxes from the coin lodged therein during the panic."
The Treasurer of the association, George W. Kline of the First National Bank of this city, and Secretary R. M. Welch of the San Francisco Savings Union presented reports giving the dry-bones of details of the work of 1893. Receipts footed up $2,859, and expenses left a cash balance of $920. There are now 175 banks in the association out of 200 in the State. Four banks were dropped during the year for non-payment of dues. Six banks went into liquidation—the City Bank, Los Angeles; Bank of Anaheim; Pacific Bank, San Francisco; Consolidated National Bank, San Diego; Bank of Oceanside; Bank of Madera.
Committees were named as follows:
Nominations—E. R. Hamilton, Sacramento; C. W. Bush, Woodland; P. E. Bowles, Oakland; L. W. Burris, Santa Rosa; T. P. Lukens, Pasadena.
Resolutions—Frank Miller, Sacramento; H. W. Wright, San Jose; H. H. Hewlett, Stockton; C. S. Brooks, Marysville; A. H. R. Schmidt, San Francisco.
Auditing—W. E. Gerber, Sacramento; J. M. Elliott, Los Angeles; O. McHenry, Modesto.
W. E. Gerber of Sacramento called attention to a desire of interior bankers to have a conference and a hearing with the management of the San Francisco Clearing-house. A modification of the rule, recently enacted by the Clearing-house, abolishing the system of overdrafts, is desired on the ground that the stringent enforcement of details is unjust to interior banks.
Mr. Hellman, presiding, said he would decline to make any suggestion to the Clearing-house relative to the matter unless so instructed by the convention. He thought the overdraft abolition action should be final.
This opinion excited Railroad Commissioner Beckman, who is President of a Sacramento bank, and he moved that the convention request the hearing that Mr. Gerber asked for. The motion was carried unanimously.
The convention will reassemble tomorrow at 10 A. M.
Among the papers on the programme to be read before the convention are the following:
"Unsecured Loans—Time Versus Demand," Frank Miller of Sacramento.
"Savings Banks and Their Dividends to Depositors," J. B. Lankershim of Los Angeles.
"Savings Banks—Their Mission and Duties," Lovell White of San Francisco.
"Suggestions Concerning Certain Changes in the State Banking Laws," J. M. Elliott of Los Angeles.
"A Plea for a Rational Currency System," E. S. Sheffield of Santa Barbara.
"How to Preserve the National Banking System," Henry Brunner of San Luis Obispo.
"A Talk on the Financial Situation," J. M. C. Marble of Los Angeles.
"The Bank Lessons of 1893," Benjamin C. Wright of San Francisco.
"The Relations That Should Exist Between City and Country Banks," C. W. Bush of Woodland.
MORTON'S POSITION.
