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 HISTORY OF 
 
 THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
 
 V
 
 1. liinvARn S. Dawson, President Onondaga County Savings Bank, Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 2. J. MowAKO KiNC, President Albany Savings Bank, Albany, N. Y. 
 
 3. Mkkritt Trimble, President The Bank for Savings in the City of New York. 
 
 4. koiiKRT S. I)f)NALUSON', President Krie County Savings Bank, HulTalo, N. Y. 
 
 5. John Haksen Rhoahes, President The Greenwich Savings Bank, New York City. 
 
 6. \Vm. C. Stirc-.es, President Seamen's Bank for Savings, City of New York. 
 
 7. Andrew Mills, President Dr>' Dock Savings Institution, New York City. 
 
 8. Aduison C. Miller, President The Savings Bank of Utica, Utica, N. Y. 
 
 9. Samuel R. Rainev, President Hudson City Savings Institution, Hudson, N. Y. 
 
 10. James McMaiion, President Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, New York City. 
 
 11. John D. Hicks, President The Bowery Savings Bank, New York City. 
 
 12. William Ci. Conklin, President Franklin Savings Bank, New York City.
 
 HISTORY 
 
 qA^'TX RANKS 
 
 OF T 
 
 1894-1914 
 
 By 
 FREDERIC B. STEVENS 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION 
 I9IO-I913 
 
 ''Thrift Is the Soul of Prosperity'' 
 
 Garden City New Yokk 
 
 > v; ■ n \ p !-\ 4 Y Page & ^ i"^Mpir\iv

 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
 1894-1914 
 
 By 
 FREDERIC B. STEVENS 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION 
 I9IO-I913 
 
 ^'Thrift Is the Soul of Prosperity'^ 
 
 Garden City New York 
 
 DOUBLEDAY, PaGE & CoMPANY 
 I9IS
 
 COPYRIGHTED, I915 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC B. STEVENS
 
 TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 
 MY FATHER 
 
 ALBERT PARSONS STEVENS 
 
 ONE OF THE FOUNDERS, AND FOR THIRTY-FIVE 
 
 YEARS SECRETARY-TREASURER, OF THE NATIONAL 
 
 SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
 
 Statistics of the 140 Savings Banks in the State of New 
 York, on Thursday. January i, IQ14* 
 
 Total resources ^1,926,334,331.76 
 
 Amount due depositors 1,741,697,466.53 
 
 Other liabilities 691,817.64 
 
 Surplusoninvestment value, stocks and bonds 183,947,047.59 
 
 " market " " " " 116,789,006.19 
 
 " par " " " " 157730,038.55 
 
 Amount deposited during year, excluding 
 
 interest 439,923,632.03 
 
 Amount withdrawn during year 448,273,900.51 
 
 of interest credited and paid for year 60,611,029.90 
 
 " salaries paid during year .... 3,061,263.55 
 
 " expenses other than salaries for year 3,123,918.39 
 
 Number of open accounts 3,143,444 
 
 " " accounts opened or reopened during year 567,077 
 " " " closed during year 488,528 
 
 ' Figurej taken from the annual report of ike Superintendent of the Banking Department of the 
 State of New York for the year 1913.
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 THE purpose of this volume is to illustrate the 
 growth and power of an IDEA. That idea, origi- 
 nating in the fertile brain of Daniel Defoe, the author 
 of the immortal story of "Robinson Crusoe," and taken 
 up by such pioneers as the Rev. Joseph Smith and Mrs. 
 Priscilla Wakefield, in England, the Rev. Dr. Henry 
 Duncan, in Scotland, and by Col. Condy Raguet, one of 
 the founders of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, 
 and Thomas Eddy,^ in America, fimds its happy fruition in 
 the Mutual or Trustee Savings Bank as we know it to-day, 
 an institution founded in pure benevolence and free from 
 
 'It is known that Mr. Eddy was a regular correspondent of Colquhoun, from 
 whom he received valuable suggestions which he proceeded to put into prac- 
 tical effect. Mr. Eddy was chairman of a meeting of citizens which was held 
 in the "City Hotel," New York, on Friday evening, November 29, 1816, pur- 
 suant to public notice. As a result of this meeting and of another conference of 
 citizens earnestly interested in improving the condition of the poor and seeking 
 to benefit the industrial and labor classes held at the New York Hospital, 
 December 16, 1817, at which it was resolved to organize a society for the preven- 
 tion of pauperism, it was decided to establish a Savings Bank in the City of New 
 York. The following is an extract from the Evening Post of New York, of Mon- 
 day, December 2, 1816, quoted in "A History of Savings Banks in the State of 
 New York, from Their Inception in 1819 down to 1869," by Emerson W. Keyes, 
 Deputy Supt. of the Banking Department, undoubtedly referring to the first 
 meeting for the purpose of estabhshing a Savings Bank in New York, suggested 
 by Mr. Eddy after receiving a letter from Mr. Colquhoun: 
 
 "At a meeting of a number of citizens convened in the assembly room of 
 the City Hotel, on Friday evening, November 29, 1816, pursuant to public 
 notice, for the purpose of establishing a Savings Bank, Thomas Eddy, Esq., 
 was called to the chair, and J. H. Coggeshall, Esq, appointed secretary. 
 The object of the meeting having been stated, and the principles of the pro- 
 posed institution briefly and pertinently explained by Mr. James Eastbum, 
 on motion of Mr. John Griscom, seconded by Dr. Watts, it was resolved that 
 it is expedient to establish a Savings Bank for the City of New York." 
 
 Andrew Warner Esq., one time Secretary of the Institution for the Savings 
 of Merchants' Clerks in the City of New York, who gave Mr. Keyes much 
 valuable information relative to the inception of Savings Banks in New York, 
 says: "The institution (the Bank for Savings, incorporated, 1819) owes its 
 
 i.^a.^
 
 viii FOREWORD 
 
 the slightest taint of human selfishness.^ Savings Banks 
 have been aptly styled the "Granaries of the Poor," 
 and the phrase is fairly descriptive, with this addition, 
 that after sufficient accumulations have been made, the 
 funds deposited are loaned out to worthy borrowers upon 
 high-class security, thus vastly increasing their poten- 
 tiality for good. 
 
 Turning for a moment from the frivolities of life, we 
 can here read of the magical growth of Defoe's IDEA, a 
 thought developed into a system, a penny grown into 
 millions, a people educated from poverty to competence 
 — in a word, an IDEA developed into a vast army of more 
 than Three Millions of Depositors in the Empire State! 
 One wall find here most interesting details of the methods 
 by which this great army of depositors — the real bone 
 and sinew of the State — have been inspired to better 
 standards of H\Tng by contact with noble, philanthropic men 
 w^ho, serv'ing as trustees without compensation, have made 
 it possible for these institutions, backed by the majesty of 
 the law, to educate millions in thrift and industry, to lead 
 them in paths of virtue, prosperity, and happiness. 
 
 This volume aims to give a concise and authentic re- 
 sume of the work accomplished by The Savings Banks 
 
 origin, undoubtedly, to Thomas Eddy, as is evident from extracts of corres- 
 pondence published in his life, by Samuel L. Knapp, 1834." 
 
 It seems to be well settled that Savings Banks in New York State owe their 
 origin to the "New York Society for the Prevention of Pauperism," and that 
 John Griscom was a prime mover not only in that society, but also in organizing 
 Savings Banks. In this movement, therefore. New York was in the van, al- 
 though, for various reasons, one of which was the failure of the Legislature to 
 pass the necessary act of incorporation, there was a delay of something over two 
 years, after the preliminary meetings, before the first institution was incorpo- 
 rated. Leading cities in other States, notably Boston, Philadelphia, and Balti- 
 more, were able to secure more prompt action by the Legislature, thus securing 
 the honor of being first in the field. 
 
 'It is claimed on behalf of Patrick Colquhoun, a local magistrate in London, 
 England, that he was the first in that country to make public announcement 
 of a practical scheme for the organization of Savings Banks, and that his cor- 
 respondence with bankers and others in this country gave a most powerful 
 impulse to the movement in America.
 
 FOREWORD ix 
 
 Association of the State of New York, from its inception 
 in the year 1S94 to date, a period of twenty years. 
 
 The founders of this Association builded better than 
 they knew; even the most sanguine among them could 
 not have conceived the greatness of the work it was 
 destined to accomphsh. While it is axiomatic that "in 
 union there is strength," this is particularly true of finan- 
 cial institutions, between which, though widely separated 
 as to territory, there is a subtle interrelation which it is 
 difficult if not impossible to analyze or define. Thus it 
 has come about that the 127 Savings Banks now embraced 
 within this Association have been able to accomplish 
 vastly more than would have been possible had each 
 acted upon individual initiative. And in doing this, 
 they have aided materially in bringing hope and gladness 
 into thousands of homes where otherwise might have 
 been poverty, squalor, and untold suffering. 
 
 It is impossible to look over the Proceedings of the 
 Association without realizing in some degree what a 
 wealth of valuable material is contained in them. Some 
 of the most eminent men in the country in the fields of 
 banking and finance have, from time to time, honored 
 the Association with their presence and given its members 
 the benefit of their experience — men of national reputa- 
 tion, such as Prof. William G. Sumner, of Yale; Hon. 
 Edward Atkinson and Col. Thomas Wentworth Higgin- 
 son, of Boston; former Comptroller of the Currency, 
 William L. Trenholm; former Secretary of the Treasury, 
 Charles S. Fairchild; Hon. Horace White, of Syracuse; 
 Hon. Carroll D. Wright and Col. William Carey Sanger, 
 of Washington; Hon. Wheeler H. Peckham and Hon. 
 Stewart L. Woodford, of New York. Add to this the ad- 
 dresses of successive Superintendents of the Banking De-
 
 X FOREWORD 
 
 partment of the State during the period referred to, and 
 the illuminating discussions among the members of the 
 Association, including as they do practically aU the most 
 prominent Savings Bank experts and managers of the 
 State, and we see at once how happy a thought it was to 
 organize this Association. To select in all cases the most 
 interesting and valuable matter thus contributed was by 
 no means easy, and no claim is made that it might not 
 have been better done by others of riper judgment and 
 wider experience. If it be true that the best way to study 
 history is to read biography, then perhaps the best way to 
 study the history of this Association is to become famiHar 
 with the ideas and principles of those men who are and 
 have been the leaders in this great work of philanthropy. 
 
 Such a work as this would not fulfil its true mission 
 without due recognition of the wisdom and eloquence of 
 Mr. John Harsen Rhoades, the real father and founder 
 of the Association, the untiring industry of Mr. Samuel 
 R. Rainey, the \\'ise conservatism of Mr. Andrew Mills, 
 the faithful service of Mr. William G. Conklin, and the 
 legal ability of Mr. Charles A. jNIiller. All have played 
 prominent parts, and credit should be given where credit 
 is due. When some of the pioneers have "fallen asleep," 
 their sturdy sons have taken up the work with renewed 
 energy and youthful enthusiasm. There have also been 
 formed and cemented friendships that can be severed only 
 with life's chain. 
 
 I desire to gratefully acknowledge the valuable assist- 
 ance in the preparation of this volume given by the late 
 Wilbur W. Worlock and by Mr. Charles J. Hailes. Only 
 their zealous cooperation rendered the accomplishment of 
 the task possible. 
 Albany, Dec. 22, 1914. Frederic B. Stevens.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword ........ vii 
 
 Introductory xxi 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Reasons for the Formation of the Association — Informal 
 Meetings of Oii&cers of Savings Banks to Exchange Views on 
 Pending Legislation Led to Organization of Wider Scope and 
 Influence — Interesting Discussion as to Status and Powers — 
 The Country Just Emerging from a Period of Severe Financial 
 Stringency — The Bloodgood and Mullin Bills — Legal Invest- 
 ment of Deposits — Banks Represented at the Initial Meet- 
 ing 3 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Second Annual Convention — First Deaths Reported Those 
 of Addison C. Miller, Utica, and Harris G. Rogers, Bingham- 
 ton — Vigilant Watching of Legislation — The Elmira Savings 
 Bank Case — Uniformity in Bank Bookkeeping — An Illuminat- 
 ing Discussion of an Important Subject — Views of President 
 Rhoades ........ 30 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Third Annual Convention — Return of Prosperity Delayed 
 by the Spread of Financial Heresies — Trade Paralyzed and 
 Commerce Stagnated — ^The Association Rallied to the Gold 
 Standard — Mr. McMahon's Resolution — Effect of Derange- 
 ment of the Currency upon the Savings Banks — More Objec- 
 tionable Bills Killed in Their Inception — Notable Address of 
 Superintendent Kilburn, of the Banking Department — Mr. S. 
 R. Rainey's Services Suitably Recognized — Important Topics 
 Discussed ........ 39
 
 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Fourth Annual Convention — Perils of Repudiation and In- 
 flation Escaped — Danger in too Rapid Increase of Municipal 
 Debts — Bonds Authorized for Greater New York — The Taxa- 
 tion of Sa\dngs Bank Deposits — Notable Addresses by Super- 
 intendent Kilburn, ex-Comptroller of the Currency Wm. L. 
 Trenholm and Hon, Edward Atkinson, of Boston . 63 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Fifth Annual Convention — War with Spain — Still Disor- 
 dered Condition of Monetary System — Questions Relating to 
 the Taxation of Savings Bank Deposits — Committee of the As- 
 sociation Sent to Washington to Prevent Adverse Legislation — 
 Notable Address on "Sound Money," by Judge M. L. Craw- 
 ford, of Dallas, Tex. — Postal Savings Banks Discussed — Reso- 
 lutions Favoring Currency Reform Legislation — Closer Rela- 
 tions with Savings Banks of Other States Advocated . 109 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Sixth Annual Convention — Movement Toward the Enlarge- 
 ment of the Scope of Savings Bank Investments — Successful 
 Efforts to Eliminate all Reference to Savings Banks in "War 
 Revenue Bill," as It Passed Congress — Taxation of Deposits — 
 Lessening the Number of So-called "Dormant Accounts" — 
 Address of Superintendent Kilburn — "The Relation of Savings 
 Bank Deposits to General Business," by Hon. Charles S. Fair- 
 child — "The Power and Beneficence of Capital," by Prof. Wm. 
 G. Sumner, of Yale University — Special Meeting Called to Act 
 on the So-called "Stranahan Bill" — Legislative Hearing on 
 Tax Bill . . . . . , . . . 143 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Seventh Annual Convention— Retirement of President John 
 Harsen Rhoades After Six Years of Distinguished and Valuable 
 Service — Death of Samuel R. Rainey, Chairman of the Execu- 
 tive Committee — Appropriate Action Taken — Address of Hon.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CarroU D. Wright, of Washington, on " Savings Institutions as 
 a Social Force" — Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson's Illu- 
 minating Address on the "Aristocracy of theDollar" — Remarks 
 of Hon. Wheeler H. Peckham . ..... 185 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Eighth Annual Convention — President Andrew D. Mills in 
 the Chair — Brief Review of the Past Year's Progress — An- 
 nouncement of the Death of J. Howard ICing, President of the 
 Albany Savings Bank — The Surplus or Guarantee Fund of 
 Savings Banks Elucidated by Mr. Hicks, of the Bowery (New 
 York) Savings Bank — Restriction of Deposits Discussed by 
 Mr. Charles A. Miller, of Utica — Dormant Accounts. . 211 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Ninth Annual Convention — Retirement of Andrew D, Mills 
 as President, and Election of Charles A. Schieren in His Stead 
 — Deposits in the Savings Banks of the State Reported the 
 Largest in Its History — Adoption of a Resolution Looking 
 toward Discouragement of Individual Action — Paper on * 'Sound 
 Money,"byHon. E.J. Hill, of Connecticut . . . 227 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Tenth Anniversary of the Association — Work of the Execu- 
 tive Committee — Committee to Consider the Question of 
 Establishing Branch Banks — An Able Paper on the Currency 
 Question, by Hon. Horace White — Other Notable Addresses — 
 Legislative Hearing on the Mortgage Tax Bill . -245 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Eleventh Annual Convention— Amendment of the Constitu- 
 tion Concerning the Composition of the Executive Committee — 
 "The Taxation of Savings Banks," by Wm. H. S. Wood, of the 
 Bowery Savings Bank, New York — Letter from John Harsen 
 Rhoades — Vote of Thanks Tendered Him for His Untiring Ef- 
 forts as a Member of the Association — Addresses by Hon.
 
 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Stewart L. Woodford, Charles A. Conant, and Wm. H. S. Wood 
 — Letter from Charles A. Miller, of Utica, Suggesting Further 
 Perfecting of the Organization. ..... 304 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Twelfth Annual Convention — Vote of Thanks to the Chair- 
 man of the Executive Committee, Mr. Miller — Mr. Wm. H. S. 
 Wood, on the Repeal of the Franchise Tax Upon Savings Banks 
 Enacted in 1901 — Opposition to All Legislation Authorizing 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission to Fix Railroad Rates — ■ 
 Addresses by Prof. Woolsey M. Stryker, of Hamilton College, 
 and Col. William Carey Sanger. . . . -337 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Thirteenth Annual Convention — Address of President Wil- 
 liam B. Van Rensselaer — Report on the Repeal of the Franchise 
 Tax — Address on New York City's Credit, by Mr. Frank A. 
 VanderKp — Professor Taussig's Address on "Reform in Cur- 
 rency." ......... 360 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Fourteenth Annual Convention— Sorrow Over the Death of 
 Former President John Harsen Rhoades — Memorial of Re- 
 spect to His Memory — Paper on Bond Investments of Savings 
 Banks, by Mr. Mills — Address on "Mortgages," by Charles L. 
 Stone, of Syracuse — Address of Superintendent Charles A. 
 Keep, of the Banking Department — ^"Amortization" Explained 
 by Mr. Sprague — Bank Advertising and Its Proper Uses 384 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Fifteenth Annual Convention — Retirement of President Van 
 Rensselaer and Secretary Conkhn— Address of Bank Superin- 
 tendent Clark Williams — Resolution of Mr. Charles A. Miller, 
 Relative to the Finances of the City of New York — Election of 
 Mr. Miller as President — Addresses by Andrew Mills, John
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xv 
 
 Harsen Rhoades, Son of the Former President, and Charles E. 
 Hanaman — Amortization of Bond Investments . -414 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Sixteenth Annual Convention — Address of President Miller 
 — Election of Mr. Thomas F. Mulry, of the Emigrant Indus- 
 trial Savings Bank, New York, as President — Addresses by 
 Edgar J. Levey, John A. Johnson, President of the Savings 
 Bank Section of the American Bankers' Association, Clark Wil- 
 liams, Superintendent of the Banking Department, and Mr. 
 E. P.Maynard 455 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Seventeenth Annual Convention — Severe Illness of President 
 Mulry Prevents His Attendance — Resolutions in Opposition to 
 the Constitutional Amendment Authorizing Congress to Im- 
 pose a Tax on Incomes Adopted — Election of Charles E. Hana- 
 man as President — Notable Addresses by Hon. O. H. Cheney, 
 Superintendent of the Banking Department, Mr. Pierre Jay, 
 and William Frederick Dix. ..... 486 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Eighteenth Annual Convention — Address of President 
 Charles E. Hanaman — Report of the Executive Committee — 
 Proposed Celebration of the Centennial of the Savings Bank 
 Movement in the United States — Opposition to the So-called 
 Grady Bill — The Association Favors the EstabHshment of a 
 Minimum Surplus by Legislation — Address of Superintendent 
 Cheney of the Banking Department .... 516 
 
 CHAPTER XJX 
 
 Nineteenth Annual Convention — Address of President 
 Hanaman — Amendments Made to the Constitution — The 
 Group System Adopted — Letter from Bank Superintendent 
 Van Tuyl — Remarks of Mr. Coombs on Railroad Bonds — 
 Address by Hon. Clark Williams, ex-Superintendent of Banks,
 
 xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 State of New York — By-laws Amended — The Group System 
 Adopted . . . . . . . -532 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Twentieth Annual Convention — Address of President Harold 
 P. Brewster, of the Rochester Savings Bank — Report of the 
 Nominating Committee and Election of Officers — Trust Ac- 
 counts Aggregating More Than $3,000 — Valuable Information 
 Pertaining to the Banking System of New York . . 549 
 
 Banking Law Revision. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 List of Savings Banks in the State of New York, Arranged in 
 the Order of Their Incorporation, Together with the Original 
 Incorporators of Each Bank Specially Chartered up to the Pas- 
 sage of the General Act of 1875 . . . . -565 
 
 B 
 
 List of Savings Banks in the State of New York, Together 
 with the Officers and Trustees of Each, Arranged Alphabeti- 
 cally 587 
 
 Members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York, Arranged by Groups . . . .614 
 
 D 
 
 Officers of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York, 1894-1914, Inclusive .... 617 
 
 E 
 
 Nominating Committees, 1894-1914, Inclusive . . 634
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xvii 
 
 Deceased Members of the Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York, from April 7, 1894, to February 5, 1913 636 
 
 G 
 
 First Constitution of the Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York, 1894 ..... 667 
 
 H 
 
 First Meeting of Savings Bank Officers of New York 
 State ......... 673 
 
 First Report of the Banks for Savings in the City of New 
 York, 1820 ........ 676 
 
 List of Superintendents of the Banking Department of the 
 Stateof New York, 1851-1914 ..... 681 
 
 K 
 
 Synopsis of Report of the Comptroller of the Currency as to 
 Savings Banks in the United States, from 1820 to and Including 
 1913 ......... 682 
 
 Biographical sketches of officers of the Savings Banks As- 
 sociation of the State of New York . . . . 684 
 
 Index ...... ... 697
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PIONEERS IN THE FORMATION OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ASSOCIATION FTontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 JAMES McMAHON 10 
 
 JOHN HARSEN RHOADES, Sr 26 
 
 ANDREW MILLS 50 
 
 WILLIAM G. CONKLIN 110 
 
 SAMUEL R. RAINEY 112 
 
 CHARLES A. SCHIEREN 228 
 
 SAMUEL D. STYLES 270 
 
 WILLIAM BAYARD VAN RENSSELAER 306 
 
 CHARLES ADDISON MILLER 334 
 
 WILLIAM F. PATTERSON 352 
 
 THOMAS M. MULRY 458 
 
 JONATHAN B. CURREY 472 
 
 CHARLES E. HANAMAN 496 
 
 FREDERIC B. STEVENS 512 
 
 FRANK MOSLEY HURLBUT 522 
 
 WILLIAM H. ROCKWOOD 534 
 
 HAROLD P. BREWSTER 540 
 
 EDWIN P. MAYNARD 542 
 
 WILLIAM FELSINGER 546
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 IT HAS been remarked, with truth, that human in- 
 stitutions are a form of law, an embodiment of public 
 sentiment concerning some condition or need of the 
 social state, and that as such they grow rather than are 
 made. This is preeminently true of the Savings Bank as 
 we know it to-day. 
 
 It is now nearly a century since the germ was trans- 
 planted from Europe to these shores and tenderly watched 
 and nurtured. The growth of that little seed in these one 
 hundred years has been nothing less than marvellous. 
 In our familiarity with the institution we give little 
 thought to that growth, and it is only when the facts and 
 figures are marshaled before us that we realize in some 
 degree how deeply rooted the Savings Bank System has 
 become in our social body and how powerful a force it 
 is in contributing to public order, temperance, virtue, 
 sobriety, industry, thrift, and prosperity, as well as pro- 
 motive of pubUc credit, public faith, and financial stabihty. 
 
 This is not an exaggeration. It is rather far less than 
 the truth, for no pen, however able, could adequately de- 
 scribe the influence for good exerted by the institutions 
 for systematic saving now operated in the United States, 
 or accurately calculate the sum total they add to human 
 happiness and well-being.^ 
 
 'According to the report of the Comptroller of the Currency for the year 
 1913, the number of Savings Banks in the whole country was 1,978, the num- 
 ber of depositors, 10,766,933, the aggregate amount of deposits, $4,727,403,950, 
 and the average amount due each depositor, $439.07. Of these depositors, 
 the Savings Banks of New York State had 3,114,240, or nearly one third,
 
 xxii INTRODUCTORY 
 
 To labor assiduously is industry; to save systematically 
 is thrift. These two distinct elements, bound together 
 by constant purpose and practice, insure the ultimate 
 competence of their principal. Under such direction 
 of purpose no one can fail to secure his future against 
 want. As for interest, it is without doubt the most potent 
 factor in the world of finance. But for its unseen though 
 none the less powerful force, the people of this State who 
 are depositors in Savings Banks would have been deprived 
 of from forty to sixty millions of dollars annually, to say 
 nothing of the value of those millions for reinvestment. 
 Beyond this, the financial and material growth of the 
 State and nation is largely and directly indebted to these 
 savings institutions. Only those closely associated with 
 their founding and development can properly appreciate 
 the amount of toil and struggle that was necessary to 
 transform a crude idea into a practical working system. 
 We of the present day enjoy the fruits of the labors of those 
 hard-working pioneers who sought unceasingly to place 
 their charges in a position that would command not only 
 the admiration but the confidence of their patrons, the 
 depositors. It has been, moreover, almost wholly a 
 labor of love, the purest and most practical sort of phi- 
 lanthropy. 
 
 . Another feature which is perhaps too Httle exploited, 
 and at all events not adequately understood by the gen- 
 eral public, is the system of mortgage loans. Thousands 
 upon thousands of families throughout the land sit to- 
 day at their own firesides in homes free and clear of all 
 incumbrance through the financial assistance of Savings 
 
 with cash deposits of $1,700,063,766.36, truly a remarkable showing and a 
 further proof that New York is the Empire State in truth as well as in name. 
 The total number of depositors in the world was computed in 1910 at 
 110,419,027.
 
 INTRODUCTORY xxiii 
 
 Banks in their respective neighborhoods, who otherwise 
 would still have been paying rent.^ 
 
 As to the underlying theory of the Savings Bank, no 
 one ever supposed that it would result in changing human 
 nature — that was many centuries ago given up as chi- 
 merical — but the principle upon which these institutions 
 were founded was that "some, many, perhaps the major- 
 ity of mankind would prefer independence, the result of 
 industry, to beggarly dependence, the consequence of idle- 
 ness; that they would be frugal rather than wasteful if the 
 savings of frugality could be carefully garnered for the 
 time of need; that they would guard against vicious in- 
 dulgence rather than steep themselves in drink, if there 
 was an incentive to accumulation held out as their reward 
 for self-denial."^ 
 
 And so it has proved. The experience of Europe has 
 been the experience of America and, indeed, of every civi- 
 lized country and State the world over. None is now 
 without its institutions for the safekeeping of the accu- 
 mulations of the thrifty and provident. Their beneficent 
 influence radiates everywhere like the blessed beams of 
 the sun, bringing hope and cheer and confidence where 
 before was naught but uncertainty, dread, and squalor. 
 No sooner was the true character of this institution 
 clearly recognized than men of influence and power who 
 believed in the uplift of the race and its higher destiny 
 rushed to its support, and then it was but a short step to 
 having the State throw around it the aegis of its protection. 
 Thus from time to time, as experience has shown the 
 
 'The report of the Superintendent of Banks for 1913 shows that on the first 
 of January, 1914, the Savings Banks of the State of New York held bonds and 
 mortgages to the amount of $989,790,763.46. 
 
 ^ History of Savings Banks in the State of New York from their inception in 
 1819 down to the year 1869. Prepared by Emerson W. Keyes, Deputy Super- 
 intendent Banking Department (1870).
 
 xxiv INTRODUCTORY 
 
 necessity, laws have been passed, amended, or repealed 
 in order the better to administer this great sacred trust. 
 While it is not within the scope of this volume to enter 
 into a detailed history of the inception of Savings Banks 
 in Europe, where they preceded those of the United States 
 by only a few years, it has been thought that a brief 
 review of the facts so far as they are known might possi- 
 bly serve a useful purpose, and that they will, at all events, 
 prove interesting to those identified wuth banking. 
 
 INCEPTION OF THE IDEA IN EUROPE 
 
 We should be surprised, not to say startled, did we 
 know by how narrow a margin the great body of active 
 workers of all lands — the hewers of wood and the drawers 
 of water — are removed from actual want and destitution. 
 True indeed it is that one half the world knows not how 
 the other half lives. This is the case in all countries, though 
 perhaps in a less degree in this land of freedom and oppor- 
 tunity. Partly from habits of intemperance, or extrava- 
 gance, which lead them to live beyond their means, partly 
 because employment is not always plentiful at all seasons 
 or always as remunerative as it ought to be, there is 
 very little left of the weekly wage, and millions are in 
 imminent danger of being plunged into a condition of 
 absolute destitution. 
 
 These facts were observed by leading financiers and 
 philanthropists of the Old World, and much thought was 
 given to means and methods of ameliorating the condition. 
 The possibility of insuring employment for labor at all 
 times and under any and all conditions was soon given 
 up as impracticable. So, too, mere charity or largess was 
 discarded, for every one well knew that in time it would 
 result in destroying all manliness and self-reliance
 
 INTRODUCTORY xxv 
 
 and raising up a race of paupers — shiftless dependents 
 wholly lacking in dignity, pride, independence, and self- 
 respect. Thus, before the true idea of a Savings Bank 
 had dawned upon men's minds, plans were put in opera- 
 tion whereby those who made deposits with wealthy and 
 responsible persons and left them undisturbed for a given 
 length of time would be given back the money de- 
 posited with substantial additions, sometimes as large 
 as one third. Such plans were, of course, largely philan- 
 thropic and necessarily must have been limited in scope. 
 This and other similar attempts constitute striking ex- 
 amples of the course and direction of public philan- 
 thropy and its attempts, through legislation and otherwise, 
 to overcome the evils of poverty before the establishment 
 of Savings Banks. ^ 
 
 Savings Banks have been well defined as "associations 
 for the purpose of promoting thrift among the people by 
 receiving small deposits to be invested at compound in- 
 terest." Numerous persons have been given the credit 
 
 ^An act for the relief and settlement of the poor within this State was con- 
 sidered by the Legislature of New York in 1779, but not passed. At this 
 period all the energies of this, in common with other States, were being taxed 
 to the utmost to maintain the War for Independence. In the following year 
 an act was introduced and passed for a general limitation of prices. It was 
 not to take efifect, however, until certain other States should pass similar laws, 
 which they neglected to do, so that the act never became operative. It is 
 also an interesting fact that the "Society for Tammany, or Columbian Order, 
 in the City of New York," was originally incorporated as a charitable insti- 
 tution in the year 1805. The preamble to its charter read as follows: "Whereas, 
 William Mooney and others, inhabitants of the City of New York, have pre- 
 sented a petition to the Legislature setting forth that they, since the year one 
 thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, have associated themselves under 
 the name and description of 'The Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order' 
 for the purpose of affording relief to the indigent and distressed members of tite 
 said association, their widows and orphans, and others who may be found 
 proper objects of their charity, they therefore solicit that the Legislature will 
 be pleased to incorporate the said society for the purposes aforesaid, etc.; 
 therefore, be it enacted," etc. Other benevolent and "friendly" societies 
 incorporated about the same time were: Orphan Asylum of New York, 1807; 
 St. Andrew's Society, Schenectady, 1808; Thistle Society, New York, 1808; 
 Albany Humane Society, 1808; Mechanics' Humane Society, Troy, 1808; 
 Manhattan Provident Society, 1809; Geneva Friendly Society, 1810; Pough- 
 keepsie Humane Society, 181 2.
 
 xxvi INTRODUCTORY 
 
 of having first proposed the plan.^ No practical result 
 was attained, however, until the year 1765, when a sort 
 of Savings Bank was established in Brunswick, Germany. 
 There is evidence that a somewhat similar institution 
 was started in Hamburg, as far back as 1778 (which is 
 still in existence), that took the cash of domestic ser- 
 vants and handicraftsmen and granted annuities to the 
 members upon arriving at a certain age. These institu- 
 tions differed radically from the Savings Banks of the 
 present day, however, in the fact that no withdrawals 
 were permitted. It will thus be seen that most if not all 
 of these early institutions were purely benevolent in their 
 objects, and were the direct outgrowth of the humani- 
 tarian spirit of those times. How much we have pro- 
 gressed since those days in every direction of private 
 and public philanthropy would make an exceedingly in- 
 teresting story. 
 
 The credit of introducing Savings Banks in Great Brit- 
 ain is claimed in behalf of several different persons. In 
 1798 a "Friendly Society for the benefit of women and 
 children " was established at Tottenham High Cross, under 
 the superintendence of Mrs. PrisciUa Wakefield, whose 
 object was the granting of annuities to members on at- 
 taining a certain age, or an allowance weekly in case of 
 sickness, and a sum for burial at decease. Later a ''bank 
 for savings" was established, and in 1804 this bank for 
 savings was regularly organized and trustees appointed. 
 
 ifiy no less authority than the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (Vol. 21, p. 
 327), Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) is credited with being the first to suggest the 
 idea of Savings Banks, in 1697. It seems certain that this famous non-con- 
 formist and vitriolic pamphleteer, for whom neither the pillory nor the jail 
 seemed to possess terrors, was one of the first to propose the idea, and that the 
 fertile brain which conceived the immortal story of "Robinson Crusoe" was also 
 busy with projects to relieve the distress of the poor and unfortunate, with 
 whom he sympathized the more keenly because he himself had been more than 
 once an inmate of a debtor's cell.
 
 INTRODUCTORY xxvii 
 
 A prior claim is made on behalf of the Rev. Joseph Smith, 
 of Wendover, who in 1799 circulated in his parish pro- 
 posals to receive any sums on deposit during the summer 
 and to return the amount at Christmas with the addition 
 of one third to the whole, "as a bounty upon the deposi- 
 tor's economy." 
 
 Jeremy Bentham is also given credit for inaugurating 
 a scheme for the benefit of paupers in 1797, which in- 
 cluded a system of "frugality banks," as he called them. 
 His suggestions do not appear to have ever been acted 
 upon. It is also stated that in the year 1806 the Provi- 
 dent Institution of London was estabUshed, to which a 
 Savings Bank was at first attached, but shortly after- 
 ward discontinued. In 18 10 the first Savmgs Bank in 
 Scotland was formed by the Rev. Henry Duncan, min- 
 ister at Ruthwell, Dimifrieshire. Four years later, largely 
 through his efforts, the Edinburgh Savings Bank was es- 
 tabhshed. Dr. Duncan was a prodigious and unthing 
 worker in this field and is regarded by many authorities 
 as the real founder of Savings Banks, in that he organized 
 the first self-sustaining institution and succeeded in so 
 arranging his scheme as to make it applicable to the 
 country generally. 
 
 RISE OF THE SAVINGS BANK SYSTEM IN AMERICA 
 
 In the year 19 16 the United States will be enabled 
 to celebrate the centenary of the establishment of Sav- 
 ings Banks in America. The growth of that system 
 from doubtful experiments made in Great Britain early 
 in the last century has been remarkable.^ It was 
 
 iQn June 8, 9, and 10, 1910, there was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, a very 
 successful celebration of the Centennial of Savings Banks in Great Britain; 
 and to further perpetuate the event, a memorial of the occasion was issued 
 soon afterward in the form of a handsome octavo volvune, edited by Alexander
 
 xxviii INTRODUCTORY 
 
 watched by civilized countries all over the world. Though 
 by no means so closely united with the Mother Country 
 as at present, the alert business men and bankers of one 
 hundred years ago in the United States kept in touch by 
 fast packet mails with European developments, and when 
 the Scotch and English institutions became successful, 
 it was not long before like experiments were undertaken 
 in this country. 
 
 The earliest banks in the United States in the order of 
 their incorporation, were: 
 
 The Provident Institution for Savings, of Boston, 
 legally estabHshed by act of incorporation, December 13, 
 1816. 
 
 The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, established 
 November 20, 1816, and incorporated February 25, 1819. 
 
 The Salem (Mass.) Savings Bank, incorporated Jan- 
 uary 29, 1818. 
 
 The Savings Bank of Baltimore, chartered in December, 
 1818. 
 
 The Bank for Savings in the City of New York, incor- 
 porated March 26, 18 19. 
 
 The Hartford (Conn.) Society for Savings, incorpo- 
 rated June I, 18 19. 
 
 The Savings Bank of Newport (R. I.), in June 1819. 
 
 The Albany (N. Y.) Savings Bank, incorporated March 
 24, 1820; began business June 20, 1820. 
 
 As it was many years later before regular returns or 
 reports were required from Savings Banks, the impossi- 
 bility of showing their progress and growth from the be- 
 
 Cargill, Esq., actuary of the Edinburgh Savings Bank, and published by T. 
 & A. Constable, Edinburgh. Several men prominently identified with Sav- 
 ings Banks on this side of the water participated in the celebration and were 
 given a warm reception. Among these was Mr. H. F. Gunnison, Trustee of 
 the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Brooklyn, and C. Stuart Patterson, of 
 Philadelphia.
 
 INTRODUCTORY xxix 
 
 ginning with anything like accuracy is evident.^ By the 
 year 1820, ten banks had been estabHshed, and the number 
 increased to 61 in 1840, and to 278 in i860. 
 
 There is no doubt that the United States, though not the 
 first nation in the world to establish Savings Banks, is en- 
 titled to the honor of anticipating Great Britain in giving 
 to this great interest the sanction and protection of the law.^ 
 
 ^The first report of the Bank for Savings in the City of New York was 
 made to the Legislature in 1820, the year following its incorporation, and was 
 accompanied by an application for an amendment of its charter so as to au- 
 thorize investments in loans on real estate. The bank was opened for deposits 
 in a room of the New York Institution granted to the trustees by the Academy 
 of Arts, on Saturday, July 3, 1819, when, from eighty depositors, the trustees 
 had the satisfaction of receiving the sum of $2,807. For the period of six 
 months next ensuing, 1,527 persons deposited the sum of $153,376.31. The 
 sum of $148,372.27 was invested in public funds, according to law, and $6,606 
 was drawn out by depositors, of which number forty-six closed their accounts. 
 (For the full text of this report, see Appendix.) 
 
 In the year 1861 Postal Savings Banks originated in England where they 
 eventually took the place of Trustee Savings Banks in large measure. 
 
 'Appleton's Universal Cyclopedia (Vol. 10, p. 326), 1908, is authority for 
 the statement that the first Savings Bank in the world to be incorporated was 
 the Provident Institution for Savings, of Boston. "The Hub" at that time 
 (1816) had a population somewhat in excess of 35,000, being in 1810, 35,250, and 
 in 1820, 42,298. 
 
 At the celebration of the Centennial of Savings Banks in Great Britain, held 
 in Edinburgh, Jime 8-10, 1910, Mr. H. F. Gunnison, Trustee of the Williams- 
 burgh Savings Bank, of Brooklyn, in a paper read before the International 
 Society of Thrift, said: "An Act to incorporate the Provident Institution for 
 Savings in the Town of Boston was approved 13th December, 1816. This was 
 the first public act of legislation in the world which recognized the beneficent 
 character of Savings Banks and invested them with the sanction and protection 
 of the law." 
 
 Mr. Emerson W. Keyes, in his History of Savings Banks in the State of New 
 York (1870), saj^: "It was not until 1817 that Savings Banks in Great Britain 
 were recognized at all by the government. Prior to this they were merely 
 voluntary associations of gentlemen or ladies in various localities who sought 
 in this way to assist the poor in their immediate neighborhoods. They were 
 necessarily limited in their operation, and depended for their success- upon the 
 confidence reposed in the character of their projectors and the degree to which 
 that confidence was justified. It is a pleasure to record that the trust thus vol- 
 untarily assumed was rarely, if ever, abused. But as they extended the range 
 of their operations and influence, the necessity for the recognition and protec- 
 tion of the law became apparent. This was secured by an Act of Parliament, 
 passed August, 181 7; but owing to radical defects in the plan or details of or- 
 ganization approved by Parliament, they became subject to greater frauds and 
 abuses than had characterized them under the voluntary system."
 
 HISTORY OF 
 
 THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE 
 
 OF NEW YORK 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Reasons for the Formation of the Association— Informal Meetings 
 of Officers of Savings Banks to Exchange Views on Pending 
 Legislation Led to Organization of Wider Scope and Influence 
 —Interesting Discussion as to Status and Powers— The 
 Country Just Emerging from a Period of Severe Financial 
 Stringency— The Bloodgood and Mullin Bills— Legal In- 
 vestment of Deposits— Banks Represented at the Initial 
 Meeting. 
 
 FOR several years prior to the organization of the 
 SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION OF THE 
 STATE OF NEW YORK, in the year 1894, meet- 
 ings of officers of the various Savings Banks of the State 
 had been held at the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 32 Nassau Street, in the City of New York. These meet- 
 ings had for their primary object the ascertaining of the 
 views of the several Savings Banks officers regarding legis- 
 lation then pending, or about to be introduced, in the 
 Legislature of the State affecting their institutions, more 
 especially concerning investments, a subject that had long 
 troubled the most sagacious experts in Savings Bank man- 
 agement. Much good resulted, but in order to render 
 their efforts more effective it was seen that they must be 
 more concentrated. 
 At the meeting held on the 26th day of May, 1892,
 
 4 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 a proposition was made to organize in a regularly incor- 
 porated association, with President, Treasurer, and other 
 officers, and necessary committees. This plan was not 
 carried out at the time because the meeting referred to 
 was only tentative and preliminary. 
 
 A TIME OF FINANCIAL STRINGENCY 
 
 At the date of the organization of the Association, and 
 for some time prior thereto, there had been a period of 
 great financial stringency. This was the never-to-be- 
 forgotten year of 1 893 . The Executive Committee in their 
 report called attention to the fact that the year had been 
 one full of anxiety and burdened at times with great per- 
 plexities which had imposed responsibilities from which 
 they would gladly have escaped if possible. Great doubt 
 and distrust existed throughout the United States in busi- 
 ness circles, and many felt that they were on the verge 
 of a financial crisis the severity or end of which no one 
 could foretell. On the 15th of June the strain had become 
 so great that the banks of discount in the City of New York 
 decided to issue clearing-house certificates in order to 
 relieve the pressure upon them for loans, and enable them 
 the better to aid their customers and the community at 
 large. Still the demand for currency continued to in- 
 crease rapidly, both from the banks throughout the coun- 
 try having deposits in New York, and also on the part of 
 individuals who had commenced to hoard both currency and 
 gold, thus greatly adding to the difficulties of an already 
 alarming situation. To add still further to the perplexi- 
 ties of bankers, soon after July 15th withdrawals from the 
 Savings Banks began to increase rapidly. At least a 
 million dollars a day was being taken from the banks in 
 New York and Brooklyn, with a rapidly increasing ten-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 5 
 
 dency on the part of depositors to take alarm and create a 
 "run." As is the case on all such occasions, it was also 
 found impossible to sell securities except at a sacrifice, or 
 to obtain the currency needed to pay depositors. 
 
 Resort was had then to the expedient of legal notice 
 of intention to withdraw. In New York and Brooklyn 
 depositors gave notice of withdrawals to the extent, on the 
 average, of about three per cent, of the deposits, of which 
 about fifty per cent, was paid. There is ample proof to 
 justify the statement that the Savings Banks of the State 
 of New York, at that time, through their prompt accept- 
 ance of the issue then made by the Executive Committee, 
 did their full share in relieving the strain in financial 
 circles, if not in averting a crisis far more disastrous than 
 that which actually took place. Thus was shown the 
 vital importance of concerted action and the necessity of 
 organization to that end. 
 
 There was also at that time, as there is to-day, much 
 discussion on the subject of legal investment of deposits. 
 The Committee had prepared an amendment to the then 
 existing law permitting the banks to invest in the bonds 
 of seven cities located outside of this State. The bill was 
 introduced in the Senate by Senator MuUin. 
 
 EFFORTS TO ENLARGE THE SCOPE OF INVESTMENTS 
 
 At the meeting held on the 25th day of May, 1893, the 
 Standing Committee that had been appointed in the 
 year previous reported that in pursuance of its duties 
 devolving upon them, it had organized for the purpose 
 of considering the various matters affecting Savings Banks 
 requiring their attention. An Executive Committee 
 was appointed consisting of Messrs. Rhoades, Sturges, 
 McMahon, Morgan, Miller, King, and Mills, and given
 
 6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 charge of the active work of the Committee. It was 
 decided to carefully revise the bill which had been intro- 
 duced for several years in the Legislature extending 
 the scope of Savings Banks investments in the direction 
 of cities located outside the limits of the State of New 
 York, and have the bill introduced in the Legislature 
 which was to convene in the following winter. This was 
 done, the biU being placed in charge of Senator MuUin. 
 The banks throughout the State were at once notified 
 and copies of the bill sent them, but by reason of the 
 strenuous opposition of officials of leading municipalities 
 throughout the State, the measure was smothered in the 
 Committee. 
 
 The Committee of the Savings Banks then proceeded 
 to say: 
 
 About the same time another bill was introduced, known 
 as the ''Bloodgood Bill," under the provisions of which the 
 Savings Banks were to be allowed to purchase the Bonds 
 of the Cities of Boston and Worcester in Massachusetts, 
 New Haven in Connecticut, Providence in Rhode Island, 
 Detroit in Michigan, St. Louis in Missouri, and Cleveland 
 in Ohio. This Bill was not so carefully drawn as the one 
 introduced by the banks, and the rehef afforded by its 
 provisions was very limited, and though at the time it 
 was not thought that this particular bill would make much 
 headway in the Legislature, yet the same opposition 
 which had developed in regard to the bill introduced by 
 the banks and known as the "Mullin Bill" was shown 
 toward this bill. After repeated efforts had been made to 
 induce favorable action, the Senate Committee finally 
 consented to report both bills favorably, cutting dowm the 
 provisions of the MuUin BiU to those covered by the 
 Bloodgood Bill. The opposition to the passage of either 
 bill in the Senate then became so great and persistent 
 that your Committee deemed it wise, in view of the oppo-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 7 
 
 sition of the Officials of the City of New York, which was 
 open and pronounced in its character, to ask the Mayor 
 of that city to grant an interview to a committee repre- 
 senting the Savings Banks, in order that an opportunity 
 might be afforded to explain the position of the banks 
 and the necessity for the proposed legislation, both in the 
 interests of the depositors and the city itself. The re- 
 quest was made and courteously acceded to by the Mayor. 
 At this interview fourteen banks, containing deposits of 
 over $350,000,000, were represented; the facts of the 
 case were plainly stated; attention was called to the na- 
 ture of Savings Banks as the depositories of the savings 
 of the working classes, who, as depositors, numbered al- 
 ready over 1,600,000, with deposits of over $600,000,000. 
 The large percentage of the municipal debt of the State, 
 now held by the banks, and the danger to the credit of 
 these municipalities in the event of a forced sale of these 
 securities, in times of alarm or panic, was shown. The 
 need for the enlargement of the scope of investment, in 
 view of the rapid increase in the volume of deposits — 
 being over $40,000,000 in the year 1892 — ^was pointed 
 out. The great advantage to the community and to the 
 municipalities themselves to be gained through the 
 adoption of measures calculated to enable the banks to 
 continue their present rates of dividends to depositors, 
 and the substantial financial aid to the municipalities 
 in the State rendered by the banks in past years, and 
 which must continue in the future, notwithstanding the 
 scope for investment was enlarged, were dwelt upon, while 
 the injustice done to the depositor in forcing the invest- 
 ment of his hard-earned savings into narrow channels 
 and at a very low rate of interest returned, when other 
 channels for investment, equally secure, were obtainable, 
 was referred to. The Mayor stated that this being a 
 matter which affected all the municipalities in the State, 
 and not that of the City of New York alone, he had con- 
 cluded not to take any decided position either in favor of 
 or in opposition to the bill; in addition to which was the
 
 8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 fact that though the banks had, in previous years, been 
 of great assistance to the city (for the past few years 
 such had not been the case) and that the credit of the 
 city was so high, and their means of securing moneys so 
 ample, that they were practically independent of the 
 Savings Banks; at the same time he had listened with 
 much interest to what had been said, and would give the 
 subject his careful attention. The result of the interview 
 was not, on the whole, satisfactory, and your Committee 
 then renewed its efforts in the Legislature. Senator 
 Bloodgood pressed a vote upon his own bill, and being 
 aided by Senator Mullin in this effort, this particular bill 
 finally passed the Senate and was sent to the House for 
 action, and by that body referred to their Committee 
 on Banks. Your Committee then decided that their 
 efforts had better be directed toward the enlargement of 
 the Bloodgood Bill by amendments, rather than to force 
 a vote upon their own bill in the Senate itself. Every 
 effort was made in this direction. A hearing before the 
 House Committee was asked for and granted. The pro- 
 posed amendments were presented, but the Committee 
 declined to make any changes, and after keeping the bill 
 in Committee until near the closing days of the session, 
 finally decided to report it favorably; and this bill, in its 
 original form, was finally passed by both branches of the 
 Legislature. A conference among the leading Savings 
 Banks of New York and elsewhere was then held to de- 
 termine whether we deemed it for the best interests of 
 the banlcs to favor the signing of the bill by the Governor, 
 and it was decided that this course had better be adopted. 
 The Governor was then asked to give a hearing to the 
 Committee appointed to present the facts before him, 
 which he granted, after which he signed the bill, which 
 then became a law. The result, therefore, has been that 
 after six years of prolonged and hard work the banks of 
 this State have finally succeeded in obtaining very limited 
 relief — entirely inadequate to their needs — and further 
 efforts must be made either to enlarge the scope of the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 9 
 
 Bioodgood Bill or to induce the Legislature to grant an 
 extension of the privilege of investment in other direc- 
 tions. In the opinion of your Committee, the necessity 
 for such action is increasing yearly. Already the Savings 
 Banks of this State are carrying over seventy per cent, of 
 its municipal indebtedness, while the volume of deposits 
 is steadily increasing, the gain last year being about 
 $41,000,000; and it may be well to state the figures upon 
 which this statement is based : 
 
 Poor's Hand Book of Investment Securities for the years 
 1892-3 places the 
 
 County debt at $ 12,139,000 
 
 City and town debt at 193,062,000 
 
 Total $205,201,000 
 
 If this statement includes the villages, then the banks 
 held about seventy- four per cent. ; but if an allowance is 
 made of $10,000,000 for the village and school district 
 debt of the State (and this allowance is certainly ample), 
 then the percentage of indebtedness held by the banks is 
 about seventy per cent. 
 
 The municipal securities held by the Savings Banks in 
 the State on January i, 1893, were as follows: 
 
 New York City 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Other cities a total of 
 
 Counties 
 
 Towns .... 
 
 Villages . . . 
 
 School districts 
 
 $ 49,924,589 About 50 per cent. 
 33,867,200 About 75 per cent. 
 
 36,395,636 
 14,968,326 
 
 4,900,320 
 
 9,261,576 Probably about 75 per cent. 
 6,580,199 Probably about 90 per cent 
 1,529,971 Probably about 95 per cent 
 
 $152,527,497 
 
 It may be interesting to add that the banks hold : 
 
 United States bonds $109,375,460 
 
 District of Colxunbia 3-65's 5,378,800 
 
 Various states 44,820,029
 
 lo HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 In addition to the work done by your Committee in 
 connection with their efforts to secure legislation in the 
 direction already reported, they gave careful attention 
 to such other bills affecting Savings Banks as were, from 
 time to time, introduced into the Legislature. 
 
 One of these bills provided for the taxation of all de- 
 posits in the Sa\'ings Banks in excess of $500; another 
 for the levying of a tax of one half of one per cent, upon 
 all loans on real estate secured by mortgage; and still an- 
 other requiring the banks to furnish the Department at 
 Albany with all the details in their possession connected 
 with dormant accounts and the immediate payment of all 
 such accounts into the State Treasury. 
 
 Constant vigilance will be required to prevent the pas- 
 sage of laws which, in their nature, will only impose still 
 greater burdens upon the debtor class throughout the 
 community and lead to serious injury of the interests of 
 Savings Bank depositors. 
 
 The report of the Committee was adopted and ordered 
 to be printed and circulated among the Savings Banks of 
 the State. 
 
 The following is a tabulated statement obtained from 
 the office of the Comptroller of the State, showing the 
 total net debt of the various municipalities within the 
 State, together w^ith the amounts carried by the Savings 
 Banks as reported by the Superintendent of the Banking 
 Department in his annual report for the year 1893: 
 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 AMOUNT CARRIED 
 
 
 INDEBTEDN-ESS 
 
 BY BANKS 
 
 Bonds of cities in this State . 
 
 $170,345,487 
 
 $120,387,970 
 
 " "counties " " . . . 
 
 12,772,305 
 
 14,785,1" 
 
 " " towns " " . . . 
 
 12,777,167 
 
 9,254,133 
 
 " " villages and school district 
 
 
 
 bonds in this State .... 
 
 12,024,032 
 
 8,125,214 
 
 $207,918,991 $152,552,428
 
 PRESIDENT. I8g3 
 FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, i8Q4-Ic)o6 
 
 JAMES MCMAHON
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ii 
 FORMATION OF AN ASSOCIATION FAVORED 
 
 At a meeting of the officers of Savings Banks, held on 
 June 15, 1894, Mr. James McMahon presiding, a report 
 was received from the Executive Committee favoring the 
 formation of an Association, and if considered desirable, 
 the incorporation of the same. It was agreed on all sides 
 that their influence would be greatly increased and their 
 recormnendations and requests prove much more authori- 
 tative if it were well understood that the organization 
 included every Savings Bank in the State; in other words, 
 that the vast interests representing assets of more than 
 six hundred and twenty millions of dollars would be all the 
 better safeguarded and preserved if those in charge of 
 them were banded together in a regularly organized asso- 
 ciation for the common good. A plan was therefore 
 recommended, somewhat similar to that of the American 
 Bankers' Association, a successful organization of nation- 
 wide influence. 
 
 The Executive Committee which recommended this 
 action consisted of John Harsen Rhoades (Chairman), 
 WilHam C. Sturges, James McMahon, A. C. Miller, J. 
 Howard King, Andrew Mills; William G. ConkHn, Secre- 
 tary to the Cormnittee. A proposed Constitution was 
 submitted at this meeting, of which copies had previously 
 been sent to every Savings Bank in the State, and after 
 full discussion the same was adopted.^ Mr. John Harsen 
 Rhoades was chosen President; James McMahon, Vice- 
 president; Andrew Mills, Treasurer, and Wm. G. Conklin, 
 Secretary. 
 
 In order to show the trend of thought on this occasion, 
 
 *The first Constitution, together with the one under which the Association 
 is now operating, will be found in full in the Appendix.
 
 12 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 and to prove that the sentiment was not by any means 
 unanimous for the formation of the Association, the follow- 
 ing interesting extracts are given from the stenographer's 
 report of the discussion at that time: 
 
 DISCUSSION OVER ORGANIZATION 
 
 Mr. Rodgers: May I be allowed to ask a question? Is 
 there some lawyer in this body that can tell us how we can 
 incorporate, if we wish" to, the Savings Banks into one 
 corporation? Who represents the Savings Banks, and how 
 can we combine them? 
 
 Mr. Hughson: This question is an important one. I 
 do not pretend to say anything as a lawyer. But it 
 strikes me that it is impossible under the laws to incorpo- 
 rate the Savings Banks as a corporation, making the banks 
 themselves corporate. It seems to me that the proper 
 thing to do with this proposal is to leave the whole subject 
 to a Committee, with power to employ counsel to deter- 
 miae that question in the first place. If the banks are 
 to be incorporated, then we can, as delegates here, adopt 
 a constitution; but the question of taking this thing up 
 now by articles and putting it through seems to me a 
 little premature. It could only be adopted by the boards 
 of the different banks. If we adopt it as individuals, I 
 do not think there is any law or statute law under which we 
 can incorporate ourselves, and I do not think any one here 
 would be likely to assume that risk. The proper course 
 is to leave this whole subject to a Committee in the first 
 place, with power to employ counsel to determine what 
 sort of an association this should be, whether it can legally 
 be a corporation, which I think clearly it cannot, and if 
 it cannot, whether then it would be advisable for the 
 banks to form an association in analog}^ to many of our 
 mercantile brokers' corporations, which are called corpo- 
 rations improperly, being mere associations of individuals. 
 If it should take that course, the officers would not be 
 willing to bind themselves unless they are first authorized
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 13 
 
 by their several institutions to do so, in which case it 
 would have to be left to the Boards of Trustees of the 
 different Savings Banks to get their approbation. It 
 seems to me, therefore, that the proper course in the first 
 place is to refer this to a Committee, who shall employ- 
 counsel to determine what the association shall be, its 
 nature and character, and then have it referred to the 
 separate banks for adoption after fixing the articles in 
 shape. 
 
 Mr. Trimble: Would it not be advisable, in the first 
 place, as a preliminary question, there being such a large 
 representation of banks here to-day, to discuss the main 
 question, whether a corporation or an association is desir- 
 able any closer than the present organization that we have? 
 There may be a difference of opinion about that, and I 
 should like to hear the views of the gentlemen present. 
 
 Mr. Andrews : In order that we may speak to the point, 
 I offer a resolution. We have been called together to 
 consider the suggestion of the Executive Committee that 
 we form an association or corporation. I move that we 
 do organize ourselves into a regularly incorporated asso- 
 ciation, provided we can do so after legal advice has been 
 obtained. This is only in order to bring the matter to a 
 proper point for discussion. 
 
 Mr. King: I second that motion. 
 
 The Chairman : Gentlemen, you have heard the motion. 
 Are you ready for the question? 
 
 Mr. Hughson: Will you make it definite? When you 
 say "we," do you mean the Savings Banks of the State? 
 
 Mr. Andrews: This call is addressed to the officers. I 
 prefer to read it just as it is here. 
 
 Mr, Hughson : It makes an important difference whether 
 the officers are to be incorporated or the banks. 
 
 Mr. Harris: I move that we lay the resolution on the 
 table. It seems to me that the Association has done very 
 well in years gone by. The officers have done their duty 
 ably and effectively, and it, seems to me that we had better 
 leave well enough alone. I am not aware of any law that
 
 14 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 will authorize the incorporation of the Savings Banks, or 
 the incorporation of individuals for the purpose of running 
 Savings Banks, or looking after the business of Savings 
 Banks or anything in their interest; and it seems to me 
 that we had better leave this Association as it is to-day to 
 do its work in the future as it has done it in the past. I 
 see no objection to adopting some form of constitution 
 and calling it a constitution, but it would be merely the 
 adoption of a set of rules to control and to confine the 
 business of the delegates from the different Savings Banks 
 when they come together to consider matters relating to 
 banks. 
 
 The Chairman: It is moved and seconded that the 
 original resolution be laid on the table. 
 
 Mr. Rhoades: I am aware that a motion to lay upon 
 the table is not debatable, but I trust that I may be allowed 
 to say a word before the vote is taken. As I said before, 
 as a member of the Executive Committee, I would like a 
 full and free discussion of this whole subject, but I con- 
 fess, candidly, that I hope the matter will thus not be dis- 
 posed of by laying it on the table. Probably the gentlemen 
 present, or most of them, do not realize the difficulty we 
 have to contend with under our present loose organiza- 
 tion. The burden of the work has fallen, so far, upon 
 two or three men, and, so far as I am concerned, I am 
 free to say the burden has been more than I can bear. 
 The difficulty we now have in our loose organization is 
 that we cannot obtain the warm interest of the different 
 banks in any movement or in any help when we desire it. 
 In the second place, we cannot go before the Legislature 
 with any great authority — not such as we could if we were 
 banded in some such form as has been suggested, even 
 if we are not incorporated. Last year some of those 
 who are present here will remember that we had grave 
 doubts as to the right of our Executive Committee to 
 take action, advising the banks in the State to suspend 
 payment to their depositors, and yet if such action had not 
 been taken the results might have been extremely dis-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 15 
 
 astrous. Now these emergencies do not often occur, and 
 yet if we had been incorporated, or if we had acted under a 
 constitution framed in some such way as is now proposed, 
 the Executive Committee would have felt that they had 
 more authority than they have at the present time. I 
 spoke some weeks ago to Mr. Preston, the Superintendent 
 of the Banking Department, and told him the Executive 
 Committee were thinking of suggesting this plan. In 
 reply, he said that he thought it was a good one, and he 
 could see no objection to it. I do not know whether 
 we can incorporate ourselves — I am not a lawyer — ^but at 
 the same time I do not see why we cannot incorporate 
 an association of this kind just as the Banks of Deposit 
 all over the country, national banks, and others incorpo- 
 rate themselves, having annual meetings in which all mat- 
 ters relating to banks are discussed; in fact, they have 
 formed quite a strong association — so much so that they 
 even have their committees employed to prosecute fraud. 
 Why a national bank should have the right to incorporate 
 when a Savings Bank has not, I cannot see; still, there may 
 be some valid objection to such course. At the same 
 time it seemed to the members of the Executive Commit- 
 tee that we needed a closer organization. Our experience 
 at Albany last winter indicated this. We have been try- 
 ing for years to obtain legislation, which it seems impossi- 
 ble to obtain in an honest way. We need all the strength 
 we can get by being banded together, in order to get any 
 relief whatever. As a gentleman told me recently, who 
 was deeply interested in the passage of our bill in the 
 last Legislature, and had had large experience at Albany: 
 "Rhoades, you wUl have all your banks want to do for 
 the next fifteen years in preventing vicious and bad legis- 
 lation aimed at the Savings Banks system, to say nothing 
 of obtaining necessary relief which I think is really de- 
 manded in your case." All these experiences have im- 
 pressed themselves very strongly upon the Executive 
 Committee, and I think most, if not all of us, can say that 
 we believe our interests would be better protected and
 
 1 6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 better preserved if we form a closer alliance than we have 
 at present. I am sorry to have taken up so much time, 
 but this is the position, as I understand it, from the 
 standpoint of the Executive Committee. I do not press 
 for action, but when the motion is made to lay the 
 subject upon the table, I would like to have the gentle- 
 men here understand why the Executive Committee has 
 proposed a closer alliance than we now have. 
 
 Mr. Hendricks: I hope the resolution to lay on the 
 table will not prevail. I see no objection to the original 
 motion. It is admitted by the fact of this meeting that 
 something is necessary for our general good and welfare. 
 The resolution, to my mind, is offered only for information, 
 and I do not see that we will be doing anything out of 
 the way in getting the information on this subject. I 
 trust the motion will not prevail. 
 
 Mr. Sprague: It seems to me that much better use 
 can be made of Mr. Andrews' motion than to lay it on the 
 table. The fact that we are here shows that we require 
 association. It seems to me that Mr. Andrews' motion 
 can better be amended so as to eliminate something which 
 appears to be of vital importance, but which I hardly 
 can think so — that of formally legally incorporating under 
 some statutes of the State of New York. We are not going 
 to hold shares; we are not going to sue nor be sued, we 
 hope. We are going to act entirely by moral methods. 
 We are simply going to associate ourselves; and it seems 
 to me that we can do it as well as a college debating society 
 can by adopting a voluntary constitution and considering 
 ourselves a body of gentlemen combined in a certain way 
 and having common ends. If the Clearing House of New 
 York and other great cities can get together and be legally 
 incorporated, it seems to me that Savings Banks can. 
 We shall not be running any risk if we drop the idea of a 
 corporation or being considered a sort of trust. We all 
 know how bad a trust is, but we shall be called a trust in 
 a few days from now if we say anything about incorpo- 
 ration. We can do better than that. We have met to-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 17 
 
 day, and there would be no harm to adopt a set of rules 
 merely for our guidance, but let us do something rather 
 than lay the subject on the table. We might call our- 
 selves the Savings Banks Officers of the State of New York, 
 and we could provide that a Savings Bank or savings in- 
 stitution or such officer as the President may designate 
 shall form this. I think that would not be objectionable 
 to any charge of being a corporation; but it seems to 
 me that we ought to have something that at least has a 
 name. 
 
 I very much doubted my legal power to sign a check for 
 the expenses of this body, whatever it is. It has no ex- 
 istence at all. We do not even give ourselves the efficacy 
 or potency of a common name by which we call ourselves. 
 I was the secretary of a Committee appointed at a meet- 
 ing held some time in 1892 by gentlemen representing va- 
 rious Savings Banks of the State of New York. That was 
 the briefest way in which I could put it ; and coming before 
 the public in that way would not have much effect. I 
 believe we can modify Mr. Andrews' motion and to make 
 less prominent the idea of legal incorporation, and can pro- 
 ceed to adopt a set of rules that would be good for us. 
 
 Mr. Rodgers : The motion to lay on the table not being 
 debatable, I would ask Mr. Harris if he will withdraw his 
 motion. 
 
 Mr. Harris: My object was to extend the discussion 
 rather than cut it off. I now withdraw the motion. 
 
 Mr. ICing: Mr. Rhoades has said almost everything 
 that need be said for the Executive Committee, but I 
 want to say a word for Mr. Rhoades. He, as we know, 
 coupled with yourself, Mr. Chairman, has been the 
 head and front of this Association during the past year, 
 and almost since its inception. Mr. Rhoades was absent 
 this winter, and nothing would have been accomplished 
 of importance had it not been that you were willing to 
 take his place. While we want to lean on the Chairman 
 of our Executive Committee and to continue to lean on 
 him, I wish to say that I think it is a wrong thing that we
 
 i8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 should be so organized that we have not some proper 
 system of doing our business when he is out of town. 
 From what I have seen and from what Senator Hendricks 
 has told me, that there can be no proper, legal incorpo- 
 ration, I still believe if we had an association we would 
 have support; therefore, let us have an association. Let 
 that association have the weight that consolidated effort 
 gives. When we go before the Governor at Albany and 
 ask him to veto a measure, let it not be Mr. McMahon, of 
 New York, President of the Emigrant Industrial Savings 
 Bank, who appears to speak a word in favor of or against 
 such legislation, but let it be in the name of this Asso- 
 ciation, which should embrace every Savings Bank in the 
 State, and then it will carry with it a force tenfold that 
 which could be conveyed by him speaking as an individ- 
 ual. I am, therefore, in favor of having such an organi- 
 zation, such a Secretary, such a system of annual dues, 
 small though they may be, that will aggregate a sum that 
 when a bill comes before the Legislature, such a bill, for 
 instance, as that introduced by Mr. Mittnacht, the knowl- 
 edge that such a bill has been introduced is at once known 
 to the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee 
 to at once communicate with its Secretary, who may be a 
 paid officer, and he at once send a copy of such bill to 
 every Savings Bank in the State, and then let the Presi- 
 dent of that bank, or the Treasurer, or whoever is man- 
 aging it, say to his trustees: "We want you to see or com- 
 municate with our member in the Legislature; we want 
 you to interest him, and we want him to interest himself 
 to defeat such bill or to favor it." These are the only 
 tools we can employ — they are the only tools we wish to 
 employ. It is the only thing we are justified in doing, 
 and if we have a proper organization we will then have 
 the burden fall more equally than it now does. You can 
 go to Mr. Rhoades, as Chairman of your Executive Com- 
 mittee, but there is no more reason why you should go to 
 him than to any other man in this room. I should like 
 to make one more suggestion. We meet here, and it is
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 19 
 
 perhaps as wise to meet here once a year as anywhere, 
 but it would be infinitely wise, if not wiser, to meet in 
 Albany once in the winter. The doctors, the dentists, 
 the lawyers, in fact many of the societies of the State 
 meet there. Why not the Savings Banks? Then we 
 would be able to bring right before the members of the 
 Legislature the very arguments we want to bring, and 
 we would have them effective. I trust, Mr. Chairman, 
 that there will be such an association, such an organiza- 
 tion, and such sums of money paid as will enable us to 
 have a properly paid officer, with some counsel or per- 
 son to represent us in Albany, so that the very instant 
 there is a wrong about to be perpetrated, or a right that 
 we want enforced, whether it be in Washington or in 
 Albany, we will be able to bring the whole power of the 
 Savings Banks of the State to bear upon our represen- 
 tatives wherever they are. 
 
 Mr. Harris: The question is not at all on the desirability 
 of incorporation of the Savings Banks, but in the manner 
 in which it can be legally carried out. If it is impossible 
 to incorporate them, the next thing is, can they associate 
 together, and the next question is, who forms the associ- 
 ation? Do the Savings Banks form it, or do its officers 
 that meet here form it? If the Savings Banks form it, 
 they will, of course, have to incur the expenses. If the 
 officers who meet here form it, we will have to incur the 
 expenses. The question is whether the officers here form 
 an association — form it among themselves — and are will- 
 ing to incur the expenses, whether their banks will sustain 
 them or not. That is the reason I proposed in the first 
 place to refer the whole matter to a Committee to employ 
 counsel, not to oppose, but to carry it out, and to provide 
 the proper legal method of carrying it out. The desirabil- 
 ity is proved by what has been effected already by this 
 Committee; and everybody must admire the skill and 
 the energy wdth which they have advanced the interest 
 of the Savings Banks. In anything I have said I am not 
 opposed at all to what has been said as to the desirability
 
 20 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 of this Association. It is only as to the method by which 
 it is to be carried out. 
 
 The Chairman: As I understand the motion, it is that 
 we proceed and adopt the constitution, which was duly 
 seconded. 
 
 Mr. Andrews: The intention was to bring forth an 
 expression of opinion from, those present as to whether it 
 is the sense of this meeting that we shall proceed and form 
 this association. Whether it be an organization, a cor- 
 poration, or association, I do not care. But we do want 
 to arrive at some consensus of opinion whether we shall 
 go forward or drop it. That is what the resolution was 
 intended to bring forth. I think the resolution ofifered 
 before mine could be very well added, and the whole 
 matter be referred to a Committee to report definitely 
 what we can do. Candidly, when I heard the names read 
 of the gentlemen who signed that report, I took it for 
 granted that they had investigated the whole subject, 
 and could say definitely that we could form or incorporate 
 an association; but they do not seem to have investi- 
 gated it. 
 
 Mr. Rhoades: In this connection I do not think the 
 Executive Cormnittee has any doubt whatever as to the 
 right of the ofl&cers representing the Savings Banks at this 
 annual meeting to adopt a constitution drawn upon the 
 lines of the one proposed, with possibly some shght modi- 
 fications. I did suppose that, so far as an act of incor- 
 poration was concerned, there might be some legal diffi- 
 culties in the way, but we must bear in mind that we 
 are now only perfecting an association. For the past two 
 years we have agreed to have an annual meeting; we have 
 appointed an Executive and a Standing Committee, and 
 it has been agreed by those present at each annual meeting 
 that the members of the Association shall pay $5 as annual 
 dues; and what we now propose to do is simply to bring 
 this Association into a better working condition, by having 
 a constitution and well-regulated rules for our guid- 
 ance. I admit, frankly, that if we decide to adopt a con-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 21 
 
 stitution at this meeting, the only proper course for the 
 officers of the Savings Banks to foUow will be to furnish a 
 copy of such constitution to their Board of Trustees, state 
 to them the advantages of the banks being associated in 
 the manner proposed, and urge their consent to allowing 
 the officers, in their name, to join the Association, to work 
 with it, and pay such annual dues as are imposed by the 
 rules of the Association. If the matter is properly pre- 
 sented and the Board of Trustees thoroughly understand 
 what has been done and what it is intended to do, I have 
 not the slightest doubt that they will wilhngly consent to 
 join with all others in completing such an Association as 
 wiU, in my judgment, be of the greatest service to the 
 Savings Banks interests of this State. 
 
 I do not think there is any legal trouble in the way. 
 The reference to a Committee would simply result in the 
 whole subject being carried over for another year, for the 
 reason that we have but one regular meeting and many of 
 the members come from a distance, and therefore it would 
 be difficult to obtain a fuU representation at a special 
 meeting. I hope, therefore, that the proposed plan will 
 be discussed, modffied, and fuiaUy adopted at this meeting, 
 and the Secretary instructed, before we adjourn, to send 
 copies to every Savings Bank in the State coupled with 
 an invitation to become a member of this Association, 
 suggesting that such action be ratified by their Boards 
 of Trustees ; and this would set the whole scheme in motion. 
 
 Mr. Rainey: Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment to 
 Mr. Andrews' motion, that the officers of the Savings 
 Banks of the State of New York organize a regular Asso- 
 ciation and adopt a constitution, and that we do nothing 
 about incorporation at this time. 
 
 Mr. Hendricks : I second that amendment. 
 
 Mr. Trimble: I should like to ask if this Association 
 would have any more power or influence than the Asso- 
 ciation as it is now. On the main question, whether in- 
 corporation is desirable, I differ in opinion with my friends 
 and associates with great reluctance. It seems to me that
 
 22 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 incorporation is open to objection on two grounds, as tend- 
 ing to constrain and limit the freedom of action of the 
 individual banks. I am pretty old-fashioned myself, and 
 represent a very old-fashioned corporation, and I think 
 they would be very shy of coming into an association by 
 which they would be constrained in any way to do what 
 they did not think proper to do. I feel the constraint in 
 believing it my duty to say what 1 am saying now and to 
 differ with my friends. It has a great deal of influence, 
 and some gentlemen may not feel willing to put themselves 
 within it. Second, as likely to increase and intensify the 
 opposition to Savings Banks on the part of politicians and 
 municipal ofi&cers who seek in one way or another to use 
 depositors' funds. In various ways there is almost 
 an organized hostility to Savings Banks in this State. 
 Now, however unjust it may be, there would be an outcry 
 from these sources against a Savings Bank trust with 
 $600,000,000 to dictate and control legislation with; that 
 would be a cry which we would have to meet, undoubtedly. 
 I think it would be of considerable disadvantage to the 
 interests of the Savings Banks to open the door to any such 
 criticism. My own feeling in regard to Savings Banks is 
 that they should do their business, a proper business, as 
 quietly and as unobtrusively as possible, not to be in 
 evidence much of the time. But it is very proper that 
 we should have some means of acting in concert when the 
 necessity arises, and I supposed the present organization 
 had been found sufficient for that end. But to form an 
 organization or a corporation, which in one way or another 
 would expose us to criticism just or unjust, and to con- 
 strain the action of the banks, I feel strongly opposed to, 
 and opposed to becoming committed to any decided posi- 
 tion and advocacy of any particular plan. It seems to me 
 that we are doing pretty well as we are. 
 
 Mr. Rainey : The amendment I made was not to incor- 
 porate, and I do not suppose it is possible for this associa- 
 tion, if it was incorporated, to bind the trustees to any 
 course of action.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 23 
 
 Mr. Foster: I rise with some reluctance, I represent 
 a bank in the easternmost county of this State. We feel 
 modest about coming before you, but we do most earnestly 
 want to see this thing passed and have an Association. 
 We have felt a very great relief when we found that we had 
 an Executive Committee that were looking out for those 
 matters that were being presented to the Legislature. 
 There are so many bills that are presented simply as a 
 strike at the Savings Bank, While we have an Executive 
 Committee to watch these bills, we are ready when they 
 call upon us to do what we can. We feel that we cannot do 
 much. As we are in the country, we are differently situ- 
 ated from many of the larger Savings Banks in the State. 
 These bills that are coming up, such as the submitting of 
 our books to the inspection of the assessors, would hurt 
 us seriously. Our people are careful, and are very timid 
 about putting their deposits where assessors can see them ; 
 and every year some bill of some kind has come before 
 the Legislature that we should be sorry to see become a 
 law. We want to do what we can to prevent it. What 
 good will it do for one of us to go to them? But if we 
 combine with all the other banks, and have an association 
 of this kind, while they are protecting themselves they 
 are protecting us. The Executive Committee have given 
 much time, thought, and study to this matter, and have 
 done their part well. We feel that we have been protected. 
 They suggest this, and we heartily say amen, and hope 
 this will be passed. 
 
 A Member: What is the motion before the house? 
 
 The Chairman : The amendment to the original motion 
 is that we proceed to adopt a constitution for an associa- 
 tion to be christened hereafter. 
 
 A Member: It seems that all we want to do is to name 
 this child. It is growing and doing good work. 
 
 Mr. Rhoades : I wish to say a word in answer to what 
 Mr. Trimble has said who represents one of the largest 
 Savings Banks in the State, a personal friend, and a man 
 whose judgment I respect very highly. I do not know that
 
 24 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 I can make a better answer than to put it in the shape 
 of a question and ask him what, in his judgment, would 
 have been the results last year during the panic had it not 
 been for the existence of this loose association, which was 
 created two years ago? When the meeting was called 
 by the Executive Committee to consider the gravity of 
 the situation as relating to Savings Banks, and the officers 
 of the banks near at hand were requested to be present at 
 such meeting, there was not a man on the Executive Com- 
 mittee who had the least idea that any action such as was 
 taken was needed or would be taken at that meeting. 
 Under such a condition as to the mind of the individual, 
 the result would have been, if we had not had an organi- 
 zation through which we were able to come together, dis- 
 cuss the situation, and to take authoritative action, that 
 the conditions of affairs then existing would probably 
 have continued for a week longer. If it had gone on for a 
 week longer — ^yes, for three days longer — in my honest 
 judgment we would have had a wild panic among our ovm 
 depositors and in the Savings Banks throughout the State 
 of New York and through Eastern States, which fact would 
 have produced an aggravated condition of affairs in bank- 
 ing and commercial circles sufficient to have caused much 
 greater disaster than actually occurred. The run was 
 stopped and relief came. Why? Because we had an or- 
 ganization — a loose organization to be sure, but sufficient 
 for the purpose — and an Executive Committee, who, with 
 their associates, saw the necessity of the occasion and acted 
 upon it. If this is not the best object-lesson we could have, 
 as showing the necessity of a strong organization, then I 
 do not know of another one. Again, take the instance of 
 the Wilcox Bill, which recently passed the Legislature, 
 and by the terms of which the banks were required to pub- 
 lish all deposits on which there had been no transaction for 
 the preceding five years. If there had not been this As- 
 sociation, loose in its organization as it now is, that bill 
 probably would have been signed by the Governor and be 
 a law to-day. I do not fear, as Mr. Trimble fears, that the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 25 
 
 fact of an organization tends to weaken and to excite 
 hostility toward the banks. On the other hand, I feel 
 that it wdll strengthen us. We must hold together in order 
 to resist bad legislation. We must hold together if we 
 are to obtain relief in any direction from the Legislature 
 of this State, and I teU you when we do hold together and 
 do act together we are a power. Individually, we are not. 
 That is why I urge so strongly the formation of a perma- 
 nent association, which would hold and bind us together. 
 Personally, we have no interests to serve in the matter. 
 There is no interest to serve but the interest of our depos- 
 itors. Our interests are all alike and all akin. There is 
 not a small bank in this State, when it comes to legislation, 
 which has not more influence with the Legislature than 
 the individual banks in New York City. We need their 
 help as well as they need ours, and we need to work to- 
 gether with them as one man. Let the public know this, 
 and let them know that we are bound together not to pro- 
 tect our own individual interests but the interests of one 
 million and a half of depositors, with $620,000,000 of their 
 savings in our care, and you may rest assured that they will 
 sustain us in our efforts to do what is right. Upon this 
 ground I am wilUng to stand before the public and fight it 
 out on this line all my life. 
 
 Mr. Trimble: I would like to ask another question in 
 reply, as to whether the action of the Executive Committee 
 of the present Association is not thoroughly effective? 
 
 Mr. King : I think there is some little misapprehension, 
 although Mr. Trimble has not said a single word to me. I 
 do not feel, and I suppose that is the feeling of almost ever}^ 
 man here who is a Treasurer or President of a Savings 
 Bank, that he is by his action here, or by forming an as- 
 sociation, going to bind his Board of Trustees to certain 
 poHcies of investment or otherwise. It is not the idea 
 that this Association is to be formed in that way, and I can 
 understand, in some measure, the feelings of Mr. Trimble 
 when he says it is doubtful whether he would like to com- 
 mit his Board of Trustees, and whether his Board of
 
 26 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Trustees would sufifer themselves to be committed. This 
 is not the idea. We are to be left just as free in all of these 
 matters, and in all matters of investment, as we are to-day. 
 We join hands simply for advice, cooperation, consulta- 
 tion, and for the protection of our depositors, and that is 
 all there is in it. This, I tliink, is one of the great points, 
 this standing together, as Mr. Rhoades insinuates, fighting 
 it out, as General Grant said, if it takes all summer and 
 next winter, too. 
 
 Chairman : If your Chairman might be allowed to sug- 
 gest a name for the child, why not let it remain as it is, the 
 Savings Bank Association? 
 
 Mr. Rainey : Why not, if you decide to organize, name 
 it as suggested in your proposed constitution? 
 
 The Chairman: Then, as I understand, the question 
 before the meeting is, shall we form an association for mu- 
 tual protection? 
 
 Mr. Harris : By whom is that association to be formed? 
 I would like to have it in proper form. 
 
 Mr. Rainey: My motion is this: that the oflScers of the 
 Savings Banks of the State of New York here represented 
 organize a regular association and adopt a constitution. 
 
 Calls for the question. 
 
 Chairman : You have heard the motion, which has been 
 duly seconded. Are you ready for the question? AH in 
 favor please signify by saying aye — contrary-minded, no. 
 
 Unanimously carried. 
 
 Chairman : What is your further pleasure? 
 
 At this point in the proceedings the proposed constitu- 
 tion was presented by the Chairman of the Executive Com- 
 mittee, taken up section by section, carefully analyzed, 
 discussed, amended, and finally adopted unanimously. 
 
 THE FIRST LIST OF OFFICERS 
 
 At this fij-st Convention, the Nominating Committee, 
 Messrs. King, Rainey, and Andrews, reported in favor of
 
 PRESIDENT, i8q4-iS 
 
 JOHN HARSEN EHOADES, SR.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 27 
 
 the election of the followmg officers, who were unani- 
 mously chosen: 
 
 President: John Harsen Rhoades, President, Green- 
 wich Savings Bank, New York. 
 
 Vice-President: James McMahon, President, Emigrant 
 Industrial Savings Bank (also recommended for Chairman 
 of the Executive Committee). 
 
 Secretary: Wilham G. Conklin, Secretary, Franklin Sav- 
 ings Bank, New York. 
 
 Treasurer: Andrew Mills, Trustee, Dry Dock Savings 
 Bank, New York. 
 
 Executive Committee: William C. Sturges (Chairman), 
 President, Seamen's Savings Bank, New York; A. C. 
 Miller, Treasurer, Utica Savings Bank; Samuel R. Rainey, 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City Savings Institution; 
 J. Howard King, President, Albany Savings Bank; Ed. 
 S. Dawson, President, Onondaga Savings Bank, Syracuse. 
 
 Members ex-qfficio: John Harsen Rhoades, James 
 McMahon, Andrew Mills, William G. Conklin. 
 
 BANKS REPRESENTED AT THE INITIAL MEETING 
 
 A list of banks represented at the initial meeting is 
 given herewith: 
 
 Albany Savings Bank, Albany, J. Howard King, President. 
 
 Auburn Savings Bank, Auburn, E. H. Townsend, 
 Treasurer. 
 
 Binghamton Savings Bank, Binghamton, Harris G. 
 Rodgers, Treasurer. 
 
 Cayuga Co. Savings Bank, Auburn, W. H. Meaker, 
 Treasurer. 
 
 Cohoes Savings Bank, Cohoes, W. T. Dodge, President. 
 
 Hudson City Savings Institution, Hudson, Samuel R. 
 Rainey, Secretary. 
 
 Onondaga County Savings Bank, Syracuse, E. S. Daw- 
 son, President; Wm. D. Dunning, Trustee.
 
 28 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Oswego County Savings Bank, Oswego, Joseph B. 
 Lathrop, Treasurer. 
 
 Poughkeepsie Savings Bank, Poughkeepsie, Edward S. 
 Atwater, Trustee. 
 
 Rochester Savings Bank, Rochester, Edward Harris, 
 Trustee. 
 
 Portchester Savings Bank, Portchester, John W. Diehl, 
 Assistant Cashier. 
 
 Riverhead Savings Bank, Riverhead, Nat. W. Foster, 
 President. 
 
 Rondout Savings Bank, Rondout, J. E. Derrenbacher, 
 Secretary. 
 
 Syracuse Savings Bank, Syracuse, Francis Hendricks, 
 Trustee. 
 
 Southold Savings Bank, Southold, H. H. Hunting, 
 Secretary, J. G. Case, Vice-President. 
 
 Troy Savings Bank, Troy, Chas. E. Hanaman, Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Yonkers Savings Bank, Yonkers, S. Emmet Getty, 
 Secretary. 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 City Savings Bank of Brookl}Ti, Theophilus Olena, 
 Vice-President. 
 
 Dime Savings Bank of WOHamsburg, Henry Geckler, 
 Assistant Secretary. 
 
 Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, B. H. Huntington, 
 President. 
 
 East Brooklyn Savings Bank, Eugene F. Barnes, 
 Treasurer. 
 
 East New York Savings Bank, Frank C. Lang, Secre- 
 tary. 
 
 German Savings Bank, George H. Fisher, Trustee. 
 
 Wniiamsburgh Savings Bank, J. V. Meserole, President. 
 
 New York City 
 
 Bank for Savings, Merritt Trimble, President. 
 Dry Dock Savings Bank, Andrew Mills, Trustee.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 29 
 
 Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, James McMahon, 
 President. 
 
 Franklin Savings Bank, William G. Conklin, Secretary. 
 
 German Savings Bank, Philip Bissinger, President. 
 
 Greenwich Savings Bank, John Harsen Rhoades, Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Harlem Savings Bank, Charles B. Tooker, President. 
 
 Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks, Chas. 
 C. Brinckerhoff, Secretary. 
 
 Irving Savings Institution, David M. Demarest, Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 New York Savings Bank, Frederick Hughson, President. 
 
 North River Savings Bank, Samuel D. Styles, President. 
 
 Seamen's Bank for Savings, William C. Sturges, Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Twelfth Ward Savings Bank, Isaac Hopper, President. 
 
 Union Dime Savings Institution, Chas. E. Sprague, 
 President. 
 
 United States Savings Bank, Constant A. Andrews, 
 President. 
 
 In this list are thirty-nine institutions. Since the or- 
 ganization of the Association the number of banks con- 
 stituting it has grown to 127. There are 140 Savings 
 Banks doing business under the law of the State.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Second Annual Convention — First Deaths Reported, Those of 
 Addison C. Miller, Utica, and Harris G. Rogers, Binghamton 
 — Vigilant Watching of Legislation — The Elmira Savings Bank 
 Case — Uniformity in Bank Bookkeeping — An Illuminating 
 Discussion of an Important Subject — Views of President 
 Rhoades. 
 
 AT THE Second Annual Convention which was held 
 /-\ in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, 32 
 "^ "^ Nassau Street, New York City, on Wednesday, 
 May 15, 1895, the representation of banks had increased 
 from thirty-nine, at the first Convention, to fifty-two. 
 There were eighty-eight banks cooperating in the tem- 
 porary organization, all but three of which subsequently 
 joined the permanent organization, which, with thirteen 
 additional ones, made the total membership ninety-eight. 
 
 In pursuance of the policy of the Association to keep in 
 close touch with all proposed legislation affecting Savings 
 Banks, it had been decided by the Executive Committee 
 prior to the meeting of the Convention that it would be 
 advisable to secure the services of a resident agent in Al- 
 bany, if a suitable person could be obtained. Mr. J. 
 Howard King, President of the Albany Savings Bank, was 
 deputed to seek for such a person, and upon his report and 
 recommendation Mr. Marcus T. Hun was engaged for the 
 service, viz.: to keep the Committee and banks fully in- 
 formed as to all bills introduced in the Legislature af- 
 fecting Savings Banks and their progress from time to 
 time; to appear before committees of the Legislature when 
 
 30
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 31 
 
 desired, in behalf of the banks, to interview such members 
 of the Legislature as he deemed necessary, instructing them 
 concerning the merits and demerits of biUs. Mr. Hun's 
 compensation was fixed at $1,000 for the year. The Com- 
 mittee expressed its entire satisfaction with Mr. Hun's ser- 
 vices and appreciated his usefulness to the banks. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT RHOADES 
 
 In calling the Convention to order. President Rhoades 
 said: 
 
 It is with a feeling of sincere pleasure that I welcome you 
 to the second annual meeting of our Association. Bound 
 together by no selfish ties, and acting purely in the inter- 
 est of the great mass of our population, who through con- 
 fidence in our management have entrusted to our care 
 their savings, which to many of them means the only 
 barrier which exists at times between poverty and star- 
 vation, it is well that we join hands and come together 
 to consult upon the best means obtainable, not only to 
 maintain the integrity of the system we represent, but to 
 broaden its usefulness and to extend the beneficent influ- 
 ence of thrift and economy throughout our entire popula- 
 tion. 
 
 As I look back upon the small beginnings of the Savings 
 Banks in this State, and think that out of deposits amount- 
 ing to a few hundreds of thousands of dollars at the start 
 there has grown up an aggregate of nearly six hundred and 
 fifty millions of dollars annually, increasing not by thou- 
 sands but by millions; and then reahze what a power for 
 good this vast sum has become, not only in the benefits 
 derived by the single depositor but in the practical aid 
 it gives to the development of our cormnonwealth, I feel 
 that we are engaged in a work of which we may well feel 
 proud, and to which we may well be content to devote our 
 lives, assured that in the faithful discharge of the duties 
 thus devolving upon us we are acting no mean part in
 
 32 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 making our own lives useful to our fellow citizens. Let our 
 aim, therefore, in the future, as in the past, be to guard with 
 care this great trust so sacred in its character and so bene- 
 ficial in its operations. 
 
 I wish it were in my power to add that all the members 
 present last year are again here to add the weight of their 
 wise counsels to our deliberations, but life is uncertain, and 
 it is with sorrow that I inform you of the death of two of 
 our members: Mr. Addison C. Miller, Treasurer of the 
 Sa\dngs Bank of Utica and a member of our Executive 
 Committee, died December i8, 1894. 
 
 To those who came in contact with IVIr. Miller, I need 
 not say one word of commendation to strengthen the high 
 regard in which they held him and the deep sense of loss 
 they now entertain. No member of this Association was 
 more devoted to its interests; no man could be more un- 
 selfish; no counsel more wise; no friend more generous, than 
 he. I can best tell you how he was regarded in the com- 
 munity in which he lived by quoting extracts from the 
 leading journals in Utica \\Titten at the time of his death, 
 in which they say: 
 
 ''The business capacity of Mr. Miller was simply wonderful. 
 Considered as a banker, as a manufacturer, or as a lawyer, he 
 achieved signal success in each branch, and what he did in each 
 would have constituted the life work of any one man. 
 
 "It was to the business of the Savings Bank, however, that he 
 gave his closest personal attention. No man in this country was 
 more familiar with all the details of this business than he. As has 
 been stated, he was the Father of the present Savings Bank system 
 of this State, and he constantly studied how he could improve 
 the system and throw more safeguards around the interests of the 
 depositors. In January and July of each year he was found for 
 four weeks at the Savings Bank. During this period he never 
 went near his office, nor could any one see him at the bank on other 
 than bank business. His place, while the bank was open, was not 
 behind the desk but in front of it in the crowd of depositors. He 
 would inquire into the business of each and give them many sug- 
 gestions which were timely and valuable. His constant solicitude 
 was for those who were not versed in financial affairs nor accus- 
 tomed to the handling of much money. When one of these drew 
 an amount which a wage-earner would regard as large, Mr. Miller
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ^s 
 
 would inquire: * What are you going to do with this money? Are 
 you certain you have a safe place in which to invest it?' And then 
 he would give his advice as to the prudence of the moment." 
 
 Another journal, speaking of his death, says: 
 
 "In the life so unexpectedly ended there was more practical, 
 wholesome good than it is the fortune of most mankind to possess. 
 The citizens of Utica will not easily appreciate how potent and 
 how active a factor death has just removed from their circles. 
 Keenly alive to the welfare and interests of the city, he, whom all 
 so deeply mourn, has devoted his unselfish and unceasing service 
 whenever time or occasion permitted. To the poor he was a bene- 
 factor, and in the many little homes made possible by his zeal and 
 wisdom his passing will be mourned and his memory cherished. 
 Such a life was worth the hving, for he, who lived it, will be re- 
 membered as a public benefactor. 
 
 "Business and professional men, men and women on farms and 
 in trade throughout this whole section, men employed in the vari- 
 ous industries and enterprises in which he was a leading spirit, 
 young men starting out in life and those in whom the years have 
 nearly run their course, will hear of the death of Addison C. Miller 
 with sadness, and join in saying he was a true friend, a kind and 
 sj^mpathetic neighbor, a wise and safe counsellor, an honest man 
 in whom there beat a heart rich in warm friendship and filled with 
 generous impulses." 
 
 What nobler tribute could be given to the great ones 
 of the earth, and wherein are they greater than he, who 
 gave his life to the service of others, and by his unselfish 
 deeds done to his fellowmen fulfilled the words of the great 
 Prophet and Teacher of mankind when He said: "Inas- 
 much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren 
 ye have done it unto me." 
 
 Mr. Harris G. Rogers, Treasurer of the Binghamton 
 Savings Bank, died on May 2, 1895; a man of sturdy 
 independence and clear thought, devoted to our interest, 
 and valued alike by us, and in the community in which he 
 lived, as an upright man, a good citizen, and a christian 
 gentleman. From both of these lives we can gather much 
 to imitate, much to cherish, and much to hold in sweet
 
 34 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 remembrance, as of chosen friendships in life which are 
 never forgotten. 
 
 WATCHING LEGISLATION 
 
 The Executive Committee made report in reference to 
 bills affecting Savings Banks. Few possessed any novelty 
 and most of them were thoroughly understood by bank 
 officials. One of these bills required the banks to send 
 annually between January 5th and 15th to each depositor a 
 balance statement of his account. It was shown that with 
 banks having from 50,000 to 100,000 accounts this would 
 be impracticable and absurd. Another bill introduced 
 in the Senate required so-called "dormant" accounts 
 of seven years to be annually reported and advertised. 
 The Committee naively remarked that the advertising 
 feature of this bill was sufficiently suggestive of its object. 
 Mr. Kilburn introduced a bill requiring a separation of 
 premises of Savings Banks from banks of discount. An- 
 other bill was introduced concerning the ehgibility of bank 
 trustees, etc., and Senator Smelzer introduced a bill requir- 
 ing annual reports to the Banking Superintendent of all 
 so-called dormant accounts of twelve years' standing, in- 
 cluding the amounts of their credit balances, and requiring 
 such reports to be open for public inspection. Twice dur- 
 ing the session the Committee visited Albany concerning 
 legislation, the last visit being in connection with the 
 Smelzer bUl. Seven officers of the banks appeared before 
 the Senate Committee, and presented strong arguments 
 against the passage of these bills, showing the apparent 
 viciousness of their intention, which opinion was endorsed 
 by the Senate Committee, and it was reported that all of 
 the bills relating to dormant accounts were practically 
 "dead." It was further reported that Senator Klilburn's
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 35 
 
 bill, in a modified form, would probably become a law, as 
 well as that relating to bankrupt trustees. 
 
 The Elmira Savings Bank case, which involved the 
 question of the legality of Savings Banks' claims as pre- 
 ferred creditors of National Banks, was soon to come before 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Elmira 
 bank being a small one and unable to bear the expense of 
 carrying the case to the highest court, and in view of its 
 importance, the Committee recommended the employ- 
 ment of Mr. James C. Carter, of New York, to argue the 
 case for a fee of $2,500, and that this being an extraordi- 
 nary expense it be assessed upon all the members of the 
 Association. This was subsequently decided upon, thus 
 early showdng the great benefits of the organization. 
 
 UNIFORMITY IN BANK BOOKKEEPING 
 
 One of the most interesting and valuable papers read 
 before the Association was that on "Uniformity in Bank 
 Bookkeeping," presented at this meeting by Mr. Charles 
 E. Sprague, of the Union Dime Savings Institution of New 
 York. Mr. Sprague presented twelve t>pes of Savings 
 Banks entries, which seemed to him to cover all the regular, 
 normal transactions of any possible Sa\ings Bank doing 
 business under the New York law. His conclusions were 
 as follows: 
 
 Uniformity in bookkeeping among the banks is neither 
 desirable nor practicable. The best methods will work 
 themselves out by each studying its own wants and by 
 intelUgently utilizing, so far as apphcable, the experience 
 of others, to which end, I hope, our Association will greatly 
 contribute. The supervising authorities should judge 
 by results, not interfering with the particular way in which 
 the thing is done by asking: ''Where do you get such and
 
 36 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 such figures which you present to me?" and condemning 
 such systems as do not furnish ready answers to their 
 questions. 
 
 PRESIDENT RHOADES' VIEWS 
 
 In discussing the paper and the author's conclusions, 
 President Rhoades said: 
 
 I have said so much as your presiding officer that I in- 
 tended to keep silent now, but my desire and the desire of 
 the officers of the Association is that there shall be a full 
 and frank interchange of opinion on these important ques- 
 tions, and it is only for that reason that I venture to 
 address you for a few moments, in the hope that the discus- 
 sion will become somewhat general between us. I confess 
 candidly that this is the first time I have seen, or heard 
 read, this paper, and my impressions are only those that 
 come to my mind at the moment. That there is necessity 
 for good bookkeeping in all the banks in the State there 
 can be no question. So far as the large banks are con- 
 cerned, where they have ample resources and means at 
 their command to employ all the clerks needed, of course 
 an intricate system of bookkeeping can be indulged in, as 
 there is in the bank which I represent; and, while our 
 system is adapted to our pecuhar needs, we find among 
 other large banks that their systems are equally good for 
 their own special requirements. The trouble in my mind 
 has been this, and I have asked myself the question : How 
 can small banks surround themselves with elements of 
 safety so that the trustees can feel that the clerks who keep 
 their books are keeping them correctly, and that there are 
 proper checks upon them? I confess — and I agree with 
 Mr. Sprague in that — that I do not think any one system 
 of bookkeeping can be adopted, for the reason that a small 
 bank must employ but a few clerks. In a small bank the 
 teller, who is paying teller, is also as a rule receiving teller; 
 and, not only that, but he frequently acts as bookkeeper. 
 Therefore a transaction with that bank on the part of a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 37 
 
 depositor is one in which one man makes the whole course 
 of entries, and there is practically no check upon his work 
 except the innate honesty of the man, and in this view I 
 cannot see how the smaU banks can surround their method 
 of bookkeeping with a system of checks which will mini- 
 mize the danger of loss. It has always seemed to me that 
 the smaller banks in the State ought, at certain intervals, 
 to employ a thoroughly competent expert to examine into 
 their condition, and not leave it alone to the State Bank 
 Examiner, but do it on their own responsibility and for 
 their own satisfaction, and I believe in that way only can 
 they be fully protected from loss. Then, I think there 
 are certain general rules which will help lessen the danger 
 of loss. In the bank that I represent we do not aUow a 
 trustee or any clerk to keep an open account with us. If 
 they wish to open an account with a Savings Bank it must 
 be elsewhere. In fact, the law forbids a trustee to have 
 such an account. In that way we diminish, so far as any 
 personal transactions with them are concerned, the liability 
 of their making drafts on their own account, they having 
 control, as it were, of the receipt and payment of moneys. 
 I think this is a rule which it would be well for all the banks 
 in this State to establish. More than that, I think there 
 should be frequent examinations — that is, say at least 
 once in three years — by an expert accountant entirely 
 outside of the bank itself. This wiU aid a great deal in 
 securing safety. Then, too, I think that in the employ- 
 ment of clerks, they should start in as young men who 
 should be promoted from time to time as their efficiency 
 warrants, and as vacancies occur, and that they should not 
 be promoted at aU because of any favoritism on the part 
 of any officer or trustee of the bank. In my own bank we 
 have this rule established, and with us no clerk is employed 
 unless he starts with a moderate salary, say $500 a year. 
 If he is found efficient he retains his position, and as vacan- 
 cies occur he is promoted. In no instance have I ever, as 
 President of the bank, permitted any outsider to come into 
 our employ over the heads of clerks already in the bank.
 
 38 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 No trustee is allowed — if I may use that expression — to 
 secure the appointment of any outsider to overtop men 
 akeady in the service of the bank. In this way we think 
 we gain the best efforts of the men we employ. They feel 
 whatever chance there is in the bank in the way of ad- 
 vancement becomes their property; and, whether it is the 
 system, or whether it is because we have been particularly 
 fortunate, I am happy to say that during my connection 
 with the bank, and that has been ever since I was twenty- 
 four years of age, we have never had a defalcation. So 
 well has this system worked with us that we have never 
 required bonds to be given for a single clerk. The esprit 
 de corps has been so weU estabHshed with us that I have 
 been averse to requiring bonds from our clerks, because 
 I have felt that it would disturb the existing status be- 
 tween the clerks^ the officers, and the trustees.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Third Annual Convention — Return of Prosperity Delayed by the 
 Spread of Financial Heresies — Trade Paralyzed and Commerce 
 Stagnated — The Association Rallies to the Gold Standard — 
 Mr. McMahon's Resolution — Efifect of Derangement of the 
 Currency upon the Savings Banks — More Objectionable Bills 
 Killed in Their Inception^ — Notable Address of Supt. Kilburn, 
 of the Banking Department — Mr. S. R. Rainey's Services 
 Suitably Recognized — Important Topics Discussed. 
 
 THE most important subject considered at the Third 
 Annual Convention of the Association, held on the 
 2oth day of May, 1896, was that of the inflation of 
 the currency The hoped-for return of prosperity was de- 
 layed by mistaken ideas of finance and a disordered and 
 ill-arranged currency system, which not only produced 
 inflation but engendered a deep-seated feeling of distrust 
 which did much to paralyze trade and commerce and cause 
 stagnation in all branches of business. 
 
 RALLYING TO THE GOLD STANDARD 
 
 In referring to the existing conditions and the prospect 
 of improvement. President Rhoades, in his opening address 
 to the delegates, said: 
 
 I wish I could congratulate you upon the return of an 
 era of prosperity to our country, so vital to the working 
 classes, but mistaken ideas of finance and a disordered and 
 ill-arranged currency system have not only produced 
 inflation, from the evil consequences of which we are now 
 suffering, but have also produced a deep-seated feeling of 
 
 3Q
 
 40 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 distrust, which has done much to paralyze trade and com- 
 merce and cause stagnation in all branches of business. 
 
 In my judgment, and I believe in your own, we cannot 
 hope and expect the return of prosperity until the currency 
 question is settled upon a basis which will place and keep 
 our credit equal to that of the most favored nations of 
 the world. Whether the time for this settlement is near 
 or far distant will largely depend upon the results of the 
 coming election; and, indeed, upon the issues now at stake 
 rests the welfare of the people at large, and especially those 
 whom we so largely represent, for, as we know full well, 
 those who gain the most through a sound currency, or lose 
 and suffer most through one that is inflated and in a dis- 
 ordered condition, must be the laborer and the producer. 
 Let us hope and believe that the judgment and good sense 
 of the common people, who have always been the strength 
 and mainstay of our country in its time of need, and the 
 great mass of whom are not only honest, but think deeper 
 than we are apt to imagine, upon all matters which affect 
 the welfare of the community, will settle, at this coming 
 election, once and for all, this momentous currency ques- 
 tion, which, for the past ten years, has disturbed our com- 
 merce and blocked our progress as a nation, and render at 
 the polls a verdict w^hich will determine for all time the 
 fact that the people of the United States of America will 
 not consent, under any condition or through any compro- 
 mise, to depart from the standard of value which is rec- 
 ognized by all the civilized nations of the world as the 
 best and only standard to maintain. 
 
 As is usual in times of depression and doubt and uncer- 
 tainty, the Savings Banks located in the larger cities, and 
 especially in the great centre of trade, are apt to increase 
 largely in deposits owing to the depositing of moneys by 
 the middle classes, who are unwilling to enter upon new 
 ventures or entertain an expansion of business and use 
 the banks as a safe depositor}' until restored confidence 
 tempts them to employ their savings in the ordinary chan- 
 nels of trade; and so we are not deceived, and the public
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 41 
 
 should not be deceived, in the idea that increased deposits 
 in Savings Banks during the past few years indicate a 
 general condition of prosperity, for such is not the case. 
 The deposits in the Savings Banks of this State from 1873 
 to 1877, inclusive, constantly increased, and it was not 
 until 1878 that the exhaustion of the people really showed 
 itself in its true light, and the banks failed to show an 
 annual gain in deposits. 
 
 Your Executive Committee will give you a full report of 
 all action on your behalf taken by them during the past 
 year, but I cannot refrain from commenting, for a mo- 
 ment, upon that taken in regard to a bill introduced in the 
 Legislature to permit of investment by the banks in the 
 bonds of the cities of Springfield and Newark, to which was 
 subsequently added Kansas City. When this last city 
 was added, it became evident that a serious effort, backed 
 by political and personal interests, was being made to 
 force the bill through the Legislature, with every probabil- 
 ity of success. The officers of your Association felt that 
 the time had come when the full power of your Organiza- 
 tion must be exercised to prevent this legislation, not only 
 because we were unwilling to have this city admitted to 
 the Ust, but because we felt that if bills of this character 
 were to be introduced, without consultation with the 
 banks, and pushed into law, it would be but a few years 
 before the safeguards now surrounding us would be bro- 
 ken down and the integrity of the Savings Bank system 
 demolished. 
 
 As you are aware, for ten years we struggled hopelessly 
 to secure an increased scope of investment, based upon 
 conservative, and as we believed thoroughly sound, views 
 of financial legislation; and when the relief came we all 
 recognized that it was given grudgingly to others inter- 
 ested and not to ourselves, and after a positive refusal to 
 entertain the bill introduced through our action. 
 
 If such has been and is likely to be the temper of the 
 Legislature, then it becomes of the utmost importance to 
 the Savings Banks that we should defeat this class of legis-
 
 42 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 lation introduced by private parties and solely for per- 
 sonal and selfish ends. 
 
 Therefore it is a source of pleasure and gratification to 
 state that our efforts in this instance proved successful, 
 and that in these efforts we were aided and benefited 
 largely by the advice and personal efforts of Mr. Kilbum, 
 the Superintendent of the Banking Department, who threw 
 at once, and without hesitation, the weight of his power 
 and influence in the scale and fought earnestly and loyally 
 to defeat the measure, which he, with ourselves, felt to be 
 at least unwise, if not unsafe, in its character. Had the 
 interests at work in favor of this measure been powerful 
 and determined enough to force its passage through the 
 Legislature, you may rest assured that your officers would 
 have called into action the reserve power of every bank in 
 our Association to sustain them in their efforts. In con- 
 templation of the necessity for this, they counted \vith 
 perfect confidence upon your loyal support, knowing that 
 you share with them the feeling that the integrity of our 
 present Banking Law must be maintained at all hazards. 
 
 There is a subject which I deem worthy of your atten- 
 tion and to which we ought to give careful consideration, 
 and that is the necessity for laws in every State of the 
 Union, compelling aU municipal bonds, whether city, 
 county, town, or village, to be properly registered in the 
 office of some reputable bank or trust company. The 
 aggregate issue of this class of security equals, if it does 
 not exceed, the issue of railroad and corporate bonds, and 
 if the pubUc demand, as they do, the registration of this 
 class of security, equally important is it that the legality 
 and totality of all municipal debts, as represented by bonds 
 and certificates of indebtedness, should be certified as cor- 
 rect. As the matter now stands, the integrity of the 
 officers charged with such issues is the only safeguard we 
 have against over-issue, and in my judgment the risk 
 assumed by purchasers is far greater than we, or the public 
 at large, are aware. The sooner this subject is agitated, 
 and the attention of the legislators of the various States
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 43 
 
 is called to its importance, the better it will be for the in- 
 vestor and the safer for the community. 
 
 We have lately had an instance of an issue of a large 
 amount of bonds by the authorities of one of our largest 
 cities in the State, which has passed without comment, but 
 which shows the dangers possible surrounding the issue 
 of mimicipal securities. The debt of the city of Brooklyn 
 had approached its constitutional limit — the merging of 
 the county of Kings into the city of Brooklyn was deter- 
 mined upon and the date fixed. Within the year preced- 
 ing such consoUdation, the debt of that county, which 
 practically was covered by the city of Brooklyn, was 
 nearly doubled; in fact, increased from $8,<xx),ooo to 
 $16,000,000, and of this increase more than $4,000,000 was 
 created within four weeks of the expiration of the existence 
 of the county and of the officers authorized to make such 
 issue; and all of this without one word of protest made 
 either by the authorities of Brooklyn or of the Savings 
 Banks, who hold at least one half of the debt of this city. 
 That these issues were legal, I have no doubt, but what 
 shall be said of the moral legaHty of such an issue, and 
 what of the dangers which may exist in the future if pro- 
 ceedings such as these shall pass unchallenged? 
 
 Gentlemen, the whole subject is a grave one and should 
 receive, as I have already said, your careful attention; and 
 the necessity for this will be commented upon seriously in 
 the report of your Executive Committee. 
 
 There is still another matter to which I feel your atten- 
 tion ought to be called, and it is this: Under the Act con- 
 soHdating the cities of Brooklyn, Long Island City, and 
 Richmond County into and with the City of New York, 
 under the term of the Greater New York, it is evident, 
 from objections made before the mayors of these cities and 
 by the terms of the mem.oranda filed by the Governor of 
 the State in connection with his approval of this biU, that 
 the right of the counties of New York and Kings to borrow 
 money independently of the cities named wiU be restored. 
 If this be so, then the constitutional limit of ten per cent.
 
 44 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 indebtedness on the assessed valuation of real property- 
 contained in the city will be practically evaded and a 
 large debt be ultimately created, outside and in addition 
 to the city debt, equal in its limit to ten per cent, on the as- 
 sessed valuation of the county, which is, of course, the 
 same as the city, thus practically annulling the wise pro- 
 vision now existing, that the debt limit of cities shall be 
 fixed by law, and creating a possibihty for doubhng this 
 debt limit. 
 
 The Savings Banks of this State now hold nearly if not 
 one half of the entire net debt of the cities composed in the 
 Greater New York, a sum equal to at least $70,000,000. 
 It is therefore of the utmost importance that our influence 
 should be exercised with the Commission to be appointed 
 by the Governor, to prepare a Charter for our new and 
 larger city, to so properly adjust the existing debts of these 
 cities as is equitable and fair to each, and, more than aU, 
 to prevent the possibility of an undue increase of the same, 
 especially in the direction of the powers to be given to re- 
 store Boards of County Supervisors; for upon these grave 
 financial issues rests, for many years to come, the future 
 credit of our city, which heretofore has been of the highest 
 and best in its character. The whole subject, in this re- 
 gard, is fraught with danger and anxiety, and we cer- 
 tainly should take some action thereon. 
 
 In bringing these various matters to your attention, I 
 beg of you to observe that I have done so entirely on my 
 own responsibility and only through a desire to call to 
 your mind matters which seem to me should be laid before 
 you, ultimately to receive the stamp of your wise decision, 
 whatever it may be. 
 
 Since the last meeting of this Association there has oc- 
 curred the death of John B. Edwards, President of the 
 Board of Trustees of the Oswego County Savings Bank. 
 He was a prominent citizen of Oswego, ha\dng settled in 
 that city in the year 1824. He held various positions of 
 trust, and rightly earned the confidence and respect of the 
 entire community in which he lived. He was a man of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 45 
 
 ability, honesty, and integrity, earnestly devoted to the 
 welfare of the Savings Bank of which he was the honored 
 President up to last year, when declining health led him 
 to retire from the office he had for so long a time ably fUled. 
 
 In 1895, ^t the time of his resignation, the Board of 
 Trustees of that bank passed a series of resolutions, one of 
 which it is well to refer to here, as indicative of the char- 
 acter of the man. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That during aU these years (21 in number) we 
 have ever found Mr. Edwards faithful to aU his duties, 
 keeping careful watch over the business and interests of the 
 bank, soUcitous for its high financial standing and good 
 name, and faith with all of its depositors and the pubHc, 
 and ever vigilant and progressive in all his duties in rela- 
 tion to the bank, and striving continually to build up a 
 strong, conservative, and progressive financial institution 
 in our midst." 
 
 In his death, gentlemen, this Association has lost a firm 
 friend and wise counsellor, and we, with his associates and 
 fellow-citizens, appreciate the man and share the sense of loss 
 occasioned by his death. 
 
 This Association may have lost during the past year 
 other men whose names stood equally high with that of 
 Mr. Edwards, but men, perhaps, not known to us, but 
 who, as officers and trustees, ever took as warm an interest 
 and proved as faithful to their duties as John B. Edwards. 
 If I have failed to mention them by name it is because, 
 being strangers to me, I have not been made aware of their 
 character and their worth. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, thanking you for the patience with 
 which you have listened to what I have had to say, and 
 expressing anew my loyalty to this Association and my 
 gratification upon the success which thus far has crowned 
 our efforts to join hand in hand in furthering, perfecting, 
 and protecting the Savings Bank Law of this State, which 
 I claim, and which is recognized to be the best law of its 
 kind upon the statute books of any State of the Union, we 
 wiU proceed to the business which lies before us.
 
 46 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. McMahon, in accordance with the sentiment ex- 
 pressed by the President, in his address to the Association 
 in reference to sound money, offered the following resolu- 
 tion : 
 
 Resolved, That this Association, representing the inter- 
 ests of 1,700,000 depositors, with deposits aggregating 
 over $700,000,000, solemnly protests against any and all 
 efforts to change the gold standard now existing for the 
 currency of the country, and affirras its conviction that 
 any departure from this standard will not only impair the 
 prosperity of the laboring classes, but that the only classes 
 or individuals to be benefited would be the capitaUst and 
 foreign investor, who would be quick to take advantage 
 of the rise and ultimate faU in prices sure to follow a 
 premium on gold. 
 
 Resolved, That, in our judgment, the future prosperity 
 of the country and the welfare of the people demand not 
 only that the gold standard shall be maintained, but the 
 currency system now in use shall be so changed and re- 
 modeled as to meet and adapt it to the increasing needs of 
 commerce, and equal in security and credit with the best in 
 circulation by any of the civiHzed nations of the earth. 
 
 Resolved, That certified copies of these resolutions be 
 sent to the President, to each member of Congress, to the 
 Governor of this State, and generally to the press through- 
 out the country. 
 
 Mr. J. P. Townsend said: I would like to second Mr. 
 McMahon's resolutions. It seems to me a very important 
 matter that the currency of this country should be of the 
 best. That the interests of the large number of Savings 
 Bank depositors, not only of this State but in all States 
 where they exist, would be affected detrimentally by a 
 change of currency. The silver standard or free coinage 
 law, as we understand it, allows the owners of fifty-one 
 cents' worth of silver to take it to the mint and have it 
 coined into legal tender for one hundred cents. We all
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 47 
 
 know what effect a derangement of the currency had upon 
 Savings Banks at the beginning of the war. We all know 
 that the people came, when they found they could not get 
 gold for their deposits and had to take paper, and de- 
 manded their gold; and that there was a great commotion 
 and a run on the banks. There is nothing so sensitive as 
 capital; there is nothing so sensitive as a Savings Bank 
 depositor. As soon as it is understood that he is to receive 
 his deposits in depreciated currency, he will very soon come 
 and draw his money out through fear, and that fear will 
 lead him to go into unwise things; and the effect of all 
 lessons he has been taught since the organization of the 
 system, now some eighty years, will be damaged if not 
 destroyed. I therefore very heartily second these resolu- 
 tions. The resolutions were adopted unanimously. 
 
 MORE OBJECTIONABLE BILLS KILLED 
 
 The bills introduced in the Legislature at its previous 
 session included these: 
 
 By Mr. Myers: Requiring all Savings Banks and Sav- 
 ings Institutions to notify annually each depositor thereof, 
 by mail, of all balances standing to the credit of such depos- 
 itor. 
 
 A bill introduced in both Houses amending the Banking 
 Law, the effect of which would be to vacate the offices of all 
 trustees of Savings Banks who were not residents of the 
 cities where said banks were located. 
 
 A bill amending an act in relation to loans upon bonds 
 and mortgages, the purport of which amendment was to 
 permit loans of Savings Banks upon bonds and mortgages 
 on real estate to the extent of eighty -five per cent, of the 
 whole amount of their deposits. 
 
 AH these bills were deemed highly objectionable, and the 
 President and four other members of the Executive Com- 
 mittee went to Albany and presented objections and argu- 
 ments against their passage.
 
 48 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. Kilbum, Superintendent of the Banking Depart- 
 ment, also appeared before the Committee on Banks at the 
 same time and sustained the objections made, with a clear 
 and forcible argument, and the delegation left with a 
 strong impression that the bills would not be approved by 
 the Committee having them in charge. 
 
 Other bills were introduced which the Executive Com- 
 mittee did not deem it necessary to act upon as a Com- 
 mittee; individually, some objections were made, and it was 
 thought that none of them would be passed. 
 
 The attention of the Committee was drawn by one of 
 the members of the Association to a condition of the Sav- 
 ings Banks as left by recent legislation, and it was found 
 upon a careful examination that the existing law left no 
 provision for increasing or diminishing the membership of 
 trustees of Savings Banks, in view of which it was deemed 
 desirable to obtain legislation to remedy this defect. Ac- 
 cordingly a bill therefor was prepared and introduced, and 
 was passed. 
 
 The Committee, after due consideration: Resolved, That 
 it was very desirable and important that stocks and (or) 
 bonds issued by municipaHties, and that are legal invest- 
 ments of Savings Banks, should be certified to by a re- 
 sponsible trust company or other properly authorized cor- 
 poration as being legally issued, and the loan represented 
 by the certificate described thereon. 
 
 Copies were printed and sent to officials throughout the 
 State. 
 
 J. P. Townsend, President of the Bowery Savings Bank, 
 offered this resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of the Executive Commit- 
 tee of the Savings Banks Association of the State of New 
 York, it is desirable, in regard to the stocks and bonds is- 
 sued by municipalities in which by law any part of the 
 funds of the Savings Banks of the State may be invested, 
 that each certificate and bond should be attested after 
 examination by a responsible trust company or other proi>- 
 erly authorized corporation, and certified as part of a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 49 
 
 total issue of a described loan which was duly authorized 
 and is in all respects legally issued. 
 
 This resolution was adopted. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. F. D. KILBURN 
 
 F. D. Kilburn, Superintendent of the State Banking De- 
 partment, addressed the Convention as follows: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : I did not suppose when 
 I came into the room that I should be called upon to say 
 anything to you to-day, and I do not understand that it 
 is in accordance with the program which has been made 
 up for this occasion. I came here for the purpose of learn- 
 ing something, and not because I thought for a moment 
 that I could tell you anything. I am glad to come here 
 to-day for the purpose of learning more than I could per- 
 haps otherwise about the Savings Banks of the State and 
 the Savings Banks Association. I have hstened with a 
 great deal of interest to the address of your President, and 
 to the report of the Chairman of your Executive Com- 
 mittee, and I heartily endorse everything that they say, 
 except, of course, that which they have said in refer- 
 ence to myseK. I agree entirely in the views they express 
 ■with regard to the necessity of this Association paying 
 strict attention to all laws which are introduced into our 
 Legislature affecting Savings Banks. There is a great 
 misconception on the part of many people in the State, 
 including some legislators, as to the exact functions and 
 powers and duties of Savings Banks. Why, I have had 
 such questions asked me, and I presume it comes within 
 the experience of all of you: "Who owns the surplus in a 
 Savings Bank?" It is the popular idea, or at least the 
 idea with a great many, that the officers or those in charge 
 of the bank, or the trustees of the bank, own the surplus 
 and have the absolute disposition of it. I have been told, 
 too, that the buildings some of the Savings Banks have 
 built have been built or brought from the dormant ac-
 
 50 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 counts in the Savings Banks, that they have been appro- 
 priated for that purpose. AU sorts of notions prevail 
 with a great many people of the State. This accounts 
 perhaps for some of the bills which are introduced in the 
 Legislature. I wish to assure you, gentlemen, that I be- 
 Heve both the houses of the Legislature this year had good 
 Banking Committees. I believe that the experience of 
 your Executive Committee before these Committees will 
 substantiate this statement. Some of the members per- 
 haps of the Committees did not \aew the subjects before 
 them relating to Savings Banks in exactly the proper light, 
 but the majority of both Committees took a reasonable 
 and sensible view of the bills which were introduced, and 
 finally the view taken by your Executive Committee. I 
 believe that no bill succeeded in passmg the Legislature 
 this year which any of you would consider as detrimental 
 to the interest of the Savings Banks. 
 
 A Savings Bank cannot, it seems to me, practise too 
 much conservatism. Conservatism is out of place in 
 regard to some things, but that statement does not apply 
 to Savings Banks. You have in your custody the keeping 
 of the people's money, the common people's money, if you 
 will; the working people; the people who tr}^ to save from 
 their wages and from their earnings. It seems to me that 
 it goes without saying that you cannot be too careful ; that 
 you cannot exercise too much care or too much conserv- 
 atism with regard to the investment of these funds. I do 
 not believe there are any financial institutions in this 
 country so conservative as the Savings Banks of the State 
 of New York. To be sure you are guided and controlled 
 by laws, which it has been well said are wise laws; the best 
 perhaps existing in this country' in reference to Savings 
 Banks. You cannot invest your money outside of the 
 way which these laws say you may; and the laws should 
 restrict you with regard to your investments. If, for 
 instance, the bill had passed which sought to add Kansas 
 City to the Ust of cities in this country in whose securities 
 you might invest, while the people here in the City of New
 
 ANDREW AULLS 
 
 PRESIDENT. igOO-Ol 
 TREASURER, 1894-99
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 51 
 
 York, or perhaps in some other parts of the State of New 
 York, would not have taken advantage of that law and 
 invested in such security, there would be people somewhere 
 in the State attracted perhaps by the higher rate of inter- 
 est who would invest in such security, and who might 
 thereafter be sorry for having done so. So I say that the 
 utmost conservatism should not only be practised with 
 reference to the laws passed by our Legislature, but by 
 every officer who has any control of Savings Banks in this 
 State in reference to the investments made by you of the 
 money in your charge. 
 
 I wish to congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the condi- 
 tion of the Savings Banks of this State. I do not pretend 
 to know all about you. I do not pretend to know half, 
 perhaps, about you. But I have undertaken to ascertain 
 enough about you to be able to state that I believe that 
 no safer financial institutions exist in this country than 
 the Savings Banks of the State of New York. 
 
 Report was made of the decision of the United States 
 Supreme Court, holding that deposits of Savings Banks 
 with National Banks (the Elmira Savings Bank case) 
 could not be made preferred debts. 
 
 MR. RAINEY'S services RECOGNIZED 
 
 The following, offered by Mr. Andrew Mills, and sec- 
 onded by Mr. J. B. Curry, was unanimously adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That in accordance with the report of the 
 Executive Committee, the thanks of this Association 
 be and hereby are tendered to Mr. Samuel R. Rainey, 
 Treasurer of the Hudson City Savings Institution, for 
 the valuable services rendered by him to this Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Mills, in offering the resolution at the request of the 
 Chairman of the Executive Committee, said : I do it with 
 great personal pleasure. There is no man in this Associa-
 
 52 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tion from the President down that has done more real 
 hard work for the defeat of vicious legislation during the 
 last session of the Legislature than that done by Mr. 
 Rainey. It did not make any difference what time it was 
 when he was called upon, nor what the duty was, he did it 
 cheerfully and very effectively. I think that our friends 
 here should recognize it not merely in the formal passage 
 of a resolution, but by this statement which I make, which 
 is prompted by a desire that the efforts of a worthy man 
 should be fully appreciated. 
 
 The President said : Your President takes great pleas- 
 ure in endorsing this resolution and what Mr. Mills 
 has said, for I, perhaps, of aU others, know the work Mr. 
 Rainey has done for this Association during the past win- 
 ter at Albany, He has been indefatigable in his efforts; 
 not only has he attended meetings of Committees, but 
 he has gone to individual members of the Legislature. 
 He has used persuasion and argument, and given them in- 
 formation which they never could or would have obtained 
 in any other way or from any other source. I do really 
 feel that Mr. Rainey has done us invaluable service since 
 the last meeting of this Association. Therefore it gives 
 me great pleasure to put this resolution. All those in 
 favor of the resolution will say aye — contrary, no. Carried 
 unanimously. 
 
 ADDRESS OF J. P. TOWNSEND 
 
 Mr. J. p. Townsend, President of the Bowery Savings 
 Bank, New York, made the following address: 
 
 Savings Banks are established to care for and invest 
 savings of those who have no knowledge of the value of 
 securities and no place of safety for their funds which 
 may be returned to them practically on demand, with 
 whatever interest can be earned by good management from 
 investments of the first class. This system tends to edu- 
 cation in good citizenship, and it is worthy of remark that
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 53 
 
 no efforts to aid the poor ever met with lasting success 
 unless they contemplated some form of education; by it 
 the wage-earner learns that his surplus, no matter how 
 small, but which by itself could earn nothing, can, when 
 added to that of others, be made to gain a fair dividend. 
 This inculcates habits of thrift and encourages him to con- 
 tinue to save, and when a sufficient sum has been accumu- 
 lated he may be aided by a mortgage loan to buy a home 
 for himself, or he may use his savings to establish himself 
 in business. 
 
 For the purpose of this discussion, mankind may be 
 divided into two classes : the employer and the employed. 
 Formerly the first were supposed to possess all the accu- 
 mulated results of labor left over after providing for needed 
 wants; but by means of the Savings Banks, the latter have 
 become capitalists, and they belong to the class of people 
 that can be considered creditors. Individually, they have 
 no credit, except for weekly supplies, which they liquidate 
 when their wages or salaries are paid ; but when aggregated, 
 the four million and a half, about, of depositors, with their 
 $1,578,000,000 deposits of money capital, belong to the 
 capital class who loan money to the rich on bond and 
 mortgage, invest in United States and State stocks and 
 bonds, and stocks of municipaUties; they loan money to 
 erect factories, churches, clubhouses, commercial buildings, 
 dwellings, etc., on which they take first liens after the tax 
 gatherer. If a local improvement is projected, if docks or 
 schooUiouses are to be built, or streets paved, they ad- 
 vance money to the municipalities to pay for them. If 
 their government (State or Federal) negotiates a loan, 
 Savings Banks are among the largest investors. Theirs 
 is a cooperative union of the industrial classes. Their 
 capital ministers to public enterprises, which demand 
 laborers for their prosecution and completion, which thus 
 returns to labor in the form of wages what they have bor- 
 rowed from it in the form of capital. A laborer gets better 
 wages on account of the facility with which, through Sav- 
 ings Banks, that capital has been procured, which is
 
 54 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 equivalent to having their capital returned to them in full 
 in the form of wages, while at the same time they hold 
 in their pass-books the original certificate which entitles 
 them to have it again returned with ordinary dividends 
 called interest. What other capitalist is able to make so 
 safe and at the same time so profitable an investment of 
 his money? Trades unions are formed as combinations 
 of labor against capital; but here is a combination of 
 labor and capital. The former seeks to control the price 
 of labor by arbitrary dictation. The latter advances its 
 price by the operation of natural laws. The former as- 
 sists the employed to create a fund which offers a premium 
 to idleness by contributing to the support of labor while 
 on a strike. The fund of the latter promotes industry by 
 its contributions to the channels of enterprise which re- 
 quire labor for their prosecution. 
 
 Because Savings Banks hold these millions of money 
 securely, because they aid those w^ho try to help themselves, 
 because they are giving assistance to thousands of men 
 in business, or owning houses partly paid for, because the 
 system has been perfected by experience and legislation, 
 because it is rooted in the foundations which make for the 
 material and moral interests of the people, the Savings 
 Banks system deserves the support and demands the 
 sympathetic attention of every class w^ho are interested 
 in promoting the public welfare and of doing the greatest 
 good to the greatest number. These intentions are some- 
 times interfered with if people quite as capable as trustees 
 use the banks solely for the sake of obtaining a higher rate 
 of interest than can be obtained elsewhere, and who usu- 
 ally draw their larger deposits in times of distress and panic 
 for the purpose of buying stocks and bonds that are selling 
 below their value. Such large drafts force the banks to 
 make sacrifices to supply this extra demand. This use of 
 the banks for that purpose is not to be encouraged, and 
 that the only way to discriminate between proper and 
 improper persons as a rule is to refuse large deposits. 
 Exceptions should of course be made in the case of life
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 55 
 
 insurance money which has been paid to a widow, or the 
 sudden possession of a legacy or fund by a person who 
 handles for the first time a thousand dollars or so of his 
 own. 
 
 Again, on account of the higher rate of interest which 
 Savings Banks pay moneys which were formerly deposited 
 in trust companies, no doubt come to them, and solely for 
 that reason which overburdens the Savings Banks with 
 money and tends to reduce their income for the reason 
 that they are obUged to purchase securities which pay 
 them but three and one quarter to three and a half per 
 cent, on the money invested. 
 
 The currency question may not be a burning one in the 
 minds of depositors, but many of them think of it and often 
 ask questions about gold if they want it; occasionally one 
 does not demand it, as if he were quite anxious to take it 
 when it could be got without question. It therefore be- 
 hooves trustees and managers to be as explicit and aggres- 
 sive in announcing their views to conventions and as 
 citizens in favor of a single gold standard, having in mind 
 always that no needless anxiety should be shown which 
 might cause a demand for gold that it is impossible to 
 supply and which cannot be lawfully required; but having 
 also in view the necessity for a uniform currency that 
 shall always be the equivalent of the best in use of the 
 commercial world. A contraction of the currency which 
 would ensue if the owners of silver buUion were allowed to 
 take fifty-one cents of it to the mint and have it coined 
 into standard legal tender dollars at a valuation of one hun- 
 dred cents would cause such contraction to the extent of 
 $620,000,000 by putting a premium on the gold now in the 
 hands of banks and the people. 
 
 The argument that we do not use gold in our daily 
 transaction is fallacious when it is well known that the 
 currency we use has a basis of gold, which metal can now 
 be had when it is required. 
 
 The deposits in Savings Banks are believed by deposi- 
 tors to be secure because of the credit and faith reposed in
 
 56 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 them; but if this credit is shaken by a free coinage law 
 these deposits would be overdrawn to a great extent before 
 the premium on gold had advanced very largely. 
 
 It is a good idea to print a monthly statement for dis- 
 tribution among depositors of all investments of the bank, 
 which may be done by placing them in the racks marked 
 ''Take one," which we find is complied with to a very great 
 extent. All depositors may not do it, but the inquiring 
 one always does, the one who "wants to know, you know," 
 and who would ask questions if he were not forestalled, a 
 number of these inquirers tends to increase, and many 
 show the statement to friends and boast of the good quali- 
 ties of "my bank." It is surprising how their interest 
 is increased when pains are taken to excite it, and what 
 good missionaries they become in inducing others to open 
 bank accounts. 
 
 Another suggestion: The uses and benefits of Savings 
 Banks might be made known also by the circulation of 
 leaflets. I venture to give you a sample of two or three, 
 viz. : An abstract of a curious account showing unexpect- 
 edly good results on a long-forgotten balance. 
 
 In 1835 an account was opened in this bank by a de- 
 posit of $5, further deposits were made up to April, 1849, 
 when the total amount was $705. At various other times 
 between 1835 and 1850, $253.89 was withdrawn leaving 
 a balance {with accumulated dividends of $47.89) of 
 $499. From 1853 to 1855, $500 was withdrawn, but when 
 the last draft was made the depositor appeared to be 
 overdrawn to the extent of $1, which may have caused 
 him to lose his regard for the account, but he had over- 
 looked the fact that there was due him at that time divi- 
 dend amounting to $100.01 which had not been entered in 
 his pass-book, and the bank really owed him a net balance 
 of $99.01. 
 
 This balance went on accumulating dividends for twenty 
 years until 1875, when it became a dormant account and 
 ceased to draw interest, the amount then due him was 
 $343.25. Efforts were made from time to time to dis-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 57 
 
 cover the owner of the account but without success until 
 1889, when he was found a ver}^ old man unable to work 
 and living on the bounty of his children, totally unaware of 
 the snug sum due him by the bank. This balance of 
 $343.25 was paid to him in November of that year to his 
 great delight and satisfaction. An abstract of an account 
 now open showing remarkable results : 
 
 In 1866 a depositor opened an account and made de- 
 posits from time to time up to 1879 which amounted in all 
 to $1,550; at various other times, from 1875 to 1894, 
 $1,358.06 was withdrawn, showing that the depositor 
 had taken out all the money he had deposited except 
 $191.94; stiU on the ist of July, 1894, the dividends which 
 the deposits had earned $2,808.06, and the amount due 
 by the bank on that date was the handsome sum of $3,000, 
 which will continue to earn further dividends if it remains 
 in the bank. 
 
 An abstract of an account showing the profits and 
 deposits which had remained in the bank less than seven- 
 teen years: 
 
 In March, 1878, an account was opened in this bank by 
 deposits amounting to $500. On the ist of January, 
 1895, they had earned dividends amounting to $495.92, so 
 that the bank at that time and now owes the depositor 
 $995.92, showing that the amount due the depositor had 
 nearly doubled in seventeen years. 
 
 The income on bonds and stocks we are permitted to 
 buy tends to decrease, the credit of the various common- 
 wealths is so high and the amount of their indebtedness so 
 limited that new investments in them are almost nil. The 
 amount of investment in bonds and mortgages is limited 
 by law and we are obliged to buy municipal obligations. 
 Those of twenty-eight provincial cities have been added 
 to our list in recent years by action of the Legislature; this 
 fact is well known to dealers in this kind of securities who 
 make so much money out of Savings Banks that their 
 number has increased. They bid for and obtain most of 
 the loans offered, and thus taking advantage of our en-
 
 58 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 larged field by holding and selling them for a profit which 
 reduces the returns to us when we buy. If you look over 
 the list you will find that the net interest we can receive 
 on the best of these is from three and a quarter to three 
 and a half per cent., but if you look at another list con- 
 taining the names of prohibited towns you will find a 
 difference in favor of their purchase of from one quarter 
 to one half per cent, on the returns. The higher price 
 which we are obliged to pay is in part our own fault ; but 
 it would seem that we are in a position to remedy it in a 
 measure. 
 
 Let me venture this statement : Investments in munici- 
 pal securities made by Savings Banks of the State of 
 New York should pay at least say three and a half per 
 cent. Suppose we decided on this figure and when new 
 loans are advertised by municipalities let us make our bids 
 either through our own Executive Committee and through 
 'some intelligent and responsible banking house recom- 
 mended by it who would act for us for one eighth per cent, 
 commission on the par of bonds and authorize them after 
 sending us all the particulars of the proposed loan to bid 
 for each of the banks that cared to invest in them. This 
 committee or firm would then make bids at one price, nam- 
 ing his principal which would reduce the number of Sav- 
 ings Banks applicants by 126. This arrangement would 
 speedily be known; and when it was understood that the 
 Savings Banks of the State of New York had no intention 
 of competing with each other, it would doubtless have the 
 effect of increasing our income. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES TO SAVINGS BANKS OF CONCERTED ACTION 
 IN THE PURCHASE OF MUNICIPAL BONDS 
 
 Mr. Andrew Mills addressed the Convention as follows: 
 
 In presenting my views on this subject to my fellow- 
 officers for their consideration, it is with the firm convic- 
 tion of its increasing importance, and the belief that if the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 59 
 
 remedy suggested is carried out great benefit will accrue 
 to the banks. 
 
 As the case now stands, we are forced to pay large prof- 
 its to, in many cases, irresponsible dealers who act simply 
 as middlemen where no middlemen are needed. In other 
 words, the dealers are making a large amount of money 
 each year out of the banks by forcing them — the banks — 
 to pay just so much more for their investments than they 
 otherwise would. 
 
 In order to bring this matter clearly before us, let us 
 suppose a case. A city advertises for bids for $2,000,000 
 bonds. Notice of the fact is sent far and wide, as it should 
 be. The dealers immediately get together, form a syndi- 
 cate, agree upon a price, and put in a bid for the "whole or 
 none." The Savings Banks, on the other hand, each for 
 itself, bid for such portion of the issue as they may want, at 
 such a price as in the opinion of its officers will yield a fair 
 return on the investment. 
 
 The bids are opened, and in the great majority of cases 
 the bonds are awarded to the syndicate, who immediately 
 fix a price from one half per cent, to two and one half per 
 cent, in advance of that paid, and kindly allow the banks 
 to buy at the increased price, thereby pocketing a hand- 
 some profit for simply preventing the banks from getting 
 the investment on fair terms. 
 
 Another way of accomplishing the same object is as 
 follows: A city or county advertises to sell certain bonds 
 at public auction. The bond dealers are on hand bright 
 and early, form a "pool," so-called, fix a price, and one of 
 their number bids for the pool. In many cases this price 
 is higher than the officers of the local banks desire to 
 pay, and the dealer gets the bonds. If the issue is a large 
 one, the bonds are divided pro rata; on the other hand, if 
 it is a small amount, the bonds are auctioned off to the 
 member of the pool making the highest bid, and the profits 
 over the price paid the city are proportionately divided. 
 The bonds are eventually disposed of to the same Savings 
 Bank in another locaHty at a still further advance in price.
 
 6o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 If it so happens that the bonds cannot be marketed at 
 once, there are plenty of institutions, and among them 
 Savings Banks, who will loan the funds necessary to carry 
 them, thus supplying the capital which the dealer may 
 lack. 
 
 By this system you can readily see how easy it is to 
 make money with comparatively no risk, and how great 
 the inducement for concerns with little or no capital to go 
 in the business. 
 
 As a matter of fact, within the last five years the num- 
 ber of these dealers has increased fivefold. That there 
 is a legitimate province for the bond dealer or broker goes 
 without saying, but it is not to antagonize the interests of 
 Savings Banks, as many of them are now doing. 
 
 Such is the evil; what is the remedy? My answer is 
 concerted action on the part of the Savings Banks. 
 
 I am firmly convinced that those banks desirous of bid- 
 ding on any proposed issue should consult with each other 
 beforehand, and arrive at a price to be paid, fair alike to 
 seller and buyer, and whether successful in their bid or 
 not, let that be their price for those bonds. In making 
 their bid for bonds, the brokers are not governed so much 
 by demand and supply as they are by the price paid for 
 the last similar issue, almost invariably advancing the 
 figure slightly so as to be more certain of success. 
 
 In conversation with a number of dealers, I have re- 
 monstrated with them for continually advancing prices 
 and invariably received the reply: "The banks buy the 
 bonds eventually at the advanced price." Suppose the 
 banks did not buy at the advanced price, what then? 
 
 I would not for a moment be understood as advocating 
 a combination for the purpose of forcing prices to an un- 
 natural level, but simply concerted action on the part of 
 the banks to obtain a fair return on their investments, 
 thus enabling them in turn to pay their depositors a fair 
 interest. 
 
 The remedy is in our hands. As I have said, we are the 
 market, and if we simply put aside all feeling of rivalry
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 6i 
 
 and act in concert, the cure of the evil will not be long 
 delayed. We represent more than 1,600,000 depositors, 
 fully one quarter of the population of this State, and it is 
 our duty to study their interests above all else, and, in my 
 judgment, by concerted action in the purchase of munici- 
 pal bonds the banks would save large amounts of money 
 each year. Is it not our duty so to do? 
 
 MAXIMUM ACCOUNTS 
 
 On the sub ject of maximum accounts, Mr. C. E. Sprague 
 said: 
 
 I wish to say that I think our present limitation of 
 $3,000 as the maximum that a man can have in a Savings 
 Bank is all wrong; not that I do not want a limitation, 
 that I do not want a discrimination, but it is based on the 
 wrong principle. What distinguishes a Savings Bank 
 depositor and a capitalist who wants temporarily to use 
 the facilities of a Savings Bank for purposes which he 
 ought to accomplish otherwise is the gradual nature of the 
 deposits. If a man deposits $10 a week, he is a Savings 
 Bank depositor, I take that merely as an illustration, a 
 reasonable sum that he is gradually depositing, then he is 
 the kind of man who is saving and accumulating. But to 
 say that if two persons come and offer, one of them $2,990 
 and the other $3,010 all in a lump, that one of these men, 
 the $2,990 man, is a genuine Savings Bank depositor, and 
 the $3,010 man is a capitalist, seems to me absolute non- 
 sense. This limit ought not to be a limit of maximum, but 
 ought to be a limit of time. There is a rule in the Savings 
 Banks of Maryland, I think, limiting the amount that can 
 be put in during a given period. A man from a Utah bank 
 told me their limitation was not more than $50 in any 
 month from any man; but when he gets $3,000 they do 
 not say to him: ''You are now capable, by having $3,000, 
 of investing this money yourself, you have acquired finan- 
 cial wisdom, and we will take no more." He can go on 
 until he has $10,000. Perhaps he is a common laborer
 
 62 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 who can spare $io a week. When he has reached $3,000 
 he is no more able to invest it in real estate or in bonds than 
 when he began, and they let him go on. It is a time limit, 
 and not an absolute limit. But that a man can come in 
 and call himself a Savings Bank depositor when he hands 
 out three $1,000 bills is absurd. But we take it because 
 we cannot bother to inquire into the motives. The rule 
 is $3,000 and we will take $3,000. I do not want to have 
 the limit any lower, I do not want to have it any higher, 
 but I want to have it a limit as to time. Let the law say 
 that he can put in $50 a month. Let the law say another 
 thing, and this would be a great makeweight against rapid 
 withdrawals such as we had in 1893; if a man has been 
 depositing for a number of years $50 a month and gets 
 together $3,000 or $4,000, and if in a flurry like that of 
 1893, because he can buy stocks cheap or for some other 
 reason, he draws out $2,000 as quick as he can, and he 
 spends it in some way, when he returns he has to begin over 
 again, he has got to give to the bank a deposit of $50 a 
 month and gradually work up; and then he will say: "I 
 am not going to run the chance of letting this lay idle, I 
 will not take it out, this is earning good interest." I think 
 under such rules we would find withdrawals very much less 
 capricious than now, and the question of large depositors 
 would be largely obviated, and it would be more equitable 
 than now. I have tried the double rate, and we do not 
 like it. We prefer to pay one rate to all, because the 
 tendency is to split the account. We have an enormous 
 number of accounts of $1,000, and they draw $20 every 
 six months.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Fourth Annual Convention — Perils of Repudiation and Inflation 
 Escaped — Danger in too Rapid Increase of Municipal Debts — 
 Bonds Authorized for Greater New York — The Taxation of 
 Savings Bank Deposits— Notable Addresses by Superintend- 
 ent Kilbum, ex- Comptroller of the Currency Wm. L. Tren- 
 holm, and Hon. Edward Atkinson, of Boston. 
 
 THE Fourth Annual Convention of the Association 
 was held on Thursday, May 20, 1897, with sixty- 
 five banks represented. 
 President John Harsen Rhoades made a notable address 
 on this occasion, which is given in full herewith : 
 
 ADDRESS or PRESIDENT JOHN HARSEN RHOADES 
 
 Gentlemen : In giving you welcome to this, the fourth 
 anniversary of tliis Association, I feel that I can congratu- 
 late you, and through you the depositors in the banks, that 
 the country has, for the time being, escaped the peril of 
 repudiation and the losses that repudiation would bring to 
 the working classes in this State and throughout the entire 
 country. Never since Savings Banks were established, 
 and, indeed, never since the Republic was founded, have 
 such grave disasters been threatened to the material in- 
 dustries of the country as were threatened during the 
 year which has just closed. In the past pestilence has 
 brought its fears and its sorrows, both to pass away speed- 
 ily — its ravages prevented and its liability to recurrence 
 lessened through the enforcement of hygienic law. In the 
 past war has brought its blight and its horrors, but through 
 its influence and by its dread power it has purified the 
 people, ennobled the race, and hammered the loose ele- 
 
 63
 
 64 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ments of federation into a solid, strong, and great nation. 
 But the seeds of repudiation, once fairly fastened upon the 
 body politic, can have no other end than the sapping of 
 the vitality of the people, the destruction of their honor, 
 the rottening of every column upon which the fair struc- 
 ture of our liberty is built, and the ultimate destruction of 
 the Republic itself. 
 
 No wonder, then, that those to whom is entrusted the 
 care of eight hundred millions of the money of the thrifty 
 working classes stood appalled before the disaster which 
 threatened so grave and threw into the contest all the 
 influence they possessed to help avert the blow. Even 
 to-day the clouds are threatening and the danger is not 
 past, nor will it pass until those who hold the reins of 
 government have remodeled the whole monetary and 
 banking system of this country and placed a law upon the 
 statute books which will make the currency of the country 
 equal to the best in the world and exchangeable at all times 
 on a parity with the best in the world. 
 
 We hear much in these latter days about trusting in 
 Providence and that He, who is the Divine Ruler of all 
 nations, will take and keep this great Republic from ulti- 
 mate harm and loss. I have a profound faith in the Deity 
 who rules the universe, but I have also a profound faith 
 in the great natural laws which He has created for the 
 government of the world, and I do not believe that He 
 will change these great natural laws to please His people. 
 If we, as a nation, are determined to violate His laws, and 
 allow corruption and greed and selfishness to rule in our 
 Legislatures and at the seat of our Government; if we 
 break the great moral law: "Thou shalt not steal," and 
 disobey all the laws of good government which the experi- 
 ences of civilization have shown to be the best for the 
 development of a people; if honor and honesty are to be 
 replaced with dishonor and dishonesty — then we must 
 suffer the consequences, and this country will be dragged 
 through the very depth of disaster — even to the border- 
 line of revolution — until, by bitter experience, it has
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 65 
 
 learned that the great moral laws of the universe cannot 
 be disobeyed without that punishment which will fall 
 alike upon the innocent and the guilty. 
 
 But, gentlemen, you and I saw, during the anxious 
 months which preceded the election of 1896, a faith and a 
 constancy on the part of the working classes, who largely 
 make up our depositors, that we could not but admire 
 and strive to imitate. Honest themselves, they would 
 not believe that the majority of the people in this country 
 were dishonest, and so they rightly retained confidence 
 in our banks, refused to withdraw their deposits, and stood 
 loyally by the institutions who had been and were striving 
 to protect them. 
 
 Truly, and with a wisdom far reaching into the minds of 
 the people, did the immortal Lincoln frame that rude and 
 homely phrase, "You cannot fool all the people all the 
 time," and so to-day, as we stand here, striving to search 
 the future which still looks so dark, I bid you to trust the 
 people and to have faith that they will find the way to lead 
 the nation forward and onward to brighter days of pros- 
 perity, with foundations strengthened and laws in force 
 and being enacted upon which we shall rise purified as a 
 nation into a nobler life and a more beneficent existence. 
 
 Your Executive Committee, in its annual report, will 
 give you the details of the work done by this Organization 
 during the past year, and refer to such subjects as they 
 deem of interest to you and the depositors in our banks. 
 
 Much has been and is being said throughout the coun- 
 try about Postal Savings Banks, 
 
 A short time ago I had the honor of attending the Mone- 
 tary Convention at Indianapolis and of presenting to that 
 Convention the needs of a change in our currency and 
 banking laws and the importance of the maintenance of 
 the Gold Standard, as viewed from the standpoint of the 
 Savings Banks of this State. In doing so, I explained 
 fully the nature of the Savings Banks laws existing in this 
 and the Eastern States, and told of the large sums here 
 deposited in the banks, urging that the Savings Bank law
 
 66 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 in operation in the State of New York should be extended 
 in all the larger cities in each State in the Union, or let it 
 be remembered that the large proportion of the so-called 
 Savings Banks of the West are not eleemosynary in their 
 character, but simply adjuncts to private banking houses, 
 generally governed by limited State laws as to the class of 
 investments allowed for such deposits, and nothing more. 
 
 It was gratifying to find that the explanation given, 
 while creating surprise, at the same time created much 
 interest on the part of those who heard what I had to say, 
 and, to a certain extent, that interest has found outward 
 expression in the press of the country in certain sections. 
 This knowledge has led me to know how widely the subject 
 of Postal Savings Banks has been and is being discussed 
 through the West and South. 
 
 Now we know that the Savings Bank officers of this and 
 the Eastern States have no prejudice against and no dis- 
 like per se to a Postal Savings Bank system conducted by 
 the Government, and, realizing as we do that our work is 
 charitable in its nature, we would gladly welcome any and 
 all systems, wisely founded, which would lead to an increase 
 of thrift on the part of the people; but in all of the edi- 
 torials I have read (and I have read many), and in all the 
 arguments made in favor of the Postal Savings Bank 
 System which I have seen, I have never found one that 
 has intelligently and satisfactorily answered this question: 
 "What will the Government do with, and how will they 
 invest and keep safely invested, the millions of dollars 
 which must come into their hands through a Postal Sav- 
 ings Bank Law? " 
 
 The existing debt of the United States has already been 
 absorbed by the people, and is not available for invest- 
 ment purposes on the part of the Government. 
 
 The intention and the will of the people is undoubtedly 
 to gradually reduce its Government debt; therefore, "bar- 
 ring a war," there is no probability of a large increase or 
 the permanent maintenance of a Government debt on the 
 part of the United States.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 67 
 
 The experience of the Freedman's Savings Bank in 
 Washington, which was supposed to be in part under 
 Government control, and which failed miserably with 
 great loss to the poor blacks who entrusted their savings 
 to its care, is one evidence of danger in connection with 
 giving the Government control of the Postal Savings Bank 
 system. 
 
 The tendency to spend the moneys so received, which 
 in time would run up into the hundreds of millions of dol- 
 lars, would lead to gross extravagance on the part of Con- 
 gress. 
 
 Under our form of Government, notwithstanding the 
 success which has attended the introduction of such a 
 system in England and elsewhere on the continent of 
 Europe, it does seem to me that the dangers are very great, 
 and that the question, "How shall the Government invest 
 these moneys so received?" still remains unanswered, and 
 is practically, at the present time, unanswerable. 
 
 A few weeks ago Postmaster-General Gary spoke as 
 follows : * ' And I hope to be able to get legislation through 
 Congress to that effect. Such banks might be founded in 
 connection with a two per cent, bond issued by the Govern- 
 ment, and might result in these bonds being held by the 
 people in every part of the country. They would give a 
 foundation for the establishing of national banks every- 
 where, and they would bind our people together. Every 
 man that held a bond would be a patriot. There would 
 be no more borrowing money from England, and there 
 would be millions who would save who are not saving now. 
 I don't believe in the fear many people have of a national 
 debt, and I think in many respects General Butler was 
 right when he said that 'a public debt was a national 
 blessing.'" 
 
 It can be readily seen that the system suggested by the 
 honorable gentleman is entirely at variance with the 
 Postal Savings Bank system of England and elsewhere, 
 and, as stated by him, needs elaboration to be fully under- 
 stood.
 
 68 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 What does he mean by Postal Savings Banks being 
 established, when the Government is the bank, and how 
 would these bonds be held by the people in every part of 
 the country, and how would the Postal Savings Banks aid 
 in giving a foundation for the establishment of national 
 banks everywhere? 
 
 It was well said in one editorial which came under my 
 observation that, "What can be done under a monarchi- 
 cal system, successfully, cannot always be done success- 
 fully under a republican form of government"; and it 
 must not be forgotten that the population of England and 
 France is crowded within a narrow area, has long been ac- 
 customed to the control of a strong centralized govern- 
 ment, which, experience has proven, through all and every 
 change of party control has remained steadfast in its 
 determination to protect its credit and honorably dis- 
 charge its obligations; and this has engendered confi- 
 dence on the part of the people and led to free deposits 
 of savings. 
 
 Viewed in the light of recent events, it is evident that 
 the time has not yet come when in this country the Gov- 
 ernment should assume the responsibility of caring for the 
 savings of the laboring classes. That the time wUl come, 
 I have no doubt, when such a system, so pregnant with 
 good to the welfare of the people, may be safely inaugu- 
 rated and successfully conducted ; and when that time ar- 
 rives no class in the community will welcome such a system 
 more heartily than those who are in charge of the great 
 Savings Bank depositories of the Eastern and Middle 
 States. 
 
 I have on previous occasions, and I again call to your 
 serious attention the fact that our Savings Banks are 
 carrying a very large percentage of the municipal debt 
 within the State, in fact over eighty per cent, of such debt 
 is held by our banks, and, in some instances, the entire 
 debt of the smaller towns and villages is so held. 
 
 It should not be forgotten that at no distant date the 
 volume of Government and State obligations will be largely
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 69 
 
 reduced; that in periods of financial depression and panic 
 there are no buyers for the bonds of the smaller municipali- 
 ties, except the banks themselves; and that the time must 
 come when, unless through increased holdings of securities 
 which have wide and ready sale, the bank will be com- 
 pelled to carry a much larger percentage of their deposits 
 in cash or its full equivalent. 
 
 This is a debt-making era so far as our municipalities 
 are concerned. The banks in this State are carrying one 
 hundred and sixty-four millions of the municipal debt of 
 its cities, towns, counties, and villages. Forty per cent, 
 of the debt of the City of New York, sixty-five per cent, 
 of Brooklyn, seventy per cent, of Long Island City, and 
 ninety per cent, of Kings County is so held, and it is full 
 time that we are aroused to existing tendencies when we see 
 the authorities of a great city like Brooklyn calmly con- 
 senting to the creation of four millions of indebtedness 
 on the part of the county officials, which county was 
 embraced within the city of Brooklyn; such increase of 
 indebtedness being created within fifteen days of the ter- 
 mination of the legal existence of the county, so far as its 
 debt-making power was concerned. 
 
 To-day the smaller villages and towns now to be ab- 
 sorbed in the Greater New York are rushing to create new 
 and large indebtedness, in amount sufficient to ruin them 
 as they exist at the present time, in order that public im- 
 provements far beyond the existing needs of a small popu- 
 lation can be carried out and the debt assumed by the 
 city into which they are to be merged; and these bonds 
 are being taken in the hope and expectation of reaping 
 large profits in selling them to the Savings Banks under the 
 delusion that such bonds will be assumed by the Greater 
 New York under its new charter, while the Legislature, 
 in the face of the bill to create a Greater New York, did 
 not hesitate to authorize millions of dollars of expenditures 
 in the general grab made by all the municipalities con- 
 cerned to increase their debts before the consolidation 
 took place.
 
 70 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 If such acts as these are not morally dishonest, they 
 tread closely upon the heels of dishonesty, and it is a 
 marvel to my mind how the authorities of these cities will 
 permit these things to take place before their eyes without 
 an injunction restraining such acts; and they certainly 
 will be neglectful of their duty to the public and the tax- 
 payers if the legality of the volume of the debt so created 
 is not tested by the highest courts before being assumed in 
 the general equalization of debt. 
 
 In order that the extent of these proposed and actual 
 increases in the debt of cities and towns embraced under 
 the charter of the Greater New York may be thoroughly 
 understood, I append the following list of such increase 
 or proposed increase of debt, and this is but a beginning: 
 
 BONDS SOLD SINCE JANUARY i, 1897 
 
 85,000 — Far Rockaway, L. I. ...'.. 5s, Jan. 25 
 
 120,000 — Flushing, L. 1 4s, Jan. 28 
 
 618,000 — Queens County 4s, Mar. 29 
 
 45,000 — Arverne-by-the-Sea, L. 1 5s, Apl. 5 
 
 150,000 — Jamaica, L. 1 4s, Apl. 7 
 
 200,000 — Jamaica, L. 1 4s, Apl. 12 
 
 450,000 — Jamaica, L. 1 4s, Apl. 20 
 
 202,000 — Richmond County 4s, Apl. 14 
 
 53,000 — Newtown, L. 1 4s, Apl. 20 
 
 620,000 — Newtown, L. 1 4^s, Apl. 28 
 
 29,500 — Long Island City 4^s, Apl. 26 
 
 80,000 — Brooklyn 3^5, Apl. 26 
 
 70,000 — Richmond Hill, L. 1 4s, May i 
 
 2,722,500 
 
 BONDS ADVERTISED FOR SALE 
 
 15,000 — Corona, L. I. 4s, May 14 
 
 400,000 — Brooklyn 3^5, May 18 
 
 BONDS AUTHORIZED FOR GREATER NEW YORK 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 For a garden at Van Cortlandt Park .... $ 50,000 
 
 To establish a zoological garden at Bronx Park . 125,000 
 
 For the repair of streets and avenues .... 2,000,000 
 
 Providing for a public library in Bryant Park. . 2,500,000
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 71 
 
 For an addition to the American Museum of Natural 
 
 History buildings and its equipment ... $ 500,000 
 
 For a new Tombs Prison 500,000 
 
 Providing for four new high schools 2,500,000 
 
 For additional pumping stations and water mains. 500,000 
 
 Providing for general park improvements . . . 250,000 
 For the erection of new common schools and their 
 
 equipment 10,000,000 
 
 Providing for a drawbridge at Third Ave. over the 
 
 Harlem River 500,000 
 
 Jerome Avenue improvements 200,000 
 
 For a bridge over the Bronx, between Williams- 
 bridge and Woodlawn stations 150,000 
 
 Providing for a bridge over the Bronx at E. 177th St. . 75,ooo 
 For the improvement of the Spujlen Duy\^il Park- 
 way • . 150,000 
 
 Providing for a new District Court House . . , 50,000 
 For the completion of Riverside Drive and Park . . 400,000 
 For a temporary bridge over the Bronx at West- 
 chester Avenue 35,ooo 
 
 Providing for a viaduct over the railroad at Melrose 
 
 Avenue and, 163d St 300,000 
 
 For a bridge over the Harlem Railroad tracks at 
 
 153d St 150,000 
 
 For the improvement of Crotona Park . . . 30,000 
 For an increase in the appropriation for the site for 
 
 the City College 200,000 
 
 Total $21,165,000 
 
 KINGS COUNTY 
 
 For the improvement of Wallabout Market property . $ 70,000 
 For enlarging and improving the 47th Regiment 
 
 Armory 250,000 
 
 Appropriating for school purposes 500,000 
 
 For an armory for Troop C 350,000 
 
 For improving Belmont Ave 96,000 
 
 Providing for the repaving of Albany Ave.. . . 3 7, 000 
 Appropriating for a bronze statue of Gen. Fowler 7,000 
 For collection and preservation of Brooklyn his- 
 torical records 30,000 
 
 For school purposes in the borough of Brooklyn . . 2,500,000 
 For beginning work on the proposed public library 
 
 building 10,000 
 
 Authorizing the construction of a public pier in the 
 
 Eighth Ward 60,000
 
 72 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 For improvements in district bounded by Coney 
 Island Ave., Franklin Ave., Bergen Lane, and 
 Foster Ave $ 200,000 
 
 For two new high school buildings 200,000 
 
 Total $ 4,310,000 
 
 QUEENS COUNTY 
 
 Authorizing the expenditure by the trustees of 
 Jamaica for macadamizing and improving certain 
 public streets in that village $ 200,000 
 
 Authorizing the village of Flushing to borrow in 
 
 anticipation of arrears of taxes, not to exceed . 35>ooo 
 
 Authorizing Long Island City to provide school 
 
 accommodations 500,000 
 
 Authorizing the completion of improvements on the 
 portions of Grand Ave. and Main St., Long Island 
 City 45,000 
 
 Total $ 780,000 
 
 Let us not forget that this municipality is about to be- 
 come the second, if not the first, city in population in the 
 world. In consequence of this it must take upon itself 
 great and additional financial burdens from the municipal- 
 ities being merged into and with it. It is sadly in need 
 of improvements within the present confines of the city. 
 More money is needed for schools, for improvements to 
 our streets, for the construction of our municipal buildings, 
 the improvements of our waterfront, for the creation and 
 maintenance of parks for our overcrowded population, for 
 the enlargement of our present municipal departments, 
 and for the creation in future of new departments. Large 
 sums will be required for the improvement of our water- 
 front and for the building of an underground railroad ; and 
 all of this is required and will be demanded by the residents 
 of this city, in order that we may satisfy its present needs 
 and realize the hopes of greatness for the future gigantic 
 metropolis of this country. 
 
 These facts need, therefore, our serious attention, as 
 our Savings Banks, representing largely the savings of the 
 working classes, are the largest creditors of the Greater
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 73 
 
 New York; and it becomes our bounden duty to see to it 
 that the burden of debt shall not be increased unneces- 
 sarily and that the city shall avail itself of every opportu- 
 nity to increase its annual revenue in a fair and honorable 
 manner. 
 
 Much has been said, and with great force, of the de- 
 sirability of having our Government debt held in small 
 amounts by the people at large as conducive to loyalty 
 and as producing a greater and more intelligent interest 
 in the management of the Government itself. 
 
 I have often thought that, if the one million seven hun- 
 dred thousand depositors in the Savings Banks of this State 
 could be made to reaUze that out of the seven hundred 
 millions deposited over one hundred and sixty-four mil- 
 lions were invested in various municipal securities within 
 the State, and that these depositors were, through us as 
 trustees, not only creditors of these municipalities in 
 which they live, but had vital moneyed interest in such 
 municipalities, they might be aroused to active and intel- 
 ligent effort to secure a more honest, economical, and 
 efficient administration of public affairs throughout the 
 State ; and it seems to me that we should do all we can to 
 educate our depositors into a knowledge of these facts, 
 both for the cause of good government in our midst and 
 for the added security which such knowledge would bring 
 to the cause of good government throughout the land. 
 
 But, gentlemen, I have said too much, and have drifted 
 badly in the saying. Perhaps you may glean a few 
 seed from the thrashing which you will deem worthy of 
 thought. If so, I will be the more content that I have 
 served you not so badly after all, but roughly broken the 
 ground, that those, our guests, who follow after me, may 
 find in what rich soil I strove to do my planting. 
 
 TAXATION OF SAVINGS BANKS DEPOSITS 
 
 In view of the recommendation of the State Board of 
 Tax Commissioners that "a small uniform tax payable by
 
 74 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the banks upon all deposits liable thereto, directly to the 
 Comptroller of the State," be imposed, the Executive 
 Committee deemed it proper to give to the Association 
 its reasons why the recommendation should not be fa- 
 vorably acted upon. 
 
 After reminding the delegates that these banks were 
 what their name implied — banks for the accounts of the 
 small savings of the industrious and thrifty — that there 
 were no stockholders to participate in the earnings, as in 
 the banks of discount, and that absolute safety and secur- 
 ity were the first considerations, the Committee proceeded 
 to say: 
 
 While there are over seven hundred millions of dollars 
 of deposits in the banks of this State, at least five hundred 
 millions of this sum are confined to the banks located in 
 large cities where the rates of interest are low. At the 
 present time the best average return on investments, in- 
 cluding bonds and mortgages, State and municipal securi- 
 ties, is three and one half per cent. It has been as low as 
 three and three eighths per cent., and with the general 
 drift toward easy money and large accumulation of 
 capital, the probabilities are that within a few years the 
 average investment return will not exceed three and one 
 quarter per cent. 
 
 The whole purpose and object for which Savings Banks 
 were instituted are benevolent ones, to encourage thrift 
 and economy, and it would be unwise and impoHtic, and 
 against sound public policy, to raise any part of the reve- 
 nue of the State by a tax laid upon the savings of the 
 poorer classes, and for these reasons deposits have always 
 been exempt from taxation. There are no reasons, either 
 in justice or in the interest of the State, that can be given 
 to justify the enactment of a measure to tax Savings Banks 
 deposits. 
 
 The claim that there are large sums of money deposited
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 75 
 
 in these banks belonging to the rich and well-to-do is best 
 answered by the fact that the average deposit, due each 
 depositor in the banks of this State, is about $413, and, 
 therefore, the number of such deposits, as are referred to 
 in the report of the Tax Commissioners, must be very 
 small. 
 
 The scope of investment securities, in which the Sav- 
 ings Banks are allowed to invest in the Eastern and Middle 
 States, is very much broader than that in this State. In 
 the State of Massachusetts the banks are carrying from 
 fifty to one hundred millions of their deposits in loans upon 
 personal securities, in the shape of corporation notes with 
 two endorsers, and also have the liberty to invest in many 
 directions in municipal and other securities, including 
 railroad bonds and bank stocks, all of which are not al- 
 lowed in this State. In consequence of this, the average 
 earning power of such banks, so located, is far in excess of 
 that obtainable in the State of New York. 
 
 To tax the surplus of Savings Banks would not accom- 
 plish anything, even admitting, for sake of the argument, 
 the propriety of so doing, for the reason that, to a large 
 extent, this surplus is specially invested in United States 
 Government and other non-taxable bonds. 
 
 The Savings Banks are now carrying over eighty per 
 cent, of the entire municipal debt of the State, and the 
 volume of these investments exceeds $164,000,000. The 
 effect, therefore, of a tax on deposits would force a con- 
 tinued effort on the part of the trustees of the banks to 
 strive to obtain a better rate of interest on securities pur- 
 chased, the consequence of which would be that the de- 
 mand for municipal securities within the State would be 
 lessened and the authorities of such municipalities would 
 in all probability be unable to borrow at so low a rate of 
 interest as is now obtainable, and the taxpayer would 
 not be benefited to any appreciable extent through any 
 tax which could be collected through the Savings Banks. 
 The banks of this State have also invested, upon bond 
 mortgage alone, over $344,000,000. The same tendency
 
 76 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 to exact higher rates of interest would apply to such loans, 
 and must bear heavily upon the owners of real estate, 
 especially in the farming districts, where it is not always 
 easy to obtain money at low rates of interest. 
 
 The difficulty which now surrounds the collection of 
 personal taxes, owing to the impossibility of preventing 
 the removal or changing the character of personal prop- 
 erty, has resulted in the personal tax being, in the main, 
 collected only from estates and widows and orphans, who 
 are less able to bear the burden, while the merchant, the 
 banker, and the investor are able, legally, to free them- 
 selves from such liability, owing to the ramifications of their 
 business and their ability to so finance their money as 
 not to be Uable for such tax; therefore, to add to the gross 
 injustice now existing by taxing the hard-earned savings 
 of the poor, is certainly unwise, unjust, and a grievous 
 wrong. Everything should be done to encourage thrift, 
 and the magnificent results shown through the wise Sav- 
 ings Bank Law now in existence, whereby nearly $800,000,- 
 000 of the people's money has been gathered together 
 and invested for the benefit of the people at large, in 
 securities in which the mass of our population, including 
 the depositors themselves, are benefited, is the best evi- 
 dence obtainable as showing the injustice of laying a tax 
 upon such deposits. 
 
 The complaint already referred to, that some moneys 
 may be in the banks which do not properly belong there, 
 may possibly be true ; but what can be said of the moneys 
 deposited by the widows and orphans, who have no nat- 
 ural protector and no one with whom they can advise, 
 and who seek the Savings Banks of the State as their 
 trustee, content with a small interest in order that their 
 property may be absolutely safe. Surely the banks are 
 doing no greater charitable work than in the care of these 
 modest sums of money which are received by them, and 
 wherein is the justice that this helpless class in the com- 
 munity should be taxed by a great and rich state? 
 
 Under any scheme of taxation which human wisdom can
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 77 
 
 devise, labor must and will inevitably pay more than its 
 due proportion. Is it wise, politic, or just to impose upon 
 the small accumulations of the laborer the same propor- 
 tion of taxation that is imposed upon the larger accumu- 
 lations of capital? A provident, economical system or 
 agency in society, promotive of industry, morality, and 
 wealth, confers specific advantages upon the State, in re- 
 turn for which exemption from taxation is no more than a 
 fair offset. 
 
 Financial law, good government, and the experience of 
 all civihzed nations point unerringly to the fact that taxes 
 should be raised in simple ways and by methods which do 
 not agitate and disturb the taxpayer or tend to discourage 
 thrift on the part of the people. For a great state, there- 
 fore, practically free from debt, the largest in population 
 and the greatest in wealth in the Union, to strive to lessen 
 its light burden of expense through laying a tax upon the 
 thrift of its working classes, in order to catch and punish 
 the few who, in the name of the thrifty poor hold a few 
 dollars in the Savings Banks, would be a strange miscar- 
 riage of justice, and put a blot upon the fair name of the 
 State, and show a lamentable ignorance of those great 
 laws of political economy which should govern aU States 
 and all communities. 
 
 No act on the part of the Legislature could more seri- 
 ously disturb and offend at least three hundred thousand 
 of our voting population than to attempt to tax the 
 moneys laid by for a rainy day, to ward off poverty when 
 the protecting hand has been withdrawn, or to bury their 
 dead in their hour of sorrow. 
 
 On motion, the courtesy of the platform was extended 
 to the guests of the Convention, the Hon. F. D. Kilburn, 
 State Superintendent of Banking, Mr. W. L. Trenholm, 
 former Comptroller of the Currency, and the Hon. Edward 
 Atkinson, the well-known writer and lecturer upon eco- 
 nomic subjects.
 
 78 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. F. D. KILBURN 
 
 I wish to thank you for the kindly interest you have 
 taken in me and for the good words that have been said of 
 me. I have had the support of this Association during 
 the year that I have had the honor of being the Superin- 
 tendent of Banks of this State, and I can say that I have 
 yet to find any proposition coming from a Savings Bank 
 officer that in anywise pointed toward anything that was 
 in the least detrimental to the interests of the depositors 
 of the banks which you represent. (Applause.) A more 
 conservative lot of men do not exist in this State than 
 those who are at the head of the Savings Banks of the 
 State. When we consider that not for the last eighteen 
 years has there been a failure of a Savings Bank in this 
 State, we may somewhat realize the conservative methods 
 that have ruled the Savings Banks under your charge. 
 During that time four banks in order to make themselves 
 solvent have had to scale their assets. I think fifteen per 
 cent, is the maximum amount that has been found neces- 
 sary to make them solvent. Three of these banks have 
 met the difficulties which they have encountered through 
 connection with other banks doing business in the same 
 rooms, and using the same vault, and officered by the same 
 men. To be sure Savings Banks have made losses more 
 or less, but to no extent that they could not well meet and 
 pay out of their surplus account. When we consider the 
 great amount of money in your cliarge and the vast num- 
 ber of people who are your depositors, we can have a faint 
 conception of the enormous responsibility which rests up- 
 on your shoulders. No other class of men in this State, 
 in my judgment, holds so great a trust as is cormnitted 
 into your hands and with so little question on the part of 
 those interested. Why, the Savings Banks of this State, 
 gentlemen, have come to be known as absolutely safe. 
 Nobody questions the seciirity of a Savings Bank in this 
 State to-day, and in my judgment it is owing principally 
 to two things: first, the character of the men who have
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 79 
 
 charge of these institutions, and, secondly, the laws which 
 govern the investments of the money that is placed in 
 your charge. Attempts are being made from year to 
 year, as has been reported by your Executive Committee, 
 for the purpose of letting down the bars and making 
 your administration if possible less conservative. Bills are 
 being introduced every year into the Legislature of our 
 State which seem fair — that is, a great many of them have 
 an appearance of fairness on their face. Now the propo- 
 sition that you shall send to every depositor once a year 
 a notice of the amount standing upon the books of the 
 bank is apparently a fair proposition. At first glance it 
 seems to be in the interest of the depositors, but when you 
 come to analyze it you find that it is not in the interest of 
 the depositors, but rather in the interests of some men who 
 wish to do some law business for depositors, and who are 
 trying to see if they cannot induce the depositors to allow 
 them to collect money from the Savings Banks. I have 
 heard of one or two extreme cases where men have gone 
 to a depositor and told him that they knew where he had 
 some money, and that for a certain percentage, generally 
 a large one of course, they would get it for him. Well, 
 the depositor didn't know where he had any money that 
 he didn't know about. He knew he had some money in a 
 Savings Bank, but he did not think that was the money 
 alluded to, and so he says: "I can't lose anythmg anyhow, 
 and I will get a certain sum that I did not know I had or 
 was entitled to," and so he is enticed into the scheme; and 
 in several instances such men have entered into a written 
 contract with these fellows, and of com-se it has simply 
 resulted in it turning out that the money meant was the 
 money which Vv^as on deposit in the Savings Bank. Now 
 that is the purpose of this bill which has been introduced in 
 the Legislature for the last several years at least, so as to 
 give the men who are tr3^'ing to pick up some money in this 
 way an opportunity to do some business in the way I have 
 indicated. I have found, however, that when the ordi- 
 nary legislator understands the true meaning of a bill, you
 
 8o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 have not much difficulty in convincing him to take the 
 right view of it. I think Mr. Rhoades, your President, 
 and Mr. Rainey, of your Executive Committee, will bear 
 me out in the statement that they have found the men in 
 the Legislature, as a rule, very fair and reasonable upon 
 these propositions, and not at all desirous of passing any 
 legislation which would be detrimental to the Savings Banks 
 of this State. 
 
 Gentlemen, you have the money of more than one 
 quarter of the people of this State in your custody. You 
 have over seven hundred millions of dollars of the people's 
 money in your possession. It is an enormous responsi- 
 bility, and I do not beUeve that the laws of this State 
 should be modified at all. On the contrary, I think if 
 anything is done with the laws that govern the Savings 
 Banks of this State, they should be made, if possible, more 
 stringent than they are. 
 
 Gentlemen, I wish to express my gratitude to you, and 
 to your Association as a whole, and to Mr. Rhoades, your 
 President, and to Mr. Rainey, of your Executive Com- 
 mittee, particularly, and to all with whom I have come in 
 official contact, for your kindness and consideration to me 
 on all occasions. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM L. TRENHOLM 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: I feel somewhat dif- 
 fident in rising, after so flattering an announcement as the 
 one made by your President. I hope he has not raised 
 expectations beyond my power to fulfil. I wrote this 
 paper before I knew what the President was going to say 
 about me. Perhaps I would have worked over it harder 
 and tried to make it better if I had known how compli- 
 mentary he was going to be, but I came here upon the 
 invitation of your Committee to contribute my mite, if 
 I may say so, toward helping you, gentlemen, or at least 
 toward encouraging you, in what I believe to be a good 
 work that you have in hand, and that is, disseminating 
 among that quarter of the population of this State with
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Si 
 
 whom you come in contact sound monetary and economic 
 doctrine. It was with that idea that I prepared this 
 paper, and to that end I invite your attention to it. 
 
 The most pressing need of the people of the United 
 States to-day is a generally diffused elementary knowledge 
 of economic science. 
 
 Every voter should be able to discern the difference be- 
 tween an economic truth and a demagogic fallacy; for, 
 unfortunately, as the poisonous toadstool resembles the 
 succulent mushroom, so does the economics fallacy put 
 on the appearance of truth, insomuch that whole communi- 
 ties are suffering because a majority of their voters have 
 mistaken the toadstools of their political theorists for the 
 mushrooms of the political economists. 
 
 Such suffering must continue, and will even extend more 
 widely, until at least a majority of our voters attain suf- 
 ficient knowledge on the subject to enable them to select 
 as their Senators and Representatives in Congress, and in 
 the State Legislatures, only men quahfied to deal under- 
 standingly, and, therefore, wisely, with the important eco- 
 nomic questions which at present dominate both local and 
 natipnal politics, and which apparently must be settled, 
 ultimately, by the people at the ballot-box. 
 
 Some of these questions involve the public utility, 
 perhaps even the future lawfulness, of long-established 
 methods of business and widely accepted principles of 
 commercial dealings; while others affect the scope, and 
 indeed the further existence, of corporation,s and other 
 associations by means of which men, having common in- 
 terest and objects, have been accustomed to unite their 
 means and abilities for the more effective protection of 
 those interests and the surer accomplishment of those 
 objects. 
 
 The commercial methods and principles, the combina- 
 tions of effort and of capital that are thus called in ques- 
 tion, have heretofore been regarded as the products of a 
 natural and healthy economic evolution. As such they 
 have been accepted by all our people, and we are all de-
 
 82 fflSTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 pendent upon them in greater or less degree. They have 
 so completely taken possession of every department of 
 industry, of every branch of trade, of all our systems and 
 channels of transportation, of our banking arrangements 
 and internal exchanges, that to disturb them is to provoke 
 an undustrial, financial, and social revolution, co-extensive 
 with the national domain. 
 
 It is manifest that when such far-reaching questions 
 once absorb public attention all other issues will be post- 
 poned until these are settled ; and it is well that this is so, 
 for a speedy settlement is of pressing importance. 
 
 It may be expected, therefore, that for many months 
 to come — ^perhaps for years — the minds of voters will be 
 occupied with these matters; and hence, although truth 
 and right must finally prevail, every man who can en- 
 lighten the understandings and guide aright the thoughts 
 of others should do his utmost toward producing a public 
 sentiment that alone can thwart and speedily defeat the 
 agitators who are now so disastrously disturbing the indus- 
 trial peace of the country. 
 
 It seems to me that you, gentlemen, officers of Savings 
 Banks, can do good service by taking part in the discussion 
 of these questions. You enjoy exceptional opportunities 
 for giving object-lessons to great numbers of our fellow- 
 citizens, who are, of aU others, the most deeply interested 
 in good economic legislation. You can show to your 
 depositors, on the one hand, and on the other hand to 
 those to whom, on the security of their property, you lend 
 the money of these depositors, how closely related are the 
 interests of lenders and borrowers; how necessary the 
 secure tenure of property is to the very existence of labor- 
 employing industries. A Savings Bank exists only by 
 being both debtor and creditor, especially when, as in this 
 State, it has no capital and consequently no stockholders. 
 Any person of ordinary intelligence can be made to under- 
 stand that the depositors in such an institution are the 
 capitalists who really own the money it lends to borrowers ; 
 and hence, that every such depositor, however small his
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 83 
 
 deposit may be, should find out, surely, how any proposed 
 legislation touches the interests of capital before he com- 
 mits himself in favor of it. The creditors of a Savings 
 Bank, its depositors, belong generally to the "masses," 
 its debtors to the "classes" so-called. Is it not well, and 
 will it not be easy, to have this understood? The politi- 
 cians pretend that the " masses" alone are the debtors, and 
 that all capitalists and creditors belong to the "Classes." 
 Again, a Savings Bank is an agency by means of which its 
 numerous depositors are able to combine their several small 
 capitals into larger masses, thus securing by combination 
 a rate of interest which could not be obtained with equal 
 security if each had to lend out his own capital separately. 
 Here is an object-lesson for those who are being cajoled 
 to their own detriment by the politicians through legis- 
 lation which makes it a crime for any one to contribute to 
 effecting combinations of capital, which, whatever their 
 design, may result in so vague a thing as "the restraint 
 of trade." Every depositor in a Savings Bank is in dan- 
 ger of being made a criminal by the mere enactment of the 
 anti-trust laws of this enlightened State of New York. 
 If those laws should be strictly interpreted and impar- 
 tially enforced, who can escape? 
 
 No doubt it sometimes occurs that the officers of a given 
 Savings Bank will be able to show practically how the 
 savings of the laborers in a local factory, or other indus- 
 trial establishment, become combined by deposit in the 
 bank into large sums which are lent by the bank to that 
 very establishment, thereby increasing its facilities and 
 enlarging its laboring force. Here would be an opportunity 
 to impress upon both employers and employed the great 
 truth that organized industry is the solvent which blends 
 harmoniously and indistinguishably the interests of labor 
 and capital. This truth is not self-evident, but it needs 
 but little argument to be proven. Every organized indus- 
 try in this country is subject to competition with similar 
 organizations both here and abroad, and as long as they 
 compete on equal terms they should all succeed; but any
 
 84 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 such industry, wherever situated, will surely fail if it 
 should be burdened more than its competitors. If the 
 masses of our people could be taught to see things as they 
 really are, they would perceive that, when labor and 
 capital make a partnership in New York to compete with 
 a similar partnership between labor and capital in New 
 England, New Jersey, or in Europe, any burden laid upon 
 either labor or capital in any one of these places is a bur- 
 den upon the partnership, handicapping it in the com- 
 petition and inflicting a loss that has eventually to be 
 shared between the partners, without regard to which one 
 was primarily subjected to it. Any burden upon capital 
 here places a premium upon capital similarly employed 
 elsewhere; any burden upon labor here benefits labor 
 elsewhere; any burden upon a combination of labor and 
 capital here gives, inevitably, greater profits to similar 
 combinations of labor and capital elsewhere. 
 
 Suppose the case is put this way: Capital and labor 
 are the two legs upon which industry walks. No man can 
 favor one of his legs except by fettering the other, and 
 there never yet has been a man with one leg free and a 
 ball and chain on the other who would not be a faster 
 mxover and a happier fellow if both legs were free. 
 
 From of old until recent years European industry had 
 its labor leg fettered ; for about one hundred years Ameri- 
 can industry has had both legs free, and all the world has 
 been amazed at its strides; but now we are putting fetters 
 on the capital leg, and wonder that industry halts in its 
 pace! 
 
 England, where capital has always been unfettered and 
 vested rights secure, struck the fetters from the labor leg 
 of her industries when she abolished the corn laws, and 
 s,o made bread cheap; and since that day she has had 
 both legs free, and all her people prospered. The inter- 
 ests of capital in England shared in the benefits following 
 the unfettering of labor there, while the magnitude of our 
 Savings Banks deposits is conclusive proof that American 
 labor got its full share of the prosperity that fairly deluged
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 85 
 
 this country as long as capital was free from the threats 
 and assaults of politicians. "Why," you are entitled to 
 ask your depositors, "why should we not revert to our 
 former estate of unfettered industry, since we have seen 
 how England has been prospering while we have been 
 suffering from industrial paralysis? " 
 
 This industrial paralysis, our political wiseacres tell 
 us, is the result of an irrepressible conflict between labor 
 and capital; they pretend that capital has been oppressing 
 labor and that legislation is necessary in order to protect 
 labor from capital. If the magnitude of the deposits 
 in the Savings Banks of this State is the measure of the 
 oppression of labor by capital, the more of that oppression 
 we have the richer will our laborers become. 
 
 The truth is, capital cannot oppress labor without 
 detriment to its own interests; and labor cannot oppress 
 capital without like detriment to itself. 
 
 Taking the community as a whole, capital and labor are 
 partners, as I have said, and what hurts one hurts both. 
 But, say the politicians, in particular cases the profits of 
 the partnership are not fairly divided — capital exacts too 
 large a share. The answer is: "Leave both capital and 
 labor free to make their owti bargains, and trust the result to 
 the operation of those natural economic laws which Divine 
 wisdom has devised to provide for these very cases." 
 
 We may well say to those who are trying to nullify great 
 Nature's ordinances by statutes enacted at Albany and 
 Washington: "Look far and wide upon this glorious coun- 
 try of ours, its seventy millions of people well fed, well 
 clad, well housed, its cities, railroads, and steamboats, its 
 factories, mines, forests, and fields, its infinitely varied 
 resources, and its abounding products. Does it not seem 
 beyond comprehension, almost, that aU this affluence of 
 wealth and power should have been accumulated during 
 little more than a century of national life? " 
 
 A hundred years or so ago the thirteen colonies began 
 their free and independent political existence. Thirteen 
 little seedling communities torn by the rude hand of Rev-
 
 86 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 olution from the parent Civilization and thrust bruised 
 and ragged as they were into the soil of an unexplored 
 continent. 
 
 Three millions of people in all, scattered along more 
 than a thousand miles of coast, with three thousand miles 
 of sea in their front, and a still greater expanse of primeval 
 forest at their back. 
 
 A hundred years ago there was not anywhere on the 
 continent of North America a steam engine of any kind, 
 not a mine, not a spinning frame, not a power loom, nor 
 anything that would now be called a factory; not an agri- 
 cultural implement, except the simplest forms of hoes, 
 rakes, and plows; hardly any paved streets, and very few 
 miles of road practicable all the year round. 
 
 Set this picture of our country as it was in 1797 against 
 your knowledge of it as it is in 1897; and then believe, if 
 you can, that this great change could have been wrought 
 if the statutes of to-day had been in force during that hun- 
 dred years. Indeed, it was from the eighteenth century 
 prototypes of these very statutes that the colonial fathers 
 sought relief in emigration, and against the extension of 
 them to the colonies that the Revolutionary patriots took 
 up arms; yet to-day we have deliberately reenacted these 
 laws, and are wondering that so many people are impover- 
 ished, harassed, and dissatisfied. If we and our children 
 had been taught economics as we were taught heroics; if 
 the industrial value of personal freedom were as well under- 
 stood as is its priceless political value, everybody would 
 know that meddlesome laws destroy prosperity and breed 
 discontent. No one would suppose that men can pros- 
 per, or that they can be happy, if they are compelled, 
 like half-broken setters and pointers, to hunt industrial 
 fields with spiked collars and checkstrings on their brains, 
 or that they can keep up in the industrial race with the 
 free men of other communities, when their own State or 
 country handicaps them with statutory burdens upon 
 either the capital or the labor necessary to their success. 
 
 It may perhaps seem a great task to educate the masses
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 87 
 
 of voters in elementary economics, but they will really 
 educate themselves if once they become emancipated 
 from the prejudices which are bred by narrowness of 
 environment, and which have been fostered by the poli- 
 ticians and so-called labor leaders. All that is needed is 
 that they should do their own thinking, and the first step 
 in that direction is for them to learn that the way to under- 
 stand and to test the truth of economic principles is by 
 studying the various industrial facts within their own ob- 
 servation, and by applying what they thus learn about the 
 things with which they are familiar, they will soon dis- 
 cover how to form correct opinions on the greater ques- 
 tions upon which they are called upon to vote. The daily 
 operations of Savings Banks supply many most instruc- 
 tive economic facts in a form easily understood. 
 
 Charlatans and others who mislead the people on these 
 subjects always deal in generalities, and confuse their 
 followers with great numbers. Millions and billions are 
 incomprehensible to the average voter, and he is bewU- 
 deringly impressed by an orator who seems familiar with 
 what men do and think when they are numbered by the 
 million, and what dollars are capable of accomphshing 
 when they are aggregated into billions; but you gentle- 
 men can explain that a million men can do no more than 
 one man repeating his effort a million times, and, there- 
 fore, while a million men, by combining, may accomplish 
 in one year what no one man could accomplish unless he 
 lived a million years, still the Hmits of human capacity 
 are not enlarged by aggregating individuals; indeed, they 
 are rather lessened, since the average capacity only pre- 
 vails when large numbers combine. It is demonstrable 
 that a thousand men, taken indiscriminately, cannot ac- 
 complish a thousand times as much as one man specially 
 selected for the thing to be accomplished. Men con- 
 strained to move or act in combination generally lose 
 capacity — the average soldier will travel faster, farther, 
 and with less fatigue walking alone than he can do march- 
 ing in the ranks.
 
 88 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 All this goes to show that when men combine in cor- 
 porations they do not gain capacity necessarily, and there- 
 fore there is no reason to fear that corporations will ex- 
 tinguish or even discourage individual effort. 
 
 As with men so with dollars. A million dollars will 
 buy property or products a million times more valuable 
 than property or products purchasable with one dollar, 
 but there the advantage of the greater sum ends. When 
 A pays a dollar for a yard of silk, he parts with his dollar 
 and has the silk; so when B buys a million yards of silk 
 for a miUion dollars, he parts with his million dollars and 
 has the silk. 
 
 If you gentlemen can only succeed in disseminating one 
 primary truth among the people you will do a great deal. 
 It is the truth which Adam Smith made the basis of his 
 political economy, and which lies at the root of all sound 
 economic doctrine, namely, that not money, but money's 
 worth, value, is the object of pursuit in communities 
 which, like ours, are engaged in industry. 
 
 The money that comes as wages to the laborer goes 
 out again: a part is paid for expenses, the balance is paid 
 into the Savings Bank. Where is the money itself? Gone ; 
 he knows it, but is satisfied. He has the entry in his bank 
 book, and he prefers that to money. Why? Because 
 that draws interest, while the money never draws interest. 
 This man who has a Savings Bank book is a capitalist, 
 while the grocer, to whom he probably looks up socially, 
 has no bank account drawing interest. The grocer and 
 all other traders pay interest to banks; they receive none. 
 Their need to borrow capital contributes to the economic 
 adjustments which enable the Savings Banks to pay in- 
 terest to their depositors. 
 
 The Savings Bank depositor, besides drawing interest on 
 his deposit, is vitally interested in the ability of the bank 
 to return to him on demand the principal sum of money 
 on which interest has been paid; and here the question of 
 money's worth comes home to him in a vital way. If, 
 through the fault or the misfortune of the Government
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 89 
 
 or the community, the money in circulation becomes de- 
 preciated in real value, those to whom payments are due 
 suffer, each in proportion to the amount he is to receive, 
 the fuU effect of such depreciation. When, for example, 
 depositors in the Savings Banks represented here to-day 
 desire to withdraw their deposits, they will receive money 
 that will buy just as much as the money they put into the 
 bank; whereas, had the basis of our currency been changed 
 from the dollar of gold to the dollar of silver, each deposi- 
 tor, in withdrawing his deposit, would find that it would 
 purchase only hah as much as the money he had put in 
 before the change took place. 
 
 It is a momentous thing to a poor man to have the value 
 of his savings cut in half. The rich men are making a 
 great outcry because it is proposed to assess upon their 
 estates a tax varying from ten to twenty per cent, upon 
 the value of that which they leave behmd them. This 
 measure of taxation is supposed to be in the interest of the 
 poor; and yet great numbers of those who have advocated 
 the tax are also advocates of a monetary system which 
 will tax the thrifty poor man who has a Savings Bank 
 deposit quite fifty per cent, of his savmgs, as against the 
 tenor twenty per cent, which the law proposes to exact 
 from the rich man. 
 
 I hate appeals made to men as rich or poor. In a re- 
 public all men are equal before the law; and the law should 
 be bhnd to inequahties of fortune as Nature is bUnd to the 
 inequaUties of opportunity. In a republic the law should 
 make it easy for every man, be he rich or poor, to better 
 his condition, to accumulate wealth, and to acquire prop- 
 erty to the full value represented by the personal effort 
 or the accumulated savings which he has put into its ac- 
 quisition. The very politicians who insist upon always 
 harping upon the inequalities of fortune have been for a 
 long time creating and aggravating inequahties of oppor- 
 tunity, and now they are attributing to the greed of the 
 wealthy, or to the craft of those employed by corporations, 
 economic conditions which are only the fruit of unwise and
 
 90 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 improvident laws. These laws have been placed upon the 
 statute books by the aid and with the concurrence of the 
 very men who use their injurious effects as political capital 
 in their trade of mischief-making agitation. Mr. Micaw- 
 ber, as we all know, defined riches to be an excess, however 
 small, of income over out-go; and poverty to be an excess, 
 however small, of out-go over income; and this, after all, 
 is the final difference. One man who saves from his in- 
 come enough to put up money in bank is rich in compari- 
 son with his neighbor who, receiving the same income and 
 spending more freely, puts up nothing. Why should the 
 law distinguish between these two men to the injury of 
 him who saves? By saving he contributes to the available 
 productive capital of the country; he contributes to the 
 enlargement of its industrial facilities, and therefore to 
 larger employment of labor. 
 
 You will observe, gentlemen, that I have only skimmed 
 over the surface, as it were, of the suggestive field of thought 
 to which the invitation of your Committee has opened the 
 way. No doubt you will all be able to turn to advantage 
 the opportunities afforded by your close relations with 
 large bodies of our fellow-citizens; and if in the course of 
 your dealings and communications with them anything 
 here said may suggest how an economic truth may be il- 
 lustrated or enforced, I shall feel all the more grateful to 
 you for having afforded me an opportunity of saying what 
 I have said, and for having been listened to so patiently. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. EDWARD ATKINSON, PH.D., LL.D. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: After struggling through- 
 out the last campaign with the national grip and virus of 
 the silver craze, I myself was subjected to a slight attack 
 of the physical grip, which leaves the human body in about 
 the condition which that attack of national grip has left 
 the business community of this country, and, while resting 
 in a state of almost compulsory idleness at the Hot Springs 
 of Virginia, I made my first personal acquaintance with 
 your President, whom I had long known and with whom
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 91 
 
 I believe I have previously had some correspondence, I was 
 surprised that I should find such a visionary man at the 
 head of this great bodv of practical men. . . . The evi- 
 dence of this was that he actually had the audacity to sug- 
 gest, to beHeve, and to persuade me that I could come here 
 and 'tell you anything about the right conduct of Savings 
 Banks, with which I myself have had but slight direct 
 connection. I have been able to treat you only with 
 scant courtesy— for in the few days that have elapsed 
 since my return my time has been so fully occupied with 
 the necessary conduct of business that all I could do has 
 been to put down a few notes and to trust to the spur of the 
 moment mainly for what I may have to say. ^ I should 
 have carefully prepared had the time been sufficient— spe- 
 cially prepared for the reporters, whom I always try^ to 
 save from the effort to report word for word, by reporting 
 myself in multiple copy. I have been unable to do that 
 at this time. 
 
 As I sat here listening to what you had placed before 
 you to-day, I find a very complete analogy between my 
 own functions and that of yourselves. The work of my 
 life for the last twenty years has been to develop the 
 science of prevention of loss by fire among the factories of 
 New England, New York, and the other Middle States. 
 I stand as the President of one of the larger companies, of 
 whom there are but few, the work of several others hav- 
 ing been developed mainly under our direction, insuring 
 over seven hundred million dollars' ($700,000,000) worth 
 of the factory property in which so many of those whose 
 savings you have charge of have been earned. You have 
 been successful as we have in saving waste. We have 
 brought down the losses in specially hazardous property 
 to a little fraction of less than twenty cents a year for the 
 cost of insurance from year to year for the last twenty 
 years on each $100 of insurance; for the last year to less 
 than ten cents; thus saving the tools and implements and 
 mechanism by which our depositors so largely gain their 
 savmgs. And how have we done it? We have worked
 
 92 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 that great change from former times by bringing to the 
 owners of that property the true conception of their duty 
 to the property itself, proving to them that they them- 
 selves were the only men who can insure their property 
 against loss by fire by taking due precaution in the con- 
 struction, in the protection, and in the conduct of their 
 own work. When they had performed their own duty 
 to their own property and not before, then we may safely 
 come in and give them contracts of indemnity against the 
 unavoidable losses, reducing them to a fraction of what 
 they have been. That is also your function, or should be 
 as pointed out to you to-day — to bring to your depositors 
 the conception that they only are the men who can bring 
 about good government, the right conduct of the State, 
 and the right protection of the people against the incen- 
 diaries who would plunder them through the processes of 
 law, or take away from them the savings of their life-time 
 by bad legislation. There is, therefore, a close analogy 
 between the functions which I discharge and those which 
 you discharge. 
 
 I once took part in a very notable meeting in this city, 
 when the inflation bill of 1874 was pending in the Senate 
 of the United States, when at the instance of Vice-President 
 Wilson I acted with others in bringing to President Grant 
 the knowledge of the fact that there was outside of the 
 atmosphere of Washington — where the pressure was all 
 for inflation — a public opinion that would support him in 
 doing what he himself believed to be his duty in vetoing 
 that bad measure. I had the satisfaction in learning from 
 ex-President Grant's own lips, when I met him in Europe 
 after he had left the high office, that it was due to the great 
 meetings held here in Cooper Institute and Faneuil Hall 
 in Boston, and to the memorials that came to him from 
 every great Western city, each signed by men that he 
 knew, that he was convinced that there was a solid con- 
 sensus of public opinion which would support him in his 
 own conception of right, and which caused him to tear 
 up a message which he had already written on the subject
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 93 
 
 to accompany the bill signed. I can see him now as he 
 picked up a piece of paper, in relating this to me, and said: 
 "I took up the message which I had written, approving 
 the bill, because I thought public opinion demanded it; 
 although I did not believe it myself, I read over what I 
 had written and I said to myself: 'it is all sophistry; you 
 don't believe it yourself, and nobody else shall believe it,' 
 and I threw it in the waste basket." At that meeting, in 
 the Cooper Institute, the first speaker was your late friend, 
 whom many of you remember, William Wood, a member 
 of your Bureau of Education; one who had been active 
 in aU good work ; a canny Scotchman. When he began his 
 speech he said : " My friends, there is no boore equal to the 
 currency boore, and I am one of the worst boores of the 
 lot, and I am going to boore you." Mr. Wood was mis- 
 taken. There is a worse bore than the currency bore, and 
 that is the statistical bore; I am one of the worst of that 
 lot. . . . But Ilong since learned not to attempt to hold 
 an audience, no matter how practised they might be in fig- 
 ures, by reading before them great tables of figures and try- 
 ing to give them the facts down to the last fraction of a cent. 
 Therefore, in any figures which I may give you to-day, I 
 shall deal only in the general results, bringing them down 
 sometimes to the individual, but avoiding what one so 
 often witnesses — the faults of the statistical bore. I 
 have not that accurate knowledge of Savings Banks which 
 one ought to have to address such a body as this; I do not 
 even know, surely, where or when the system first origi- 
 nated in this country, I believe our old Provident Insti- 
 tution for Savings, in Boston, was the first; if not, it was 
 one of the first. From that germ has been evolved our 
 system in Massachusetts, which, as I am informed, is in 
 some respects different from your own. Massachusetts, 
 also, differs from New York in the proportionate number 
 of the inhabitants possessing deposits, although I think 
 the average to the credit of each of your depositors is a 
 little larger than ours. 
 
 In round figures one half the inhabitants of Massachu-
 
 94 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 setts, mainly persons of small or moderate means, pos- 
 sess certificates of deposit in the Savings Banks to the 
 amomit of $463,cx)o,ooo; with their reserves and cash 
 added, $488,000,000, at the last report; probably to- 
 day, $500,000,000 — the average to the credit of each 
 depositor, without regard to their surplus, is $338; but 
 if my present approximate estimate is correct, the aver- 
 age on the whole population of the State of Massachusetts 
 is $200 per head; the number of accounts open at the 
 present time is considerably more than one hah the entire 
 population of the State; but, reducing the small number 
 who make use of the Savings Banks by multiple deposits 
 within the limit of each bank for the purposes of invest- 
 ment, which is, I beUeve, not over one thousand dollars 
 principal, there is no reasonable doubt that every other 
 man, woman, and child in the coramonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts possesses a credit on the books of our Savings Banks 
 of an average of $200. It is rather singular that, ac- 
 cording to the best and closest estimate that I have been 
 able to make of the product of this country, the average 
 product of this country annually, per capita, is somewhere 
 between $200 and $225 per head, or between $600 and 
 $700 to each person occupied for gain. Now if that be 
 true — and it is certainly no more, for mine is the largest 
 estimate that any economist has yet ventured upon — that 
 would give an annual product to-day, approximately, of 
 fifteen bilHons of dollars, it follows that the working people 
 of Massachusetts have a title to one year's product a head 
 per capita in the Savings Banks secured by a lien upon the 
 best property in the State, through its safe investment, 
 and I doubt if there is any other cormnunity in the world 
 approaching that condition. 
 
 I am reminded of rather a curious incident. I was in 
 the Senate gallery, in Washington, at the time the first 
 internal tax bill was under discussion, as a representative 
 of the manufacturers. The debate was in progress in the 
 Senate, and a suggestion had come up for taxing Savings 
 Banks. It soon became evident that the majority of the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 95 
 
 Senate had little or no conception of the functions of the 
 Savings Banks of the East. Even Senator Sumner him- 
 self, speaking against a tax which would have taxed us all 
 out of existence, did not appear to have all the data that 
 might have been used. I could not get down on the Sen- 
 ate floor, and I scratched off on a sheet of paper a little 
 memorandum to him stating the amount of the deposit as 
 it then was, the number of persons interested, and three 
 or four other salient facts. I dropped that paper down to 
 a messenger who carried it to Mr. Sumner who immedi- 
 ately nodded to me and incorporated the facts in his 
 speech. Next to me sat a very rough, hardy-looking man 
 who proved to be a hoosier from Indiana. I noticed as I 
 was writing that he watched me very closely and with 
 evident amazement, and I said, "My friend, you look 
 surprised." "Yes, I wondered what you was doin'." 
 Said I, "I merely told Mr. Sumner that the working peo- 
 ple of Massachusetts had $250,000,000 in the Savings 
 Banks of Massachusetts." " What is that you say, stran- 
 ger?" "I told Mr. Sumner that the working people of 
 Massachusetts, factory operatives, domestic servants, and 
 the like, had $250,000,000 deposited in the Savings Banks 
 of Massachusetts." He looked at me a moment and ex- 
 claimed, "Wal, stranger, you air a very respectable look- 
 ing man and I suppose I ought to believe yer, but I'll be 
 damned if I do believe a word you say ! " 
 
 That is the aspect which the eastern Savings Banks of 
 this country bear in the minds of thousands of western and 
 southern men to-day. There will be very much greater 
 security to the affairs and the finances of this country 
 when the true trustee Savings Bank has carried its benefi- 
 cent influence throughout the land. I have preached that 
 gospel over and over again to my southern friends in ad- 
 dresses that I have made down South. I once made an 
 address to the combined Boards of Trade of New Hamp- 
 shire, contrasting her position with that of Massachusetts, 
 in order to account for our superior wealth, I took the 
 ground somewhat in joke that the wealth and welfare of a
 
 96 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 State would be in inverse proportion to the possession of 
 any great natural resource, and, as New Hampshire had 
 a great deal of natural scenery which enabled her people to 
 live as they do in Florida, on fish and strangers . . . 
 whUe we in Massachusetts had very little and had to live 
 on our own thrift, we had beaten her and were better off 
 than the people of New Hampshire. There is many a 
 true word said in jest. If you give regard to the economic 
 history of nations, where do you find to-day the most pros- 
 perous people? One of the richest countries containing 
 the most prosperous people, especially the most prosperous 
 farmers in all Europe, is Holland, where the people had 
 to make the very land on which they raise their crops. 
 Energy and thrift, developed by the very necessities of 
 the case, have made Holland and have made Massachu- 
 setts what they are to-day. It is due to that thrift that 
 our Savings Bank system is developed to the extent to 
 which I have spoken. 
 
 Difiiculties are now occurring in the investment in these 
 great sums of money which are falling into the custody of 
 trustees; I therefore told IMr. Rhoades that I should take 
 the beneficent function of the Savings Bank as a lender 
 or distributor of the small capitals of the people as my sub- 
 ject. In my judgment, it is even as great and almost a 
 greater benefit than the incentive to saving. What do 
 we do with the capital of the people of moderate means to 
 put it into beneficial use? How do we dispose of it? We 
 have no permanent national debt. It is often proposed 
 that there shall be a Postal Savings Bank. That con- 
 ception is based mainly on the incentive to saving, but it 
 is utterly impracticable. If the present Congress would 
 give due regard to the fundamental and simple principle 
 of taxation, namely, that all taxes that the people pay the 
 Government shall receive, without diversion or perversion 
 to any purpose of private gain, a simple and effective 
 system of taxation could be as easily made as one can con- 
 ceive. It would yield the entire revenue necessary to the 
 conduct of the Government, economically administered,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 97 
 
 while at the same time yielding a surplus that would pay 
 the entire bonded debt in less than ten years and the 
 entire demand debt in less than ten years more. That 
 simple and effective system which might be to-day adopted 
 would not exceed the per capita rate which it is now pro- 
 posed to put upon the business people of this country — 
 for what purpose, aside from the support of the Govern- 
 ment? I leave to your own conscience that question. 
 I am not going into that subject. In any event, there 
 ought not to be for many years longer any national bonds 
 for investment of the postal savings, and if the people 
 of this country were to save even one half the average 
 savings of the people of Massachusetts, an investment 
 of that capital would be needed to the amount of over 
 $7,000,000,000. It is impossible to charge the Govern- 
 ment of this country with the custody of savings, because 
 we have learned that a national debt is not a national 
 blessing, and, in the providence of God, we do not mean to 
 have one much longer. There is not a State in the Union 
 which, through its natural resources, worked with the 
 intelligence and thrift which have been forced upon the 
 people of Massachusetts — more than one quarter of whom 
 to-day are foreign born and more than one half of whom 
 to-day are either foreign born or of foreign origin once 
 removed — might not in a few years accumulate a capital 
 in the possession of its people greater by far than that 
 which the people of Massachusetts have scraped together 
 by their close economy in all these years, $200 apiece. 
 Then what shall we do with our deposits? That is your 
 great question. What are you to do with the pending 
 investment, soon to be increasing? It is a fact that even 
 bad government cannot repress the progress of the peojjle 
 of this country. Bad methods of taxation, bad suggestions 
 regarding the currency, efforts to put the quality of the 
 money at the mercy of the chance election of a single 
 President, only retard progress but do not stop it. Think 
 of it! As one of your best citizens and most sagacious 
 men remarked to me to-day, when he put the question on
 
 98 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the continued existence of the legal tender paper money 
 to one of its chief supporters, saying, *'Are you ready to 
 let the quality of the money on which all our transactions 
 depend and on which all the business of this country rests; 
 are you yourself willing to leave it to the chances of what 
 single man shall happen to be chosen President of the 
 United States?" The man to whom he put the question 
 replied, " I never thought of that before." It is time every- 
 body thought of that, for that question develops the whole 
 danger on which we have yet the fight to go over again to 
 maintain the honor and credit of the nation. 
 
 But now, gentlemen, I have exhausted the few sheets of 
 paper on which I had made my notes. I now come to 
 some of the details. What have we done with our deposits 
 in Massachusetts? In what manner have we distributed 
 the capital placed at the disposal of the Savings Banks? 
 I have not had time to examine the laws under which 
 your investments are made. I believe a wider scope has 
 been given to the banks of Massachusetts. That it was 
 safe to give it may be proved by the fact that during their 
 whole existence they have been charged with the custody 
 of about $2,100,000,000, of which at the present time 
 nearly $500,000,000 remains in their custody; yet through- 
 out their whole period of existence the entire loss to de- 
 positors, by the failure of Savings Banks, or by scaling 
 down in some instances their deposits, does not exceed 
 $2,000,000. Less than one tenth of one per cent, in fifty 
 years' loss to depositors through any fault or error or 
 fraud or mismanagement of the unpaid trustees and of the 
 paid officers by whom that trust has been administered. 
 This gives another example of the rule which I so often 
 quote from Sir Henry Sumner Maine's Ancient Law of 
 how the development of mutual trust is a comparatively 
 modern conception, calling attention to the fact that in the 
 Homeric records the cunning of Ulysses and the treachery 
 of other heroes has been commended as much as the wis- 
 dom of Nestor or the courage of Achilles. He says, sub- 
 stantially, as time has gone on and the work of society
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 99 
 
 has been developed, the trust reposed in and deserved by 
 the many has created the opportunity for fraud of the 
 few. Where there is no mutual trust there can be no 
 fraud. Where the mutual trust of the workman and the 
 capitalist, the mutual trust of class and class, and of all 
 classes of the community, each and the other exists, it 
 is that very trust reposed in and deserved by the many that 
 has made the opportunity for the fraud of the few. Ac- 
 cording to our last Massachusetts statement of the invest- 
 ment of about $480,000,000, our banks among their assets 
 had $91,000,000 of loans on personal security. While I 
 was a manufacturer I had very close knowledge of what 
 that personal security consisted of. It has been the prac- 
 tice of our Savings Banks to lend money as working capi- 
 tal to the great industrial establishments of this State, 
 to the factories; taking the greatest care both as to the 
 credit of the corporation and requiring the personal secur- 
 ity of two or three of its officers or directors. These loans 
 have been justified. The Savings Banks have loaned to 
 the factories of Massachusetts the working capital which 
 consisted in large measure of the deposits of workingmen 
 and operatives in those very factories. A few years ago 
 when I gave rather close attention to this subject I found 
 that the depositor in the old Lowell Savings Bank, who 
 had from year to year placed his money in that bank and 
 added his accumulations, had received a better remunera- 
 tion for his money than he would have received if he had 
 owned shares in the average factory stocks of Lowell, it- 
 self one of the most successful of the factory towns. The 
 average dividends of the Lowell companies throughout 
 a period of thirty years had not paid as good a return as 
 the average earnings of money in the old well-managed 
 Lowell Savings Bank. Whether that continues up to 
 date I do not know, but that was the fact only a very few 
 years ago. 
 
 I come now to what I deem the most important use of 
 the deposits in the Savings Bank. The next item of the 
 assets is $202,000,000 of Loans on Real Estate. How you
 
 loo HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 stand in regard to that I have not the least idea, but two 
 fifths of our entire deposits are loaned on real estate. I 
 wrote in preparing for this address to the Commissioner 
 of Savings Banks and I found that the number of loans 
 on mortgage was a little over seventy- two thousand ; that 
 gives only an average of twenty-eight hundred dollars 
 to each mortgage. Now, I know that some of those mort- 
 gages on real estate in the city of Boston are pretty large, 
 but by so much as they are larger if they were taken out 
 would the average be. reduced. I have no means of com- 
 puting it, but I should say that if we took off $800 from 
 the $2,800 from a relatively small number of those mort- 
 gages we should find that over 60,000 homes had been 
 made possible to the people of Massachusetts by the lend- 
 ing of the small savings of one class to the thrifty men of 
 the other class, to the end that they might establish them- 
 selves in their own dwellings. 
 
 We all know — not one of you would differ from me 
 about it — that the man who owns his own home is the 
 safest man for the community. He is the man on whom 
 we rest, no matter what may be the waves of distrust or 
 of fallacy that may spread over the country. When the 
 silver craze w^as spreading and we were trembling at what 
 was to come, I had made the analysis of that wonderful 
 report on western farm mortgages which was in the last 
 census; when I discovered that more than seventy per 
 cent, of the farmers in the great Mississippi Valley owned 
 their farms free of any incumbrance I told my friends: 
 "You need not fear; that great body of men — slow but 
 sure — will be educated in this campaign, and as they shall 
 vote, so will be the safety of the finances of this country." 
 That forecast has been justified, and will be justified again 
 and again. When I went abroad as Commissioner of the 
 Government to report on bimetallism in Europe I met 
 many of the principal financial ministers and bankers of 
 Europe. They were all wondering how we could have 
 had the folly to load ourselves with the purchases of silver, 
 when, as they knew and ^''knew, we of all nations in the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK loi 
 
 world held the command over the gold deposits of every 
 bank in Europe, yet they feared we were going down in 
 that current. I said to them: "Gentlemen, we may go 
 once, twice, thrice to the ragged edge of danger, but never 
 shall we go over! never may you fear or hope that the 
 United States will dissever their unit of value from the 
 world's unit of value, the weight of pure gold, which is 
 incorporated in the coin of the nation." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, this idea of the true function of the 
 Savings Bank to aid in housing the people in their own 
 homes is a very far-reaching one. Think of what it means, 
 and of what misdirected efforts have been made by the 
 people who have wished to go a little faster than the 
 Savings Bank will permit them. A bad lot of endowment 
 assessment associations was unfortunately made lawful 
 in the State of Massachusetts a few years ago. Rogues 
 came in and plundered the people — plundered the poorest 
 class of those who should have deposited in the Savings 
 Bank in a few years — of $7,000,000. I had the satisfaction 
 of being one of those who drove them out of the State, or 
 into bankruptcy, two or three years ago. We have also 
 cooperative banks. They correspond somewhat to the 
 building societies, notably of Philadelphia. But there is 
 an enormous field yet unoccupied, analogous to that of the 
 Savings Bank, which might be incorporated to some ex- 
 tent with it in this development of the idea of housing 
 the people, inducing them not only to save but also to 
 spend their money in the wisest manner. Look at Phil- 
 adelphia, and you see the best housed people in the world. 
 There is nearly one home to every five persons in Philadel- 
 phia. How has this condition been brought about? Partly 
 through legislation giving direction to the forces of public 
 opinion. In the first place, aU the taxes of Philadelphia 
 are levied upon the real estate, upon franchises, and upon 
 only a few articles like watches and silverware of personal 
 property. The attempt to reach invisible and intangible 
 property, in the form of stocks and bonds, by annual taxa- 
 tion, has been given up; a reasonable succession tax on the
 
 I02 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 assets of deceased persons has been substituted, which 
 works well. Philadelphia had building acts many years 
 ago, before the city began to spread over its great area, 
 which you could not have established, and which we could 
 not in Boston, on account of narrow areas, but for which 
 we must find some substitute. These acts require that 
 for every family in a house in a residential district there 
 should be so much open yard. Terminable ground rents 
 and building societies also exist. It was first made lawful 
 to sell land on perpetual ground rents, but that proved to 
 be against the general interest of society. Their present 
 act allows the actual conveyance of land to the man who 
 builds upon it, on consideration of a payment of ground 
 rent for a term of years, which the lessee may compound 
 at any time by the payment of a lump sum; occupants 
 thus being free from the danger of foreclosure, which 
 always comes at the worst time. Every man is confident 
 that he can retain his standing on his own land. Through 
 the Building Society and the exemption of machinery and 
 tools of production from taxation, many of the principal 
 citizens of Philadelphia have begun their lives as hand loom 
 weavers, owning one loom in their little houses, growing up 
 under the simple and effective system of taxation, to be- 
 come the rich and prosperous men they are. . . . You 
 know many of them, as I know many of them. But 
 again, what do they do in Philadelphia with their fran- 
 chises? Do they give them away? Do they allow men of 
 a type of whom I do not like to speak — men whose con- 
 ception of their own possession of capital is only that they 
 may get some advantage out of their fellowmen, so as to 
 pile up more and more of the capital that they themselves 
 know not how to use, to grab their streets by corrupting 
 legislators and getting possession of quasi or practical 
 monopolies? I have no words of obloquy that would 
 measure the contempt into which that class of men should 
 be buried under the censure of the people. The people 
 of Philadelphia have not given away their franchises or 
 the control of their streets. They have granted them for
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 103 
 
 use on conditions of mutual benefit. I believe the whole 
 paving system of fine asphalt has been put down at the 
 expense of the street railway systems of Philadelphia, 
 yet the railroad companies find their profit in doing it, and 
 they prosper. They prosper in the mutual benefit which 
 is the life of all commerce. When I see men of huge capi- 
 tal corrupting legislature and working upon Congress — 
 not directly corrupting the members themselves by ab- 
 solute bribery, but exerting such an influence over them 
 that they can hardly resist it, hardly knowing where that 
 influence comes from, the purpose being to get possession 
 of quasi monopolies, or in order to get acts passed by which 
 they may, under the guise of revenue measures, increase 
 the taxes in huge measures that the people pay, but which 
 the Government does not receive — I do not wonder at the 
 prejudices that are growing up among the hard-working 
 and industrious people who cannot master these intrica- 
 cies. I tell you that if we expect to correct this evil we 
 must stamp out these men who corrupt legislatures. Put 
 your foot on the man who would buy a franchise by cor- 
 ruption and oppress the people for his own private profit ! 
 Put the mark of Cain upon the man that will pervert the 
 power of taxation to purposes of private gain at the cost 
 of the community! 
 
 Gentlemen, it is singular that one may go to the "effete 
 monarchies" of Europe to learn a lesson how to house 
 the people of this country in their own homes, and yet I 
 have here the evidence that they may do that. Many 
 years ago, when what is called the Australian system of 
 ballot was first introduced in Massachusetts, my recollec- 
 tion went back to one of those useful pamphlets, which it 
 is the function of the Cobden Club to circulate among its 
 members, on the so-called Torren system of registration 
 and title to land under certificates of title guaranteed by 
 the State, in place of the registry of deeds. I sent for a 
 copy, and, having read it, I sent for 1,000 copies for distri- 
 bution. I wrote a popular article in the Century magazine 
 upon this great reform, which is within the scope of every
 
 I04 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 State in this country, tending again to housing the people 
 with the least cost and in the simplest manner by a simple 
 change in the mode of conveyance. The Legislature of 
 Massachusetts Jias acted upon it, but has not yet passed 
 the law. One commission, which consisted mainly of 
 conveyancers, found it difficult to adjust the present 
 system of conveyance to the new conditions, but it is prob- 
 able that this year another commission of men, learned 
 in the principles of law, with power to consult technical 
 conveyancers, will remove the obstructions, and that we 
 may soon enjoy the benefit of this system. A member of 
 the Real Estate Exchange of Illinois was present at a 
 dinner of our Real Estate Exchange, where I first developed 
 this subject. Chicago, you know, moves quickly, and 
 this gentleman went home and before we had begun to 
 move in Massachusetts he had an act through the Legis- 
 lature of Illinois, giving the option to every county in the 
 State to adopt this system. He did it a little too hurriedly, 
 and there was one slight constitutional objection in the 
 act, which the Legislature of the present year has removed. 
 What is this system? You or I own a piece of land, for 
 which we have a registered deed. The title is good. We 
 carry that registered deed to the State conveyancer, and 
 he finds that the title is good. He takes possession of all 
 the documents, holding them for the protection of the 
 State; he then registers the title, and gives me a registry 
 certificate of that title, with the guarantee of the State 
 behind it that it is good. The State has not interfered 
 with, or changed, any of the customs, or laws, by which 
 an estate in land is now vested in an individual, subject 
 to the reserved rights of the State. The State has merely 
 taken the evidence of title over on to the sovereign record 
 from which it emanated, and, finding it good, has given 
 the owner a certificate that he has a good title. The owner 
 in possession of such a certificate can borrow money on 
 it, pass it from hand to hand in the simplest way and with 
 almost as little expense as is involved in passing title to a 
 registered bond or a registered share of stock. Think of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 105 
 
 it! In Australia, in British Columbia, in New Zealand, 
 and in many of the British Colonies that system has been 
 in force for many years. In some colonies a very small 
 fee for insurance is charged and held by the State, but the 
 fund has hardly ever been called upon. This covers the 
 risk that the State runs by assuming to give that certifi- 
 cate. There might possibly have been a flaw in the original 
 title. I thought this system had originated in Australia, 
 but one day I was reading an English paper and there 
 came to me a review of an English blue book by a registrar 
 of titles which I have before me. To my utter surprise 
 I found that this system had existed throughout central 
 Europe in all its integrity, corresponding almost identi- 
 cally to the Torrens or Australian system, which Sir Robert 
 Torrens established, probably without knowing this him- 
 self, from the manner in which the title to ships are reg- 
 istered and passed, he having been in that service. 
 
 Here we have the facts that throughout Austria- 
 Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Prussia, and throughout 
 nearly the whole of central Europe, a system has been in 
 force for more than eighty years so practically identical 
 with the Australian system that the difference is trifling. 
 I would suggest to any of you that are students of this 
 matter — as you may become perhaps if I succeed in inter- 
 esting you — that you send and get a copy of this blue 
 book. It will cost you only about one shilling and seven 
 pence. Address Eyre & Spottswoode, East Harding 
 Street, Fleet Street, E. C, London. Let me call your 
 attention to the advantage of the English system of pub- 
 lishing documents. Here is a most complete government 
 report, admirably arranged and printed, with all its cita- 
 tions. The English government does not distribute these 
 reports to the public free, to pass in most instances through 
 the hands of a receiver into the paper mill from which 
 they emanated. They charge a smaU fee. Nobody goes 
 for a government report in England except a man that 
 really has some use for it and will take some pains to get 
 it. You will find in this work not only a complete account
 
 io6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 of this system of the transfer of land by title, but a com- 
 plete explanation of the success of the land banks which are 
 potent instruments in central Europe for identifying the 
 interests of the people with the interests of the State. You 
 can then comprehend something of the patriotism, often 
 misdirected, of the Germans toward their fatherland, when 
 you find how the government, "effete, dynastic mon- 
 archy," as it may be, has seen to it that the ownership and 
 the possession of their homes is assured to the people at 
 the least possible cost. I have always looked with jeal- 
 ousy at the suggestion of land banks in this country. A 
 land bank was established in Massachusetts, in 1745, and 
 Samuel Adam's father was one of the chief promoters. 
 The greatest prejudices that existed against the last royal 
 governor, Hutchinson, were due to this effort to wind up 
 the land bank and to get its creditors paid, as well as to 
 maintain the coin standard of value in the colony of 
 Massachusetts. He was a Tory, but in spite of that let 
 it be said to his credit he was a sound money, true citizen 
 of the colony, who remained loyal to the King. Read 
 Hosmer's life. Let us revert to the report: Here I find 
 a record of the cost. For instance, here is a record of a 
 transfer. Ten pounds, say $50, is a high fee, even in large 
 matters and with wealthy clients. The reporter says: 
 " One of the judges spoke to me complaining of a bill of six 
 pounds and twelve shillings, that he had been charged 
 for professional help in the purchase of real estate of the 
 value of $20,000." From that down to a few shilling 
 for the assignment of small lots is all that a man has to 
 pay, and intelligent men very often go without professional 
 assistance. One man takes his certificate up to the reg- 
 istrar, having sold his property ; the purchaser goes along 
 with his money. The seller hands his certificate over to 
 the registrar, the registrar makes out the new certificate 
 to the new owner, the money is paid over then and there. 
 There is no expense except a little fee to the registrar. 
 The cost seems almost ridiculous compared to the cost of 
 conveying or executing of first and second mortgages here.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 107 
 
 This system has been applied to the greatest estates in 
 Bohemia of which the title goes back to feudal times in 
 the fourteenth century, and from that down to the small 
 holdings of Prussia, where Baron Stein introduced his land 
 reforms and thus re-created Prussia and made her capable 
 of resisting the power of Napoleon. It exists in Wurtem- 
 berg and Bavaria, where the holdings are very small, where 
 the land is subdivided, and there the same system has been 
 in force for over eighty years. In short, I might turn over 
 page after page here and give you illustrations of its value. 
 Here is one case where the returns of twenty-seven of these 
 land banks out of a very much larger number are given, and 
 in the course of their history they had loaned to farmers 
 — for commercial banks avoid these loans — £147,000,000 
 (over $700,000,000). These banks now issue debentures 
 and get the money as you receive the deposits in the 
 Savings Banks. They are under supervision of the 
 government. They are carefully run, and their debent- 
 ures are the commonest forms of good security offered 
 for sale in the Bourses of all the great cities at four and 
 a half and five per cent. The farmers get their money 
 at about the regular market rates, subject to these small 
 charges, no greater hardly than would be incurred in 
 transferring a share of bank stock. I commend this 
 method and study to you in any far-reaching view of the 
 future function of Savings Banks. 
 
 To this I have ventured to add a little pamphlet of my 
 own, which I printed at the request of the Real Estate 
 Exchange before I had got hold of this matter of registry 
 of title, but which fits into it to a dot. I have attempted 
 to explain how a man may gradually become his landlord, 
 taking up that wonderful system of terminable ground 
 rents of Philadelphia. It occurred to me that the title to 
 land might pass from vendor to vendee, and lessor and 
 lessee, under one registered document which should re- 
 main in force until all claims had been liquidated, such 
 claims to be represented by rent certificates. These 
 certificates would not carry any promise or agreement to
 
 io8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 pay any lump sum at any time; but suppose a piece of land 
 had been sold for $1,500 on six per cent, interest or ground 
 rent, there would be fifteen rent certificates at $6 each 
 registered at the trust company where the title vested, 
 each of these certificates containing the provision that the 
 lessee at any time coming into possession of $100, and giv- 
 ing due notice, could go to that trust company and deposit 
 it to the credit of the holder of that certificate. He need 
 not discharge it, he puts it away, for it is just as good secur- 
 ity to him on his own land as it was to the other man. He 
 gets, say, five of these rent certificates into his own posses- 
 sion ; then comes one of the periodical disturbances of trade 
 at a time when under the ordinary conditions he might be 
 foreclosed. He has not even the money to pay the rent 
 on the rest of the rent certificates, but he has his own five 
 rent certificates undischarged of record, just as good se- 
 curity. He can then go to the trust company and bor- 
 row, temporarily, enough to tide over the hard times; when 
 the times change again he takes up that loan; presently, 
 as he prospers, he takes up all the rent certificates, dis- 
 charges the record, and, without ever having incurred the 
 danger of being foreclosed and sold out, he has become 
 step by step his own landlord. 
 
 Such is my discursive effort to deal with this subject, of 
 the technical parts of which I have very little knowledge, 
 but with the grand future scope of which it seems to me 
 I have a vision as clear as I hope the vision of your Presi- 
 dent was when he believed I might interest you for a few 
 moments.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Fifth Annual Convention — War with Spain — Still Disordered 
 Condition of Monetary System — Questions Relating to the 
 Taxation of Savings Bank Deposits — Committee of the 
 Association Sent to Washington to Prevent Adverse Legisla- 
 tion — Notable Address on "Sound Money," by Judge M. L. 
 Crawford, of Dallas, Texas — Postal Savings Banks Discussed — 
 Resolutions Favoring Currency Reform Legislation — Closer 
 Relations with Savings Banks of Other States Advocated. 
 
 THE year 1898 is memorable for the brief and deci- 
 sive war with Spain, precipitated by the awful 
 tragedy of the blowing up of the battleship Maine. 
 President John Harsen Rhoades, in his opening address 
 at the Fifth Annual Convention of the Association, held 
 on May 19th, made reference to this fact, in addition to 
 touching upon other important subjects, such as what per- 
 centage of deposits should be kept in cash or its equivalent, 
 the extent to which they might be willing to extend the 
 scope of investments, and other like topics of ever-present 
 interest to those charged with the administration of a 
 great trust. The session was well attended, there being one 
 hundred and twenty present at the opening. 
 
 The press had already announced that the Savings 
 Banks were exempt from the proposed war revenue tax, 
 owing in large measure to the efforts of the Committee 
 that had been appointed to confer with members of Con- 
 gress and the Finance Committee of the United States 
 Senate who prepared the bill. 
 In order to obtain better results, the Secretary, Wm. G. 
 
 109
 
 no HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Conklin, expressed the hope that before another year had 
 elapsed every Savings Bank in the State would have be- 
 come a member of the Association. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT RHOADES 
 
 President Rhoades, in his opening address, said: 
 
 The existing war has absorbed so much of public atten- 
 tion that people have seemed to forget the dangerous ele- 
 ments in the situation which still continue to exist owing 
 to the disordered condition of our monetary system, and 
 it is well to remember that until the existing policy has 
 changed and the Government adopted some plan, gradu- 
 ally retiring from the issuance of currency obligations, 
 and such currency issues are regulated to the banks which 
 are the only proper medium of issue, we cannot continue 
 to have permanent prosperity or be relieved from the 
 dangers of alarm and distrust which are sure to come when 
 failures of crops or undue speculation have produced the 
 causes which naturally lead to heavy withdrawals of 
 gold from the Government depositories. Therefore we, 
 as Savings Bank officers, must be mindful of these facts, 
 and govern ourselves with caution and prudence in the 
 management of the vast interests we serve. 
 
 It is strange that the people cannot understand that 
 banking is business just as much as manufacturing and 
 mining and tilling the soil, and that all these varied indus- 
 tries would be helpless without the aid of the banks, which 
 utilize credit and form the centre around which revolve 
 the wheels of commerce, and from which commerce draws 
 its power to move; yet we protect our manufacturers, and 
 are always aiming to protect labor, while labor continues 
 to strike at capital, and seems to have an ever-increasing 
 hatred for all institutions which have the handling of 
 money or that which represents money, nor can they seem 
 to understand that just as their own frugal savings in 
 rivulets flow into the Savings Banks until they have reached
 
 WILLIAM G. CONKLIN 
 
 SECRETARY, 18Q3-I907
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK iii 
 
 the enormous volume of two thousand millions of dollars, 
 each little rivulet powerless for good in itself, yet, in the 
 aggregate, forming a vast sum, lending itself to the Govern- 
 ment, the city, the town, the village, to the public author- 
 ity, and to the private individual, and thus aiding in the 
 employment of labor and the building up of the prosperity 
 of a great nation, so, in like manner, do the aggregate 
 deposits of the people in banks of issue, each small in it- 
 self and each by itself of little value to the public, make up 
 the vast sum upon which credit is based and through which 
 the people prosper and are given the power to employ and 
 be employed. 
 
 Therefore is it of the utmost importance that the bank- 
 ing system of a great nation should receive not the con- 
 demnation but the hearty support of every citizen, and 
 all should unite in a demand that it be properly encouraged 
 and protected by law and placed upon a foundation which 
 will secure for the people the best of currency and the 
 highest credit in the civilized world. 
 
 So far as the eleemosynary system of Savings Banks is 
 concerned, I feel sure there is no hostility to the establish- 
 ment of a Postal Savings Bank system. Any system which 
 can be wisely conceived and managed, and through which 
 the surplus earnings of the people can be brought into use 
 as a great moneyed force in the community not only tends 
 to thrift and economy, but adds a giant power in develop- 
 ing the resources of a nation, and should by all means be 
 encouraged, provided it can be done economically, wisely, 
 and well. 
 
 It is not often, gentlemen, that your President can 
 promise so many good things in store for you at one of 
 your annual meetings; and here I ought to close, but there 
 is one subject to which I have only referred by name, and 
 yet a subject which is so active and all-absorbing in the 
 public mind that I cannot well pass it by. I refer to the 
 existing war between Spain and the United States; and 
 in this connection it seems to me proper to Isay that 
 which I know you all will endorse, and it is that, war
 
 112 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 or no war, the Savings Bank system of this State is 
 so well grounded in law, so carefully guarded by a 
 competent Banking Department, and so wisely restricted 
 as to investment as to make our Savings Banks the most 
 secure depository for the moneys of the people which can 
 be found anywhere — a place where they should be depos- 
 ited in times of distrust, and not a place from which they 
 should be withdrawn. The pity of it is that the timid and 
 the ignorant cannot always be made to understand that 
 this is so; yet considering the excited condition of the pub- 
 lic mind which has existed for the past sixty days it is 
 remarkable that there has been so little disturbance of 
 Savings Bank deposits, and that the great mass of depos- 
 itors have continued undisturbed in their confidence in 
 the Savings Banks of the country, notwithstanding the 
 alarm of war and the foolish dread of possible invasion. 
 
 How much the members of this Association may differ 
 as to the need or necessity for war in the present instance 
 I do not know, but I can and do say that when the Govern- 
 ment of our country decided that war was necessary and 
 must be entered upon, from that moment every man ceased 
 to be a partisan and became a patriot, pledging at once 
 his influence, his property, and, if need be, his life to sus- 
 tain the dignity and the honor of his country. So, gentle- 
 men, the officers and the trustees of the Savings Banks of 
 this State, and, I may say, of the entire country, pledge 
 themselves to render all possible assistance to the Govern- 
 ment and to do their full share in maintaining the credit of 
 the nation. 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 Mr. Samuel R. Rainey, Chairman of the Executive 
 Committee, made report in which it was said : 
 
 The past year has been one of more than usual activity 
 on the part of the Executive Committee, principally on 
 account of the questions relating to taxation. Early in 
 the year a circular was sent from the office of the State
 
 SAMUEL R. RAINEY 
 
 CHAIRMAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 i8g7 1900
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 113 
 
 Tax Commissioners calling the attention of local asses- 
 sors to an opinion emanating from the Attorney-General's 
 ofhce and signed by one of the deputies, as follows : 
 
 "In my opinion subdivisions 14 of section 4 of the Tax 
 Laws of 1896 does not exempt depositors in Savings Banks 
 from taxation on their deposits, but only exempts the 
 banks from paying taxes on them. Depositors can be 
 assessed upon their deposits, and examined by the asses- 
 sors regarding them, the same as other personal property." 
 
 A meeting of the Committee was called at once, and the 
 chairman instructed to submit the question of taxation 
 to an attorney and obtain a written opinion. Accordingly, 
 the two following questions were submitted to George 
 W. Wickersham, of Strong & Cadwallader, of New York: 
 
 First — Are deposits in a Savings Bank subject to taxa- 
 tion against the individual depositor? 
 
 Second — Is the surplus of a Savings Bank subject to 
 taxation? 
 
 After careful consideration Mr. Wickersham gave an 
 opinion, answering both questions in the negative. A 
 circular covering these points was promptly sent to all the 
 members of the Association. A copy of the opinion of 
 Mr. Wickersham in full, with cases cited, together with all 
 information in the possession of your Committee, was sent 
 to each member of the Association asking for it, making 
 the correspondence on the subject quite voluminous. 
 
 In July a circular was sent to the Association in refer- 
 ence to the preparation of a test case on taxation, and ask- 
 ing if it was the wish of the members of the Association 
 that such test case should be brought, the cost of which 
 was to be borne pro rata by the Association. The answers 
 to this circular were such that your Committee decided 
 that it was not your wish to have such test suit made, 
 and the matter was accordingly dropped. Several of our 
 banks, principally in the southern part of the State, were 
 placed on assessor's books, and an attempt made to collect 
 a tax on surplus. Some of the banks applied to the Com- 
 mittee for advice with reference to such assessments, and
 
 114 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 were advised that if compelled to pay they should do so 
 under strong protest in order to reserve their right to have 
 the tax refunded if the courts decided they were illegal. 
 As far as the Committee is aware no bank has paid such 
 tax. 
 
 In Newburgh the assessors placed the Newburgh Sav- 
 ings Bank on their rolls for the full amount of their sur- 
 plus, less their Government bonds and real estate. A 
 writ of certiorari was obtained and the case argued before 
 Judge Hirschburg, who in his opinion held "that the as- 
 sessment in question should be vacated and set aside as 
 illegal and unauthorized." The city has appealed from 
 this decision, and the case will be carried to the Court of 
 Appeals. 
 
 The question of taxation as against individuals was also 
 brought before the courts, growing out of an attempt of the 
 assessors of the village of Fulton to assess certain of its 
 citizens for money on deposit in Savings Banks. The 
 claim was clearly made and there was no dispute as to 
 facts, the assessors maintaining that such deposits were 
 subject to taxation, and that they committed no error 
 in such assessment. The question was thus submitted 
 on its merits, and the learned Judge held that deposits 
 were exempt from taxation under the laws of the State of 
 New York. 
 
 In view of this decision the State Board of Tax Com- 
 missioners have this year instructed the local assessors 
 not to assess deposits in Savings Banks unless further 
 advised. 
 
 Much has been said of late in regard to the debt of New 
 York City. It is not generally known that the thrifty 
 working classes, through the Savings Banks, are the larg- 
 est creditors of this metropolis, carrying over forty-six 
 per cent, of the debt, and in volume amounting to over 
 $100,000,000. This investment, owing to the vast amount 
 of taxable real estate represented, is absolutely safe, and 
 beyond doubt one of the best securities held by the banks; 
 yet the rights of these people — over 1,800,000 in number —
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 115 
 
 require a prompt adjustment of that portion of the debt 
 assumed through the absorption of surrounding munici- 
 palities in order that there be as little delay as possible 
 in the payment of interest thereon, for which the greater 
 city is liable. It is hoped that such decision will be made 
 as soon as possible, and all questions as to what constitutes 
 debt should be speedily settled. The credit of a great 
 city is of the first importance, and supposed doubt should 
 be removed at once. It is earnestly hoped, therefore, 
 that whatever questions there may be at issue with the 
 authorities in charge will find ready solution. 
 
 The other was a bill introduced into both houses permit- 
 ting investment in first mortgage bonds of railroads under 
 rigid restrictions.^ This bill was favored by some of our 
 banks and opposed by others. As originally drawn, the bill 
 was faulty in construction, and your Committee, when con- 
 vinced that it was likely to become a law, had it amended 
 in some respects and placed in better position in the section 
 which it proposed to amend. The bill became a law April 
 13th, and the Secretary immediately sent out a circular 
 giving the correct text. 
 
 In reference to the bill the Committee issued the follow- 
 ing resolution: 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That the provisions of the existing law regu- 
 lating the surplus of Savings Banks and the dividends to 
 be paid are in our judgment safe and proper, and should 
 not be changed." 
 
 It becomes more and more apparent each year that if 
 the almost perfect system governing Savings Banks in the 
 State of New York is to be maintained in its integrity it 
 will be necessary for its friends to be very zealous in guard- 
 ing it. The Association should look to the selection of 
 men of intelligence and honesty for members of the Legis- 
 lature, and when a bill detrimental to Savings Banks is 
 before that body, each member should bring the full weight 
 of his influence to bear against it. 
 
 'This was the first legislative recognition of the legality of railroad bonds 
 IS Savings Banks investments in New York State.
 
 ii6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 The Committee expressed its obligation to Senator 
 L. H. Humphrey, of Warsaw, Wyoming County, who had 
 been for three years Chairman of the Committee on Banks. 
 He was a warm friend of Savings Banks, and being thor- 
 oughly honest and conscientious, had frowned upon everj' 
 attempt to amend the law to the detriment of the banks. 
 
 TAXATION OF DEPOSITS 
 
 The subject of the taxation of Savings Bank deposits 
 was one then uppermost in public and private discussion, 
 and in view of this fact the President had invited general 
 discussion. He introduced Mr. A. E. Hart, of the Society 
 for Savings, of Hartford, Conn., who said: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association: When 
 Mr. Rhoades kindly extended the invitation to be present 
 here to-day I did not understand that I should be asked 
 to take any part, but supposed I would have a back seat, 
 and hear and not be seen. But it is a matter of such vital 
 importance to all Savings Banks in New York and New 
 England — I may say in the East — that I think you should 
 at least understand what is being done in Washington. 
 We, in Connecticut, have been watching this thing for two 
 or three years. This bill in Congress is known as House 
 Bill io,ioo, and it was reported in the House May 2, 
 1898. In the first bill which was reported the tax was, 
 you might say, nominal; we were taxed on our gross re- 
 ceipts one quarter of one per cent. That to an institution 
 as large as the one I represent, now over twenty millions, 
 amounted to something like $2,000 a year. Of course we 
 have got to appreciate that the expenses of this war must 
 be met by somebody, and $2,000 a year for our institutions 
 was not large, and for one I was not inclined to make 
 much objection to it. The bill was started in the House 
 and reported to the Senate, where it now rests. A week 
 ago to-day an amendment was added, which is a very
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 117 
 
 serious matter to the Mutual Savings Banks, and is as 
 follows : 
 
 "That every person, bank, association, company, or 
 corporation engaged in the business of banking shall pay 
 a special excise tax which shall be equal to one forty eighth 
 of one per cent, each month upon the average amount 
 of its deposits of money subject to payment by check 
 or draft, or represented by certificates of deposit or 
 otherwise, whether payable on demand or at some future 
 day." 
 
 This means, to a bank of $20,000,000, a tax in round 
 numbers of $45,000 a year — which is more than we pay 
 to the State of Connecticut to-day, being one quarter of 
 one per cent. If the bill passes, our taxes are doubled, 
 and you can very readily see that it will be a very serious 
 burden for the banks to pay it. Take the large banks and 
 it would run up to $50,000, or $75,000, or even $100,000. 
 Take the large city banks of $50,000,000 each, their tax 
 would amount to $125,000 a year. We thought it was of 
 such vital importance that last week three of us went to 
 Washington, and we have been in consultation with our 
 Congressmen and Senators, and they are going to do all 
 they can to help us out in this matter; but they say they 
 cannot do it all. Connecticut is a small State, with only 
 six members in all, and they must have the help of the 
 large States like New York and Massachusetts. We re- 
 turned last Tuesday, and have been in consultation with 
 the Massachusetts people, and they have already sent 
 a man down and are going to send more this week. We 
 hope that your Association here will appoint a Committee 
 to go to Washington just as soon as you can. This matter 
 will be finally settled within a month, if not sooner, and 
 quick action must be taken to help us out in the matter. 
 Our Senators there suggest that you send a Committee 
 there, and also notify all banks in your State and urge 
 them to send letters, telegrams^any thing; deluge them 
 with correspondence in regard to this matter. They are 
 going to do something in Massachusetts, they have sent
 
 ii8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 one man already, and they are going to urge every Sav- 
 ings Bank treasurer to notify his Congressmen and Sena- 
 tors of the great injustice of this proposed taxation, and 
 see if it cannot be headed off. 
 
 I do not know that I can add anything more. I am 
 sorry to have taken your time. I did not expect to speak 
 when I came here. If any one wishes to ask me any ques- 
 tions I will answer them and state briefly all I know in 
 regard to the matter. 
 
 Mr. James McMahon said: 
 
 It seems to me that it might be desirable, as throwing 
 light upon this matter, to go back to our Civil War and 
 notice how the tax operated during those years. I have 
 looked up the matter as bearing upon the bank that I 
 represent, and I find that in April, 1865, we paid one 
 twenty fourth of one per cent, on daily average deposits 
 during the month, adding surplus and deducting the hold- 
 ings of United States bonds. In January, 1867, we paid 
 semi-annually one quarter of one per cent, on the amount 
 of deposits held three months previous, less deposits of 
 $500, and less average amount of United States bonds held 
 during the previous six months. That, at the time re- 
 ferred to, amounted to between $5,000 and $15,000 semi- 
 annually during the time that the tax was imposed. One 
 year I think it was as high as $38,000; that was the high- 
 est. In June, 1872, a semi-annual tax of one twenty fourth 
 of one per cent, per month on deposits for the previous six 
 months, less average deposits of $2,000 in the name of one 
 person, and less average of United States bond holdings 
 during each month, which reduced it to about $2,000; and 
 in January, 1880, by a change in the form of returns, we 
 paid no more tax, the exceptions being more than that 
 amount subject to tax. It seems to me that inasmuch as 
 this one quarter of one per cent, if imposed upon all the 
 Savings Banks of this country would result in raising but 
 about $5,000,000, the Government might very well collect
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 119 
 
 that amount with a great deal less friction, and more sim- 
 ply, if it were taken from some other source. 
 
 PROPOSED TAX ON DEPOSITS 
 
 Mr. John P. Townsend stated that he had been re- 
 quested to offer this resolution, which was in line with the 
 matter under discussion : 
 
 Resolved, That the provision in the proposed amendment 
 to the revenue bill passed by the House of Representatives 
 and now reported by the Finance Committee of the Sen- 
 ate, whereby it is intended to enforce in the aggregate a 
 tax of one quarter of one per cent, annually on deposits 
 in banks will, in case Savings Banks are to be included 
 under its provisions, work a grievous wrong and impose too 
 heavy a burden upon the savings of the people. 
 
 The laws now in force properly restrict investment of 
 deposits in Savings Banks to a limited number of the best 
 character of investment securities, which, owing to their 
 safety, return only a low rate of interest and are largely 
 made up of Government, State, and Municipal bonds. 
 The present rate of return to the depositor is small, with 
 the certainty that it will have to be reduced stiU lower, 
 while the lowering of the rate of interest paid to the depos- 
 itor, rendered necessary to cover the large drain on earn- 
 ings arising from the proposed tax, would seriously impair 
 the efficiency of the Savings Bank system of the country, 
 and tend to discourage thrift and the habit of saving on the 
 part of the people. 
 
 We call attention to the fact that of the Savings Banks 
 in the United States, those holding over one thousand five 
 hundred millions of dollars out of a total sum of two thou- 
 sand millions of dollars so deposited, are purely eleemosy- 
 nary in their character, have no capital, and the profits 
 all accrue to the benefit of the depositors, who are largely 
 made up of thrifty working classes. 
 
 We, therefore, respectfully present these facts to the
 
 I20 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 members of Congress, and urge that they be carefully 
 considered, and the Savings Banks relieved from the impo- 
 sition of the proposed tax. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee of five be appointed to go to 
 Washington and confer with members of Congress, in 
 committee or otherwise, and present to them the objections 
 of this Association to the proposed legislation. 
 
 Mr. Merritt Trimble : Mr. President, I do not know that 
 there is any difference of opinion in regard to the pro- 
 priety of these resolutions, but I would like to call atten- 
 tion to two points that seem to me very serious ones. One 
 is that Mr. McMahon's statement refers, for most of its 
 period, to the time when banks were receiving from five to 
 seven per cent, interest on their investment, and could 
 easily make five per cent, dividends, which they cannot 
 do now. The other point is that this tax of one quarter 
 of one per cent, per annum is a very serious tax on the 
 earnings of these deposits. In this State the average 
 deposit is about $425. In this city it is probably from 
 $450 to $500; and they receive, most of them, three and 
 one half per cent. We pay four on old investments. There- 
 fore, this tax, to a large number of people, who have but 
 $450 laid up against a rainy day, amounts to a twelve 
 and a half per cent, income tax on their savings. 
 
 The President: Does any gentleman here present re- 
 member the terms of the tax during the war that was 
 placed upon Savings Bank deposits? It would be inter- 
 esting to know that. Perhaps some gentleman present 
 remembers it and wiU teU us. The Chair will state, as an 
 impression, that the tax at that time was one half of one 
 per cent., I think, upon all accounts, first, in excess of 
 $500, and then the law was amended so as to make it 
 one half of one per cent, upon all accounts in excess of 
 $2,000, less the amount of United States Government 
 bonds. Those would be deducted now because they are 
 exempted from taxation. 
 
 Mr. McMahon: I think the statement read by me
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 121 
 
 is an exact copy of the law as it existed during those 
 years. 
 
 Mr. Hart: There are no exemptions in this matter. 
 This is on our deposits, and there will be no exemptions 
 whatever. It is a franchise tax. 
 
 The President : Including Government bonds? 
 
 Mr. Hart: Everything. I simply corrected you be- 
 cause you had evidently overlooked it. 
 
 The President : I am very glad you did. 
 
 Mr. Hart : This bill provides for no deductions of any 
 kind. 
 
 The President: Will Mr. Wooster say a few words? 
 He was in Washington for nearly a week. I have the 
 pleasure, gentlemen, of introducing to you Mr. Wooster. 
 
 Mr. Wooster : Mr. President and Gentlemen : It is cer- 
 tainly a pleasure to be here with you to-day. There are 
 two points in this bill to which I would like to call atten- 
 tion: In the first provision, under which the bank pays 
 the license tax, there is a special exemption to the effect 
 that any Savings Bank having no capital stock, whose 
 business is confined to receiving deposits and loaning or in- 
 vesting the same for the benefit of its depositors, and which 
 does no other business of banking, shall not be subject to 
 this tax. It would seem by this that there was a disposition 
 to exempt Savings Banks. This suggestion was made to the 
 Committee on Finance ; but it seems now such was not the 
 case ; that this tax is proposed on the deposits of Savings 
 Banks intentionally, and I fear that, whUe at present it is 
 apparently imposed for the sake of producing revenue, in 
 reality it will be a permanent tax. There is a disposition 
 to place the tax permanently on corporations in the East. 
 Throughout this bUl, in all its provisions, you will find 
 that the building and loan associations, in three or four 
 cases, in fact in every case where the tax is mentioned, are 
 specifically exempted; and while we have justice on our 
 side, I fear that it may not be so easy to procure the ex- 
 emption as we hope. We certainly hope that the matter 
 may be adjusted. I fear that it cannot be done until it
 
 122 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 comes into the conference. Mr. Dingley, in the course of 
 an interview with him, says it is always unsafe to leave a 
 matter to be adjusted in conference. I have nothing 
 further to say except to assure you that I am very glad 
 to be here. 
 
 MR. W. W. JACOBS' SPEECH 
 
 Mr. W. W. Jacobs, of Hartford, Conn., said: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: I am glad to come here 
 from Connecticut and meet this Association. This is 
 a side which I think is very pleasant, because it draws us 
 together. But I look upon these matters more in a busi- 
 ness way: that if we can get acquainted and get assistance 
 in matters of legislation, it is of great importance to us. 
 Connecticut pays one quarter of one per cent, state tax ; 
 and the Savings Banks, the mutual life insurance com- 
 panies, and the railroads run the State of Connecticut. 
 It is a good deal of a burden, and we do not want to pay 
 this additional tax, which would make it one half of one 
 per cent. We have a little more limit than your people 
 in deposits, and for that we are thankful. So far as this 
 new legislation is concerned, the matter is not exactly 
 before the Finance Committee now; it is before the Senate, 
 and if the Senate should pass this bill as amended, it will, 
 of course, go back to the House, but the House will simply 
 not pass it, and then a Committee of Conference will be 
 appointed. That Committee of Conference is likely to 
 be made largely of the members of the Finance Committee. 
 We were told in Washington that on the part of the Senate 
 in all probability the members of that Committee would 
 be Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, who knows all about 
 Savings Banks, and possibly Senator Allison and Senator 
 Piatt, of Connecticut. The first and last are good names, 
 but I am in doubt a little about the position of Senator 
 Allison. He is an extreme Western man. On the part 
 of the House there will probably be Governor Dingley, 
 who is a Savings Bank man and knows all about their
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 123 
 
 operations; and there is one matter in regard to which 
 people — I don't want to use the word ''ignorance," but 
 it seems to me the people are not generally familiar with 
 it ; it is this : When Mr. Hart and Mr. Wooster and myself 
 were in Washington and saw Governor Dingley and va- 
 rious Senators and Representatives, the question came up 
 about the Savings Banks scattered all over the country. 
 This is not a true statement; there are no Savings Banks 
 west of the Mississippi River, and there are none south of 
 the Ohio, unless it is a small concern in West Virginia. 
 There are Savings Banks in Maine, but they all have 
 shares, and they are for the benefit of the stockholders. 
 Only fifteen States have mutual concerns like ours. These 
 amount in number to only 666. As to California, I think 
 there may be one up in the northern part of the State, and 
 a few in Wisconsin. As I said before, there is a mistaken 
 idea on this matter. The Mutual Savings Banks are in- 
 stitutions incident to New England, New York, and Penn- 
 sylvania, with a few in Ohio; and when you talk with 
 legislators they say what is not at all true. My associates 
 and myself had a work of education to do. When we met 
 Senators and Representatives we were told that we were 
 large concerns, making big dividends, and so forth. We 
 corrected them. We said we represented mutual institu- 
 tions; and we very soon brought them into sympathy with 
 us. Senator Vest, of Missouri, who was deadly opposed 
 to us at the outset, afterward joined us; also Jones, of 
 Arkansas. 
 
 I think it would be wise if you would appoint a Commit- 
 tee to go to Washington to see the Senators and Repre- 
 sentatives. I have mentioned names that will probably 
 be on the Conference Committee. You can do a great 
 deal of good work. 
 
 COMMITTEE TO GO TO WASHINGTON 
 
 It was resolved that a Committee be appointed to go to 
 Washington and confer with members of Congress and 
 present to them the objections of the Association to the
 
 124 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 proposed legislation. The Committee consisted of Mr, 
 J. P. Townsend, of New York, Chairman; Mr. James 
 McMahon and Mr. Andrew Mills, of New York; Mr. 
 Samuel R. Rainey, of Hudson; Mr. Samuel Hyde, of 
 Syracuse; Mr. Rufus P. Birdseye, of Utica; Mr. Harris, of 
 Utica. (President Rhoades ex-officio.) 
 
 It was also resolved to request Bank Superintendent 
 F. D. Kilburn to accompany the Committee to Wash- 
 ington and aid in endeavoring to prevent the exorbitant 
 taxing of Savings Bank deposits. 
 
 "sound money" 
 
 The President then called upon Judge M. L. Crawford, 
 of Dallas, Texas, who addressed the Convention on the 
 then uppermost topic of ** Sound Money." The address 
 of Judge Crawford follows : 
 
 When your President was partial enough to extend to 
 me an invitation to deliver an address to your Association 
 our country was at peace with the world. The mutter- 
 ings of a conflict could be heard, but grim-visaged war 
 was only a probability. Now it is a stern reality. In 
 defence of the nation's honor we are to-day engaged in a 
 conflict with a foreign foe, and our sons, from the north, 
 east, south, and west are marching side by side, wearing 
 the same uniform, animated by the same patriotic pur- 
 pose, and all, thank God, following the flag of the Union, 
 with no stain upon its sacred folds, no vacant spot where 
 a star should be. United we are invincible, and armed 
 with the right we may bid defiance to a world in arms. 
 
 But it is not of war that I would speak to-day. There 
 are other considerations which challenge the attention of 
 the country — other issues involving more than the result 
 of the war — which must be met and decided by the Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 The unsettled and disturbed condition of the financial
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 125 
 
 system of our country demands the thoughtful and pa- 
 triotic consideration of every honest heart, and we must 
 approach the subject as patriots, animated solely by a 
 desire to promote the welfare of all sections and all per- 
 sons in every condition of life, and not as partisans, in- 
 fluenced by considerations of party expediency. 
 
 The question to be decided is, shall the country main- 
 tain the gold standard, using at the same time as much 
 silver in our currency as the necessities of business and the 
 convenience of the people require? (and not a dime more) 
 or shall this Government adopt the free and unlimited 
 coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to 
 one ounce of gold, each dollar so coined to be a legal tender 
 for all debts, public and private? which means a silver 
 standard, silver monometallism, and nothing else; and 
 the advocates of this measure cannot be blind to the fact 
 that such would be the result. The only difference be- 
 tween the old greenbacker and the freesilverite is in de- 
 gree; both are advocates of fiat money. The greenbacker 
 wants the Government fiat printed on paper, worth noth- 
 ing, and which can be carried in the pocket, while the free- 
 silverite demands that the fiat be stamped on pig metal, 
 the material for every dollar worth about forty cents, and 
 which could only be carried around in a haversack. 
 
 The issue thus squarely presented must be bravely met. 
 There must be no evasion, no attempt to deceive or mis- 
 lead the people by the delusion of international bimetal- 
 lism, but the advocates of the gold standard must stand 
 by and maintain it, because it is demanded by common 
 honesty; because its maintenance will best subserve the 
 interest of every section and of all our people in every con- 
 dition of life ; because the national honor demands it. It 
 is the standard of civilization and progress, and as long as 
 we propose to keep in the van in the onward march of 
 nations we must maintain it. With the gold standard 
 we have grown and prospered as no people or nation ever 
 prospered before. The young giant of the West, though 
 scarcely out of the cradle, has become the wonder and
 
 126 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 admiration of the world. Looking to her institutions and 
 achievements, the oppressed and downtrodden of every 
 kindred tribe and tongue direct their thoughts in the hour 
 of their despair to this goodly land, where all men are 
 free and equal and the oppressor's rod is broken. Shall 
 we reverse our policy and ourselves become the oppressors 
 and despoilers of the poor? Shall we by legislative enact- 
 ment take from our people more than one half of the sav- 
 ings accumulated by unremitting toil and the practice of 
 the most rigid self-denial? The experience of our revolu- 
 tionary fathers with a debased and worthless currency 
 satisfied them that the Government fiat could not make 
 money; that there was a wide difference between a dollar 
 and the promise to pay a dollar, and they determined to 
 see to it that the dollars of the new republic were dollars 
 in fact; that the metal in the dollar should be worth just 
 as much as bullion as it was worth as coin ; that the proc- 
 ess of minting it should be simply to reduce it to conven- 
 ient shape and attest its weight and fineness. In other 
 words, that the commercial value of the metal should be 
 the exact equivalent of the legal value of the coin. No 
 other thought ever entered the minds of the men who 
 signed the Declaration of Independence, who endured 
 the hardships and misery of Valley Forge and shared the 
 glories of Yorktown. Having learned by sad experience 
 the evils of a debased and fluctuating currency, these 
 patriotic men, who shed their blood that liberty might be 
 established upon the earth, gave to us an example which, 
 if followed, will save us from woes unnumbered. 
 
 When the mint was established, gold and silver were 
 both coined at all the mints of the principal European 
 nations at a ratio as near the relative commercial value of 
 the two metals as could possibly be ascertained. As there 
 had been but little fluctuation between the commercial 
 value and the mint value for a long time, it was no doubt 
 believed that the then established ratio would be main- 
 tained, and that the two metals would circulate indis- 
 criminately; but the fact was clearly recognized that if
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 127 
 
 either metal was undervalued it would be expelled from 
 circulation. 
 
 Ten years before the mint was established Robert Mor- 
 ris, the financier of the Revolution, declared that gold and 
 silver could only circulate as money when the exact equiva- 
 lent between the mint value and the market value of 
 the two metals was preserved. These men understood 
 the Graham Law ; they knew that values were fixed by the 
 current judgment of men, and not by the fiat of govern- 
 ment. They never dreamed of giving a value to either 
 gold or silver by coining it into money. It never occurred 
 to them that it was possible to take forty cents' worth of 
 pig metal and make a dollar out of it worth one hundred 
 cents. That such a thing could be done seems to have 
 escaped the observation of aU our public men until about 
 1870, when Senator Jones of Nevada, in a two days' speech, 
 announced it as one of the simplest problems in economics. 
 In this speech, which is the fountain from which the free- 
 silverites have drawn their inspiration ever since. Senator 
 Jones displayed all the zeal of a new convert. Two years 
 before its delivery both Senator Jones and his colleague, 
 Senator Stewart, were earnest and eloquent advocates of 
 the gold standard. They declared that gold was the 
 universal standard of the world ; that we must come to the 
 same conclusion that all other people have — that gold is 
 recognized as the universal standard of value. 
 
 In his first message to Congress President Grant declared 
 that every obligation of the Government, unless otherwise 
 expressed in the contract, must be paid in gold. As late 
 as 1874 Senator Stewart agreed with the President. He 
 then advocated the conversion of the Treasury notes into 
 gold or five per cent, bonds. He wanted no paper money 
 not redeemable in gold. What influences then surrounded 
 these Nestors of the silver party? Both were largely in- 
 terested in silver mining. Senator Jones and his business 
 partner owned five sixths of the Crown Point mine, the 
 output of which was over $4,000,000 in 1874. Silver was 
 then worth 129 cents per ounce — sixteen to one. There
 
 128 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 was no reason why the silver mine owner should oppose 
 the gold standard or favor fiat money. No wonder he 
 said in the United States Senate in 1874: "Gold is so an 
 exact measure of human effort that when it is exclusively 
 used as money it teaches the very habit of honesty." But 
 in the concurrent judgment of mankind silver was too 
 high; it was not worth 129 cents an ounce, and the price 
 rapidly declined until March, 1876, when the market value 
 was no per ounce. This decline in price represented an 
 annual loss to the Crown Point of more than $500,000, 
 and to the other silver mine owners of Nevada more 
 than $4,000,000 per annum. Under these circumstances 
 Senator Jones, in April, 1876, made his speech in the 
 Senate, which was the beginning of the struggle for 
 fiat money, which has been so persistently maintained 
 ever since. 
 
 The demand for free silver did not originate on the farm 
 or in the workshop; its cradle was the Comstock Lode. 
 It is the offspring of greed and rapacity, Mr. Bryan, in 
 his speech accepting the Chicago nomination, truly said: 
 " So long as human nature remains as it is there will always 
 be danger, more or less restrained by public opinion or 
 legal enactment, that those who see a pecuniary profit to 
 themselves in certain conditions may yield to the tempta- 
 tion to bring about those conditions." Mr. Bryan must 
 have had the silver-producing States in his mind's eye. 
 So long as the commercial value of silver was equal to its 
 mint value we heard nothing of free coinage. None then 
 were to be found to champion its cause. The sacred dol- 
 lar of the daddies seems to have been lost sight of. 
 
 Prior to i860 the production of silver in this country 
 was insignificant; but after that time it rapidly increased, 
 and by 1873 more than 188 millions had been dug from 
 the mines of the United States, and of this vast sum only 
 two and a half per cent, was coined into silver dollars, 
 every dollar of which was sold for gold. Some of our men 
 in public life who are to-day leading this unholy crusade 
 for fiat money were silver mine owners in 1873. Why is it
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 129 
 
 they could not then see that nothing but the free coinage 
 of silver at sixteen to one would save mankind from cruci- 
 fixion upon a cross of gold, preserve the liberties of the 
 people, and prevent our becoming vassals to the English 
 money-lenders? The answer is plain. The bullion in a 
 silver dollar is worth 103 cents in gold, and these patriots 
 were unwilling to lose the three per cent. The mint was 
 open to free coinage of silver; they refused to take their 
 188 millions to it when silver was at a small premium, and 
 they now demand the right by law to have not only their 
 own silver, but all the silver in the world coined at the 
 mint and the people of this country compelled to take it 
 at par with gold when in fact one gold dollar is worth 
 intrinsically nearly two and a half dollars in silver in all 
 the markets of the world. In justification of this mon- 
 strous proposition its advocates say that the free coinage 
 of silver will at once raise the price of that metal to 129 
 cents an ounce and thus restore its parity with gold. Do 
 the leaders believe it? Are they sincere when they make 
 this declaration to the American people? I appeal to the 
 record. During the campaign of 1896, Mr. Bryan, in a 
 signed statement published in the newspapers, admitted 
 that free coinage at sixteen to one would vastly depreciate 
 the deposits in Savings Banks, but claimed that depositors 
 would be more than compensated for their loss by the 
 increased value which free coinage would give to their 
 other holdings; that the value of life insurance policies 
 would be reduced, but that the holders of the policies 
 would be more than compensated by the reduction in the 
 premiums they would have to pay. 
 
 Professor Parsons, of the Boston University of Law, an 
 earnest advocate of free silver at sixteen to one, in an 
 article published in the Arena, said that the results of 
 such a measure would be the retirement of $500,000,000 
 or $600,000,000 in gold from our monetary resources — a 
 vast gift to the owners of silver mines and silver bullion 
 here and abroad, the temporary scaling down of salaries 
 and wages, injustice to creditors in respect to all debts
 
 I30 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 contracted in recent years under the present standard, 
 including depositors in Savings Banks. 
 
 How could depositors in Savings Banks be injured 
 or the value of their deposits diminished by the free 
 coinage of silver if the silver dollars remained as good 
 as gold dollars? No one but a freesilverite can tell the 
 reason why. Mr. Bryan's statement that the increased 
 value of their other holdings would more than compensate 
 the depositors for the diminished value of their deposits is 
 a mockery. You gentlemen know that in nearly every 
 instance the little bank account is the depositor's all. 
 Look at the Bowery Savings Bank with its 114,000 depos- 
 itors, the largest but $3,200 and but two which amount to 
 $3,000, while the average is but $512. What outside in- 
 vestments have these people which will be benefited by 
 adopting the financial theories of the friends and advocates 
 of fiat money? It is safe to say that a proposition to 
 destroy more than one half of the deposits in our Savings 
 Banks, squarely submitted to the popular vote of the 
 American people, would not prevail in a single county in 
 the Union, and yet the advocates of free silver practically 
 admit that such would be the effect of its adoption. Could 
 this Government lay the hand of despotism upon our 
 Savings Banks and take from their coffers money enough 
 to pay the public debt, it would be an act of spoliation and 
 oppression unparalleled in the history of the world. Still, 
 such an act would not inflict as great pecuniary loss upon 
 the 4,000,000 of wage-earners, whose savings have built 
 up and who own the Savings Banks, as would the free 
 coinage of silver at sixteen to one. The advocates of this 
 measure, loaded down as it is with injustice and dishonor, 
 call themselves disciples of Jefferson and Jackson. When 
 the mint was established, Mr. Jefferson, as well as all the 
 public men of the time, recognized the necessity of main- 
 taining the exact equivalent between the legal value of the 
 coin and the market value of the metal from which it was 
 made. General Jackson with his own hand signed the 
 bill which restored to this country the gold currency driven
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 131 
 
 from our shores because gold was worth more in the market 
 than it was at the mint. If the old hero were alive to-day 
 you might as well look for him in a secession convention 
 as in a free-silver caucus. 
 
 These advocates of fiat money — ^bimetallists as they call 
 themselves — tell the people that the decline in the price 
 of silver is attributable alone to the ''crime of '73," and 
 that to adopt free coinage at sixteen to one will at once 
 advance the price to 129 cents an ounce and restore the 
 parity between the two metals. They simply make the 
 assertion, but fail to state a single fact upon which their 
 belief is predicated. The experience of all nations is 
 against them. We have tried the experiment and failed. 
 No free coinage country on the earth to-day uses gold in 
 its monetary system. AH free coinage countries are on the 
 silver standard. No nation on earth has ever been able 
 by free coinage of both gold and silver at any ratio to 
 maintain the exact equivalent between the mint value 
 and the commercial value of the two metals. Every at- 
 tempt to accomplish this result has failed. The metal 
 which is undervalued at the mint always retires from cir- 
 culation. By ignoring the experience of the past, these 
 latter-day bimetallists insist that no problem in economics 
 is easier than to bring about the concurrent circulation 
 of both gold and silver as money of redemption at sixteen 
 to one. There can be no doubt but that the rank and 
 file of the free-silver advocates who have been educated 
 into this belief by the party leaders are honest in their 
 convictions, but it takes a large stock of human credulity 
 to make us believe that the leaders, when they set at 
 defiance the experience of this and all other countries 
 where the experiment has been tried, are themselves sin- 
 cere. What they fail to gather from the experience of all 
 nations they attempt to supply by organization and per- 
 sistency. We have yielded too much already. There 
 must be no more compromises. The Government has lost 
 more money in the purchase of the uncoined silver in the 
 treasury than would have built and paid for twenty first-
 
 132 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 class battleships. While the shouts of Admiral Dewey's 
 heroic crew were going up from Manila announcing a 
 glorious victory for the American fleet and proclaiming 
 a change in the map of the world, the demand comes from 
 the freesilverites in Congress to coin the seignorage and 
 issue one hundred and fifty millions in treasury notes. 
 It is to be hoped that no such measure will prevail. We 
 have more than enough demand obligations outstanding 
 against the Government. We don't want to fight this 
 war with fiat money. We have got the gold right here 
 in the hands of our own people to maintain our armies in 
 the field and our ships afloat. Our people have the pa- 
 triotism to hand over to the Government gold enough to 
 meet its every want. They say that gold is cowardly 
 and hides before the echoes of the first hostile gun have 
 died away. I deny it. Our people, rich and poor alike, 
 offer the Government more than it has need for. If dur- 
 ing this conflict gold disappears it will flee from vicious 
 legislation and not from Spanish buUets. 
 
 If the advocates of free silver and other forms of fiat 
 money could get control of this government they would 
 drive every dollar in gold from our monetary system, but 
 hostfle guns can never do it. 
 
 The importance of maintaining our present standard of 
 value cannot be overestimated, and the most serious evil 
 affecting our monetary system is its threatened degrada- 
 tion. The gold standard must be preserved, and our 
 obligations, public and private, discharged with reference 
 to it. This question rises higher than party considera- 
 tions. The friends of honest money and honest methods 
 must not, for the sake of party regularity, by their votes 
 help fasten upon this country a policy which their judg- 
 ment tells them will ruin it. Mr. Jefferson said that the 
 surrender of one's convictions upon great questions of 
 public policy at the mere behest of a political caucus was 
 the last degradation of a free moral agent; that if he could 
 not go to heaven without going with a party he would not 
 go at all. Without regard to past party affiliations, we
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 133 
 
 must oppose every man who favors repudiation in any 
 manner, shape, or form, of either public or private obliga- 
 tions. It is just as reprehensible in morals for the Govern- 
 ment to repudiate a part of its debt by paying it in a de- 
 preciated currency as it is to openly repudiate the whole. 
 Whatever virtues the advocates of free silver may claim 
 for it, its adoption means the repudiation of more than 
 one half of every debt in this country not specifically pay- 
 able in gold, whether public or private, and they are bound 
 to know it. But it will never be. Silver to-day occupies 
 the same relation to the commercial nations of the earth 
 that slavery did to the civilized and Christian nations in 
 i860 — supported by a fraction in the United States and 
 condemned everywhere else. Under such circumstances 
 its fate as a money metal is doomed. 
 
 If we have the courage of our convictions and stand up 
 and make a bold and manly fight for the single gold 
 standard, we cannot fail. My faith in the virtue of the 
 American people is unshaken; they are too brave to 
 be dishonest. They will never consent to take from 
 the savings of the poor man that one thousand millions 
 of dollars, nearly every dollar of which vast sum has 
 been earned by the sweat of some toiler's face. They will 
 never consent that the obligations of the Government, 
 created in defending its life and preserving the integrity of 
 the Union, shall be paid in a depreciated currency, but 
 the time will come when the great heart of the nation will 
 respond to the noble sentiment of General Hawley, ut- 
 tered thirty years ago: " Every obligation and every bond 
 of this Government must be as sacred as a soldier's grave." 
 
 POSTAL SAVINGS BANK 
 
 The following are extracts from the address of Col. 
 Myron T. Herrick, Cleveland, Ohio, on the subject of 
 "Postal Savings Banks." 
 
 Were we to admit the truth of the statements made, the 
 existing conditions would not warrant the establishment
 
 134 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 in this countty of a postal banking system. We have an 
 unexampled Savings Bank system which has been slowly 
 building on a stable foundation for more than a century, 
 inspired by the same unselfish spirit of patriotism as ac- 
 tuated the builders of the National Government, and its 
 marvelous growth and the fideHty with which the savings 
 of the frugal and thrifty laboring millions have been cared 
 for are thus readily explained. It had for its objective 
 the encouragement of thrift and independence, and in its 
 inception and consummation it has had the unsolicited, 
 gratuitous services of men of well-known ability and ex- 
 perience. That this vast trust, aggregating in value more 
 than two thousand millions of dollars, has been faithfully 
 administered, and that the power has been exercised by 
 these comparatively few men with justice and even benevo- 
 lence, is uniformly admitted. The system, while not 
 perfect, has so broadened its scope and possibilities as to 
 adapt itself to the varied needs of the people in all sec- 
 tions of the country\ When compared with the origin, 
 development, and government of the Savings Bank systems 
 of other countries, the vast proportions which it has as- 
 sumed lend to it a peculiar significance, indicating that 
 the benevolent motives from which it sprang resulted in 
 the building of an enduring structure adapted to the need 
 of the masses. 
 
 Of our institutions for savings the earlier ones were 
 mutual and cooperative in character, having no capital 
 stock. Of this class of banks there are now some 688 in 
 number, and their total deposits and resources amount, I 
 believe, to about eighty-eight per cent, of the deposits and 
 resources of all savings institutions. Nearly or quite all 
 of these earlier mutual institutions are still in operation. 
 
 Naturally the first Savings Banks were established in 
 the East near the centre of population, travelling westward 
 and southward with the country's growth in compliance 
 with the law of supply and demand, and as the need of such 
 new territory called for such institutions they were promptly 
 organized. It is a well-known fact that in newly settled
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 135 
 
 countries there is practically no idle capital, earnings 
 are immediately reemployed, and business is carried on 
 largely with capital borrowed in the East. The borrowing 
 side of a bank in a new country has early an abnormal 
 development, but the savings or deposit side comes only 
 with the accumulation of years, and cannot be forced. 
 It must be admitted that the deposits in those banks could 
 not have reached the vast proportions had not the money 
 so deposited been immediately loaned back to the people, 
 thus becoming one of the chief factors in the development 
 of the country. 
 
 Governmental supervision has, in the case of national 
 banks, proved to be of great value to the people, the Gov- 
 ernment assuming no ownership in their business; and it 
 would seem that a similar poHcy of oversight of the savings 
 institutions of the country would be of equal benefit, if 
 for no other reason than to establish a uniform system of 
 examination which is now left to the varying laws of the 
 different States. 
 
 I believe that, as a rule, the banks throughout the coun- 
 try have interposed little or no opposition to these postal 
 savings schemes. . . . But they cannot see how the in- 
 terests of their depositors can be served by placing these de- 
 posits with the postmasters throughout the country, whose 
 terms of office are unstable and subject to frequent changes, 
 and who are not generally appointed because of any ap- 
 titude for the banking business. The bankers cannot see 
 how these deposits would be surrounded with any greater 
 safeguard stowed away in the depository of some crossroad 
 postmaster than if they were resting in the custody of the 
 Savings Banks in highly efficient burglar-proof vaults pro- 
 vided especially for their keeping. Nor can the banker 
 from his point of view appreciate the argument of the 
 postal savings advocate that greater freedom of circula- 
 tion is to be given these funds by their transfer from the 
 numerous banks throughout the country to the Govern- 
 ment centres, thus depriving the localities from which the 
 deposits may be collected of the present legitimate use of
 
 136 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 these funds, John Doe is a laborer, and has bought his 
 little home, giving therefor in part payment a purchase 
 money mortgage of, say, $500, held by a savings institu- 
 tion. The moral and other benefits of the postal system 
 have so impressed the depositors in that institution as to 
 prevail upon them to withdraw their deposits, where they 
 have been at interest for a generation, and to redeposit 
 that money with the postmaster at a loss of fifty per cent, 
 in interest. To meet this extraordinary demand the bank 
 must call its loans. John Doe and others are called upon 
 for settlement. He must either pay or suffer his property 
 to be sold in foreclosure. In this scheme to "elevate the 
 moral tone, to create defenders of the credit and stabiUty 
 of the Government, to encourage thrift in remote parts of 
 the country," does the Government propose to protect 
 John Doe, to loan him the $500, taking to itself a mortgage 
 on his home, and if Doe defaults in the payment of prin- 
 cipal or interest, or if he fails to pay his taxes, will the 
 Government foreclose and seU the property? and if there 
 are no bidders, will it buy Doe's house and lot? . . . 
 
 If there is any one doctrine which has been instilled into 
 the minds of the American people for successive genera- 
 tions, since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers to the present 
 day, it is that of personal liberty and independent control 
 of private property. 
 
 America owes her greatness to her freedom — an inde- 
 pendence gained by hard-fought battles. Her soil has 
 been enriched by the blood of patriots, from which alone 
 can spring such institutions. We may be a nation of 
 farmers and laborers, of merchants and manufacturers, 
 of shopkeepers and money-changers, with no leisure class, 
 yet we have a national consciousness which is penetrating 
 art and literature; and from our narrower beginnings we 
 are ever rising to broader and higher comprehensions of 
 what constitutes the fundamental doctrines of a free and 
 independent nation, and these we are ever ready to main- 
 tain. It is hoped that this country will move steadily on, 
 increasing in prosperity and wealth, and that the Govern-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 137 
 
 ment will carry to a legitimate conclusion all its great 
 policies, and particularly the one of placing the currency 
 of the country on a sound basis, permanently retiring from 
 the banking business, satisfied to continue to exercise a 
 watchful care over the business and commerce of the coun- 
 try, avoiding the engaging in trade of any kind whatsoever 
 foreign to its purpose. 
 
 ADDRESS OF F. D. KILBURN, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE 
 BANKING DEPARTMENT 
 
 Superintendent F. D. iCilburn, addressing the Conven- 
 tion, said: 
 
 It is seldom that men gather together to the number that 
 are here assembled to-day who represent such vast inter- 
 ests as are represented by the Savings Banks Association 
 of this State, and who represent those interests in the 
 peculiar way that they are represented by you. You come 
 here not representing your own capital or your own money, 
 nor the capital or money of people with whom you are 
 associated in business, but you come here as benefactors 
 of the great masses of this State, representing the savings 
 of the common people, having no interests whatever in 
 those savings yourselves except to preserve them safely 
 and invest them safely. I do not believe that any other 
 country in the world, perhaps, can present a system of 
 benevolence so far reaching as the Mutual Savings Bank 
 system of this country is recognized to be. The only 
 interest which you have, in a pecuniary sense, is the mod- 
 erate salary — and I pronounce that word advisedly — 
 which you are paid for the great services which you per- 
 form. I have been charged by irresponsible people with 
 being in collusion with the Savings Bank people of this 
 State. You have been held up as monsters of greed and 
 selfishness, and I have been pointed to as your subservient 
 tool. If I am no worse as your tool than I believe you to 
 be in your greed and selfishness I am content. As I had 
 occasion to say, last year, and as I would like to repeat
 
 138 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 whenever the occasion seems to warrant it, I do not 
 believe that there is a class of men doing more good 
 anywhere in this country than the men who govern our 
 Savings Banks. The very idea with which they were 
 established was that of benevolence, not charity, because 
 they are not charitable institutions, and the people who 
 deposit in our Savings Banks are not subjects of charity. 
 They are independent, law-abiding, patriotic citizens of 
 this vast commonwealth of ours. But the institutions 
 are benevolent, and as such are doing a great work, for 
 which we have no other machinery, that I know of, in this 
 country. I was glad to hear the suggestion made here 
 to-day that a Committee be appointed to go to Washington 
 for the purpose of opposing the proposed bill to tax de- 
 posits of Savings Banks. Now I do not believe that de- 
 positors in the Savings Banks of this State or any other 
 State will object to paying their fair share of the expenses 
 of waging war against Spain or any other country with 
 which we may have war; still, I believe that it is entirely 
 wrong and uncalled for that they be especially singled out 
 for the purpose of taxation for this or any other purpose. 
 
 At the most, this Government cannot obtain more than 
 five or six million dollars by the proposed tax upon Sav- 
 ings Banks. This State would have to pay perhaps from 
 one and three quarters to two million dollars of that sum. 
 Now that is a large amount to the depositors of this 
 State, whose deposits only average about $430, and is a 
 very small sum, a mere nothing, to this great, rich country 
 of ours; and I believe that the proposition is wrong in 
 principle even, that these deposits of the poor people of 
 our country should be called upon — under the prosperity 
 which we enjoy and the vast resources and the enormous 
 riches which we possess in this country — be called upon 
 to pay anything, until the necessity arises, toward the 
 prosecution of this war. I tell you, gentlemen, the people 
 who own the deposits in our Savings Banks will do sufficient 
 in putting down this war by the sinews they will contrib- 
 ute to the conflict.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 139 
 
 I do not dare say too much on an occasion of this kind, 
 for fear I may say something that I may have to take 
 back, because sometimes, you know, the Superintendent 
 of Banks of this State finds something that he does not 
 exactly approve and that he must criticise, and I do not 
 want you to have the opportunity to tell me that I said 
 something else on some occasion which rather commits 
 me perhaps against any other action, I would like to call 
 attention to two things which are of somewhat minor 
 importance, and yet which give me some concern and in- 
 convenience as Superintendent, and I don't think I will 
 ever have a better opportunity to say it to so many people 
 representing Savings Banks as I have here to-day. One 
 of the questions before us is that of dormant accounts. 
 There is not a uniform system in this State among the 
 Savings Banks of making accounts dormant. I know of 
 one bank that makes them dormant after eight years. I 
 know of several that make them dormant at twenty years. 
 Now you have no right to make such accounts dormant 
 until twenty- two years have expired; that is the law, and 
 if you make it twenty years or eight years, or any less 
 number of years than twenty-two, you have violated a 
 law, and it becomes my duty to call your attention to it. 
 Many of the banks have by-laws which provide that ac- 
 counts shall become dormant at the end of twenty years, 
 and some of them have a less term. Where I find instances 
 of that kind I try to correct them and have the by-laws 
 amended and the practice established. I wish you would 
 remember that, and if any of you are making accounts 
 dormant at a period less than twenty-two years, to correct 
 it at once. 
 
 I cannot sit down without complimenting the Legisla- 
 ture of our State upon the way that it has looked upon the 
 bills which you and myself regarded as objectionable and 
 which are always introduced in the Legislature of this 
 State at least; and I think most of these bills are intro- 
 duced through ignorance of the system of Savings Banks 
 in this State. The men who introduce them usually have
 
 I40 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 no sinister motives behind them, but they think — I believe 
 they think — at least in a majority of cases, that they are 
 subserving, or trying to subserve, some great public de- 
 mand when they introduce the bills which they do; and 
 I have found that when you explain to the ordinary legis- 
 lator the true inwardness of a bill, in nine cases out of ten 
 you get him with you. When they see the facts connected 
 with the bill and the effect that it may have upon the vast 
 interests which you gentlemen represent, they are gener- 
 ally easy to convince.' Your Executive Committee will 
 bear me out, generally, at least, in the statement that I 
 make in this direction. I. know this last winter we had 
 very little trouble in the main in convincing the Legislature 
 that certain bills which we thought ought not to pass 
 should not pass. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED 
 
 The following resolution offered by Mr. Wm. C. Sturges, 
 President of Seaman's Bank for Savings, and seconded by 
 Mr. Bradford Rhodes, President of the Union Savings 
 Bank of Westchester Coimty, was adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That the welfare of the millions of thrifty 
 working people whose interests we serve demand that the 
 currency of the country shall be based upon a standard of 
 gold, and be kept at all times upon a parity with gold, and 
 that in our opinion their interests have suffered and con- 
 tinue to suffer owing to the distrust caused through efforts 
 made to force in circulation unlimited coinage of silver. 
 We therefore view with satisfaction the introduction into 
 the House of Representatives of a Currency Reform Bill, 
 designed to alter existing conditions, and to enlarge and 
 readjust the powers of the banking system now in opera- 
 tion. This bill, in our judgment, should receive the 
 support of all members of Congress, and we respectfully 
 urge that every effort be made to secure its enactment 
 into law.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 141 
 
 The following, offered by Mr. Bradford Rhodes, Presi- 
 dent of the Union Bank of Westchester County, Ma- 
 maroneck, was adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That we heartily endorse every earnest effort 
 made to increase facilities for the encouragement of thrift 
 and the habit of savings on the part of the people. We 
 believe that the gathering together and the proper utili- 
 zation of the surplus earnings of the masses will add greatly 
 to the process of development of the resources of the 
 country and to the growth of a spirit of contentment on 
 the part of the working classes. We have faith in the 
 eleemosynary system of Savings Banks now in operation 
 in many of the States of the Union, and believe that in the 
 extension of this system is to be found the true solution 
 of the question at issue. We have no hostility to the 
 principle involved in the establishment of Postal Savings 
 Banks, but we do not believe that such a system is adapted 
 to a republican form of government — the policy of which 
 is to diminish rapidly rather than to increase its public 
 debt — owing to which there remains no adequate form of 
 investment for the savings of the people in which the 
 Government can properly make investment. We do not 
 believe that, under frequent changes of political control, 
 and in sparsely settled portions of the country, the agents 
 employed to receive and disburse moneys would be found 
 capable to satisfactorily perform such task, and we do 
 believe that the savings thus collected, which in the ag- 
 gregate, and in time, must reach a very large sum, should 
 not be withdrawn from the sections where collected, but 
 should remain and be properly used to assist in the develop- 
 ment of such sections, as has been the case under the 
 system of Savings Banks now in operation. For these 
 reasons we are opposed to the principle of Government 
 Postal Savings Banks now being urged upon Congress. 
 
 The following resolution, offered by Mr. John Harsen 
 Rhoades, President of the Association, was adopted:
 
 142 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Resolved, That the presence here of representatives of 
 leading Savings Banks in the State of Connecticut has 
 been a source of great pleasure to us, and we express the 
 hope that our interests, identical with each other as they 
 are, may lead to closer relations between their banks and 
 our own, to be extended until we embrace in a common 
 brotherhood the Savings Banks of the entire country.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Sixth Annual Convention — Movement Toward the Enlargement 
 of the Scope of Savings Bank Investments — Successful Ef- 
 forts to Eliminate all Reference to Savings Banks in the "War 
 Revenue Bill" as It Passed Congress — Taxation of Deposits — 
 Lessening the Nimiber of So-called "Dormant Accoimts" — 
 Address of Superintendent Kilburn — "The Relation of Sav- 
 ings Bank Deposits to General Business," by Hon. Charles 
 S. Fairchild — "The Power and Beneficence of Capital," by 
 Prof. Wm. G. Sumner, of Yale University — Special Meeting 
 Called to Act on the So-called "Stranahan Bill" — Legislative 
 Hearing on Tax Bill. 
 
 rl" opening the proceedings of the Sixth Annual Con- 
 vention of the Association, held at 32 Nassau Street, 
 New York, on Wednesday, May 10, 1899, President 
 John Harsen Rhoades said, among other things: 
 
 Gentlemen: By your kindness and courtesy elected 
 your presiding ofl&cer, it is with a feeling of sincere pleas- 
 ure that I welcome you once again to the annual meeting 
 of our Association and to the hospitalities in which we 
 here all share. 
 
 When I think of the many years which the officers of 
 Savings Banks in this State have allowed to pass without 
 affording an opportunity to know one another better, and 
 to consult with one another upon questions of vital im- 
 portance to the welfare of the cause we serve, I hold all 
 the more precious the years that remain to each of us, and 
 look forward to these recurring meetings somewhat as old 
 friends do with one another in the joy of the oncoming 
 after a long separation. The work of the Association, 
 devolving as it does largely upon your Executive Commit- 
 tee, renders it difficult to realize how much has been done,
 
 144 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 and that this Association is in reality an active, forceful, 
 and valuable agent in fostering the best interests of our 
 depositors, and yet the fact remains that were it not for 
 our united effort we would quickly find that the Savings 
 Rank system in this State was being undermined by bad 
 laws, corruptly or ignorantly created, and we would fail to 
 secure the passage of good laws needed to strengthen and 
 extend the beneficent influence of these great eleemosynary 
 institutions. 
 
 The report of your Executive Committee wiU give you 
 the skeleton of the work done during the past year; but 
 it cannot give you the details, or count the days and hours 
 given to accomplish what is thus outlined; and for this 
 reason I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without 
 telling you how much we are indebted to Mr. Rainey, 
 Chairman of your Executive Committee, for his share in 
 this work. Watchful, earnest, intelligent, and faithful, 
 your officers have leaned on him for counsel and direction, 
 and have recognized that largely to his effort is due what- 
 ever of success has crowned our efforts during the past 
 year. 
 
 In the annual report of the Comptroller of the State, 
 in giving a statement of the debt of the municipalities, 
 he called attention to the fact that he had been unable to 
 secure reliable data as to such indebtedness, and had been 
 compelled to rely largely upon statistics, given to him 
 second hand, for the correctness of which he could not 
 vouch. He found from the returns as made by officers of 
 the municipalities, and the figures collated elsewhere, that 
 the municipal debt of the State amounted to four hundred 
 and twelve millions of dollars. In view of the fact that 
 the Savings Banks are carrying one hundred and eighty- 
 one millions of dollars of this debt, it seemed to me a 
 matter of vital importance to our interests that such a 
 condition of ignorance as to the municipal indebtedness 
 of the State should in some way be remedied, and that 
 this Association should lend its efforts to secure such addi- 
 tional legislative action as is requisite to regularly supply
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 14S 
 
 this needed information — for it is needed, both as a guide 
 in making investment in these securities, and as a check 
 to extravagance on the part of the municipalities them- 
 selves. To this end I called the attention of the Super- 
 intendent of the Banking Department to the statement 
 made by the Comptroller, and sought his aid in obtaining 
 such information as was available for comparison. Mr. 
 Kilburn at once saw the importance of the subject, and 
 immediately undertook the work of analyzing that portion 
 of such debt carried by the Savings Banks. Comparing 
 these figures with those collated by the Comptroller, they 
 show some facts which go to prove the absolute need of 
 the reform suggested; but, in giving these conclusions, it 
 must be borne in mind the Comptroller has stated clearly 
 that his figures are based only upon the best knowledge 
 he could obtain, and, therefore, that they could not pos- 
 sibly be correct in every instance. Comparing, then, the 
 amount of debt for each municipality as given in his state- 
 ment with that carried by the Savings Banks, and basing 
 the per capita indebtedness of each municipality referred 
 to upon the population as given in the census of 1890, these 
 facts appear: 
 
 The banks are carrying the bonds of 206 towns and vil- 
 lages to the extent of about five and one half millions of 
 dollars, the indebtedness of which is not reported at all 
 by the Comptroller. They are carrying either the entire 
 debt, or within fifteen per cent, of the entire debt, of 219 
 cities, towns, counties, and villages in the State. There 
 are thirty-two municipalities in which the banks are carry- 
 ing more bonds in amount than the entire debt of each 
 as reported by the Comptroller. Now as to the question 
 of the per capita indebtedness of some of these muni- 
 cipalities. 
 
 Leaving out the smaller municipalities included in the 
 Greater New York, and also quite a number of which, for 
 lack of knowledge as to debt, I have been unable to make 
 comparison, I find that there are at least sixteen having a 
 per capita indebtedness of between $50 and $60; eight
 
 146 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 $60 to $70; three $70 to $80; five $80 to $90; one $90 to 
 $100; one $100 to $110; one $110 to $120; three $130 to 
 $140; one $150 to $160, and two $210 to $220. 
 
 This examination also shows some interesting figures 
 as to the debt of some of the smaller municipalities em- 
 braced in the city now called the Greater New York, and 
 it may be well to give these figures as going to show the 
 enormous volume of per capita indebtedness on the part 
 of some of these small municipalities, a large proportion of 
 which was created just prior to consolidation. These 
 figures are as follows: Four have a per capita indebted- 
 ness of $60 to $70; one $80 to $90; one $100 to $110; three 
 $120 to $130; one $130 to $140; one $180 to $190; two $220 
 to $230; one $260 to $270, and one over $500. And noth- 
 ing could have saved some of these towns and villages from 
 bankruptcy but the fact that the burden of debt is now 
 being borne by the city at large. Leaving out the City of 
 New York and a few large cities through the State, a 
 few moments' consideration only is needed to convince 
 any prudent investor that a per capita municipal indebt- 
 edness of $60 to $220 is altogether too heavy a burden to 
 carry, especially for towns or small villages. Think for a 
 moment of a municipal debt of $160 upon each man, woman, 
 and child within the precincts of a small community 
 like a village. If the figures upon which these estimates 
 were based were thoroughly reliable, we might well feel 
 anxious over the situation. There is, however, enough 
 truth in the statement made to demand not only our at- 
 tention but that of the public, to the end that better 
 knowledge of the municipal indebtedness of this State 
 may be at all times obtainable. 
 
 This is a debt-creating era in the history of our country, 
 and the growth of municipal indebtedness, not only 
 in this State but all over the land, should be carefuUy 
 watched. 
 
 And what is the remedy? There ought to be some de- 
 partment of the State (and that of the Comptroller is the 
 proper department) to which should be sent annually a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 147 
 
 sworn statement, signed by the proper officials of each 
 municipality, giving the exact condition of the indebted- 
 ness of each, and the amount applicable as a sinking fund; 
 and a failure to make such an annual statement should 
 constitute a misdemeanor. In addition to this, in view of 
 the laxity and want of method in keeping the accounts of 
 many of the municipalities, especially those constituting 
 a small population, which laxity and want of method have 
 been repeatedly shown when investigations have been 
 made by those purchasing bonds, and which, I think, has 
 been pubKcly stated by the Comptroller of the City of 
 New York in connection with his effort to arrive at the 
 debts of some of the smaller municipalities now embraced 
 in the Greater New York, there should be some uniform 
 system of bookkeeping, so far as the general basis is con- 
 cerned, which should be required and enforced throughout 
 the State. We must bear in mind that the Savings 
 Banks, as I have already said, are carrying one hundred 
 and eighty-one millions of the municipal debt of the State, 
 and that the moneys in our charge are largely made of the 
 savings of the masses in our population. If these thrifty 
 workers, through our hands, become the greatest loaners 
 to our municipal departments, and thus contribute so 
 largely to the welfare of the public as they do, then they 
 have a right to demand at the hands of the Legislature 
 such protection as will enable those who act for them to be 
 advised in detail at all times of the condition of the muni- 
 cipal debt of each municipality. 
 
 During the past session of the Legislature a bill has 
 been passed enlarging the scope of investment of the funds 
 in our charge. This measure, after careful consideration, 
 was approved by your Executive Committee. The need 
 for an enlarged scope of investment is keenly felt. The 
 municipal bonds of our large cities are being absorbed in 
 all directions, both within and without the State, and the 
 demand has extended throughout the Middle West, and 
 even beyond that, while the exemption from liability to 
 taxation embodied in the bonds of New York City and
 
 148 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 elsewhere has opened up a new and large competition 
 both from individuals and corporations. The demand for 
 loans secured by mortgage on real estate has increased so 
 largely as to exceed the supply throughout the farming 
 districts, and moneys from the interior have been sent for 
 investment in loans on real estate in all the larger cities; 
 while in view of the high price for the securities of the 
 general government the banks have found it extremely 
 difficult to obtain such securities as are quickly avail- 
 able in periods of mercantile depression and consequent 
 sudden drain for deposits; for it must be borne in mind 
 that our deposits are at all times subject to payment 
 on demand, and in consequence our available resources, 
 quickly convertible into cash, should be ample at all 
 times. 
 
 For these reasons (and many more might be given) it 
 seemed wise and expedient that your Executive Commit- 
 tee should favor a proper bill widening the scope of in- 
 vestment; but, in doing this, we are well aware of the 
 importance and the necessity of preventing the admission 
 of securities not regarded as of the first quality, both in 
 credit and security, and of opposing with all the powers we 
 possess any and all efforts to force upon the banks more 
 securities than prudence, safety, and the needs of the hour 
 demand. Against this tendency we must all stand as firm 
 as a rock. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, I have spoken too long and said 
 too much. Permit me, however, in closing, to add a word 
 about yourselves : Let us remember that the Savings Bank 
 in its essence and purity was founded as a means to lessen 
 pauperism and as incentive to thrift. Let us not forget 
 that it rests upon foundations born of philanthropy. 
 No selfishness, no greed, no profit to ourselves must 
 be the motto which marks our administration of this 
 great and solemn trust. Our trustees are chosen from 
 those who are willing to serve the public for the pub- 
 lic's good and for no other purpose, and the well-doing 
 of the charge we have assumed is the only reward we
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 149 
 
 can expect to receive and the only reward we should wish 
 to receive. 
 
 WTien I think of the work we are doing — how, through 
 our effort, we cause joy to dwell in the homes of the poor 
 and sorrow to rest less heavily upon those to whom it must 
 and will come — when I realize how, through our efforts, 
 we are encouraging thrift, lessening poverty and pauper- 
 ism, and, by the free will of the humble toiler, gathering 
 together his little capital until, by the combined force of 
 partnership, he becomes a great power of wealth through- 
 out the land; wealth, the purest and best in quality, blessed 
 at its birth as it is by the sweat which comes from honest 
 toil, and then giving it out in great volume to help create, 
 build up, extend, and render more secure the grand com- 
 monwealth we call by the dear name of country — when I 
 think of these things I realize that we are in truth doing 
 something for our fellowmen that is well worth the doing, 
 and that in the serving we have a reward more precious 
 than gold or silver in the consciousness that we are help- 
 ing uplift the race upon a higher, a better, and a nobler 
 plane. 
 
 Let us, therefore, work not for the day, but for the mor- 
 row, remembering that what we build we build both for 
 the day and the morrow. It is in this spirit and with this 
 aim in view that our work should go on, and unless we do 
 this work unselfishly, without profit to ourselves, and in 
 the pure spirit of philanthropy in which such work was 
 created, we will sow the seeds of distrust among the peo- 
 ple, and eventually the system itself will break down. 
 
 They are alone for the working classes, and for those 
 incompetent, through experience, to care for their savings 
 themselves. The thrifty workers, the widow, and the 
 orphan are alone entitled to the privileges and benefits here 
 granted. The State has wisely exempted these deposits 
 from taxation, and we must see to it that we do not allow 
 those able and competent to take care of their own moneys 
 to use the banks as a refuge for the purpose of avoiding 
 liability to personal taxation. Unless we do this, the
 
 I50 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 time will surel}' come when the burden of taxation will 
 also be laid upon the banks, with the sure result of causing 
 the withdrawal of the moneys deposited by those who have 
 no moral right to use the banks, and leaving the burden 
 to be borne by those the least able to bear it. Such has 
 been the experience in all efforts to enforce personal taxa- 
 tion at large, and the same result must and will follow any 
 attempt to tax the small savings of the poor. 
 
 The Savings Bank in its various forms has thus far 
 proved to have been one of the greatest agencies at work 
 in the civilized world to improve the condition of the labor- 
 ing classes and make available their small savings for the 
 purpose of creating wealth, by which the State and the 
 Nation are greatly benefited. Therefore, let us see to it 
 that, so far as the great State of New York is concerned, 
 we will do our own share in strengthening and maintain- 
 ing in all its purity this great agency for good of which 
 we are the directors, and the development of which marks 
 an era of advanced civilization and of higher conception 
 of what man owes to his brother man. 
 
 REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 Extracts from the report of the Executive Committee 
 follow : 
 
 At our last annual meeting a Committee was appointed 
 to visit Washington and urge upon Senators and Congress- 
 men the injustice of the proposed war revenue tax on 
 Savings Banks. This Committee, immediately upon the 
 adjournment of the meeting, arranged to carry out your 
 instructions, and with Superintendent Kilburn went to 
 Washington the following week, where they were joined 
 by Colonel Myron T. Herrick, of Ohio, Mr. Henry R. 
 Wooster, of Deep River, and Mr. A. E. Hart, of Hartford, 
 Conn. 
 
 After preparing a very careful statement of our case, 
 your Committee sought and obtained interviews with
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 151 
 
 members of the Finance Committee of the Senate, and 
 of the Ways and Means Committee of the House. Sena- 
 tors Piatt and Murphy of this State took the matter up 
 with great interest and assisted in placing us in communi- 
 cation with members we desired to see. Our friends from 
 Ohio and Connecticut were of much service. The result 
 was an entire elimination of all references to Savings Banks 
 in the " War Revenue Bill " as it became a law. 
 
 The taxation of Savings Bank depositors has been a 
 subject that has occupied the attention of your Committee 
 for two or three years past, owing to the attitude of the 
 State Tax Commissioners, who were controlled by an 
 opinion written by a Deputy Attorney-General, that 
 deposits were subject to taxation at the same rate as other 
 personal property. Two years ago we obtained from 
 George W. Wickersham, Esq., of Strong & Cadwallader, 
 an opinion which was sent to the members of the Associa- 
 tion. A year ago a circular was sent giving the decision of 
 Judge M. L. Wright. 
 
 Later, a case was tried in the Second Judicial District, 
 and the Judge rendered a decision that deposits were 
 subject to taxation. This case was appealed to the Su- 
 preme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, 
 and the decision of the Court below was affirmed. Before 
 this decision was made public, the State Tax Commis- 
 sioners brought an action against the Assessor of the City 
 of Kingston to compel him to place depositors in Savings 
 Banks in that city on the tax rolls. The motion was argued 
 before Judge Edwards, at Hudson, who followed the de- 
 cision of Judge Wright, and denied the motion. The Tax 
 Commissioners appealed to the Appellate Court, Third 
 Department. Your Executive Committee, feeling that 
 the matter was of grave importance to our banks, employed 
 Mr. Wickersham. Through the kindness of Corporation 
 Counsel John W. Searing, of Kingston, Mr. Wickersham 
 was allowed to come into the case as counsel, and appeared 
 before the Appellate Court. The decision of this court 
 was an affirmance of Judge Edward's action. We thus
 
 152 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 had a decision of the Appellate Court of the Second De- 
 partment, that depositors in Savings Banks must be taxed, 
 and a decision of the Appellate Court, Third Department, 
 that they were not subject to taxation. The Tax Com- 
 mission appealed to the Court of Appeals, and on March 
 14th this Court of Final Jurisdiction rendered a decision 
 that depositors were exempt. 
 
 During the year the case of the Assessors of the City of 
 Newburgh against the Newburgh Savings Bank has been 
 carried through the Appellate Court and Court of Ap- 
 peals, in both of which courts Judge Hirschburg's deci- 
 sion, that the bank was not subject to taxation on its 
 surplus, was affirmed. 
 
 An effort has been made by your Committee to bring 
 all the Savings Banks of the State into the Association, 
 with the result that nine (9) banks have joined during 
 the year, making a total of one hundred and thirteen 
 
 (113)- 
 
 We are sometimes asked by members of the Legisla- 
 ture who are friendly to us v/hat steps are taken by the 
 banks to ascertain the whereabouts of the legal owners of 
 accounts, and what action, if any, is taken to prevent ac- 
 counts from being dormant. The only answer that can 
 be made is that each bank proceeds in its own way, that 
 there is no prescribed course pursued, but that all banks 
 endeavor to have the accounts already dormant made 
 active, and efforts are made in every bank to prevent ac- 
 counts from becoming dormant. If, however, there is a 
 single bank in this State that is not doing its utmost to 
 discover the owners of its dormant accounts, your Com- 
 mittee would earnestly urge the of&cers of such bank to 
 take the matter up with a strong determination to leave 
 nothing undone to find the rightful owners. 
 
 On February i8th Senator Krum introduced a bill 
 amending the law relating to Savings Banks, allowing the 
 purchase of first mortgage bonds of any railroad company 
 incorporated under the authority of any of the following 
 States: "New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 153 
 
 Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, and Minne- 
 sota, whose road is located wholly or in part in any of the 
 same, and has earned and paid regular dividends of not 
 less than four per centum (4 per cent.) per annum in cash, 
 on all its issues of capital stock, for the ten (10) years next 
 preceding such investment," etc. 
 
 A meeting of the Executive Committee was called at 
 once for the consideration of this bill, and it was promptly 
 decided to oppose the bill in this form. The result of this 
 opposition was the amended Krum Bill, which permitted 
 the purchase of the first mortgage bonds of certain speci- 
 fied railroads. 
 
 This bill became a law April 2 2d, and was sent to the 
 members of the Association at once. 
 
 The reappointment of Superintendent Kilburn was a 
 cause of unfeigned satisfaction to every Savings Bank 
 officer in the State, and for this appointment we owe Gov- 
 ernor Roosevelt our heartiest thanks. All that your 
 Committee needs to say of Superintendent Kilburn is 
 that he has shown the same devoted interest in everything 
 that relates to the welfare of the depositors in our banks, 
 and the same uncompromising opposition to everything 
 that could possibly injure, that has characterized his whole 
 administration. 
 
 In view of the large number of bills that have been intro- 
 duced each year that would, if they became laws, prove 
 disastrous to our banks, it is a source of hearty congratula- 
 tion that Senator L. H. Humphrey, of Warsaw, was again 
 appointed Chairman of the Committee on Banks. He has 
 proved himself to be an able, honest, and efficient legis- 
 lator, and has been of invaluable assistance to your Com- 
 mittee for the past four years. 
 
 In the Assembly Mr. James B. McEwan, of Albany, was 
 Chairman of the Committee on Banks. His honesty and 
 good judgment were apparent in his action on bills af- 
 fecting our banks, causing him to throw the weight of his 
 influence against every measure calculated to injure in 
 any way these institutions. Your Committee was given
 
 154 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 a patient hearing on every measure, and received from 
 Mr. McEwan only courteous treatment. 
 
 (Subsequently, Mr. McEwan became Mayor of Albany, 
 and Trustee of the National Savings Bank of Albany.) 
 
 DORMANT ACCOUNTS 
 
 The Chair called the attention of the meeting to that 
 portion of the report of the Executive Committee refer- 
 ring to dormant accounts, so called, and suggested that 
 the subject be taken up and discussed, in order to ascer- 
 tain whether, as an association, it was not possible to de- 
 vise some means by which these accounts could be con- 
 stantly lessened, rather than increased. 
 
 In furtherance of the subject, the Chair called upon Mr. 
 Bryan H. Smith, the President of the Brooklyn Savings 
 Bank, to give in detail the system adopted by that large 
 institution, containing deposits amounting to between 
 thirty and forty miUions of dollars, by which it had now 
 only $1 1, GOO of dormant accounts. 
 
 Mr. Smith said : I am rather surprised to be called upon 
 to say anything about this matter, but by chance I hap- 
 pened to mention it to the Executive Committee, and 
 your President has asked me to make a short statement of 
 the system employed by the Brooklyn Savings Bank in 
 regard to dormant accounts. This bank is seventy-three 
 years old and has about thirty-three million dollars of de- 
 posits, and, as he said, the dormant accounts, as reported 
 this month, amount to $ii,ooo. I will say that a large 
 number of these accounts are under $io. The system 
 was begun, before I was an ofi&cer of the bank, in rather a 
 crude fashion, but the results have proven to be very 
 beneficial. Since I have been in the bank I have in- 
 augurated new measures to make the system more perfect, 
 and I have a statement here of the result. The system
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 155 
 
 has been to draw off in a blank book all accounts in a cer- 
 tain year in which there has been no transaction. There 
 is a signal on the ledger which shows the last date at which 
 an entry was made, either of a deposit or a draft, or the 
 writing up of the interest. That last date determines the 
 entry in that blank book for that special year. Then the 
 clerks, at their convenience, hunt up the residences, or the 
 latest known residences, of those persons whose names ap- 
 pear in the accounts and in the blank books, and send out 
 a printed notice asking the depositor to appear at the 
 bank and have the interest entered. 
 
 Of course, having commenced so many years ago, the 
 work is comparatively light now to what it would be if the 
 same work was commenced anew, particularly in large 
 banks. In the year 1877 — up to this year, when the ac- 
 counts for that year became dormant, being twenty-two 
 years old — there was one account added; m 1878 there 
 were five inactive accounts. I will say that there are 
 60,000 accounts in the bank. In that year, 1878, every 
 account is active, except five, which are not. We go on 
 from 1878 down to 1892, which is the last book drawn off. 
 The active accounts stand at five, twelve, twenty, fifteen, 
 twenty-nine, twenty-seven, forty-three, forty-two down to 
 1890, in which year there are 158 inactive accounts. The 
 year 1892 has 215, and 1893, 163. Out of 2,744 notices 
 sent out, 1,564 of these accounts have been made active 
 in consequence of these notices, and there remains now 
 only 1,180 for the twenty-one years past. These turn 
 up themselves every little while. In addition to the no- 
 tices, we do something else. When the printed notices 
 are returned to the post office, as "Not found," we have 
 a man who then takes them up separately and makes an 
 attempt to find them. He is in the nature of a detective, 
 and he does find a great many. Incidents occur in the 
 finding of these people which are very interesting. They 
 show peculiarities of people which are very amusing some- 
 times. For instance, I will mention the case of a woman 
 who put money in the bank ten years ago and had for-
 
 156 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 gotten all about it. You could not convince her that she 
 ever had put money in the bank at all. When you take 
 her to the book and show her her own signature she is sur- 
 prised, but very glad to find that she has got some money 
 there. That idiosyncrasy seems to belong only to women. 
 They put a little money in the bank in early life, and they 
 lose their pass book, and forget all about it. We have had 
 some very strange illustrations of that peculiarity. I can 
 give one instance, the result of which was very pleasant 
 to us. A man put in some money in trust for his only 
 child, a daughter. He was very secretive in his nature 
 and would not take a pass book. Of course all that rep- 
 resented the money was a small ticket. He added to 
 that account several times a year $5, $10, $20, or $50. 
 The account and the pass book remained in the bank. It 
 was found out after a while that he had not appeared at 
 the bank in about ten years. Then this detective set to 
 work to find him. He went to his last-known residence; 
 nobody knew anything of him or his family. Then the 
 detective used his judgment what to do and inquired of 
 every house in that block, or the next block, until he found 
 some one who remembered that family. He found an old 
 lady who remembered the family very well. She said: 
 "That man is dead; he had but one daughter." The 
 detective said : " What became of her? " The answer was : 
 "All that I heard was that she was sent to a relative in 
 New Jersey." 
 
 That seemed a rather difficult thing to trace, but our 
 detective devised a plan to trace it. He wrote a note to 
 every postmaster of any town of any size in New Jersey 
 and asked if such a person lived in that town. The post- 
 masters are generally ver>" courteous and attentive, but 
 he did not get any replies which were satisfactory for a 
 long time. Then he commenced on the smaller towns and 
 finally got a reply from a small place in New Jersey that 
 there was a young woman in that town by that name teach- 
 ing school. He wrote her, asking her certain questions as 
 to her residence in Brooklyn, her father's age, and so forth,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 157 
 
 and she replied, identifying herself perfectly as the person 
 for whom the money was deposited; I wrote to her then 
 that it was possible there might be some money in the 
 bank that belonged to her and asked her to come to Brook- 
 lyn; not to send anybody, but to come herself. The first 
 thing I did when she appeared was to find out if she ever had 
 any brothers or sisters. Ascertaining that she answered 
 every question correctly, I had the pleasure of telling her 
 that she had $1,800 in the bank. Such instances as that 
 crop up aU the time from the result of these investigations. 
 
 If any gentleman in the neighborhood will come to our 
 bank, our bookkeeper will show him his blank book and 
 the exact system, with which I am not entirely familiar 
 — the way it is carried on now — although I organized it. 
 I think that is about all that I can say. I am very much 
 obliged to you for your attention, gentlemen. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Mills: Mr. Chairman, I may say a word 
 in regard to the bank I represent. This question of how 
 to dispose of dormant accounts is one of importance for 
 the consideration of the officers of Savings Banks. For 
 the last ten or twelve years I have been associated with 
 our President, in committee work before the Legislature 
 at Albany, and each year, with renewed force, dormant 
 account bills have been brought forward for consideration. 
 The motive in introducing these bills we know. At the 
 same time we are compelled to oppose them, whatever 
 the motive may be. As the banks grow in deposits, the 
 number of these accounts naturally increases, and with 
 the increased number and the increased amount exists 
 increased danger. I think that anything we can say or do 
 to cause the officers of Savings Banks to realize the im- 
 portance of this fact, and to take every measure they can 
 to make these dormant accounts active, will be of service 
 to the Savings Bank system of the State. 
 
 Some of the legislators, whose bills we were instru- 
 mental in defeating the past season, threaten us openly 
 that they are coming back next year armed with renewed 
 energy and determination, and that they will use their best
 
 158 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 endeavors to have some dormant account bill passed by 
 the Legislature. You cannot drive the idea out of the 
 head of the average legislator, who knows nothing of the 
 real facts, that the Savings Bank officers and trustees are 
 making a large amount of money out of what are called 
 dormant or unclaimed deposits. One of the Senators of 
 this State stated in Committee two years ago that it was 
 an acknowledged fact that Savings Bank buildings were 
 all built out of unclaimed deposits. We must do all we 
 can to get rid of the dormant or inactive account. I think 
 that if we can impress upon the majority of the members 
 of this Association the importance of action, we will have 
 accomplished a good work. 
 
 Mr. J. Howard King: In the remarks which I have 
 listened to by the last three or four speakers there are 
 ideas expressed of which I cannot wholly approve, as I 
 think they might lead those not fully informed upon the 
 subject to entertain a false impression of the real condition. 
 Everybody knows that there is an effort being made to 
 find dormant accounts. If they are not found, they do 
 not belong in any sense of the word to the State at large. 
 When we opened our new bank building a short time since, 
 a large percentage of the class of people of this State who 
 are looking for dormant accounts for their own advantage 
 told us that our building was built out of unclaimed de- 
 posits, and the fact is that we have only $27,000 worth of 
 dormant accounts, and we are the second oldest bank in 
 the State. Now I think we should look out for ourselves. 
 Within the last six weeks two accounts have been presented 
 to us that were fifty years old. One man presented his in 
 person, and the other was presented by the heirs repre- 
 senting the account. We cannot tell when those accounts 
 may be presented for payment. To publish the fact that 
 we cannot find out anything about these accounts is ex- 
 ceedingly poor judgment; and, if I may be permitted to 
 make a suggestion to you, I don't believe the Association 
 would develop anything except something that you don't 
 want to have developed.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 159 
 
 Mr. McMahon : I wish to add a few words, suggested to 
 me by the remarks of Mr. King, whom we all esteem very 
 highly. I regret to say that I cannot agree with his con- 
 clusion. I think the time has arrived when we should 
 give the greatest publicity to this subject-matter of the 
 dormant accounts which has been made here to-day. 
 There are turning up every little while claimants for these 
 accounts which have been dormant for years. Within a 
 few months we have had an occasion of that kind. It was 
 a case of a man who lived in this city, and there had not 
 been a transaction in his book for thirty years. It was 
 a matter of nearly $2,000. We asked him why he had not 
 put in an appearance. He said: "I knew your bank was 
 all right; I had nothing to add to the account, and I was 
 trying to save that money for my old age." Those claims 
 are turning up quite often, showing that it is unfair to 
 consider the accounts dormant, or entirely dead, at any 
 time up to fifty years at least. I do not see that the 
 Savings Banks have anything to conceal in this direction. 
 If we have, then that is the more reason why bills should 
 be offered in the Legislature and the thing showed up. I 
 claim that the bold, honest way is the best way. By tak- 
 ing hold of the matter in that shape, the legislators will 
 see that we have nothing to conceal, and if they can aid in 
 giving Hfe to these dormant accounts we would be pleased 
 to have them do so. 
 
 Mr. King : I had supposed there never was a single bank 
 which favored handing over their funds to the State be- 
 cause the accounts were dormant. The theory I believe 
 in, and the one I think which ought to be practised, is 
 that we can take care of that money quite as well as the 
 State can. There wUl not be very many sleeping accounts 
 if we hand them over. There will be owners of some kind 
 found for them if the accounts ever get into the hands of 
 the State. They won't be dormant then; they will be 
 the most active of all accounts. 
 
 I perhaps sympathize in a measure with what Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon has said. I don't think we have anything to con-
 
 i6o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ceal, but I do think, even from what he said, that if we 
 show that we are making an effort to find out these ac- 
 counts, and we know much better how to find the owners 
 out than any one else, I think that would be the best thing 
 to do — all that is possible to do — and much better than to 
 hand them over to the State, or any portion of them. The 
 State has no more right to the money than General Wash- 
 ington has, I have just come from a meeting of the order of 
 the Cincinnati, so that my mind is full of General Washing- 
 ton, and you must excuse me for having referred to him. 
 
 The President : The question of dormant accounts, as 
 I have said, is a serious one, and the object of your Execu- 
 tive Committee, in referring to them so strongly in their 
 annual report, is from a desire to throw as much light as 
 possible upon the methods by which the number and the 
 amounts of these accounts may be kept down. In my own 
 bank, with some thirty-six millions of deposits, we have 
 about $32,000 of dormant accounts. I intend during the 
 coming year to look thoroughly into the system which Mr. 
 Smith has adopted in Brooklyn, and I propose to have 
 printed upon every pass book — even stamping the old 
 books as they are presented for transactions at the bank — 
 a statement showing the necessity on the part of deposi- 
 tors of presenting their books from time to time for inter- 
 est to be written up. I propose, in other words, if possible, 
 to adopt for my own bank some system by which these 
 accounts can be kept down. In most instances these ac- 
 counts are not dead accounts, but simply dormant, and 
 at the end of another year I hope to be able to be of some 
 service to my fellow officers by being in a position to make 
 some suggestions which will lessen the danger of being 
 forced to make public all the information we have about 
 accounts of this character, or to turn over the accounts to 
 the State. If any such bill is passed in the future, one 
 thing is certain so far as I am concerned, and that is the 
 authorities will never obtain any facts from me, nor will I 
 turn over one dollar to the State until the question as to 
 the right of the State to demand the information, or to
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK i6i 
 
 compel the payment of these moneys, has been passed 
 upon by the Supreme Court of the United States. These 
 accounts are of the nature of a contract between the bank 
 and the depositor. The money does not belong to the 
 State. If they are never called for, the interest goes to the 
 depositors at large. The object of the bills introduced is 
 to obtain the information which constitutes the identifica- 
 tion of the original depositor, or give the connection be- 
 tween his heirs and the original depositor. If any bill of 
 this character ever becomes a law, and my bank is required 
 to give such information to the department at Albany, it 
 will never get that information until I am forced to give 
 it by the highest court in the land. I do not propose to 
 give away my evidence. I will keep it for the protection 
 of my depositors. When the courts of the land determine 
 that I shall give it, I will give it, and not before. 
 
 Upon this subject we should educate ourselves, and we 
 should apply ourselves to the proper solution of the prob- 
 lem involved. These accounts should be kept down as 
 far as possible. If we do that, we will do well. The last 
 public announcement of the amount of these dormant ac- 
 counts of the banks of this State was given at the Consti- 
 tutional Convention held a few years ago, and they 
 amounted to a million and a half of dollars, out of a total 
 deposit of seven hundred millions of dollars in the banks. 
 Of this $800,000 was in one bank. 
 
 ADDRESS OF SUPERINTENDENT F. D. KILBURN 
 
 Superintendent F. D. Kilburn, of the State Banking De- 
 partment, then addressed the Convention, saying in part: 
 
 The history of legislation concerning these banks for the 
 past few years demonstrates that even some of those who 
 make our laws have much to learn in this connection. It 
 is amusing and yet somewhat exasperating to find people, 
 otherwise well-informed, who believe and unhesitatingly 
 assert that uncalled-for or dormant accounts are used in
 
 i62 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 building large and extravagant bank buildings, that Sav- 
 ings Banks are stock institutions out of which the officers 
 and trustees are making enormous profits ; that all surplus 
 earnings go to enrich the officers, and that the interests 
 of the depositors are antagonistic to those of the trustees. 
 
 I think it was Artemus Ward who said: "It is better 
 not to know so much than to know so much that isn't so." 
 Whoever said it must have known something of the alto- 
 gether too extensive misapprehension concerning the sav- 
 ings institutions of our State. Many of you have come 
 in touch with the legislation referred to and have encoun- 
 tered these false notions and impressions even among our 
 lawmakers. 
 
 Let me assert the truth regarding these matters in the 
 hope that I may correct, in a measure at least, the errone- 
 ous opinions to which I have referred. 
 
 1. Under the law only those accounts which have not 
 been increased nor diminished by deposits or withdrawals, 
 exclusive of interest credits, for a period of twenty-tv/o 
 years, become dormant.^ 
 
 2. No account, dormant or otherwise, can ever be 
 used or appropriated by the bank or its officers for the 
 erection of a bank building, or for any other purpose, or 
 disposed of in any manner except by paying it to its right- 
 ful owner. 
 
 3. Savings Banks in this State are not stock corpora- 
 tions, and all their earnings, except the amounts paid in 
 salaries for services actually rendered, and for necessary 
 expenses, belong, together with all assets, to the depositors. 
 
 4. A Savings Bank deposit never becomes outlawed, 
 and the bank is bound to repay it with interest when called 
 for by the rightful owner upon proper proof of identity. 
 
 Savings Banks are benevolent in their character. They 
 are organized for the purpose of furnishing a means by 
 which the thrifty working class may save and invest their 
 earnings. They also are designed for the widow and the 
 
 I The Banking Law of the State of New York (chap. 2 of the Consolidated 
 Laws, as amended by chap. 369 of the Laws of 1914, article 6, sec. 274) provides 
 for a period of twenty instead of twenty-two years.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 163 
 
 orphan dependent upon the income perhaps of a few thou- 
 sand dollars left them by a deceased husband and father. 
 
 I regard them as safe and conservative as human in- 
 genuity can make them. The law governing them, their 
 history for the last eighteen years, and the character gener- 
 ally of the men controlling them, all testify to their stabil- 
 ity and safety. 
 
 I would not be understood as meaning that some things 
 about them might not be better, or that there is never dis- 
 honesty or loss connected with them. These results will 
 occasionally follow as long as humanity remains fallible. 
 
 What I do assert, however, as the result of some oppor- 
 tunity of forming a correct judgment, is that the Savings 
 Banks of the State of New York are the most economi- 
 cally managed financial institutions of our commonwealth, 
 and furnish the safest field for small savings and invest- 
 ments. 
 
 Statistics are usually uninteresting, and yet in connec- 
 tion with Savings Banks, in which so many people are 
 interested, they may be instructive and suggestive. There 
 are 129 Savings Banks in the State, having on January, 
 I, 1899, total assets amounting to $923,420,861.82 and 
 liabilities as follows: 
 
 Due depositors $ 816,144,367.53 
 
 Other liabilities 379,871.19 
 
 Surplus funds 106,896,623.10 
 
 The increase in deposits during the year 1898 was 
 459, 451.38. The number of open accounts was 1,865,- 
 653 , a gain for the year of 60,3 73 . 
 
 About twenty-eight per cent, of the total population 
 of the State are Savings Bank depositors. 
 
 The administrative expenses for the year 1898, includ- 
 ing salaries, rent, repairs on bank buUdings, light, fuel, 
 appraisal fees, taxes on real estate, and all other expenses, 
 amounted to $2.73 on each $1,000 of assets. 
 
 These figures show plainer than anything I can say
 
 i64 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the thrift and industry of the comparatively poor, and 
 suggest the vast importance of these institutions and the 
 interests they represent. So beneficent and important 
 are they that the State should foster and protect them 
 to the fullest extent, and be very sure to adopt no 
 policy which will impair in any degree their usefulness or 
 sta.bility. 
 
 To men who, like the majority composing this gathering, 
 having given the best years of their lives to Savings Bank 
 management, employing a zeal and manifesting a solici- 
 tude for the interests of depositors which could not be 
 greater or more faithful if these interests were their own, 
 it is not necessary to argue the contention that the welfare 
 of the New York Savings Bank system requires that the 
 present policy of exempting these institutions and their 
 depositors from taxation shall continue. 
 
 The question of dormant accounts is one which is mar- 
 velous in its ability to exasperate and annoy. Most of 
 you are familiar with the annual attempts in the Legis- 
 lature to compel a list of these accounts, including name, 
 address, and amount, to be published and made a public 
 record. The proposition on its face looks reasonable and 
 innocent to the uninitiated. It is usually coupled with 
 another to shorten the time now required by law to make 
 an account dormant. 
 
 Not long since an heir in the State of Washington, the 
 granddaughter of a depositor in the year 1824, recently 
 looked up her claim and was put in the way of realizing on 
 it. The Albany Savings Bank recently paid two accounts 
 which had not been disturbed for nearly fifty years. 
 Too much effort, however, cannot be made by the banks 
 themselves to search out the owners of dormant accounts. 
 Many banks make constant and systematic endeavor in 
 this direction. I cannot too strongly urge you all to do 
 the same. According to certain information in my pos- 
 session, the total amount of these accounts does not ex- 
 ceed $1,500,000, which, with the employment of energy 
 and system, can, in my judgment, be largely reduced.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 165 
 
 ADDRESS OF HONORABLE CHARLES S. FAIRCHILD 
 
 When your President demanded the title of my theme, 
 I gave it as "The Relation of Savings Bank Deposits to 
 General Business." 
 
 It is obvious that through this system the dimes are 
 welded into dollars, and the dollars into millions, tens and 
 hundreds of millions, by combination becoming a force 
 that raises thirty-story buildings, erects stately capitols, 
 launches steel-clad battleships, transports armies over 
 land and sea, arms and supports them in tropical jungles, 
 where the fathers, sons, and brothers of your depositors 
 are doing deeds of intelligent daring such as have rarely 
 been equalled, never surpassed, in the wars that have been. 
 It is pleasant and interesting to let one's imagination fol- 
 low to its outermost effects the daily business of your re- 
 ceiving tellers. And there is your other side — when fear 
 possesses men and the work of paying exceeds that of re- 
 ceiving tellers; then, according to the degree of fear, all 
 these works must stop ; ships and armies must pause until 
 men come again to their usual and normal behef in the 
 general average success and good faith of other men. 
 
 And how your system acts and reacts upon your depos- 
 itors themselves: when they believe in you, they promote 
 the industries which give them the means to increase their 
 deposits with you, and through you runs the golden circle 
 of well-being. But when the current is reversed, when the 
 circle revolves the other way, your depositors, through 
 the fear of losing that which they have with you, shut down 
 the employments which give them their daily bread, to 
 say nothing of their savings. 
 
 You know how it is — how, when your depositors begin 
 to draw on you, you in turn draw on your commercial 
 banks, and they curtail their credits; one industry after 
 another stops. You know the chill that seizes the busi- 
 ness world when the first rumor comes downtown that there 
 are abnormal withdrawals from your deposits. 
 
 Since Savings Bank deposits have reached such co-
 
 i66 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 lossal proportions, this consideration is of serious import; 
 for the combination of wealth has prodigious power for 
 evil as well as for beneficence. When we consider the evil 
 not only to the whole community but also to your clients 
 themselves from unreasonable and groundless fear — and I 
 am safe in saying that the fears that have arisen from time 
 to time about deposits in Savings Banks were groundless— 
 we must be impressed with the importance of a safeguard 
 against these dangers — evergrowing dangers. 
 
 I hesitate to suggest the remedy; but I have some- 
 times thought that if the mutuality of interests of your 
 depositors was more generally recognized, and a greater 
 limit put upon the right of withdrawal, even going to the 
 extent of looking upon the transaction as an investment 
 payable only out of receipts taken subsequent to notice of 
 withdrawal, that menace to the business community would 
 be removed, with consequential net benefit to your de- 
 positors in the way indicated. 
 
 The concentration of power represented here in terms 
 of dollars is most impressive, and when a man tries to 
 philosophize about it and seeks the cause and future of it 
 all, he is possessed by the fascination always felt in the 
 presence of the resistless forces of nature. For although 
 you gentlemen are officers and trustees of great beneficent 
 concerns, which you manage so carefully and well, al- 
 though governments have devised laws to restrain and 
 safeguard your investments, yet, in my estimation, all 
 that you do and all that the laws try to do is to somewhat 
 modify and beneficently apply forces that have their being 
 quite outside of human legislation and man's conscious 
 intention. 
 
 Speaking in this presence, I must be modest in assertion 
 as to facts, I believe, however, that in the world's his- 
 tory institutions like the modern Savings Banks have been 
 known but little more than eighty years, and in that time 
 there has rolled together a total of between seven and 
 eight billions of dollars in such institutions, taking the 
 world as a whole — of this about two billions in our own
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 167 
 
 country, more than one third of this being in our State of 
 New York. 
 
 It is significant that this combination of power, capital, 
 or what you may choose to call it, has grown step by step 
 as the rapidity with which property and persons could be 
 moved has grown. As man's wit has applied steam and 
 electricity more and more efficiently to man's use, so has 
 grown the concentration of mankind in cities, so has grown 
 the combination of the affairs of men, and so I venture to 
 say these combinations will continue to grow. All of this 
 tremendous movement of the centuries which has such 
 striking exemplification in your banks can only be in 
 obedience to nature's laws powerfully working. It is not 
 by man's conscious design; he is driven on by forces be- 
 yond his control. Of course there will be successes and 
 failures, wise and unwise enterprises, but that the forces 
 of nature will relax we cannot hope. Sigh as we may for 
 the old times, all that man can do is to seek safeguards to 
 protect himself against injuries when these forces cease 
 their steady progress through man's unwisdom in their 
 application. But let man and his legislators be modest 
 and know that the harm they are likely to do will probably 
 come from too much rather than too little attempted control 
 of forces and powers too great for man's strength, which are 
 in all wisdom designed for man's good and which if abused 
 contain in themselves ample power to inflict punishment. 
 
 But I am being led far afield and must stop, with my 
 thanks for this kind invitation from you who are so good 
 and beneficent a part of the mighty movement of the age. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR WM. G. SUMNER 
 
 "The Power and Beneficence of Capital" was the sub- 
 ject of a very able paper by Prof. Wm. G. Sumner, of 
 Yale University. Professor Sumner said : 
 
 Some years ago I listened to an address by a social 
 agitator who said: "I can get along with anybody in my
 
 1 68 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 audiences except these mean, stingy, little fellows who 
 have saved up a few hundred dollars in the Savings Bank 
 and then have borrowed enough more to build a little 
 house of two tenements, one of w^hich they rent. When I 
 begm to talk about interest and rent, and Henry George, 
 they get up and go out by the whole seatful at a time." 
 The statement was the most eloquent recognition I ever 
 heard of the power and beneficence of capital. It has 
 always remained in my memory as a confession by an 
 opponent of the education effected by savings, and of the 
 benefit conferred on society by Savings Banks. I make 
 it the text for the remarks which I will address to you on 
 this occasion. 
 
 We hear a great deal in these days about social discon- 
 tent. It seems to be taken for granted that discontent is 
 a sufficient proof of grievance which third parties are 
 bound to take cognizance of and redress. It might be 
 argued with far greater plausibility that discontent is a 
 proof of prosperity. If you look around the world to-day 
 you will find that discontent is greatest where the chances 
 are greatest. A man who has never had anything or a 
 chance to get anything is not discontented. He rests con- 
 tented with what he has always been accustomed to. Let 
 him enjoy an opportunity and win something and the 
 effect will be to excite his wish to win more. There is 
 more discontent in one house in the United States or in 
 England than in the whole Russian Empire. Discontent 
 exists, then, where there are opportunities, and it is a 
 stimulus to take advantage of opportunities. In that 
 case it is an agency which produces achievement and drives 
 on what we call progress. In other cases discontent is a 
 result of conviction that opportunities have been lost and 
 that it is too late to recover them. Then again, discon- 
 tent is the twin sister of envy, when it is seen that others 
 have profited better by opportunities. In no case does 
 discontent, as a naked fact, prove anything, and when the 
 details are known it never is proof of a grievance. 
 
 Our social philosophers, however, as I have said, assume
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 169 
 
 that discontent is a legitimate and imperative demand for 
 a remedy. They treat it as a social phenomenon, and the 
 remedies which they propose are societal; that is, they 
 are in the nature of devices and regulations which call for 
 the action of the agencies of society. So far as these social 
 philosophers get their way we find that it is legislation 
 which is set at work, and this legislation imposes tasks on 
 functionaries and institutions. The net final and certain 
 result is new burdens on taxpayers. Discontent is not 
 diminished. It is generally increased. If you get a re- 
 port of the operation of any of these devices which have 
 already been adopted you will find it full of criticism, per- 
 haps of derision, of the device. It is pointed out how 
 crude the notion was; how ignorant of the conditions; how 
 irrelevant to the purpose in view. 
 
 I will not, however, now dwell upon this aspect of social 
 measures to cure discontent. What I am now more inter- 
 ested in is the education exerted by all this philosophy and 
 all these devices on the people on whom they are brought 
 to bear. The social philosophy which has been in fashion 
 for a century past has educated us in the notion that we 
 ought all to be "happy " (as the phrase goes) on this earth, 
 and that, if we are not so, we ought to cry out, and then 
 that somebody is bound to come and take care of us. 
 Liberty, equality, and happiness have been declared to be 
 natural rights, which is interpreted to mean that they were 
 laid in our cradles as our endowment for the battle of life. 
 Every human being, on this theory, comes into the world 
 with an outfit and a patrimony of metaphysical if not of 
 physical goods. This doctrine is, of course, very popular. 
 The men who preach it are sure of popular applause and 
 political power. TeU a man that he ought to have and 
 enjoy all the highest acquisitions of civilization, just be- 
 cause he has been born, without labor, self-denial, or study, 
 and that he is a victim of injustice if he does not possess 
 all those good things, and he will be sure to be delighted. 
 Some of these grand old eighteenth century dogmas which 
 lie on the borderline between politics and social philosophy
 
 I70 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 have been found very much in the way in our own history 
 of the last twelve months. They have been pushed aside 
 as out of date. Perhaps we may get an incidental advan- 
 tage from recent history if we can throw them all over- 
 board together, but it is more likely that the buncombe 
 element in them has too much value for political purposes 
 to be sacrificed, and so we shall see that retained. We 
 may be very sure that all these theories of world beatifica- 
 tion can produce nothing but disillusion and disappoint- 
 ment for the society in which they are current. The 
 human race never received any gratuitous outfit of any 
 kind whatever. No heathen myth ever was more silly and 
 empty than such a notion. Talk about the "boon of 
 nature" and the "banquet of life" and the "free gift of 
 land" is more idle than fairy tales. We can speak now- 
 adays with some positive knowledge about the primitive 
 condition of the human race on earth, assuming now that 
 the facts about the primitive condition of man have some 
 bearing on our modern social controversies. We know 
 that the human animal by nature is more helpless in the 
 face of nature than many other animals, and that nature 
 did not start the human animal off with any other rights 
 than those of all the other animals. The human race 
 came upon this globe with no outfit at all. The mere task 
 of existing and continuing here was so great that the hu- 
 man race was taxed to the utmost to meet it. The obvious 
 proof of that is that large groups of men have, in innumer- 
 able instances, utterly perished from the face of the earth. 
 These are facts of knowledge at the present time. So far 
 as I know they are not disputed by anybody. 
 
 I have already suggested that these facts about the 
 primitive order of things have very little value for modern 
 social controversies. Their value lies in quite another 
 direction. If we men have, to any extent, conquered the 
 task of existence, if we have risen to some command over 
 nature, and if we have created a domain of rights between 
 ourselves, it is by civilization that we have done it. The 
 good things were not given to us gratuitously at the outset.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 171 
 
 They are the product of the toil and suffering of mankind. 
 They belong at the end; not at the beginning. The people 
 who are nowadays examining the product and passing 
 judgment on it are only betraying their own ignorance and 
 folly. They are quite dissatisfied with it. They write 
 books, hold conventions, and pass resolutions about how 
 we ought to change it, and they draft ideas about how 
 they would like to reconstruct it. If we arrive at some 
 correct idea of what society is and what civilization is, we 
 shall regard all such speculations as more absurd than 
 witchcraft or astrology. We are the children of the so- 
 ciety in which we were born. It makes us. We are prod- 
 ucts of the civilization of our generation. Only a handful 
 of men can react upon the society and the age in which 
 they live so as to modify it at all. They are the very eUte 
 of the human race, and after aU what they can do is only 
 infinitesimal. Civilization means the art of living on this 
 earth. All men have always been trying to learn it. All 
 that now is in the order of society is the product of this 
 struggle of ages. It pours along in a mighty flood which 
 bears us all with it. In it are all the efforts, passions, inter- 
 ests, and strife of men. It is the play of these upon each 
 other which produces the heaving and swaying of the flood 
 and determines its vast modifications of direction. If 
 you come to a faint understanding of this the man with a 
 scheme in his pocket for the "reorganization of society" 
 is made to appear very ridiculous. 
 
 The instrumentality by which, from the beginning, man 
 has won and held every step of this development of civili- 
 zation is capital. Some people talk about ideas and philos- 
 ophy which they think have ruled the affairs of men. 
 The ideas are only secondary. The philosophy, when it 
 has acted as a cause, has taken the form of dogma and 
 has done harm as often as good. We may take illustra- 
 tions in proof from the present time. There is a dogma 
 afloat that labor alone makes wealth, so that the whole 
 product should belong of right to the laborer. Another 
 dogma is that limiting the hours of labor would make work
 
 172 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 for more laborers, and another is that any wealth which 
 one man accumulates is so much taken from some or all 
 other men. Another is that all increase in the value of 
 land or franchises is due to the social organization and 
 activity, and, therefore, should not go to the holders. 
 These dogmas are all false, but they are of great scope. 
 They are great fighting dogmas because they serve inter- 
 ests. It is for this reason that they win acceptance, be- 
 cause the great reason for inventing dogmas, principles, 
 and phrases is to use them in controversy. These dogmas, 
 therefore, which I have mentioned, will, if adopted as 
 the worm of legislation, produce destructive convulsions 
 in society and nothing else. In the meantime the social 
 development is going on by slow accretions which nobody 
 notices. They are won by adjustments between the in- 
 terests of men who meet new problems every day and 
 solve them as well as they can under the conditions pre- 
 vailing. These adjustments are all made by means of 
 capital, because the interests are all matters of capital and 
 all the readjustments are secured by capital. In their turn 
 they favor the creation of capital, because the readjust- 
 ments which serve interests always mean attempts to win a 
 given result by a smaller expenditure of labor and capital. 
 
 Others think that "organization" is the great force 
 which has made civilization. They think that organiza- 
 tion is arbitrary and subject to manipulation, and con- 
 sequently it is upon the organization that they bring their 
 efforts to bear. Organization has, of course, been a com- 
 manding phenomenon in the development of civilization. 
 A student of that development is not likely to disregard 
 organization. For myself, I am convinced that much is 
 yet to be gained by better appreciation of the element of 
 organization. But organization is only the mode under 
 which the work of life goes on. It is not the force. It 
 never can force anything. It has to do with the smooth- 
 ness and harmony of the operations. In human society, 
 in its lowest forms, organization has always produced it- 
 self spontaneously and automatically. It has, therefore,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 173 
 
 just suited itself to the case. It has sometimes become 
 traditional and dogmatic, and for that reason it has be- 
 come a hindrance, preventing necessary adjustments. 
 Then societal convulsions and revolutions have occurred. 
 In civilized society organization is equally spontaneous and 
 automatic. In the civil organization some element of 
 arbitrary action has become possible, and this it is appar- 
 ently which has caused the notion that societal organiza- 
 tion is a thing subject to conventions and resolutions. 
 In regard to the civil organization, however, the chance of 
 some arbitrary action has only introduced an element of 
 risk and peril, just as an intelligent being runs the risk of 
 going wrong where an instructive being never has to face 
 any question at all. All attempts so far made to extend 
 the domain of policy with social matters have resulted only 
 in doubt and in warnings of danger. The proposition to 
 adopt a policy of organization can never do anything but 
 disturb the harmony of the societal system which is its 
 greatest advantage. They never wiU really change the 
 societal organization. It is already controlled by the 
 mighty forces of interest. For instance, if so-called trusts 
 are now a real step in the evolution of the industrial or- 
 ganization, a legislative policy of sweeping and destructive 
 opposition to them is vain. After producing great con- 
 fusion, and animosity, and loss, it will have to be aban- 
 doned. The case of department stores is similar and more 
 simple and obvious. If the wages organization is suited 
 to the present conditions of industry, it is quite useless to 
 try to invent any organization of labor to supersede it. 
 On the other hand, we may, from this case, see how the 
 organization changes, for, if the interests of men are not 
 served by the wages organization, they wiU seek to modify 
 it in the detail in which it is unsatisfactory, from whence 
 it may foUow in time that some different organization wiU 
 be gradually evolved to take its place. Harmony of ac- 
 tion, with the highest possible satisfaction of interests, is 
 the point of equilibrium toward which the organization is 
 always tending. Those men nowadays who can foresee
 
 174 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the next steps to be taken to advance on this line are the 
 great generals of the modern industrial army. If the or- 
 ganization is bad, it can waste and impede the effort. If 
 it is good, it can allow the effort to reach its maximum 
 result under the conditions. That is the sum of all that 
 can be said about organization. 
 
 We must return then to the proposition already made. 
 If men are not now in beastliness and utter want, it is by 
 virtue of labor and self-denial. Labor and self-denial 
 have been embodied in useful things, that is, capital. The 
 things won on the stage have become new instrumentali- 
 ties on the next stage. It is not strange that the growth 
 has been so slow, especially in its earlier stages, when we 
 see how hard the struggle has been, and how much it has 
 been at war with human nature. It is only when we have 
 won some conception of the painful and toilsome effort 
 by which every step has been won that we can estimate 
 at its full value the civilization which we have inherited, 
 but then, too, we are driven to believe that we never can 
 gain anything more except by the same means. The great 
 reason why the advance of civilization has been so slow is 
 that it has never gone forward steadily. Its progress has 
 been broken up. It has been broken up by ignorance and 
 superstition, which is, of course, simply saying that it 
 never could go on faster than men knew enough to carry it 
 on. It has also been broken up by passion, and by strife 
 over questions of policy. All this remains just the same 
 now as it ever was. Discord, strife, and war break up the 
 orderly and cooperative effort to reach a higher satisfaction 
 of our interests, which seems to be alone worthy of intelli- 
 gent and civilized men. The ignorance, folly, and strife 
 destroy capital. The orderly and well-organized efforts 
 to satisfy, create, and preserve capital. The presence of 
 capital does not insure the extension of civilization, for the 
 capital may be wasted by error, or it may be employed 
 entirely in an increase of population ; but an extension of 
 civilization without an increase of effective capital or a 
 diminution of members is impossible.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 175 
 
 It may seem to you that the course of thought on which 
 I have so far led you was somewhat too academical or 
 philosophical for this occasion, but I am now ready to re- 
 turn to the orator and the Savings Bank depositors whom 
 I mentioned at the outset. The facts and ideas which 
 I have presented to you show that the Savings Bank de- 
 positor is a hero of civilization, for he is helping in the 
 accumulation of that capital which is the indispensable pre- 
 requisite of all we care for and all we want to do here on 
 earth. The more convinced you are that the notions and 
 devices which are offered to us by social speculators as the 
 means of social progress are all in vain, and that the whole 
 effort to find some means of easily making everybody happy 
 is a waste of time, the more you will be thrown back on the 
 industrial virtues as the only moral resources at our com- 
 mand which enable us men to fight the battle of life with 
 success. The industrial virtues are industry, frugality, 
 prudence, and temperance. We cannot deny the presence 
 of another element which is powerful in determining our 
 success. That is the element of good or ill fortune. It 
 is true that men have fortune, or destiny, or Divine Prov- 
 idence at hand as a convenient agency on which to throw 
 the blame for the consequences of their own acts, especially 
 for those acts which are violations of the industrial virtues, 
 but when all is said in correction of the popular abuse of 
 luck, it is useless to deny that good or ill fortune may make 
 or mar the success of men in spite of their most careful 
 endeavors. This element, however, is irrational. There 
 is an element in it of which we are ignorant. Therefore it 
 is beyond our command. We have to submit to it and 
 make the best of it. Our only means of dealing with it 
 is, where we can do so, to meet it cooperatively, as we do in 
 insurance. 
 
 Returning, then, to the industrial virtues, I repeat that 
 they are our only moral resource for winning success in 
 the battle of life. The greater the disadvantages under 
 which one starts in life, the higher the value of these vir- 
 tues for winning the first foothold and making the first
 
 176 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 step to something better. There is reason for profound 
 faith in any device which is proposed for societal improve- 
 ment if, upon strict analysis, we can find that it will 
 touch the springs of industrial virtue and raise the indus- 
 trial virtues to higher activity. There is no ground for 
 faith in any device which does not stimulate those vir- 
 tues. It is not necessary to add that, if devices which are 
 proposed are found upon examination to stimulate envy 
 or vanity, or fondness for talk, or a desire to live by one's 
 wits, they are only mischievous. It is not easy for us to 
 form estimates of each other's virtues, especially when we 
 look at each other in classes, but the Savings Bank de- 
 positor, as a type, gives the surest and most concrete 
 evidence of the industrial virtues. He must be industri- 
 ous, frugal, prudent, and temperate. He is a capitalist. 
 He is getting in hand that power which, as I have said, has 
 created and now upholds all civilization. He is winning 
 a share in its power. He is getting the upper hand of the 
 tasks of life. He is fortifying himself against bad luck 
 and disaster. He is developing his own character by the 
 self-denial and the persistent pursuit of a selected purpose 
 which he is obliged to practice. You find nowhere else 
 such guarantees of sound judgment, sober reason, and 
 moderate temper as are offered by the fact of saving. 
 There is no other guarantee of good citizenship which is so 
 simple and positive, and at the same time so far-reaching, 
 as the possession of savings. The seatsful of Savings 
 Bank depositors who went out of the lecture proved it. 
 
 The old classical saying was: He who has a wife and 
 children has given pledges to fortune. He has opened 
 avenues by which misfortunes can reach him through 
 other lives. Capital is the chief means of protecting those 
 dependents. It gives education to the children and puts 
 them on a higher plane for the battle of life than that on 
 which their parents stood. It is right to conceive of the 
 human race on this earth as engaged in an endless battle 
 with the conditions of existence, striving to so modify 
 them that men may get more out of their lives in the way
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 177 
 
 of satisfaction of the possibilities of human nature. For 
 a century past the current, popular notion has been that 
 the way to win the battle is to "raise the lower classes." 
 The notion seems to be that the vicious criminal and 
 poverty-stricken classes are a certain number of human 
 beings who are miserable or harmful. It is thought that 
 if this number can be cured of social diseases aU will be 
 well. This notion is based on childish conceptions as to 
 what society is and as to the nature of social disease. 
 Projects to abolish poverty are worthy of an age which 
 has undertaken to discuss the abolition of disease. Why 
 not abolish death and be as gods once for aU? Why not 
 resolve that everybody shall be good and happy? Why 
 not vote that everybody shall have whatever he wants? 
 Why trifle with details? If these agencies can get us 
 anything they can just as well get us everything. The 
 trouble with creation out of nothing is not to make a 
 universe; it is to make an atom of star-dust. If, then, 
 we turn away from all these notions and devices and try 
 to understand the case of man on earth just as it is, we 
 find that our task always is to do the best we can under 
 the conditions in which we are and with the means which 
 we possess. Then it appears that capital is the means with 
 which we do it and that it is by capital spent on the educa- 
 tion and training of the rising generation that we keep up 
 that advancing fight against the ills of life to which I have 
 referred. I do not suppose that the Savings Bank de- 
 positors who left the lecture knew much about this, but 
 that class of men have a way of their own of getting at 
 things. The possession of capital gives an acuteness of 
 insight into whatever affects capital. Men who have tried 
 saving have not much patience with rhetoric and dog- 
 matism about how to get on in life, and we know how acute 
 they become in perceiving that the upshot of the schemes 
 is to make them share their savings with those who have 
 never done any saving. I suppose that when the Savings 
 Bank depositors got up and left the lecture it was an ex- 
 pression of this impatience.
 
 178 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 I never saw a poem about the Savings Bank depositor. 
 Poems are all written about heroes, kings, soldiers, and 
 lovers. There are plenty of poems about glory, and love, 
 and ambition, and even about poverty, but saving is 
 passed by as sordid and mean — utterly unpoetical. It 
 has always been thought noble to spend and mean to save, 
 which only shows how far we are yet, with all our boasting,- 
 preaching, and discussing, from sound standards of judg- 
 ment about the operations of society. It has, however, 
 always been recognized that, among subjects of dramatic 
 interest and power, the hero struggling against adversity 
 with fortitude and perseverance is one of the grandest. 
 In our modern, commercial, and unadventurous life you 
 will hardly find nobler examples of it than those seatsful 
 of people who, after saving a little to make a beginning, 
 had built two tenement cottages on which they were 
 trying to pay off the mortgages. 
 
 Some people will answer that they see the utility and 
 even the moral grandeur of savings by poor people, but 
 that they dread and disapprove of accumulation. If the 
 Savings Bank depositor saves enough to pass on up into 
 the class of large and independent investors and finally 
 to enter the class technically known as "capitalists," our 
 social philosophers withdraw their sympathy and respect 
 from him and denounce him because he is rich. Savings 
 Banks would then seem to be useful institutions because 
 they are vicious only up to a certain point. 
 
 Savings Banks are the most efficient institutions for 
 aggregating capital which we possess. That is the most 
 useful function which they perform, when we regard 
 them from the standpoint of society, not of the individual 
 depositor. In fact, we must believe that, if the motives 
 of thrift could be made to actuate the population far 
 more widely then they now do, resources of capital could 
 be found in the increased savings of the mass of the popu- 
 lation of which we have at present but little idea. Sav- 
 ings are like taxes. If you want big results you must look 
 to the aggregation of millions of small sums from the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 179 
 
 whole population, not to the aggregate of a few big sums 
 from the millionaires. 
 
 In this connection the movement of the current rate of 
 interest, regarding that rate as a stimulus to saving, is 
 a very interesting and important phenomenon. If we 
 knew more about the causes of the fluctuations of the 
 interest rate we should gain a deeper insight than we 
 now possess into some of the operations of the industrial 
 system; especially we should gain a text which we very 
 much need for the effects of legislation and taxes. The 
 rate at present favors the borrower, not the depositor. 
 If such a tendency of the rate was a result of an accumu- 
 lation of capital more rapid than the exhaustion of enter- 
 prise it would no doubt be advantageous. It would 
 bring about a reaction which would produce readjustments 
 and would be ultimately healthful. I find it difficult to 
 conceive of an increase of capital in excess of the extension 
 of enterprise under the circumstances of industry and of 
 public temper which characterizes our society. The fact 
 that the interest rate is as low here as in western Europe, 
 or even lower, seems to me to be abnormal and even ir- 
 rational. It seems to me to point to errors of legislation. 
 Our people have been congratulating themselves for two 
 years on an enormous balance of trade in our favor. We 
 have had large crops of cereals when other people had 
 small ones, and so we have sold the whole at high prices. 
 The consequence is that we have paid our debts, have got 
 out of bad times into good ones, have dispelled our politi- 
 cal anxieties, and have capital out in Europe; but when 
 we try to draw home our credits we find that our rate of 
 interest falls. Within a year we have seen it fall a full 
 point. I find one statesman quoted in a newspaper as 
 saying: "If present conditions continue, it looks as if all 
 the gold in the world will come into the United States." 
 That is probably the most grotesque notion that could 
 enter anybody's head. It seems clear that the fluctuation 
 which we have experienced does not correspond to the 
 normal action of the forces which should produce the rate
 
 i8o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 of interest, and that the effects of it are not subject for 
 congratulation. A higher rate than that now prevaihng 
 would give tone to the money market. It would be a 
 benefit to small investors. It would remove perils which 
 threaten speculation and would lessen the dangers of dis- 
 count banking. It would be a benefit to enterprise by 
 giving greater steadiness and sobriety, especially as to 
 the future. It would restore the relation which should 
 exist between a new country and old ones. How can things 
 be in a normal and healthful condition when we cannot 
 earn greater interest on capital in a new country than 
 what people will bid for it in old ones? 
 
 I was led to notice the rate of interest because I was 
 speaking of the possible increase in the accumulation of 
 capital which might be produced if the motives of saving 
 could be stimulated throughout the mass of the people. 
 By the side of the facts to which I have referred, which 
 are sometimes interpreted as showing that the formation 
 of capital at present outstrips the extension of enterprise, 
 there are other facts which show enormous demand for 
 capital on account of unprecedented extensions of enter- 
 prise. It is idle folly to meet these phenomena with 
 wailings about the danger of the accumulation of great 
 wealth in few hands. The phenomena themselves prove 
 that we have tasks to perform which require large aggre- 
 gations of capital. Moreover, the capital to be effective 
 must be in few hands, for the simple reason that there are 
 very few men who are able to handle great aggregations 
 of capital. This is also the reason why the attempts to 
 execute great enterprises by the State or municipality, 
 that is by elected officers, especially in a democratic re- 
 public, are sure to be wasteful and comparative failures. 
 The men who are competent to organize great enterprises 
 and to handle great amounts of capital must be found by 
 natural selection, not by political election. It is plainly 
 childish to attack those elements of a case which are es- 
 sential to it. If the aim is to establish tests and guar- 
 antees, or regulations, then there is room for discussion.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK i8i 
 
 but it is evident folly to say that we want a certain result 
 and then to say that we will not consent to the most funda- 
 mental conditions of what we want. The aggregation of 
 large amounts of capital in few hands is the first condition 
 of the fulfilment of the most important tasks of civili- 
 zation which now confronts us. If, therefore, the view 
 which I have suggested is correct, that, in spite of some 
 present appearances to the contrary, there is to be, in the 
 near future, a greatly increased demand for capital, then 
 a great increase of the popular desire to save would be 
 contributory to the present needs of society, 
 
 I have suggested in this paper that the Savings Bank 
 depositor gets an education and development of character 
 from the practice of saving. He gets a point of view and 
 a way of looking at things which are substantially the 
 same as those of all capitalists. The seatsful of Savings 
 Bank depositors whom I mentioned at the outset incurred 
 the ire of the agitator because they showed this: He was 
 addressing poor men and men of the wages class, to which 
 they belonged, but instead of responding to his class appeal, 
 as he wanted them to do, they showed the sentiments of 
 the capitalist class. Hence his dissatisfaction with them. 
 We have had experience of the political value and impor- 
 tance of the same conservative sentiments and property 
 interests of the small capitalists. It is a matter for re- 
 gret that the Savings Bank depositor does not know more 
 about the investment of his own savings. If he knew, so 
 to express it, where his money is, how it is being used, how 
 the interest which he receives is won, and what is the 
 nature of the political risks and perils to which his savings 
 may be exposed, the social and political consequences would 
 be most beneficial. 
 
 I once also heard another orator, who was dilating upon 
 the ills of life, declare that the great cause of human woe 
 was the "devil of interest." There is no doubt that in- 
 terest is an awful devil. Your feeling toward this devil, 
 however, depends on whether you are working for him or 
 he is working for you. If you are working for him, es-
 
 i82 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 pecially if you have bound yourself to terms which are 
 imprudent, beyond your strength, and full of gam.bling 
 risk, then he is an awful taskmaster. You dare not eat, 
 or sleep, or play. Pay day seems to come every other 
 day. Instead of winning release by work, you may see 
 your load grow bigger and bigger, in spite of all you do, 
 untU you come to ruin. Therefore, when you are going, 
 to work for him, which we all have to do sometimes, you 
 must be sure that you undertake only what you can ac- 
 complish within the conditions in which you find yourself. 
 But if the devil of interest is working for you, he will work 
 while you eat, and sleep, and play, and while you work 
 to earn more. You must be careful to have him well 
 harnessed and to give him proper superintendence and 
 directions. Then, if time seems to you to slip away 
 rapidly, and if old age comes on apace, the devU of interest 
 wUl give you the only consolation you can get for your 
 failing powers. When you turn to your Savings Bank 
 book you will see that your capital is increasing just as 
 rapidly as the flight of time, and that it wUl be ready to 
 support your existence when your ability to work gives 
 out. I have spoken about the power and beneficence of 
 capital to maintain civilization; this last is its power and 
 beneficence to guide the fate and sustain the happiness of 
 the individual. 
 
 SPECIAL MEETING CALLED TO ACT ON THE STRANAHAN 
 
 BILL 
 
 A special meeting of the Association was held on Wed- 
 nesday, February 7, 1900, to determine the attitude of 
 the m^embers on the subject of the taxation of mortgages 
 and the passage of the so-called Stranahan Bill, then 
 pending in the Legislature. Mr. Geo. W. Wickersham, of 
 the law firm of Strong & Cadwallader, New York, had been 
 employed by the Executive Committee of the Association 
 to make a careful analysis of the bill and to give an expert
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 183 
 
 opinion in connection with the proposed law, both as to 
 its constitutionality and as to the workings of the tax 
 under the law in operation. This he did. A very inter- 
 esting discussion of the important subject followed, par- 
 ticipated in by Mr. Chas. A. Miller, the legal counsel of 
 the Association, Mr. Chas. L. Stone, and Mr. James 
 McMahon. 
 
 THE RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED 
 
 The following resolution, introduced by Andrew Mills, 
 was adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That this Association considers the bill intro- 
 duced by the joint Committee on Taxation and Retrench- 
 ment imposing a tax upon debts secured by mortgage, so 
 far as it applies to Savings Banks, is a measure for the 
 taxation of the savings of the money of wage-earners and 
 persons of small means intrusted to the care of the Sav- 
 ings Banks, and as such it is unalterably opposed to the 
 bUl. 
 
 Resolved, That this Association now, as in the past, 
 inflexibly oppose any scheme to tax the fruits of the in- 
 dustry and economy of those persons for whose protection 
 Savings Banks have been established and fostered in this 
 State. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee (the number to be de- 
 termined) be appointed by the Chair to take action, in 
 connection with The Executive Committee of this Asso- 
 ciation, in effectively opposing the passage of the bill re- 
 ferred to and of any other bill the effect of which will be 
 to tax the personal property in the hands of the Savings 
 Banks of this State. 
 
 HEARING BEFORE JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 A hearing was had before the Senate and Assembly 
 Committees on Taxation and Retrenchment in the Sen- 
 ate Chamber, Capitol, Albany, on the 13th of February,
 
 i84 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 1900, upon the bill entitled "An act to provide adequate 
 revenue for the support of the State Government otherwise 
 than by Direct Taxation of the assessed valuations of 
 Real and Personal property and for a more equitable 
 distribution of the burdens of Taxation." (Senate No. 
 
 397-) 
 
 There were present: 
 
 Senators Krum (Chairman), Higgins, Foley, and Cullen, 
 and Assemblymen Degraw (Chairman), Guilder, Roberts, 
 Treat, and Farrell. 
 
 Representing the Savings Banks were: Messrs. Stone, 
 Chase, AUiger, C. E. Sprague, Meserole, DeWitt, H. W. 
 Sprague, Tibbetts, Miller, Hurlbut, Knapp, Hanaman, 
 Mills, Rainey, Sturges, McMahon, King, Conklin, Wentz, 
 and Donaldson. 
 
 The principal address in opposition to the proposed 
 law was made by Mr. Geo. W. Wicker sham (afterward 
 Attorney- General during the administration of President 
 Roosevelt).
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Seventh Annual Convention — Retirement of President John Har- 
 sen Rhoades after SLx Years of Distinguished and Valuable 
 Service — Death of Samuel R. Rainey, Chairman of the Execu- 
 tive Committee — Appropriate Action Taken — Address of 
 Hon. Carroll D. Wright, of Washmgton, on "Savings Insti- 
 tutions as a Social Force" — Col. Thomas Wentworth Hig- 
 ginson's Illuminating Address on the "Aristocracy of the 
 Dollar" — Remarks of Hon. Wheeler H. Peckham. 
 
 1 
 
 "AHE Seventh Annual Convention, which was held 
 on Friday, May ii, 1900, at 32 Nassau Street, 
 New York, was marked by the retirement of Mr. 
 John Harsen Rhoades as President, an ofSce which he had 
 filled with distinguished ability since the formation of the 
 Association six years before. 
 
 FAREWELL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT RHOADES 
 
 In his opening address President Rhoades said : 
 
 It is now about twenty years since a concerted move- 
 ment was made by some of the officers of the Savings 
 Banks of this State to protect themselves against un- 
 wise measures introduced in the Legislature, and to 
 inaugurate wise measures not only for the protection 
 of depositors but toward the sustaining and the up- 
 building of the system of savings in this State, upon 
 which the prosperity of the mass of our population so 
 much depends. 
 
 At the outset of this movement there were on deposit in 
 the Savings Banks of the State of New York $353,000,000. 
 There were on January i, 1900, on deposit the vast 
 
 i8s
 
 i86 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 sum of $887,000,000 — an increase in twenty years of 
 $534,000,000. 
 
 After years of unorganized effort on the part of a few 
 bank officers, during which much bad legislation was pre- 
 vented, but very little good legislation created, it was 
 found impossible without organization to accompKsh all 
 that we aimed at; and in the year 1894 we for the first time 
 organized ourselves into a body, and since then have 
 worked together harmoniously; our desire being solely to 
 protect and maintain the system of eleemosynary banks 
 for the purpose of fostering thrift among the working peo- 
 ple, and so far, having been guided by philanthropic aim 
 and conservative method, we have, I firmly believe, estab- 
 lished ourselves not only in the confidence of the people 
 of the State, but also in the confidence of the legislators, 
 and our influence for good has thus become the stronger 
 and our counsel of more weight and character than would 
 otherwise have been the case. 
 
 So long as the motive of our action remains the same, 
 so long will this Association prove a benefit to ourselves 
 as officers, and a benefit to the community which we serve. 
 
 The work of the past year will be told in the report of 
 the Executive Committee. It has been important and of 
 a character to denote our usefulness. The most serious 
 effort made in the Legislature to affect our deposits has 
 been in the character of taxation. The whole subject of 
 the proper methods of taxation will always be a perplexing 
 and a difficult one to solve, largely owing to the natural re- 
 sistance of those affected when ever their interests are ap- 
 proached and an additional burden is proposed to be laid 
 upon them. 
 
 I have always believed that, with a system of taxation 
 wisely conceived and honestly enforced, it might be wise 
 and proper to have a light tax laid upon the earnings of 
 the working classes; but it would be a gross injustice to do 
 this in the absence of a just enforcement of the taxes upon 
 all interests alike. If the corporation, individual, the life 
 insurance company, the building and loan association, and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 187 
 
 the real estate owner are all to be equally taxed in their 
 fair proportion, then I do not believe that the Savings 
 Bank depositor would object to paying his fair proportion 
 of the tax so collected; but he will never willingly consent, 
 nor ought we as his representatives be willing to consent, to 
 the imposition of a tax upon the wage-earner so long as our 
 tax laws exist as they do to-day, and when such glaring 
 injustice is consented to as now applied to the collection 
 of personal taxes. 
 
 It is a fact easily proven that the widow, the orphan, and 
 the women of our State pay the larger share of the personal 
 taxes collected, and the argument made by the average 
 legislator, even if true (and, in the main it is not true), that 
 the Savings Banks should be taxed because of moneys de- 
 posited by those who are not properly the poor or the work- 
 ing classes, is still a false argument in its results, for the 
 reason that, if such taxes were enforced, the moneys com- 
 plained of would be withdrawn and the burden would rest 
 upon those the least able to bear it, as is the case at the 
 present time in regard to the enforcement of personal 
 taxes. 
 
 It was said, and said repeatedly in the Legislature during 
 the past winter, that, if a mortgage tax were enforced, the 
 burden of such tax would be borne by the lender of the 
 money, when it is a known fact, which experience has 
 proven, that such a tax would be borne solely by the bor- 
 rower. The rate of interest would have advanced one 
 half of one per cent., and the exemption of mortgages from 
 liability to further taxation would have reduced the aver- 
 age rate upon them one half of one per cent., or, to state it 
 in another way, the tax would have raised the rate, the 
 exemption clause would have reduced it, but, in either case, 
 the burden of the tax would be borne by the borrower. 
 
 In California, where mortgages have been taxed for 
 years, and on a fairer basis than was proposed in this 
 State (for the borrower is allowed to deduct his mortgage 
 from the valuation of his property, and the lender is com- 
 pelled to pay his tax upon the mortgage), experience has
 
 i8S HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 shown by facts which have been proven that the borrower 
 not only is compelled to pay the tax, but at least one 
 quarter of one per cent, in addition, to cover the demand 
 made upon the lender for the tax upon the mortgage. 
 
 In a pamphlet by Carl C. Plehn this whole subject has 
 been gone into with a great deal of care, and the results of 
 his investigation have been accepted in monetary circles 
 in that State as being correct in every way. In conclud- 
 ing his article, he uses the following language: 
 
 "It is clear from our investigation that the constitutional method 
 of taxing mortgages has encountered the same difficulties which 
 rendered the enforcement of a usury law impossible. A law aimed 
 especially to help the borrower at the expense of the lender is from 
 its very inception unfair; in fact, it injures the borrower instead of 
 helping him by narrowing the supply of capital offered to him and 
 raising the rate of interest. It injures the business community 
 by tolerating the use of roundabout and expensive methods to 
 accomplish simple things. It lessens the respect for government 
 and all liabihty by compelling men to resort to underhand devices 
 to accomplish ends which of themselves are perfectly just and 
 honorable. The method of taxing mortgages is entirely unscien- 
 tific, and, from the point of view of the general theory of taxation, 
 it is easy to see why it has failed to work well." 
 
 Taxes, to be effective, can only be collected from profit 
 or income, and, in my judgment, should be raised from 
 real estate, corporations, through licenses, and the like. 
 It is those who actually earn the income who should pay 
 the tax. The investor and capitalist pay it indirectly 
 through reduced dividends, or through being compelled 
 to loan money at a less rate upon real estate loans, owing 
 to their freedom from liability to taxation. 
 
 If all the States in the Union would enforce proper taxa- 
 tion upon corporate property of all kinds, that portion of 
 the population which are possessed of property in con- 
 siderable amount or otherwise would be compelled to pay 
 their share, which cannot be collected justly and fairly in 
 any other way; but we, as Savings Bank officers, must not 
 overlook the serious fact that, with over one thousand mil-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 189 
 
 lions of dollars of assets in our hands, and deposits steadily 
 increasing, the temptation and the desire of the Legisla- 
 ture to reach these deposits through taxation will be con- 
 stant and increasing, and the duty lies upon each and all 
 of us to stand together and to resist these attacks not with 
 protest only, but with solid argument as well. 
 
 Each recurring year brings with it our sorrows, and we 
 miss here to-day the presence of more than one who has 
 met with us in the past and who has passed on to the activi- 
 ties of another life; but none of these can we miss more 
 than the Chairman of our Executive Committee, Mr. 
 Samuel R. Rainey, who was not only a tower of strength 
 to this Association, but one who had endeared himself to 
 many of us. For me among all the pleasant memories 
 which the existence of this body has created, and among 
 all the friends which it has made for me I will remember 
 that through this Association he became my friend, and 
 never forget the pleasant hours and days we passed 
 together. It is for the creation of such memories as 
 these, if no other reason existed, that we should meet 
 together as officers of banks from time to time and draw 
 help and inspiration from one another for the daily work 
 of life. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, I must end what I have to say, 
 and, in the ending, and upon my retirement from the dis- 
 tinguished office as President of your body, say to you 
 how much I appreciate your kindness to me, how much I 
 have leaned upon each and all of you for confidence and 
 support, how well rewarded I have been by the harmony 
 which has characterized our action, and how deeply I 
 cherish the acquaintance and the friendship of those who 
 constitute this body. While no longer your President, 
 I remain your associate and co-worker, and bid your new 
 President, whom you are about to elect. Godspeed in the 
 work we have in hand. He will honor the high office to 
 which he is called, and you wiU honor him in bestowing it 
 upon him, and I ask for him the same loyal support you 
 have also accorded to me. The Savings Banks Associa-
 
 igo HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tion of this State must go on with its work, and the need 
 of this organization will increase year by year. Let us, 
 therefore, stand by it loyally, faithfully, earnestly, truly, 
 and, standing by it, let us stand to the end ! 
 
 DEATH OF SAMUEL R. RAINEY 
 
 It was with feelings of unfeigned sorrow that the Execu- 
 tive Committee was called upon to preface its report with 
 the announcement of the death of its Chairman, Samuel 
 R. Rainey, of Hudson, which occurred at his home March 
 1 7th. The Committee said ; 
 
 "His devotion to the interests of the Savings Banks can- 
 not be better described than by the words of the President 
 of the Association in his last annual address: 'Watchful, 
 earnest, intelligent, and faithful, your officers have leaned 
 on him for counsel and direction, and have recognized that 
 largely to his effort is due whatever of success has crowned 
 our efforts during the past year.' " 
 
 Shortly after Mr. Rainey's death the Committee met 
 and adopted the following resolutions, a copy of which 
 was sent to every member of the Association: 
 
 It is with deep-felt sorrow that the members of the Exec- 
 utive Committee learn of the death of their associate and 
 Chairman, Samuel R. Rainey. Mr. Rainey has been a 
 member of the Executive Committee ever since its forma- 
 tion, and two years ago was elected Chairman, which posi- 
 tion he held at the time of his death. 
 
 From the first he evinced a great interest in the Savings 
 Banks Association, and to his untiring and persistent ef- 
 forts is largely due the successful work we have been able 
 to accomplish. 
 
 He was a man whose honesty of purpose was never 
 doubted, whose personal character was beyond reproach, 
 while his genial personality endeared him to all with whom
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 191 
 
 he came in contact. Not only has this Committee lost a 
 most efficient head, but each member a true and loyal 
 personal friend, and the Association one of its most in- 
 fluential members. His death has created a void which 
 will be hard to fill, and his memory wiU abide with us 
 during our lives. 
 
 Resolved, That this Committee extends to the family of 
 our deceased friend its sincere and heartfelt sympathy 
 in this hour of their great sorrow. 
 
 Resolved, That this minute be entered upon our records 
 and a copy suitably engrossed sent to the family of our 
 associate, and the Secretary requested to notify the mem- 
 bers of the Association of the death of Mr. Rainey and the 
 action taken thereon. 
 
 THE STRANAHAN BILL 
 
 The Executive Committee made report of the efforts to 
 defeat the so-called Stranahan Bill which imposed a tax 
 of one half per cent, upon all debts secured by mortgage 
 on real property situated within this State; also that the 
 bill making the bonds of the Chicago & Alton Railroad a 
 legal investment for Savings Banks had received the sanc- 
 tion of the Committee, as the bonds were considered a 
 safe investment, and the bill contained an amendment cor- 
 recting an error in the bill passed at the last session of the 
 Legislature. The bill subsequently became a law. 
 
 RETIREMENT OF JOHN HARSEN RHOADES AS PRESIDENT 
 
 The fact having become known that President John 
 Harsen Rhoades had for personal reasons positively de- 
 clined to permit the use of his name further in connection 
 with the office of President of the Association, which office 
 he had for so many years filled with distinguished ability, 
 the Association took appropriate action at this Conven- 
 tion with reference to his retirement.
 
 192 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. Sturges said: The necessary retirement of Mr. 
 John Harsen Rhoades from the Presidency of this Associ- 
 ation has caused such profound regret that I feel con- 
 strained to speak a few words on the matter. I know that, 
 as compared with the whole membership, but few can 
 fully realize the important services Mr. Rhoades has 
 rendered this Association during the past five years. 
 The Executive Committee especially, who have been in- 
 timately associated with him in that work, will unquali- 
 fiedly testify to their high regard for what he has done. 
 Therefore, in order to give expressions to a desire that I 
 believe is felt here by all my associates, I feel that a suit- 
 able recognition should be made of the services Mr. 
 Rhoades has rendered to the Association by his devotion 
 to its interests and the valuable results that have been 
 accomplished through his efforts. As he retires from the 
 activities of the office which he has filled so faithfully 
 and efficiently, he will at least know that he carries with 
 him the esteem, the friendship, and the best wishes of those 
 with whom he has been connected in this Association, 
 and I beg to submit the following preamble and resolution : 
 
 Whereas, Mr. John Harsen Rhoades having decided 
 to retire from the Presidency of the Savings Banks Asso- 
 ciation through impaired health, after having faithfully 
 performed the duties of that office for the past five 
 years. 
 
 Resolved, That this Association expresses to Mr. Rhoades 
 its regret at his retirement and its full appreciation of the 
 valuable services he has rendered and the untiring devo- 
 tion shown by him to the interests of the Savings Banks 
 in this State. 
 
 Resolved, That this preamble and resolution be entered 
 in full on the minutes of the proceedings of this Asso- 
 ciation.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 193 
 
 Mr. McMahon : I second the resolution, which has been 
 presented by Mr. Sturges, in behalf of the Executive 
 Committee and in behalf of the whole Association. I can 
 only add to what is expressed in the resolution that I have 
 been connected with the Association from its formation, 
 that for many years prior to its organization I was asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Rhoades in visits to Albany in connection 
 with Savings Bank matters in respect to legislation, and 
 I confess that the Association, to my mind, owes its origin 
 and formation to Mr. Rhoades. In going to and from 
 Albany it was constantly his subject of conversation, 
 the importance of such an organization and the good that 
 would result from it, and all the early meetings, which 
 were convened by Mr. Rhoades, were held in different 
 banks — many of them in the board room of my bank, and 
 I think for the first two years the Association held all 
 of its meetings there. Therefore I can the more intelli- 
 gently testify to the great ability and the untiring zeal and 
 effort of Mr. Rhoades in the formation of this Association. 
 There are very few members who are aware of the amount 
 of labor that falls to the position of the President. It is 
 not alone in respect to legislation, but he has letters to 
 answer from all over the country, statistical information 
 required, and so many things that it has been a wonder 
 to me that Mr. Rhoades has been able, with the multi- 
 plicity of duties he has had to perform, to give it the at- 
 tention which he has given. 
 
 The resolutions introduced by Mr. Sturges, and sec- 
 onded by Mr. McMahon, were unanimously adopted. 
 
 MR. rhoades' reply 
 
 Mr. President, I feel greatly moved at this cordial ex- 
 pression on your part of appreciation for what little I have 
 done for a work which we are all engaged in alike. Hap- 
 pily for me, and happily for you, this work is one which 
 counts not for dollars in our own pockets, but for the good 
 of the community, and no man's life is well rounded out
 
 194 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 unless he can look back and feel that he has done some- 
 thing for his fellowman. I regard the work that we are 
 doing as of the utmost value in its character, so far as our 
 fellowmen are concerned, because at the bottom of all 
 prosperity, at the bottom of all that is good in this world, 
 is the encouragement of thrift among the masses of our 
 people. I want to say to you now, gentlemen, that the 
 work that I have done was done from a sense of duty. I 
 count the task but light. What I have gained is to me of 
 a far greater value, and will remain to me as long as I 
 live, and that is the knowledge that I have created friends 
 in this Association which are very dear to me. I shall 
 continue to know you until life is ended, and it is that, 
 gentlemen, which gives me the most profound satisfaction 
 at this hour of my retirement from the high office of 
 President of this body. I speak of this office as a high 
 office, gentlemen, for it is a high office. Any man who 
 stands here representing this body of men who are doing 
 the work you are doing, and who are controlling money 
 which has rolled up to over, as I have said to-day, a 
 thousand million dollars, and who stands here, as your 
 representative, to protect that money from unjust attack 
 and from dishonest handling, or from the breaking down 
 of a system which has gathered it together, is doing a 
 grand work, and it is a high office which he holds. I charge 
 you, therefore, that, upon my retirement, so long as you 
 represent and remain connected with the Savings Banks 
 of this State, so long as the banks you represent hold fast 
 to this Association, you will be doing the best thing that 
 you can do to protect your banks and their depositors. 
 Years of experience have taught me the necessity of an 
 organization of this kind, and, as the years go on, the 
 necessity will grow greater. There is no way that the 
 Savings Bank system of this State can be maintained in 
 its purity and in its integrity unless we, its officers and 
 trustees, stand together as one man, resisting every- 
 thing that is wrong and holding to everything that is 
 right.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 195 
 
 Subsequently a suitable testimonial was presented to 
 the retiring President, the members contributing thereto 
 mdividually. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. CARROLL D. WRIGHT 
 
 On the subject, "Savings Institutions as a Social 
 Force," Mr. Wright said: The Savings Banks Association 
 of the State of New York is, as I understand it from the 
 statement of your President, an active, forceful, and val- 
 uable agent in fostering the best interests of your deposi- 
 tors. The best interests of Savings Bank depositors 
 comprehends a variety of measures and means, but the 
 chief means of securing these best interests is in providing 
 absolute safety for investments. With safety secured, 
 savings institutions, under whatever name they may be 
 chartered, constitute one of the most active forces in pre- 
 serving a high social standard ; without that security, such 
 institutions may become a social menace. It is fortunate 
 that in this country, as a general rule. Savings Banks have 
 secured the confidence of the public, and hence constitute 
 one of the most active social forces. The enormous trans- 
 actions, as given by money values, convince one at the 
 start that the reliance of the public upon such institutions 
 has been very great. Savings Banks are the product of 
 this century. Their development has been within the 
 last fifty years. They had their birth in the old country 
 in the very last years of the eighteenth century. The first 
 organization of which there is any record was efifected in 
 this City of New York, November 29, 1816. The first in- 
 corporated Savings Bank was in Boston December 13th of 
 the same year, beginning its business in the spring of 18 17. 
 The Savings Banks of Great Britain did not have the 
 sanction and protection of law at that time; so our own 
 country anticipated the mother country in giving to this 
 interest legal protection. Savings Banks, as you weU 
 know, are not the usual depositories for the rich. 
 
 The little nestegg of the widow and orphan is found
 
 196 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 there. This character of deposits, on the whole, consti- 
 tutes fifty per cent, of the total amount. 
 
 Small depositors in Savings Banks are not, as a rule, the 
 men who make violent complaints against the banks or 
 against the Government. They know that banks are 
 the great debtors and not the great money owners. They 
 know that a bank owns no money of itself, that it is the 
 debtor of its depositors; that it holds the money of the 
 people, no matter what the form of the bank may be. The 
 stability of the banks, therefore, is of the greatest concern 
 to the people at large, who are interested in them. They 
 realize that the stability of the debtor is the stability of 
 the country itself. 
 
 A man who has money in his pocket or in the Savings 
 Banks usually has an interest in the stability of the Gov- 
 ernment, because that little amount which is to his credit 
 is only safe when the debtor is safe. He has an impor- 
 tance far beyond the man who has not such deposit, be- 
 cause he has an interest in all that pertains to the welfare 
 of the country at large. 
 
 Somebody has said that a wife and children are God's 
 policemen. It may well be said that a man who has been 
 careful and economical enough to put by some part of his 
 earnings, thus becoming a real, substantial part of the whole, 
 is one of the Government's free policemen: for he will see 
 to it that nothing is done to invalidate the stability of the 
 debtor to whom he looks for the safety of his little savings. 
 
 It must be recognized that property is the real basis of 
 social stability — not only that it is the source of family 
 comfort and happiness of the family even, but that it 
 lies at the very foundation of the causes which secure the 
 perpetuation of the human race. 
 
 The Savings Banks are schools of patriotism. 
 
 It has long been held that savings constitute one of the 
 surest means of avoiding some of the catastrophes that 
 come to society. It must be admitted by every one who 
 has given any attention to the subject that social welfare 
 depends upon industrial welfare.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 197 
 
 Dr. Chalmers said that: "The possession of a capital, 
 and that not a very great one, by each individual laborer, 
 or rather by each of a considerable number of laborers, 
 would reverse the character of the negotiation entirely. 
 
 "Every intelligent employer would rather have a well- 
 to-do class of employees, well-paid and with money at 
 interest, than a pauperized and ill-paid force, 
 
 "Save wisely, so as to be able to spend judiciously in 
 a time of need which wiU probably be greater than that of 
 the present." This is the true essence of the principle 
 of the savings institutions, and when society, when the 
 wage- working members of it, understand the power of 
 postponing consumption, they will more readily be con- 
 vinced of the necessity of saving to-day. 
 
 The economist makes a great mistake, however, in 
 contending that all welfare is the result of savings. If 
 every man saved something of his current income, wore 
 one pair of shoes where he now wears two, business itself 
 would become stagnant. It is not in penuriousness that 
 saving exists. Penuriousness could not of itself create 
 capital; it is that wise thrift which postpones consumption, 
 which saves to-day in order to earn the privilege of spend- 
 ing to-morrow. In this lies the true economic principle of 
 society and of industry. Capital is in a sense accumulated 
 savings, but it is accumulated savings constantly being 
 used, worked over, expended. Capital without activity 
 is sand; it has no value. It must be productive, and thus 
 productively invested. Idle capital is a menace. Ac- 
 tive capital secures the safety of the community. The 
 great accumulations of the Savings Banks of the country 
 would be of no account if held in the vaults of the insti- 
 tutions. It is because these savings are sent out in a 
 thousand directions — in building homes, in loans upon 
 great industrial establishments, for the conduct of enter- 
 prise, and everything that bears a relation to the activities 
 of the community — that their power is felt and their 
 force is secured. Every man who participates in this 
 activity, even to the extent of one dollar, is helping society
 
 198 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 to a greater and healthier prosperity. So we see that the 
 Savings Banks exercise not only a social force as such, but 
 that they have a great moral effect on the conduct of 
 society. In great crises they help to save property from 
 destruction. 
 
 In the year 1892, the year before the last depression, 
 the average amount due each depositor in the Savings, 
 Banks of the country was $358.20; in 1893, $369.55; in 
 1894, $365.86; a decrease of less than $4, while in 1895 
 the amount rose to $371.36; in 1896, to $376.50; in 1897, 
 to $372.88; in 1898, to $383.54; larger than any preceding 
 year in the history of the Savings Banks, while in 1899 it 
 was $393.13, larger than at any other period. Thus the 
 saving process went on through the whole industrial 
 depression existing from 1893 to the latter part of 1898. 
 This shows the habit of thrift, and that adverse circum- 
 stances do not interfere with it to any appreciable degree. 
 One may draw some arguments from all this which bear 
 especially upon a very popular statement that finds lodge- 
 ment in many minds at the present time, namely, that the 
 rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. If this 
 statement were true the statistics I have quoted would not 
 show the results stated. If it were true there would be a 
 constant decline not only in the amount of deposits but 
 necessarily in the average due each depositor. All the 
 collateral facts show that the statement is not true. We 
 know that the rich are growing richer; we know that more 
 people are growing rich than formerly. Now, with these 
 two statements acknowledged, if wealth were stationary the 
 popular cry would be true; but wealth is not stationary, 
 it is constantly increasing, so that the true statement is 
 that while the rich are growing richer and more people 
 are growing rich, the poor are growing better off. We may, 
 as philosophers or as economists, discuss the question as 
 to whether the poor are getting their share of the increased 
 wealth, but we cannot argue, if we be honest, that they 
 are growing poorer. We must admit that they are gain- 
 ing constantly in every direction, not only in personal,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 199 
 
 individual accumulations, but in the comforts and the 
 surroundings which help to make their standard of life 
 higher than at any previous time. With this improved 
 condition it is gratifying to recognize the growth of 
 Savings Banks; to recognize the social force which comes 
 from their existence, in their making men better, and in 
 providing them with means for future consumption, in 
 aiding them to carry their families over periods of stress 
 and depression. Now, with this great social force in ex- 
 istence, the men who are most interested in it have a 
 right to demand from your hands and from the hands of 
 all who are conducting the affairs of the great savings 
 institutions of the country the very best and the most 
 devoted attention to the safety of the accumulations. 
 You know well the power of law in these matters, but you 
 know well that the power of law is nothing alongside of 
 reckless management. Wherever Savings Banks have 
 failed it has been through the cupidity of the managers 
 in making investments which apparently would draw a 
 large rate of interest. Every business man knows that a 
 large rate of interest means an insecure basis of invest- 
 ment. The depositors of the Savings Banks of the United 
 States are content with a low rate. It is the safety of the 
 deposit itself to which they look for their own welfare, 
 and in this lies the real social force of the banks them- 
 selves. Any other principle, any reckless management, 
 any desire to pay large rates of interest instead of insuring 
 the security of the deposit itself, constitutes the Savings 
 Banks not a social force but a social menace. As I look 
 into your faces I am sure the interests of the Savings 
 Banks Association of New York are weU guarded. 
 
 "the aristocracy of the dollar" 
 
 Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Boston, ad- 
 dressed the Convention, in part, as follows: Mr. Presi- 
 dent and Gentlemen of the Association: The subject on 
 which I am to speak is the "Aristocracy of the Dollar." 
 Up to this time the aristocracy of birth and the aris-
 
 200 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tocracy of money have divided the world between them. 
 In the early days, when hereditary aristocracy was well 
 recognized in America, it was customary in the older col- 
 leges, such as Yale and Harvard, as soon as a new class 
 arrived, to send around to the villages from whence they 
 came and get their comparative social positions, and then, 
 as you will see in the older catalogues, they were arranged 
 according to that social position of their families at home 
 and not alphabetically, as is the case now. I have often 
 wished that I could see in the aristocracy of the dollar in 
 America that absolutely simple self-respect which you 
 notice in the men in England who know they are born 
 to a big position and do not need to assert it. Take, for 
 instance, the question of coats of arms. I lived in New- 
 port twelve years, and in watching the parade of the car- 
 riages up and down the avenue, many of them with coats 
 of arms, how often have I wished that those living in 
 Newport, driving around in their carriages, would show 
 their pride in the one thing that was creditable to them, 
 namely, that they had laid the foundation of their own 
 fortunes and were willing to show it before the world. 
 
 I can remember when there was but one man in the 
 neighborhood of Boston, Mr. Gushing, of Watertown, who 
 was even suspected of being a millionaire. I used to hear 
 it discussed in my boyhood: "Do you suppose, now, that 
 Gushing has really got a million dollars? I tell you a 
 million dollars is a great deal of money. One could not 
 have as much as a million dollars." What is a million 
 dollars now in these regions of the Ghamber of Gommerce? 
 Respectable poverty. 
 
 There was an instance not many years ago where a 
 gentleman of great wealth felt that he was overtaxed in 
 Boston. He went back to the country town where he had 
 lived, where his father was a quiet country clergyman, who 
 paid a tax perhaps of $15 or $20 a year. When he got 
 back there the selectmen and assessors of the town natu- 
 rally were somewhat startled at the sudden splashing down 
 into that quiet little rural lake of this gorgeous gold and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 201 
 
 silver fish, and they, at his suggestion, had a conference 
 with him as to how much he would like to pay taxes on. 
 He came at it from the other point of view. He said: 
 "What does it cost to run this town a year, anyhow?" 
 And they said: "About so much." And he said: "We 
 wiU try it in this way: From this time on, as bills against 
 the town come in, you send them to me. I will settle 
 them for a year and we will see how it works." He paid 
 every bill against the town that year out of his income and 
 saved $20,000 by the operation. The selectmen of that 
 town were sensible men. They did not let up a bit on their 
 taxation. They put all they got from him into permanent 
 improvements and the consequence is that it is the best 
 roaded, the best sign-boarded, and the best-managed town 
 in the heart of Massachusetts. . . . 
 
 On the other hand, when we look at the aristocracy of 
 the dollar, we find strong points looming up in its favor. 
 
 In the first place, there is the obvious fact that it repre- 
 sents to-day and not yesterday or, at the most, last year 
 and not the last century. 
 
 Then, again, there is this advantage about the aristoc- 
 racy of the dollar that it brings men together. The aris- 
 tocracy of the dollar is not represented by castles, by walls, 
 by drawbridges; it is represented by the things that bring 
 people together, by the railroads, the steamboat, the ex- 
 press company, the telegraph, the telephone. Everything 
 that now stands for the results of wealth stands for things 
 that bring people together. It is modern. It belongs to 
 peaceful, organized life. Whatever exceptions there may 
 be you have to go outside of your own country to find them. 
 If you once go into the imperial business I will not predict 
 what you will find, but in the workings of the aristocracy 
 of wealth in its own country you will find it based mainly 
 on the works of peace. 
 
 You will find that the aristocracy of the dollar, having 
 begun in the people, cannot easily detach itself from the 
 people. 
 
 Then, again, there is this further advantage to the aris-
 
 202 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tocracy of the dollar, that it belongs in a manner to the 
 future. Representing the present, it represents the future 
 also. You have got to recognize it. You have got to 
 make your plans for it. You have got to accustom yourself 
 to it. It speaks for the future. This, be it for good or 
 evil, is the organization that we are to have. What may 
 follow it, what may be the next step, we do not know. 
 What combination of mutual cooperation or support, we 
 cannot teU. There are opportunities for speculation on 
 that subject. But we are in the current of opinions that 
 are ruling all countries. America itself is stretching out 
 its help to all countries into this same plane of effort to 
 know how to handle the wealth of the future, how to deal 
 with this aristocracy of the dollar which we have got to 
 deal with and cannot destroy. . . . 
 
 A friend of mine once seeing a little boy at the theatre 
 who came there night after night and who always went 
 sound asleep, after the curtain fell — when some good man 
 who had wakened him up and put his hat on his head and 
 started him home — said to him: "Why do you always 
 come here, my little boy? You don't seem to enjoy it 
 very much. You always go to sleep." "Oh," said the 
 little boy, as he rubbed his eyes, "you don't know how it 
 is. I have to come. I've got a season ticket." Alas, for 
 wealth! I sometimes think, which has a season ticket for 
 everything and does not get quite the full enjoyment out of 
 anything. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HONORABLE WHEELER H. PECKHAM 
 
 Hon. Wheeler H. Peckham addressed the Convention 
 as follows : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: After listening to the 
 very charming discussion which we have heard from the 
 most prominent literary man of Boston, it seems a little 
 hard to turn to the dry subject which has been assigned 
 to me to speak upon this afternoon.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 203 
 
 The aristocracy of the dollar is shown in the working- 
 man of to-day, whether his work be rewarded by smaller 
 or larger consequences. The aristocracy of the dollar, I 
 say, is shown in the workingman of to-day who has lifted 
 himself beyond the necessity of daily toil for mere exist- 
 ence and has a surplus. And the moment he has achieved 
 that surplus something else can be done by that man, some 
 further step can be taken by him than contenting himself 
 forever with the drudgery of daily toil. 
 
 They can do something, they do do something to add to 
 that surplus, to the means of existence which gives them 
 leisure and enables every man of them to do something for 
 the benefit of his kind as well as for himself. And yet so 
 recent is that period that I am told it was but in 18 19 that 
 the first Savings Bank was organized in this State; and 
 when it was organized the man who deposited his savings 
 there, so that he might accumulate something for himself, 
 was able to make something of himself more than the mere 
 drudge, which, prior to the recent economic advance of 
 the world — whatever period may be assigned to it — he was 
 unable to do. 
 
 The theme assigned to me this afternoon is as to the wel- 
 fare of these depositors in the Savings Banks, as to the 
 right or power of the Government, after having for years 
 exempted their savings from taxation now, when they have 
 amounted to millions and millions of dollars based upon 
 the faith of that exemption, to say whether they shaU be 
 taken away and the whole or a large part of the income 
 from them swept into the cofi'ers of the State in the name 
 of taxation. 
 
 During this past year, this past winter, all of you know 
 there was introduced into the Legislature — and for a time 
 it seemed as if it might pass and become a law — a bill 
 which taxed Savings Banks, substantially the same as 
 any one else in the community, upon all the property which 
 was in their possession. It aroused your antagonism 
 naturally enough. You all, I am told, opposed it, and you 
 with others opposed it successfully. You claimed that
 
 204 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 this enormous aggregation of capital in your hands be- 
 longed to poor men, and that it was not a right or fair 
 thing for the Government to tax the savings of its poor 
 citizens. What importance or how much weight that 
 argument had with the Legislature when they determined 
 to refuse to pass this bill, I do not know. I am not pre- 
 pared to say that it was entitled to any. I cannot see 
 for myself why the savings of a man who had not seen fit 
 to put them into a Savings Bank should be taxed, and the 
 savings of another man, who had seen fit to put them in a 
 Savings Bank, should not be taxed. It always struck me 
 that that was a contention difficult to the last degree to 
 maintain, and if I thought that the claim of the Savings 
 Banks that their assets should not be taxed depended 
 solely, or really in any substantial degree, upon that con- 
 tention I should not have the confidence in it which I now 
 have. I think that there is another and a vastly better 
 and stronger reason for it. All the assets of Savings Banks 
 substantially are invested in what are known as, and what 
 we call, securities. So far as they are invested in real 
 estate, they are not exempt from taxation, but so far as 
 they are invested in securities they are exempt from taxa- 
 tion at the present time. The bill to which I referred 
 would have made all those securities subject to taxation. 
 
 Now it seems to me a matter of demonstration as com- 
 plete and thorough as any mathematical demonstration 
 can be, that securities, whether held by Savings Banks or 
 individuals, should not and cannot be taxed. It seems to 
 me as plain as it possibly can be that, in the economic sense 
 of the word — mind you, gentlemen, I draw a distinction 
 between the economic sense and the legal sense — these 
 securities are not property. They are not capital. They 
 are not anything that has ever added a single dollar to the 
 wealth of the world. If all the securities in the world were 
 destroyed the world would be in no sense the loser other 
 than of the paper upon which they were written and of the 
 work in printing them. 
 
 The Legislature of the State and the taxing ofiicers of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 205 
 
 the people, and the authorities who have had to do with 
 this question of taxing securities, seem to have been un- 
 able to get it into their heads that securities are nothing 
 but a means for the distribution of wealth, nothing but 
 the distributors of capital or the title deeds to it. 
 
 What I am talking about, of course, is something with 
 which you are perfectly familiar. I do not have to per- 
 suade'^you to believe it. You are already persuaded now. 
 I merely refer to it as a thing which possibly some of 
 you may not have noticed before. I have. I have been 
 thirty odd years talking about this thing. Not as an ora- 
 tor, not as a declaimer. I have been paid hard cash itself 
 for the talking that I have done about this matter for 
 the last thirty years by the men who employed me to rep- 
 resent them before legislative committees. And who do 
 you suppose they were? Not the lenders, not men who 
 had money or capital to lend, but the men who wanted to 
 borrow and who could not borrow because of the tax laws 
 of the State of New York taxing the mortgages which 
 might be made by them when they borrowed, and because 
 the lenders would not lend upon such mortgages. 
 
 In the early days, when the two things were brought 
 close together, there was a usury law on the one side and a 
 law regulating the rate of interest on the other. These 
 came together. Lenders were apprehensive that it might 
 be claimed that the payment of the tax by the borrower 
 would be a payment of more than the six or seven per cent., 
 limited by the law, and so taint with usury and make the 
 transaction doubly dangerous, and the aim of the men who 
 were suffering because they could not borrow this money 
 was to remove the usury law, or the tax on mortgages, so 
 that they could go into the money market and borrow on 
 their own credit. There is where the shoe pinched. That 
 is where last winter, when the bill was attempted to be 
 passed, it was shown to pinch. All agreed that although 
 by that bill the burden was put directly upon the mort- 
 gagee, and he had to pay it in the first place, yet in the end, 
 owing to the discrepancy between the market rate of in-
 
 2o6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 terest and the legal rate of interest, there was no difficulty 
 v/hatever in the lender passing the burden over from him- 
 self to the borrower, and the borrower would have to pay 
 the tax. 
 
 No doubt has ever existed anywhere in the mind of any- 
 body that such would be the result in the case of mort- 
 gages. In the case where real estate is the subject-matter 
 of the transaction, and in this State with respect to per- 
 sonal property, the question is a little more complex, and 
 for this reason: In the early days of the occupation of 
 this country there was very little personal property and the 
 taxes were paid mostly by those who held the land. But 
 they did in early days provide for the taxation of personal 
 property, and not only that but they inserted in the law 
 a definition of what was personal property. They said 
 that it included bonds,mortgages,choses in action, prom- 
 ises to pay, book accounts, and things of that character. 
 On the other hand, while a man was taxed for all those 
 things which he had, and for any other personal property 
 which he had, they put upon the statute book a relieving 
 clause, as it might be called, saying that there should be 
 deducted from the sum total of his personal property the 
 debts that he owed. Now, you see the result. If the 
 man who holds the bonds, the creditor, the security 
 holder, really can be taxed, if he can be made to pay the 
 taxes, there would be some sort of reason for crediting 
 the amount of tax that he paid, or the value of the prop- 
 erty upon which he paid, to the owner of the personal 
 property which was possessed by the obliger. Take as an 
 illustration a railroad company for a more ready under- 
 standing of it. It has a large amount of personal property : 
 cars, locomotives, engines, machines, and all sorts of things. 
 All its rolling stock is personal property. It would pay a 
 tax on that, we will say, to an amount of $50,000, more 
 or less. But it has issued a lot of bonds, three and one 
 half per cent, bonds, selling in the market at in. The 
 theory of the law is that for just that amount of the 
 personal property of the New York Central Railroad
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 207 
 
 Company which is offset by bonds issued, the rail- 
 road shall not pay the tax, but the bondholders shall. 
 We will say the tax is two and one half per cent, and the 
 bonds are three and one half per cent. Now not only 
 are the bonds three and one half per cent., but they sell 
 in the open market at in, or 112, or 113, as the case may 
 be. We all know that those bonds do not in fact pay any 
 tax. The railroad escapes taxation on just that propor- 
 tion of its actual, visible, tangible working capital that is 
 equal in amount to the amount of bonds issued. The 
 bonds are subject to taxation, and according to the law 
 they ought to be taxed. We know, as a matter of fact, 
 that no man who owns them is taxed one cent. That is 
 the working of the law. We know it by the reports of 
 men who for thirty years have been engaged, to the utmost 
 effort of their lives, in attempting to actually tax secur- 
 ities, and we know it from the Comptroller's reports. 
 
 The State Comptroller, in his last report, stated that, of 
 all the personal property in this State, amounting to some 
 eighteen thousand million dollars, and including in that 
 amount not only securities but actual personal property, 
 only three per cent, of it paid a tax. 
 
 These securities cannot pay any tax, for this reason. 
 A man invests in these securities in competition with all 
 other opportunities for investment afforded not only here 
 in our country, but, you may say, in the whole world. 
 The economic law is based on various facts, among them 
 the fact that the property is so easily and readily hid that 
 it cannot be found; the fact that in no other country in 
 the world is such a thing known as taxation of personal 
 property in that way, and for an infinite variety of rea- 
 sons, which I cannot state now in detail, these capitalists 
 who have this money to lend have the markets of the 
 world open before them. The rate of interest is deter- 
 mined, and actually exists, upon what is called the net 
 rate to them, free from any tax. That is the world's 
 market. That is the world's custom. That is the actual 
 fact as it exists, that the man who lends money gets for
 
 2o8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 it not an amount of interest out of which he shall pay the 
 tax, but he gets an amount of interest based upon the 
 idea that he shall not pay any tax, but that the man who 
 has borrowed the money will pay all the taxes which are to 
 be paid out of the earnings of the particular enterprise which 
 is the basis of the pledge for the security. As a matter 
 of fact, we here know that and recognize it every day. 
 The railroad companies recognize it to the extreme when 
 they invariably put into their large mortgages which have 
 been made in the past .five or ten years a clause to the 
 effect that in case a tax is levied upon that bond by the 
 State or Federal Government that, notwithstanding the 
 provision of law that the railroad company shall pay the 
 tax and charge it against the interest, the railroad com- 
 pany will pay the tax and will not charge it against the 
 interest, but will pay the interest just the same as if the 
 tax had not been levied. You all know perfectly well 
 that in the securities you have in your banks, the modem 
 mortgages, every one of them contains that provision, 
 and it is right and fair that they should, because out of the 
 income that has been made, or that shall be made, by 
 any enterprise, railroads, bank, manufactory, or anything 
 else — out of the money that is made by that enterprise 
 every single dollar of tax, interest, income, and profits 
 must be paid. You all know that after the taxes have 
 been paid — all the tax which that income will stand — the 
 rest must be divided between the lender — call him pro- 
 motor or capitalist, or what you will — must be divided 
 between the man who runs the enterprise and the man 
 who has loaned the capital, for the use of that capital in 
 that enterprise, as they agree. Their intention, their 
 agreement, is the absolute and final arbiter of the pro- 
 portion in which the profits of the enterprise shall be 
 divided between them. How, then, can you tax it? If 
 you tax the securities immediately after the security there- 
 by is reduced in its rate of interest so that the ordi- 
 nary, fair, average rate cannot be secured to it, it is turned 
 over upon the borrower who has to pay it. It is impossi-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 209 
 
 ble that it should be otherwise. If you take from that 
 fund directly in the hands of the man who is managing 
 it all that can be taken from it without stirring up the 
 disposition of the community to such an extent as to ac- 
 complish a revolution or a reorganization of the method 
 of managing it, you cannot touch another dollar of it 
 by calling it a tax upon the holder of the securities, which 
 represents a tax upon the same fund and must be paid 
 from the same money. They do not seem to realize 
 that this fund for the payment of all things is precisely 
 like the water in a well. You may dig a wellhole and 
 take all the water from it, or you may run a thousand 
 pipes of small diameter from that well, but you cannot get 
 any more water from the pipes than you can get from 
 the wellhole. So all that can be taken by the State for 
 a tax upon securities, and upon the property, and upon 
 everything connected with the enterprise is limited simply 
 to the amount of the income of that enterprise. You 
 must not tax any income to an extent that will deprive the 
 persons who are carrying on an enterprise of a large share 
 of their income. Should such a law as stands on our 
 statute books be really enforced, no law for the collection 
 of taxes upon these securities would be necessary. 
 
 With respect to the railroad corporation where the 
 bonds ran for two hundred years, we have bought those 
 securities at the low rate of interest provided by the terms 
 of the bond based upon the idea that those securities were 
 exempt from taxation. If they were short-term securities, 
 the injustice of taxing them would not be so great, because 
 at the end of the year the lender would demand a different 
 rate of interest, and that it should be enough to pay the 
 tax and leave to him the usual interest upon the money 
 he loaned. But where the bond runs for a hundred years 
 or more and has been bought upon the basis that it should 
 not be taxed, and if the State then turns around and taxes 
 it, that is confiscation to the extent of the difference be- 
 tween the value of the boud before and after such a tax 
 is levied.
 
 2IO HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Gentlemen, you have got to meet this fact which was 
 brought out during the last legislative session. You 
 cannot interest the politician, the average politician, in 
 what is fair or right. You cannot interest him in eco- 
 nomic truths or economic science. In order to interest 
 him you must show him something that is going to give 
 him votes at the next election. In order to change this 
 statute, which has stood upon our statute books for so 
 long, appeal to politicians is in vain unless you show them 
 that the men of the country, as a whole, are one on this 
 subject. Unless you can show him that you are in earnest 
 yourself, unless you can show him that the vast constit- 
 uency you represent is awake to the fact that he is not 
 doing what he ought to do, and that the law is doing an 
 injustice to them, you cannot interest him. 
 
 The remedy is entirely with you. It is for you to let 
 the pohticians, the members of the House and of the 
 Senate, know that you understand this thing, that you 
 are ready and determined to let all the people who have 
 votes in your districts understand this thing, and that 
 you are determined that the rights of the people who work, 
 who are devoted to their work alone, who are occupied 
 with other things and not with politics, and who have 
 put their savings- in the shape of actual capital in your 
 banks, shall be protected.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Eighth Annual Convention — President Andrew D. Mills in the 
 Chair — Brief Review of the Past Year's Progress — Announce- 
 ment of the Death of J. Howard King, President of the Albany 
 Savings Bank — The Surplus or Guarantee Fund of Savings 
 Banks and Its Proper Legal Uses Elucidated by Mr. Hicks, 
 of the Bowery Savings Bank — Restriction of Deposits Dis- 
 cussed by Mr. Charles A. Miller, of Utica — Dormant 
 Accounts. 
 
 THE newly elected President, Mr. Andrew D. Mills, 
 was in the chair at the opening of the Eighth 
 Annual Convention, held in the City of New York, 
 on Wednesday, May 8, 1901. As on many previous oc- 
 casions. Superintendent Frederick D. Ealburn, of the New 
 York Banking Department, was an honored guest of the 
 Convention. 
 
 THE president's ADDRESS 
 
 President Mills delivered the opening address, in the 
 course of which he said : 
 
 The year that has passed since we last met here has 
 been one of great national prosperity, one of the evidences 
 of which is the large increase in deposits in the Savings 
 Banks of the State which on January i, 1901, aggregated 
 the enormous sum or total of $947,000,000, representing 
 the savings of over 2,000,000 depositors. This shows 
 an increase for the year including interest credited of 
 over $59,000,000. 
 
 The banks hold in addition to this sum a so-called sur- 
 plus of $118,000,000, which makes a total of resources 
 of $1,066,000,000.
 
 212 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 It must not be forgotten, however, that in computing 
 the surplus the securities have been taken at their market 
 value which exceeds their par value over $48,000,000. 
 This latter amount represents the difference between the 
 rate of interest the securities bear on their face and the 
 current rate prevailing at the time the reports are made, 
 and will gradually disappear as the bonds mature. All 
 securities have enhanced in value during the last five 
 years, and a considerable portion of the increase of this 
 fund is due to that fact. 
 
 But in spite of this increase the percentage of surplus to 
 liabilities has not held its own, but according to the figures 
 of the Bank Department, as reported by Superintendent 
 Kilburn, shows a decrease of three quarters of one per 
 cent, since 1895, and if the deposits continue to increase 
 and the earning power of our investments continues to 
 decrease, this lessening of the percentage surplus will be 
 more marked in the future. I have used the word "sur- 
 plus" in referring to this fund, as that is the name under 
 which it has always been known. 
 
 I consider the name unfortunate, as it does not con- 
 vey to the mind of the average person what it really 
 is. I think the name "guarantee fund," which is used 
 in many other States, much more appropriate. As we 
 all thoroughly appreciate, it is a fund held for the 
 purpose of guaranteeing the depositor against any pos- 
 sible loss which may arise from the depreciation in the 
 value of investments or any other cause, while the income 
 from it accrues to the benefit to all. Accepting this as 
 the proper definition, the true function of this fund can- 
 not be mistaken. 
 
 For the first time in the history of Savings Banks of this 
 State the Legislature has deemed it wise to levy a tax of 
 one per cent, per annum on the "guarantee fund" based 
 on the par value of securities. This will take from the 
 earnings of the banks about $700,000 a year. I sincerely 
 hope and trust that future legislatures will not increase the 
 burden.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 213 
 
 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 The Executive Committee report was read by Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon, Chairman pro tern, as follows: 
 
 Gentlemen: The Executive Committee is again called 
 upon to preface its report with the announcement of the 
 death of one of its members. 
 
 Shortly after the last annual meeting, J. Howard King, 
 President of the Albany Savings Banks, after a brief ill- 
 ness, died. Mr. King was a member of the Executive 
 Committee from its organization, and by his regular at- 
 tendance at its meetings and the prominent part he took 
 in its deliberations evidenced his great interest in all that 
 concerned the Savings Bank depositor. The vacancy 
 caused by the death of Mr. King was filled by electing his 
 successor in the Presidency of the Albany Savings Bank, 
 William Bayard Van Rensselaer. 
 
 The bill to permit Savings Banks to loan their available 
 funds on all bonds which they may now purchase was 
 introduced by Senator Humphrey, Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee on Banks, at the request of your Committee, and 
 has become a law. 
 
 In his inaugural message. Governor Odell recommended 
 that the surplus of Savings Banks be taxed, and a bill was 
 introduced by Senator Krum in the Senate levying a tax 
 of one per cent, on the surplus of the banks, all securities 
 to be taken at their market value. 
 
 A large delegation of members of the Association ap- 
 peared before the Joint Committee on Taxation and Re- 
 trenchment in opposition to the bill; the bill was passed 
 after an amendment had been added that the taxation 
 should be on the par value instead of the market value. 
 
 THE SURPLUS, OR GUARANTEE, FUND OF SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. Hicks, of the Bowery Savings Bank, New York, 
 addressed the Convention in part, as follows :
 
 214 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 I hardly expected to be called upon to present this sub- 
 ject to you, and I must apologize for want of proper prep- 
 aration. I will state briefly the facts that have trans- 
 pired recently. The question in regard to the surplus of 
 Savings Banks has, by recent events, been called to mind, 
 and various considerations have been given to it probably 
 by you all. 
 
 In looking at the matter it seemed that the word " sur- 
 plus" was, in a degree, misleading and a misnomer. That 
 is the word used in the annual report. As I understand it, 
 it simply means the balance in the profit and loss account. 
 It is not a constant. It varies from year to year and 
 from time to time. Various subtractions are made from 
 it by the declaration of dividends. Now section 123 of 
 the laws, I find, states that the trustees of Savings Banks 
 shall declare such a dividend as is practicable, so that de- 
 positors shall receive, as nearly as may be, all the interest 
 and profits of the institutions that have been earned. That 
 is mandatory. Then a saving clause says that they may 
 provide a reserve to meet contingencies and other items — - 
 with which you are all familiar — that they may provide 
 for it. As to that, it is not mandatory; it is simply per- 
 missive for them to do so. 
 
 I have given attention to the subject and wrote to our 
 Bank Superintendent, asking him his interpretation of it, 
 and asking him this pertinent question, which he answered. 
 I have his letter which I won't take time to read now. It 
 briefly states that the subject is not without its difficulties. 
 He reasons partly from a decision given by the Attorney- 
 General in 1898, I think, that only the interest accruing 
 for the last period, the six months, can be applied to a 
 dividend; that the surplus — and to use his own words — the 
 established surplus shall remain intact and we shall not 
 detract from it at any time. He says if we can do so we 
 can detract from it one half or the whole, if desired. We 
 have no right, as he claims, to distribute any more than 
 the current six months' interest earned. I then put this 
 very pertinent question. I said: "Our own bank has in
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 215 
 
 hand money derived from the sale of Government bonds 
 or the exchange of bonds. We have received a large 
 amount in anticipated interest." That is the substance of 
 it, although it is not stated so in the program or the cir- 
 cular issued by the Secretary of the Treasury. It is in 
 substance the anticipated interest of seven years. I 
 asked him the question, shall that seven years' interest be 
 distributed in the last six months or shall it be applied to 
 the next current year in the discretion of the trustees? 
 That has remained unanswered. 
 
 Now my contention is that the interpretation that has 
 been made by the Bank Superintendent is erroneous inlaw, 
 and not on good business principles. The law is manda- 
 tory only to one extent ; permissive as regards the amount 
 that we can retain. I have introduced this subject as 
 being one occurring within my own experience. I have 
 his letter and opinion of counsel. 
 
 Mr. McMahon: The question is, as I understand it, is 
 it legal for a Savings Bank to take from its surplus in order 
 to make up for any deficiency in the earnings that may be 
 required to pay the usual — or any given — rate of interest? 
 
 In answering this question in the negative, I will first 
 quote the law on the subject. 
 
 Chapter 689 of the Laws of 1892. Article 3, section 1 23 
 (this section has never been amended), says: ^ 
 
 '^ Rate of interest; extra dividends: The trustees of 
 every such corporation shall regulate the rate of in- 
 terest or dividends not to exceed five per cent, per 
 annum upon the deposits therewith, in such manner 
 that depositors shall receive, as nearly as may be, all 
 the profits of such corporation, after deducting neces- 
 sary expenses and reserving such amounts as the 
 trustees may deem expedient as a surplus fund for the 
 security of the depositors, which to the amount of 
 fifteen per centum of its deposits the trustees of any 
 
 ' Since amended by the Banking Law of the State of New York, chap. 2 
 of the Consol. Laws, as amended by chap. 369 of the Laws of 1914, article 6, 
 sec. 254-256.
 
 2i6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 such corporation may gradually accumulate and hold, 
 to meet any contingency or loss in its business from 
 the depreciation of its securities or otherwise. No 
 dividends or interest shall be declared credited or 
 paid, except by the authority of a vote of the Board 
 of Trustees duly entered upon their minutes, whereon 
 shall be recorded the ayes and nays upon each vote; 
 but accounts closed between dividend periods may 
 be credited with interest at the rate of the last divi- 
 dend, computing from the last dividend period to the 
 date when closed, if the by-laws so provide. When- 
 ever any interest or dividend shall be declared and 
 credited in excess of the interest or profits earned and 
 appearing to the credit of the corporation, the trustees 
 voting for such dividend shall be jointly and severally 
 liable to the corporation for the amount of such excess 
 so declared and credited. The trustees of any such 
 corporation whose surplus amounts to fifteen per 
 cent, of its deposits, at least once in three years, shall 
 divide equitably the accumulation beyond such author- 
 ized surplus as an extra dividend to depositors, in 
 excess of the regular dividends authorized." 
 
 This language is apparently clear; we are told that at 
 regular quarterly or semi-annual periods the depositors shall 
 receive as nearly as possible all the profits of that period, 
 after deducting necessary expenses and such amount as 
 may be reserved for the Surplus Fund, and also that 
 this Surplus Fund, limited to fifteen per cent, of the 
 deposits, is to be held to meet contingencies or losses in the 
 business from depreciation of securities or otherwise. It 
 will be observed that it does not say that this fund may 
 be used to pay dividends, except that when amounting to 
 over fifteen per cent, the accumulation over this fifteen 
 per cent, is to be distributed at least every three years as an 
 extra dividend. 
 
 It seems evident to me that the intent of the law is that 
 the dividend declared must be earned, or, in other words,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 217 
 
 that the earnings for a given period must at least equal 
 the interest paid depositors; I do not think that the law 
 ever contemplated giving power to Savings Banks to so 
 handle their business that dividends might be paid ir- 
 respective of earnings. Whatever sums were earned in 
 past years in excess of necessary expenses and dividends 
 were credited to a Surplus Fund, to be used as directed 
 by law; the purposes of this Surplus Fund are clearly 
 defined, and among these purposes I fail to find one author- 
 izing its use for the payment of dividends not earned. 
 
 We have, moreover, an opinion of the Attorney-General, 
 who, in 1887, in reply to the following question of the Super- 
 intendent of Banks: "May the trustees of a Savings Bank 
 use the surplus for the purpose of paying dividends in excess 
 of the amount actually earned during the period for which 
 such dividend is declared, until such time as the surplus 
 equals fifteen per cent, of its deposits?" replied as follows: 
 
 "When the statute . . . speaks of declaring 
 a dividend, it means a dividend earned during one of 
 the interest periods, or during the half or quarter 
 year for which it is declared. The officers of the 
 banks act for the depositors, who are entitled to all 
 the earnings of their money during any proper inter- 
 est period, less the authorized deductions for ex- 
 penses and the surplus provided for in section 267 
 (now section 123). I find nothing in the statute which 
 would authorize the trustees of a Savings Bank to 
 withhold any earnings of one period, in order to add 
 them to and increase the dividends of a subsequent 
 period. This would work injustice to depositors, and 
 result in depriving depositors who withdraw their 
 deposits of the full amount of interest earned. They 
 can only be withheld for the purpose of accumulat- 
 ing a surplus in the manner indicated in section 267 
 (now 123). Nor do I find any provision authorizing 
 the use of the established surplus for the payment of 
 dividends. The surplus, to the amount of at least
 
 2i8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 fifteen per cent, of the deposits, is declared to be for 
 the security of the depositors, and the statute con- 
 templates its being kept intact for that purpose. 
 There is an express provision for the disposition of 
 the excess of the surplus. Such excess of authorized 
 surplus must be divided as a dividend, once in three 
 years. I am of the opinion, therefore, that it is the 
 duty of the trustees of a Savings Bank to declare a 
 dividend for each interest period, equal to the amount 
 of earnings for that particular period, less the ex- 
 penses and the amount properly appUcable to the 
 accumulation of the authorized surplus, as aforesaid, 
 and that they should not retain the earnings of one 
 period for the mere purpose of increasing the divi- 
 dend of a subsequent period, nor use the established 
 surplus for the purpose of increasing the dividend, 
 except when such surplus exceeds the amount author- 
 ized by the statute, and in that case such excess of sur- 
 plus should only be converted into dividends in accord- 
 ance with the provisions of the statute above quoted." 
 
 In conclusion, and to resume, I beg to say that to the 
 best of my judgment and beHef , Savings Banks may not 
 use their surplus fund for the purpose of paying dividends 
 not earned during the interest period. They may, how- 
 ever, declare dividends up to their total gross earnings for 
 that period, if they have a surplus fund to draw upon, 
 without violating the law. 
 
 General Meserole, President Williamsburgh Savings 
 Bank, of Brooklyn: I did not suppose there was any ques- 
 tion in regard to what you could do with the surplus. 
 I did not suppose there was any difference of opinion. I 
 thought it was perfectly clear that you could not touch 
 the surplus with which to pay the di^ddend, but that you 
 can make such dividends as you please and put the rest 
 into the surplus. I did not suppose there was any ground 
 for argument on that point. 
 
 Mr. Kilburn, Superintendent of Banks: This is not a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 219 
 
 new question to me. I have had it before me two or three 
 times since I became Superintendent. I think my uni- 
 form opinion has been, wherever I have given it, that a 
 bank had no right to use part of its accumulated surplus 
 for the payment of interest to its depositors until, of 
 course, that surplus amounts to fifteen per centum pro- 
 vided for in the statute, when it is obligatory upon the 
 banks to divide the amount over the fifteen per centum. 
 
 I had a communication not long since from a bank 
 asking me this question. In my answer to that communi- 
 cation I cited a case which has been decided in the Court 
 of Appeals, I believe. I cannot tell you now what the 
 case was, or where it is reported, but I had the case before 
 me at the time. As I remember it, that case decided 
 specifically that if dividends were declared amounting to 
 more than the earnings for the interest period, in the 
 absence of proof of fraud upon the part of the directors, 
 it was not unlawful, and that the directors were not liable 
 for having declared the dividend. 
 
 There is an opinion on file by the Attorney-General, 
 given to my predecessor, upon this question. I think that 
 Mr. McMahon speaks of it in his paper. It is to the effect 
 that there is no authority in the law giving power to 
 trustees to declare a dividend beyond the earnings for 
 the interest period. Now my own opinion is that the 
 law is settled upon that point, and I do not believe that a 
 Savings Bank has the right to declare a dividend, or to 
 pay interest, beyond the earnings of the interest period. 
 
 If you can declare a dividend for a greater amount than 
 the earnings for the interest period, you can go to the 
 hmit allowed under the law which is, I believe, five per 
 cent., and you may continue declaring dividends out of 
 your surplus until your surplus is wiped out, because 
 there is nothing in the law whatever obligatory upon the 
 Savings Banks to accumulate a surplus. It is permissive. 
 The law allows you to accumulate a surplus not exceeding 
 fifteen per centum of your deposits on the par value. 
 Now I know of no law which will prevent you from divid-
 
 220 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ing your whole surplus among your depositors if you have 
 the right to divide any of it. 
 
 Now as to the question of safety, the question of good 
 management, conservative management. It seems to me 
 that it is a proper thing to accumulate a surplus. It is 
 a safety fund. That is what the l.aw meant it should be. 
 It is for the purpose of protecting your depositors against 
 any depreciation in the securities, or losses which you 
 may make through loans. Now when you divide that 
 surplus, or when the law gives you the power to divide 
 a surplus already accumulated, you defeat the very pur- 
 pose of the surplus. You do away with the safety fund 
 which the law says you may accumulate and, it seems to 
 me, that you absolutely defeat the purpose which the law 
 had in contemplation when it said you might accumulate 
 this surplus. 
 
 The theory of the law, as I understand it, is that you 
 shall divide among your depositors all of your earnings 
 aside from the expenses and a reasonable amount which 
 you may carry to surplus. Now if you have carried an 
 unreasonable amount to surplus, so much so that you now 
 feel that you should have the privilege of dividing that 
 surplus or part qf it, then you carried an unreasonable 
 amount in the first place to your surplus fund, and it 
 opens the door so wide, in my opinion, if you admit or 
 claim that you may divide your surplus — I say that opens 
 the door so wide, brings up so many contingencies, and 
 gives rise to so many diversified opinions in management 
 among the Savings Banks that, in my opinion, it would 
 become a dangerous practice. 
 
 I do not know but what I say may tread upon the corns 
 of somebody who desires to declare a larger dividend than 
 their current earnings will permit. That may be so, and 
 if you had but one case to deal with, and that was the end 
 of it, there might not be any great injustice done, or any- 
 thing done which would be unwise, but this is a question 
 which you have got to apply universally. It is a general 
 proposition, and if one has a right to do it another has the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 221 
 
 same right. If you establish the rule that a Savings Bank 
 may divide its surplus, then I say that it may become a 
 dangerous practice and endanger the safety and stability 
 of the Savings Banks of this State. 
 
 It seems to me, that, as a general proposition, it is 
 dangerous to claim or to admit that Savings Banks have 
 the right to divide that surplus which has been laid aside 
 as a reasonable guarantee or safety fund against losses 
 occurring through loans or otherwise. I have looked up 
 the question with some care and I can come to no other 
 conclusion than that the law means that the reasonable 
 surplus which you have accumulated for the purpose of 
 guaranteeing your depositors against losses may not be 
 divided among your depositors until that surplus fund 
 amounts to more than fifteen per centum. Then you 
 must divide it, and the law seems to contemplate that the 
 sum is sufficient, that fifteen per cent, of your deposits is 
 sufficient to guarantee their safety. 
 
 RESTRICTION OF SAVINGS BANK DEPOSITS 
 
 A valuable paper upon the subject of the restriction of 
 Savings Bank deposits was read by Mr. Charles A. 
 Miller, Vice-President of the Savings Bank of Utica. In 
 the course of his address, Mr. Miller said: 
 
 The preamble to the charter of the Bank for Savings, 
 Chapter 62 of the Laws of 1819, begins: 
 
 "Whereas the Society for Prevention of Pauperism in 
 the City of New York have petitioned to the Legislature 
 for an act of incorporation, for the laudable purpose of 
 encouraging in the community habits of industry and 
 economy, by receiving and vesting in Government secur- 
 ities or in stock created and issued under and by virtue 
 of any law of the United States, or of this State, and in no 
 other way, such small sums of money as may be saved 
 from the earnings of tradesmen, mechanics, laborers, 
 miners, servants, and others."
 
 222 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 When considering any problem in Savings Bank man- 
 agement, I like to turn to these words of the founders of 
 the Savings Bank system. They explain why Savings 
 Banks exist, why they are guided by unpaid trustees, why 
 they have received and are entitled to receive favors and 
 exemptions at the hands of the Legislature. And, fur- 
 ther, they furnish a criterion by which all Savings Bank 
 policy may be tried. 
 
 They prove that the Savings Bank system was intro- 
 duced, not as a means of investment for the rich, not even 
 as a convenience for the well-to-do, but for the "laudable 
 purpose" of encouraging the poor in habits of industry 
 and thrift. 
 
 How needless it ought to be to restate this famihar 
 fact. Yet it cannot be insisted on too strongly. It is 
 not understood by the community at large, with the result 
 that many are jealous of our privileges and criticise our 
 management. It is ignored by the Legislature and we 
 are taxed. When it shall be forgotten by Savings Bank 
 officials, the whole system will be imperilled. 
 
 Let us, then, remember the chief object of our existence 
 and bear in mind that any policy of management which in 
 any way hinders us in fulfilling it is essentially bad. 
 
 Now it cannot be disputed that many banks have 
 sought or at least have received large deposits without in- 
 quiry as to whether or not the depositor belonged to the 
 class which needed encouragement in "habits of industry 
 and economy." This is not surprising, for we all like to 
 feel that the interests committed to our control are grow- 
 ing more important, that our bank is outstripping its 
 neighbor. Then, too, in the large city institutions the 
 enormous number of transactions makes it a practical 
 impossibility to institute personal inquiry as to the desir- 
 ability of each deposit which is offered. Nevertheless, 
 though this state of aftairs may be natural, it has still been 
 an injury to the Savings Bank system. Superintendent 
 Kilburn in his report of 1899 says: 
 
 "Excessive deposits made only for investment by men
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 223 
 
 competent to care for their own interests give the most 
 reasonable cause for criticism of the Savings Bank system, 
 affording those who would impose unreasonable exactions 
 upon banks an excuse for their attitude." 
 
 At the beginning of the only serious run in our history 
 our average deposit was $346. About ten days later, 
 when the run was over, this had fallen to $301, and we 
 found that the average size of the accounts closed during 
 this period was $535. 
 
 Mr. McMahon: I only want to refer to the statement 
 regarding the depositing in our institutions of a very large 
 amount of money by the well-to-do classes as being, to me, 
 exaggeration. I may be wrong, but I am gauging my 
 judgment of this matter from our bank which, I take it, is 
 a very fair criterion of the banks of our city. I can say 
 truthfully that in our bank, and I have watched the matter 
 very closely, the aggregate of such accounts is a mere 
 bagatelle when compared with the gross amount of de- 
 posits. I have noticed in the last year or two that we 
 have received quite a good deal of money from widows and 
 orphans, money that comes to them through some of these 
 benevolent insurance associations, and we believe that 
 that money is just as legitimate Savings Bank money as 
 the ten-dollar deposit of a servant or laborer. 
 
 Mr. David Cromwell: I presume every Savings Bank 
 has found more or less among its depositors those who had 
 no right to be there, and while I disagree with the gentle- 
 man entirely in his proposed legislation because I think the 
 injury would be greater than the benefit, still it seems to 
 me that this Association of the New York State Savings 
 Banks should put itself upon record in regard to this mat- 
 ter of large deposits by persons who simply use the 
 Savings Banks as an investment, and I suggest that a reso- 
 lution, something in this shape, should be passed by this 
 Association : 
 
 Resolved, That it is the sense of this Association of the 
 Savings Banks of the State of New York that every bank 
 should discourage and absolutely refuse all deposits where
 
 224 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 they are satisfied that the depositor is entirely capable of 
 caring for his investment according to the true intent of 
 the law. 
 
 The above resolution was passed. 
 
 DORMANT ACCOUNTS 
 
 Mr. Hurlbut: We have been threshing out wheat; I 
 want to thresh out a little chaff. Mr. Miller made use of 
 the expression, "Unclaimed deposits." I don't think he 
 meant that exactly. You will all agree with me that there 
 is no such thing as an unclaimed deposit. Any deposit is 
 liable to be claimed. There are deposits which are dor- 
 mant and they give us a great deal of trouble. I think 
 they are something like the history of the snakes in Ire- 
 land. There are no snakes in Ireland and there should be 
 no dormant accounts. I have assurance enough to sug- 
 gest a little advice which I think I am perfectly competent 
 to offer after many years' experience in dealing with these 
 accounts. If accounts become dormant, or have not been 
 drawn on for ten years, I consider it absolutely necessary 
 that the Savings Bank officers should at once start to find 
 that depositor and make the account no longer a dormant 
 account. Do this before it becomes dormant, in the ten 
 or eleven years. If you cannot get him in these ten or 
 eleven years he is pretty hard to find. Therefore the way 
 to have no dormant accounts is to begin early. Don't let 
 them run too long. 
 
 In addition to that, I think one error that certain of our 
 older banks have made is that they do not take a sufficient 
 identification at the time of opening the account. If a 
 man comes into our bank and makes a deposit, he is very 
 well known to all of us. We take his pedigree and all that, 
 but at some time or other he drops out of sight and at the 
 end of twenty years the account becomes dormant. No- 
 body remembers him, either. If we begin early the matter 
 can be traced. You have the man's birthplace, the names 
 of his parents but don't always know whether they are
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 225 
 
 living or not. After a long search we discover John 
 Smith: we find such a name on our books. I think we 
 would be glad to give that information to any bank that 
 wants it, and how much better it would be for us if all 
 the banks endeavored to help one another all the way 
 through. 
 
 In this connection a suggestion has occurred to my mind. 
 The Bank Department at Albany has a list of all un- 
 claimed deposits. I spoke to the Superintendent about 
 it a few minutes ago, but he did not have time to go into 
 it fully. That department having a list of these so-called 
 unclaimed deposits should send to each bank this list 
 of wanted depositors. Then, speaking for myself, I 
 should take the list and go over it very carefully, and if 
 I found I had a name of somebody who was wanted I 
 would look at my book and see when I last had a trans- 
 action with him and I would communicate with the bank 
 wanting him and put them on the trace of him. That 
 seems to me to be a very reasonable suggestion. Take, 
 for instance, a bank in the centre of the State. Your 
 young men come down to the metropolis, you lose track 
 of them, perhaps the family or the parent stock have all 
 died, and you don't know what has become of the boy 
 except that he came down to New York. If he comes 
 down to New York he is probably a clerk, and, in that 
 position, he probably opened a Savings Bank account, 
 and we may know him, but he has dropped out of your 
 sight altogether. New York is a big place. We may have 
 him on our books. If he lives in a boarding-house his 
 address is often of no help when his account becomes dor- 
 mant. But he was born up at Rome perhaps, or some- 
 where in that neighborhood. The Savings Bank there 
 knows the family and probably the oldest inhabitant 
 there says: "Why, yes, I remember that man." In Syra- 
 cuse, perhaps, David Harum will say that he remembers 
 that man's family, and I think it would be of mutual 
 assistance to ourselves if some such action as that was 
 taken. Mr. Kilburn said he thought it would be rather
 
 2 26 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 objectionable to have that list go out, because it would 
 fall into the hands of those who wanted to use it for im- 
 proper purposes, but it seems to me the list might be 
 prepared and each name prefaced by a number, and if we 
 desired information respecting any one we would write 
 to the department stating the number which prefaced 
 the name and the department would give us the name of 
 the bank in which the deposit was. Something of that 
 kind will help us. I should like to have that matter left 
 to the Executive Committee to see if they think there is 
 anything in it. The older banks feel very keenly the 
 necessity of doing something of this sort. We ought to 
 have no jealousies and we ought to be willing to help one 
 another all we can. It seems to me here is one way to do it.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Ninth Annual Convention — Retirement of Andrew D, Mills as 
 President, and Election of Charles A. Schieren in His Stead — 
 Deposits in the Savings Banks of the State Reported the Larg- 
 est in Its History — Adoption of a Resolution Looking Toward 
 Discouragement of Individual Action — Paper on "Sound 
 Money" by Hon. E. J. Hill, of Connecticut. 
 
 THE meeting of the Ninth Annual Convention, held 
 in the City of New York on the 7th of May, 1902, 
 marked the retirement of Mr. Andrew D. Mills 
 from the Presidency of the Association and the election 
 of Mr. Charles A. Schieren in his stead. The retiring 
 President was given a hearty vote of thanks for the 
 efficient manner in which he had presided over the delib- 
 erations of the Conventions for the past two years. 
 In his opening address, Mr. Mills said : 
 
 It is my pleasure, as well as my duty, to bid you wel- 
 come to the Ninth Annual Convention of this Associa- 
 tion. Reaching on January i, 1902, the enormous total of 
 $1,014,000,000, the deposits in the Savings Banks of the 
 State are the largest in our history. This is an increase 
 for the year of over $67,000,000; total amount, including 
 surplus, $1,131,564,624. 
 
 But of more importance even than this increase of 
 money saved is the increase in the number of individual 
 depositors. The number of depositors to-day is 2,174,51 1, 
 or about one in three-and-one-half of the entire popu- 
 lation of the State. As the vast majority of these are 
 wage-earners, the increase evidences not only the dis- 
 position to save but the ability to do so. Every en- 
 
 227
 
 228 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 couragement should be held out to the working classes 
 to lay by some part of their earnings, and thus become 
 personally and financially interested in the preservation 
 of law and order. Nothing goes further in the making of 
 a good law-abiding citizen than the possession of a Savings 
 Bank book. 
 
 It is interesting to note that to-day the depositors of 
 the Savings Banks of this State could pay the entire 
 national debt of $931,000,000 and still have $200,000,000 
 remaining. 
 
 As the deposits continue to grow and the number 
 of depositors continues to increase, the importance of 
 the trust grows in even greater ratio. As in the past, 
 conservatism and care are necessary in guarding this 
 immense aggregation of widows' mites and workingmen's 
 savings. 
 
 The Association sustained a great loss in the sudden 
 death of Senator L. H. Humphrey, for many years Chair- 
 man of the Committee on Banks of the Senate. He 
 had through his long service become thoroughly familiar 
 with the needs of the Savings Banks, and was heartily 
 in accord with all beneficial legislation. He was a broad- 
 minded man, honorable and straightforward, quick to 
 recognize the right, and fearless in his denunciation of 
 that which was harmful. I had grown to esteem him 
 highly as one who represented the best in the political 
 world and regard his death as a personal loss. 
 
 Before vacating the position I have occupied for the last 
 two years I wish to bring to your attention a matter which 
 I deem of the utmost importance to the successful con- 
 tinuance of this Association. 
 
 What I have to say is said in all kindness, and I trust 
 it will be received in the same spirit. It goes without 
 saying that the strength of an organization depends en- 
 tirely upon unity of action, and if any question arises 
 upon which there is a difference of opinion the voice of 
 the majority should prevail. These fundamental truths 
 apply to the Savings Banks Association as well as to any
 
 CHARLES A. SCHIEREN 
 
 PRESIDENT, 1002-03
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 229 
 
 other. Nine years ago this Association was formed for 
 the main purpose of making united action on all important 
 questions affecting the Savings Bank system possible. 
 
 From the first it was a great success, and year after 
 year it grew in usefulness and strength until it had at- 
 tained a position where its voice was listened to and its 
 recommendations respectfully considered by the different 
 branches of the Legislature and the Chief Executive of 
 the State. The strength of this position lay in the fact 
 that when your executive ofiicers took a position at Al- 
 bany before the Governor or any of the Committees 
 of the Legislature, it was known that the united force 
 of all Savings Banks of the State was behind them. 
 Destroy this unity and you make the efforts of your 
 officers futile. 
 
 I trust that later on action on this matter will take defi- 
 nite form, and the question be settled once for all. 
 
 At a later time in the session, the matter was brought 
 up by Mr. Hanaman, who said: 
 
 I am going to offer a resolution which you can discuss 
 and pass if you like. It seems to me that the Executive 
 Committee is of no use, and practically the Savings Banks 
 Association is of no use, to the Savings Banks of the State 
 of New York unless the Executive Committee, when it 
 speaks to the Legislature of the State of New York, repre- 
 sents the Association and not its individual members. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That the prosperity, influence, and strength 
 of the Association is dependent upon the harmonious re- 
 lation of its members; and it is the sense of this meeting 
 that in the future no action should be taken, by public 
 expression, of any divergence of opinion between the 
 Executive Committee and the individual members, unless, 
 through a special meeting to be called, such public expres- 
 sion of opinion is authorized." 
 
 Mr. Rosendale: I am very glad that Mr. Hanaman 
 has offered this resolution. I was complimented by the
 
 230 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 request of your Executive Committee to appear before 
 the Governor upon the hearing on the question whether 
 the Los Angeles Bill should or should not become a 
 law. 
 
 Without discussing the question as to whether the Los 
 Angeles securities are good, bad, or indifferent, I think 
 the question which we ought to consider is the highly im- 
 portant one concerning the future welfare and influence of 
 this Association. I am not a member of the Executive 
 Committee, but, while -discussing the question before the 
 Governor, I recognized the great value and importance of 
 this Association, and I also recognized that, in order to 
 have the Association continue its influence, it is of the ut- 
 most importance that your officers and your Executive 
 Committee be clothed with full authority, which alone 
 will give them power. 
 
 I was mortified beyond expression to find that, not- 
 withstanding the fact that after consideration by your 
 Executive Committee, and after action by your Executive 
 Committee in opposition to the adoption of any bill other 
 than the Krum Bill this winter, nevertheless there were 
 found communications from Savings Banks of importance 
 and of influence, from gentlemen of high standing both as 
 citizens and Savings Bank officers, apparently recommend- 
 ing the adoption and the signature of the Governor to that 
 bill. I need not to say to you what a serious disappoint- 
 ment it was, not only to the members of the Executive 
 Committee who had gone to Albany in the faithful dis- 
 charge of their duties but I want to express here my ex- 
 treme mortification at finding such evidence of want of 
 harmony and, if I may say so, want of loyalty to the 
 Association to what I regard its best interests. We can- 
 not always be right; we are human. But we must confide 
 our affairs to men in whom we have confidence, and when 
 they have acted for us it seems to me that our highest and 
 best duties demand that we should stand by them, regard- 
 less of our individual opinions and in spite of our personal 
 views.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 231 
 
 I therefore very heartily approve of this resolution, and 
 I trust that the Association will adopt it. 
 
 The resolution was adopted. 
 
 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 The Executive Committee reported that the so-called 
 Krum Bill, which amended the Banking Law relative to 
 securities in which deposits of Savings Banks might be 
 invested, enlarging the scope of such investments, had 
 become a law. The Committee at the same time regis- 
 tered its objection to any further enlargement of the scope 
 of investments beyond the original bill introduced by 
 Senator Krum. 
 
 Attention was called to the fact that a bill had been in- 
 troduced by Senator Green on March loth, entitled "An 
 Act to amend the laws relative to the investment of de- 
 posits of Savings Banks in the stocks or bonds of certain 
 cities." 
 
 The report continued: 
 
 Your Committee then requested that the Governor 
 give a hearing in opposition to the bill, and such a hearing 
 was granted. Mr. Mills and Mr. Rhoades, of the Execu- 
 tive Committee, and Mr. Simon W. Rosendale, Presi- 
 dent of the National Savings Bank of the City of Albany, 
 spoke in opposition to the bill. Senator Green appeared 
 in its favor; and to the surprise and mortification of the 
 members of the Executive Committee, who were at the 
 hearing, he produced a number of individual letters or 
 petitions, signed by officers of different Savings Banks 
 throughout the State, urging the Governor to approve 
 of this bill; and the Governor subsequently signed the 
 bill. 
 
 It has taken a number of years to convince the executive
 
 232 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 officers of the State and the Legislature of the integrity 
 of purpose and the honest interest which Savings Bank 
 officers possess in the interest of Savings Bank depositors 
 in the State, and this moral force has become so great that 
 for the past few years its power has been recognized by 
 legislator and executive alike; and the voice of Savings 
 Bank authorities, heard through the Executive Committee 
 of this Association, has been powerful enough to defeat 
 bad legislation, and powerful enough to carry weight in 
 securing good legislation. This feeling has been so well 
 understood in the Legislature that during the past year 
 not one single Dormant Account Bill was even introduced. 
 Bankers and brokers having bonds to sell had come to 
 recognize the utter impossibility of securing by honest or 
 dishonest methods the passage of any bill which did not 
 meet the approval of the Association. Therefore it is 
 exceedingly unfortunate that a division should have oc- 
 curred which has broken down — at least temporarily — 
 the strength of the Association, and, in all probability, 
 rendered the work of the coming years harder than ever. 
 
 Mr. A. T. E. Lansing, of the Jefferson County Savings 
 Bank, presented an interesting paper on Banking Methods. 
 
 "sound money" 
 
 The Hon. E. J. Hill, of Connecticut, addressing the 
 Convention, said: 
 
 WTiile we may not all agree concerning every feature of 
 this measure (House Bill 13,363, ''A Bill to Maintain 
 the Gold Standard, etc."), of one thing I am sure, that, 
 representing as you do more than two million depositors 
 in this State, and over a billion in amount of the savings 
 of your people, you not only strive to guard with jealous 
 care and keep in perfect safety the trusts committed to 
 you, but when the savings of the past are called for in 
 times of stress and sore necessity, your duty and your
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 233 
 
 pride as well will lead you to meet those calls with money 
 that is good the world around and with the highest pur- 
 chasing power everywhere. 
 
 So far as deposits are made for investment purposes, 
 they are a tribute to your sagacity, and their great in- 
 crease is a testimonial to the confidence which is placed in 
 you ; but the weekly savings which are entrusted to you 
 represent the vigor and strength of active life which are 
 stored and held till age and weakness make their use im- 
 perative, and any shrinkage in the purchasing power of the 
 money which measures these means just so much less of 
 comfort and so much more of deprivation when old age 
 comes. 
 
 It is, therefore, to the everlasting credit of the Mutual 
 Savings Banks of this State that when the kind of money 
 in which those deposits should be paid became a dis- 
 puted political question in '96, you promptly declared, 
 ''that in our judgment the future prosperity of the coun- 
 try and the welfare of the people demand not only that the 
 gold standard shall be maintained, but the currency 
 system now in use shall be so changed and remodeled as 
 to meet and adapt it to the increasing needs of commerce, 
 and equal in security and credit with the best in circula- 
 tion by any of the civilized nations of the earth." 
 
 The United States has no more right to put in circula- 
 tion money which it will not redeem in the money of the 
 standard which it has itself proclaimed than an individual 
 has to issue his note with the deliberate intention of de- 
 faulting in its payment. 
 
 Hon. Lyman J. Gage, who filled the position of Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury with an ability equalled by few men 
 in our country's history, told the simple truth when he 
 said, "The Government might just as well face the re- 
 demption at the front door as to delay until it must take 
 it under the revenue laws at the back door." The danger 
 is ever present in our fiinancial system, and it is far safer 
 to find it out and be prepared for it than it is to ignore 
 it and have it find us unprepared, as it did in '93.
 
 234 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 "A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, 
 but the simple pass on and are punished." 
 
 I commend this proverb, with all it implies, not only 
 to those who, having given little thought to the question, 
 are content to "let well enough alone," but especially to 
 those who, fully reahzing the situation, are indifferent to 
 it because a Congressional election is approaching. Is 
 the currency system of the United States always to be 
 a political football, only to be kicked back and forth be- 
 tween the parties, and, when the game is finished, to be 
 laid away as a trophy of victory, battered and bruised 
 and soiled with the dirt of party conflict? Three months 
 ago the National Board of Trade recommended "that 
 Congress enact such legislation as may be necessary to 
 put this country on a permanent gold basis," and by 
 specific votes declared that the retirement of the green- 
 backs and the exchangeabihty of the silver dollar for gold 
 were essentials to that end. 
 
 On the 5th of March the New York Chamber of Com- 
 merce, upon an elaborate report prepared by John Harsen 
 Rhoades, Henry W. Cannon, E. H. Perkins, Jr., August 
 Belmont, and George G. Williams, unanimously voted 
 that "the first stone in the foundation of the structure of 
 national credit is the inviolate character of its unit of 
 value, and now is the time to complete the Act of March 
 14, 1900," and to that end favored the exchangeability of 
 the silver dollar with gold. 
 
 When you add to this the fact that one great Com- 
 mittee of the House of Representatives has reported a 
 bill deliberately putting the government of the Philippine 
 Islands into the banking business to maintain the parity 
 of a full legal tender silver coinage at a ratio of two for one, 
 and that coinage issued with the openly avowed purpose 
 of perpetuating the wage system of the Islands on its 
 present silver basis, and then supplement these things by 
 a report of the Senate Committee on the Philippines in 
 favor of the unlimited coinage of a full legal tender silver 
 dollar on private account as the currency system of the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 235 
 
 Islands, and add to that that this dollar may be coined 
 in San Francisco from American bullion, with the great 
 probability that it will enter into American circulation 
 precisely as the trade dollar did, is it not high tune that 
 the sound money men of the United States should demand 
 from their Representatives and Senators, and their Presi- 
 dent and Cabinet, that the overwhelming victories of '96 
 and 1900 for honest money and a sound financial system 
 should not be frittered away and go for naught? 
 
 Gentlemen, there is no room in a gold standard system 
 for fiat money. The financial barometer of this country 
 to-day is the accumulation of gold in the Government 
 Treasury, and we watch each day for its rise and fall. 
 Every dollar of it above a fair working balance should be 
 employed in the industries of the country, and is so used 
 by every one of our commercial rivals. Who thinks of 
 looking at the Treasury holdings of any European country 
 to judge of the possibilities of a panic? 
 
 It is fiat money which has made impossible every scheme 
 for the improvement of our banking system since the Civil 
 War. The greenbacks should be paid and the ultimate 
 retirement of the legal tender silver dollar provided for 
 now, and meanwhile made exchangeable for gold. It 
 could be done, as Mr. Gage said to the banking and 
 Currency Committees, "without making a ripple upon 
 the financial surface of the coimtry." He had the power 
 to do it, and the courage, but Congress would not per- 
 mit it. Charles S. Fairchild had the courage but not 
 the power. If this was done, a banknote issue redeem- 
 able in gold could be provided which would respond to 
 every legitimate trade requirement, and by its economy 
 save to the business interests of this country in the next 
 five years more than the amount of the entire volume of 
 the outstanding greenbacks. Think of the difference be- 
 tween a greenback and a banknote. So far as the is- 
 suing is concerned, the greenback has absolutely no rela- 
 tion to trade and commerce, for the Government borrows 
 but never lends, and cannot issue currency except to pay
 
 236 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 an existing debt which represents past consumption as 
 the greenback represents debt incurred in the Civil War. 
 But a bank lends and is not supposed to borrow except 
 from its depositors, and when it issues its note, it swaps its 
 credit for its customers' credit, and at the time of issue 
 receives back something which it can use to cancel its 
 own obligation when it is presented for redemption. One 
 deals with the past and pays for "horses" which are 
 eternally dead, the other with the future, and buys live and 
 productive assets. First — that it is a loan without in- 
 terest. Second — the sentimental one that it saved the 
 nation in the Civil War, and must now be held as sacred 
 as a soldier's grave. 
 
 For reply to the first I cite you the report on the pending 
 bUl on page 7, where the Actuary clearly proves that the 
 cost to the Government of maintaining the greenback 
 since resumption in '79 has been nearly seven per cent, 
 per annum. For reply to the second, I have no recol- 
 lection that the "grayback" of the Confederacy had any 
 such effect upon its fortunes, and therefore compelled to 
 believe that the resources of the North rather than its 
 liabilities were the deciding factor in that conflict. 
 
 The fact is that we are flying in the face of the ex- 
 perience of the w^hole commercial world by maintaining 
 a system of fiat money, and this bill recognizes that and 
 proposes to get back slowly but surely to the solid ground 
 of gold as the legal tender, silver as subsidiary coin, 
 and banknotes as the instrument of trade. The bill 
 proposes, first, to stop the further coinage of the silver 
 dollar, to use the bullion remaining in the Treasury for 
 subsidiary coin, and, when public necessities require more, 
 to begin the recoinage of the dollar into subsidiary. It 
 has been strongly urged that the United States should 
 follow the example of Germany and Japan, in melting 
 down and selling all of our legal tender silver which is not 
 in actual circulation, but this means assuming a loss of 
 fifty-nine cents on every dollar so treated, and recoinage 
 means a nominal gain of about seven cents on every doUar
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 237 
 
 which can be permanently held in circulation. The dif- 
 ference between the two plans would aggregate about 
 three hundred million dollars. The second feature of the 
 bill, for the providing for the maintenance of the Gold 
 Standard, is the retirement of the greenbacks. In my 
 judgment this should be by the direct and indepen- 
 dent action of the Treasury, for they are a Government 
 debt and in no sense a bank obligation. The complica- 
 tions which are certain to arise by throwing a part of this 
 burden upon the banks are wholly unnecessary, and there 
 is no essential relation, even in point of time, between the 
 withdrawal of the greenback and the issue of the bank- 
 notes, for whenever a greenback is paid, a gold dollar will 
 go into circulation, and the banknote is only a credit in- 
 strument and not a legal tender; but the Committee 
 thought it would be politically wise to induce the banks 
 to assume the current redemption of such an amount as 
 could not be canceled with the gold now in the Treasury, 
 and in that way divest the Treasury more promptly of its 
 banking functions, even if it did delay the date of their 
 entire payment somewhat. . . . Provision is made 
 for the change from bond-secured to asset note issues, 
 without reference to the present limitation of three millions 
 per month, and in view of the fact that the present bond- 
 secured circulation is over three hundred and twenty 
 million dollars, there is little question but that one hun- 
 dred and thirty millions of it would be promptly changed 
 in order to realize the greatly increased profit which this 
 plan would give. 
 
 If it was so changed, as I have no doubt but that it 
 would be, the entire volume of the greenbacks would be 
 retired and canceled within twenty-five years, and any 
 increase of the present amount of banknote circulation 
 would hasten the happy day. All of the United States 
 could join in singing the old hymn, "Believing, we rejoice 
 to see the curse removed," and so far as the world is con- 
 cerned, fiat money would be dead and buried. Seven 
 years ago, when I entered Congress and was appointed
 
 238 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 by Mr. Reed as a member of the Banking and Currency 
 Committee, I was a sincere and enthusiastic advocate 
 of a bond-secured currency and an independent bank 
 system. Persistent inquiry, constant study, and patient 
 investigation have brought me squarely to a behef in 
 asset note issues and branch banks, and I beheve will 
 bring any man there who will pursue the subject with an 
 open mind. I declare it as my honest belief as a bank 
 officer, with a modest interest in the game, that the sole 
 stake which the banks are now playing for, in dealing 
 out banknotes, is the profit on the bonds, and that not a 
 single dollar of the three hundred and twenty millions cir- 
 culation now outstanding remains out with reference to 
 any commercial transaction. . . . 
 
 How could it be otherwise in view of the fact that at 
 least thirty-two million dollars is locked up in premiums 
 when it should be available for commercial purposes? 
 As the national banking system was instituted for the 
 purpose of making a market for Government bonds, it 
 is only fulfilling the plans of its creator; but conditions 
 have changed in forty years, and there is no reason now 
 why one hundred and ten dollars of capital should be 
 locked up in bonds in order to put one hundred dollars of 
 notes into circulation. 
 
 This bill gives an asset note issue of sixty per cent, of 
 the capital with a tax of one fourth of one per cent, on the 
 first twenty per cent, and one and one fourth per cent, 
 tax on the other forty per cent, and a profit to the banks, 
 above all expenses, taxes, interest on redemption funds, 
 cost of carrying greenbacks, etc., of at least four and one 
 third per cent, or a corresponding reduction of interest 
 rates to the country, or, preferably, a fair division between 
 the two. 
 
 On the three hundred and twenty millions outstanding 
 it means a gain to somebody of more than ten millions 
 annually, and a very much larger amount, proportion- 
 ately, in those portions of the country where higher inter- 
 est rates prevail. If three biUions of deposits are safe,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 239 
 
 the three hundred of asset notes would be. . . . In my 
 opinion it is safe, far safer than the banknote systems of 
 any other country, and fully as safe as the present bond- 
 secured banknote, for I do not believe that a single dollar 
 in either case could ever be defaulted. 
 
 The principle of asset banking is equally applicable to 
 large or small banks. The difference between the two is 
 that the large bank is an ever-present help in time of 
 trouble, and the little one is apt to be an ever-present 
 trouble when help is needed. 
 
 Of course economy of management is found in the 
 large bank rather than the small one, but, if we are to be 
 controlled by our prejudices, we must be willing to pay 
 for the privilege. 
 
 With an increased profit to the banks shown, and with 
 safety provided for, the unquestionable advantages to 
 the people of an elastic banknote issue are so great that 
 it would be presumption to discuss them before a bankers 
 convention. 
 
 I wish to bring to your careful attention the subject of 
 branch banks. When a man finds himself at variance 
 with the universal opinion of mankind it is high time for 
 him to doubt his own infallibility, and this is the position 
 in which the opponent of the branch bank system is 
 placed to-day, for, after a careful examination, including 
 the laws of forty countries, I can find no government in 
 the world where branch banks are not permitted except 
 our own; and even here they are excluded by the laws of 
 only twenty States and by the National Bank Act, and even 
 that act permits them where the State Banks come into 
 the system with branches already in existence, France 
 has a branch of the Bank of France in every department of 
 the Republic. Europe and South and Central America 
 are solidly in favor of the system. 
 
 Voyaging around the world last year, I found branches 
 of British banks throughout the Philippines acting as 
 commercial drummers for English trade and financial 
 agents for our Government at the same time.
 
 240 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 German, English, Russian, every one our commercial 
 rivals in the Orient, but not an American bank and hardly 
 an American ship. All through Japan, EngUsh, German, 
 and Russian banks are taxing American trade by excessive 
 charges for exchange on London, and from Vladivostok 
 to Moscow, straight through Siberia, German branch 
 banks and department stores are laying foundations for 
 the future trade of what is sure to be one of the great 
 markets of the world. 
 
 In the city of London alone there are fifty-eight in- 
 corporated banks, with four hundred and fifty-three mil- 
 lion dollars of capital, and one hundred and seventy-sLx 
 millions of surplus and undivided profits employed in 
 international trade, with twenty-two hundred and fifty- 
 three branches scattered all over the world, extending 
 English prestige and developing English trade everywhere, 
 and we pay tribute to them. The Committee on Banking 
 and Currency could see no reason why American capital 
 and American enterprise should not do its share in pro- 
 moting American trade in other lands, and long for the 
 time when the American national banks will fly the Ameri- 
 can flag and care for American interests in all the great 
 capitals of the world. In Germany the Imperial Bank, 
 with average loans of $138,030,935, had a percentage of 
 expense of twenty-three tenths, maintaining 330 branches. 
 The Bank of France, with 392 branches and average loans 
 of $157,040,000, had a percentage of expense of nine- 
 tenths. 
 
 When we consider that both of these institutions per- 
 form much of the work transacted by the Treasury here, 
 and, in addition to this, that the Bank of France is com- 
 peUed by law to discount notes as small as one doHar in 
 amount, which adds greatly to the expense account, the 
 difference in cost of maintenance of the branch and inde- 
 pendent systems is plainly seen. . . . 
 
 That the expense account is a very important factor 
 in affecting the general result is clearly shown by the 
 strenuous claims put forward by the independent banks
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 241 
 
 that they could not compete with the branch system, and, 
 therefore, that the existing banks would be driven out of 
 business. I admit that in many cases this would prove 
 true, but in the end it would mean the survival of the 
 fittest and result in inestimable advantage to millions of 
 borrowers who have a right to have their welfare consid- 
 ered in framing legislation. And I know of no reason why 
 a bank should be restricted to one place of business any 
 more than an insurance company, for a fair distribution 
 of risks is just as essential to safety in one case as in the 
 other. 
 
 But I do not believe that the stockholders of any bank 
 which has a reason for existence would suffer by the 
 change, for every such institution well established could 
 enlarge its field of work without a proportionate increase 
 of expense. The process is going on every day now, on 
 the "community of interest" plan, and it is far better 
 to have it done under the law than outside of it. How 
 absurd it is to fear that the parent bank will suck de- 
 posits from the branches and give back nothing in 
 return. Was it for this or the reverse of this that the 
 French Parliament compelled the Bank of France to 
 establish branches in every department? Is it to aggran- 
 dize London, or to build up the Colonies and so make 
 money for themselves, that the British Joint Stock 
 Banks have followed the English drumbeat around the 
 world? 
 
 Do independent country banks send their funds to 
 their reserve agents at one and one half or two per cent., 
 when good loans are offered at home at five or six per cent.? 
 And now as Savings Banks managers and investors in 
 Government bonds, as officers and stockholders in na- 
 tional banks, what is to be your policy in the future? If 
 the character of security is to be changed, admitting the 
 bonds of States and cities, it only adds to your troubles 
 by bringing another buyer into the field and lessening the 
 returns from your investments. To longer depend on 
 Government bonds as a basis for circulation is impossible,
 
 242 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 for the requirements of the sinking fund will soon exhaust 
 the supply, and the increasing premium is even now forc- 
 ing the withdrawal of circulation as fast as the law per- 
 mits. There is no probability whatever of bond issues in 
 the future, for whatever else of good or ill came to us from 
 the Spanish War, it demonstrated as never before that the 
 possibilities of taxation in this country have hardly been 
 touched. It is a bit of unwritten history of that war that 
 at its beginning Secretary Gage intended to issue but one 
 hundred million dollars of bonds for immediate contin- 
 gencies, and to rely upon taxation for funds to carry it to a 
 successful conclusion. He was overruled by those who 
 did not realize as he did the resources of this great country, 
 or who lacked the faith which he possessed in the patriot- 
 ism of the people. 
 
 As a result, two hundred millions of bonds were issued, 
 of which one half are still outstanding, on which we must 
 continue to pay interest till 1908 or buy them at heavy 
 premiums. 
 
 REMARKS OF HON. LYMAN J. GAGE 
 
 Mr. Lyman J. Gage, former Secretary of the Treasury, 
 said: I thought on this occasion that I was going to have 
 the pleasure of listening, and I did not for a moment sus- 
 pect that I should be called upon. I want to say, however, 
 that I have not been disappointed in my expectation 
 of being instructed. I sympathize absolutely and fully 
 with all the principles so ably presented and so eloquently 
 expressed by the Congressman from Connecticut, Mr. 
 HUl. It would be foolish, idle, and like an anti-climax for 
 me to undertake to add anything to the force of his argu- 
 ment. 
 
 For a number of years it was my duty and privilege to 
 come into very close contact wdth the financial question 
 as our country is interested in it, and in all its aspects which 
 have been so well covered here to-day. In that study I 
 have had frequent conferences with the gentleman who 
 has just addressed you. My mind has always been
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 243 
 
 strengthened and enlightened by my discussions with him. 
 There are others, not so many as there should be, but 
 enough to give promise of great usefulness to the country 
 in the future in their labors in the Congressional hall, and 
 there are many outside of that body who are studying 
 carefully, conscientiously, and intelligently these great 
 problems. 
 
 It is the fashion too much, gentlemen, to make light 
 of the serious study of this question. If you will not 
 study thoroughly and carefully so as to get at the prin- 
 ciples which make so eagerly for the welfare of the coun- 
 try, if you wiU not study them thoroughly so that you are 
 able to grasp all of the principles in detail for your own 
 sakes, you should do so to give in some degree confidence 
 to these men who, standing apart without any interest of 
 their own to serve, are studying these problems for you 
 and trying to accomplish something for your everlasting 
 benefit. 
 
 Mr. Rhoades: I am sure that I echo the sentiment of 
 every gentleman here present in saying how much we have 
 all enjoyed this address by the honorable representative 
 in Congress on this very important question. As Sav- 
 ings Bank officers we are directly interested in what 
 makes for the welfare of the masses of our working people. 
 More so, perhaps, than any one else because we are their 
 trustees. We are the custodians of their thrift. If these 
 people are to remain prosperous, if this country is to 
 grow, if employment is to be steady and regular, the basis 
 of our currency upon which their wages rest must be in- 
 violate in its character. Therefore, we, as Savings Bank 
 officers, endorse any plan that is feasible which will make 
 the obligations of the Government redeemable now and 
 at all times in a gold dollar. 
 
 Therefore he may take back to Washington (I am sure 
 from all of us here) the feeling that he has our hearty 
 cooperation in any scheme which will bring about that 
 result. The currency of the country must be based upon 
 the assets of the banks. You may put off the day, Con-
 
 244 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 gress may delay and hang back, but in the end that has 
 got to be the result, and the sooner that comes the sooner 
 this country is going to be established permanently upon 
 a basis of prosperity, and the sooner it is going to be for 
 the benefit of the people at large.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Tenth Anniversary of the Association — Work of the Executive 
 Committee — Committee to Consider the Question of Estab- 
 lishing Branch Banks — An Able Paper on the Currency Ques- 
 tion by Hon. Horace White — Other Notable Addresses — 
 Legislative Hearing on the Mortgage Tax Bill. 
 
 HE Tenth Annual Convention was one of the most 
 notable in a long series of similar gatherings. It 
 
 T 
 
 -■^ was held on May 12, 1903, in the splendid new 
 building of the Chamber of Commerce, with an unusually 
 large attendance. 
 
 In his address, President Charles A. Schieren said: 
 
 Gentlemen and members of the Savings Banks Asso- 
 ciation: I bid you welcome to this the tenth anniversary 
 of our Association ; I welcome you to this palatial building 
 which stands as a noble monument to the commercial 
 enterprise of this city. 
 
 It is now a decade since the Savings Banks Association 
 of this State was organized, and it may be of interest to 
 give a brief history of its growth during that period. The 
 official report for the year 1893 of the Banking Depart- 
 ment at Albany is as follows : 
 
 Due to depositors $629,358,395 
 
 Number of depositors . 1,593,804 
 
 The report for 1903 shows as follows: 
 
 Due to depositors $i)077,383,743 
 
 Number of depositors 2,275,385 
 
 24s
 
 246 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 showing a gain during the ten years in deposits$448,025,348 
 and in the number of depositors 681,579, an increase of 
 seventy per cent, in deposits and forty-three per cent, in 
 depositors. These figures speak volumes for the thrift 
 and enterprise of our people. 
 
 While abroad last year I noticed an article published 
 in the London Times entitled "English Thrift." It gave 
 the statistics of the growth of Savings Banks in England. 
 The report gave the number of depositors in the Post 
 Office Savings Banks at 8,046,680, and their deposits at 
 £138,818,175, or $694,093,750. It also reported the num- 
 ber of depositors of the Trustees' Savings Banks (a system 
 of Savings Institutions somewhat similar to our Savings 
 Banks) 1,601,485, and their deposits at £57,196,458, or 
 $275,982,293. I was somewhat surprised at the low aver- 
 age of the Postal Savings Banks. 
 
 The average deposits in the Postal Savings Banks were 
 $86.25, and the average in the Trustees' Savings Banks 
 $172.25, the average of our depositors ranges much higher ac- 
 cording to the report, our average for this year (1903) is $4 2 9 
 per depositor. However, both the EngUsh Postal Savings 
 Banks and the Trustees' Savings Banks limit their deposits 
 to £200, or $1 ,000, but even with such a limitation our aver- 
 age would still be higher proportionately than the EngHsh. 
 
 It is most significant that the number of depositors 
 in the Postal Savings Banks is unusually large, and their 
 average deposits low, which proves that this institution is 
 especially popular and most beneficial to the masses. It 
 seems to reach a class of depositors which we faU to reach, 
 who need some means to deposit their surplus earnings 
 for safekeeping. I have especial reference to the farmers 
 and laborers in the rural districts who Uve away from all 
 banking facilities. At the present our people who live 
 in the rural districts do not enjoy the same privilege. 
 
 In the same copy of the London Times appeared another 
 interesting article entitled "National Money Boxes," 
 which gave a flood of fight on conditions and prosperity 
 of these two savings institutions. The writer criticised
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 247 
 
 them severely, claiming that these institutions, while bene- 
 ficial in a way, proved a burden to the taxpayer. The 
 Government has to pay the deficits constantly arising 
 in their management. It seems that the Savings Bank 
 report suggested a reduction in the rate of interest paid 
 on deposits from two and three quarters to two and one 
 half per cent, in order to meet the current expenses for 
 the year, showing that our American depositor has quite 
 an advantage in the rate of interest over his English cou- 
 sin. Judging from this article, the English Postal Savings 
 Banks system does not seem to be a financial success to the 
 Government ; it is, however, a great convenience and benefit 
 to the people. The industrial development of our country 
 during the last ten years has been marvelous; it has sur- 
 prised the whole civilized world and has made the United 
 States the foremost commercial nation of the world. 
 
 We are largely indebted for this proud position to the 
 enterprise and energy of our people, especially to the 
 thrifty mechanics and artisans who by their natural 
 ingenuity are constantly inventing improvements in labor- 
 saving machinery and substituting machinery for hand- 
 labor, which enables our manufacturers to produce their 
 goods cheaper and better than those made by hand. 
 American goods are popular and in demand everywhere, 
 and we can now compete in the markets of the world. 
 
 While we have made rapid strides in our exports, it is, 
 after all, our domestic or home trade that shows our great- 
 est gain. The figures are astounding. The last official 
 statistics report our exports at over a billion dollars an- 
 nually, this large sum, it is estimated, constitutes only five 
 per cent, of the volume of our domestic trade. This proves 
 conclusively that our people are prosperous. While Ameri- 
 cans are generally considered extravagant in their mode of 
 living, the figures of the last report of our Savings Banks 
 proves that they are also frugal, are anticipating a rainy day, 
 and are anxious to lay by some of their hard earnings. We 
 should encourage the people to be prudent in times of 
 prosperity.
 
 248 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Those who attended the hearings at Albany must have 
 been impressed with the lack of knowledge displayed by 
 some members of the Legislature in reference to the laws 
 governing and regulating the Savings Banks of our State. 
 It has been suggested that we establish a Bureau of In- 
 formation, or, rather, Education, publishing documents 
 of an educational character, giving a complete history 
 of the Savings Banks of this State, and embodying the 
 various laws and restrictions governing Savings Insti- 
 tutions. Such documents should be mailed and dis- 
 tributed among all niembers of the Legislature at the 
 opening of the session for the benefit of new members of 
 the Legislature, giving them a thorough knowledge of the 
 laws governing Savings Banks. There seems to be a 
 disposition on the part of some bankers to rush to the Leg- 
 islature and introduce bills legalizing investments in rail- 
 road bonds for our Savings Banks. It is of the utmost 
 importance that our Association discourage every at- 
 tempt made in that direction, unless the bonds are ap- 
 proved by the Executive Committee. 
 
 WORK OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 The Executive Committee elected at the previous 
 meeting of the Savings Banks Association was called to- 
 gether on the 14th day of November, 1902, by President 
 Schieren. 
 
 Mr. Conklin was elected Secretary, and W. B. Van 
 Rensselaer Chairman, of the Executive Committee. 
 
 The attention of the Executive Committee was called 
 to the fact that some of the trust companies and depart- 
 ment stores were practically carrying on a Savings Bank 
 business. The Chairman of the Executive Committee 
 was appointed Chairman of a sub-committee of five to 
 draft a bill to be introduced in the Legislature to remedy 
 the evils complained of, and to report the same to the 
 next meeting of the Executive Committee. The sub-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 249 
 
 committee was as follows: W. B. Van Rensselaer, Chair- 
 man; Messrs. John Harsen Rhoades, Greenwich Savings 
 Bank, New York City; Simon W. Rosendale, National 
 Savings Bank, Albany; Edward S. Dawson, Onondaga 
 County Savings Bank, Syracuse; and David Hoyt, Mon- 
 roe County Savings Bank, Rochester. 
 
 This Committee had several conferences with Mr. Kil- 
 burn, Superintendent of Banks, and with their attorney, 
 Mr. Wickersham, resulting in the preparation of a bill 
 which was reported to the Executive Committee at a meet- 
 ing held January 6, 1903. This bill, as amended by the 
 Executive Committee at the request of Mr. Schieren, 
 was introduced by Senator Marshall to the Senate, and 
 it was referred to the Committee on Banks. There were 
 two hearings on the measure before the Committee, at 
 which so much opposition developed that it was thought 
 wise to modify the restrictions contained in the bill so as 
 to meet, if possible, the principal objections raised at 
 the hearing. A new bill was prepared and was substi- 
 tuted by Senator Marshall. The opposition of the trust 
 companies was so bitter that even the modified bill was 
 not acceptable to them, and Senator Marshall was unable 
 to get the Committee on Banks to report on the bUl. 
 
 THE CURRENCY QUESTION 
 
 The Hon. Horace White addressed the Convention on 
 the subject of the currency as follows : 
 
 Gentlemen: It is the usual custom of governments to 
 perform no duty to-day which can be postponed till to- 
 morrow. This helps us to explain the fact that although 
 the end of the national bonded debt is not far distant, 
 and although its termination will be the end of the present
 
 250 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 bank-note system, no steps have been taken to meet that 
 eventuahty or to provide a currency to take its place. In- 
 stead of meeting the situation squarely, as it must be met 
 soon, there has been an attempt to avoid it by artificially 
 prolonging the existence of the debt. By the act of 
 March 14, 1900, Congress provided for the conversion of 
 certain bonds, maturing within a short time into others 
 bearing a lower rate of interest and running thirty years. 
 Then a comparison was made between the amount of 
 interest payable on the old bonds and on the new ones 
 for this short time, and a saving was made to appear by 
 conveniently ignoring the interest for the remainder of the 
 thirty years. This process of conversion is even now go- 
 ing on, and although the Government has $151,270,348 
 deposited in national banks drawing no interest, and 
 $70,000,000 additional lying idle in the Treasury, it is 
 issuing bonds to run thirty years at two per cent, interest. 
 Dispatches are pubhshed from time to time felicitating 
 the Treasury Department on its success in thus heaping 
 up unnecessary obligations for the future. Such a trans- 
 action is acquiesced in because the people do not perceive 
 the difference between a government and a private in- 
 dividual or corporation in the use they make of money. 
 With a private firm or corporation, the question, whether 
 it is best to pay its debts at maturity or to have them ex- 
 tended, is determined by the rate of interest. It is en- 
 gaged in a gainful occupation, and if it can make more 
 money by having the debt extended than it can save by 
 paying it and stopping the interest, it wall naturally elect 
 to have it extended; otherwise not. 
 
 Now the Government is not engaged in any gainful occu- 
 pation. Its only investment for surplus funds is in the 
 purchase and extinction of its own debts. When it ex- 
 tends a debt, which it might pay with its surplus, and 
 deposits that surplus in banks without interest, it makes a 
 donation to the depository banks. That is what the Gov- 
 ernment is now doing on a large scale. It is at best a 
 wasteful operation. The Government is not doing this on
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 251 
 
 account of any special tenderness to the banks, but in 
 order to stave off the settlement of the currency question. 
 Such a transaction would not have been possible at any 
 time between the end of the Civil War and the election 
 of 1896. As long as the Democrats were united and 
 self-confident they kept a vigilant watch on the operations 
 of the Treasury and met every false step with an unsparing 
 criticism. The Repubhcan leaders who prepared this 
 needless and costly extension of the national debt would 
 never have dared to propose such a measure if they had 
 been confronted with a vigorous and sane opposition. 
 They took advantage of the demoralization of their politi- 
 cal opponents, not to make a donation to the depository 
 banks, although that is what it amounts to, but to spare 
 themselves the trouble of dealing with the whole bank 
 question in a rational manner. They succeeded in post- 
 poning the task for only two years, however. At the last 
 session of Congress this question was rumbling loudly 
 in both houses. Both the Aldrich Bill and the Fowler 
 Bill were ripe for general discussion if not for enactment, 
 and they will be among the burning issues of the next 
 Congress. 
 
 Why did not the debt extension of 1900 have the effect 
 of postponing the currency crisis for a longer time? What 
 does that crisis consist of? It consists of a deficiency of 
 the paper media of exchange, which deficiency is becoming 
 more pronounced and serious with the increase of popu- 
 lation and business. These media of exchange may be 
 classed in two grand divisions: government paper and 
 bank paper. The former is a fixed quantity. Under 
 existing law it cannot be greater or less at one time than 
 at another. The latter is of two kinds: bank deposits 
 and bank-notes. There is no limit to bank deposits ex- 
 cept the amount of business to be transacted with checks, 
 drafts, etc. This medium of exchange is elastic and self- 
 regulating. The clearing house is its most striking 
 exponent and visible manifestation. When business is 
 active the clearing house exchanges increase in volume.
 
 252 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 When it is dull they decrease. In other words, the bank 
 credit that may be transferred by means of checks, drafts, 
 and bills of exchange, rises and falls automatically. It is 
 an ideal condition, and it is the only ideal thing in our 
 whole system, unless the gold certificates may be con- 
 sidered. The amount of individual deposits in national 
 banks alone, against which checks might have been drawn 
 on the 15th day of September, 1902, was $3,209,273,893. 
 The amount in State and private banks and trust com- 
 panies was probably one half as much more, making a 
 total of $4,813,960,834. At that date the amount of 
 bank-notes in circulation was $352,383,259, of which 
 about $34,000,000 was in course of retirement, leaving 
 $317,991,809 as the net amount. Thus the total amount 
 of bank paper used in effecting the exchanges of the coun- 
 try was $5,166,344,093, seven per cent, of which consisted 
 of circulating notes and ninety- three per cent, of deposits. 
 
 In addition to the bank-notes in circulation there ex- 
 isted legal tender notes $369,671,876, and silver certifi- 
 cates, silver dollars, and subsidiary coins $624,521,402. 
 These may be classed as fiduciary circulation issued by the 
 Government, amounting in the aggregate to $992,193,278. 
 The amount of gold coin and gold certificates in circulation 
 at the same time was $929,110,114. The phrase "in cir- 
 culation" means available for that purpose. It does not 
 include the $150,000,000 in the Treasury reserved for the 
 redemption of legal tender notes. 
 
 I said that our currency crisis consists of a shortage of 
 one kind of our fiduciary circulation, that is, of bank-notes, 
 a deficiency which must grow more serious with the in- 
 crease of population and trade. The fiduciary circula- 
 tion issued by the Government is not capable of enlarge- 
 ment, and no sane person desires its enlargement. To 
 increase it would require a change in our laws, making the 
 volume of the currency dependent upon the whims of any 
 chance majority in Congress. A few years ago there was 
 a political party which proposed that the Government 
 should issue new legal tender notes against products of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 253 
 
 various kinds stored in warehouses, the amount of notes 
 to be limited only by the amount of products. I need not 
 argue against that bedlamite scheme. I allude to it only 
 as showing what shape any new scheme for increasing the 
 Government's fiduciary circulation would probably take. 
 
 Can we expect relief from an increase of the national 
 bank circulation as the law stands now? There has 
 never been a year in our history when the growth of pop- 
 ulation and business has been more rapid than in 1902. 
 There has never been one in which the demand for in- 
 struments of exchange has been keener. This is proved 
 both by the increase of $235,000,000 in bank deposits and 
 of $57,594,400 in gold certificates. The latter represents 
 gold taken from the mine and put into the most convenient 
 shape for use as a circulating medium. It is the most 
 expensive medium known, except one; that one is our 
 national bank circulation. The evidence that the latter 
 is the more costly of the two is found in the fact that the 
 bank-note circulation decreased about $2,000,000 during 
 the fiscal year 1902, while gold certificates increased 
 upward of $57,000,000. Practically the only method of 
 getting any addition to the kind of currency that passes 
 from hand to hand is by depositing gold in the Treasury 
 and receiving certificates in denominations not smaller than 
 $20. That this kind of currency has advantages is not 
 to be denied. Up to a certain percentage of the whole 
 gold is indispensable. Beyond that percentage it repre- 
 sents a needless expenditure of capital to accomplish a 
 given result. 
 
 The act of March, 1900, contained other clauses in- 
 tended to increase the national bank circulation. One of 
 these authorizes the issuing of bank-notes to the par value 
 of the bonds deposited. This was quite proper. The 
 law ought to have been such from the beginning. Another 
 clause reduced by one half the tax on bank-notes where 
 they are secured by the new two per cent, bonds. There 
 was no objection to that. The result of these two meas- 
 ures was an immediate enlargement of the volume of cir-
 
 254 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 culation by about $30,000,000, followed by a fresh decline, 
 however; and although the Secretary of the Treasury has 
 tried various artificial stimulants to induce the banks to 
 take out more currency, the bank-note circulation is prac- 
 tically moribund. 
 
 When a bank takes out circulating notes it engages, per- 
 force, in a bond speculation. The bank is an active busi- 
 ness enterprise. It expects to earn the average rate of 
 profit in the community of which it is a member. As a 
 purchaser of bonds it has to bid against retired capitalists, 
 Savings Banks, trustees of decadent estates, and other 
 investors to whom security is a higher consideration than 
 profit. Not infrequently the Government itself comes 
 into the market as a competing buyer. The price of the 
 bonds is thus forced up beyond the chance of the average 
 return on the capital employed. After the banker has 
 bought his bonds and taken out his circulation there is 
 no certainty that he will keep it. He must still watch 
 the bond market. He must avoid a loss on the bonds, 
 and he will make a profit on them if he can. He is a 
 trustee for his shareholders and he must do what their 
 interests require. If the chance to avoid a loss, or to 
 make a profit, presents itself, he must seize it, regardless 
 of the effect upon the circulating medium in general. 
 Thus the issue of notes is not the chief concern of the 
 bank. It is secondary to something else, and this is the 
 reason why a bond-secured currency never can be an elastic 
 currency. It is responsive not to the wants of trade but 
 to the price of bonds. 
 
 The Aldrich Bill of the last Congress proposed to au- 
 thorize the acceptance of State, municipal, and railroad 
 bonds as security for deposits of the Government's money 
 in national banks. This was perhaps a first step toward 
 the acceptance of the same kind of bonds as security for 
 circulating notes. 
 
 Such circulation would be as rigid and hidebound as 
 the present. There would be an active speculation in the 
 classes of bonds accepted, and the market price would be
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 255 
 
 carried up to figures approaching those of governments. 
 Then the volume of currency would be controlled not by 
 the wants of trade but by the bond market, as it is now. 
 The Aldrich Bill deals with the bank-note question in still 
 another way. It allows the Secretary of the Treasury to 
 suspend and resume the redemption of national bank 
 notes at Washington at his own pleasure. Under exist- 
 ing law a redemption fund equal to five per cent, of its 
 outstanding circulation must be kept in the Treasury by 
 each note-issuing bank. Anybody may send bank-notes 
 in bulk to the Treasurer of the United States for redemp- 
 tion, and they must there be sorted, redeemed out of the 
 five per cent, fund, and returned to the parent banks. 
 The cost of sorting and transporting must be defrayed by 
 the banks issuing the notes, and each one must keep its 
 five per cent, fund replenished. The Aldrich BiU does not 
 propose to stop redemption of the notes by the Govern- 
 ment, but it provides that the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 after redeeming them, may pay them out for Government 
 dues instead of sending them home. One of the chief 
 defects of our present system is the sluggishness of the 
 redemption of national bank-notes. This section of the 
 biU proposes to make it still more sluggish, but that is its 
 least objectionable feature, since it would give the Secre- 
 tary control of the reserve fund of every note-issuing bank 
 in the Union, and enable him to "put the screws on" and 
 take them off at his own wiU. Their redemption fund in 
 Washington is a part of their cash reserve. Ordinarily 
 one quarter of their circulation will be sent to Washington 
 for redemption each year. If the Secretary can say to the 
 banks: "Until I give the word you need not redeem 
 any of your note issues except such as are presented at 
 your counters," his powers, both financial and political, 
 will be much greater than they are now, or ever ought to 
 be. 
 
 This feature of the Aldrich Bill would be one step toward 
 making the Treasury itself a bank of banks. Such a plan, 
 if contemplated, should not be condemned unheard, but
 
 2S6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the question raised by it could not be decided on financial, 
 grounds alone. It would carry the flavor of socialism — 
 at all events the socialist would consider it an endorse- 
 ment of their claim that the State should control the means 
 of production. For the present I think that the better 
 opinion of the country favors the retirement of the Govern- 
 ment from the banking business altogether, rather than 
 the assumption of new responsibilities of that kind. 
 
 At best the Aldrich Bill is only a transitory measure, 
 based upon a Treasury surplus which, in any sound system 
 of national finance, is a temporary affair. Theoretically, 
 the surplus ought not to exist at all, but since it is not 
 possible to establish beforehand an exact balance between 
 receipts and expenditures, any accidental surplus should 
 be applied promptly to the extinction of the national 
 debt. Heaping up a surplus designedly to be deposited 
 in banks, with or without interest, with or without special 
 security, is an anomaly for which no defence can be found, 
 and none has ever been attempted, so far as I know. We 
 have seen that the credit of the national banks takes the 
 two distinct forms of deposits and circulating notes, the 
 deposit liabilities being many times greater than the note 
 liabilities. The deposit liabihties are allowed to rise and 
 fall in volume without limit, except that each bank must 
 keep a certain percentage of cash reserve. The note li- 
 abilities are restricted in two ways: No bank can issue 
 notes exceeding the amount of its capital, or exceeding the 
 par value of the Government bonds deposited in the 
 Treasury as security therefor. These differences in legal 
 requirements and restrictions indicate that the framers 
 of the law supposed that there was an essential difference 
 between a deposit liability and a note liability, calling 
 forgreater caution in the one case than in the other. They 
 must have thought either that banks are more likely to 
 extend their credit unwisely in the form of notes than in 
 the form of deposits, or that the notes when once issued 
 are likely to come in for redemption more suddenly than 
 the checks of depositors come in for payment. Both
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 257 
 
 of these conceptions are erroneous and the fears based 
 upon them are groundless. 
 
 The essence of good banking consists in maintaining a 
 quantity of cash which shall be ample to meet all the 
 demands that are presented by the bank's creditors, 
 whether depositors or note-holders. The national bank- 
 ing law fixes the amount of cash reserve against deposits 
 at twenty-five per cent, in large cities and fifteen per cent, 
 in other places; allowing the banks in these smaller places 
 to keep three fifths of their reserve in banks in the large 
 cities. It is worth mention here that under the Suffolk 
 Bank system before the Civil War the law of Massachu- 
 setts allowed the country banks to keep their entire reserve 
 in the city banks and that no harm ever resulted from 
 that law. The country banks had practical freedom of 
 note issue. They found that very little specie was called 
 for by their customers and that as much was brought in 
 as was taken out each day. Redemption of the circula- 
 tion of each New England bank took place in Boston. 
 
 Their notes offset each other at the Suffolk Bank just as 
 the checks of our clearing-house banks offset each other 
 now, and only the balances were paid in cash. The New 
 England banks paid out their o\vn notes to their custom- 
 ers except in cases where specie was expressly called for, 
 but such cases hardly ever happened. 
 
 A bank-note is a potential demand upon the cash re- 
 serve of the issuing bank, and is of the same nature as a 
 check drawn by a depositor. Both are pieces of paper 
 circulating in the community on the strength of the bank's 
 credit, and the question that concerns us now is whether 
 the bank is likely to issue its credit more profusely and 
 recklessly in the form of notes than in the form of deposits. 
 Also whether the notes, when once issued, are more likely 
 to come in for redemption suddenly and unexpectedly 
 and thus to cause trouble to the bank and to the com- 
 munity. 
 
 To answer these questions we must observe how bank- 
 notes and bank checks take their rise. Usually they
 
 258 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 originate in the discount of commercial paper. Mr. A 
 offers such paper to his banker payable in sixty or ninety 
 days. The banker enters the amount of the bill, less the 
 interest, in A's pass-book as a deposit. Then it is op- 
 tional for A to draw checks against this sum to the order 
 of B, C, and D, or to draw a check to his own order and 
 present it to the paying teller and ask for money. As I 
 have said in another place: * 
 
 "Suppose that the bank has the right to issue circulat- 
 ingnotes, and that the customer, whose paper has been dis- 
 counted, desires to use the proceeds in paying the wages 
 of farm hands, or factory operatives, or in buying coun- 
 try produce, or in other ways and in places where checks 
 are not acceptable. He will ask for bank-notes, in order 
 to pay them to the wage-earners, farmers, etc. He might 
 ask for gold, in which case the bank would be obliged to 
 give it to him, but the notes are more convenient and will 
 be generally preferred by the payees. The payees may 
 demand gold from the bank-notes if they choose, but gen- 
 erally they will not do so. They will pay them to the 
 storekeepers or to others to whom they are indebted, and 
 the latter will deposit them in the issuing bank to their 
 own credit, or in other banls:s which will send them to the 
 issuing bank for redemption. Eventually they will be 
 paid out of the bank's cash reserve. They will be paid 
 out of the same fund from which the customer's checks 
 would have been paid, if he had drawn the money by 
 means of check payable to order, instead of taking notes 
 payable to bearer. 
 
 "The banker cannot decide whether the credit he has 
 extended to his customers shall be used in the form of 
 checks or in the form of notes. His liabilities are the 
 same in either case. The only thing that need concern 
 him is the goodness of the paper which he bought when 
 he issued his credit to his customer. The form of issue, 
 whether in checks that may pass through one or two 
 hands, or in circulating notes that may pass through many, 
 
 *"Money and Banking," p. 222.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 259 
 
 is of little consequence; and even if it were of much con- 
 sequence, it is beyond control. It is also beyond the 
 control of the depositor. He will call for notes only in 
 cases where he cannot use checks. The controlling force 
 here is the public demand, to which both the banker and 
 his customers conform. The pubhc demand determines 
 also how long the notes shall stay out after they have 
 been issued. Nobody keeps more notes on hand than he 
 needs. When a man finds that he has a surplus, he re- 
 turns it to the bank. Thus the overflow and inflow of 
 bank-notes is automatic. 
 
 "While it is immaterial to the banker whether the 
 credit which he issues shaU take the form of checks or 
 notes, it is important both to him and to the community 
 that it shall take one form or the other, since the alter- 
 native is the withdrawal of gold for purposes of circulation 
 and the consequent lessening of his cash reserve ; and the 
 lessening of his reserve by $1 usually lessens his abihty 
 to discount commercial paper by $4 or more. If it is 
 for the interest of the community that the system of 
 bank credits should exist at aU, it should be available in 
 the form of circulating notes, as weU as of checks; for 
 banking science consists in the substitution of less costly 
 instruments of exchange for more costly ones, according 
 to the demands of trade. The bank-note, since it is one 
 of the less costly ones and is indispensable in the modern 
 world, should be readily available as needed. Its utility 
 is greatest in sparsely settled communities, where there 
 are few or no banks." 
 
 Now is it not obvious, is it not in accord with all experi- 
 ence, that the notes circulating among wage-earners, 
 farmers, market gardeners, and such people will stay out 
 longer than checks which usually pass through only two 
 hands — that of the payee and of the payee's banker? 
 Under the Suffolk Bank system, where the most speedy 
 and perfect method of bank-note redemption existed that 
 this country has ever known, the average circulation 
 period of New England bank-notes was five weeks. The
 
 26o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 law of Massachusetts, by providing that no bank should 
 pay out any notes but its own, forced every bank to clear 
 its tills of the notes of other banks as fast as they came in, 
 and send them to the Suffolk Bank for redemption. Yet, 
 even under this pressure, every bank-note that was issued 
 remained out as much as five weeks on the average, 
 whereas checks usually stay out not more than two days. 
 
 But suppose that there is a panic and a financial crisis, 
 which class of liabilities would be presented for payment 
 in greatest quantity? Is it not true that in every crisis 
 the demand for currency, whether it be bank-notes or 
 greenbacks, or what not, is intense? Instead of collecting 
 notes to send in to banks for redemption there is a rush 
 of the bank's customers to draw them out, and the notes 
 generally sell at a premium in brokers' offices. Of course 
 this is on supposition that the notes are good, and that 
 the issuing banks have the wherewithal to redeem them. 
 What we are trying to find out now is whether note 
 liabilities are more dangerous to banks than deposit liabil- 
 ities, supposing the banks themselves to be sound and sol- 
 vent. Is it not plain that the note liabilities are the less 
 hazardous, the less explosive of the two? 
 
 Now we have seen that there is no limit in this country 
 to the extension of bank credit in the form of deposit 
 Habilities, except the keeping of a certain percentage 
 of cash reserve. Call it inflation, or what you will, the 
 amount of bank liabilities actually existing in this form, 
 counting national and State banks together, is sixteen 
 times as great as that of all the bank-note liabilities now 
 existing. Yet I have heard the opinion advanced that if 
 we should adopt a system of what is called assets currency 
 in this country our credit abroad would be ipso facto de- 
 stroyed. I have never heard any argument advanced to 
 support that hypothesis, but merely the expression of a 
 belief that such would be the result. I am obliged, for a 
 variety of reasons, to differ from those who hold that 
 opinion. One such reason is that in all the countries of 
 Europe, with one exception, the system of assets currency
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 261 
 
 prevails; that is, the banks are allowed to issue circulating 
 notes based upon miscellaneous assets in their own cus- 
 tody. The single exception to this rule is that part of 
 Great Britain called England. Assets currency prevails 
 in Scotland, Ireland, and Canada, but not in England 
 proper. It prevails on the continent of Europe generally, 
 but the tendency is to concentrate the issue of bank-notes 
 in a single institution in each country. 
 
 The question arises whether the existence of separate 
 banks with a capital as small as $25,000 each does not 
 make unsecured note issues specially hazardous in this 
 country. Under the terms of the Fowler Bill each such 
 bank would have the right to issue such notes to the 
 amount of twenty-five per cent, of its capital; that is, 
 $6,250. Every such bank has the legal right to discount 
 the notes of its customers to any extent it pleases, provided 
 it keeps fifteen per cent, of cash on hand as a reserve. So 
 the question is whether the bank is endangered by allow- 
 ing customers to take the bank's notes for circulation to 
 the aggregate amount of $6,250 instead of drawing that 
 sum from its cash reserve, as they would otherwise do. 
 Evidently the bank would be strengthened rather than 
 weakened as long as the notes were out. The liability 
 of the smaU bank to become insolvent on this score would 
 be neither greater nor less than that of a large one. More- 
 over, the statistics of the Comptroller's office do not show 
 a greater tendency to failure among small banks than 
 among large ones. The large banks are generally con- 
 ducted on Hberal and broad-gauge principles. The small 
 ones are usually in the charge of skinflints, and the skin- 
 flint policy, whatever else may be said of it, is the one 
 most conducive to solvency. Insolvency is the severest 
 punishment that can be inflicted on a bank. No bank 
 with a bona fide capital desires to faU, and no bank can 
 exist under our national system without a bona fide capi- 
 tal. A multiplicity of banks requires a corresponding 
 increase in the force of bank examiners, but, on the other 
 hand, a small bank is more easily examined, and the re-
 
 262 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 suits are less liable to error than in the case of a large one. 
 For these reasons I do not consider the existence of small 
 banks a specially hazardous element in the problem of 
 assets currency, although at first it seems such. 
 
 Another reason for my belief that a system of assets 
 currency would not injure our credit abroad is that foreign 
 bankers and financiers know that our whole monetary 
 system, including the part for which the Government is 
 responsible, rests at last upon the assets of the banks. 
 Neither the national Government nor the State and 
 municipal governments could exist if those assets were not 
 good. What would bonds be worth in such case? The 
 assets of the banks consist of valid liens on the circulating 
 property of the country, or valid claims against the own- 
 ers of the same. If the property exists, the assets of 
 the bank are good. If it does not exist. Government bonds 
 would be worthless, the greenbacks could not be redeemed, 
 and the Government could not pay its running expenses 
 three months. 
 
 Bank-notes secured by the assets of all the banks would 
 therefore be safer than those secured by Government 
 bonds. Very few banks, however, would consent to be- 
 come liable for the debts of other banks over whose 
 management they could have no control. On the other 
 hand, very few banks fail — only seven per cent, of the 
 whole number, ninety- three per cent, remain always sound 
 and solvent. It is easy to compute the possible loss from 
 bank failures and to provide an insurance or safety fund 
 sufficient to cover it. It has been shown repeatedly that a 
 very small tax on bank circulation — about one fifth of 
 one per cent, per annum — ^would have sufficed to protect 
 note-holders against loss under our national bank system 
 without any bond security whatever. It is hardly worth 
 while to go into these details again. They have been 
 dished up many times during the past ten years, and I 
 have found that almost every man who takes the trouble 
 to study the subject for himself, by the light of our own 
 experience and that of other countries, comes to the con-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 263 
 
 elusion that the safety-fund system, as embodied in the 
 amended Fowler Bill or in the earlier Indianapolis plan, 
 would supply the country a perfectly sound currency 
 without bond security — one from which no note-holder 
 would ever lose the smallest fraction of a dollar. Such 
 currency would be elastic and responsive to the varying 
 seasons and the various demands of business. It would 
 expand when the crops are to be moved and it would con- 
 tract after they are moved, and both expansion and con- 
 traction would be automatic. This would be a great gain 
 to the West, but it would be equally a gain to New York. 
 When the West draws on New York in the early autumn 
 for currency to move the crops every dollar of legal tender 
 money that is sent out curtails the lending power of the 
 banks by as much as four dollars. It brings business 
 "up with a round turn," and sometimes to the very verge 
 of panic. No such thing ever happens in Canada. The 
 Canadian banks are on the safety-fund system. They 
 can issue notes when there is a demand for them, and 
 in proportion to the demand. They are not obliged to 
 pay $1.08 for each $1 of currency. They are not obliged 
 to curtail their loans to merchants and manufacturers 
 in order to supply needed funds to farmers and grain 
 buyers. 
 
 The people who stand in the way of this reform are 
 those who never take the trouble to study the question at 
 all. Because the bond-security system is our system, they 
 think that no other is possible. A majority of the mem- 
 bers of the Indianapolis Monetary Commission were, at 
 the outset, opposed to any departure from the bond-secur- 
 ity system. They shared the common prejudice born of 
 the confusion of antebellum days, when each State had its 
 separate system of note issue, and when there was not 
 sufficient legal control upon any. Yet all the members 
 of the Commission finally agreed that a bond-secured 
 currency was opposed to sound banking principles because 
 it eliminated the element of credit from the note-issuing 
 function. They agreed also that the bond -security system
 
 264 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 was doomed to an early death by the extinction of the 
 national debt, and that something must be devised to take 
 its place. They accordingly devised the Indianapolis 
 plan, which embodies the principle of an insurance fund, 
 or guarantee fund, to be contributed by all the partici- 
 pating banks and sufficient to redeem the notes of the very 
 few banks that would become insolvent. This principle 
 was adopted also in the Fowler Bill. The only novelty 
 in the latter bill, distinguishing it from other measures for 
 issuing assets, currency, is the one relating to the redemp- 
 tion of bank-notes. It provides that all notes shall be 
 redeemed in gold at their own counters, and also at a re- 
 demption city, of which there are three named in the bill: 
 New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The present law 
 requires redemption of notes at the counter of the issuing 
 bank and also at Washington City, where each must keep 
 a deposit equal to five per cent, of its circulation. Wash- 
 ington City is not a commercial centre, and there is no 
 reason why it should be chosen for this purpose except 
 that it is the locality where defaced and mutilated notes 
 are replaced with new ones. This cannot be considered 
 a good reason for sending to a non-commercial and rather 
 out-of-the-way place all notes that stray away from 
 home. 
 
 Frequent redemption of notes is called for by other 
 reasons than the convenience of the note-holder. It com- 
 pels the banker to hold an adequate cash reserve and to 
 keep his assets generally in a liquid condition. It tends to 
 prevent him from putting his funds into long loans or 
 locldng them up in speculative securities. It is a notable 
 incentive to sound banking. The law ought, therefore, 
 to favor a system which looks to frequent redemption, 
 and provides facilities therefor. Banking science at the 
 present day tends strongly in that direction. In Canada 
 note-issuing banks are required to have a redemption 
 agency in the chief city of each of the seven provinces of 
 the Dominion, and at such other places as the Treasury 
 Board may determine. In Germany each bank is re-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 265 
 
 quired to redeem its notes at Berlin or Frankfort, as well 
 as at its own counter. 
 
 Redemption of bank-notes under our system, however, 
 is a question which affects the banks themselves rather 
 than the public. Each bank receives the notes of every 
 other bank at par in payments to itself, and also receives 
 them at par as deposits. Converting the notes into par 
 funds for their customers is equivalent to redeeming them 
 in gold. Therefore, the question of cash redemption of 
 national bank-notes is one which concerns only the banks 
 themselves. It is a practical question which they ought 
 to be allowed to settle among themselves. 
 
 On the 4th of December last a Committee of the New 
 York Chamber of Commerce made a report endorsing the 
 general plan of assets currency as supplementary to the 
 existing circulation, but did not recommend any particular 
 bill for carrying this plan into effect. The Chairman of 
 the Committee making this report was the ex -President 
 of this Association of Savings Banks, Mr. J. Harsen 
 Rhoades, and among the signers of it were two ex-Secre- 
 taries of the Treasury of the highest rank. Whether a 
 bond-secured circulation would go well with another 
 variety of notes issued by the same banks, I shall not con- 
 sider. It is sufficient for this occasion to aUude to the fact 
 that the principle of assets currency has received the en- 
 dorsement of the high authorities named, and that their 
 report was approved by the Chamber of Commerce after 
 a debate, and by a nearly unanimous vote, therefore the 
 friends and advocates of the system may feel amply en- 
 couraged to continue their efforts to bring about this 
 great reform. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE SAVINGS BANK IN THE COMMUNITY 
 
 Mr. John R. Van Wormer, Secretary of the Lincoln 
 Safe Deposit Company, spoke on the above subject in 
 part, as foUows: 
 
 The growth of Savings Banks in the United States since
 
 266 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 1816 has been phenomenal. Their vast deposits to-day 
 reflect in large part the general prosperity and the steady 
 improvement of the temporal condition of the thrifty 
 masses of our people. It taxes one's imagination even 
 to comprehend the magnitude of the Savings Banks 
 deposits of the State of New York, on the ist of last 
 January, when they are stated in figures so large as one 
 thousand and seventy-seven millions of dollars. And one 
 is compelled to pay the tribute of astonishment when he 
 observes that the increase in deposits in 1902 was over 
 twenty-nine millions of dollars ; and the amount credited or 
 paid out in interest over thirty-three millions. Equally 
 one's admiration is challenged when he notes the fact that 
 it has cost to carry on the immense business of the Savings 
 Banks of the State only $2.86 per one thousand dollars 
 of resources. Think of what it means that out of a 
 population of some eight millions, over two millions, 
 two hundred and seventy-five thousand accounts should 
 stand upon the books of these institutions for savings, 
 when, great as they are, they are but one of the various 
 depositories of those who accumulate. We should never 
 forget that the theory of the State which created the 
 Savings Bank system was that its primary purpose was the 
 estabhshment of absolutely safe depositories for the 
 savings of the poor or of those of modest means, and 
 that these depositories should be hedged about with every 
 safeguard which could be devised. But the most perfect 
 system ever framed in the statute of the lawmaker would 
 result in disappointment were it not possible to find men 
 of ability, probity, and business training to organize the 
 institutions contemplated and to conduct the arduous 
 and complicated affairs attendant thereupon. Yet there 
 is a broader influence and a more significant duty which 
 may be associated with the administration of the affairs 
 directly within your province. Your personal contact 
 with the masses of our people is intimate; you are called 
 upon to study their condition, be it good, bad, or indiffer- 
 ent. Often the poor and uninformed seek your advice
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 267 
 
 and profit by it. Your opportunities for good are nu- 
 merous in dealing with the young man who has just begun 
 to save and who is about to undertake the grave respon- 
 sibilities of citizenship. Intimacy with these conditions 
 may sometimes dull the Savings Bank official's appreci- 
 ation of the high estimate which the humble depositor 
 places upon his wisdom and influence. Of necessity many 
 of you must be familiar with tenement house conditions, 
 and hence cannot fail to appreciate the importance of all 
 that philanthropy has devised for the improvement of 
 those who are the victims of unfavorable environment. 
 In the process of investing the savings of the people you 
 cultivate intimate familiarity with the building laws and 
 with the way they are executed. You fully understand 
 the quahty and efficiency, or the opposite, of police ad- 
 ministration, and the fidelity, or otherwise, with which 
 the duties of the officials of the department of health are 
 discharged. You know a great deal about the condition 
 of the pubhc schools, the status of the buildings devoted 
 to such purposes, the results obtained, and the good or 
 bad order which prevails among the children of the con- 
 gested quarters. It is in your power to e*xert a powerful 
 influence for good in support of the State and municipality 
 in their efforts to equip the children of the poor, and even 
 the waifs of the streets, with a practical education, so 
 practical and thorough that the recipient shaU be enabled 
 to earn a respectable and adequate livelihood in the com- 
 munity in which he or she lives. No set of men In the 
 cities of the State know better than you do what con- 
 stitutes the elements of disorder and crime, or from what 
 sources emanate the malign influences which taint and 
 demoralize the unprotected youth of both sexes. It 
 is not enough that the child shall have a modicum of 
 education along conventional lines; something else 
 must be embraced in the course of instruction; the pur- 
 pose of the method of education should be practical; 
 one of its objects should be that of manual training, 
 which shall help the teaching of the rudiments of a use-
 
 .268 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ful trade or calling toward the future independence of 
 the recipient, and the attainment of a respectable posi- 
 tion in society. 
 
 You are familiar with the vexatious recurrence of 
 strikes, boycotts, and other labor troubles. What is to be 
 done to avert or to mitigate their hateful consequences in 
 the loss of wages to the workman, the temptation which 
 besets the unemployed, the disturbance of business, the 
 enhanced cost of building and living? All sane men grieve 
 because of the tyranny, lack of intelligence, and absence 
 of responsibility which characterize the walking delegate, 
 or business agent of the trades union, and you are appalled 
 at the flippant readiness with which a labor union repudi- 
 ates a contract, thus displaying scornful disregard for, 
 or lack of appreciation of, the essential principles which 
 underlie society. You are abashed in the presence of a 
 willingness, indeed of a positive effort, on the part of the 
 "labor politician," the demagogue, and the social agitator, 
 to create an antagonism of classes. Recognizing all this, 
 it is still true that there is a middle ground of mutually 
 beneficent and honorable understanding and adjustment 
 for those who are honestly and vitally interested. By 
 this I mean the employer and the employed. I am sure 
 every sane man believes that an understanding cannot 
 be reached without reasonable concessions from both sides. 
 Do not get angry and beget anger in the other fellow, 
 thus rendering the first approach to an understanding 
 difficult. Radicals do not harmonize conflicting inter- 
 ests; temperate, level-headed persons, who can see both 
 sides of a question, do. I think it is pretty generally 
 conceded that a broader view of the respective and re- 
 lated interests of capital and labor must eventuaUy pre- 
 vail; that organized labor must accept a position entailing 
 full responsibility for contracts entered into and agree- 
 ments made by its representatives; and that this can 
 only be accomplished through incorporation and sub- 
 mission to those processes of law which enforce contracts ; 
 that the agitator and anarchist shall be eliminated in all
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 269 
 
 the relations between the employer and employed; that 
 the right to emplo3mient and the privilege to earn an 
 honest living shall be conceded by all to a man or woman, 
 whether union or non-union in affiliation; that some of 
 the intolerable dogmas of the walking delegate shall be 
 abrogated and properly stigmatized by organized labor 
 itself, lest the result be anarchy and revolution; that the 
 employer shall be required to recognize and manifest the 
 highest sense of responsibility in the administration of 
 his trust; that he shall entertain suggestion and not repel 
 reasonable efforts toward the remedy of evils or the ad- 
 justment of disagreements; that he shall recognize the 
 sacredness of the trusteeship which he holds. That all 
 these imperfectly expressed things, and more, wiU be satis- 
 factorily done, I profoundly believe, but the proceedings 
 will be wonderfully expedited through the cultivation of 
 mutual confidence. 
 
 The President : It is, after all, the quiet influence of the 
 Savings Banks on the community which teUs. Many of 
 the young men who come before you can doubtless detail 
 an experience similar to that which your President, as a 
 young man, had. He had an opportunity to save a little 
 money; he called at a Brooklyn Savings Bank and in- 
 vested it there. He gathered a little fund, and after- 
 ward went to the bank to draw it out to enter in business 
 in a small way. The bank official asked: "Why do you 
 want to draw out your money?" He told him that he 
 was about to enter into business. The bank officer said: 
 "You may draw within five dollars, but leave the five 
 dollars, and some day you will want to add more to it," 
 Your President was quite struck with the idea, the money 
 was left, in a comparatively short time that deposit was 
 renewed. It was the nucleus or the foundation of his 
 career. Now it is that silent influence which you gentle- 
 men can exert upon young men who come before you and 
 who are within your reach. I know that influence is 
 stronger than many people imagine, and I trust that the 
 Savings Banks Association and the gentlemen connected
 
 2 70 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 with it will do their utmost to encourage thrift among the 
 young men. 
 
 HEARING ON MORTGAGE TAX BILL 
 
 A hearing was had before the Joint Senate and Assem- 
 bly Committee on the mortgage tax bill held at the State 
 Capitol, March, 31, 1903. Fifty-five members of the 
 Savings Banks Association of the State were represented. 
 Mr. Robert C. Morris addressed the Committee as follows: 
 
 Public sentiment in Greater New York condemns mort- 
 gage taxation. The opposition has been often and ear- 
 nestly expressed by the press and by commercial, labor, 
 and real estate organizations. 
 
 It should not be supposed for a moment that the ques- 
 tions involved are not familiar ones. Possibly no ques- 
 tion of State, as distinguished from national taxation, has 
 been more constantly or fuUy discussed for a long period. 
 The sentiment against mortgage taxation must be con- 
 sidered intelligently and firmly held. 
 
 It is based on experience of the present system in the 
 State and on knowledge of various forms of mortgage 
 taxation essayed in other States, as well as upon the ex- 
 perience elsewhere of the plan of exempting mortgages 
 from taxation. The Chamber of Commerce of the City 
 of New York, as long ago as 1870, urged the injustice of 
 taxation of mortgages, and during the whole period since 
 has continuously and consistently held to this view. 
 
 The opposition of real estate interests has been so fre- 
 quently voiced that it is not necessary to quote anything 
 in evidence. The Board of Real Estate Brokers, the 
 Real Estate Exchange of Brooklyn, and the Real Estate 
 Owners' Association have within a few days given strong 
 proof of this attitude. 
 
 The views of our commercial, labor, and city real estate 
 owning classes are shared by the better-informed people 
 in the rural districts, but many of our fellow-citizens in
 
 SAMUEL D. STYLES 
 
 TREASURER, I0O2-O9
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 271 
 
 those sections have not yet learned that a mortgage tax 
 falls inevitably upon the borrower, nor can they rid them- 
 selves of the idea that men of means ought to be taxed 
 upon the paper evidences of their wealth, although the 
 property covered by the paper has already been taxed. 
 
 And this leads to the statement that the levy of indi- 
 rect taxes must always be guarded in an extreme way if 
 injustice is to be avoided. A legislative body seldom stops 
 to make broad studies of economic taxation. Money is 
 wanted, and is secured along the lines of least resistance. 
 Under the traditional tax system of the State a higher levy 
 would be made, that would extend to every dollar of 
 property, real and personal, throughout the State that 
 could be found and assessed by the taxing authorities. 
 Under the indirect system some special object is sought 
 out and made to bear a special levy. One day it is Sav- 
 ings Banks, another day insurance companies, on another 
 day trust companies are affected, and on still another 
 liquor dealers. 
 
 ADDRESS BY MR. HENRY L. STIMPSON 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: There 
 are so many waiting here to take part in this that I will 
 confine myself only to one or two objections. There is no 
 question but it must be admitted that when this subject 
 of the taxation of mortgages first began to be discussed 
 in the newspapers, and before the material points of the 
 present bill became known, there was a certain predisposi- 
 tion in its favor. The present system under which our 
 mortgages in New York are now taxed, when they are 
 taxed at all, and in which the burden falls wholly on the 
 widow and the orphans and the honest man who won't 
 swear off his taxes, is so harsh and oppressive that any 
 tax which would apparently levy a smaller equal tax in 
 place of the present unequal one would meet, and it was 
 thought then that this would meet with a certain amount 
 of predisposition in its favor. But as the terms of this 
 particular bill have become known and discussed, there
 
 272 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 has been such a storm of protest aroused in New York 
 City by those with whom the members of the County 
 Committee come in contact that I think the County Com- 
 mittee represents the unanimous sentiment of its constit- 
 uents in taking this stand. 
 
 The present bill hits at two classes of the community, 
 both of whom form the backbone of the conservative 
 element which is represented by the Republican party 
 there. First, the investor in small real estate mortgages, 
 and, second, the investor in bonds secured by corporate 
 mortgages. 
 
 The objections to the bill on behalf of both these classes 
 must be pretty carefully studied, but there are so many 
 present who are experts in the matter of real estate mort- 
 gage taxation regarded from the individual standpoint, 
 and who have to speak, that I shall say only one word on it. 
 
 The bill seems to have been drawn with this point 
 mainly in view, namely, the standpoint of the taxing of an 
 individual mortgage, made by an individual, based upon a 
 single piece of real estate. On that basis, the principal 
 objection to the bill seems to be that it is harsh and drastic, 
 and will be, unquestionably, the subject of a great deal of 
 annoyance to the persons who pay the tax. Instead of 
 paying one large tax as under the present system, the 
 holder of a mortgage under the new bill will be constantly 
 subject to pay small taxes. He pays a tax when his 
 mortgage is recorded; he pays another one when it is 
 foreclosed; another one when it is assigned; another one 
 when it is reduced; and the machinery for his payment of 
 these small taxes is so complicated that the amounts 
 which he would be saved in the percentage levied by the 
 tax would probably be much more than eaten up in law- 
 yer's fee to attend the different steps that he would have 
 to take to protect him under the bill. 
 
 I only call your attention to one particular point, which 
 seems to me in that respect particularly harsh. Under 
 this bill, as I read it, every recording officer, the county 
 clerk in most counties, must every year, in making out his
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 273 
 
 list of taxable mortgages, insert in it up to the maximum 
 amount every mortgage on file in his office. It may be 
 that he knows perfectly well that a certain mortgage has 
 been partly paid off; the same question may have come 
 up the year before and the year before that; nevertheless, 
 under this law, he has got to put it in at the maximum 
 amount, and put it up to the owner of the mortgage to 
 take all the trouble afterward to get it reduced to the 
 proper amount. 
 
 That is just a single instance of a certain kind of the 
 annoyances and harshness of the present measure; but 
 that part of it will be so fully discussed by others that I 
 would turn at once to what seems to me to be the most 
 serious side of the objections to the bill. That is where 
 it touches upon serial bonds secured by general trust 
 mortgage, the kind that is commonly known as corporate 
 mortgages, because they are usually issued by a corpo- 
 ration, and in relation to such bonds the system which 
 this bill adopts would probably entirely break down. 
 
 In the first place, it is a very simple thing, compar- 
 atively, to follow the theory of the bill when you apply 
 it to the individual mortgage. If a man holds a mort- 
 gage for five thousand dollars, securing a bond for five 
 thousand dollars, on a single piece of real estate, I think 
 you have the whole thing before you; and the theory of 
 this tax seems to be to levy the tax on the bond and to 
 compute the amount of the tax by the amount of the 
 mortgage. 
 
 Now that is all right so long as the bond and the mort- 
 gage represent the same amount, so long as they are in 
 the same hands, and so long as the security is a fixed 
 piece of real estate; but think of the situation when you 
 come to a railroad mortgage, for instance, where the bond 
 is split up into ten thousand bonds, held by ten thousand 
 different people, where the number of bonds and the 
 amount of the debt is constantly changing as bonds are 
 being issued or retired, and where the amount of the 
 security is not a single piece of real estate but is a great
 
 274 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 railroad system, partly inside the State of New York 
 and taxable, and partly outside of the State of New York 
 not taxable, partly consisting of real estate and taxable, 
 and partly consisting of personal property and not tax- 
 able. Add to that the situation where, as very often 
 happens, and usually happens in most of those cases, the 
 security isn't even constant or fixed ; the security is being 
 constantly increased with new purchases of equipment, 
 locomotives. Now, under this bill as it is drawn, each 
 one of those changes makes a change in the rate of 
 the tax. It is not a tax of four mills on every railroad 
 bond; it is a tax of four mills to the dollar on some bonds, 
 and then a constantly varying rate down to an infini- 
 tesimal fraction of a mill, depending on whether the 
 security is inside the State of New York or whether 
 the security is partly personal or partly real property. 
 No one can tell, in other words, what the tax is on his 
 bond; and until that is ascertained and fixed the mort- 
 gage cannot be recorded under this bill. Think of the 
 intolerable situation. A railroad wishes to build its railroad 
 with an issue of its bonds; it wishes to record a mort- 
 gage and to sell the bonds for that purpose and to pur- 
 chase gradually, by certain instalments of the bonds, the 
 railroad that it builds. How can it take a single step?^ 
 It can't even record its mortgages until the ratio between 
 its personal property and its real property, which is not 
 yet in existence, is fixed by the State Tax Board. 
 
 Then there is another objection. Under this law the 
 tax is levied on the bond, not on the mortgage, and if any 
 holder fails to pay for his tax the bond can be sequestered 
 and sold, and trouble at once caused, for you can't al- 
 ways get hold of your bond to sell it. So this law has a 
 beautiful provision that the State Assessors can sell the 
 bond without taking possession of it. In other words, if 
 somebody fails to pay a tax on his New York Central 
 four, the State assessors can sell that bond; and thereafter 
 we have the curious situation that there are two bonds on 
 the market, both representing that original bond, one of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 275 
 
 them valid, and the other invahd, and nobody can tell 
 which is which. 
 
 In other words, carried out to its conclusion, this bill 
 would utterly destroy the negotiability of negotiable bonds. 
 No one who bought a bond on the market could tell 
 whether he was buying the bond that was valid or the one 
 that was invaUd. 
 
 What do you think would be the result of a law which, 
 in one blow, will make the bonds of all such corporations 
 unsalable outside of the State? Of course it would en- 
 tirely paralyze it. 
 
 It seems to me that on all these grounds a tax law of this 
 sort will produce the most calamitous results, particularly 
 in the City of New York. 
 
 ADDRESS BY CHARLES A. SCHIEREN OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Gentlemen: The Savings Banks of the State are very 
 much alarmed over this mortgage tax, as you see by the large 
 delegation present here to-day, coming from all parts of the 
 State. They consider it a dangerous measure which may 
 seriously affect the banks. It may compel them to reduce 
 the interest to three per cent, instead of the rate we are 
 now paying to our depositors. Our Savings Banks are 
 largely dependent upon the revenue from mortgages in 
 order to pay the per cent, which we are now paying. Other 
 securities permitted by law hardly realize three per cent., 
 whereas mortgages bring from four to five per cent. This 
 enables the bank to pay the present rate in most cases of 
 three and one half per cent. 
 
 Our Savings Banks are now holding about five hundred 
 million dollars' worth of mortgages. The proposed tax 
 of four mills will amount to two million dollars annually 
 in tax. That amount, added to the tax already on the 
 surplus of the Savings Banks, which amounts to seven 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars, will be an enormous 
 increase to the burden upon the banks. The execution 
 of the proposed mortgage tax law is most cumbersome and 
 will create considerable confusion. It will necessitate
 
 276 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 much extra work and additional expense to our banks. 
 Many banks hold mortgages not yet due, and will have 
 to pay the tax. The calling of so many mortgages due, 
 by the banks and other institutions, would seriously 
 affect the money market. There is no doubt it would 
 create great distress among the borrowers. 
 
 Gentlemen, we are opposed to this bill because it is 
 wrong in principle. It means double taxation. Its pro- 
 visions are confusing and the execution will add con- 
 siderable expense to our mortgage holders. It means 
 additional hardship to our laboring class. It is a heavy 
 burden to the thrifty, frugal, struggling mechanic or farmer 
 who is ambitious to own his own homestead — the very 
 people whose burdens we should strive to lighten instead 
 of increase. With your permission I will call upon Mr. 
 Hun, of the Albany Savings Bank. 
 
 Marcus T. Hun: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of 
 the Committee: I assume that the convenience or incon- 
 venience of this measure has been discussed in the Legis- 
 lature, and that that line of argument is hardly any longer 
 open for the consideration of a Committee which is ob- 
 ligated by the decision of the party caucus; but I cannot 
 but feel, as a member of the party which is responsible 
 for this measure, that it cannot afford to pass a second tax 
 bill of the importance of this one and have this bill also 
 declared unconstitutional by the courts of the State. I 
 think the people of this State, in presenting the power of 
 legislation to any political body, expect that that legis- 
 lation will be mtelligently conducted, and that the meas- 
 ures which have been adopted by the party will be capable 
 of enforcement. I shall, therefore, so far as my remarks 
 are concerned, address myself entirely to the constitu- 
 tional features connected with this legislation. I think 
 it is of very great importance, in order that we should 
 understand each other, that we should have some com- 
 prehension of the views which have prevailed in the 
 preparation of this measure. As I understand it, it 
 is not the purpose, at least in terms, of this bill to tax the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 277 
 
 bonds to which the mortgages are collateral. Whatever 
 influence may be brought to bear to induce the payment by 
 the bondholders of the tax which is imposed upon the 
 debt, there is no intention to run athwart of the provisions 
 of the Constitution, or the limited jurisdiction of this 
 State, by attempting, in terms at least, to impose a tax 
 upon bonds which may be held by non-residents, over 
 whom this State has neither jurisdiction of their person 
 nor of their property. This measure, as I assume, has 
 been drawn with an attempt to evade the provisions of the 
 decision of the Court of Appeals in the matter of Palmer 
 in 150 New York, and the decision in the United States 
 Supreme Court in 15 Wallace, the foreign- holding bonds 
 case, which decided that the Legislature of a State had no 
 authority to impose a tax upon a non-resident because of 
 his holding bonds which were secured by mortgage upon 
 property within the State ; and to bring the case within the 
 decision in 116 United States, of the Savings Society 
 against the Multnomah County, which is the decision in 
 that court, holding that under the conditions presented 
 by the legislation which was brought before that court in 
 the case there was authority on the part of the Legisla- 
 ture to impose a tax upon what was therein designated as 
 a debt and a mortgage lien; and this bill, as nearly as I 
 can judge from its phraseology, is intended to come within 
 the scope and purpose and within the protection of that 
 decision. Am I right about that, Mr. Allds? 
 
 Senator Allds : Well, you argued this bill three years ago 
 with the gentleman who drew that provision — Mr. Clark, 
 present — and he told you at that time, I think, that it was 
 intended to come within the Multnomah case ; and if Mr. 
 Clark was correct at that time, then the bill is correct 
 now; and if you were correct in your opinion, I suppose 
 that the bill isn't any more constitutional to-day than it 
 was three years ago. 
 
 Mr. Hun: Well, I don't know about that, sir. 
 
 Senator Allds: Well, it hasn't been changed. I want 
 to say, Mr. Hun, that it hasn't been changed any from
 
 278 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the phraseology of the bill three years ago — ^what was 
 known as the Stranaham Mortgage Tax Bill — so far as 
 that is concerned. 
 
 Mr. Hun: Now the distinction between that case and 
 the present case is that in that case there was an attempt 
 made to tax the interest of the mortgagee in the real es- 
 tate which was covered by the mortgage. In other words, 
 as defined, although not perhaps exactly expressed in that 
 way in the act itself, but as its purpose was defined by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, it was held to be a 
 tax imposed upon the interest of the mortgagee in the 
 real estate, and that interest being subject to a tax im- 
 posed by the bill then under consideration, the only 
 tax which was imposed upon the owner of the real 
 estate was a tax upon the residuum of the real estate 
 which was left after the value of the mortgage had been 
 deducted from the value of the real estate. In other words, 
 if the real estate was mortgaged to the extent of sixty 
 per cent, of its value, there was a tax of sixty per cent, 
 of the value of that real estate imposed upon the holder 
 of the mortgage, and there was a tax imposed upon the 
 owner of the real estate of only forty per cent, of the 
 value of that real estate. 
 
 So that was practically a decision by the Legislature 
 of that State that they proposed to tax the real estate or 
 property in two ways — they proposed to tax the interest 
 of the owner of the real estate, and they proposed to tax 
 the interest which the mortgagee held in that real estate, 
 which they chose, by act of Legislature, which the Supreme 
 Court of the United States said they had a right to do, 
 to make property, although it was a mere lien under the 
 laws of that State. 
 
 Now that is entirely different from the condition which 
 presents itself here, because here we propose to allow the 
 owner of the real estate to pay the tax on all the real estate 
 there is. There is no exemption from liability to tax on the 
 part of the real estate because of the fact that we imposed, 
 in some form, upon this mysterious thing called a "lien,"
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 279 
 
 a certain burden of taxation; and, therefore, the attempt 
 here is not as it was decided in the United States Court 
 in this Saving Society case, that the State had a right to 
 tax the real estate as it was; but the attempt here is to 
 tax an intangible thing which is not property, in addition 
 to taxing the property itself to the full value. Now, in 
 order that I may not appear to give my own construction 
 to this decision of the Supreme Court, I beg the attention 
 of the Committee while I read a portion of it from the 
 report of the case. 
 
 "Taking all the provisions of the statute into consideration, its 
 clear intent and effect are as follows: The personal obligation of the 
 mortgagor to the mortgagee is not taxed at all. The mortgage 
 and the debt secured thereby are taxed as real estate to the mort- 
 gagee, not beyond their real cash value, but only so far as they 
 represent an interest in the real estate mortgage. The debt is not 
 taxed separately, but only together with the mortgage, and is con- 
 sidered as indebtedness within the State for no other purpose than 
 to enable the mortgagor to deduct the amount thereof from the 
 assessment upon him in the same manner as other indebtedness 
 within the State is deducted, and the mortgagee as well as the 
 mortgagor is entitled to have deducted from his own assessment 
 the amount of his indebtedness within the State. The result is that 
 nothing is taxed but the real estate mortgaged. The interest of 
 the mortgagee herein being taxed to him and the rest to the mort- 
 gagor, there is no double tax nor is there any such discrimination 
 between the mortgagors and mortgagees as between resident and 
 non-resident mortgagees as to deny to the latter the equal protec- 
 tion of the laws. No question between the mortgagee and the 
 mortgagor arising out of the contract between them in regard to the 
 payment of taxes or otherwise is presented or can be decided upon 
 this record." 
 
 Now you had prepared a law here, or the Legislature 
 has under consideration a law by which you propose to 
 determine this question between the mortgagor and the 
 mortgagee which was not determined in this case, upon the 
 lines of which the present bill was drawn, and you say to the 
 debtor owing a bond to the non-resident of this State : "If 
 the non-resident of this State doesn't come here and pay 
 this tax I forbid you to pay him either the principal or the
 
 28o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 interest of that bond." So that is legislation; unlike the 
 legislation in the Savings Association case, you under- 
 take to say, as between the mortgagor and the mortgagee, 
 that unless the bondholder under a mortgage, being a non- 
 resident of the State, over whom you have no jurisdiction, 
 either as to person or property, comes into this State and 
 pays this tax upon the debt or obligation, that he shall 
 receive neither the principal nor the interest on this debt; 
 and, further than that, that if, for a certain period of time, 
 he fails to make this payment, that this claim that he has 
 against the mortgagor, by whatever term you may desig- 
 nate it, shall be sold and that the party who purchases that 
 claim shall be substituted in his place and subrogated to 
 his rights. 
 
 Now that may be law, but what I mean to say is that 
 the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 in terms, distinguishes that case from the case which is 
 presented by the present bill. 
 
 I should prefer to take the decision of the Court of 
 Appeals of our own State, which decided in the matter of 
 Bronson 150 New York; and if they decide the same way 
 in this case, this case will never see the Supreme Court of 
 the United States — that it doesn't lie within the power 
 of the Legislature of this State to tax a bondholder 
 who is not a resident of this State upon the debt or obli- 
 gation. 
 
 Now, you may say that by careful verbiage and ex- 
 clusion of words you have in this case evaded, by expres- 
 sion at least, the thought that you impose a tax upon the 
 non-resident of this State who holds this bond; but I don't 
 believe that the Court of Appeals will be deceived or will 
 be misled by a statement of that kind in the bill, when 
 you say to the man who lives in New Jersey: "If you don't 
 pay this tax on amount of this bond" — I don't care what 
 you call it, debt, or obligation, or other word — "if you 
 don't pay the amount that you owe upon this thing which 
 you hold, representing a claim against a resident of the 
 State of New York, secured by mortgage upon its prop-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 281 
 
 erty, we will say to the debtor that he shall not pay you 
 principal or interest, and after a certain expiration of 
 time we will forfeit your claim and sell it out for the 
 amount of what we call the "tax" and deprive you for- 
 ever of any claim whatever against your debtor." I 
 don't believe when you present that to the Court of 
 Appeals that the Court of Appeals will say otherwise 
 than that that is an attempt to tax the bond which this 
 man in New Jersey is possessed of, and if they do hold so, 
 they hold no differently from what they held in consid- 
 ering the Transfer Act in the matter of Bronson, in which 
 they held that a bond held by a non-resident, being out 
 of the State, was not taxable. 
 
 Now I grant you if the bond is within the State, al- 
 though the owner may be without, that under the decision 
 of the Court of Appeals it is taxable ; but I am speaking of 
 the case in which a man in New Jersey holds the bond in 
 his o^vn possession in New Jersey. I don't deny your 
 right in a certain sense to tax the mortgage lien; I don't 
 deny your right to say, as they said in the Savings Insti- 
 tutions case: "You may consider this as part of the real es- 
 tate and we will tax it"; so that, so far as this feature of the 
 case is concerned, it would seem that as to all bonds held 
 by non-residents, and all are usually so held, and all will 
 be so held if you offer a premium of four mills to every 
 man out of the State as against every man in the State 
 who is a holder of these bonds, you haven't any power to 
 tax them ; that you can take — having taxed the real estate 
 to its full value — this imaginary, intangible thing called a 
 lien and destroy that when you can't destroy the debt 
 itself, I deny. And I deny that you have any authority 
 that you can produce of any court of competent jurisdic- 
 tion to determine this question in this case which has 
 ever held to that effect. 
 
 Now in this connection it was said at the last hearing 
 that the railroad mortgages in this State had been so 
 drawn that while it might be true that it wouldn't be 
 practicable to enforce this lien as against the bondholder,
 
 282 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 or the debtholder, or whatever you may choose to desig- 
 nate them in the bill, the railroads themselves would be 
 obHged to pay it. Now I have taken pains since the last 
 hearing to make inquiry in regard to the principal roads 
 in this State. The West Shore mortgage of forty millions 
 of dollars contains no provision in regard to the taxes 
 other than the provision which I quote: "The said Rail- 
 road Company, its successors and assigns, shall and will 
 pay all taxes and assessments lawfully levied or assessed 
 upon the premises hereto conveyed." Of course it would 
 not be claimed that that related to anything except the 
 tax that was assessed directly upon the property of the 
 railroad company; it would not relate to a tax upon the 
 debt which it owed. 
 
 The New York Central & Hudson River mortgage 
 for one hundred millions provides that it will pay the 
 interest and the principal without deduction from either 
 principal or interest for any tax or taxes imposed by the 
 United States or any State or county or municipality 
 there of which the railroad company may be required to 
 pay or to retain therefrom under that by reason of any 
 present or future law. Now you have provided in this 
 bill not that the railroad company should retain any tax; 
 you have provided that when the bond or the debt is 
 declared delinquent, that the debt shall be sold and that 
 thereafter the railroad company shall not pay either prin- 
 cipal or interest to the man who was the holder of the 
 bond at the time of the sale or at the time the delinquency 
 occurred. But you haven't brought this in this bill 
 within the scope of the requirements of the mortgage of 
 the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Com- 
 pany, which provides that they shall be liable to pay the 
 tax only in case they shall be required by law of the State 
 to retain the tax upon it. But the difficulty, it seems to 
 me, with this New York Central clause, even if you 
 should decide that it was applicable to a tax which was 
 lawfully levied ; inasmuch as the tax is unlawfully levied 
 against the bonds of non-residents it isn't a tax and there-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 283 
 
 fore the railroad is not under obligation to retain the 
 money, because there is no tax whatever if it is without 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 Now the difficulty is this: Here is a quantity of cou- 
 pons that are presented to the fiscal officer of the New 
 York Central Railroad, and the State says: "You mustn't 
 pay those, because the tax hasn't been paid in that case." 
 Now the railroad has no way of determining whether those 
 bonds which are represented by those coupons are held 
 within the State of New York or not. It can't trace them 
 back; and thereafter you say to the railroad: "Don't 
 you pay either principal or interest on that debt; we are 
 going to sell it." 
 
 If the bonds that are held outside the State of New York 
 are exempt from the four mills tax, these bonds will nat- 
 urally come out from the Savings Banks and go to similar 
 institutions in some other State and the Savings Banks 
 will buy the bonds of other States which are not subject 
 to this tax; and you will soon find in the course of a very 
 short time that the Savings Banks are all supplied by 
 non-taxable bonds and that the bonds of our own State 
 have gone off into other States where you can't control 
 them. There are one or two other features about this 
 bill which I would like to call to the attention of the 
 Committee. Now I think it was suggested by his 
 honor at the last hearing, Mr. Allds, that there was no 
 provision for the assessment in this case — well, I perhaps 
 have stated it too broadly, because it seems to me that no 
 tax can be imposed within the terms of our constitution 
 unless the party who is to be taxed has an opportunity to 
 be heard, and if he has an opportunity to be heard, of 
 course that constitutes the assessment, and this bill 
 has very properly provided that this hearing shall be had 
 before the State Tax Commission. Now in order that 
 this matter should get before the State Tax Commission- 
 ers, this man, having the constitutional right to be heard 
 upon the question as to whether he is taxed properly or 
 improperly, whether the amount is right, is obligated to
 
 284 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 pay his tax in the first instance to the State of New York. 
 Now if he has this inherent right under the provisions of 
 the Constitution to be heard before he is taxed, the State 
 of New York clearly has no right to tax him before he is 
 heard — which they do: they require him to pay this 
 money in to the recording officer — to pay it back after- 
 ward. 
 
 Mr. Allds: Isn't the first hearing that he has after the 
 notice which is published by the county clerk of the as- 
 sessment, under and by virtue of the bill; that is his first 
 hearing, and he has full notice of that, and if he had any 
 dissatisfaction with that list as made up and advertised 
 he may first have a hearing there for its deduction by the 
 showing that there has been a partial payment or that 
 the amount for which it stands has not really been ad- 
 vanced, or anything of that sort. Isn't that his hearing; 
 and after it has then been once determined at that time 
 by the recording officer he has his appeal, and there is no 
 provision for the payment until after he has had his day 
 in court first, with the recording officer, sir; and it is 
 following exactly the provision which obtains in every 
 case with reference to the United States, which is that 
 after the officer who has the right to impose the tax has 
 had a determination that thereafter the tax shall be paid, 
 and then you litigate the question, and if you succeed you 
 get 3^our money paid back, and if you don't succeed the 
 money stays in the Treasury„ Now there is no provision 
 by which this is paid over, either to the State Treasurer or 
 to the local treasurer, but it is held by that recording 
 officer subject to the final decision. Now I am frank to 
 say that in the drafting of that bill we did not have any 
 intention of encouraging litigation such as the Franchise 
 Tax litigation, where, when the question was presented 
 to the court, there was six, eight, or ten millions of dollars 
 involved. Our theory was that we would follow that 
 which the United States Government has adopted from 
 its earliest inception down to the present time. That is 
 after the first determination that there should be a pay-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 285 
 
 merit in of the money involved, in accordance with the 
 determination, and that then, after the money had been 
 paid in, just as it is in the case of the United States, it 
 might be litigated. It would probably have a reason- 
 able tendency to discourage too much litigation, and yet 
 there wouldn't be any hardships in the case of honest 
 difference of opinion and an honest desire to test the law, 
 or to test any question with reference to any one set of 
 property. 
 
 Mr. Hun : As I understand this law — of course I haven't 
 the familiarity that you have with it — I understand that 
 this protest or objection is presented to the recording 
 officer. 
 
 Mr. AUds: That is the place where he makes his pro- 
 test. 
 
 Mr. Hun : The recording officer makes a return of that 
 to the State Board of Assessors. 
 
 Senator Allds : He acts upon it. And if he is dissat- 
 isfied with the determination of the recording officer, then 
 there is the return to the State Tax Commissioner. 
 
 Mr. Hun: I think it isn't in there clearly that you have 
 a right to impose the payment of a tax upon a man who 
 wants to appeal, and that is another question. But what 
 I have found in this bill, I think, is the fact that there are 
 many questions that have to be determined by the State 
 Board of Assessors which cannot be determined by the 
 recording officer. So far as those questions are concerned 
 the man must pay his tax before he gets a decision. If I 
 don't know the rule, I apologize for my error. There is 
 the further objection that no foreclosure shall take place 
 until a proceeding for a determination under this act of 
 this tax. It seems to be rather a hardship on a man that 
 he can't get his mortgage foreclosed. That, perhaps, is a 
 matter of convenience. 
 
 Senator AUds: That is, that for the purpose of com- 
 pelling the payment of the tax, one is denied the right to 
 enforce his lien in the courts unless he has paid his fair 
 share of the Government expense.
 
 286 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. Hun : That would be quite right, but you foreclose 
 the unfortunate man who has paid his tax as well as the 
 others. His remedy is only in a foreclosure of the mort- 
 gage, and you say: "This mortgage shall not be fore- 
 closed," and of course it can't be foreclosed as to one with- 
 out the other, "it shall not be foreclosed until this tax is 
 paid." 
 
 Senator Allds : May I make a suggestion to you? There 
 isn't the slightest difference of opinion as to the perfectness' 
 of the phraseology which constitutes the bill, and I am sure 
 that every member of this Committee would be very happy 
 indeed to receive at your hands a suggestion as to what 
 you would regard as appropriate language to cover the 
 situation. 
 
 Mr. Hun: Mr. Allds, I meant to have stated in the 
 opening that I have read over this bill with a good deal of 
 care two or three times, and the first time it struck me as 
 crude and exceedingly difficult of execution, and each 
 time I read it over I have been more impressed with the 
 ingenuity that has been shown to bring it within the con- 
 stitutional limitations, and the difficulty, perhaps, of pre- 
 senting those constitutional objections, and I have rather 
 come to the conclusion, however, that unless the con- 
 current power were given to mold the provisions of 
 the Constitution, that an omniscient deity could not 
 make a bill purporting to cover the matter covered 
 by this bill and successfully meet with the constitutional 
 questions. 
 
 Mr. Allds: I think you recognize the exact situation 
 that we are in. We find it very difiicult to follow the 
 instructions which are given to us and to deal with the 
 question of contracts now in existence, and we are very 
 frank to express our limitations. 
 
 Mr. Hun : If I may, without making a criticism, make 
 a suggestion which is that these provisions limiting the 
 jurisdiction of the courts making certain decisions final 
 — which are so detrimental to my profession, possibly 
 good for the people of the State — ^are exceedingly dan-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 287 
 
 gerous provisions to put in. The Constitution has pro- 
 vided certain courts which shall decide the disputes be- 
 tween the people of the State of New York, and I doubt 
 whether a body of assessors can be said to be a competent 
 body to determine that question. 
 
 The decision of the Appellate Division in this Depart- 
 ment in the State Franchise Tax, which was made sub- 
 sequent to the introduction of this biU — of course the bill 
 wasn't prepared with any reference to the objections 
 that were there presented in that decision — has decided 
 that the bill as it is now drawn is unconstitutional, I 
 think, clearly. The home rule feature of the Constitu- 
 tion provides that all city, town, and village officers 
 whose election or appointment is not provided for by this 
 constitution shall be elected by the electors of such cities, 
 towns, or villages or some division thereof, or appointed 
 by such authority thereof as the Legislature shall desig- 
 nate for that purpose. Now you have appointed a Board 
 of State Assessors who are to pass upon certain questions 
 in relation to this tax, and although we unfortunately 
 differ on that subject, I still think that the State Board is 
 the assessing board in this case; they usurp the functions 
 which have previously been exercised by the local as- 
 sessors. 
 
 Senator Allds : The mortgage itself is theoretically as- 
 sessed at its full value. The assessment is placedthere by the 
 State Board of Assessors; the new mortgage is assessed at 
 its full value, isn't it, by this bill? Do they perform any 
 function with reference to the assessment? Isn't it after 
 the face of the mortgage has been assessed, at a rate pre- 
 scribed by the statute, they are then called upon to exer- 
 cise certain ministerial duties with reference todetermining 
 the proportion between counties and things of that 
 sort, and the only time that they perform anything which 
 could be, by any means, said to be an assessment, is the 
 proposition of this bill seeking only to reach real estate, 
 that where they determine what proportion of a mortgage 
 is represented by personal property and what by real
 
 288 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 estate in the case of a mortgage which covers both real 
 and personal. Now isn't that the only time in this bill 
 that they reach the proposition of an assessment? Isn't 
 the Legislature doing the assessing by the act and at the 
 full value of the mortgage? 
 
 Mr. Hun: Well, I deny that proposition. I thought 
 you agreed with me in that, that the Legislature hasn't 
 power to say that a piece of property which I own, if you 
 will, in the city of Albany, shall be assessed at a certain 
 rate. It has not the power, for example, to say that a piece 
 of property shall be assessed at the rate which the present 
 owner has paid for it in obtaining title. 
 
 Senator Allds: The present Legislature says that it 
 shall be assessed at its full value, and you have taken that 
 which is the statement of the man in interest at its full 
 value. 
 
 Mr. Hun: Still, he is entitled to be heard, I think, and 
 he isn't heard on that. 
 
 Now, in this case, you have not created a new piece of 
 property which you propose to assess, but you have taken 
 something that has always been assessed, and if I am 
 right in my contention, that your State Assessors are to 
 make an assessment under this bUl, then the bill is clearly 
 unconstitutional within the decision of the Franchise 
 Tax. 
 
 If the Legislature itself had the right, they could prob- 
 ably delegate it to somebody else, but the Constitution 
 provides that certain things shall be done by certain offi- 
 cers and that those certain officers shall be local officers. 
 The only question is whether the assessing officer is the State 
 Board of Tax Commissioners or whether he is the county 
 clerk. I am not so sure that if you make the county clerk 
 the man but you have escaped the consequences, and that 
 is your view of the situation. 
 
 If there is any reasonable question in regard to the con- 
 stitutionality of this tax, if this matter is to go before the 
 court as the Franchise Tax was and prove a failure, is it 
 a wise thing for the Legislature to pass it; is it good pol-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 289 
 
 itics; is it good morals, is it good for the interests of the 
 State? I don't beHeve it is. 
 
 ADDRESS or CHARLES STONE, OF THE ONONDAGA SAVINGS 
 BANK, SYRACUSE 
 
 I have heard it said sometimes that, whatever was to be 
 said against this bill, it must be fairly admitted that it 
 presented a better system than that now prevailing, that 
 it is an improvement, or offers an improvement, upon 
 the system of taxation of personal property in this State, 
 but the proper improvement in the direction of taxing 
 personal property in the State of New York at this time 
 would be an act exempting all mortgages from taxation. 
 
 You will thus do away with the old argument, which has 
 been so often presented and which I think is so forcible, 
 of double taxation of that species of property. 
 
 Practically, mortgages, it may be said, have been taxed 
 irregularly and at irregular amounts, as other personal 
 property has been taxed, I think, as a matter of fact, 
 that mortgages have been very little taxed or assessed 
 in the State, that form of taxation having proven det- 
 rimental and having become so objectionable in the com- 
 munities where assessments are levied by the local au- 
 thorities that it has very largely disappeared. One effect, 
 therefore, of this legislation, it appears to me, which is 
 wrong, is that it wrongly discriminates between like kinds 
 of property in making assessments. If other personal 
 property is to be assessed at all, it should be assessed 
 at two per cent., and if mortgages are properly assessed 
 at all, they should be assessed at two per cent. If mort- 
 gages are properly assessable at all, and are assessable as 
 personal property, they should be assessed at the same 
 rate that other personal property is assessed at. 
 
 If the revenues derived from the assessments of other 
 kinds of personal property belong to the local treasuries, 
 then the revenues to be derived from the assessment of 
 mortgages belong to the local treasuries and should not 
 be diverted or any part of it to the State Treasury.
 
 29© HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 So that I think I will state as my first objection to this 
 bill of a general character that it improperly and mijustly 
 discriminates between the kinds of personal property and 
 the mode of taxation thereof. 
 
 Another objection that occurs to me in a general way 
 against this bill is that it appears to me to unjustly dis- 
 criminate — an act of the Legislature unjustly discrimi- 
 nating against the people of the State of New York, the 
 citizens of the State. The New Jersey man, or the man of 
 any other State, who is in need of money and has to secure 
 it upon real estate security, may obtain it without the 
 payment of this tax. 
 
 That under the provisions of this bill a man can go 
 across the river from New York City and borrow money 
 in New Jersey and not pay any tax on it, but if the man 
 in New Jersey wishes to come over into New York City 
 and borrow money on real estate there and leave his money 
 here and help out the State of New York, he has got to 
 do it with the added burden of this tax, providing the 
 provisions of this bill can be enforced. 
 
 I am here as a trustee and an officer of the Savings Banlcs 
 of this State, and I want to call your attention, gentlemen, 
 in all seriousness, to the proposition that the time has come, 
 in the State of New York, when the best intelligence and 
 the loftiest patriotism of the members of the Legislature 
 of the State must be directed toward the preservation and 
 upbuilding of those institutions, or you are bound to see, 
 under the conditions and prospect of affairs for the future, 
 an important deterioration in the high quality which they 
 now stand for; and any deterioration in the security and 
 the advisability of the Savings Bank system of this State 
 means a greater disaster, in my opinion, to the weKare 
 of the State, permanently considered, than would a like 
 disaster to any other class of monied or industrial insti- 
 tutions which can be named. 
 
 It has been the policy, sir, of this State from the com- 
 mencement, to in every way foster and encourage these 
 institutions, because thereby has been encouraged the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 291 
 
 thrift of the mechanic and of the workingman who is able 
 to lay up a few dollars every year for surplus. So far 
 as I am aware, until within very recent years, no Legisla- 
 ture has seen fit to impose a tax upon the thrift repre- 
 sented by these Savings Banks in any form other than 
 a tax upon such real estate as they should own, until the 
 tax upon surplus, the law which was passed a few years 
 ago. 
 
 If this idea that it is a wise and sound and conservative 
 policy to raise the revenues for the expenses of the govern- 
 ment of the State of New York by in some way getting 
 the money from the taxpayer without his knowledge, or, 
 as it is more euphoneously expressed, by indirect tax- 
 ation, is correct, that does not justify striking at this mass 
 of wages invested in mortgages, and discriminating against 
 that in favor of other property which is allowed to go free. 
 
 With the limited range of investments which Savings 
 Banks can now make or which they have been able to 
 make within the last decade or more within this State, 
 it has been a close struggle with Savings Banks to be able 
 to maintain anything like a safe margin of security be- 
 tween their liabilities and their resources, and such a 
 margin and a larger margin than can be found in any 
 Savings Bank in this State ought to be encouraged; it 
 ought to be built up. The depositor should be encouraged 
 and guaranteed, so far as the legislation of the State may 
 guarantee, of the absolute security of the funds which he 
 shall place in a Savings Bank investment. A Savings 
 Bank deposit should be as carefully guarded as a Govern- 
 ment bond. 
 
 Now, with this limited line of investment and with the 
 market value of money as it has gone along in recent years, 
 the margin which the Savings Banks have been able to 
 accumulate over and above what they have had to pay 
 out has been decreasing all the time. It is a singular 
 thing that, since 1893, in the last decade, in this State 
 which has been growing in every direction so much, and 
 where property and wealth have accumulated so much.
 
 292 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 it is a singular thing that there are only two more Savings 
 Banks now in existence in the State of New York than 
 there were in 1893. It is a striking circumstance, gen- 
 tlemen, that a new Savings Bank could not start now and 
 do business. 
 
 Since I came here, I was handed some figures by a 
 Savings Bank in the western part of the State, which I 
 think pretty fairly tjpify the general course of this busi- 
 ness, and the effect which the proposed legislation will 
 have upon Savings Banks; and I beg your permission to 
 call your attention to them. They are not long. 
 
 In the first place, I would like to call your attention 
 generally to this fact: there is one billion and seventy- 
 seven millions, in round numbers, of money on deposit in 
 the Savings Banks of the State of New York in the aggre- 
 gate, of which, in round numbers, four hundred and sixty 
 millions is in real estate mortgages, not including railroad 
 mortgages. The surplus of all the banks in the State 
 January i, 1902, was one hundred and seventeen mil- 
 lions, seven hundred and fifty-four doUars; the aggregate 
 surplus of all these Savings Banks in the State, January i, 
 1903, was one hundred and thirteen millions, two hundred 
 and twenty-six thousand dollars; a diminution of surplus 
 for the year 1902 of three millions, four hundred and sixty- 
 eight thousand dollars. 
 
 Now if this bill were to be enacted and become a law, 
 based upon these figures the four mills tax on the mort- 
 gage held by the Savings Banks, diminished by the sur- 
 plus tax which they are now paying — I am assuming that 
 the Legislature would hardly leave that burden upon the 
 Savings Banks while adding this one; so I have allowed 
 for that as though that law were repealed — that four 
 mills tax, deducting that surplus tax, would amount to 
 one million, eight hundred and forty thousand dollars, 
 giving a prospect of a decrease of the surplus in the next 
 year of five millions, three hundred and odd thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Now you take this particular Savings Bank — this is a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 293 
 
 different set of figures — I'd like to show you a little con- 
 cerning the operations of one of the most prosperous Sav- 
 ings Banks which I think we have outside of the City of 
 New York of which I know less. The average income 
 from all investments of this particular Savings Bank in 
 the last year was three and nine tenths per cent., ninety- 
 one one hundredths. The interest paid on deposit, three 
 and one half per cent, deducted, leaves a margin for ex- 
 penses, based on assets of thirty-two-hundredths of one 
 per cent., which will also furnish whatever surplus that 
 Savings Bank may be able to lay aside for the further 
 security of its depositors. 
 
 Let me call your attention to another thing, with respect 
 to the operation of the conditions during the last ten years 
 upon Savings Banks in this State. There has been a 
 diminution in the percentage of surplus held by the 
 Savings Banks against liabilities during the last ten years 
 of three and six tenths per cent, upon the average, taking 
 all the Savings Banks together. That is to say, in 1893, 
 whereas the average surplus held by the Savings Banks of 
 the State was fourteen and one tenth per cent., it fell to 
 ten and five tenths per cent, in the year ending January 
 I, 1903. I have caused to be taken samples of half a 
 dozen different banks scattered about different parts of 
 the State, Savings Banks of different sizes and conditions, 
 so as to show you how they are generally running. 
 
 The fiirst one I find had a surplus in 1893 of eighteen 
 and seven tenths per cent.; now of only eleven and three 
 tenths; another one of fourteen and eight tenths, now of 
 nine and four tenths; another one of fourteen and five 
 tenths, now of nine and four tenths; another one ten years 
 ago of thirteen and one half per cent., surplus now seven 
 and seven tenths per cent. ; another one ten years ago of 
 eleven and two tenths, now of eight and seven tenths; 
 another one ten years ago of nine and seven tenths, now 
 seven and five tenths; another one ten years ago of eleven 
 and one tenth, now seven and three tenths. 
 
 I cite these figures, gentlemen, principally to call your
 
 294 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 attention to the fact that Savings Banks have not to-day, 
 under existing conditions, a sutiicient working margi^i to 
 secure their safety and permanence for the future "with 
 any such certainty as has prevailed in the past ; and to ask 
 you whether this is a proper time for the Legislature to 
 add any new burdens to these institutions. If this tax of 
 four mills is imposed, no matter what your theory may be, 
 whether ultimately the load falls upon the borrower or 
 not, if this tax is imposed, somebody will have to pay it, 
 and either the depositor will take a smaller dividend — it 
 is now only three and one half per cent. — either the deposi- 
 tor will take a smaller dividend on his deposit, or the 
 borrower will pay a higher rate upon his loan. There is 
 no escape from one of these conclusions. If the depositor 
 bears the burden, then upon some two hundred to two 
 hundred and fifty thousand people in this State, who, 
 upon the average, have surplus earnings of only four hun- 
 dred and seventy dollars each, you have made an assured 
 certain requirement of the payment of the tax. If the bor- 
 rowers take it, while the number will be smaller, yet they 
 are very numerous, and the rate of interest which they have 
 been paying upon their mortgages will "have to be increased 
 correspondingly. There is no other fund out of which the 
 money can be paid. 
 
 And without taking your time any further, I desire to 
 appeal once more earnestly for the reestablishment of the 
 traditional policy of this State which has put the Savings 
 Banks of this State upon a higher plane than they stand 
 in any other State in the country; diminish nothing of the 
 safeguards to the money of depositors; simply give oppor- 
 tunity within a limited market range in which these 
 institutions can operate so that investments of the deposi- 
 tors' money can be made in sound securities with a margin 
 of safety and so as to yield them a reasonable return for 
 their investment. 
 
 The Savings Banks are doing a legitimate business 
 within the law; their trustees are ser^dng without compen- 
 sation and exercising their best judgment, but some of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 295 
 
 their investments are depreciating and they must have a 
 margin, otherwise known as surplus, to guarantee the 
 depositor safely the return of his money; and this act will 
 place the burden upon the bank which will be freed of at 
 least one half of all the money they earn for surplus ex- 
 penses and operating expenses of the building together 
 in the course of the year. 
 
 Member of the Assembly Committee: You suggest 
 that the proper thing would be to exempt all mortgages 
 from taxation, and would you exempt all personal prop- 
 erty from taxation? 
 
 Mr. Stone: You have asked me a fair question. Of 
 course it is a little dangerous sometimes for a man to make 
 a bold statement, when he hasn't the time to give his 
 reasons for it throughout, but I am inclined to answer 
 your question in this way: Out of all the taxes — I mean 
 taxes that are levied directly upon property and collected 
 in the general way, not having reference to special fran- 
 chise tax or collateral inheritance, or any of those — out of 
 all the taxes that are actually collected in the State of 
 New York not three per cent, are collected of personal 
 property to-day. Now if you do away with the other 
 ninety-seven, and collect the whole hundred by a direct, 
 honest tax, fairly imposed, upon the real estate in this 
 State, I believe in a short time everything would be so 
 adjusted that the people would be better satisfied. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. RHOADES 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades said : I appear here representing 
 somewhat varied interests. As President of the Green- 
 wich Savings Bank, as director of the United States Trust 
 Company, and the Lawyers Title Insurance Company, 
 and as trustee of several large estates, I directly and in- 
 directly represent about seventy-five millions of dollars 
 invested in real estate mortgage loans. Therefore I ap- 
 proach the subject in question at least with years of ex- 
 perience in this particular class of investment. 
 
 I do not propose to take the time of this Committee
 
 296 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 in going over the details of this bill. They have been 
 gone over repeatedly before you by men better able to 
 analyze the bill than myself. I do not propose to discuss 
 the question as to whether the bill is constitutional in all 
 of its parts ; but I propose to ask and to answer the follow- 
 ing question to the best of my ability: " What will be the 
 first effect of the passage of this bill upon those holding 
 real estate mortgages and those seeking to obtain loans 
 upon mortgage secured by real estate? " 
 
 The volume of real estate loans is very large. I believe 
 the statistics show that the average value per acre of land 
 in the State of New York is $25, and that the average 
 amount borrowed per acre upon the land within the State 
 is $12 per acre; therefore the influence of the passage of 
 any bill affecting real estate loans would be felt from one 
 end of the State to the other by the corporation, the Sav- 
 ings Bank, the trust company, the title company, the 
 trustee, the individual, the manufacturing establishment, 
 and the farmer; and each and every interest loaning money 
 upon this class of property, and conscious that such a bill 
 as the one in question has been created into law, will at 
 once ask himself what he is going to do about it, and what 
 demands will he make upon the borrower to protect him- 
 self? So far as my own bank is concerned, our first' act 
 would be to send a notice to every mortgagor having a 
 loan with us to the effect that this bill had become a law, 
 and that arrangements must be made at once to pay the 
 tax accruing on the first day of July, and that the rate of 
 interest from July onward would be increased one half of 
 one per cent, per annum; and if arrangements cannot be 
 made satisfactorily between the bank and the borrower, 
 payment of the mortgage must be made. 
 
 There is an unwritten law as old as the ages which says 
 that the lender of money is entitled to and will exact 
 such terms in the way of interest upon moneys loaned as 
 are satisfactory to him, and, if such terms cannot be ob- 
 tained, he is entitled to and reserves the right not to loan 
 his money. Therefore if the State is to call upon him to
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 297 
 
 pay a tax on the mortgages held by him, and these loans 
 have been made on the basis of a rate of interest satis- 
 factory to him at the present time, you may be sure that 
 these loans will not be continued unless the borrower of 
 the money makes a satisfactory adjustment with the 
 lender of the amount for the amount of tax to be paid. 
 Now what the officers of the bank I represent will do, so 
 will the officers of all the large corporations, including 
 the trust companies and others, and so to a very large ex- 
 tent will the trustee and the individual lender of moneys 
 do. Therefore it may be taken for granted that the bor- 
 rowers of moneys secured by real estate throughout this 
 entire State will be notified of these changed conditions 
 and of the necessity for making new terms with the lenders 
 of money. The effect of such a notice, from its very 
 nature, must be to create excitement and a great deal of 
 distress throughout the State. Now what would the 
 Savings Banks located in the interior of the State, having 
 loans upon farming property, do where their loans were 
 running at the present time at six per cent, and where it 
 would be illegal to force an additional rate equal to cover 
 the amount of the proposed tax? Owing to the reduction 
 in the value of farm property in recent years, the margin 
 between the loan and the equity has in very many cases 
 become very close. The rate for money is always gov- 
 erned by the risk that is run, and if an individual or a 
 corporation is loaning on property from eighty to ninety 
 per cent, of its real market value, he expects to get a 
 higher rate than he would exact were the margin fifty to 
 sixty per cent. Therefore, in the case of all such loans as 
 these, what other course is it possible for the officers of a 
 bank to pursue than to bring pressure to bear upon the 
 borrower to force a reduction in the amount loaned upon 
 the property; and in this way demands would be made to 
 the extent of millions of dollars for payment on account of 
 loans, and as it is always difficult to secure large loans upon 
 farm property, the result would be that such demands 
 could not be met, and numerous foreclosures would ensue.
 
 298 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Can such a condition as this exist without creating a very 
 serious disturbance to the interests of the great mass of 
 our people who are either obliged to borrow or who find 
 uses for moneys borrowed on their real estate; and will such 
 a condition do otherwise than paralyze the entire building 
 interests of this State? 
 
 Nine tenths of the development in the way of buildings 
 of all kinds and descriptions is done by men who engage 
 in this pursuit as any man engages in business of any kind, 
 and, like every merchant, they are required to use their 
 credit and to obtain loans upon their property in order to 
 carry on the development. What is the condition of these 
 men if they cannot obtain their loans, or if the market for 
 such loans is seriously disturbed or narrowed? Does 
 it mean anything else for these men but ruin, and am I 
 extravagant in my assertion when I say that such condi- 
 tion would ensue at once as to make a financial revulsion in 
 real estate which would ruin thousands and paralyze 
 real estate operations for years to come? Therefore I 
 repeat what I have practically already said, that as it is 
 with the Savings Banks I represent, just so it is with the 
 corporation investing in mortgage loans; just so with the 
 individual. Is the trustee of an estate going to have this 
 annoyance every year of attending to this tax, with all the 
 penalties which ensue in case it is not paid, and all the 
 trouble which will arise in case of neglect or through for- 
 getfulness? Is he going to take the trouble to do this? 
 Why, sir, I am trustee of estates now which would gladly 
 put five millions of dollars into mortgages to-day if they 
 were exempt from liability to personal taxation ; but I beg 
 to assure you, with all calmness and moderation, that if 
 this law went into force, not one dollar would be invested 
 in a mortgage under conditions that would exist in the 
 event of the passage of this bill. 
 
 Now let us look at it from another standpoint, and that 
 is the position of the individual lenders of small mortgages 
 scattered all over the State. There are thousands of 
 cases where small trusts exist, created by men who in their
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 299 
 
 lifetime made a little money, and where these moneys are 
 in the hands of some old friend to whom has been en- 
 trusted the savings of a man's Hfetime with instructions 
 to take care of his widow and children; and so he has taken 
 the trusteeship of the Httle property. He has invested 
 some of it in bond and mortgage; he has bought a few rail- 
 road bonds, and the dragnet of the tax collector has not 
 yet scooped him in and squeezed out from the income of 
 those helpless people one half of all they are entitled to. 
 All the mortgages of this State have to be Usted. The 
 name of every individual and of every trustee is put down 
 upon such lists. Now what is the duty of the tax col- 
 lector? Can he do otherwise than take advantage of just 
 such a list as this? And if he finds out there is a man 
 here or there who has got one or more of these mort- 
 gages, is it not his duty to put him down on the list of 
 personal taxation? Now what does the individual or the 
 trustee do under such circumstances? What would you 
 or I do under such circumstances? Are we going to 
 assume the risk of being taxed either upon our own 
 property or upon the property that we are guarding in 
 trust for our friend? Well, there is but one remedy. The 
 mortgage must be called in, and the mortgage will be 
 called in. And so, sir, all over the State, the result of the 
 passage of this bill would be to create universal distress 
 among the very class of borrowers who are the least able 
 to stand the strain. Why, to-day, in the City of New York, 
 men are walking the soles off their shoes trying to get 
 mortgages which it is impossible to obtain. They apply 
 to the life insurance companies: "We are not loaning." 
 They apply to the Savings Banks: "We are not loaning." 
 They apply to the individual: "We are not loaning." 
 And why? Simply because this bill is pending here in the 
 Legislature of the State of New York. I tell you, sir, 
 that the Legislature in this regard has a serious matter 
 upon its hands — a matter which touches the very heart 
 of the prosperity of the citizens themselves. I tell you 
 again, Mr. Chairman, that in my honest judgment no
 
 300 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 bill of late years has been introduced in this Legislature 
 so fraught with peril to the community at large as this 
 Mortgage Tax Bill which is now before you for your 
 consideration. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. W. BARLOW DUNLAP 
 
 Mr. W. Barlow Dunlap, of the Savings Bank of Am- 
 sterdam, said in part: 
 
 There are hundreds of people up in our town — it is a 
 manufacturing town who never saved a dollar until the Am- 
 sterdam Savings Bank was started. There are hundreds 
 of them to-day who own their own home or who own at 
 least half of their home, and the Savings Bank owns the 
 other half, who began when the bank was started fifteen 
 years ago by putting in five dollars or three dollars a week 
 and got seven or eight hundred dollars, borrowed a little 
 money of the Savings Bank, borrowed a little money per- 
 haps of somebody else, and built them a house. They put 
 their money in until the end of the year, when their pay- 
 ment comes around, and they have one or two hundred 
 dollars; they get a little credit for their interest in the 
 meantime. You are hitting those people both ways, and 
 they feel it, and if the bill becomes a law they wiU resent 
 it. There is nothing that hits a man so quickly as to hit 
 him in his pocketbook, and you take the struggling labor- 
 ing man with a little piece of property of his own that he 
 is trying to pay for and let a tax of half a per cent, or 
 four tenths of a per cent, be added and he will remember 
 it, he will remember it particularly because he has got 
 to pay just before election time. 
 
 The people don't want this bill; they are opposed to it; 
 and they don't believe the Legislators ought to force it 
 on them. Speaking strictly for the Savings Banks, we 
 don't want the bill for the reason that I have stated. It 
 will take one half of our annual surplus to pay this amount 
 if we take it out, and you gentlemen all know that you 
 can't run a Savings Bank without increasing your surplus
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 301 
 
 inasmuch as your depositors are constantly increasing. 
 Savings Banks are not there for the purpose of making 
 money, as one of the gentlemen said, but to furnish a safe 
 place for the earnings of the poor. The question was 
 brought up, how many deposits have you of three thou- 
 sand dollars? In our bank we have sixteen. 
 
 We have eight thousand, five hundred and sixteen 
 depositors, and we have sixteen who have three thou- 
 sand. We have had opportunities; we have had letters 
 that New York people have written us who wanted to 
 make deposits of three thousand dollars there and get 
 three and one half per cent, interest. Occasionally some- 
 body will work that scheme to avoid taxation. We 
 find that is so in some sections where they do follow the 
 mortgage tax very closely. Now they don't impose it 
 fairly at all. In some sections they go to the County 
 Clerk's office and tax a man. With a tax of two per cent. 
 on the mortgage, he might better give it to the bank at 
 three and a half per cent. Other sections do not tax at 
 all, don't pretend to. For that reason I say occasionally 
 we get an inquiry from some section of the State where 
 they want to loan us some money. The other day we got 
 an application from Syracuse. I don't know whether 
 they tax it out there or not. We decline those things, 
 because our bank was started simply, solely, and wholly 
 for the benefit of the working people of the town, and we 
 have continued it on that basis. 
 
 Why, the entire expense of running that bank with 
 two and a half million dollars, including our banking build- 
 ing and all, is less than fifty-four hundred dollars a year, 
 and yet, with all that, with the economy of management 
 and all, we were only able to add, and only did add, in 
 the last six months four thousand dollars to our sur- 
 plus. Now with one million dollars' worth of bonds, it would 
 take our four thousand dollars. We should simply have 
 what we had gained the other six months, which would 
 probably be four or five thousand dollars more. That 
 is outside the question of the surplus tax that we have
 
 302 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 got to pay besides. I assume, as everybody has, that 
 that would be repealed; I don't imagine for a moment 
 you would try to give us both of them at once. 
 
 As I said before, I don't want to take your time, but, 
 gentlemen, as I gather it from the newspapers and from 
 the people that I have talked with in the different counties 
 around that section, I have yet to find a man seriously 
 for it. They think it is a mistake; they think it is wrong 
 in principle, and they think that the Legislature is making 
 a great mistake in putting the bill through; that we might 
 better, if necessary, pay a direct State tax, a small amount 
 as we did last year. Why, it don't amount to anything. 
 Now, let me give you a little illustration. Mr. Rhoades 
 spoke of little trust estates, I happen to be a trustee of 
 a little estate there ; a man died with just three thousand 
 dollars; he has got a widow seventy years old. Every 
 dollar that she has is three thousand dollars. I took 
 the money and I succeeded in loaning it at six per cent. 
 She receives one hundred and eighty dollars a year. In 
 order to avoid the tax I had the mortgage taken in the 
 name of a man in Fulton County and I had him assign the 
 mortgage to me as trustee and I hold it. Now if that 
 poor woman had to pay two per cent, on her mortgage 
 she would get one hundred and twenty dollars to live on. 
 All she has under heaven is a hundred and eighty dollars. 
 I can escape the tax now; with this bill I couldn't. Now 
 what would she do? 
 
 Senator Green: Now I want to get at this point in all 
 sincerity; this bill proposes to levy a tax of four mills. 
 Now as long as we have got this situation of local tax- 
 ation where mortgages are caught, as I find they are, about 
 the State all over, isn't it really better for the ones who do 
 get caught to-day to pay four mills and be exempt from 
 all other kinds of taxation than to pay the present local 
 taxation, or be in danger of paying any time the assessors 
 put it on the roll? 
 
 Mr. Dunlap: Undoubtedly, but that doesn't correct 
 the great, glaring wrong that exists to-day; you are only
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 303 
 
 making it worse. It is better, of course, for those people 
 under this bill than those who have to pay two per cent. 
 Of course four mills is better than two per cent. 
 
 Senator Green : There are so many people who use that 
 situation and are dodging taxation. 
 
 Mr. Dunlap: That is the point exactly. Now there 
 isn't anybody up there except some poor, simple-minded 
 person who don't know any better who gets caught with 
 their taxes, not a one. Now the way they do — I am a 
 lawyer — the way they do, they make a mortgage to some- 
 body who is absolutely irresponsible, take their chances, 
 honest fellows, perhaps, they give him a mortgage, he 
 assigns it to the party; they go up there and they find it 
 on the record that there is a mortgage assessed to John 
 Smith. They put him on the tax roll and they send him 
 notice, and John goes down there and he goes up and 
 swears: "I haven't any property; I haven't a cent"; he 
 swears to it, and it is true; he hasn't, he has assigned it to 
 the other fellow. Now what are you going to do about 
 it? That fellow escapes. It is only those who don't go 
 and consult some really good, sharp lawyer and find out 
 how to do it who get caught. 
 
 Mr. Albert H. Harris, of Rochester, representing the 
 Rochester Savings Bank, said: 
 
 The banks in Rochester, the Savings Banks, have 
 90,000 depositors and over 7,000 mortgages. The differ- 
 ence between the income of those banks on their invest- 
 ments and the amount which they pay to their depositors 
 is just about one half of one per cent. Out of that has to 
 come the expense of running the banks. If you make this 
 assessment, if this law becomes effective, you can readily 
 see that, as these gentlemen who have preceded me have 
 said, one of two things must follow: either the rate of 
 interest on mortgages must be increased, or the rate of 
 interest paid to depositors must be decreased.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Eleventh Annual Convention — Amendment of the Constitution 
 Concerning the Composition of the Executive Committee — 
 The Taxation of Savings Banks, by Wm. H. S. Wood, of the 
 Bowery Savings Bank, New York — Letter from John Harsen 
 Rhodes — Vote of Thanks Tendered Him for His Untiring Ef- 
 forts as a Member of the Association — Addresses by Hon. 
 Stewart L. Woodford, Charles A. Conant, Wm. H. S. Wood — 
 Letter from Charles A. Miller, of Utica, Suggesting Further 
 Perfecting of the Organization. 
 
 IN OPENING the Eleventh Annual Convention 
 of the Savings Banks Association which was held on 
 May 12, 1904, President Charles A. Schieren spoke 
 as follows: 
 
 I esteem it an honor and pleasure to bid you wel- 
 come to this, the eleventh anniversary of our Asso- 
 ciation, and beg to present to you a brief review 
 of the history of the past eventful year and draw 
 your attention to some important matters which trans- 
 pired. 
 
 This year's business of the Savings Banks of the State 
 has been somewhat peculiar; while the report shows a 
 growth over last year, still it falls short of the year 1902. 
 According to the annual report of Superintendent Kilbum 
 the total amount deposited was larger by $9,270,094,000 
 than ever before in any one year. But the withdrawals 
 were larger than the previous year, caused largely by the 
 state of the financial market during the greater part of 
 1903, as well as the industrial and labor conditions gen- 
 erally. 
 
 304
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 305 
 
 Superintendent Kilburn's report for the year 1903 
 shows as follows: 
 
 Total resources 
 Amount due depositors . 
 Surplus (market value) 
 Surplus (par value) . 
 Number of open accounts 
 Deposited during year . 
 (not including interest) 
 
 Increase over igo2 
 
 $1,238,800,468 $47,469,895 
 
 1,131,281,943 53,898,200 
 
 107,049,076 6,327,699 
 
 77,595,753 4,865,872 
 2,365,922 90,539 
 
 305,934,718 9,270,094 
 
 Excess over 1902 
 
 Withdrawals during year . . . 288,864,705 22,314,593 
 
 On the whole the report is highly gratifying, especially 
 the large increase of depositors by over 90,000 for the year 
 1903. It is the best evidence that the Savings Banks 
 enjoy the confidence of the thrifty people of the State. 
 There seems to be a disposition on the part of some trust 
 companies, state banks, department stores, and other 
 institutions to open savings departments in connection 
 with their regular business, offering in several instances 
 higher rates of interest as an inducement for the people 
 to deposit their savings with them. The new departure 
 was largely encouraged by the introduction of the pat- 
 ented small steel savings banks or boxes to be distributed 
 through families for children to save their pennies and 
 bring the boxes when filled to the bank. The experiment 
 has not proved successful, and several institutions have 
 abandoned the box system. The Savings Banks did not 
 seem to favor the idea and considered it rather a novelty 
 soon to wear off, bemg fostered principally by the pat- 
 entee and manufacturer of these steel boxes; therefore 
 the Savings Banks declined to adopt them. Some financial 
 institutions still endeavor to make their savings depart- 
 ment a paying investment, but up to date none of them 
 has received much encouragement from the public at 
 large. The people seem to understand and appreciate 
 the great value of our Savings Banks and have absolute 
 confidence in their security and are not so easily led away, 
 but are slow to deposit their savings with other than the
 
 3o6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 regular Savings Banks, which are under the control and 
 supervision of our Superintendent of the State Banking 
 Department. 
 
 It is now universally recognized that the only sound 
 and safe policy for Savings Banks is that which has been 
 established in our State, namely, keeping Savings Banks 
 apart from general banking institutions and having them 
 strictly comply with the law prescribing the use of the 
 money deposited. It is only a question of time when 
 financial institutions will ascertain that their savings 
 department is not a paying investment but rather a 
 detriment to their general banking. The Superintendent 
 also draws special attention to our exceedingly important 
 recommendation in reference to the extension of railway 
 bonds for proper investments for Savings Banks and cau- 
 tions us to proceed slowly. This is a most opportune 
 and timely warning, therefore I quote the following par- 
 agraph of Mr. Kilburn's report. He says: 
 
 "It cannot be urged too strongly that the quality of 
 investments legaUzed to the Savings Banks be main- 
 tained at the highest practicable standard. Seven years 
 ago these institutions counted among their bonds $iii,- 
 000,000 of United States consols. To-day they hold of 
 this particular class of securities less than $19,000,000, 
 and in the same period they have increased their owner- 
 ship of railway bonds from nothing to $177,000,000. So 
 far as the change has gone, I am disposed to regard it as a 
 wise one. The railway bonds that the law authorizes 
 are in the main the best that could have been chosen from 
 this class of securities, and are in all probability safe. 
 But scrupulous care should be had not to extend the list 
 unduly, nor to permit to be added to it any bonds of an 
 inferior character. The underlying security for a Savings 
 Bank bond ought to be not only ample and absolute, but 
 the character of the corporation that floats it should be 
 of the highest. The mere fact that a corporation wants a 
 market for its securities should have no weight what- 
 ever in the matter."
 
 WILLIAM BAYARD VAN RENSSELAER 
 
 PRESmENT, I9O4-07
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 307 
 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 Mr. W. B. Van Rensselaer, President of the Albany Sav- 
 ings Bank, read the report of the Executive Committee: 
 
 The Banking Law of this State provides that : * * Not more 
 than twenty-five per centum of the deposits of any bank 
 shall be loaned or invested in raUroad bonds." The 
 questions were whether or not the deposits of a bank 
 included the surplus, and in regard to the valuation to be 
 put on railroad bonds owned by Savings Banks, i. e., 
 should these bonds be valued at their cost price, at their 
 market price, or at par? In order that the banks might 
 act uniformly in their annual reports to be filed with the 
 State Comptroller by August ist, the matter was re- 
 ferred to our counsel for his opinion, and the Secretary 
 was instructed to send such opinion to all the members of 
 the Association. Mr. Wickersham, our counsel, subse- 
 quently advised that a Savings Bank might invest twenty- 
 five per centum of the deposits and surplus in railroad 
 bonds at their cost value. Mr. Kilburn, the Superintend- 
 ent of Banks, later ruled that a Savings Bank should only 
 invest twenty-five per centum of its deposits in railroad 
 bonds at their cost price. The counsels of some of our 
 banks think the market value of the bonds should be 
 taken. As this matter is of importance to many of the 
 Savings Banks, it would seem wise for our counsel to ar- 
 range with the Attorney- General for a test case for the 
 courts to decide.^ 
 
 The Court of Appeals has recently decided the test case 
 in regard to the way Savings Banks should make up their 
 surplus in their report to the Comptroller for the purpose 
 of taxation. The court decides that all securities whose 
 market value is above par should be placed at par, and 
 that all securities whose market value is less than par 
 should be placed at their market value; that banking 
 buildings and other real estate owned by the banks should 
 
 1 See New Banking Law, chap. 2 Consol. Laws, amended by chap. 369 Laws of 
 1914 (subd. 7 i), article 6, section 239.
 
 3o8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 be assessed at their present market value, not at their 
 cost value ; that the accrued interest not due should be in- 
 cluded in the assets, and that the interest due depositors 
 not yet paid should be included in the liabilities. 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held Jan- 
 uary 29, 1904, the proposed issue of $163,000,000 bonds 
 for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company 
 was discussed, and it was shown that under the terms of 
 the present law these bonds would probably be legal in- 
 vestments for Savings Banks. It was resolved that an 
 attempt be made to get the Legislature to modify the 
 general SavingsBank Act so as toexclude this unusual issue 
 of bonds of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway 
 Company. A bill was prepared to amend paragraph 
 ''C," Subdivision "6," Section "116," of the Laws of 
 1892, entitled "An Act Relating to Banking Corpora- 
 tions," limiting the investments for Savings Banks of the 
 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company to its 
 first mortgage, sLx per cent, bonds, due July, 191 7, and 
 this request was granted, and a hearing was given to the 
 officials of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad 
 Company on the nth day of March, 1904. After listening 
 to the argument on the subject it was resolved that it 
 would be unwise to allow these bonds to be made Savings 
 Bank investments, and at our request a joint hearing 
 of the Committee on Banks in the Senate and Assembly 
 was held on the i6th day of March, and a short time 
 afterward the Senate Committee on Banks reported our 
 bill favorably and it passed the Senate with only three 
 negative votes. The matter, however, was delayed in the 
 Assembly until the last few days of the session, when the 
 Committee on Rules take charge and make up the calendar 
 of all bills that are to be acted upon the Assembly. 
 
 The Executive Committee understands the facts in 
 regard to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway 
 Company to be as follows: The company has a capital 
 stock of $75,000,000, on which dividends are being paid at 
 the rate of four per cent, per annum. Its bonded in-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 309 
 
 debtedness consists of this new issue of $163,000,000, due 
 April, 1934. This issue will eventually retire the outstand- 
 ing issues, except $60,581,000 fours, due July i, 1988, and 
 about $11,000,000 Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern 
 Railway Consolidated fives, due April, 1934. (As the 
 Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Company, 
 has been merged into the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 
 Railway Company, these bonds become the obligation 
 of the latter road.) So that when all the new issue of 
 $163,000,000 is sold, the bonded indebtedness of the 
 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company will 
 be $234,581,000, or more than three times the amount 
 of its capital stock, and these bonds then will be illegal 
 for Savings Bank investment. 
 
 The opinion of our counsel was asked if this condition 
 of affairs would make the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 
 Railway Bonds illegal, and Mr. Wickersham looked up the 
 matter and wrote an opinion to the effect that the statute 
 means that at the time of the investment in any of the 
 bonds of this company the capital stock shaU then equal 
 or exceed one third of the par value of all the bonded in- 
 debtedness of the company outstanding at the moment of 
 such investment. This opinion was handed to Mr. Kil- 
 burn, to see whether the Bank Department would con- 
 sider it in the same way, and in reply Mr. Elilburn writes : 
 
 " I have gone over this opinion very carefully, and while 
 it seems very presumptuous in me to differ with Mr. 
 Wickersham in any legal opinion which he might write, and 
 while in this particular case it would make no difference, 
 I must, nevertheless, dissent from the proposition that the 
 outstanding bonded indebtedness of a railroad company 
 at the time a bank purchases bonds should only be taken 
 into consideration, if indeed this is what Mr. Wickersham 
 means. My opinion is that all the bonds, which may 
 be issued under a mortgage, should be taken into con- 
 sideration in comparison with the bonded indebtedness 
 and the amount of capital stock outstanding." 
 
 In view of these conflicting opinions, it may be wise
 
 3IO HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 to have a test case prepared to submit to the courts for a 
 final settlement of this matter. Under all the circum- 
 stances your Executive Committee would recommend 
 that the Association pass a resolution, that in its judg- 
 ment it would be unwise for any Savings Bank in this 
 State to purchase bonds of this proposed issue of the 
 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company. In 
 this connection the Executive Committee is under great 
 obligations to Senator McEwan, who took charge of the 
 matter in the Senate, and to Assembljonan Agnew, who 
 took charge in the Assembly, and to Assemblyman J. T. 
 Smith, Chairman of the Committee on Banks, for their 
 untiring efforts in assisting your Committee, not only in 
 this measure but in all legislation pertaining to Savings 
 Banks interest. This Committee is also indebted to 
 Bank Superintendent Kilburn, who has cooperated with 
 us all in all legislative matters, and at our request has 
 often appeared before the Committee of the Legislature, 
 advocating our side of the various questions. 
 
 The Executive Committee recommended the adoption 
 of the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That it is the judgment of this Association 
 that it would be unwise for any Savings Bank in this 
 State to purchase bonds of the proposed issue of $163,- 
 000,000 of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway 
 Company. 
 
 SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS AUTHORIZED 
 
 The Legislature has passed an act to amend the Bank- 
 ing Laws for the purpose of authorizing the organization 
 of School Savings Banks in the public schools of this 
 State. 
 
 This bill authorizes the superintendent of public schools 
 to collect from time to time small amounts of savings 
 from pupils, and to deposit the same in some Savings 
 Bank in this State to the credit of the pupils or to 
 his credit in trust for his pupils, furnishing the bank with 
 lists of the names, amounts, signatures, etc., of the pupils
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 311 
 
 from whom he has received the same. It also authorizes 
 the use of the words, "School Savings Banks" or "Sys- 
 tem of School Savings Banks, "in circulars, reports, or other 
 printed matter used in connection with the purposes of 
 this law. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. F. D. KILBURN 
 
 Mr. Frederic D. Kilburn, Superintendent of the Banking 
 Department, in addressing the Convention, said: 
 
 I have always been impressed with the vast importance 
 of the Savings Banks of this State, and I never tire of 
 going over their reports and massing the figures which 
 indicate the vastness of your investments and the enor- 
 mous amount of money which you have under your con- 
 trol. The very statement that you have got over a bill- 
 ion dollars in your banks is sufficient to indicate the 
 enormous influence which the Savings Banks of this State 
 must necessarily exert, and the vast importance of your 
 institutions. 
 
 And then, when you consider that you have got over 
 one billion dollars deposit, about one hundred and 
 seven million dollars on market values of surplus, and 
 over seventy-seven million dollars on par values; that 
 you gained last year in deposits, aside from the interest 
 which you credited, about seventeen million dollars and, 
 including interest credited, about fifty-four million or 
 fifty-five million dollars, these figures, while they are 
 somewhat incomprehensible, show better than anything 
 else, perhaps, the vast growth and influence which the 
 Savings Banks of this State must necessarily exert upon 
 financial conditions in our State. I do not know whether 
 other States have an organization of this kind, but I do 
 know that, since your organization was effected, your 
 influence in the State has proportionately grown, and that 
 a uniform system of conservatism has grown up among 
 the Savings Banks of the State.
 
 312 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 You have been extremely fortunate, gentlemen, in 
 the selection of your Presidents. I can remember when 
 Mr. Rhoades was organizing this institution; with others, 
 I believe that he was the leading spirit at the time, and 
 I remember the good work he did. I do not believe that 
 you, perhaps, fully appreciate whatyou owe to Mr. Rhoades 
 and to other men who took the active initiative in organ- 
 izing this Association. 
 
 He was succeeded by Mr. Mills, who devoted largely 
 his time and labor to his duties as President of this Asso- 
 ciation, and I tell you, gentlemen, it takes more time and 
 sometimes a great deal more patience than you think 
 of to do the work of a President of this Association. 
 
 And then, succeeding him, was Mr . Schieren, and in 
 every one of these three gentlemen who have presided 
 over your deliberations, and been your President, you 
 have been extremely fortunate in your selections. They 
 have shown, each and every one of them, marked unsel- 
 fishness in the discharge of their duties and have watch- 
 fully served the interests of the Savings Banks of this 
 State. 
 
 A great deal has been said in Albany during the past 
 winter, and during the years that your organization has 
 been in existence, about the constant addition of railroad 
 bonds to the list of legal investments for Savings Banks. 
 I tell you, gentlemen, and I wish to sound a note of warn- 
 ing, in my opinion the time has come when a halt should 
 be called. 
 
 It may be that there are other railroad bonds in the 
 country which are just as safe investments as any which 
 are now included in the law, but if this effort to constantly 
 add to the list of these investments is continued, you will 
 not only get some good investments in addition, but you 
 will get some that are undesirable; and, rather than have 
 one undesirable investment of this kind, you had better 
 eliminate two or three that are desirable. 
 
 I know that not sufficient attention is paid to the de- 
 sires of this Association in Albany with reference to these
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 313 
 
 investments, and you may be sure that almost every time a 
 bill is introduced— unless it comes from this Association — 
 it is introduced for some selfish motive, that is to say, 
 some man who has a railroad in his district, and the offi- 
 cers of which he wishes to accommodate, will introduce a 
 bill, and he will do everything he can to get that bill 
 through. 
 
 The fate of that bill, perhaps, depends not only upon 
 his own active, individual efforts but also upon the other 
 ramifications which all legislators must, or at least do, to a 
 greater or less extent, recognize. And so the outcome is, 
 and has been, and will continue to be, the letting in of 
 undesirable securities of this kind for investments by 
 Savings Banks. Why it is done it is unnecessary for me 
 to suggest, because you all know better than I do that 
 there are many classes of financial institutions in this 
 world which should be as conservative as the Savings 
 Banks in the investment of their funds. 
 
 You are acting in a fiduciary capacity. You have no 
 right, from any standpoint, if you can help it, to invest the 
 funds committed to your care in anything about which 
 there is the least question, so far as human ingenuity 
 can detect. 
 
 I do not believe that any bill can pass the Legislature 
 if there is a united opposition to it on the part of this 
 Association, and if you cannot stop it by the ordinary 
 means of persuasion, then I would stop it by a resolution, 
 such as I understand you have passed here to-day. In 
 other words, I would not submit, if by any means I could 
 help it, to a bill being foisted upon the State which will 
 permit the Savings Banks to invest in securities of which 
 this Association does not approve. I was asked by a 
 gentleman who represented you at Albany last winter 
 whether I was in favor of the Rock Island Bill so-called. 
 I said: "Yes, of course I am in favor of the bill. Why 
 do you ask the question?" He said: "It has been re- 
 ported that you did not care much whether the bill passed 
 or not." I said: "I don't know what has been reported.
 
 314 ' HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 I have never failed to improve every opportunity that 
 I have had to announce myself as in favor of that bill," 
 which meant the exclusion of certain bonds issued by the 
 Rock Island road from the legal investments of the Sav- 
 ings Banks of this State. The argument had been closed 
 and ever>'body but the Committee had left. I asked 
 them if a statement of that kind had been made, and they 
 said it had. I asked if it was necessary for me to tell 
 them again that I was in favor of this bill, and they said : 
 " It is not. We know your position very well because you 
 have been here two or three times to tell us that you think 
 the bill ought to pass, and have given your reasons why." 
 
 I do not know just why I was misrepresented upon this 
 occasion unless it was that perhaps they thought my 
 ideas about it would have some influence upon the Com- 
 mittee. So you see, gentlemen, to what desperate ends these 
 men, who are in favor of a bill which will admit certain 
 bonds as legal investments or who oppose a bill of that 
 kind that I have mentioned, will go in order to compass 
 their desires. I do not blame you for doing just what 
 you have done here to-day; on the contrary, I told Mr. 
 Van Rensselaer, or Mr. Rhoades, I would pass just such 
 a resolution as I understand you have passed here to-day. 
 
 Since this matter has come up I have been thinking 
 about what might be best to do next winter in regard to 
 investments of this kind. I believe that a law should be 
 passed in the Legislature which would do this. Make 
 every railroad bond a non-legal investment, or, in other 
 words, that every railroad bond, before it becomes a legal 
 investment, must be approved by this Association, and 
 that approval put in writing and hied in the Banking 
 Department at Albany. And not until that is done shall 
 any railroad bond become a legal investment for the 
 Savings Banks of this State. 
 
 I do not think that that law would be unconstitutional, 
 because I know that some laws have been passed with an 
 analogous condition or provision in them. Your counsel 
 can tell better about the constitutional question concern-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 315 
 
 ing such a law than I can, but it seems to me that such a 
 law will pass. I do not believe that the Legislature of the 
 State will hesitate for a moment to put the power into 
 the hands of the men who are more interested than any 
 body of men in the State can be in conserving the in- 
 terests of its citizens, to say what shall or shall not be- 
 come legal investments for the banks. 
 
 It seems to me that you can pass that bill. Then you 
 will have the control of this subject and will not be troub- 
 led from year to year with any bills seeking to make the 
 securities of every little railroad anywhere in the State, 
 or out of the State, legal investments for the Savings 
 Banks of this State. 
 
 I beUeve, gentlemen, that this is very important, and, if 
 it is constitutional, I would try and pass it. I believe 
 you can do it, and I believe that that will solve the prob- 
 lem and cut the Gordian knot. 
 
 I thank you, gentlemen, for your attention. 
 
 AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 An amendment of the Constitution of the Association 
 was proposed and adopted, as follows: 
 
 "For the purpose of retaining the services of the ex- 
 presidents who, by reason of their past experience, are 
 enabled to do good work for the Association, the Consti- 
 tution be amended in such a way as to retain the ex-presi- 
 dents as members ex-qfficio of the Executive Committee. 
 The by-law reads. Article VI, that the Executive Com- 
 mittee shall consist of nine members of the Association, 
 the President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer 
 being members ex-officio. It is suggested that the Presi- 
 dent, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and all ex-presi- 
 dents be members of the Executive Committee." 
 
 THE TAXATION OF SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. Wm. H. S. Wood, President of the Bowery Savings 
 Bank, New York said: I know at the time that a Fran-
 
 3i6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS EANXS 
 
 chise Tax Bill was before the Legislature at Albany there 
 was a delegation sent there from this Association to op- 
 pose its passage. Perhaps, but for one argument, they 
 might have been successful in their purpose. I was told 
 a fortnight ago, by a president of a large institution, that a 
 leading member of the Assembly in Albany, who had to 
 depend on this gentleman for his advice in Savings Bank 
 matters, had said to him: "Why, this is the only State in 
 the Union that has a Savings Bank law that does not 
 derive a large income from a tax upon its Savings Banks." 
 If I make a statement that is wrong I wish to be corrected. 
 He said: "Why should it be the only State in the Union 
 that does not derive such an income?" 
 
 Is there another State in the Union that so limits the 
 securities for investment by the Savings Banks of this 
 State as does the State of New York? Not one of them. 
 
 Take the New England States. Go down into Maine 
 and begin there and come this way. Every one of the 
 New England States allows transactions that would not 
 be dreamed of for a moment in the State of New York. 
 There you can lend your money, if you please, on a note 
 with an indorsement by a few trustees. You can in 
 Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, under the Massa- 
 chusetts State laws, buy the stock of any bank, National 
 or State, or the stock of any trust company in the State 
 and add it to your securities. You can buy the stock of 
 most of the railroad companies in the State and add them 
 to your securities. 
 
 Give the Savings Banks of the State of New York these 
 opportunities — mark you, we do not want them — give 
 them these opportunities, let the Savings Banks, if you 
 please, of the City of New York, have the power to go down 
 into Wall Street and purchase the stock of the banks there. 
 WTiy, gentlemen, we have the money here in our Savings 
 Banks to buy the stock of every bank in the city; to begin 
 with, the National City Bank and then the First National 
 Bank, the Bank of Commerce, the Corn Exchange, in 
 fact, all we want. We could control them all. Wouldn't
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 317 
 
 we make money? Well, now, wouldn't we? Couldn't 
 we pay a small franchise tax? We wouldn't say a word 
 about it. 
 
 But you know that the franchise tax to any bank that 
 has anything of a surplus is a serious burden. Last July, 
 when the condition of the money market was such that 
 most of us remember how difficult it was to obtain money 
 in Wall Street, it occurred to me that paying $68,000 as a 
 franchise tax and getting nothing back was a dead 
 weight. 
 
 We raised the majority of our real-estate bonds and 
 mortgages from four to four and a half per cent. ; almost 
 every one of the banks of this city was standing behind 
 our back and the rate was raised. 
 
 The newspapers of the State, and the newspapers of 
 the country, do not appear to have the least idea why it is 
 that the Savings Banks of this State are compelling bor- 
 rowers upon mortgages to pay four and a half per cent. 
 
 We have to get that $68,000 somewhere, and we are 
 going to get it. But I venture to say there is not a single 
 Savings Bank in the State of New York that would not 
 prefer to have the law repealed from the statute books of 
 the State and go back to four per cent. We would be 
 delighted to do it. 
 
 I want to offer a resolution at this time which is di- 
 rectly in connection with this matter. It is as follows: 
 
 Whereas, the Legislature of the State of New York 
 did in 1 90 1 enact a law imposing upon the Savings Banks 
 of the State an annual tax, for the privilege of exercising 
 their corporate franchise or carrying on their business in 
 such corporate or organized capacity; and. 
 
 Whereas, the said so-called franchise tax is, in the judg- 
 ment of this Association, an unwise and unjust imposition 
 (wholly unworthy of the great State of New York), not 
 only upon the self-sacrificing men who manage the savings 
 institutions of this State, without the slightest pecuniary 
 advantage to themselves, but also upon a vast number of 
 our citizens, therefore, be it
 
 3i8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Resolved, That the President of this Association be 
 requested to appoint a Committee at an early date to 
 consider the whole subject and to take such action thereon 
 the ensuing year, or, if necessary, annually thereafter, until 
 the State has been relieved from this stain upon its 
 escutcheon, the banks from an unrighteous and unjust 
 tax, and the laboring and deserving poorer classes from 
 an added burden in their struggle for independence. 
 
 The resolution was seconded by Mr. Wm. P. Sturges, 
 President of The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, 
 and carried. 
 
 Mr. William Bayard Van Rensselaer, President of Al- 
 bany Savings Bank, was elected President of the Savings 
 Banks Association for the ensuing year. 
 
 LETTER FROM JOHN HARSEN RHOADES 
 
 The following was received from John Harsen Rhoades, 
 and read by Mr. Schieren: 
 
 Gentlemen : It is a source of regret to me to be unable 
 to be present at your annual meeting. Were it not that 
 I am under orders from my physician to leave the cares 
 of business for a season two or three times each year, I 
 certainly should remain over until after your meeting; 
 but I am practically forced to leave at an earlier date. 
 
 Our recent experience in connection with the bill which 
 was introduced in the Legislature by the Executive Com- 
 mittee limiting the bond issues of the Rock Island Rail- 
 road in which Savings Banks might invest has led me to 
 believe that this whole subject of raUroad-bond investment 
 should be carefully considered by our Association at its 
 annual meeting, and perhaps more thoroughly understood 
 by all than is now the case ; and as I have by your courtesy 
 been in the position of formulating with my associates 
 the various laws relating to raUroad-bond investment, I
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 319 
 
 have thought it well to review briefly the entire subject 
 for your information. 
 
 Time passes and we forget things quickly; but it is now 
 some twenty odd years since a small number of officers 
 of Savings Banks, located mainly in New York and Brook- 
 lyn, interested themselves in an endeavor to extend the 
 scope of Savings Banks investment. We were determined 
 that, if any relief was obtained, it should be obtained 
 honestly, and that not a dollar should be spent in the 
 lobby or in any way to secure the legislation desired. 
 Such not only was the course of the gentlemen then asso- 
 ciated together, but such has been the course of your Ex- 
 ecutive Committee ever since the foundation of this 
 Association. The result has been that no legislation in 
 which investments of any kind were involved has ever 
 been created directly through the action of Savings Bank 
 officers. The experience of the past has shown conclu- 
 sively that such legislation is obtained only by influence 
 or by methods which are reprehensible. 
 
 Now as to the need of an extension in the scope of 
 investments. In those early days it was felt by all of us 
 who were engaged in the work which I have outlined, that 
 the Government debt was not only decreasing but that 
 such decrease would go on steadily until these bonds of 
 the Government were no longer available for Savings 
 Bank investment. The volume of deposits was rapidly 
 increasing; the debts of the states were decreasing, and 
 there was nothing available in any volume in the list of 
 investments save bonds and mortgages and municipal 
 securities in the State. As the deposits increased and the 
 field narrowed, competition drove the prices of all such 
 securities as we could buy to an abnormally high figure, 
 returning an annual interest rate much lower than the 
 ordinary individual could obtain, and working what we 
 deemed to be a gross injustice to the laboring people of 
 the country whose interests we were endeavoring to serve. 
 Finally we did succeed (by obtaining the assistance of 
 banking houses who wished to have included certain
 
 320 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 State bonds) in securing the privilege of investing in the 
 bonds of certain municipalities to be named ; and this was 
 of some help, but not enough. In the meantime, the 
 Savings Banks Association had been formed, because it 
 was believed that we must work as a unit for the protection 
 of Savings Bank interests, or the Savings Bank system 
 would eventually be broken down and its purpose frus- 
 trated through the influence of those having selfish ends 
 to serve. 
 
 The need for further legislation was evident, and the 
 great problem to solve was what class of securities we 
 should advocate as being a safe investment for Savings 
 Bank funds. We naturally turned to the question of 
 railroad bonds. It seemed to us that the underlying 
 bonds of the best railroads in the country formed a secur- 
 ity of the first class in every way. They give a wide 
 market both for purchase and sale. They were well 
 known not only in the financial markets of this country, 
 but in the financial markets of the countries of Europe, 
 and, in times of stress or emergency or panic, they possessed 
 a quality which would enable us either to sell or borrow 
 money not only in our own markets but in the markets of 
 Europe. In fact, they would take the place of United 
 States Government bonds, which we practically could no 
 longer buy. 
 
 The next question arose as to how we should draw the 
 line as between good and bad securities, and what restric- 
 tions we could properly put around the issues in which we 
 might invest, which would thoroughly protect our de- 
 positors. Naturally the solution of the problem would 
 lie in the direction of specifically naming the bonds we 
 could buy; that is to say, defining the particular issue of 
 each road; but it was quickly realized that the list w^ould 
 be so long in detail as to preclude any possibility of its 
 receiving the approval of the Legislature of the State, 
 these officials naturally thinking that the list of securities 
 was altogether too long and too broad. Consequently, 
 we had to confine ourselves to naming railroads, and nam-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 321 
 
 ing general terms as to the issues in which we could make 
 investments. Our definitions have proved sound and 
 correct in every direction but one. The law provides, 
 among other restrictions, that the bond in which we may 
 invest must be a first mortgage upon the whole or a part 
 of the railroad mortgaged. It was recognized that this 
 might be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man- 
 agement, and bonds be thrust into the list of Savings 
 Bank investment which would be highly improper issues 
 for a trust of the character we represented; but as the 
 great railroad combinations of the country had been made 
 up of small sections from time to time, finally merging 
 themselves into a vast system, it was found extremely 
 difficult to define the extent of this first mortgage without 
 danger of throwing out some of the very best securities 
 which it was to our interest to purchase, and we con- 
 cluded to make the experiment as it now stands. 
 
 Our experience has shown, however, in the case of the 
 recent Rock Island issues, that the clause in the law is 
 dangerous, and must in some way be amended. What 
 has occurred in the case of the Rock Island Company 
 might occur at any time with some one of the large rail- 
 road corporations whose bonds now rank with the very 
 best in the market, and this danger is so great that it is 
 not wise to allow it to continue. As for myself personally, 
 I am and always have been a great believer in railroad 
 bond investments of a proper quality for Savings Bank 
 funds. I believe it is one which is available for sale with- 
 out considerable loss in times of panic and financial dis- 
 tress. In fact, I am thoroughly in favor of increasing 
 the list of bonds in which Savings Banks may invest just 
 so far as issues can be secured which are first class in 
 every respect. I think we will all agree that what has 
 already been accomplished through the widening of the 
 scope of investments has been of great advantage to our 
 depositors, enabling us to maintain a rate of interest 
 which would otherwise have been impossible to maintain, 
 and giving us a broad market from which to draw our
 
 322 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 investments (and the broader you make such a market, 
 as long as you keep within the bounds of safety, the better 
 return can you give to your depositors, with ample se- 
 curity at the back of it). We all remember the time 
 when we were so restricted that we were glad to buy 
 State and municipal bonds at a rate equivalent to an 
 annual return of two and three fourths per cent. 
 
 Now what is the danger? Simply this, that banking 
 houses having secured the control of a new issue of bonds, 
 and thinking that they can make a better profit if the 
 bonds are created a Savings Bank issue, go to the Legisla- 
 ture and succeed, in spite of the protest of our Association, 
 in passing their bills and having them signed by the 
 Governor. This has been repeatedly done in the past, 
 and it will probably continue to be done in the future. 
 What, if any, is our protection against this condition? I 
 am free to say we have none, with one exception — and 
 that is available to the banks. It is this: if an issue of 
 bonds is forced through the Legislature at any time in 
 spite of the protest of the Association as represented by 
 its Executive Committee, then notice of the reasons for 
 the objections made should be sent to every bank in the 
 State, and every bank in the State should decide that 
 under no circumstances would it avail itself of the privi- 
 lege of purchasing bonds made available in opposition 
 to the will of the officers of banks, whose only object in 
 opposing was to protect the sacred trust which has been 
 committed to their care. If this spirit could pervade 
 the entire Association, it would not take long for parties 
 interested in forcing inferior issues of bonds upon the 
 banks to learn that the trouble and expense of making 
 such issues Savings Bank investments were greater than 
 any possible return from selling the securities to the banks 
 at higher than their normal value. 
 
 I sincerely hope that this subject will receive your care- 
 ful attention at this meeting of the Association, and be 
 thoroughly debated with the idea of arriving at a consensus 
 of opinion as to the desirability of increasing the line of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 323 
 
 railroad investments, and as to what additional safe- 
 guards the Association thinks should be thrown around 
 all issues of this character. The deposits in the Savings 
 Banks to-day amount to eleven hundred millions of dol- 
 lars, and I can see no reason why, in the course of com- 
 paratively few years, this should not reach two thousand 
 millions; therefore the question of investment is a very 
 serious and far-reaching question, and should be consid- 
 ered upon broad lines and with a broad outlook. 
 
 Whatever may be the outcome of your discussions, 
 I sincerely hope you will at least pass two resolutions — one 
 directing your Executive Conmiittee to reintroduce at 
 the next session of the Legislature a bill restricting the 
 bonds of the Rock Island Railroad in which the Savings 
 Banks may invest; and the other directing the Executive 
 Committee, at the hands of competent counsel, to remedy 
 the defects now existing in the law so far as the clause read- 
 ing: "secured by a mortgage which is a first mortgage on 
 either the whole or some part of the railroad and railroad 
 property of the company issuing such bonds " is concerned. 
 
 You will pardon me, gentlemen, for presuming as I 
 have done upon your time and patience in asking you to 
 listen to this long letter; but I have been associated with 
 you so long, and have striven so zealously for the building 
 up and perpetuation of our Savings Bank system (which I 
 think is the best of any State in the Union, with possibly the 
 exception of the State of Massachusetts, and which I believe, 
 if kept in purity, is a model for adoption by all the States, 
 fully solving the question as to what is the best method 
 to gather in and conserve the thrift of the people) that I 
 feel almost sure you will forgive the liberties I have taken. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades. 
 
 Mr. Schieren offered a vote of thanks to Mr. Rhoades 
 for his untiring efforts and valuable service rendered to the 
 Association in expressing the true situation of the new
 
 324 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 issue of the Rock Island & Pacific Railroad bonds. This 
 was seconded, and carried. 
 
 Mr. Schieren: Mr. President, I hope I may be par- 
 doned for saying a few words. There is perhaps no one 
 who appreciates more what Mr. J. Harsen Rhoades has 
 done during the past few years for your Association than 
 your late President. He was untiring in everything 
 that he could possibly do or say for the interests of the Sav- 
 ings Banks and their depositors. He is a most gifted man. 
 I am sorry that he cannot be with us to-day, but I believe 
 that I voice the sentiments of this entire audience when I 
 suggest that a vote of thanks be tendered to Mr. Rhoades 
 for his untiring efforts and invaluable services rendered the 
 Association in exposing the true inwardness of the situation 
 regarding the Rock Island Railroad bond investment. 
 
 A vote of thanks was unanimously tendered to Mr. 
 Rhoades. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. STEWART L. WOODFORD 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New York Sav- 
 ings Banks Association of the State of New York: It is 
 certainly a great honor to be asked to talk with you 
 to-day. I realize that in the long practice of my profes- 
 sion I have had neither the experience nor the training 
 to say much that can be of special value to you. I should 
 have declined the invitation at once, but I realized and 
 appreciated this compliment so greatly that I yielded to 
 the request of my friend, Mr. Schieren, and promised to 
 be with you. I will endeavor to justify the courtesy and 
 the kindness of this invitation by being very brief and 
 leaving you to hear from those who can address you intelli- 
 gently and even scientifically. 
 
 The Savings Banks of the State of New York hold to- 
 day more than one billion, two hundred thousand dollars. 
 This immense total is more than three times the debt of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 325 
 
 the Greater City of New York, and it is within about 
 one hundred million dollars of the entire interest and 
 non-interest bearing debt of the United States. In other 
 words, if the Savings Banks of the State of New York 
 could acquire the Federal debt, they would hold all the 
 interest-bearing securities and about two thirds of the 
 greenbacks. There is poetry, there is pathos, there is 
 thrift, there is tremendous meaning in this enormous 
 aggregate of deposits. The depositors, if you strike out 
 those who hold duplicate accounts with more than one 
 institution, the individual or separate depositors certainly 
 exceed two million in number in the State of New York. 
 They equal nearly two thirds of the entire population of 
 the thirteen colonies when the war with Great Britain 
 was undertaken. They are in the aggregate more than 
 half of the population of Greater New York. These 
 figures mean much. 
 
 Now what is the idea of the Savings Bank? It means 
 industry and earned money. It means the economy that 
 saves money. It means the prudent foresight that pro- 
 vides for the rainy to-morrow. It means, in a word, the 
 average, ordinary, thrifty virtue of the great body of the 
 plain people, on which the thrift, economy, virtue, safety, 
 and the stability of the nation depend. 
 
 The Savings Bank idea also means the intelligent con- 
 servatism that seeks safety and security with small in- 
 terest rather than speculation and risk with danger to the 
 entire accumulation. It means even more than this. 
 It involves the intelligent, altruistic care that men who 
 have accumulated a competence exercise in looking after 
 the savings and the investments of the industrious folk 
 of moderate means. So that the Savings Bank stands for 
 the virtue that is represented by small accumulations, for 
 the conservatism that preserves property, and for the 
 generous discharge by strong men of the duty and the 
 care of looking after their weaker neighbors. Thus the 
 Savings Banks idea embraces most that really makes for 
 the ultimate welfare of the State.
 
 326 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 It stands opposed to the other idea which, for lack of a 
 better phrase, I shall describe as the gambling idea. I do 
 not mean that all ventures are gambling. I do not mean 
 that all far-sighted looking into the future is gambling. 
 I do not mean that the brains and the foresight which 
 create great fortunes necessarily involve the idea of gam- 
 bling, but there is not a man in this great audience, gath- 
 ered as you are from the large villages, the inland cities, 
 and the great metropolis, but who must have realized, 
 within the last ten years, that the constant tendency of a 
 large fraction of our entire community is toward the 
 gambling idea in regard to getting and increasing money. 
 
 I think I do not over venture the statement when I 
 say that the bucket shops and the pool rooms of the City 
 of New York are taking in more money each day than the 
 Savings Banks are. This is a startling statement, but 
 the boys in our office, the boys in the higher classes of 
 some of our schools, the young men who are working in 
 the shops and in the factories, the men servants in a great 
 many of our homes, are taking the risk of the pool room 
 instead of the safety of the Savings Banks, and are eager, 
 anxious, and striving to get rich. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, this thing is eating as a canker right into 
 our business and home life. It makes petty defalcations in 
 your offices, shops, and factories. It makes petty defal- 
 cations in my law office. I think I have suggested enough 
 if I can get the men who are in front of me, when you go from 
 this room, to think seriously and thoughtfully about this. 
 
 It is not merely wisdom, but it is the imperative neces- 
 sity of our business and social conditions to-day that we 
 shall help the Savings Bank idea of economy, of industry, of 
 thrift, of conservatism, and that wherever we are, whether 
 in private places or in great directories, wherever we 
 touch with our neighbors, we shall try to put our influence 
 on the side of the conservative Savings Bank idea. Let 
 us try to stand against the gambling and the purely 
 speculative idea which, unless checked and crushed, will 
 certainly eat into and destroy this Republic.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 327 
 
 Long ago, the story runs, that One stood in the door- 
 way of the Temple and, with scourge in His hand, drove 
 out the men who defiled the Temple of religion, the money- 
 changers and those who sold doves. Let us stand in every 
 place, small and large, in every circle of influence wherever 
 we touch our neighbor, keeping in thought that figure 
 standing in the doorway of the Temple with scourge in 
 His hand. 
 
 ADDRESS OF CHARLES A. CONANT 
 
 Mr. Chas. A. Conant said in part: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New York Savings 
 Banks Association: The banker who has studied the 
 fluctuations in the prices in the past, and knows the in- 
 fluences which operate upon them, is in a position to judge 
 the future. He w^ill find difficulty in escaping the con- 
 clusion that the return upon securities tends downward 
 with the progress of civilization, but he wUl be able to 
 discover sufficient wavering upward in this downward 
 curve of the rate of interest to enable him to act with 
 prudence and success in taking advantage of favorable 
 conditions. 
 
 Recent events have been favorable to the Savings 
 Banks in the sense that they have reduced the prices of 
 many first-class investments. In one sense this has been 
 unfavorable. Where securities were purchased at the 
 inflated prices of two years ago, their market prices make 
 a lower showing upon the balance sheet than is desirable, 
 but where these securities are of unquestioned value and 
 continue to pay regular dividends, there is no occasion for 
 serious regret, unless the mistake of paying higher prices 
 was carried to extremes during the years of inflation. In 
 any case there is now an opportunity to recoup the natural 
 errors of that time by buying the best securities at low 
 prices. Only in this way can Savings Banks continue to 
 pay the rates of interest which are now customary. The 
 Savings Banks have maintained rates of interest upon
 
 328 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 their deposits much better than some other enterprises, 
 especially when it is taken into consideration that they 
 cannot afford to speculate even in the most conservative 
 manner by the purchase of securities which are not ab- 
 solutely safe, not only in the opinion of those who issue 
 and those who deal in them, but in the opinion of the en- 
 tire investing community. A remark was made to me 
 recently by one of the directors of a Boston bank which 
 puts tersely the present condition of many Savings 
 Banks — that his institution was not paying interest out 
 of the dividends on the securities recently purchased, but 
 was "living on the good things of the past." Fortu- 
 nately, from some points of view, the opportunity to 
 acquire some of these good things is more favorable at 
 present than it was two or three years ago. 
 
 The managers of Savings Banks occupy an important 
 position in the financial world. . . . 
 
 In the United States we are all familiar with the 
 growth in savings deposits from $549,874,258 in 1870 
 to $819,106,973 in 1880; $1,524,844,506 in 1890; 
 $2,384,770,849 in 1900; and $2,815,483,106 in 1903. We 
 have seen Savings Bank deposits multiply by one hundred 
 per cent, in the ten years from 1880 to 1890, and nearly 
 double again from 1890 to 1903. But in Europe also 
 similar gains have occurred. In Great Britain, as in the 
 United States, the Postal Savings Banks enjoyed an in- 
 crease of deposits by over one hundred per cent, from 
 £67,634,807 ($335,000,000) in 1890 to £140,392,916 
 ($700,000,000) in 1901. In France the attack by the 
 State upon the church has checked the growth of deposits 
 during the past two or three years, but from 1882 to 1890 
 deposits rose from 1,802,497,809 francs ($360,000,000) 
 to 3,325,166,407 francs ($660,000,000), and rose at the 
 close of 1900 to 4,274,257,535 francs ($850,000,000). 
 In Germany gross deposits at the close of 1898 stood at 
 8,106,438,665 marks ($2,000,000,000). Belgium showed 
 a gain of much more than one hundred per cent, from 
 1880 to 1890, when deposits rose from 125,098,287 francs
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 329 
 
 ($25,000,000) to 325,415,412 francs ($65,000,000), and a 
 still further gain of one hundred per cent, to 1900, when 
 her deposits stood at 661,507,887 francs ($132,000,000). 
 In Italy savings deposits rose from 1,819,702,670 lire 
 ($360,000,000) in 1890 to 2,503,174,624 lire ($500,000,000) 
 in 1902. In Austria-Hungary the increase was from 
 3,319,743,006 crowns ($660,000,000) as recently as 1896 
 to 357i7j955)505 crowns ($740,000,000) in 1900. 
 
 The directors of Savings Banks, therefore, appear in 
 the world as bidders for new investments to the amount 
 of perhaps $250,000,000 per year. 
 
 Among these influences which tend to increase the rate 
 of return on capital are those which destroy it as well as 
 those which create new demands for it for productive 
 use. Among the former is the destruction of wealth in 
 war, which absorbs the savings of years and gives a higher 
 value to the new savings in productive industry. This 
 was the experience of Great Britain in her struggle with 
 the Boers. So great were her expenditures for war pur- 
 poses that it probably absorbed the savings of the British 
 people for a year and perhaps for several years. 
 
 The fall in the price of consols was not chiefly the effect 
 of impaired credit, but the effect of an increase in the 
 demands for capital in proportion to the supply. In 1897, 
 when the movement of the rates of interest was most 
 sharply downward throughout the world, and English 
 consols were quoted at nearly 114, the return which they 
 paid was less than that paid by the Savings Banks which 
 mad e their investments chiefly in these securities . B anks in 
 coming into the market for high-class securities are relieved 
 of the competition which they would meet from even ven- 
 turesome investors if there were no channels for drawing 
 off accumulated capital except the gilt-edged securities. 
 It was the gilt-edged securities which advanced most 
 sharply during the years when new enterprises were com- 
 paratively stationary and a constantly increasing mass of 
 saved capital was competing every year for a compara- 
 tively fixed quantity of safe investments. The present
 
 33© HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 would seem to be a prudent time for investing in safe se- 
 curities, with a view of offsetting on the balance sheet 
 the high rates paid for such securities in years where there 
 was less demand for new capital. 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Conant's address, Mr. Brad- 
 ford Rhodes moved that a vote of thanks be tendered 
 him for his very interesting and able address, saying that 
 the topic chosen by the speaker was one which he had 
 made a specialty of for many years, and that the members 
 of the Association had been highly edified by the address. 
 
 The motion prevailed unanimously. 
 
 DOES ADVERTISING FAY FOR SAVINGS BANKS? 
 
 The following address was given by Mr. William H. S. 
 Wood, President of the Bowery Savings Bank: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Savings Banks 
 Association : I feel a good deal of hesitation in addressing 
 you upon the subject which has been assigned to me, 
 "Does Advertising Pay for Savings Banks?" As I 
 reflect upon advertising as a mercantile force, I am carried 
 back to the history of the early days of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, when this method of publicity was in its primitive 
 stage. Take the early numbers of the Evening Post and 
 the Journal of Commerce. The following advertisement 
 appeared : 
 
 J. Jacob Astor 
 
 at No. 8 1 Quincy Street 
 
 next door but one to the Friends' Meeting House 
 
 Has for sale an assortment of 
 
 Pianofortes of the newest construction 
 
 made by the best makers in London 
 
 which he will sell on reasonable terms. 
 
 He gives cash for all kinds of furs, and has for 
 
 sale a quantity of Canada Beaver and Beaver 
 
 coating, Racoon Skins, and Racoon Blankets, 
 
 Muskrat Skins, &c., &c.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 331 
 
 In those times advertising was conducted upon lines of 
 extreme dignity and simplicity. Concise, inexpensive, 
 it might be compared to a brook meandering through the 
 meadows, attracting attention by rippling on its way. 
 To-day it is a rushing, roaring Niagara. 
 
 Within a very few years the immense accumulations 
 of the thrifty classes in Eastern Savings Banks have, not 
 unnaturally, attracted attention, and so-called Savings 
 Banks have sprung up all over the land, nearly always 
 stock affairs, whose first consideration is to use the money 
 of their depositors for the benefit of their stockholders. 
 In not one of the states are these concerns so limited as to 
 their investments or their methods of transacting business 
 as in the State of New York. 
 
 Department stores in this city, and BuUding Loan 
 Associations, are inviting the public to open accounts 
 with them — in one way or another ringing in the savings 
 idea, notwithstanding Section 131 of the Savings Bank 
 Law of this State, with which you are undoubtedly famil- 
 iar. 
 
 With these facts before us, it must be appreciated 
 that the deposits in the bona fide Savings Banks of this 
 State are not increasing as they otherwise normally 
 would, and as they should do for the good of the class 
 for whose interests they are organized. All these cor- 
 porations I have referred to are actively engaged in a 
 vigorous advertising propaganda, seeking to draw to 
 their vaults the savings of those who are industriously 
 accumulating, little by little, the modest hoard upon which 
 depends the happiness and comfort, perhaps of old age, or 
 perhaps of helpless children. Surely it is not for us to sit 
 with folded hands, the benevolence of our forefathers 
 dried up in our hearts, and see such dangerous inroads 
 into the secure refuge which this State has provided for 
 the thrifty and industrious. Why, then, should not we, 
 too, go out and proclaim on the street corners and from the 
 hilltops the blessings freely offered by the Savings Banks 
 of the State of New York? Allow me to direct your at-
 
 332 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tention to another feature in this matter of advertising. 
 A year ago I took this map of the State, and pasted over 
 it, here and there, as possibly some of you may be able 
 to see, a little red dot on the city or town where an organ- 
 ized Savings Bank was in operation. Note how many 
 counties are without them — Rockland, which might nat- 
 urally be cared for by Peekskill, Ossining, or Dobbs 
 Ferry; Sullivan, by the Savings Bank of Ellenville; Dela- 
 ware and Otsego, by Binghamton; Schoharie, by the 
 Savings Banks of Albany; Fulton, by Amsterdam; Sar- 
 atoga by the Albany or Cohoes Savings Banks; Washing- 
 ton, Warren, Essex, Hamilton, Franklin, Clinton, Lewis, 
 and Saint Lawrence, by the banks of Albany, Amsterdam, 
 Utica, Rome, or Watertown; Tioga, by the Savings Banks 
 of Binghamton or Elmira; Schuyler, by Elmira or Ithaca; 
 Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, and Yates, by Ithaca, Auburn, 
 or Rochester; Steuben, by Elmira. And in the western 
 part of the State there are Savings Banks at Rochester 
 and Buffalo only, leaving the counties of Livingston, 
 AUeghany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Wyoming, Genesee, 
 Orleans, and Niagara, which, as at present situated, should 
 be looked after by the banks of Rochester, Buffalo, or 
 Elmira. The difficulties surrounding the establishment 
 of a Savings Bank in this State are now so many and so 
 great, and the competition which exists in the form of 
 National and State Banks and Trust Companies so in- 
 tense, and the profits to their stockholders so material, 
 that the prospect for additional Savings Banks pure and 
 simple, on the mutual basis, is exceedingly small. Possibly 
 some may say, nevertheless, why is not a Savings Bank 
 organized and started in each of these counties? Well, 
 now, Mr. President, it is not an easy thing in this State, 
 as we all know, to begin and develop a corporation of this 
 sort. Who is going to put up the money for the absolutely 
 necessary expenses? For no one can tell how many 
 years may elapse before the costs of even the most eco- 
 nomical administration can be met after paying dividends 
 to depositors. It cannot be forgotten that Mr. Kilburn
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ss3 
 
 will require a satisfactory bond from these trustees, for 
 the payment of this inevitable outgo, before his consent 
 is given to the establishment of any new Savings Bank. 
 I am positively sure that the time will soon come when 
 the older banks, some of them at least, must see the wis- 
 dom of establishing branches in promising localities; but 
 meanwhile these fields will be preempted by other kinds 
 of Savings Banks, all of them subject to the risks of busi- 
 ness and practically unfettered by statutory restrictions 
 as to their investments. Under such conditions and pros- 
 pects, it must seriously be considered by the many strong 
 Savings Banks of this State, whether they may not wisely 
 extend their benevolent operations beyond the immediate 
 environment of their banking house. 
 
 And here, I may say, there is nothing in the law to pre- 
 vent any bank opening as many branches as it likes, pro- 
 vided only that the Superintendent of Banking is satisfied 
 that the propriety, convenience of access to depositors, 
 the density of the population in the neighborhood, in the 
 language of the law, appear to warrant the issuing of a 
 certificate of approval of such bank as proposed. I 
 very much doubt if any one at all familiar with Sav- 
 ings Banks would not readily admit that such branches 
 by strong banks are infinitely more safe than new cor- 
 porations, and especially when we know that trustees 
 of such are tempted to make the cheapest investments 
 permitted by law, for the sake of the possible larger 
 returns, and to promise a four per cent, dividend to 
 attract depositors. 
 
 How, then, can the missionary work I have suggested 
 best be done? I do not feel that it is my place to do more 
 than to tell you of some methods in operation by the 
 Bowery Savings Bank. 
 
 First, and most important of all, the preparation and 
 circulation of a neat little booklet on "Banking by Mail." 
 We send it, with a signature slip and identification card 
 enclosed, throughout the district from which we desire 
 to obtain depositors. Our returns from these have been
 
 334 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 large; andl am informed by more than one non-advertising 
 bank in this city that they have been pestered to death by 
 people asking them to open such accounts. Of course, k 
 they do not want such, we are sorry to have caused any 
 annoyance; but we cannot help feeling glad we have at 
 least stirred the people up. Kindly note here, as I have 
 intimated at the outset, that the Bowery Savings Bank, in 
 most of its advertisements, invites the opening of an ac- 
 count with it, or in any good Savings Bank which may be 
 more convenient. We are not competing with other 
 Savings Banks. We are all brethren in benevolent work, 
 and should pull together. At any rate, that is the way we 
 like to feel and act. 
 
 Next, we have a larger and fuller description of our 
 bank, handsomely illustrated, sent to all who ask for 
 it. 
 
 We send out in a year to manufacturers in our district 
 about two million pay envelopes, each bearing an invita- 
 tion to open an account, to be used in weekly settlement 
 with work people. We have tried an invitation card to 
 actors and actresses, people who are so often stranded far 
 from home, utterly penniless. That has had some result, 
 but we are compelled to admit not so much as we hoped 
 for. 
 
 We are now engaged in circulating a new booklet to the 
 clerks of this city which, if it promises success, will require 
 several hundred thousand copies to cover the field. Other 
 pamphlets for specific objects are in the press and will be 
 issued shortly. 
 
 As to newspaper advertising, it requires caution and 
 sound judgment not to waste more money than is 
 warranted by possible returns. We have tried all kinds; 
 some have paid, some have not. I refrain from going 
 into details, and add simply, as one sometimes sees 
 at the bottom of a servant's reference from his last 
 employer, "Further particulars on application." But 
 please do not ask me to write. You must come in and 
 get them-
 
 CHARLES ADDISON MILLER 
 
 PRESroENT, IQ08 
 COUNSEL, 1908
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 335 
 LETTER FROM CHAS. A. MILLER 
 
 The following was read by the Secretary: 
 
 Utica, N. Y., May 3, 1904. 
 To the President of the Savings Banks Association oj the 
 
 State of New York: 
 
 Dear Sir: We have witnessed, from time to time, 
 attacks upon our Savings Bank system which have had 
 their rise in various ways, have been pressed from various 
 motives, and have been supported by different interests. 
 We have opposed these attacks, sometimes individually, 
 sometimes collectively, and with varying success. We 
 have escaped taxation upon our deposits, but our surplus 
 has been taxed; the scope of our investments has been 
 properly enlarged at our request, but improper invest- 
 ments have been forced upon us in spite of opposition. 
 We represent the largest aggregation of wealth, in private 
 hands, in the United States, but we must confess with 
 humiliation that we have less influence with the average 
 majority in the Legislature than corporations whose entire 
 capital stock and bonded debt could be paid out of the 
 annual income of one of our banks. 
 
 The necessity of frequent meetings and prompt action 
 has made it necessary that a large majority of our Execu- 
 tive Committee should live in New York. This is proper, 
 and I should be sorry to see it changed; nevertheless, I am 
 confident that we shall never be effective in our efforts 
 until some means is found to extend our organization and 
 bring it more closely into touch with the country banks. 
 The country banker is in a position to give most effective 
 aid to the Association. He knows his Senator and Mem- 
 ber of Assembly personally, often intimately. He can 
 work up a public sentiment in a small community with 
 comparative ease, and he generally is in position to com- 
 mand the assistance of the local press. AH this makes it 
 of the utmost importance that his interest should be 
 aroused, that the purposes of the Association should be
 
 336 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 fully and promptly explained to him, and his cooperation 
 secured. 
 
 I believe that this might easily be accomplished by a 
 division of the banks into groups on some geographical 
 lines. This might be done by counties or by senatorial, 
 congressional, or judicial districts. The Chairman of 
 each group could then make it his business to visit the 
 different members, and act as a go-between between his 
 group and the Executive Committee. He could see to it 
 that each bank was represented at hearings when this 
 was thought advisable, and at other times he could attend 
 as a representative of all the banks in the group. In this 
 way the attitude of the Executive Committee can be 
 quickly and intelligently communicated to every bank in 
 the Association, and the reasons for it fully explained, 
 and in return, the Committee can be promptly advised 
 of the sentiment of the banks through the entire State. 
 This would tend, I think, to secure harmony and una- 
 nimity of action, and by stirring up intelligent zeal among 
 the individual banks would make our organization so 
 compact and powerful that it would be difficult, if not 
 impossible, for the Legislature to disregard its proper 
 wishes. 
 
 I regret my inability to be present at this meeting of the 
 Association to present these views personally and to move, 
 as I hope some one may, in my absence, the appointment 
 of a Committee to consider the possibility of further per- 
 fecting the organization of this Association, to report at 
 our next annual meeting. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Chas. a. Miller, 
 Second Vice-President, the Savings Bank of Utica.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Twelfth Annual Convention — Vote of Thanks to the Chairman of 
 the Executive Committee, Mr. Miller — Mr. Wm. H. S.Wood on 
 the Attempted Repeal of the Franchise Tax upon Savings Banks 
 Enacted in 1901 — Opposition to All Legislation Authorizing the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission to Fix Railroad Rates — 
 Addresses by Professor Stryker of Hamilton College and 
 Col. William Cary Sanger. 
 
 P 
 
 RESIDENT William Bayard Van Rensselaer, of the 
 Albany Savings Bank, called the Twelfth Annual 
 Convention to order on May 18, 1905. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT VAN RENSSELAER 
 
 Gentlemen and members of the Savings Banks Asso- 
 ciation: I take great pleasure in welcoming you to the 
 Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Savings Banks Association 
 of the State of New York. 
 
 Since our last annual meeting franchises to carry on 
 the Savings Banks business have been granted to the 
 Guardian Savings Bank of Brooklyn and to the North Side 
 Savings Bank in the Bronx. We invite these institutions 
 to join our Association, and we shall be glad to welcome 
 them as members. 
 
 The past year has been a prosperous one for our Savings 
 Banks and for this Association. The annual report of the 
 Superintendent of Banks shows that for the year 1904, 
 while the amount due depositors has increased by over 
 $67,000,000, the resources have increased over seventy- 
 three millions ($73,000,000), showing an increase in sur- 
 plus or reserve of nearly six millions of dollars ($6,000,000). 
 
 The work of the Association for the past year will be 
 reported to you by the chairmen of the respective com-
 
 338 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 mittees, but I want to call your attention to one feature 
 of the Savings Bank Investment Law which has been 
 passed by the Legislature this year. It provides defi- 
 nitely that twenty-five per cent, of the assets at par of any 
 Savings Banks may be held in railroad mortgage bonds. 
 The interpretation of the old law, made by the Super- 
 intendent of Banks, was that twenty-five per cent, of 
 the deposits only might be invested in railroad mortgage 
 bonds at their cost price. This change in the law would 
 permit the banks to increase their present holdings of 
 about $197,000,000 in railroad mortgage bonds to over 
 $300,000,000. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance 
 that these securities should be and should remain abso- 
 lutely safe. I believe that the investment bill was, per- 
 haps, the most important matter that this Association has 
 ever accomplished, and we cannot be too grateful to 
 Governor Higgins for his hearty support and assistance. 
 The passage of this bill ought to do away with special 
 legislation for Savings Bank investments; but the Execu- 
 tive Committee must be ever on the alert to resist any 
 future attempts to lower the standard or to insert speci- 
 fied cities or railroad securities which do not come up 
 to the standard. 
 
 In this connection it seems to me that we should con- 
 sider the proposed legislation at Washington which would 
 authorize the Interstate Commerce Commission to fix 
 railroad rates and to enforce them at once. The power 
 given to an irresponsible commission, if exercised capri- 
 ciously or with undue consideration, might result in seri- 
 ous losses in the earnings of the railroad companies and 
 the consequent depreciation of the securities held by the 
 Savings Banks. 
 
 At the last annual meeting a resolution was passed for 
 the appointment of a Special Committee to undertake the 
 repeal of the Franchise Tax on the surplus of Savings 
 Banks. The Chairman of that Committee will report what 
 has been done, but I feel constrained to call the attention 
 of the Association to the seriousness of the lack of absolute
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 339 
 
 concurrence of all the members of the Association in all 
 resolutions duly adopted by the Association or its Execu- 
 tive Committee. In the attempt to get this tax repealed 
 we were told that some Savings Banks men informed 
 Governor Higgins and certain of the members of the 
 Legislature that many of the Savings Banks were in- 
 different about having this tax removed. The result of 
 this attitude increased the difficulties of the Committee and 
 furnished argument for those members of the Legislature 
 who are in favor of retaining the tax. If any Savings 
 Banks officers are not in unanimity with the work or 
 decisions of the Association or its Executive Committee, 
 let them in any event communicate Mdth the Executive 
 Committee, where both sides of every question will be 
 carefully considered. Loyalty and unity are necessary 
 to success. 
 
 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 Mr. Miller read the report of the Executive Committee 
 as follows: 
 
 At our meeting in May, 1904, the Executive Committee 
 reported that Senator Townsend's bill to add to the 
 list of Savings Bank investments " the first mortgage five 
 per cent, bonds of the Utica, Clinton & Binghamton 
 Railroad Company," had passed both branches of the 
 Legislature, in spite of the opposition of this Association, 
 and was then in the hands of the Governor. Governor 
 Odell, after a hearing, refused to approve this measure. 
 
 The Committee met on July 14, 1904, and elected 
 Mr. Miller, of the Savings Bank of Utica, a member to 
 fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Van Rensselaer's election 
 as President of the Association. The Committee organ- 
 ized b}' electing Mr. MUler, Chairman, and reelecting the 
 other officers. Pursuant to the resolutions adopted at the 
 last annual meeting, the President of the Association ap- 
 pointed Mr. Wood Chairman of a Committee to be se-
 
 340 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 lected by himself from the members in each county where 
 there is a Savings Bank, and in such other counties as 
 might be desirable, to consider and take such proper action 
 as might bring about the repeal of the law imposing an 
 annual tax upon the Savings Banks of the State. 
 
 At a meeting held on October 20, 1904, Mr. Wood re- 
 ported to the Executive Committee that he had secured 
 the promise of each candidate for the oihce of Governor, 
 that he would do all in his power to secure the repeal of 
 this law, if elected. He reported that he had sent som_e 
 sixteen hundred letters to the editors throughout the State 
 urging them to work for the repeal, and that he had fur- 
 nished the banks with circulars for distribution. 
 
 A Committee, consisting of Messrs. Rhoades, Mills, 
 Schieren, Van Rensselaer, and MiUer, was appointed to 
 take up the matter of the present law regulating Savings 
 Bank investments, and, if necessary, to draft an amend- 
 ment or devise some method for the better protection of 
 the banks, and submit the same to the E:xecutive Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 The bill prepared by this Committee, with the provi- 
 sions of which they are now, without doubt, sufficiently 
 familiar, was submitted to Messrs. White and Kemble, 
 weU'known experts on railway securities, and, with their 
 report upon it, was presented to tlie Executive Committee 
 at a meeting held on February 14th. The Committee 
 acted favorably upon it, and authorized its introduction 
 in the Legislature. Copies of tlie bill and of the report 
 of Messrs. White and Kemble were sent to each bank. 
 
 The bin was subsequently introduced in the Senate by 
 Senator Stevens, and in the Assembly by Mr. J. T. Smith, 
 the chairman of the Committee on Banks. A hearing 
 was had upon this bill before the Senate Committee on 
 March ist, which was largely attended by representa- 
 tives of the banks, and the bOl was favorably reported 
 to the Senate, which, however, subsequently recommitted 
 the bill for a further hearing. In the House Mr. Smith 
 obtained the passage of the bill without delay.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 341 
 
 Upon the second hearing l)efore the Senate Committee 
 on Banks an effort was made to add by name the bonds of 
 the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company to the 
 list of legal investments. This was opposed by your Com- 
 mittee, and although the Committee on Banks reported 
 favorably upon this change, it was finally abandoned, 
 and the bill passed the Senate in the form in which, it had 
 been prepared by your Committee. At this "writing it is 
 before the Governor and wUl undoubtedly receive his ap- 
 proval. 
 
 Your Committee feels that it is greatly indebted to 
 Messrs. Smith and Stevens for their efforts in securing 
 the passage of this legislation, and especially wishes to 
 record its appreciation of the attitude of Governor Higgins, 
 without whose active cooperation its efforts would hardly 
 have been successful. The Governor appreciated fully the 
 importance of our proposed amendment and did not 
 hesitate to give us, as far as he could properly, the 
 benefit of his a"pproval and support. 
 
 Several bills repealing the so-called franchise tax upon 
 the surplus of Savings Banks were introduced in both 
 Houses of the Legislature, but remained in Committee 
 until close to the end of the session. Although Governor 
 Higgins urged the passage of this legislation and one of 
 the biUs passed the Senate, an objection prevented its 
 being reached for final passage in the Assembly. The 
 indefatigable efforts of Mr. Wood in behalf of this repeal 
 are fully appreciated by the banks. The details of this 
 struggle will appear more fully in the report of this special 
 Committee, 
 
 Your Committee entered a formal protest against the 
 bin introduced in the Senate by the Committee on Tax- 
 ation and Retrenchment "to amend the tax law in rela- 
 tion to the taxation of mortgage indebtedness" popularly 
 known as the Mortgage Tax Bill. Nevertheless it was 
 not thought advisable to attend the hearing upon the 
 bill or to enter upon an active campaign of opposition, 
 because it was apparent that, the bill having been made
 
 342 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 a party measure, opposition woujd be absolutely futile, 
 and would serve only to alienate the leaders of tlie Repub- 
 lican Party on whom we relied for the repeal of the pres- 
 ent franchise tax and the passage of our investment law. 
 
 It was evident that the franchise tax would only be 
 removed if other sources of revenue could be found, and 
 active opposition to the Mortgage Tax Bill would^ if suc- 
 cessful, have prevented the fulfilment of this condition 
 precedent, whUe, if unsuccessful, it miglit still have de- 
 feated our efforts for repeal by arousing the antagonism 
 of the party in control of the Legislature. As the Mort- 
 gageTax Law applies only to loans made after July i, 1905, 
 the Committee felt that, at worst, it would not impose a 
 very heavy impost upon the banks for some years to come, 
 and that between tAvo evils "we might better endure this 
 than the tax upon our surplus funds. That we should be 
 obliged to endure both could not then be foreseen. 
 
 The bill introduced by Senator Cassidy requiring banks 
 to pay over to the State the amount due upon all accounts 
 on which neither deposits nor "withdrawals had been made 
 for ten years was reported favorably by the Committee on 
 Banks, but at the request of your Executive Committee 
 was committed for a hearing. This was had on April 2 7th, 
 and, in spite of energetic protest by your representatives, 
 the Committee reported the bill favorably. Fortunately, 
 however, it was not reached before the adjournment of the 
 Senate. 
 
 The Committee also entered a protest against several 
 other bills more or less injurious to our interests, and 
 none of them became laws. 
 
 Mr. Mills: I think that there is a word of explanation 
 due to the Association so that it can appreciate, in some 
 measure, the value of the services of the Chairman of the 
 Executive Committee. Mr. Miller drew that bill himself. 
 It was a work that took a great deal of time and a great 
 deal of close study, and I do not think that the result
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 343 
 
 could have been more ably attained by any counsel whom 
 we might have retained. That is the so-called investment 
 bill to which I refer. 
 
 I speak of what I know because I was, from the com.- 
 mencement, a member of the sub-committee appointed 
 by the Executive Committee to take up this matter and 
 carry it on to the end. Mr. WTiite, in an interview with 
 me, told me that he thought that the provisions of that 
 bill were the best that he had ever seen in any Savings 
 Bank investment bill, and that he thought it would be 
 only a short time when it would be copied by most of the 
 states in which Mutual Savings Banks existed. 
 
 Mr. Miller is a very modest man and I think it is simply 
 due to him that this Association should appreciate in 
 some measure the immense amount of personal work 
 that he has put into this matter, not only, as I say, in 
 drawing the bill, which he did himself, but also in his 
 unceasing effort to pass it through both Houses of the 
 Legislature. I think an expression of this Association 
 should be recorded on the minutes in appreciation of his 
 services. 
 
 This resolution was seconded by Mr. McMahon, also 
 a vote of thanks to Mr. Rhoades; both were unanimously 
 carried. 
 
 ATTEMPTED REPEAL OF THE FRANCHISE TAX LAW 
 
 Mr. Wm. H. S. Wood presented the following report 
 on the repeal of the Franchise Law: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: Your Committee, ap- 
 pointed one year ago to promote the repeal of the Franchise 
 Tax upon Savings Banks enacted in 1901, beg respect- 
 fully to report: 
 
 The Chairman of the Committee, with the assistance of
 
 344 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the President of our Association, selected thirty-five gen- 
 tlemen from various sections of the State, who were there- 
 upon appointed to serve as the Committee. 
 
 It was recognized that while the trustees and officers 
 of Savings Banks could not properly take any part in 
 politics, and had no wish to do so, nevertheless we were 
 confronted by a condition which we had found ourselves 
 unable to remove without the assistance of those most 
 vitally interested, namely, the depositors themselves.. 
 From the two millions, four hundred thousand of these, 
 we eliminated, after careful and laborious calculation, 
 one million, nine hundred thousand as women, minors, 
 and others, leaving fully five hundred thousand of the 
 depositors in the Savings Banks of the State as probable 
 active voters in any election. If it was found necessary, it 
 was determined that these men should be informed of the 
 injustice being done them by the Legislature of the State, 
 telling them that the remedy lay in their votes, in their 
 sending to the Legislature of 1905 such men only as 
 pledged themselves to repeal the tax. 
 
 In August last, just previous to the nominations for 
 Governor of the State, the Chairmen of both RepubHcan 
 and Democratic Parties agreed with us to insert in their 
 platforms a plank committing each to the repeal of the 
 Franchise Tax on Savings Banks, which plank as sub- 
 mitted to us was entirely satisfactory. This subject was 
 submitted to both candidates for the Governorship, with 
 a request that they incorporate in their respective letters 
 of acceptance definite declarations advocating the repeal 
 of this tax. Both of these gentlemen complied with the 
 request, and, as party leaders, in the most definite and 
 positive manner pledged their parties to such repeal. 
 
 Your Committee, in order to bring the subject directly 
 to the attention of the voters of the State, and especially 
 that large number of them who were individually inter- 
 ested — depositors in our banks — had a pamphlet pre- 
 pared and printed, entitled "For Repeal of the Franchise 
 Tax on Savings Banks" also a leaflet containing the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 345 
 
 official statements, of both Republican and Democratic 
 platforms, and the letters of acceptance of the candidates 
 for Governor of both parties. Of these documents several 
 hundred thousand copies were handed to our depositors 
 and circulated in other ways. 
 
 Your Committee desires to place on record its high ap- 
 preciation of the honest and active cooperation of Gover- 
 nor Frank W. Higgins. He placed the repeal of the 
 Savings Bank Tax before both Senate and Assembly 
 in an Emergency Message which was sent to the Senate 
 and to the Assembly on the 4th of this month, in which 
 it will be noted that he properly places the reason for 
 such repeal solely upon the fact that the party and its 
 candidates had pledged themselves before the election 
 to do so. 
 
 In his message he says: "Pledges to the people must 
 faithfully be kept, and cannot safely be ignored on the 
 specious plea of necessity. The Republican Party is com- 
 mitted to this repeal by the repeated public declaration 
 of its candidates. It cannot afford to refuse to do its 
 duty in this regard. The reasons for relieving the Sav- 
 ings Banks from this tax as a matter of justice are more 
 cogent now than at the opening of the session." 
 
 We Savings Banks men are not laboring for ourselves. 
 We have no personal interest in urging upon our Senators 
 and Assemblymen that a mistake has been made; that this 
 tax is unjust; that it does more or less deprive our poor 
 depositors of a rate of interest that the Savings Banks w^ould 
 all be glad to pay. It is true that probably in no case 
 would the amount of the tax upon any bank enable that 
 bank to pay an additional half of one per cent, to its 
 depositors; but, bearing in mind that the State law forbids 
 the payment of any dividend which is not earned by the 
 bank, and that oftentimes even less than the amount of 
 the tax would enable a bank to show earnings enabling 
 it to pay a half per cent, more than it can now do under 
 this incubus, we insist that it be recognized we are working 
 with the State to elevate and protect the working people
 
 346 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 of our State. We want to work in harmony with the 
 elected and appointed officers of the State Government, 
 quietly, unobtrusively, subject to such wise laws as, with 
 this one exception, have heretofore been enacted; but if 
 the poor people for whose protection we are organized 
 are injured ever so little by unjust laws, we should be 
 faithless to our trust and to the State which has placed our 
 depositors in our hands, if at such a time as this we did not 
 remind the political party in power that Abraham Lincoln 
 once said: "You can fool some of the people all the 
 time; you can fool all the people some of the time; but 
 you can't fool all the people all the time." 
 
 Senator Alfred R. Page of the Nineteenth Senatorial 
 District, by request, took charge of our bill to repeal the 
 P'ranchise Tax, in December last, and introduced it into 
 the Senate on the 4th of January, the first bill on the 
 calendar. It was allowed to rest in the hands of the Com- 
 mittee on Taxation and Retrenchment without disturb- 
 ance for four months, because Governor Higgins had told 
 us that he could not urge this bill upon the Legislature, 
 depriving the State of ever so little of its income, without 
 first finding other means for increasing the revenues of 
 the State. It was most unfortunate that this condition 
 existed, and that so great difficulty was found in providing 
 sources of revenue, since the delay carried over the consid- 
 eration of our bill until the last day of the session. 
 
 Your Committee was invited to attend a hearing on 
 the bill early in January, but respectfully declined anything 
 of the kind. If there was anything in connection with 
 the Savings Banks of this State which had not been 
 thrashed over time and again before the Legislature, this, 
 at least in our judgment, was not the proper time to go 
 into details again. We had pledges of parties, governors, 
 candidates for governors, from some Senators, and from 
 many Assemblymen, to repeal this Franchise Bill. Why 
 should we do anything to obscure the issue? We depended 
 upon the promises of more than one man. The parties 
 went into the election of 1904 with pledges which they
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 347 
 
 meant should be understood by the people in only one 
 way — the tax was to be repealed. 
 
 Immediately preceding the opening of the Legislature, 
 your Committee became aware there would be serious 
 dilSiculty in securing the passage of the contemplated 
 act, for the reason that the Republican Party had de- 
 termined, as part of its policy, to adhere to the system of 
 the so-called indirect taxation, and would not consent 
 under any circumstances to any measure which might re- 
 quire a return to direct taxation. The existence of a large 
 deficit in the State revenues required that new sources 
 of income be found. Governor Higgins and other party 
 leaders stated to your Committee that it would be un- 
 wise to urge the repeal of the Savings Banks Tax, with 
 the consequent loss to the State of about seven hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars of revenue, until the additional 
 revenue required to meet the deficit had been provided 
 for by the passage of other pending measures, particularly 
 the Stock Transfer Tax and the Mortgage Bills, concern- 
 ing which there was serious division of party opinion. 
 The history of these revenue measures is familiar to you 
 all. Because of the bitter opposition to them in certain 
 sections of the State, their passage was delayed for many 
 weeks, in fact, until almost the close of the Legislature; and 
 until they were disposed of it was deemed inexpedient by 
 us to urge the bringing forward of the Savings Banks 
 Repeal Bill. The measure thus did not come up for con- 
 sideration until the very last day of the Legislature, when 
 it was, with a good majority, passed by the Senate, where 
 the chief opposition had been expected. The delay, 
 however, made possible its defeat in the Assembly by 
 obstructive tactics through which consideration of the 
 measure might be, and actually was, prevented. Unani- 
 mous consent is necessary for its immediate consideration 
 by the Assembly when transmitted by the Senate. Late 
 as it was, this consent could have been obtained had cer- 
 tain party leaders carried out their promises, and had the 
 pledges of the platform been considered binding by them.
 
 348 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 The influence which the promoters of the bUl had a right 
 to expect to further the passage of the bill through the 
 Assembly was not exerted ; consequently the obstruction- 
 ists were able to defeat the bill by preventing its being 
 brought upon the floor for discussion and a vote. Had the 
 leaders in the Assembly permitted a vote upon it, or had 
 it been practicable to advance the measures at an earlier 
 day, it would in all probability have been passed. As the 
 situation now stands, Governor Higgins expects to call an 
 extra session of the Legislature, probably in June. At that 
 time the attention of the Senate and Assembly will again 
 be called to the Repeal Bill, and we have reason to hope 
 it will then become a law. 
 
 Mr. Smith, President of Mechanics Savings Bank, Fish- 
 kill : In this mutual government of ours in which we all 
 associate on a basis of equal right and joint liability, 
 where every man's life is pledged, if the needs require, to 
 the defence of the Government and its property in the 
 ratio that it may bear to the whole of those needs, no man 
 is exempt by right from assuming his share of the load 
 and he must not shirk it. 
 
 The Savings Banks of this State have as depositors 
 about two and a half millions of people, at least the books 
 show about this number, living or dead. Of this number, 
 about four fifths are confined to the City of New York and 
 the counties of Erie and Albany, leaving about one fifth 
 from the other fifty-six counties of the State. Of those 
 fifty-six counties, thirty have no Savings Banks. 
 
 You have experienced great difficulty recently in your 
 efforts to obtain mortgage loans which are absolutely nec- 
 essary to you, and many of you have been put in dire 
 straits from mortgages which have been called which it 
 was difficult for you to replace. 
 
 Your applications to the local capitalists have been met, 
 we fear, with opposition. Go over to your bank and ask 
 them where the local capitalists are finding investments 
 for their capital. They will tell you that they have daily 
 applications for drafts remitting money to the great
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 349 
 
 Savings Banks in New York whose special privilege 
 enables them to pay a rate of interest far in excess of the 
 market value of money on securities as good and as valu- 
 able as they offer. The result of this is that they have 
 become the great refuge of the tax dodger. The money 
 of the State is seeking freedom from taxation behind their 
 doors. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, this is a serious thing for you to con- 
 sider. Those are the arguments that are used before the 
 Legislature. They not only go as far as this, but they go 
 further. They say that the workingmen of this State are 
 told that this great aggregation of capital belongs entirely 
 to them, that every dollar is their own. We cannot wonder 
 that they do not appreciate or comprehend this in the few 
 brief seconds that they are permitted to stay in the mag- 
 nificent temple of marble and bronze while they are making 
 their deposits, or that their shops and crowded tenements 
 seem no more homelike by reason of a comparison. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, in regard to this bill which came be- 
 fore the Legislature, Governor Odell, when he was in- 
 augurated, was perhaps better equipped than any man who 
 ever took that ofhce with a knowledge of the wants and 
 the needs of the people. He knew the feeling of unrest, 
 the feeling of dissatisfaction, that existed throughout the 
 State, what they considered to be an unjust proportion 
 of the taxation which they were bearing, and it was his 
 determination, if possible, to relieve them from it under 
 certain various methods. He believed that there was a 
 large number of people who were not paying what the}'' 
 should pay, and he believed that he could get enough of 
 those to pay the State Taxes and divorce the counties 
 entirely from taxation, which would accomplish a very 
 large part of this measure. He searched the different 
 interests to find means of taxation, and it was his determi- 
 nation to put no tax on any set of people in the commu- 
 nity which should in any way be burdensome. The tax 
 on Savings Banks was fixed at one per cent., certainly not 
 enough to in any way affect the amount paid to the de-
 
 350 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 positors. But there was no class of people who received 
 that proposal as did the Savings Banks people, with so 
 much, I may say, apparent scorn. 
 
 This matter came up in the present session. There 
 were three or four bills introduced in the early part of the 
 session and they went to the Committee on Taxation. 
 No effort was made to get them out, and our friends here, 
 who are familiar with legislation, know that no bill gets 
 through, that the Committee will not put it out, unless 
 somebody shows the necessity for it. No efforts were 
 made to get the bill out for the reason that the Savings 
 Banks people had a measure there far more important — 
 the measure for standardizing the investments of the 
 Savings Banks, and the Committee knew that they repre- 
 sented these depositors. For that reason it was left until 
 the last day of the session and then passed the Senate, 
 and it would have passed the Assembly but for this reason. 
 
 In a caucus of the Republican Party considering these 
 matters of taxation this was discussed with other matters, 
 and I heard many men say that they believed that it was 
 a party obligation, and if it came to a vote they would vote 
 for it, but as expressed by one very influential leader: 
 "Damn them, we will get square with them next time." 
 That is the situation. 
 
 The members of the Legislature are elected to repre- 
 sent their constituents. Their constituents, in a great 
 measure, represent the great business interest of this 
 State and represent the dominant party. WTiile you may 
 have obtained a pledge and they have carried it out, I 
 assure you that it will react on you. It is dangerous 
 ground that you are treading upon. The proposed tax is 
 very small and does not in any way affect you, and there 
 are thousands, yes, millions of voters in this State who are 
 equally as deserving as the depositors in the Savings 
 Banks. They are scattered all over the State, on the 
 farms and in the shops. They are men who wiU improve 
 the State, and they are compelled to pay on the average 
 two and a half per cent. They believe it is unjust that
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 351 
 
 you should ask to take this small tax off the banks and add 
 it to the other taxpayers of the State. 
 
 I tell you that there is a sentiment which the leaders 
 cannot control, and it is a dangerous position that you are 
 taking in trying to repeal it. 
 
 Mr. Miller, of Utica: The President of this Association, 
 in his report, called the attention of the Association to the 
 subject of railway rate legislation by the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission. I think that is a very grave subject, 
 worthy the careful consideration of the Association, and 
 in order that it may come fully before the Association for 
 discussion, so that our action may be deliberate and such 
 as may be safe for us and wise, I offer the following resolu- 
 tion, which I will send to the table to be read, bringing 
 up that subject. 
 
 The resolutions are as follows : 
 
 Whereas, The depositors in the Savings Banks of this 
 State number approximately 2,443,000 and the deposits 
 amount to $1,200,000,000, and the various Savings Banks 
 are the holders of the securities of the steam railroads to the 
 amount of about $197,000,000 or over sixteen per cent, of 
 the deposits, and the value of those securities is dependent 
 wholly upon the property which they represent earning 
 an adequate income; and, 
 
 Whereas, The existing statutes, if enforced, provide fully 
 against unreasonable rates and preferences or discrimi- 
 nations by the railroad companies. Now, therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That the Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York is opposed to all legislation authoriz- 
 ing the Interstate Commerce Commission to fix railroad 
 rates and to enforce them at once, as tending seriously 
 to compromise the earning power of railroad companies 
 and their ability to meet their outstanding obligations; 
 and that this Association earnestly urges the Government 
 to enforce the existing statutes and thus remedy such evils 
 as exist, instead of conferring additional power on an ir- 
 responsible commission which might be exercised in a way 
 to depreciate Savings Bank investments.
 
 352 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be transmitted to 
 Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, Chairman of the Senate Com- 
 mittee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and be sent 
 to the Senators and Representatives from this State. 
 
 Mr. W. J. Coombs, President South Brooklyn Savings 
 Bank: 
 
 I hope this resolution is not going to be voted upon 
 without thoughtful consideration. If a question of that 
 kind is sprung upon this meeting, I should deprecate it 
 very much. We have two great forces at war in this 
 nation and I do not think that we should, without proper 
 consideration, take sides in that matter. 
 
 I do not believe in weakening the hands of our President 
 in the contest he is making. I am a Democrat, but I 
 fully appreciate the efforts which he is making. I am 
 not a Populist, I would not confiscate the railroads, 
 but the time has come when, in the administration 
 of their trusts, they must be brought to account to the 
 people. In my service in Congress I found out how they 
 over-ride the wishes of the people. I was a member 
 of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Commission 
 when a pooling bill came before the committee for con- 
 sideration. The counsel for the railroad company said: 
 "Give us this pooling bill and we will permit you to 
 amend the Interstate Commerce Act." I said: "What? 
 Do I understand you right? You admit this Interstate 
 Commerce Act is defective and we expect to impro^^e it. 
 Do I understand you to say that if the Congress of the 
 United States does not give you this pooling bill that the 
 Congress of the United States shall not be permitted to 
 amend a defective act?" He admitted that was what he 
 meant. He said: "You never have been able to do it 
 and you never will be. 
 
 The President may not have taken the right measures, 
 but he finds that out as he goes along. Do not let us play 
 into the hands of the railroads, who are not regarding the 
 rights of their stockholders, who are not regarding the 
 rights of the people, but who are acting as an independent
 
 SECRETARY, IQOS 
 
 WILLIAM F. PATTERSON
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 353 
 
 force and attempting to ride over legislation and the rights 
 of their stockholders. If we cannot sustain the Presi- 
 dent's hands in this contest do not let us weaken them. I 
 shall object to that as far as lies in my power. Although 
 a Democrat, representing a Democratic constituency 
 when I was in Congress, I hold that this is a weaken- 
 ing of the hands of the Executive of the nation if any 
 action is taken, unless it be by the whole body of the 
 Association. 
 
 The resolution was on motion referred to the Executive 
 Committee for subsequent action. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT STRYKER, OF HAMILTON 
 COLLEGE 
 
 President Stryker, of Hamilton College, addressed the 
 Convention, in part, as follows: 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: My experience so far 
 has not shown me that talking to bankers does much good. 
 I find that they always seem to have their minds made up 
 in various theories of their own that could not always coin- 
 cide with mine, and they have an alacrity in saying yes or 
 no, but usually no. 
 
 I want to speak to you about three things in which, it 
 seems to my mind, with our enthusiasm and knowledge 
 as American men, we can share and share alike. It is 
 wonderful how, taking a train in the evening and passing 
 through two or three hundred miles of latitude in the 
 night, you awaken to find yourself suddenly in a new 
 world of leafage and blossom. For these imaginary lines 
 of latitude which, after all, are our attempts to put climate 
 upon the map, and sleeping or dreaming as we go, how 
 many mornings are there that we awaken and find our- 
 selves in a new world? To my thinking, this world was 
 never so attractive, so romantic, so dramatic, so inviting 
 as it is to-day, and in the spirit of this particular thing 
 which I shall call international, a matter of which we are
 
 354 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 not fully aware unless we have given it sharp and close at- 
 tention. 
 
 If there is anything, gentlemen, that is international, 
 it is finance, and expensive war on the other side of this 
 sphere temporarily seems to aid us, but all the world over 
 mankind pays the ultimate bill. It may be indirect, but 
 it is sure. By that hydrostatic paradox in which, as you 
 recall, water flowing from any source into different-shaped 
 vessels rises at last to just the same height in each, so it 
 is with the world: the whole round world is for man's 
 resources. He rules the wires and the wireless currents 
 of the air which are binding and belting this world fast 
 together internationally. You may like it or you may 
 dislike it, but for my part I believe that it is the province 
 of Almighty God at this present time to form a unity and 
 create a solidarity of the races. Let us be big and not 
 little; let us not be like the ostrich and put our heads in 
 the sand. I think we are taught — at least we ought 
 to be taught — that the white race is no special favorite 
 of God Almighty in any such sense as that it can 
 successfully work, even with its adverse possession of 
 the world, against that eminent domain which belongs to 
 man as man. 
 
 I am prepared to stand by this dogma that democracy 
 is that form of housekeeping for men, which we call 
 government, in which every man counts one; not two, 
 not one and a half, not a half of one, but one, as a man. 
 Bismarck said that "the best government is a benevo- 
 lent despotism," to which Matthew Arnold replied: "it 
 is against the instinct of mankind; human nature fights 
 it." 
 
 Gentlemen, it is the genius of the race and of the spirit 
 of that freedom of which we are all a part, and in which 
 we all share, to be governed by courts, not by presidents, 
 not by governors, not by legislators, but by the judges, 
 and Anglo-Saxon freedom finds its incarnation and type 
 upon the bench. This or this may make the laws, this 
 or this may sign them, but at last the judge, sitting there
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 355 
 
 as the incarnation of the public purpose, of rational 
 equity, sitting there as the embodiment and representa- 
 tion of the people's conscience, says whether this is or is 
 not law. 
 
 That we may be preserved from the terrors of wild 
 individualism, or that we may be preserved, on the other 
 hand, from corporate rapacity, which does to the many 
 what it would scorn to do to the one, so neither in bulk 
 nor in detail shall any man, or company of men, in all this 
 wide land be outside of the law, be above the law, or be 
 beneath the law. That is Anglo-Saxon freedom. That 
 is Americanism. America is the land of the judge, the 
 land of men, the land that cares for all lands all over the 
 world and believes that freedom is of no latitude, of no 
 longitude, that feels that which concerns any man is the 
 concern and duty of every man. 
 
 I think we should be thankful for our problems, duties, 
 and privileges — for surely are not our duties our privileges 
 that in these days are thrust upon us — when we think 
 how much and how sure and fast we cannot say any more. 
 Every life is measured by what it feels, and bears, and 
 wins, not by its mere duration. 
 
 ADDRESS OF COLONEL WILLIAM GARY SANGER 
 
 Gentlemen : When I received your very kind invitation 
 to come here to-day I accepted it with the greatest pleas- 
 ure, not only because I have a warm personal regard for 
 your President and Mr. Miller, of your Executive Com- 
 mittee, through whom your invitation came to me, but 
 also because I feel it a very great privilege to meet a body 
 of men who are engaged in the work of caring for billions 
 of dollars and who are doing that work without a thought 
 of personal profit or selfish gain. 
 
 The fact is that in this work of such far-reaching im- 
 portance you have maintained ideals which are in our day 
 sometimes forgotten, not only by the depositors in your 
 banks, but the entire community to whom your work is 
 a wholesomic and helpful lesson. This line of thought has
 
 356 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 shaped in my mind the subject upon which I want to speak 
 to you briefly to-day. 
 
 Certainly some, and possibly all of you, will agree with 
 me when I say that there is not a civilized country in the 
 world where there is so little respect for law as in the 
 United States. I do not refer to that sullen, dogged 
 determination to oppose the settled rules of society which 
 we see in the professional law-breaker or criminal, but I 
 refer to a widespread lack of respect, reverence, and honor 
 for law as law. 
 
 V/hen any law or any statute is brought to the attention 
 of an individual, it is not uncommon for him to submit 
 it to his personal judgment. If it runs counter to his 
 interests, or to his pleasure, if it seems unwise, or falla- 
 cious, or ill-advised, sometimes he plans to evade it and 
 at other times he draws a mental re-line through it, and 
 for him it is as if that law did not exist. 
 
 Take the excise law. I do not suppose there is any 
 city, village, or hamlet throughout the length and breadth 
 of this State where the excise law is not secretly and al- 
 most openly violated. Take the law which affects the 
 homecoming traveller from Europe with his purchases. 
 It was plain and simple, but the man who complied liter- 
 ally with the provisions of that law was considered by 
 many a crank or certainly an exception to a very general 
 rule. And so it runs throughout all the many ways in 
 which the statutes affect us. I shall not attempt to say 
 that we all have this disregard of the law, but I do say that, 
 in my opinion, there is one cause which frequently and 
 materially contributes to it, and that is a lack of respect 
 for the sources of our laws. Rightly or wrongly, there is a 
 general feeling of distrust of most of our State legislators. 
 How many legislative bodies are there in the whole length 
 and breadth of our country, in all the States from one 
 ocean to the other, who have the absolute confidence and 
 trust of the community whom they represent? We are 
 confronting a disagreeable dilemma. Is it that the com- 
 munities have improperly suspected men who are not
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 357 
 
 deserving of reproach, or is their estimate of these men 
 accurate? The moral turpitude involved in either horn of 
 the dilemma is unpleasant to think of. 
 
 Without attempting to go into all the causes which 
 affect the esteem in which we hold our legislators, I want 
 to say that, in my opinion, there is one cause bearing 
 directly upon our interests, and that is the secret use of 
 money in our political life. I do not believe that it would 
 be possible for one man, or for any body of trustees, to 
 conduct a hospital, a library, or a church and receive a 
 sum of money from an unknown source and disburse it 
 without avoiding scandal and suspicion, and yet that is 
 the way in which our political canvasses are conducted. 
 
 We must never forget that it takes large sums of money 
 to conduct a political campaign. It takes money, un- 
 fortunately, to carry on almost any kind of work. But 
 practically, if we want to interest ourselves in some ques- 
 tion that bears directly upon our political life, it seems to 
 me that one of the most important things for us to do is 
 to use our influence in the direction of demanding, or in 
 the effort to draw from the public a sentiment that will 
 demand, a law which will do away with the secret use 
 of money in our political life. These are but one or two 
 points in regard to which there is need to-day for action 
 on the part of the people. Whatever conditions we may 
 find that we think wrong or improper, we must not forget 
 that they exist by the will of the people. Our Govern- 
 ment is not, as some men sometimes think, inevitably the 
 best in the world. It differs from other governments in 
 that we can make any kind of government we want. We 
 can make it as bad or as good as we want it, and in that 
 lies the responsibility to which Dr. Stryker has referred. 
 Upon every man rests the burden and the duty of doing 
 what he can to bring about better conditions. 
 
 In the literature of the Christian Church there is a 
 sentence which I wiU modify : " It is not by the good votes 
 of a nation that you make it grow, but by strengthening 
 the soul of the nation." And so what we need to-day is a
 
 358 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 quickening of the public conscience, an uplifting of our 
 public standards, and the strengthening of the hearts of 
 the nation. 
 
 As I think of these evils, I am reminded of a story of 
 Lincoln. When he was a young man he witnessed the 
 sale of human beings on the auction block. That custom 
 was warranted by law and was justified from, the pulpit; 
 but the instinctive sense of right and wrong of that young 
 man made it plain to him that it was an outrage, and he 
 said: "If my life is spared I will hit that some time, and I 
 will hit it hard." And Providence permitted him to 
 strike that blow. But he never could have struck it if 
 he had not had back of him the hundreds of thousands of 
 people who made it possible for him to carry out the wish 
 which was in their hearts. 
 
 The doctor has said that we live in an interesting time. 
 Certainly our days are full of interest. We see these dis- 
 agreeable features of our life manifesting themselves in 
 one way or another, and yet it seems to me there is no 
 room for pessimism. We get better all the time. The 
 very spirit of public conscience which makes us resent 
 these conditions is in itself a helpful sign. It means that 
 we must live up to the responsibilities of our day. We 
 have before us a fight which cannot be successfully con- 
 ducted without the aid of every man. It is a hard fight, 
 but it is worth the making because the victory is one that 
 we must win. 
 
 In 1900 I was in Switzerland writing a report for Presi- 
 dent McKinley on the Swiss military- system. One day, 
 in the month of August, a young Swiss ofiQcer, looking at 
 the distant mountains capped with snow and beautiful 
 in the light of the setting sun, said to me: "It is a land 
 worth fighting for." 
 
 Not in the spirit of any desire to meet a powerful foe 
 on our frontier, nor to meet a hostile fleet threatening us 
 with bombardment, but in the spirit of true American 
 democracy and patriotism, in a spirit which recognizes 
 the strength of the evils which are to be overcome, and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 359 
 
 which recognizes the force, the energy, and the sense of 
 duty that is capable of being put into that fight, I beHeve 
 that every American can say to-day, as he thinks of our 
 institutions and our national life: "It is a land worth 
 fighting for."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Thirteenth Annual Convention — Address of President Wm. B. Van 
 Rensselaer — Report on the Attempted Repeal of the Franchise 
 Tax — Address on New York City's Credit by Mr. Frank A. Van- 
 derlip — Professor Taussig's Address on " Reform in Currency/' 
 
 l^T THE opening of the Thirteenth Annual Conven- 
 /-^ tion, held on May 9, 1906, President William Bay- 
 "** ard Van Rensselaer welcomed the delegates in the 
 following words : 
 
 PRESIDENT WILLIAM B. VAN RENSSELAER's ADDRESS 
 
 In this address I intend to refrain from trespassing in 
 any way on the reports that will follow in the due course 
 of our business; but I am sure it will be interesting to 
 you all to hear that on January i, 1906, the one hundred 
 and thirty (130) Savings Banks of this State had 2,669,779 
 open accounts, a gain for the past year of 126,247, Also, 
 that during the year 1905, the amount due depositors 
 from the Savings Banks of this State has increased over 
 $93,000,000. While this growth is very much larger than 
 that in any previous year, yet the surplus computed on 
 the market value of investments has increased during the 
 past year less than $600,000. 
 
 On the floor of the Senate in Albany this winter. Sen- 
 ator Lewis made a statement in his speech against the 
 repeal of the tax on the franchise of Savings Banks that in 
 1901, the year in which the tax was imposed, the surplus 
 of Savings Banks of the State was about $70,000,000 and 
 now amounts to over $85,000,000. This, he said, proved 
 that the tax was no burden to the banks. While these 
 figures are correct, so far as the par value of the suq^lus 
 
 360
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 361 
 
 is concerned, yet we all know that the par value of the 
 surplus does not represent the real value, and that we pay- 
 little attention to the par value except in connection with 
 the tax. Let me give the actual conditions. 
 
 On January i, 1901, the amount due depositors was 
 $947,139,638.90. The surplus computed on the market 
 value of the assets at that time was $118,294,674.25. 
 This represents about twelve and one half per cent, of the 
 deposits. 
 
 On January i, 1906, the amount due depositors was 
 $1,292,358,866.96. The surplus computed on the market 
 value of the assets was $112,834,424.92, which represents 
 eight and seven tenths per cent, of the deposits; a shrink- 
 age in percentage of from twelve and one half to eight and 
 seven tenths per cent. This market value of the surplus 
 was then nearly $5,500,000 less than the amount held by 
 the banks before the tax was imposed. During this 
 period (and including what must be paid July ist) the 
 tax amounts to over four and one half millions of dollars. 
 
 The Chairman of the Executive Committee will report 
 what has been done in the effort to repeal the Franchise 
 Tax, and it will be for you to decide whether it is desir- 
 able and good policy to continue this work. I am thor- 
 oughly convinced that it would be a mistake to do so, if it 
 necessitates the dragging of our Association into party 
 politics. We should keep as free in the future as we have 
 in the past from allying ourselves with any political party. 
 Should the Savings Banks Association endorse either of 
 the political parties because that party has given or 
 promises to give pledges to repeal the Franchise Tax, I 
 think it would make a great blunder and would endanger 
 the continuance of the Association itself. As Savings 
 Banks generally expect to hold to maturity the securities 
 they buy, the par value of the assets is of little concern; so 
 also is the market value, unless they have occasion to sell 
 securities. But the real interest and vital question is to be 
 sure that the securities are carried on the basis at which 
 they were purchased, so that the premiums paid on the
 
 362 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 purchase of securities shall be credited back to the prin- 
 cipal account before the maturity of the bonds. The 
 Executive Committee will make important recommenda- 
 tions on this subject which I hope will be thoroughly dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 The Executive Committee will also report why it was 
 necessary to amend the General Investment Law this 
 year. It is believed that the law is now as nearly perfect 
 as it is possible to be made, and I hope that our Association 
 will not have to ask the Legislature to further amend this 
 law, but, on the contrary, will be able to prevent its 
 amendment by other interests. 
 
 As an Association we took no part in the agitation 
 regarding the substitution of a recording tax instead of an 
 annual tax on mortgages;. but, if this bill is signed by the 
 Governor, I believe it will be a great improvement on the 
 present law and will be of great benefit to the Savings 
 Banks as well as to the real estate interests of the State. 
 
 REPORT ON FRANCHISE TAX 
 
 The following report on the Franchise Tax was read 
 by Mr. Wm. H. S. Wood, Chairman of the Committee: 
 
 We find that very many men throughout the State do 
 not understand why a tax should not be levied upon Sav- 
 ings Banks in the State of New York when they are so 
 universally imposed in other States ; and few take the time 
 and trouble necessary to investigate the Savings Bank 
 laws, especially of the New England States, which differ 
 so radically from those of the State of New Y^ork, in the 
 comparative freedom of investment which they permit, 
 and which enable the Savings Banks in these States to 
 earn a larger income than those of the State of New York. 
 
 For the second time the Legislature has adjourned and 
 we have failed in accomplishing our purpose. To any 
 one who has followed the course of legislative proceedings 
 the past two years it is plainly manifest that our failure
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 363 
 
 to pass our bill has been in consequence of the split in the 
 dominant political party which at present controls the 
 Legislature of the State; and the failure of our Repeal 
 Bill this year was clearly the result of such fractional 
 contest. 
 
 From the opening of the Legislature in January last 
 everything seemed to promise favorable action for us, 
 but nearly at the close of the session the bitter feeling, 
 which had been growing, culminated in a personal attack 
 upon the proposer of the Franchise Tax Repeal Bill, and 
 it was consequently finally killed beyond resurrection at 
 this time. 
 
 Your Committee believes that the Association should 
 continue the fight ; a personal canvass of its members shows 
 an almost unanimous judgment in this direction. This 
 tax is the first serious attack upon the money of the poor 
 of the State, held as a sacred tnist by the Savings Banks; 
 we have no right to shirk the responsibility they have 
 reposed in us. The poor, whose money we hold, cannot 
 organize and fight for their rights; we can, and it is our 
 duty to protect them. Consequently, your Committee 
 respectfully recommends to the Association that the con- 
 test be carried on until success crowns our efforts. 
 
 NEW YORK city's CREDIT 
 
 The following address was given by Mr. Frank A. 
 Vanderlip, Vice-President of the National City Bank, 
 New York: 
 
 Such a meeting as this, of Savings Bank officials, 
 offers a peculiarly appropriate place to discuss the credit 
 of the City of New York. The institutions you represent 
 hold not less than $122,000,000 of the debt obligations of 
 this city. These bonds have been regarded as eminently 
 safe and as a proper security for the investment of trust 
 funds. Trustees have looked upon city bonds as U secur- 
 ity against which no criticism could properly be raised.
 
 364 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 New York people have had such high regard for New York 
 City bonds that in the main the entire outstanding in- 
 debtedness is held within the city itself. 
 
 There is, then, ample reason why there should be among 
 such a body of men as is gathered here no misconceptions 
 about the credit of the City of New York. There should 
 be no errors of judgment concerning the safety of the 
 city's obligations. There should be no lack of informa- 
 tion in regard to the essential conditions surrounding the 
 security. There should be a clear comprehension of the 
 purposes for which this debt is created, and of the means 
 which have been taken to insure its redemption. 
 
 The conceptions of all of us are largely influenced by 
 newspaper headlines. Any one whose opinions are so 
 shaped must recently have come to the conclusion that 
 there is something radically wrong with the financial 
 position of New York. During the last few weeks we 
 have repeatedly read of the legacy of $700,000,000 or 
 more of indebtedness which Mayor McClellan is likely to 
 leave to his successor. It has been pointed out that the 
 debt of the city during the seven years since its consoli- 
 dation has increased from $225,000,000 to more than 
 $600,000,000. We have been adjured that municipal 
 expenditures must cease. We have been warned that we 
 are already close to the debt limit. It has been pointed 
 out that the city has been piling up debt obligations at the 
 rate of more than $1,000,000 a week for future adminis- 
 trations to deal with, and that soon expenditure must 
 halt, perforce, because the constitutional limit of maxi- 
 mum lawful indebtedness will be reached. It is not 
 alone in newspaper headlines, however, that basis is to 
 be found for pessimistic views regarding the credit of 
 New Yorji City. The combined judgment of investors, 
 as reflected in the market quotations for New York City 
 bonds, has been telling a disturbing story. Some years 
 ago the city was able to float $9,000,000 of bonds bearing 
 two and one half per cent, interest, and sell them at par 
 or above. Then its credit position changed. It was
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 365 
 
 forced to issue three per cent, bonds, then three and one 
 half per cent., and recently it has found it no longer 
 possible to put out three and one half per cent, bonds and 
 the rate has been advanced to four per cent., a rate beyond 
 which the charter limitations will not permit the city to 
 borrow money. These four per cent, bonds were sold at 
 a premium, but the market has not been buoyant, and 
 the pessimists believe the next issue offered will probably 
 go for a less premium than did the recent issue. This 
 changed condition, this increasingly unfavorable basis 
 upon which the city is forced to sell its bonds, is of course 
 due in some measure to a changed situation in the money 
 market itseK. The rate for money, however, by no means 
 fully accounts for the present state of the market's meas- 
 ure of the city's credit. There are to-day many railroad 
 bonds selling at higher prices than the bonds of the City 
 of New York, although the railroad bonds possess none of 
 the extremely favorable tax exemption features which city 
 bonds have. 
 
 Why is this? What is the reason that this imperial 
 city, growing as is no other city in the world in numbers 
 and in wealth, finds its obhgations regarded by investors 
 with increasing disfavor? The city has a record of ab- 
 solutely unbroken pledges ; no investor was ever forced to 
 wait a day for payments due from it. 
 
 Sinking funds have been established which will pro- 
 vide for the redemption of every outstanding security. 
 The continuity of the city's finances is well illustrated by 
 the fact that some of these sinking funds date back for 
 their authorization to the laws of 1844. Through all the 
 changes of municipal life since that time the pledges of 
 these sinking funds have been kept inviolate. Indeed, 
 the chief concern about some of the sinking funds has 
 been the problem of handling a surplus vastly greater 
 than the early city administrators reckoned as possible, 
 and far greater than the requirements of the fund. Much 
 of the new indebtedness of recent years has been issued to 
 pay for municipal undertakings which have been distinct
 
 366 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 financial successes. A great sum has been spent for 
 rapid transit, and the vital problem of the subway to-day 
 is connected with the efforts to handle a traffic larger than 
 the most enthusiastic projectors of the tunnel imagined 
 possible. 
 
 In view of all these facts, this declining state of public 
 credit would seem then to be more than an ordinary 
 financial puzzle. Where shall we look for the answer? 
 The answer is to be found in a single fact. The sole basis 
 for an unfavorable view of the credit of the City of New- 
 York lies in the lack of a clear understanding of the true 
 strength of New York's financial position. A careful 
 analysis of the finances of the city and a fair appreciation 
 of the political considerations affecting the city's credit 
 must lead one to the conclusion that the growing disfavor 
 which in recent days investors have shown toward city 
 obligations is unwarranted. 
 
 The results of an exhaustive examination of that sort 
 cannot, of course, be set forth in the limits of a brief 
 address. We may, however, look at some of the main 
 points against which criticism is leveled. There is a 
 popular conception that the debt of the city has about 
 reached $700,000,000. That figure is compared in the 
 public mind with the total interest-bearing debt of the 
 United States which stands at less than $900,000,000 or 
 $11 per capita, and the comparison is fatal to a reputation 
 for conservatism on the part of city administrators. W^e 
 forget in the first place that the debt of the United States, 
 being abnormally small, offers no fair comparison. The 
 debt of France, for instance, is $150 per capita, yet 
 French rentes sell on a three per cent, basis. 
 
 This great total of $700,000,000 of city indebtedness, 
 however, will fade away in rather a surprising manner 
 under the light of a little analysis. It is true that the 
 actual figures of outstanding obUgations are to-day about 
 $625,000,000, and there will certainly be further issues of 
 bonds during this year. The $700,000,000 total, there- 
 fore, would not at first glance seem to be far away.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 367 
 
 Taking the situation at the beginning of the present 
 year, that being the latest date for which detaU figures can 
 be had, we find the gross funded debt standing at just 
 $600,000,000. We must at once cut off $170,000,000 
 from that, however, for the city holds that amount of its 
 own bonds in its own treasury to the credit of the various 
 sinking funds. A total of $430,000,000 of outstanding 
 funded debt does not look so great for a city of 4,000,000 
 people, but that amount may still be reduced. We may 
 now make a further reduction of $135,000,000 of bonds, 
 for the payment of which specific revenues were pledged 
 long before the creation of Greater New York. These 
 revenues are to-day much larger than are necessary for 
 the purpose, and no taxpayer will be called upon to con- 
 tribute, by direct taxation, one doUar for their redemption. 
 That brings our total down to $295,000,000, but we may 
 make further reductions. Of that amount $46,000,000 
 bonds were issued to provide funds to build the subway. 
 No one doubts that the rapid transit property is valuable 
 enough to take care of that obligation. No one believes 
 that there is need for these bonds to become a direct bur- 
 den upon taxpayers. This brings us down to $249,000,000, 
 but this $249,000,000 of obligations was not incurred 
 without a great increase of the city's real property. There 
 has been value received. There is included in that total 
 bonds issued for dock "purposes. The income from the 
 city's docks to-day produces a net return equal to paying 
 the interest on $50,000,000 of dock bonds and providing 
 fully for a sinking fund for their retirement. There are 
 then materially less than $250,000,000 of bonds, the in- 
 terest and sinking fund requirements of which must be 
 provided for by direct taxation. 
 
 That is the real debt whose burden is felt by the tax- 
 payers. It is only one third of the sum that is featured 
 in the newspaper headlines and is in the public mind. It 
 ought to be regarded as a small obligation for a city of 
 such resources and with such a population. 
 
 Let us look for a moment at the other side of the ac-
 
 368 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 count. What is the character of the municipal corpo- 
 ration that has created this debt and pledged it its faith 
 and credit for its payment? In intelligence and financial 
 integrity surely it is a community which can challenge 
 comparison. The increase of the city debt may have 
 been rapid, but nowhere else on earth, at any time in 
 histor>% can be found so great an increase in the value of 
 property as has been recorded here in the last half-dozen 
 years. Nowhere else is there a city growing so fast in 
 numbers, and nowhere else are building activities so great 
 or so substantial. If we regard the city's obligations as 
 large, let us look at the income. The income of the City 
 of New York to-day is one sixth of the income of the 
 National Government. The revenue of New York City 
 to-day is greater than had been the revenue of the whole 
 National Government in any year in its history up to 
 1864. One sixth of the entire banking resources of the 
 nation is centred in this city. We have here the finan- 
 cial centre of the country, and in any real crisis vitally 
 concerning the financial integrity of the city's obligations, 
 the potent weight of sound financial judgment that would 
 be developed would be overwhelming. But it may be 
 argued that there are socialistic tendencies in politics 
 and graft in public life, and that New York City offers 
 flourishing examples of both developments. If one granted 
 all that and admitted that their manifestations may 
 become tenfold what they are to-day, I believe there 
 would still be absolute security behind the city's bond 
 issues. Let the man who questions the strength of a 
 New York City bond study the charter provisions of 
 Greater New York. He will be surprised at the safe- 
 guards which have been irrevocably thrown about the 
 integrity of the city's obligations. W^e learned our lessons 
 from the Tweed Ring. There is about the same relative 
 comparison between the ease with which the city could 
 be robbed in the early seventies and the difficulties in the 
 way of municipal dishonesty to-day that there is between 
 the ease with which a burglar could open the ordinary
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 369 
 
 tin box of an investor and the difificulties which he would 
 meet in trying to enter one of our modern armor-plate 
 vaults with its series of time locks and electrical protection. 
 
 It is true, I presume, that there is a graft to-day. The 
 expenditure of some of the money that has been raised 
 from these issues of the city's obligations has, in some in- 
 stances, been unwise, in some extravagant, in some dis- 
 honest. Granting the very worst of all that, however, 
 we still have a situation in wliich the city's integrity is 
 safeguarded by charter provisions of such character that 
 the city's obligations are among the most secure of those 
 issued by any body politic in the world. 
 
 There is not time here to detail these charter provisions, 
 but I am certain if there is any one among you who is 
 timid about the effect of future political upheavals upon 
 New York City's financial integrity, he will be surprised, 
 upon studying this subject, to learn how completely the 
 city's credit has been guarded from being wrecked by any 
 temporary waves of politics. Not a bond can be issued 
 unless the authorities at the same time provide a tax which 
 will pay its interest and maintain an adequate sinking 
 fund for redemption. No subsequent administration can 
 fail to levy sufficient taxes to meet that service. The 
 accounts of each sinking fund are kept separate and dis- 
 tinct, and the rights of the holders of the various issues 
 are strictly preserved. 
 
 Between the city and its creditors the charter has 
 declared that there is an absolute contract that the sinking 
 funds shall be maintained and no administration could, 
 however radical its wishes, change the nature of that con- 
 tract, nor fail to provide resources for the sinking funds. 
 
 Perhaps some of you are afraid of the socialistic ten- 
 dencies of the day. Personally, I think there is much 
 less to fear from any prospective radical political devel- 
 opment than some timid financiers imagine. I am op- 
 timistic about integrity. Most people are honest and 
 most parties are honest. There is no radical political 
 condition that I can imagine that will fundamentally
 
 370 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 affect the security of a New York City bond. A social- 
 istic victory might sentimentally affect it, although I do 
 not believe that any socialistic party which will be evolved 
 in New York will really aim to do that. But taking the 
 most pessimistic view of the political outlook, supposing 
 that men should be elected to administer the city's affairs 
 whose aims were calculated to destroy the city's credit, 
 they would find that credit entrenched behind a bulwark 
 of constitutional limitations and charter rights which 
 would prove effective safeguards for protecting the inter- 
 ests of every investor in a New York City obligation. 
 
 Coming now to the ability of New York to support 
 without undue burden the present or probable financial 
 debt, I believe it needs but the most casual knowledge of 
 the city to leave no doubt on that score. The growth of 
 this city is among the certainties of the future. The 
 United States Government Actuary tells me that I may 
 quote his unqualified opinion that Greater New York 
 will have, when the recent issue of four per cent, bonds 
 mature, a population of 8,500,00c, and, judging by recent 
 records, wealth will grow far faster than the population. 
 Is there much doubt that such a city can discharge its 
 obligations? 
 
 I believe one of the great mistakes of city financiering 
 has been the issue of long-term bonds during this period 
 of depressed municipal credit. Not many years ago the 
 city sold two and one half per cent, bonds at par. I will 
 make a prediction. Before ten years more have passed, 
 and in the event of the realization of certain contingencies 
 toward which conditions seem now inevitably working, 
 the recently issued fifty-year four per cent, bonds of the 
 City of New York will sell at 125. The contingencies by 
 which I Umit this prediction are these: There will, I 
 believe, be a rapidly widening market for New York's 
 securities. Strong boxes of this city will not in the future 
 contain all of these obligations. With a wider under- 
 standing of their strength and an appreciation of their 
 attractive return, I see no reason why we should not
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 371 
 
 come to have an international market for them. With a 
 broadening market will come a marked appreciation in 
 price, but the time will eventually come when the city 
 will cease floating new issues with the rapidity which has 
 been recently characteristic. There will be quick market 
 response to an escape from the pressure of new bonds, but 
 the suspension of new issues will be followed by another 
 influence which is certain to have a most buoyant effect 
 on prices. If new issues should cease either as a result 
 of reaching the constitutional debt limit or from other 
 reasons, the demands for the sinking funds must then be 
 met in the open market. Under these conditions, with 
 even a part of the income of the sinking funds used in the 
 purchase of bonds in the open market, I believe we would 
 have a situation that would parallel the market position 
 of British consols when those low-rate securities sold at 
 113 just prior to the Boer War. If these various con- 
 tingencies eventuate, the figure of 125 which I have 
 named as a market measure of the four per cent, bonds 
 will be well within the actual facts. 
 
 Under such conditions the city ought now to be issuing 
 short-time obligations and not burdening future gener- 
 ations which wiU more clearly understand the true strength 
 of her credit with long-term high-rate bonds. There is, 
 I believe, one important reason why there has been 
 a failure to comprehend the true merit of New York 
 City's obligations. That reason is to be found in the 
 method of municipal bookkeeping. Improvements were 
 made in restating the annual report under the adminis- 
 tration of Comptroller Grout. There is to-day the grav- 
 est demand for improvements in bookkeeping methods 
 of the Comptroller's office. Fortunately that situation 
 is clearly seen by the present Comptroller. It is a fact 
 that to-day there is no true balance sheet of the City of 
 New York. Its so-called balance sheet contains mean- 
 ingless credits that have been improperly carried year by 
 year since their disgraceful birth in the corruption of the 
 Tweed Ring. In none of the reports of the Comptroller
 
 372 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 is it possible to obtain in succinct form an intelligent view 
 of the city's true financial position. Here is this great 
 metropolis, with its income well exceeding $100,000,000 
 annually, undertaking vast public works, issuing millions 
 upon millions of obligations, and presenting a system of 
 municipal accounts that have, even with the improve- 
 ments already inaugurated, been brought to a point that 
 is not much short of chaotic. 
 
 One of the greatest opportunities to do a public service 
 existing anywhere to-day lies in the position of the Comp- 
 troller of the City of New York. The demands of that 
 position fall but little short in realimportanceof those of the 
 position of chief finance minister of the nation. In the finan- 
 cial world the position should be regarded as a close second 
 in dignity and recognized responsibility to the Treasury 
 portfolio itself. There is the opportunity for the genius 
 of a Hamilton in reforming the accounting methods and 
 presenting to the public a true report of the business of 
 this city. It is a fortunate thing that the position of 
 Comptroller carries with it a centralized power that makes 
 it possible quickly to obtain effective results. It is for- 
 tunate, too, and some of you may be surprised at this 
 statement, that there are among the old employees of the 
 Comptroller's office a number of men who for ability, 
 loyalty, and devotion to their work, and for unselfishness 
 of motives, may well challenge comparison with the staff 
 of any financial institution in this city. Above all, it is 
 extremely fortunate that the position of Comptroller is 
 to-day filled by a man who recognizes with remarkable 
 clearness the exact situation surrounding the city's credit 
 and who has the force and energy that gives every promise 
 that greater improvement will be wrought. 
 
 I am, then, optimistic about New York City's credit. 
 There is the foundation here to support with ease and 
 certain security the structure that has been raised. There 
 are safeguards in constitution and charter which absolutely 
 remove the city's credit from any danger of passing politi- 
 cal whim. The system of centralized responsibility which
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 373 
 
 the charter provides has completely removed the city's 
 credit from the possible danger of attack by a corrupt 
 and irresponsible ring. There have been provided sinking 
 funds ample to insure the steady redemption of outstand- 
 ing obligations. The earlier sinking funds are unscien- 
 tific, but the mistakes have been on the side of supplying 
 too much rather than too little revenue for their purposes. 
 We need only a better understanding of the true strength 
 of New York City's obligations. When we have that the 
 market quotation of a New York City bond will be one of 
 the city's worthiest monuments. 
 
 REFORM IN CURRENCY AND BANKING WITH REFERENCE TO 
 
 CRISES 
 
 The following address was given by Professor Taussig, 
 of Harvard University: 
 
 We have heard much of late of the desirability of an 
 elastic currency as a means of preventing disturbances in 
 the money market, and of alleviating, if not preventing, 
 commercial crises. I propose to say something as to the 
 relation between elastic issues and the prevention of 
 crises, and to say something also as to the general condi- 
 tions of banking by which crises can be prevented or made 
 less acute. 
 
 The proposals now current for elastic note issues rest 
 largely on the experiences of our last great crisis, that of 
 1893. Then, it will be remembered, there was an extraor- 
 dinary demand for cash. That demand was so intense 
 and so indiscriminating that people were eager to secure 
 the very greenbacks and silver certificates whose possible 
 depreciation under a silver standard was the prime cause 
 of the panic. All sorts of curious devices for eking out 
 scarcity of currency were then resorted to, and the cir- 
 cumstances seemed to indicate clearly the need of some 
 means of providing an additional supply of cash in times 
 of panic. Similar phenomena have shown themselves at
 
 374 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 other times and in other countries than our own, very 
 strikingly during the panic of 1873 in this country, and 
 that of 1857 in England. 
 
 Before proceeding to consider what may be the needs 
 and remedies in times of a general financial crisis, let me 
 say a word as to another emergency for which an elastic 
 currency is sometimes desired. This is the not infrequent 
 high rate of interest for demand loans, showing itself 
 conspicuously in the rate for call money on the Stock 
 Exchange. So far as this sort of situation is concerned, 
 I may confess at once to a doubt whether legislation or 
 any sort of curative measure is called for. If the specula- 
 tive fraternity alone is affected, matters may be allowed 
 to take their course without further concern by the public. 
 And, as a rule, I take it, it is the speculative fraternity 
 which alone is affected. Even when call money rules 
 high, time money and loans to the general business public 
 are usually little disturbed. So far as Stock Exchange 
 dealers and speculators are concerned, the pressure of 
 high rates for loans is a useful brake. Recurrent high 
 rates seem to be necessary, in order to prevent gambling 
 from being carried to the extreme of unbridled speculation. 
 
 The really serious situation arises when merchants and 
 the business community generally feel the effects of the 
 pressure. Even in this case a rising rate of interest and a 
 difficulty in procuring all the advances wanted are not 
 necessarily bad signs. The business community gener- 
 ally, not less than the Stock Exchange, may be affected 
 by the virus of speculation, and the demand for means 
 to make purchases and maintain feverish activity may be 
 checked in a healthful way by a rising charge for loans. 
 A general high rate of interest under these conditions is, 
 on the one hand, a result of activity in business, and, on 
 the other hand, a useful check to its undue extension. 
 
 When, however, conditions of panic set in for the busi- 
 ness community at large the case is dijfferento WTien 
 ready means, immediate command of cash, are wanted 
 because there is general uneasiness on account of the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 375 
 
 general conditions of credit; when not only brokers and 
 speculators, but merchants and manufacturers and dealers, 
 are anxious as to the future; when there is danger of col- 
 lapse and indiscriminate ruin; then the situation calls for 
 a remedy. What remedy shall be applied? And what 
 is to be said as to an elastic currency? 
 
 Here I would distinguish between two kinds of demand 
 which appear in time of crises: on the one hand, a demand 
 for cash, and, on the other hand, a demand for accommoda- 
 tion. These are not the same. They rest on different 
 causes and call for different remedies. I may say at once, 
 by way of indicating my general conclusions, that the de- 
 mand for accommodation seems to be the more important, 
 and that, given the means for meeting this, measures for 
 elasticity in the currency can be really dispensed with. 
 
 Consider for a moment what is the nature of the demand 
 for cash in times of crisis. It is strictly an abnormal and 
 artificial demand. It rests upon no need of money for 
 actual use. There are no more payments to be made than 
 usual. The cash which individuals call for under those 
 circumstances is in reality a nuisance to them, not con- 
 venience. It must be locked away and stored and looked 
 after. The call for it is simply the result of a general 
 shock of confidence, and especially of a loss of confidence 
 in banking institutions. If every one were assured that 
 he could get his cash from the bank whenever he wanted 
 it, he would much prefer to leave it on deposit rather than 
 to withdraw it. The universal experience is that when 
 once the acute stage of a crisis is over, the cash which 
 has been so insistently called for reappears in the usual 
 depositories and shortly becomes as redundant as before 
 it was scarce. 
 
 If indeed this stage of collapse of confidence has once 
 been reached, it is possible that some device for an emer- 
 gency money issue may be helpful. Virtually, this is what 
 the Bank of England does when the bank act is suspended. 
 The suspension of the act puts at the disposal of the bank 
 an unlimited amount of virtually legal tender cash. Even
 
 376 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 then it is not the actual issue of such cash, but the cer- 
 tainty that it can be had when wanted which allays the 
 feelings of panic. I am by no means sure that any legis- 
 lative device which we could adopt in the United States 
 would have the same effect. The proposals commonly 
 put forth look to a comparatively small extension of the 
 bank-note circulation, which is already small. If there 
 arises a general alarm among the depositors and customers 
 of banks, I am by no means sure that a privilege of addi- 
 tional note issue will prove an effective remedy. 
 
 But in any case such a remedy can be only in the nature 
 of a palliative. It rnay in some degree counteract the 
 results of alarm in panic. But it cannot act as a pre- 
 ventive. Indeed, the regular and repeated exercise of 
 a power of additional issue, during the cycle of activity 
 and speculation which precedes the commercial panic, 
 will foment rather than allay the causes of disturbances. 
 Other means of prevention must be looked to, and these 
 means of prevention can be found by satisfying that 
 demand for accommodation to which I referred, and of 
 which something more may now be said. The demand 
 for accommodation seems to me to indicate the real and 
 fundamental need. It is the desire to be taken care of; to 
 have assurances for the present and for the immediate 
 future. In all times of uncertainty, most of all in times 
 of acute crises, merchants and business men need to be 
 safeguarded against accidental or unjustified insolvency. 
 Their debts are recurrently coming due, their credits, on the 
 other hand — the debts due to them — are more or less 
 uncertain. A concern whose affairs are in good condition 
 may be unable to meet its immediate liabilities simply 
 because its quick assets are for the moment not available. 
 If there be certaint}^ that the banks are willing and able 
 to make advances to firms in this situation, their real 
 demands are met. Such certainty is the one effective 
 agency in preventing universal panic. It cannot be too 
 much insisted on that it is the accommodation, not cash, 
 which is then wanted from the banks.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 377 
 
 Now accommodation can be granted by the banks only 
 if they are secure in their own position. They must not 
 themselves be involved in risky enterprises. Least of all 
 should they be heavily committed toward any one venture 
 of an uncertain character. They must have confidence 
 in themselves, and they must have the confidence of the 
 business community. They must be in a position in 
 which they do not need to look out for themselves, and 
 in which they are able to look out for their customers. 
 And they must not only be able thus to serve their cus- 
 tomers, but they must have earned the respect and con- 
 fidence of the business community in such degree that 
 every one believes them able to do so. 
 
 This general feeling of confidence can rest only upon 
 continued careful and conservative management in the 
 past. It cannot be secured if banks are known to be in- 
 volved in large new ventures, if they are closely related 
 with financial and investment concerns which are pro- 
 moting risky enterprises, or if individuals who are domi- 
 nant in their management are known to have other and 
 more pressing interests than those of the bank proper. 
 Ideally, the commercial bank is in a judicial position, 
 standing aloof from other business than that of banking 
 proper. It lends only on sound security, or to individ- 
 uals whose affairs are satisfactorily known in their full 
 extent. It distributes its loans over a large part of the 
 business community. Never puts too many eggs in one 
 basket, and marshals its advances so that they shall become 
 due in proper succession. It keeps a strong reserve of cash. 
 It is free at any time to make additional loans, and is able 
 to respond to all reasonable requests for accommodation 
 from sound borrowers. Such is the kind of management 
 contemplated in our national banking system, and pro- 
 vided for by the details of its legislation. 
 
 Now in this regard the banking situation in the United 
 States seems to have changed, and changed for the worse in 
 the last ten or twenty years. The old ideal of a strictly 
 commercial bank, having its semi- judicial policy and
 
 378 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 consequent prestige, seems to be passing away. The 
 tendency is for a combination of various kinds of banking 
 operations in one hand or in one set of hands. 
 
 National banks and State banks doing a similar busi- 
 ness are closely associated with investment houses, with 
 the large private banking firms that undertake to promote 
 and finance great ventures in new business fields, with trust 
 companies that carry on a very wide range of financial 
 operations, and with individuals whose primary interest 
 is not in banking but in independent enterprises of their 
 ow^n. The great development of the trust companies 
 in the last two decades seems to be the most important 
 cause of this change in the general situation. On the 
 one hand, they are competitors of the banks in a business 
 which was formerly that of banks alone; on the other hand, 
 the example which they have set of earning large profits 
 by a combination of various financial operations has 
 tempted the banks to follow in the sam.e path. 
 
 Not so very long ago something like a division of labor 
 was traditional as to the various sorts of banking oper- 
 ations. Thus there were commercial banks proper, of 
 which our national banks are one type, and the joint stock 
 banks of Great Britain are another; there was the financing 
 and investment concerns, which promoted new enterprises, 
 floated their securities, and had their assets committed 
 to great manufacturing or mining or trading ventures; 
 there were the private banks and trust companies, which 
 acted as agents for persons of means, and did a semi-legal 
 trust business; there were the foreign exchange houses 
 and those who made commercial advances in connection 
 with foreign trade; finally there were the pure Savings 
 Banks, not doing anything except to invest the accumu- 
 lations of a multitude of persons of small means. 
 
 There has been a growing tendency during the genera- 
 tion just past to combine all, or almost all of these opera- 
 tions in one great banking institution, similar to the 
 tendency which has shown itself toward the combination 
 in one great concern of various kinds of manufacturing or
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 379 
 
 mercantile activity. It has shown itself as markedly on 
 the continent of Europe as in the United States. More 
 particularly the great German banks show a striking 
 combination of diverse operations conducted on a very 
 large scale by a few powerful banks. In the United States 
 the large trust companies of the seaboard and the centre 
 of the country illustrate the same sort of development. 
 
 Such widespread operations bring the chance of great 
 gains. They mean economy in the direct expenses of 
 management. They enable one part of the concern's opera- 
 tions to interlock with the other parts, and make it pos- 
 sible, and apparently easy, to earn two or three profits 
 instead of one. But they mean also greater risks and 
 greater commitments. There is a chance of making more 
 money, but there is also a certainty of a greater locking up 
 of capital. There is less easy command of free resources, 
 greater danger of embarrassment if the unexpected hap- 
 pens. The process tends to mean less cash on hand, less 
 reserve, less ability to meet sudden demands. Even 
 when it is not directly engaged in a wide range of opera- 
 tions, it is often so closely associated with the trust com- 
 pany or banking firm undertaking them that to all intents 
 and purposes its resources are locked up in the same way. 
 
 These tendencies seem to me to bring peculiar dangers 
 in the United States. In Europe its dangers are in large 
 degrees counteracted by the position of the great state 
 banks, such as the Bank of England, the Bank of France, 
 and the Imperial Bank of Germany. These have pre- 
 cisely the judicial position, the aloofness from current 
 business operations, which I have described as the ideal 
 for a commercial bank. They stand above the general 
 banking and commercial community. They have un- 
 limited prestige ; they cannot fail unless the whole political 
 and business structure collapses. They can always be 
 counted upon to stand in the breach if general ruin 
 threatens. And not only this, but they have a conscious 
 duty tov/ard the public. They may not extend their 
 operations to the point of maximum profit. Whether
 
 38o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 by force of established tradition, as in the case of the 
 Bank of England, or by direct public control of the 
 management, as in the continental countries, they re- 
 strain their operations in such a manner as to keep 
 themselves in a position of absolute safety and power. 
 Such a firm basis for the financial structure we lack in 
 the United States. The Associated Banks of New York 
 in some respects occupy an analogous position, yet ob- 
 viously with much less sense of responsibility and with 
 much less probability of conservative management by the 
 individual institutions. 
 
 I do not look forward with anxiet}' so much to the con- 
 solidation of banking institutions, or to the increase in the 
 size and scope of individual banks, as I do to the combina- 
 tion of various sorts of operations in one concern, and 
 the close affiliation of banks with particular enterprises 
 or particular financing and promoting concerns. It is 
 this tendency to varied operations on a great scale which 
 threatens the stability of the banking community and its 
 possibility of helpfulness to the business community in 
 times of panic. Great capital and large resources in a 
 bank increase its power to grant accommodations and its 
 ability to support and encourage business concerns in 
 time of crisis. But the combination of a wide range of 
 operations, many of them involving serious risks, means 
 that the bank itself may need accommodation. It may 
 have to ask for forbearance, instead of freely offering aid. 
 
 The measures for reform which I should advocate are, 
 therefore, primarily measures which look to accommoda- 
 tion; to prudent management and free resources, rather 
 than to increasing the supply of cash in times of crisis. 
 The means toward this end are partly legislation, but 
 perhaps in even a greater degree improvements in the 
 traditions and customs of the banking community. 
 
 I . So far as legislation is concerned, more stringent regu- 
 lation of the business of trust companies and other bank- 
 ing institutions under State charters is called for. The 
 State banks and trust companies should be called on to
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 381 
 
 keep larger cash reserves, should make more frequent and 
 explicit reports of their condition, and should be subjected 
 to more careful and rigid examination. Especially in the 
 State of New York, and with reference to the conditions 
 of the metropolis, there is need of more stringent legisla- 
 tion in regard to the State banks and trust companies. 
 So long as they are allowed to carry on their operations 
 with the very smallest supplies of cash it is possible to get 
 on with, and to keep almost the whole of their reserves in 
 the coffers of the national banks, the virtual liabilities of 
 the banks are vastly inflated, and at the same time the 
 combination of trust companies and banks into one chain 
 of united interests is almost inevitable. 
 
 2. The national banks themselves should be given 
 greater opportunities for profit. Any peculiar profit to 
 them can arise only out of note issue. In other respects 
 they have no advantage over State concerns, and are at a 
 disadvantage from the heavier requirements of the Na- 
 tional Banking Act. It has been abundantly proved in 
 the discussions of recent years that a more liberal scheme 
 of note issues can be arranged, especially for banks of 
 sufficiently large capital, with abundant security for the 
 notes, and yet with sufficient profit to make a national 
 charter of substantial advantage. 
 
 3. It may be Utopian to expect a sense of duty to be 
 maintained or strengthened in the face of opportunities 
 for great profit. Yet I hope that more vivid realization 
 of the public importance of their operations may affect 
 the policy of those in charge of our great banking insti- 
 tutions. Can we not nurture something like a sense of 
 professional ethics among the bankers, analogous to that 
 which the physicians and the lawyers maintain for their 
 professions? May it not be understood that a bank's 
 operations have an important part in promoting the sober 
 conduct of industry and discouraging rash enterprises? 
 And may it not be recognized that it is part of the banker's 
 duty to keep his affairs in such condition that he can grant 
 accommodation and support in times of peril?
 
 382 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 4. The development of such a spirit among the banks 
 depends in no small degree upon whether the community 
 appreciates it. There will always be differences in spirit 
 and temper among the banking institutions. Some will 
 be conservative, some will be rash. Some will be known 
 to keep their affairs within the limits of safety; some will 
 be known to launch boldly on dangerous operations. The 
 more the business community keeps its accounts with 
 strong and prudent concerns, and the more it resists the 
 blandishments and the seductive offers of the more specu- 
 lative institutions, the sounder will be the general situation. 
 Such institutions as Savings Banks seem to me have a 
 peculiar duty to do what is in their power to encourage 
 careful and farsighted banking. 
 
 5. I have referred to the dangers which arise from the 
 combination in one institution of a great variety of opera- 
 tions. It is not an easy matter to check this tendency 
 directly by legislation; for restrictions are not easy to 
 frame, and still less easy to enforce after being framed. 
 In one direction, however, a separation of the different 
 sorts of operations can be brought about with comparative 
 ease, and can be enforced by legislation. This is with 
 regard to savings deposits. The addition of a savings 
 department to the operations of a bank or trust company 
 which carries on a great variety of financial operations 
 brings some peculiar dangers. On the one hand, a great 
 mass of funds is offered for permanent investment, and 
 the temptation is strong to place them in enterprises con- 
 nected with the other operations of the bank. They are 
 thus locked up in new and more or less uncertain ventures, 
 and are made the means of promoting enterprises involving 
 much greater risk than the small investor means to take, 
 or ought to take. On the other hand, depositors of this 
 class are specially liable to panic, and may bring uncon- 
 trollable pressure in periods of stress. The privilege of 
 delay in paying them under such circumstances, though it 
 may serve to bolster up the individual institution, yet it 
 tends to intensify a general collapse of confidence ; since it
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 383 
 
 is supp>osed, rightly or wrongly, to be an indication of 
 weakness to use the option of delay. The laws of some of 
 our Eastern States, notably Massachusetts and New York, 
 provide for the conduct of Savings Banks as virtually co- 
 operative establishments, divorced completely from other 
 banking operations. Some of the great states of the 
 Central region which have not yet adopted this wise policy 
 are thereby encouraging methods of banking and invest- 
 ment which bring undue hazards for the savings depositors 
 and may bring disastrous consequences in times of panic. 
 
 I need hardly say that in these brief remarks I have 
 considered only a few restricted phases of banking practice 
 and currency reform. So far as elasticity in the currency 
 is concerned, I have said nothing on that phase of the 
 problem which relates to the needs of the agricultural dis- 
 tricts, or to the peculiar effects which ensue under our pres- 
 ent system from the price and yields of U. S. bonds. The 
 strongest ground on which an elastic currency, responsive 
 to the varying conditions of business, can be urged, rests 
 on the seasonal demands of the agricultural regions. But 
 this large and interesting topic lies outside my present 
 subject. I have had in mind one phase only of the de- 
 mand for elasticity, that which looks to the prevention or 
 mitigation of crises. 
 
 To sum up what I have said, my belief is that we cannot 
 look with much hope to any legislation toward elastic money 
 issues as a panacea against panics. At best, freedom of 
 note issue during a panic is only a palliative and a palliative 
 of uncertain effect. There is no certain panacea. Ups and 
 downs of industry are inseparable from the modern indus- 
 trial system, and periods of active prosperity seem certain 
 to be followed by periods of crisis and depression. The 
 chief means by which banks can mitigate the effects of these 
 fluctuations is by prudent and careful management, by the 
 maintenance of a strong and unhampered position for them- 
 selves, by the fostering of right traditions as to the functions 
 and duties of bankers, and by a policy of liberal support and 
 free accommodation in times of incipient panic.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Fourteenth Annual Convention — Sorrow over the Death of Former 
 President John Harsen Rhoades — Memorial of Respect to His 
 Memory — Paper on Bond Investments of Savings Banks by- 
 Mr. Mills — Address on "Mortgages" by Charles L. Stone, of 
 Syracuse — Address of Supt. Charles A. Keep, of the Banking 
 Department — "Amortization," Explained by Mr. Sprague — 
 Bank Advertising and Its Proper Uses. 
 
 THE Association convened in its accustomed place 
 in the City of New York, on May 17, 1907, under 
 circumstances of peculiar sadness, having lost in 
 the interim since the last convention its most highly es- 
 teemed former President, and the real founder of the 
 Association — John Harsen Rhoades. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT VAN RENSSELAER 
 
 In his opening address. President Van Rensselaer feel- 
 ingly referred to the death of Mr. Rhoades as follows: 
 
 Another year has passed since I had the honor of wel- 
 coming you here in this beautiful room. As we take our 
 places to-day there must be a general recognition of the 
 absence of the founder of this Association, Mr. John Harsen 
 Rhoades, and I know you aU feel a sense of sorrow at the 
 thought that he will be with us no more. We owe him a 
 debt of gratitude for bringing us together for mutual pro- 
 tection and for the advancement of aU interests that are 
 beneficial to Savings Banks and to their depositors. 
 
 This Savings Banks Association has taken a prominent 
 position among the eleemosynary institutions of this State 
 
 384
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 385 
 
 and it has proved itself of great benefit to its individual 
 members. 
 
 It gives me the greatest satisfaction in coming to this 
 meeting to-day to be able to feel that the last year has been 
 one of quiet but nevertheless continued prosperity and 
 advancement of our mutual interests. "Happy is the 
 countr>' without a history" may truly for us be para- 
 phrased and let us say : "Happy is the year that is free from 
 controversy, panic, or financial calamity." To go a little 
 into detail during the year 1906 the open accounts on the 
 books of the 135 Savings Banksof this State were 2,685,809, 
 showing an increase of 116,030 accounts. 
 
 The depreciation in the market value of all first-class 
 and conservative investments has been considerable, but 
 as Savings Banks generally expect to hold their invest- 
 ments until maturity, the fluctuation in the market is of 
 small concern. As a matter of fact, this very depreciation 
 enables us now to invest at prices that produce so much 
 more income, that more than half of the banks in this 
 Association on the first of January paid their depositors 
 interest at the rate of four per cent., and probably several 
 more will be able to increase their rate to four per cent, on 
 the next interest day should their trustees consider it a wise 
 policy to do so. 
 
 This demonstrates the importance of keeping our eyes 
 fixed on the amortized value of our securities and not to be 
 worried about their market value. 
 
 The question has again been raised in regard to com- 
 puting the twenty-five per centum of the assets of the 
 bank which may be loaned or invested in railroad bonds. 
 Mr. Kilburn, the former Superintendent of Banks, ruled 
 that the twenty-five per centum must be computed on the 
 basis of the cost of the bonds at the time of purchase ; but 
 the present Superintendent, Mr. Keep, has reversed that 
 ruling, and in a letter to me he says: " I think it tolerably 
 clear that either market value should be the basis of com- 
 putations under the last paragraph of Section 116 or, at 
 any rate, that the principle of amortization should be taken
 
 386 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 into account, and the original investment of the bank in 
 the bonds of a particular company should be considered 
 as reduced year by year by the amount necessary to absorb 
 the premium paid during the life of the bond. The matter 
 is one that might well have the consideration of the Sav- 
 ings Banks Association with a view to reaching a definite 
 understanding." 
 
 The Executive Committee has not had a meeting at 
 which I could submit this letter, but I hope that the new 
 Committee to be elected to-day will take up this question 
 and will prepare an amendment to the present law to be 
 submitted to the Superintendent, and, with his approval, 
 to be introduced in the Legislature next year to definitely 
 settle this matter. 
 
 It was thought best that at this meeting the topics of 
 discussion be confined to Savings Bank interests by Savings 
 Bank men, except the Superintendent of BanJcs, Hon. 
 Charles Harlan Keep, who has consented to be with us and 
 to say a few words. As these topics, I am sure, will be of 
 interest to you, and as the time is short, I shall close my 
 remarks to give longer time for speaking to the very able 
 orators who have kindly consented to discuss these subjects. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEATH OF MR. RHOADES 
 
 A Committee, consisting of Messrs. Mills and Felsinger, 
 which had been appointed to prepare a minute in reference 
 to the death of Mr. Rhoades, reported as follows: 
 
 To the members of the Savings Banks Association of the State 
 
 of New York: 
 
 Gentlemen : It is with deep sorrow that the Executive 
 Committee of the Savings Banks Association is called upon 
 to record the death of John Harsen Rhoades, one of its 
 most prominent members, which occurred in this city, 
 December 6, 1906. 
 
 Mr. Rhoades had been a trustee of the Greenwich 
 Savings Bank for more than forty years, and its President
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 387 
 
 for twenty-nine years. He was a public-spirited man, and 
 gave much time and thought to all efforts on behalf of 
 better conditions in municipal affairs, but his paramount 
 interest was the safeguarding the interests of the Savings 
 Banks of this State. 
 
 For several years previous to the forming of the Savings 
 Banks Association it had been the custom for the Savings 
 Banks of the State to meet once a year to discuss infor- 
 mally such matters of interest as might be brought before 
 the convention. It soon became evident that a closer 
 and more formal organization would be much more effec- 
 tive in safeguarding the interests of the banks, and in May, 
 i8q4, it was decided to form the present Association with 
 Mr. Rhoades as its President. He was reelected to the 
 office for five successive terms, and, much to the regret of 
 the members of the Association, refused to serve longer. 
 
 Much was accomplished by the Association during Mr. 
 Rhoades' presidency, and too much credit cannot be given 
 him for his part in bringing about the much-desired results. 
 He was unfailing in his loyalty to the Association, and un- 
 tiring in his efforts in its behalf. 
 
 As the Savings Banks increased in resources, it became 
 evident that the scope of investment as provided in the 
 law of 1875 must be enlarged to meet the new conditions. 
 For years efforts had been made to bring this about, but 
 without success, until the bank officers were ready to 
 abandon the idea in despair. Mr. Rhoades never faltered, 
 and each failure only served to spur him to renewed effort, 
 until finally the bill admitting the bonds of certain cities 
 in other States than New York was passed, and a measure 
 of relief to the banks afforded. 
 
 Many other amendments to the Savings Bank Law 
 were secured by the Association during Mr. Rhoades' 
 active connection with it, due in no small measure to his 
 personal effort. 
 
 Mr. Rhoades was a broad-minded man, of excellent 
 judgment, strong in the defence of what he deemed right, 
 and fearless in his denunciation of wrong. The Savings
 
 388 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Banks Association is indebted to Mr. Rhoades for much, 
 and places upon its records this minute in grateful recogni- 
 tion of his service and in loving remembrance of the man. 
 
 Andrew Mills, 
 Wm, Felslnger. 
 
 bond investments of savings banks 
 
 Mr. Andrew MiUs, President of the Dry Dock Savings 
 Bank, New York, read a paper on the above subject as 
 follows : 
 
 At the urgent request of the Committee in charge of this 
 meeting, and in an unguarded moment, I consented to 
 prepare a paper on " Bond Investments of Savings Banks." 
 Itis not my purpose, in presenting this subject, to lay down 
 any hard-and-fast rules to govern the actions of others, 
 but as simply as possible to give some of the general prin- 
 ciples which I have endeavored to follow in recommending 
 investments to the trustees of the institution over which I 
 have been called upon to preside. I doubt if I can say 
 anything new, but if I can emphasize the necessity, es- 
 pecially in times hke the present, of "hewing" close to the 
 old conservative lines which have made our Savings Banks 
 so useful and strong, my poor attempt will not have been 
 made in vain. 
 
 As shown by the Bank Superintendent's report for 1906, 
 out of the total assets of over $1,464,000,000, $644, 279,426 
 represent investments in bonds, as follows : 
 
 United States and District of Columbia . . $10,488,180.00 
 
 State Bonds 51,183,340.65 
 
 Bonds of cities in other States 116,379,249.15 
 
 Bonds of municipalities in this State . . . 236,469,859.15 
 
 Railroad Bonds 229,758,798.00 
 
 $644,279,426.95 
 
 For the purposes of this paper bond investments can be 
 divided into two classes: the first comprised of State and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 389 
 
 municipal bonds, the second railroad bonds. United States 
 bonds are omitted, as their interest return is so small 
 that any investment in them would be a distinctly losing 
 proposition. 
 
 The principles governing investment in municipal bonds 
 are few and simple. An investment in a municipal bond 
 is a loan upon the credit of a city, town, or village without 
 definite collateral security; and it goes without saying that 
 almost the first thing to be established is whether or no the 
 municipahty has always metits obligations promptly; next, 
 the total indebtedness the percentage the debt bears to 
 the assessed value of taxable property, and the value of the 
 property actually owned by the municipality; and last, but 
 not least, the availability of the security as a quick asset in 
 case of necessity. 
 
 Preference has been given, and rightly, in many cases to 
 bonds issued for water supply purposes, for the reason that 
 a special tax is levied for the purpose of producing an in- 
 come sufficient to pay the interest on the obligation and 
 retire the principal at maturity, thus making the holder of 
 water bonds practically a preferred creditor. It is always 
 advisable, and in case of the smaller municipalities a ne- 
 cessity, to have carefully examined all proceedings author- 
 izing the issue of bonds, to see that they meet with all the 
 requirements of the law under which they are issued. The 
 importance of this is shown by the fact that at almost 
 every session of our Legislature one or more bills are in- 
 troduced making valid some obligation of a municipality 
 in the issues of which a mistake was made. 
 
 Investment to a certain extent in bonds of cities outside 
 of this State is desirable, not only because of a slightly 
 increased income yield, but that in case of the necessity 
 of realizing you have a security marketable in money cen- 
 tres outside of New York. 
 
 When the Savings Bank Law was amended so as to 
 admit railroad bonds under certain restrictions as legal 
 investments, the banks had questions of an entirely differ- 
 ent character to deal with. Some contented themselves
 
 390 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 with simply asking: "Is this bond a legal investment?" 
 and then : " What interest return does it yield? " giving the 
 preference to the best-paying investment. While I believe 
 that all bonds admitted under our very carefully prepared 
 general law are good, still of necessity some must be more 
 desirable than others, and in my opinion none is too good 
 for a Savings Bank. 
 
 A railroad mortgage bond is an obligation of a corpora- 
 tion secured by a lien upon certain specified property as 
 collateral. The deed of trust or mortgage is made to a 
 trustee, who, in the event of the corporation failing to meet 
 its obligations to the bondholders, is charged with the duty 
 of foreclosing the lien, selling the property, and paying the 
 bonds. In this class of investments the credit of the cor- 
 poration, while important, is secondary to the value of the 
 collateral, which is paramount. 
 
 Railroad bonds for my purpose can be subdivided into 
 two classes, viz.: first mortgage bonds pure and simple, 
 and first mortgage refunding bonds. In explaining these 
 different classes of bonds, when railroads or systems are 
 named, it is for illustration only. 
 
 The older railroad systems are for the most part a group- 
 ing together under one management and control of a 
 number of smaller roads formerly operated as separate 
 corporations. Notable examples of this are the Chicago 
 & Northwestern and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. 
 
 In financing the building of the original roads first mort- 
 gage bonds were issued, and these have been assumed or 
 guaranteed by the new corporation. After these consoli- 
 dations in almost every instance the roads were practically 
 rebuilt. Heavier rails were laid, steel bridges replaced 
 wooden ones, while others were strengthened, to carry 
 heavier trains. All of this vast expenditure greatly in- 
 creased the value of the collateral without increasing the 
 amount of the first mortgage. For some time after the 
 formation of these systems, whenever a new division or 
 extension was built, bonds were issued secured by a mort- 
 gage on the newly constructed road ; and as many of these
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 391 
 
 have not as yet matured, we have a large amount of under- 
 lying securities which are regarded, in the parlance of Wall 
 Street, as "gilt-edged." The only objection to them is that 
 they are rapidly maturing, and before many years will 
 become "things of the past." 
 
 To provide for the retirement of these maturing obliga- 
 tions, the railroads for the most part adopted the policy 
 of issuing refunding bonds, secured by a mortgage on the 
 entire property, which were intended to replace the old 
 bonds as they became due and eventually become, in fact, 
 a first mortgage on the whole road. 
 
 Some roads have practically completed their refunding 
 operations and retired all underlying bonds, as, for exam- 
 ple. New York Central, Lake Shore, Chicago, Burlington 
 & Quincy (Illinois Division), and others. In all such 
 cases the refunding mortgage is "closed," the indebtedness 
 fixed, and no more bonds can be issued under it . 
 
 Information on which to base judgment in case of a 
 municipal bond is for the most part easily obtained, as all 
 the data required are matters of record; in fact, nowadays 
 the bond dealer offering bonds for sale furnishes the in- 
 formation unasked. 
 
 The value of the railroad bond is primarily determined 
 by the earnings of the corporation, and these can be learned 
 from the reports to stockholders and to the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission. With the railroad manuals, 
 financial publications, railroad maps, digest of mortgages 
 so numerous, it would seem that the desired information 
 is within the reach of all. 
 
 Many of the railroad bonds legal for Savings Banks have 
 the advantage of an international market, so that in case 
 of a necessity to sell at a time of money stringency in New 
 York and easier conditions prevailing in London, Berlin, 
 or Amsterdam, they could be easily disposed of without 
 sacrifice. All that I have said may not be of much value, 
 but before closing I wish to emphasize what I consider the 
 cardinal principles that should govern the investing of 
 Savings Bank deposits:
 
 392 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 1. Security, as absolute as human judgment can deter- 
 mine. 
 
 2. The first being assured, then the security yielding the 
 larger income. 
 
 3. Availability, so that in case of necessity the security 
 can be disposed of without needless sacrifice. 
 
 Air. Miller, of Utica: I am ver>- glad that Mr. JMills 
 emphasized the necessity of looking at something in bond 
 investments besides the mere question of legality and the 
 question of interest return, and it is to further emphasize 
 the necessity of our looking in every instance, especially 
 in regard to railroad bond investments, into the genuine- 
 ness of the character of the security itself, that I want to 
 speak now, and, particularly, for this reason, that there 
 is a danger growing out of our general law for Savings 
 Banks respecting railroad mortgage bonds that I think 
 should be pointed out and fully realized. It is not a dan- 
 ger to the security, it is not a danger to the banks in the 
 sense that loss can grow out of it, and yet it seems to me 
 it must be guarded against. 
 
 You will remember that, under the present law, railroad 
 mortgage bonds become legal when the road has complied 
 with certain conditions for the period of five years. Now 
 we have had five very good years and the consequence is 
 that many roads have begun to comply with the conditions 
 which we have provided. Should their prosperity con- 
 tinue for the next five years as it has in the past five years, 
 there would be substantially $140,000,000 of new securities 
 legalized automatically under our act. 
 
 One bad year will undo the work of five good years. If 
 a corporation has complied for five years with all the re- 
 quirements of the law and its bonds have just become legal, 
 by one bad year breaking its record those bonds will be- 
 come illegalized. WTiat I want to urge in the first place 
 is this: We, all of us, should be careful not to buy the 
 very latest bond that has just become legal by having 
 barely complied for five years with the requirements of the 
 law, because we have had no bad year in which to test the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 393 
 
 character of the road. I mention these simply because 
 they are late comers. The Atchison road will, by the first 
 of July, have complied for five years with every require- 
 ment. Next year by a faUing off in its earnings, or by 
 failing to earn and pay its dividend, it may cease to comply 
 with the requirements of the law and its bonds will then 
 become illegal. They won't become bad. We won't 
 have to sell them. Still most of us would feel ashamed in 
 having an illegal investment on our list and we might 
 therefore sell them at a loss. But the point to be borne 
 in mind is that it is not good poUcy to buy the very latest 
 bond or one that has just become legal. 
 
 There is one other thing worthy of mention. You will 
 remember, in framing the law, we regarded two things 
 essential: first, the credit of the road, which we provided 
 for by saying that it must never have failed to pay its 
 interest, and that its gross earnings must be five times its 
 fixed charges, and the road must for a period of five years 
 have maintained the very highest personal credit. We 
 have provided also that the mortgages securing the bonds 
 must be of a very high class. I will not go into details, 
 but there are many other things we provided for. The 
 road must own five hundred miles at least in fee and the 
 mortgage must cover two thirds of that, so that any 
 mortgage bond that we would be allowed to buy must cover 
 a very large amount of the mileage with a single exception. 
 It was found in drawing our act that a few roads whose 
 bonds were legal under the old law had a very good bond 
 issue but a very small mileage. Those roads were the 
 Delaware & Hudson, the Delaware, Lackawanna & West- 
 ern, the New Haven, the Michigan Central, the Pittsburgh, 
 Fort Wayne & Chicago, and the New Jersey Central. 
 All of them were legal at that time and all have been con- 
 tinued as legal under the provisions of our act which state 
 that the five-hundred-mUe requirement may be dispensed 
 with if the road has a total earning of $10,000,000 a year; 
 not a single new road has been legalized up to this time 
 under that provision. But as one looking ahead I can
 
 394 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 conceive of a possibility of something different. For ex- 
 ample, the Southern Pacific is a Kentucky corporation 
 and owns in fee just seven miles of railroad. It has enor- 
 mous earnings, much over the $10,000,000 requirement, 
 but in a number of other respects it does not approach 
 complying with our statute. It is possible that at the end 
 of five years the Southern Pacific may have complied with 
 all of our requirements. In that case a mortgage secured 
 upon that seven miles of road and further secured by all 
 the leaseholds of the Southern Pacific might become a 
 legal investment, and it may perhaps be a good one at that 
 time, I cannot say. It seems to me, however, that a se- 
 curity of that kind would be very weak, and on that ac- 
 count we ought all of us to look over carefully any bond 
 propositions and be very sure that any new bonds which 
 become legalized from now on cover at least mileage suffi- 
 cient to make them amply safe. 
 
 I have sometimes thought that it might be wise if the 
 Association should charge itself with the responsibility of 
 advising us bankers if it saw danger in a bond or one of 
 which it could not approve. So far as I know, I do not 
 think a single bond has become legal which we would want 
 to dispose of. The fact that our scope has so widened 
 emphasizes the absolute necessity of making a careful 
 study of the intrinsic merits of each proposition as it pre- 
 sents itself, and it is for that that I am speaking, and it is 
 that policy that I am urging. 
 
 "mortgages ' 
 
 The following address was given by Mr. Chas. L. Stone, 
 of the Onondaga County Savings Bank, of Syracuse: 
 
 I appreciate the honor of the opportunity to address 
 this Association, afforded by the courteous, though un- 
 merited, designation of your Executive Committee. I am 
 also impressed with becoming modesty, in attempting to 
 say a word of interest upon a subject which has presumably
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 395 
 
 already received much and intelligent consideration by 
 you. 
 
 You, gentlemen, are the heads and managers of a group 
 of institutions not merely representing a vast accumulated 
 aggregate of money and investments, but a group of in- 
 stitutions which have been so closely identified with the 
 stability of our institutions and with the growth of our 
 State that they have long engaged my profound interest 
 and respect. For this reason, and because for twenty-five 
 years my work has been somewhat closely associated with 
 one of these institutions, and I have thus been led to take 
 note from time to time of the development of the principle 
 embodied in all of them, I have the more readily availed 
 myself of the opportunity to engage your attention for a 
 few moments in the consideration of the assigned topic. 
 
 With more time and opportunity for the consideration 
 and presentation of its larger aspects and relations, the 
 subject would be one of very great interest. 
 
 The derivation of the word indicates a relation to death. 
 In the early days of English law a real-estate mortgage 
 was widely considered to be the "hand of death" laid upon 
 the ownership of the property involved. Sir William 
 Blackstone defined it as the "dead pledge." Its early 
 legal effect was to absolutely transfer the title of the land 
 to the mortgagee, subject only to the strict performance 
 of his covenant by the mortgagor. In default of such per- 
 formance, no matter what relation existed between the 
 value of the loan and the value of the property, the land 
 and property were thereafter "dead" to the former owner, 
 and the title of the mortgagee by virtue of the mortgage 
 itself became absolute. 
 
 The strict doctrine of the Common Law has been modi- 
 fied under the more benign administration of Courts of 
 Equity, by the development of the doctrine that the real 
 purpose of the original transaction should be made effec- 
 tual, by treating the mortgage as a security for the per- 
 formance of the obligation. So that now it is generally 
 true that while the form of instrument remains much the
 
 396 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 same, the lender of the money must be content with its 
 payment after default, and until the right of making such 
 pa3ment shall be "foreclosed" by a public sale of the 
 property. And any surplus of its value thus realized 
 beyond the just demands of the mortgagee will be re- 
 turned to the mortgagor. And so it has come about in the 
 e^'olution of the times that the mortgage has increasingly 
 become an important factor in the enlargement of the busi- 
 ness of the world and the development of modem civiliza- 
 tion. From a "dead pledge" it has become a vital force. 
 By its aid railroads have been built, numberless homes and 
 great areas of business blocks have sprung up, assessment 
 rolls have been swollen, and the revenues of States and 
 municipahties available for pubUc purposes have increased 
 in geometric ratio. 
 
 In this State the Savings Banks have borne no small 
 part in thus aiding the wonderful evolution and increase 
 in the values of real estate. It is a matter of common 
 obser^^ation that a large fraction of the money expended 
 in the erection of buildings for all purposes, pubHc and pri- 
 vate, business and residential, was originally derived by 
 loan upon mortgage security. As men and institutions 
 have prospered, these loans have been paid and the money 
 has gone out again and again for the same purpose, so that 
 the same funds with the increase furnished b}' the ever- 
 increasing deposits have for generations gone out into the 
 enhancement of the values of real estate and have contrib- 
 uted to the success of the business conducted thereon. 
 The statistics to show the extent of such contributions by 
 the Sa\dngs Banks of the State, I suppose, are not available. 
 The amount of such loans just now outstanding afford but 
 a meagre indication of what has been done. This may be 
 said, however, in that connection. The total assessed 
 valuation of real estate in the State of New York for the 
 year 1905 was $7,312,621,452, of which about $350,000,000 
 represented special franchise assessments. The outstand- 
 ing loans of the Savings Banks of the State upon real- 
 estate mortgages at the close of that year was $639,742,227,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 397 
 
 or approximately ten per cent, of the aggregate assessed 
 value of all the lands and buildings in the State. January 
 ist of this year the total mortgage loans of the Savings 
 Banks amounted to $688,066,201. 
 
 Another avenue through which the investment of the 
 funds of Savings Banks has operated with great emphasis 
 to the public advantage has been their holdings of munici- 
 pal securities. A large portion of the money for public 
 improvements represented by the bonds of the cities of the 
 State has come at a low rate of interest from these institu- 
 tions. I refer to this fact incidentally in connection with 
 the observations upon the subject of mortgage loans, in 
 order to emphasize a suggestion that there are ample 
 reasons other than those relating to the character of the 
 deposits in Savings Banks and of their pliilanthropic pur- 
 pose,arising out of direct financial public benefits conferred, 
 why the generous and even partial consideration, which 
 until within the last decade or so had uniformly charac- 
 terized the policy of the State toward these institutions, 
 should be renewed, continued, and emphasized. 
 
 Coming now to a brief consideration of the quality of 
 real-estate mortgages as an investment of Savings Bank 
 funds : I am of opinion that upon the whole, in the long run, 
 and within the limitations of the statute as to the amount 
 of such investments and as to the percentage of value 
 which may be loaned upon real estate, that this is the most 
 desirable form of investment available. The disparity 
 between the income to be had from this form of investment 
 and from investment in municipal and railroad bonds is 
 not so great as it was a few years since. Even so, at least 
 with the qualifications stated, I believe that the Savings 
 Banks should seek mortgage investments. The law limits 
 these to sixty-five percentum of the whole amount of de- 
 posits and each loan to sixty percentum of the real estate 
 taken as security. Upon a reasonable application of the 
 rule concerning valuation, and with reasonable supervision 
 and occasional revaluation, such loans may be considered 
 as safe as any municipal or railroad security.
 
 398 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Stability of value should be a paramount consideration in 
 the investment of trust funds. The element of speculation 
 is not permissible. The funds to be invested are the ac- 
 cumulated small surpluses of many wage-earners laid up 
 against "a rainy day." The prime consideration is the 
 sure return of the principal sum. The income to be de- 
 rived, while important, is secondary. The actual tangible 
 property which stands as security is at all times within easy 
 observation, and its value can be satisfactorily and readily 
 determined upon the knowledge of the trustees who make 
 the investment. The slight percentage of loss sustained 
 from investments of this character may be approximately 
 estimated by an examination of the reports of the Savings 
 Banks for a series of years. The item of " other real estate" 
 shows with a reasonable degree of approximation the amount 
 of default upon such obligations, and some fraction of that 
 item would represent the actual loss upon such investments. 
 
 The published report of the Superintendent of Banks for 
 the first of January, 1906, indicates a total of nearly six 
 hundred and forty millions of dollars thus invested, while 
 the estimated market value of "other real estate" on hand 
 is under three and one half million dollars, or a little more 
 than one half of one per cent, upon the present investment. 
 While the cost of such property may exceed its "estimated 
 market value," I apprehend that such excess would be a 
 rather small percentage of the one half of one per cent, 
 mentioned. I believe it may be fairly said that upon the 
 aggregate of such investments the percentage of loss en- 
 tailed in a series of years is an almost negligible quantity. 
 
 In April, 1898, the first law was enacted permitting 
 Savings Banks of this State to invest in railroad bonds. 
 By that Act such investments were limited, among other 
 things, to the first mortgage bonds of railroad corporations 
 of this State, the principal part of whose railroad is located 
 within the State. Within the remaining nine months of 
 that year nearly nine millions of dollars was invested in 
 such securities, and such investments rapidly grew in favor. 
 
 The report of the first of January last will show nearly
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 399 
 
 two hundred and thirty million dollars thus invested by 
 the Savings Banks of the State. Taking the bonds of the 
 New York Central Railroad, which were thus open to 
 such investment, as an example, it will appear that within 
 the period of eight years there has been an extreme fluctua- 
 tion in the market value of twenty and one half per cent, 
 from one hundred and twelve and one half in the year 1899 
 to ninety- two in the year 1906. Within the year 1903 
 there was a fluctuation of ten per cent., and the variation 
 in price has been less than two and one half per cent, in 
 only two of the years since they became available. These 
 bonds bear three and one half per cent, interest, and until 
 the year 1906 were purchasable only above par. In other 
 words, the investments therein generally paid less than 
 the dividends paid upon the deposits so invested. 
 
 Some relief was needed for the congestion of money 
 when the legislation had its inception. I think the plan 
 pursued of permitting such investments by degrees from 
 time to time and in specified bonds only was unfortunate. 
 Had a general scheme of authority been originally adopted, 
 similar in character to that of the bill enacted a few years 
 ago in the framing and preparation of which the present 
 Chairman of your Executive Committee bore so important 
 a part, the stream of money seeking such investment being 
 spread over a wide area, the price level of the bonds would 
 not have risen so high and some of the evils which have 
 resulted would have been avoided. Similar fluctuations 
 in value have attended investments in municipal bonds. 
 I do not refer to these well-known facts for the purpose of 
 condemning the policy of the State in permitting such in- 
 vestments of either class, but rather by contrasting these 
 market values with the stability of the mortgage invest- 
 ments to illustrate what I deem to be the superior quality 
 of the latter over the former as Savings Bank investments. 
 
 Without trespassing too much upon your time, I think 
 that the argument may be further enforced by some com- 
 parison of the condition of the banks now and at a time 
 just before investment in railroad bonds was permitted.
 
 400 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Notwithstanding the lack of a fixed standard by which 
 the value of securities of the same class shall be stated in 
 their reports by all Savings Banks alike, I know of no 
 surer index of the security and stability of a savings in- 
 stitution than the percentage of its market value surplus 
 upon the amount of its deposits. 
 
 In 1897 the average percentage of such surplus of all 
 the Savings Banks in the State was over thirteen and one 
 third per cent. On the first of January, 1907, computed 
 in the same way, such average surplus was but a trifle more 
 than seven and one half per cent. In 1897 but five were 
 below seven and one half per cent. In 1907 twenty-nine 
 were below that figure! In 1897 eleven reported between 
 seven and one half and ten per cent. In 1907 nine made 
 such reports. In 1897 sixteen reported from ten to fifteen 
 per cent. In 1907 seven made such report. In 1897 thir- 
 teen reported a surplus over fifteen per cent., while in 1907 
 but one made a similar report. 
 
 If to the surplus of 1907 we should add the difference 
 between the highest and lowest prices for New York Cen- 
 tral bonds, computed upon the amount of railroad bonds 
 held, the market value surplus would be increased to over 
 eleven per cent. In 1897 the Savings Banks held over one 
 hundred million dollars of U. S. bonds, nearly one eighth 
 of the then total Government indebtedness. Last year 
 this item had fallen to something less than ten and one 
 half million dollars. 
 
 While thus urging the wisdom of increased investments 
 in real-estate mortgages, I am not unmindful that those 
 of the class desired are not, and are not likely to be, so 
 easily obtainable at favorable interest rates as formerly. 
 Under the mode of taxation here prevaiHng until a few 
 years ago the Savings Banks had a material advantage 
 over other investors seeking mortgage loans, because of 
 the Savings Bank exemption from taxation. Under the 
 mode just now prevailing that advantage has been re- 
 moved. The recording tax relieves all mortgages aUke 
 from subsequent taxation. While I beUeve there are
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 401 
 
 advantages to borrowers in making such loans of the 
 Savings Banks, it is not to be overlooked that this change 
 in the law will probably bring, and I think has already 
 brought, important sums of money into the market for 
 which such investments were formerly hardly available. 
 The effect of such increase of funds open to mortgage 
 investment upon the rates of interest to be made therefrom 
 is to be determined later, but requires consideration. 
 
 I am aware that the topic assigned to me has by no 
 means had an exhaustive consideration. I only hope that 
 such consideration as it has received has not exhausted 
 your patience. I think the subject of sufficient impor- 
 tance to warrant the careful consideration of all of us who 
 are charged with responsibilities concerning the invest- 
 ment of Savings Bank funds. 
 
 Mr. Mills: I am greatly in favor of mortgage invest- 
 ments. In fact, we have over fifty — nearly sixty — ^per 
 cent, of our deposits so invested; but I have been through 
 a good deal of experience in the real-estate market as well 
 as in the bond market, and I want to call the attention of 
 the gentlemen to this fact that from 1873 until 1878 the 
 real-estate owner was practically denied credit in the 
 commercial agencies' reports in New York, and it was said 
 as an additional reason why a man should receive credit 
 that he owned no real estate. I simply state this in order 
 to show you that there can be ups and downs in the real- 
 estate market as well as in the bond market. We have 
 made some loans on property. When a man paid $27,000 
 for a piece 25 by 100, with a five-story house on it, in the 
 lower part of this city, we loaned $9,000 on it, and if we 
 had wanted to we could have bought that in under fore- 
 closure. That the Savings Banks did not own all the real 
 estate during that time was due to the fact that we were 
 level-headed men and refused to foreclose the mortgages 
 because if we had we would have owned most all of it. 
 
 At the present time the real-estate conditions existing 
 in certain parts of this city call for a good deal of caution 
 and especially as these gentlemen who are officers of Sav-
 
 402 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ings Banks up the State are lending money upon reports 
 furnished by the New York people. There are certain 
 sections of this city that could not borrow one dollar from 
 the Dry Dock Savings Bank, although the loan would be 
 within the Hmit of the Savings Bank Law. 
 
 The reason for the bond fluctuations has been the change 
 in the money market. When the three and one half per 
 cent, bonds of the New York Central were bought at a 
 premium, New York City bonds were selling on a three 
 per cent, basis or even lower; and the reason that these 
 bonds were bought was because the return to the investor 
 was so much greater than the ordinary municipal bond. 
 There was a plethora of money in this and every other finan- 
 cial centre and that caused high prices. Now things 
 have changed. Development in this section, the demand 
 for money in business and in different enterprises through- 
 out the length and breadth of our land, is something un- 
 precedented. Consequently the rate of interest has risen 
 and the price of bonds has fallen. There has been a boom 
 in real estate in certain sections, and loans that have been 
 made by lending institutions are such that, when the time 
 comes, you will look just as ruefully on the shrinkage in 
 your mortgage loans as you do on the shrinkage in your 
 bond investments to-day. 
 
 As far as I am concerned I would oppose with all the 
 force that I have any increase of the percentage that 
 Savings Banks can lend upon property. I think sixty 
 per cent, is enough. I would be very much opposed to 
 any increase. The fact that trustees, life-insurance com- 
 panies, and trust companies can lend to the amount of 
 two thirds I do not think affects us at all. I think sixty per 
 cent, is the limit of safety, and on account of the fluctua- 
 tions that are liable to happen to real estate, to which I 
 have aUuded, I would oppose it most strenuously. 
 
 ADDRESS OF SUPERINTENDENT KEEP 
 
 The following address was given by Mr. Charles H. 
 Keep, State Superintendent of Banks:
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 403 
 
 Gentlemen : I am glad of this opportunity to meet the 
 Savings Bank men of this State. I am here for that 
 purpose and not to make an address. You represent in- 
 stitutions of which the State of New York is justly proud 
 — ^proud of the banks, proud of the men who manage them, 
 proud of the laws that govern them, proud of the stupen- 
 dous record of their usefulness disclosed in a safe guardian- 
 ship of $1,400,000,000. For some years I have come in 
 contact with bankers from all parts of the United States, 
 largely in connection with the deposit by the United States 
 Government of public funds in more than 1,200 depository 
 banks. A large proportion of these funds are deposited 
 on the security of bonds "such as are lawful investments 
 for New York and Massachusetts Savings Banks." The 
 laws governing your investments are the standard enact- 
 ments for the safekeeping of depositors' money. Other 
 States envy New York its Savings Bank system, where the 
 business of keeping the savings of the poor is kept separate 
 from profit-making. By this separation you are enabled to 
 pay good interest to your depositors, and yet to give them 
 unequalled security. Where the care of savings deposits 
 is not kept separate from profit-making, the tendency is 
 to pay depositors as much interest as you pay but to invest 
 their funds less safely. If our Savings Bank system has a 
 weak spot it lies in its partial failure on the ground of 
 accessibihty. Men will save if they pass the door of a 
 Savings Bank daily, but will put off the day for saving if 
 they have to go twenty or thirty miles by train to a Sav- 
 ings Bank, and take a day off from their usual occupation 
 for the purpose. A strong argument for Postal Savings 
 Banks is their accessibility. This argument gains strength 
 if other systems fail, or partially fail, in this particular. 
 We find trust companies in other States advertising in New 
 York State publications for savings deposits to be sent by 
 mail. Our own trust companies and banks are opening 
 "Interest Departments" and adopting the pass-book 
 system, the Savings Bank system of dealing with deposi- 
 tors. This has been declared legal by the highest court
 
 404 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 of the State. This is increasing very rapidly. Almost the 
 only protection left to the Savings Banks is the statute 
 forbidding the use of the word "savings'' by other institu- 
 tions in their title and in their advertisements. National 
 banks claim that even this statute is not binding upon 
 them. In the meantime half the counties of the State 
 have no Savings Banks, none have been organized for 
 years outside of the City of New York, and none are likely 
 to be organized. How far is the inaccessibility of our 
 Savings Banks to savings depositors responsible for the 
 rapid growth of interest paying and 'interest departments" 
 in other banking institutions, State and national? This is 
 worthy of your consideration. The Banking Department 
 has favored branch Savings Banks, but I am told that 
 Savings Banks generally take little interest in this sugges- 
 tion. The recommendation will naturally meet some op- 
 position from people who are now getting a profit from 
 strictly savings deposits. The recommendation will be 
 futile if the Savings Banks themselves take no interest in 
 the establishment of branches. It would seem that such 
 branches could be very economically operated. They 
 could be limited to a certain territory around the main 
 institution. They need not be allowed in places where 
 there is already a Savings Bank or branch Savings Bank. 
 Are there sound reasons that can be urged against these 
 branches, or is the lack of interest perhaps to some extent 
 a consequence of that feature of our Sav^ings Bank system 
 already referred to — namely, that such banks do not exist 
 for profit? Does this fact take away somewhat from the 
 incentive to take on new responsibilities? Does it promote 
 a willingness to let well enough alone? There are many 
 factory towns and industrial communities in this State 
 without Savings Banks, and not likely to have any, where 
 the thrifty must go twenty or thirty miles by rail to find 
 a place to take out pass-books. How are their require- 
 ments to be met? xAt present, in so far as they are met at 
 all, it is by a confused mingling of functions by banks 
 of discount, trust companies, and Savings Banks, by a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 405 
 
 process which is rapidly wiping out the distinction be- 
 tween these different classes of institutions. Banks of 
 discount and trust companies are invading each other's 
 field, and both are invading the field of the Savings 
 Banks. 
 
 A word about an entirely different matter : In January 
 last the Savings Banks were first required by the Banking 
 Department to place upon the blank form calling for the 
 bank's earnings and expenses an amount to be deducted 
 from earnings for amortization, that is, to absorb premium 
 paid for bonds at maturity. This information is certainly 
 necessary to enable the Banking Department to know 
 whether a bank's real earnings and income are sufficient 
 to pay the interest to its depositors which it is attempting 
 to pay. The note of explanation on the blank form was 
 confusing, and there was some misunderstanding, which 
 was set right by correspondence. For the time being 
 a rough and unscientific amortization is accepted by the 
 department. Perhaps for practical purposes of the Bank- 
 ing Department tliis is sufficient, but many banks have 
 determined to have a scientific and accurate amortization 
 as part of their bookkeeping system, and the question arises 
 whether a rough and unscientific amortization should be 
 accepted indefinitely by the Banking Department, or 
 whether a reasonable date should be fixed when an accu- 
 rate amortization wiU be required. 
 
 I am glad to inform you that the Banking Department 
 has begun the work of simplifying and shortening the 
 blanks and forms sent out to the Savings Banks. In- 
 formation will not be asked for unless the department 
 can make some use of it when given. The blanks to 
 be sent out for July ist will not be so voluminous as 
 formerly. Probably they can be still further simplified in 
 the future. 
 
 I shall at all times welcome suggestions from you gen- 
 tlemen looking to improvements in the department's ex- 
 aminations of Savings Banks, and in any of its methods of 
 deahng with the Savings Banks of the State.
 
 4o6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 AMORTIZATION 
 
 The following address was given by Mr. Chas. E. 
 Sprague, Union Dime Savings Institution, New York, on 
 "Amortization": 
 
 Mr, President and Gentlemen : The word amortization* 
 in the minds of some of our colleagues has been confounded 
 with morphine, just the same as the word mortgage has 
 been confounded with dead pledge. I do not apprehend 
 bodily violence, although there may be some indication 
 of it. I have paid my last premium on my accident policy 
 and I hope the doors are open so that anybody to whom 
 this subject is intolerable may escape. In September, 
 four years ago, in presenting my views in favor of the sub- 
 mission of a value, reduced by mathematical process of 
 principal and interest on bond investments, I felt it my 
 duty, although I never urged upon anybody else to do it, 
 to put it in full operation in our institution. The only 
 suggestion I made was what we caU in the vernacular a 
 kick. To Superintendent Kilburn I objected to stating 
 any earnings of our bank without regard to providing for 
 the premiums on the bond. I said that I could not swear 
 to it in that case, and I made a statement bringing down 
 the balance, which was only perfunctory and was not a 
 true balance, deducting, however, our amortization. 
 
 The first objection, which I can hardly consider an ob- 
 jection, is the amount of labor required to make the com- 
 putation. Knowing Savings Bank officers of the State 
 as well as I do, knowing their eagerness for work and their 
 desire to be busy and to pass away the hours in their 
 sanctums, and knowing what slaves to duty they arc, I 
 think it is rather an argument in favor than against the 
 
 * Amortization (Fr. Law), the right or act of transferring lands in mortmain* 
 to a coq)oration. 
 
 *Mortmain (Fr) mort, dead, main-hand, a condition of property in which 
 it is held without the power of change or alienation, or as it were in dead hands: 
 a term originally applied to the possession of land by ecclesiastical bodies, the 
 members of which (being professed) were reckoned dead persons in law: an 
 inalienable possession.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 407 
 
 practice of computing investment values. I think it is a 
 labor of love to most of you. We can leave that objection 
 to take care of itself. 
 
 There are one or two other objections which relate to 
 delusions or misconceptions of the subject. The first one 
 of these that I will take up is the superstitious reverence 
 for the par value. What is the par value? That has a 
 very different meaning in different connections. The par 
 value of stocks is a mere fiction. The par value of a stock 
 does not at all show the actual value. We could all get 
 very rich if par values were the real value. We could 
 within a few blocks of here buy mining stocks for a few 
 cents a share, we could all lose money by selling Chemical 
 Bank stock at par. The Hon. Edward M. Shepard took 
 the position that par values should be done away with, 
 but that the shares should state that they bore the pro- 
 portion of one millionth or one thousandth of the whole 
 assets of the institution. I would not go as far as that, 
 but the par value in the case of stocks is an absurdity. 
 Some years ago there was a discussion as to what was the 
 par value of our surplus by gentlemen in this State, and it 
 has cost a great deal of expensive litigation to find out 
 what that was. I don't think we have found it out yet. 
 Some of these mathematicians can find out the par value 
 of an Adirondack forest where they have dammed up the 
 streams as they have already dammed the banks. But the 
 par value of a bond is something more substantial. It is 
 the principal sum which will be paid at maturity. Why 
 don't we call it principal? It is the principal and that is 
 all. A principal sum means the chief sum, and it is a fact 
 that every bond that we buy covenants not merely for 
 the payment of a principal sum at some future date, but 
 for the payment of a number of minor sums which, while 
 none of them equals that of the principal sum, probably 
 in the aggregate they far exceed it, and the gentlemen who 
 talk of par values as being the real value must ignore the 
 greater part of the value of the bond. For example, let 
 us take a six per cent, thousand-dollar fifty-year bond
 
 4o8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 which is a promise not only to pay $i,ooo at the end of 
 fifty years, but to make one hundred payments of $30 each. 
 That means $3,000. You should not ignore the $3,000. 
 That you are going to get in periodical payments every 
 half year. You should take into consideration the $1,000 
 payable at the end. I say that the $1,000 is not worth 
 $1,000, because a thousand dollars payable in one year or 
 several years from now is not worth a thousand dollars. 
 This Government can make a bond worth par when in fact 
 it is worth much less. I have made a few figures here show- 
 ing a six per cent, bond having two years to run. To start 
 with a simple proposition, that may be considered as five 
 promissory notes, one for $1,000 due two years from now; 
 another $30 due in six months; another of $30 due in a 
 year; another in a year and a half, and another at the same 
 time as the principal of the bond. If you buy that bond on 
 the sk per cent, basis you pay exactl}' par. I admit that. 
 But not for the reason that you may argue. The reason 
 why that bond is worth just $1,000 now is the fact that 
 present values of those five items will amount to that. 
 The thousand dollars itself is $888.49. You are not going 
 to ignore the interest upon the thirty-dollar payments. 
 You deposit those in the same bank. The $30 is principal 
 invested and has earned interest upon it. But you cannot 
 distinguish principal and interest in current accounts. 
 In our deposit account a man comes in and asks: "How 
 much on this book is principal and how much is interest? " 
 Perhaps he has drawn $10 at one time and at another $23, 
 and then he has his interest written up. You say: *'We 
 don't know whether in drawing this $10 you drew it out 
 of principal or the interest, and we don't care; it is all 
 principal with us." The value of this $30 or the net value 
 of the $30 discounted at six per cent, for six months is 
 $29.13. The value of the next $30 item, ascertained by 
 reference to any reliable book of tables, is $27.45, and the 
 last one is worth still less, $26.65. I^ anybody who is 
 expert at adding wiU add those across he will find the rea- 
 son why that bond is worth a thousand doUars is not be-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 409 
 
 cause that is the principal sum, payable two years from 
 now, but because of the value of those five items. You 
 have discounted the five notes and that is why the par 
 in that case is exactly the principal. 
 
 Let us make another supposition to show that the cal- 
 culations in these books are correct. Let us discount this 
 bond at four per cent. We will say that it is two per cent, 
 semi-annually. We know the principal of true discount; 
 it is not the bank discount. If it is at four per cent., in 
 order to earn four per cent, at maturity you have to pay 
 $29.41 for that one (indicating) instead of $29.13; for 
 the next one $28.84; for the next one you have got to pay 
 $28.27, ^^d for the final one $27.72. For the principal 
 you have to pay $922.85. If you add those across we will 
 find they do not amount to par. The present values of 
 what you have invested in five different securities of five 
 different future sums receivable is $1,038.09, and that is 
 really a cent too much. If you had bought them accord- 
 ing to the tables they would have cost $1,038.08. There 
 are a few mills of which the majority of them falls short. 
 That is not really quite 84 cents and that is not quite 27; 
 consequently there is an apparent error there which will 
 rectify itself in the long run of one cent. Let us consider 
 what happens in these two years during which you hold 
 these bonds. You are entitled to get four per cent, a year, 
 payable semi-annually. Here are five sums. On the 
 first one you are entitled to get 58 cents; for the second 
 you are entitled to get 58 cents, and for the third 57 cents, 
 and for the fourth 55 cents. On the large one it will be 
 $10.48. Now we will find how we stand at the end of the 
 half year. The first one amounts to exactly thirty dollars, 
 and that is what you get. We will call that off. Your 
 second payment is worth $29.42, and your third one is 
 $28.34, and the fourth is worth $28.27, and the principal 
 sum not worth a thousand dollars but $932.43. The 
 amount now invested is $1 ,028.86. One of these five notes 
 which you discounted, on which you have received three 
 per cent, for the half year, has been paid, and that is out of
 
 4IO HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the question. The next one on the next half year you 
 ought to get 59, but as a matter of fact you only get 58 
 cents on account of this Httle preference; that 84 was not 
 quite 84. Consequently, in the course of time, you lost 
 that cent. This one becomes $30, is paid off, and elimi- 
 nated. Again here we have the figures 58 and 57. We will 
 make an inventory of what we have. We have only three 
 items added together. The first one comes to $30 and is 
 paid; the next one amounts to $29.42, and one more opera- 
 tion of the same kind will finish it — we have a thousand 
 dollars and one cent. We have reduced that to par at 
 maturity. The principal of a bond payable in the future 
 is not worth par. In computing values of bonds you have 
 to take into consideration interest payments as much as 
 the final principal payment; and, lastly, that in no other 
 way, as our superintendent pointed out, can you exactly 
 ascertain your earnings and the amount which, conse- 
 quently, you are at liberty to divide among your deposi- 
 tors. 
 
 There is one other of these mistaken ideas. It is hard 
 to think that a bond below par operates on the same prin- 
 cipal as a bond above par. Everybody will admit when a 
 bond bears a premium there is a small reduction of the 
 interest. If you pay 104 where the principal sum is only 
 a thousand doUars you are lowering whatever the nominal 
 interest is to a lower figure. Nobody would say that be- 
 cause a bond is so good, because the railroad is so fine, 
 because they carry so many passengers, and because it has 
 such splendid earnings, that that would make a thousand- 
 dollar bond worth $1,040. There was never a road so 
 good that its mere goodness would raise the value of its 
 bonds. There is also an idea that there may be a depre- 
 ciation in a bond which is not due to raising the interest 
 rate. That I think a delusion. I think that a bond se- 
 cured by certain mortgages cannot be reduced except so 
 far as that reduction raises the interest. The reason for 
 that is this : every payment of interest is for the use of the 
 money, the bare use of the money, and nothing else. The
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 411 
 
 Government of the United States gets its money even 
 below the riskless rate, but on every other security of any 
 kind we not only pay the current rate, caused by the law 
 of demand and supply for the use of money — the use that 
 can be made out of it by the other man who borrows it — 
 but we pay an insurance premium against risks. That is 
 not the risk of not being able to coUect the money at all; 
 it is the risk of having to wait for it, the risk of being tied 
 up in legal proceedings, the risk of delay and being obliged 
 to institute court proceedings, the risk of many things, 
 and these are insured against by part of the interest. 
 Every interest payment consists in part of an insurance 
 premium. The State of New York has absolute credit, 
 but it has been unable to borrow on its new canal bonds 
 at three per cent. Therefore we can pretty easily say 
 that three per cent, represents interest without risk. The 
 plain interest eliminated, it is a question of risk and trouble. 
 
 Let us suppose a railroad bond that we bought ten years 
 ago at 95 with twenty years to run at that time and now 
 has ten years to run. Owing to the bad management of 
 the road and other causes, a good many of them, that 
 bond has depreciated. Is it the bad management of the 
 road that has depreciated the bond? I say no. I say 
 it is the bad management of the road which has caused 
 the higher insurance premium to be paid by the purchaser 
 against this risk and trouble of delay and possible loss. 
 
 Mr. Coombs: Does it not amount to the same thing 
 after all? 
 
 Mr. Sprague: Not quite. I don't think so and I will 
 show you why. Suppose we paid 80 for that bond; that 
 is a six and three eighths basis. In round numbers there 
 is $80,000 on $100,000 bond. That does not affect the 
 purchaser of the bond unless the bond is not going to be 
 paid at maturity. The rate of 80 means that if the rail- 
 road had to borrow again on a four per cent, bond it 
 could only sell at 80. Suppose the railroad had some 
 bonds unissued in its treasury and had the right to vary 
 the percentage on those. If the badness of the road
 
 412 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 directly affects the value of the bond, without regard to 
 the interest, then it ought to affect these bonds which 
 could never sell at par. Suppose a man comes in with 
 $80,000 and he says: "I am going to buy a hundred thou- 
 sand dollars' worth of your bonds at 80 on which they will 
 pay me six and one half per cent.," and you say: "You 
 have some on w^hich the interest may be fixed by us at 
 discretion," the six and one half per cent, bond would not 
 be shaded below par by the effect of the badness of the 
 road. A few years ago, when these were at 95 on a four 
 and three eighths basis, probably the insurance risk in- 
 cluded in the interest was two and three eighths. The 
 road has got so bad now that it pays six and one half per 
 cent., and it pays three and one half per cent, for insur- 
 ance. And that is all there is of it. The management 
 of the road and its run-down condition are not sufficient to 
 prejudice the probability of your getting your money 
 in full and getting it without trouble and litigation. That 
 will not affect the price of the bond, but it will affect it 
 through this case upon the rate of interest, upon that part 
 of the rate of interest which is included in the heading 
 "Insurance premiums against risk." 
 
 VIEWS AS TO BANK ADVERTISING 
 
 Mr. Franklin of the Queens County Savings Bank: 
 
 Mr. Franklin: I desire to call to the attention of this 
 meeting a matter which was touched upon last year and 
 as it seems to me is worthy of at least an expression of 
 opinion from this Association, and that is the practice 
 indulged in by some of the largest banks and which I fear 
 is spreading, of soliciting, by advertisement or otherwise, 
 deposits from within territory occupied by another insti- 
 tution. 
 
 The bank which I represent is situated in the old village 
 of Flushing, now a part of this great city, and I hold in my 
 hand a copy of an advertisement which has appeared for 
 the past few weeks in both of our daily papers, calling
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 413 
 
 attention to the great strength of a savings institution in 
 the Borough of Brooklyn and soHciting deposits by mail, 
 thus seeking to divert funds which naturally would come 
 to the Queens County Savings Banks. 
 
 Now while I do not believe such action is contrary to 
 the letter of the law, I do most emphatically assert that it 
 is contrary to its spirit, for, if I read the statute correctly, 
 the Legislature intended that a Savings Bank should have 
 exclusive control of the territory in which the bank is 
 situated, and as conditions change as to density of popu- 
 lation, etc., the law expressly provides that the Superin- 
 tendent of the Banking Department shall, if another bank 
 wishes to enter said territory, decide whether, in his good 
 judgment, it is desirable to give permission for it to do so. 
 I certainly consider, Mr. Chairman, that such a course of 
 action on the part of any savings institution is unjust to 
 the smaller banks and unwise to those who participate 
 therein, for if this mad rush for supremacy or personal 
 aggrandizement continues, it will, in my opinion, eventually 
 result in disaster; and in order to bring the matter regu- 
 larly before the meeting, I beg leave to offer the following 
 resolution : 
 
 Resolved: That in the opinion of this Association, the 
 practice indulged in by some of our larger institutions, of 
 soliciting deposits within the territory occupied by another 
 Savings Bank, is unwise and not conducive to the best 
 interest of savings institutions. 
 
 This was referred to the Executive Committee for report 
 at the next meeting. 
 
 Note: Mortgage Tax Law became operative July i, 
 1905; it was superseded July i, 1906, by the Mortgage 
 Recording Law.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Fifteenth Annual Convention — Retirement of President Van 
 Rensselaer and Secretary Conklin — Address of Bank Super- 
 intendent Clark Williams — Resolution of Mr. Charles A; 
 Miller Relative to the Finances of the City of New York — 
 Election of Mr. Chas. A. Miller, as President — Addresses by 
 Andrew Mills, John, Harsen Rhoades, Son of the Former 
 President, and Chas. E. Hanaman — Amortization of Bond 
 Investments. 
 
 THE Fifteenth Annual Convention, which was held 
 in the City of New York on May 14, 1908, marked 
 the retirement from the Presidency of Mr. William 
 B. Van Rensselaer, who had served for four years most 
 acceptably in that capacity. The Association also lost 
 the further services of its veteran and efficient Secretary, 
 Mr. Wm. G. Conklin, both having positively declined 
 to permit the further use of their names in connection with 
 the offices named. 
 
 THE president's ADDRESS 
 
 In his opening address, President Van Rensselaer said: 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to our 
 fifteenth annual meeting. I desire to assure you that our 
 Association was never stronger than it is at the present 
 time. We are recognized as an important factor in 
 Savings Bank matters, not only by the Banking Depart- 
 ment, but also by the strongest and best men in the 
 Legislature of the State. They know the position this 
 Association takes is what we honestly believe to be for the 
 best interests of our depositors, and the Legislative Com- 
 
 414
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 415 
 
 mittee on Banks is ready to trust us as experts and to 
 cooperate with us. As long as these committees are 
 composed of the same class of men that now serve, the 
 Savings Banks need not worry about hostile or unsound 
 laws. 
 
 In his recent report to the Legislature, the Superinten- 
 dent of Banks says that during the year 1907 the with- 
 drawals from the one hundred and thirty-eight Savings 
 Banks of the State exceeded the deposits by nearly thirty- 
 two milUons, but that the dividends credited increased 
 the amount due depositors about eighteen and a half 
 millions. 
 
 Notwithstanding the excessive withdrawals there was a 
 gain in open accounts of 45,638, bringing the total number 
 on January i, 1908, to 2,731,477. 
 
 The question occurs to me whether or not it would be 
 feasible or desirable to require a notice on every withdrawal. 
 This thought was suggested by a visit to the Philadelphia 
 Saving Fund Society, incorporated in February, 1819, 
 which on the first of January last had 265,206 open ac- 
 counts, considerably more than any Savings Bank in this 
 State. 
 
 This Society has, and strictly enforces, the following 
 by-law: "Deposits and interest thereon will be repaid after 
 two weeks' notice (interest ceasing when notice is given). 
 The Society may, however, exercise the right under its 
 charter, when deemed advisable, to limit the amount 
 payable, after two weeks' notice, to sums not exceeding 
 One Hundred Dollars; when more than One Hundred 
 Dollars shall be demanded within any period of sixty days 
 the Society may at any time require sixty days' previous 
 notice before paying more than the said One Hundred 
 Dollars." 
 
 During the year 1907 the Society had 420,000 deposits 
 and 182,000 withdrawals, and the deposits exceeded the 
 withdrawals by $645,176.29 (interest credits not included). 
 The New York State Savings Banks lost $3 1 ,608,897. 7 5 dur- 
 ing that period. In the year 1893, when the withdrawals
 
 41 6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 exceeded the deposits in the New York State Savings 
 Banks, this Society gained. 
 
 During the past thirty years (I have no available figures 
 beyond that period) the deposits exceeded the withdrawals 
 each year, and the Society increased steadily its contingent 
 fund, which we foolishly call "Surplus," from one million 
 to over eight million dollars. 
 
 While the New York laws allow us to pass by-laws to 
 repay deposits after such previous notice as the trustees 
 shall prescribe, and while we all have such by-laws, it is 
 customary to waive any notice except in rare cases; and 
 when the right is exercised we do it reluctantly and con- 
 sider it a weakness to be compelled to do it at all. If 
 notice was universally required it might effectually pre- 
 vent danger of a run and our customers would soon 
 become used to it and think nothing about it. My mind 
 is open to conviction on both these topics. I believe the 
 time has come when they should be discussed and thrashed 
 out, and this Association should decide what position 
 its Executive Committee should take and the reasons 
 therefor. 
 
 My attention has been called to the facts that the 
 Savings Banks of this State have invested $150,000,000 
 in the bonds of the City of New York, and that the ac- 
 counts and methods of the Department of Finance of the 
 city are now kept in an antiquated and chaotic manner. 
 It is of great importance to the Savings Banks that the 
 municipal finance of all the cities, in whose bonds we 
 may invest, should be placed and maintained upon a 
 sound business basis. 
 
 These reforms in the finances of New York City will 
 not be brought about, it is feared, without a strong ex- 
 pression of public sentiment and the emphatic demands 
 of those institutions which should know the exact state 
 of affairs. 
 
 I have had the great honor of holding the oflftce of 
 President of this Association for four years. Let me say 
 that I consider the work done in connection with it as part
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 417 
 
 of the most interesting of my business life. It is a very 
 real regret to me that it is over, but the time has come for 
 some one else to assume the honors and responsibilities 
 of the position. I have, therefore, requested the Com- 
 mittee not to renominate me. 
 
 As the ex-Presidents of the Association are by our Con- 
 stitution ex-officio members of the Executive Committee, 
 I shall hope to continue to render what services I may for 
 some time to come. 
 
 In retiring from the Presidency of your body, I desire 
 to thank you for your ready assistance, whenever I have 
 needed it, and for your untiring kindness and Consideration. 
 
 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 The report of the Executive Committee was read by 
 Mr. Miller of Utica. 
 
 The Executive Committee met on October 11, 1907, and 
 organized by reelecting the chairman, secretary, and 
 counsel. The propriety of calling a meeting of the presi- 
 dents of the various banks in the City of New York, to 
 consider a uniform rate of dividends of three and one half 
 per cent., was discussed. As it was the opinion of the 
 majority that such a meeting was, at that time, inexpedi- 
 ent, that matter was dropped without formal action. 
 
 The soliciting of deposits by larger institutions within 
 the territory occupied by other Savings Banks, which was 
 referred to the Executive Committee, was considered, and 
 the following resolution was adopted: 
 
 '^Resolved, That while we deprecate any undue competi- 
 tion between institutions that should all serve the public 
 unselfishly, the proposition referred to in the resolution 
 can only be regulated by the good sense of the officers of 
 the various banks and cannot properly be restricted by 
 this Association." 
 
 On November 20, 1907, the Executive Committee 
 met to consider the effect of the panic upon the Savings 
 Banks. Committees consisting of Messrs. Mills, Eel-
 
 4i8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 singer, and Multy for New York County, and Messrs. 
 Meserole, Schieren, and Coombs for Kings County, were 
 appointed to take such steps as might be desirable to 
 strengthen the position of the banks in each county. 
 
 During the winter the Executive Committee was con- 
 sulted in writing as to its attitude toward the amendments 
 to sections 20 and 123 of the banking law, which provide 
 for some form of amortization of securities, and the bills 
 introduced by Messrs. Saxe and Bennett restricting the 
 trustees in a Savings Bank who may be directors of any 
 other single financial institution to one third of the total 
 number, and providing that no officer of a financial in- 
 stitution in which a Savings Bank deposits any fund may 
 be a trustee in such Savings Bank. Each member of the 
 Committee expressed his views on these measures. By 
 substantial majoritiesthe Committees decided to favor the 
 first two measures and to oppose the others. In like 
 manner the Committee decided to oppose the bills of 
 Senator Davies and Mr. O'Brien which amended the in- 
 vestment law by legalizing the bonds of steamship com- 
 panies plying on the Great Lakes. 
 
 The Committee met again on April 10, 1908, and elected 
 Mr. Conklin of the Franklin Savings Bank to fill the va- 
 cancy on the Committee caused by the death of Mr. W. 
 H. S. Wood. 
 
 The session of the Legislature for 1908 was very prolific 
 of changes in the banking law, and the Savings Banks did 
 not altogether escape attention. Altogether, the officers 
 of the Committee received and examined carefully two 
 hundred and six bills which affected banking interests, 
 and, of these, found thirty-seven which directly interested 
 the Savings Banks. These ranged in importance from the 
 bills introduced by the Committees on Banks with the 
 approval of the Superintendent, which amended sections 
 20 and 123 of the banking law as to amortization; author- 
 ized banks to borrow money and give collateral, with the 
 consent of the Superintendent; required trustees to take 
 an oath of office and made the officers responsible for
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 419 
 
 presenting to the trustees, monthly, a detailed report of 
 loans and investments; to bills like that of A. E. Smith, 
 requiring an annual election of trustees by the depositors 
 and making trustees ineligible for reelection. 
 
 A hearing was held on March 3d, before the joint Com- 
 mittees on Banks of the Senate and Assembly, at which the 
 Committee opposed the following bills: Admitting New 
 York City tax liens to the investment list; admitting 
 steamship bonds to the list of legal investments ; restricting 
 the number of trustees who may be directors in other 
 financial institutions to one third; repealing Chapter 42 
 of the Laws of 1900, pensioning officers and employees 
 after twenty-five years of service; requiring dividends to 
 be paid quarterly; providing for the insuring of Savings 
 Bank deposits; requiring the payment of interest to de- 
 positors for the full time their money remains on deposit. 
 We believe that no bill which we opposed became a law. 
 
 REMARKS OF MR. CLARK WILLIAMS 
 
 It is a great pleasure for me to be with you to-day and 
 to meet you personally. I feel sure that the business of 
 your Association will preclude a lengthy discussion of 
 matters which of late have been on the minds and hearts 
 of those interested in banking in this State. I welcome 
 the opportunity, however, of being with you. Six months 
 ago I knew very little about Savings Banks, and I daresay 
 there are those who perhaps do not approve the legislation 
 recently enacted who will think that the condition of mind 
 of the Superintendent of Banks has not since materially 
 changed. There are several things, however, gentlemen, 
 that I do know. I have learned to respect the Savings 
 Bank of the State of New York as an institution of the 
 highest class. I doubt if in this world there is a type of 
 financial institution which better serves its purpose, which 
 is safer, and answers more adequately the needs of the 
 people who are properly its patrons. This condition may 
 be attributed by some to the laws upon our statute books. 
 I go further than that, however, and attribute it to the
 
 420 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 character of the men who have the management of these 
 institutions in their care. That management, in my 
 judgment, is characterized by an unselfish adherence to 
 the principles upon which these philanthropic institutions 
 are founded. The ambition of the Savings Bank Presi- 
 dent is for the safety of his institution and the proper care 
 of the moneys of the provident poor, rather than a personal 
 ambition to become himself wealthy. 
 
 There is a matter to which I suggest you should give 
 proper consideration, and that is the encroachment upon 
 your legitimate field on the part of other institutions, 
 some financial, some mercantile, some State institutions, 
 and Federal institutions as well. 
 
 It is a personal satisfaction at this time to express 
 publicly my appreciation of the efforts of your Committee 
 upon Legislation. The work of your honored President, 
 of Mr. Miller, and of Mr. Mills, was of inestimable value 
 not only in securing the legislation which we believe will 
 be of great benefit to your system in the future, but quite 
 as much in the prevention of the passage of measures 
 which were improper. 
 
 I wish you to know that it is the purpose of the Banking 
 Department to be characterized by responsive, efficient 
 administration. This is what we wish, and we ask your 
 cooperation. We feel that without this cooperation this 
 efficiency cannot be maintained. We wish you also to 
 know that we propose to be helpful to the greatest possible 
 degree, and shall welcome at all times the opportunity of 
 being of service. 
 
 FINANCES OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 Mr. Charles A. Miller: Mr. Chairman, if it is in order 
 under the head of new business, I wish to present and move 
 the adoption of what would be a suitable resolution in 
 regard to the finances of the City of New York, in response 
 to the request of the Association, which has been commu- 
 nicated in writing, I think, to every member here, and 
 which communication has explained the necessity and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 421 
 
 desirability of more efficient accounting methods. I 
 therefore move the following: 
 
 RESOLUTION OF CHAS. A. MILLER 
 
 Whereas, The Savings Banks of New York State own 
 approximately $150,000,000 of New York City bonds, and 
 
 Whereas, The 3,000,000 depositors in these Savings 
 Banks have an important interest in the legality and 
 market price of municipal holdings, and 
 
 Whereas, Both the legality and the value of municipal 
 bonds may be affected by the methods of administration 
 which fail to give accurate information as to the amount 
 of indebtedness, and which do not protect against waste- 
 ful expenditure and inadequate accounting for revenue, 
 and 
 
 Whereas, The Comptroller of the City of New York has 
 given publicity to a report by the Bureau of Municipal 
 Research, which shows that New York City is not able 
 at present to determine the amount of its liabilities, to 
 determine the propriety of expenditures on claims pre- 
 sented for payment, to audit its revenues, or protect itself 
 against infidelity or incompetence of officers and employees, 
 and 
 
 Whereas, The Comptroller of New York City has adopted 
 the plan submitted by the Bureau of Municipal Research 
 after approval by three leading accounting firms pro- 
 viding for reorganizing the financial methods of New 
 York City so as to apply principles of business adminis- 
 tration, be it 
 
 Resolved, That the Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York express to Comptroller Metz the belief 
 that the immediate reorganization of New York City's 
 Department of Finance is of the utmost consequence to 
 the depositors in Savings Banks, and that no consideration 
 should be permitted to obstruct the execution of plans 
 for such reorganization, and be it further 
 
 Resolved, That while not committing itself to details of 
 any particular accounting method, the Savings Banks
 
 422 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Association submits as the minimum requirements of 
 adequate financial control that 
 
 (i) Responsibility be fixed for every financial trans- 
 action. 
 
 (2) A basis be provided for the prompt and intelligent 
 audit of claims for goods furnished and work performed. 
 
 (3) A method be installed for proving the accuracy of 
 collections, not only by cash books, but by reference to 
 evidence of moneys due and moneys actually received. 
 
 (4) If it be possible for investors in New York City^s 
 bonds to know the total liabilities of the city, as a means 
 of determining the value and legality of such bonds before 
 purchase. 
 
 Be it further Resolved, That it is the sense of this Asso- 
 ciation that, in effecting such reorganization of New York 
 City's financial methods, Comptroller Aletz would be con- 
 ferring a lasting benefit not only upon Savings Bank de- 
 positors and holders of municipal bonds, but upon all 
 interested in the more efficient administration of municipal 
 government. 
 
 ADDRESS OF WILLIAM J. COOMBS 
 
 Mr. President: I think we cannot overestimate the 
 importance of the action contemplated under those reso- 
 lutions which I understand have the sanction of Comp- 
 troller Metz. There is probably not a Savings Bank 
 represented in this gathering that is not a holder of bonds 
 of the city. We none of us doubt for a moment that they 
 are perfectly safe and will be paid at maturity, yet we are 
 confronted by the fact that, while it is the greatest and 
 richest city in the country, their market value is very 
 much below that of some inferior cities. We find the 
 bonds of some of the eastern cities quoted on a 3.80 basis, 
 while those of this great city are held upon, approximately, 
 a 4.20 interest-paying basis. This is doubtless in part 
 due to the very large issues that have been necessary on 
 account of the enormous expenditures necessarily in- 
 curred in the improvements called for by the various
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 423 
 
 boroughs, all of which add to our security as bondholders, 
 but a large part is caused by our defective system of book- 
 keeping and accounting, the sursdval of old methods not 
 adapted to the new conditions since the time of consolida- 
 tion. One cause of confusion is doubtless in the condem- 
 nation of property for public uses. The Comptroller's 
 ofhce must find it difficult to accurately estimate the 
 amount of the indebtedness of the city for land acquired, 
 or in process of being acquired. The following is an 
 illustration of what I mean: Our Institution has two 
 mortgages on property acquired by the city — through 
 condemnation proceedings. In both cases they are related 
 to improvements decided upon, but the full legal details 
 of which have not been completed. Nevertheless the city 
 has entered upon possession and exercised the right of full 
 ownership, such as removing buildings, and in one case 
 making excavations, leaving us practically in the condition 
 of holding a mortgage on a hole in the ground. We are 
 not worried, but the condition is peculiar. If the resolu- 
 tions do not specifically cover this point I suggest that an 
 amendment be added. We must all of us sympathize 
 with the Comptroller, who is a good business man, in his 
 efforts to inaugurate a new system of bookkeeping and 
 accounting that will enable him at all times to be guided 
 by exact information. 
 
 The General Government is, I venture to say, a model 
 in this respect. Under all administrations the system in- 
 augurated by Alexander Hamilton has proved adequate 
 to meet the requirements of the country, notwithstanding 
 its enormous expansion. Although many efforts to change 
 it have been made, they are essentially the same as that 
 devised by that great statesman. Under its operation 
 the Secretary of the Treasury is able on the first of every 
 month to make an accurate statement of the resources and 
 obligations of the Government. If our Comptroller was 
 in a position to do the same thing it would simplify his 
 duties and add greatly to the market value of our city 
 securities.
 
 424 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Mr. E. P. Maynard: Mr. President, may I say a word 
 
 on this resolution? 
 
 While I suppose the measures advocated in this resolu- 
 tion are necessary, I also believe we want to be very 
 careful in adopting the resolution because of the possible 
 effect on the market value of these securities. For that 
 reason I believe that in the resolution should be incorpo- 
 rated a statement to the effect that we have every confi- 
 dence in the ability of the City of New York to meet its 
 obligations at all times, but that we do believe that some 
 change should be made in the method of accounting in 
 the Comptroller's office. 
 
 The resolutions were adopted. 
 
 Mr. John T. Smith, Chairman of the Nominating Com- 
 mittee said: 
 
 As our very worthy and efi&cient President and Secre- 
 tary have declined further nominations for the offices 
 which they have filled so effectively as to merit the 
 gratitude of the Association, it becomes necessary un- 
 der these conditions for the Committee on Nominations 
 to look for some one else to fill the positions. Our minds 
 would naturally turn to one who would seem to be a logical 
 candidate for President under the situation, a man who 
 was the father of the bill for standardizing the invest- 
 ments of Savings Banks, one of the most important pieces 
 of legislation which have passed the Legislature in relation 
 to banks. It not only fixed a standard of valuation, but 
 it removed that constant menace of speculators making 
 a market for their bonds by dumping them upon the 
 Savings Banks. He is a man of keen, good judgment, 
 who has been the champion of the banks in all matters 
 before the Legislature for some years past, and who, to 
 my own experience, is one of the most effectual advocates 
 that has ever come before the Legislature. 
 
 I would say that this matter was submitted to Mr.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 425 
 
 Miller and I failed to get his consent, but I believe that if 
 it comes to Mr. Miller by the request of this Association 
 he would have to accept, 
 
 Mr. Miller, President-elect on assuming the chair, said : 
 
 I do not think any one can regret your act more than I 
 do. I am sure no one could feel more highly honored than 
 I feel by what you have done. I can only say to you that 
 while I remain your President I will do the very utmost 
 that in me lies to follow the examples which have been 
 set for me by the really great men who have preceded me 
 in this ofhce. The most that I can promise you is that 
 it will be my greatest effort to try to do as nearly as well 
 as those Presidents who have gone before me as my 
 ability will permit, and to follow especially my last pred- 
 ecessor, whose retirement from the office of President 
 I believe to be a really great loss to this Association. I 
 cannot accept the office without expressing my very 
 great regret that in taking it the Association is losing 
 the services of Mr. Van Rensselaer, who has done 
 for us all much more, I think, than you gentlemen 
 who have not been closely associated with him can ever 
 know. 
 
 Mr. Mills: Mr. President, I would like to add a word 
 to the testimony that has been given in regard to the 
 efficiency and the untiring efforts that have been made 
 by our late President and by our retiring Secretary. Of 
 course, as you know, the men who are more closely asso- 
 ciated with the officers are the members of the Executive 
 Committee, and having been a member of that Committee 
 since the organization of this Association I can speak with 
 full knowledge, and I want the records of this Association 
 to show that we thoroughly and heartily appreciate the 
 untiring efforts of Mr. W. Bayard Van Rensselaer, who 
 has served us so faithfully for the past fourteen years, and 
 also for the less conspicuous, but not less important, efforts 
 put forth by our Secretary, Mr. William G. Conklin, who
 
 426 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 for so many years has served us as Secretary of this 
 Association. 
 
 The President : Gentlemen, you have heard the motion 
 of Mr. ^lills, that a vote of thanks on the part of the As- 
 sociation be tendered to Mr. Van Rensselaer and to Mr. 
 Conklin. The motion is seconded. Are there any further 
 remarks? If not, all those in favor of the resolution will 
 manifest it by rising. The vote of thanks is extended by 
 the Association to Mr. Van Rensselaer and to Mr. Conklin. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. ANDREW MILLS 
 
 ]\Ir. President, FeUow Members of the Savings Banks 
 Association : It is not my intention to deliver any formal 
 speech, but to simply state in a plain way, or to give, 
 rather, to the members of the Association, a history of the 
 panic as affecting the Savings Banks in Greater New 
 York, and to draw some deductions that may be of profit 
 to us all. 
 
 Outside of New York, as near as I can learn, there was 
 little or no excitement. The withdrawals for a long time 
 were a little heavier than ordinarily, but nothing in the 
 shape of a run evidenced itself in an}' quarter to any ex- 
 tent. In New York the situation was entirely different. 
 When the trust companies and banks which had branches 
 in the upper part of the city were forced to suspend, 
 people having deposits in the Savings Banks in the 
 neighborhood became somewhat excited and started 
 to withdraw their money, so that this movement, started 
 way up in the northern part of the city, worked itself 
 down gradually through the different sections, coming 
 down by the west side, until it reached the centre of the 
 city. 
 
 At first we paid comparatively little attention to it, 
 thinking that it was simply the fright of a few people in 
 the neighborhoods that I have indicated, but we saw 
 from day to day that the withdrawals were increasing until 
 they were reaching very large proportions, and a meeting 
 of the Savings Bank Presidents of New York and Brooklyn
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 427 
 
 was called at the Greenwich Savings Bank on Thursday 
 afternoon at five o'clock. Reports from the different 
 banks showed that the actual withdrawals in currency 
 that day had reached the sum of $2,500,000. The banks 
 of deposit, the commercial banks, and trust companies, 
 were in no position to supply any such amount of money 
 to be paid to people whose simple desire was to put it 
 between the mattresses or hide it in their stockings. A 
 Committee of two was appointed at this meeting to which 
 I refer, to confer with the Committee of the Clearing 
 House Association and place the matter before them. Mr. 
 Mulry and myself were the Committee that met the Clear- 
 ing House Association on the following morning. We 
 stated the case and told them that we were in a position 
 to pay provided they were in position to provide the 
 sinews of war. They advised us by all means, in the in- 
 terests of the community at large, to enforce the time rule 
 and refuse to pay beyond a limited sum. That was the 
 day on which the Clearing House Association decided to 
 issue Clearing House certificates. 
 
 The adjourned meeting was held at the Dry Dock 
 Savings Institution at one o'clock on the following day. 
 There the officers reported the same condition of affairs, 
 only that the withdrawals were on a larger scale. After 
 a long discussion, and viewing the question from every 
 side, it was unanimously decided that we should demand 
 the sixty-day notice. Our honored Bank Superintendent 
 was at the adjourned meeting, and while some were hesi- 
 tating as to the wisdom of withholding this money which 
 might be used in channels where it would do good, he 
 received a call on the telephone. He came back and said : 
 *' Gentlemen, five banks have suspended in Brooklyn since 
 ten o'clock this morning." There was no further argu- 
 ment on the matter, and the resolution for enforcing the 
 rule was unanimously adopted. 
 
 There is one thing I want to say in recognition of the 
 attitude of the press toward the Savings Banks. Without 
 exception, the newspapers published in the City of New
 
 428 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 York and Brooklyn vied with each other in efforts to re- 
 assure Savings Bank depositors and to discourage them 
 from even going to the banks ; and they did much that was 
 beneficial to the entire situation. There has been no other 
 opportunity to acknowledge this, but I take this oppor- 
 tunity, and ver>' gladly, of doing it. 
 
 That is the story in a few words as far as the immediate 
 effect of this panic upon the banks is concerned. There 
 are a few lessons to which I would call your attention. 
 
 The first is the importance of requiring notice of with- 
 drawals on the first evidence of a disturbance or lack of 
 confidence on the part of the depositors. The time was 
 when it was considered an evidence of weakness for a 
 Savings Bank to enforce the limit. Why didn't they pay? 
 That day has passed. It is an evidence of strength when 
 an institution says: No, we are not going to give you 
 your money; we are not going to dispose of the securities 
 which belong to the other depositors at a loss simply to 
 gratify the few. Gentlemen, do not hesitate. Face that 
 question squarely. Impress it upon the minds of Savings 
 Bank depositors that a Sa\angs Bank is not an institution 
 to pay on demand. It never was intended to be such. 
 The fundamental principle of the law on which it is 
 founded says that you shall invest your money, and you 
 cannot pay demand deposits with invested money. The 
 second is the importance of acting in unison. The strength 
 of the situation in New York and Brooklyn was that the 
 Savings Bank officers acted in time, before the great mass 
 of the depositors became frightened, and consequently 
 there was no mob at any bank. That was the first element 
 of strength, and the second was that they acted together, 
 so that no bank which might happen to be in a more 
 fortunate position than another could take to itself any 
 credit for not doing what was recognized as for the common 
 good of all. 
 
 There is one thing that developed which is incidental 
 only, and that was the difference in the time requirements 
 of the by-laws of the different institutions. We say sixty-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 429 
 
 day rule, sixty-day law. There is no sixty-day law. The 
 law says you may require such time as your by-laws pro- 
 vide. The majority of the institutions have a by-law 
 requiring sixty days' notice, some thirty days, and some 
 ninety days, and one institution that I know of, its actual 
 requirement to pay is only on four days in every year. 
 But would it not be well for the banks to consider the 
 desirability of having a uniform by-law throughout the 
 State so that the notice (whatever be decided upon, 
 whether it be sixty days or ninety days) would put every 
 bank in the same position? That, however, is incidental. 
 
 Another lesson is the paramount importance of accumu- 
 lating a sufficient surplus or guarantee fund. It was an 
 easy thing, when securities were advancing and rates of 
 interest were falling, for investments made by the different 
 Savings Banks to show from time to time an appreciation 
 in value or paper profit. The period through which we 
 have passed for a short time showed a decline in the in- 
 vestment securities unprecedented, and in my thirty odd 
 years' experience in this business I do not recollect the 
 time in which the so-called market value on which we 
 were then compelled to report our securities was so dis- 
 turbed as it was during last fall. That caused the thought- 
 ful minds in the Savings Banks to turn to the fact that 
 the accumulation of surplus that had been criticised so 
 freely in times gone by was an actual and fundamental 
 necessity. 
 
 Two years ago in the Legislature of this State there was 
 presented a bill compelling Savings Banks to divide with 
 their depositors any excess of five per cent, of their surplus 
 as based upon their annual reports. If that law had 
 been enacted you can see for yourselves what the position 
 of the Savings Banks of the State of New York would have 
 been on the 3 1 st of December, 1 907 . Time and time again 
 have the Savings Banks been assailed by people who have 
 not given the question sufficient thought, for accumulating 
 a surplus which they say does not belong to anybody — 
 nobody gets it; it is no good to any one; and the Savings
 
 43© HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Bank officers simply keep it for their own benefit. Gen- 
 tlemen, that day, I am very thankful to say, has passed, 
 and I think in the near future that neither in nor out of 
 the Legislature will any Savings Bank be criticised for 
 accumulating a sufficient surplus or guarantee fund. 
 
 One thing more : In some locations immediately on the 
 decline in deposits or the withdrawal of money the officers 
 became worried and said: here, the reason for that is we 
 do not pay interest enough. Now we have been paying 
 three and a half per cent., and we will advance our rate 
 to four and we will keep this money here. 
 
 Gentlemen, that is folly, arrant folly. Ten thousand 
 times better for your institution to pay three and one half 
 per cent, and add to your surplus and make your deposits 
 unquestionably safe than to build a bank of enormous 
 proportions. The fundamental principle of a Savings Bank 
 is safety, not size. 
 
 Now it would be almost an impossibility, I suppose, to 
 get every Savings Bank to pay the same rate of interest, 
 but the majority of Savings Banks are in a position, that 
 as money becomes easier and the earning capacity of 
 money lessens, as it is now doing every day, to return to 
 the rate of three and a half per cent., and in my judgment 
 the time is very near when the rate of interest should 
 be three and one half per cent., and the excess of profit 
 go to increase your guarantee fund. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. JOHN HARSEN RHOADES, SON OF THE 
 FORMER PRESroENT ' 
 
 Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Savings Banks Asso- 
 ciation of the State of New York: I assure you I highly 
 appreciate your courtesy in asking me to address you. 
 I am honored, yet embarrassed, to stand here. Bearing 
 the name of one who so many times addressed you on 
 similar occasions, I am impressed by my total inability 
 to take his place. 
 
 With your permission I will divide my subject into two 
 parts: First, "The Financial Outlook of Savings Bank
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 431 
 
 Investments"; secondly, "Its Relation to the Surplus 
 of the Banks." The topic "The Financial Outlook of 
 Savings Bank Investments" is one which refers to future 
 conditions. But to forecast the future it is necessary 
 carefully and seriously to consider the present and review 
 the past. 
 
 It is time to be optimistic, and I shall dwell on the past 
 only in order to obtain a comprehensive view of present 
 and possible future conditions. No one can deny that 
 within two years has occurred a great decUne in the value 
 of Savings Bank investments, so great that one is ap- 
 palled by its very magnitude, and yet the Savings Banks of 
 this State are permitted to invest only in the highest grade 
 securities. Had any one said, in 1904, that three years 
 later the City of New York would be obliged to sell a 
 four per cent, bond, he would have been laughed at, 
 and yet the city in 1907 was forced to sell a bond bear- 
 ing four and one half per cent. This is not only true 
 in the case of our city, but applies to other municipalities 
 as well. 
 
 The immensity of the decline, and the fact that it was 
 entirely unforeseen, are the two main features I will ask 
 you to remember. 
 
 Let us endeavor to find a cause for this depreciation. 
 Without doubt there were many causes. There are those 
 who believe the Administration was in part responsible, 
 but surely we cannot blame the present Administration 
 for the decline in the value of British consols, nor in other 
 foreign securities. 
 
 In my opinion there is one theory which stands so pre- 
 eminently above others it should be given grave considera- 
 tion. I am alluding to the part recently played by high 
 money. The rates for money the world over, and es- 
 pecially in this country, remained high for a long period. 
 In fact, time money had ruled at six per cent, for twenty- 
 four months. What was the result? An adjustment of 
 values took place ; bonds which had been selling on a three 
 and one half per cent, to four per cent, basis were not in
 
 432 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 harmony with money at six per cent., for a difference of 
 one half of one per cent, between time money and legal 
 bond bases may be considered normal. I trust you will 
 not misunderstand me. I do not wish to imply that 
 temporary high money will cause a decline, but that con- 
 tinued high rates will ultimately result in lower prices for 
 bonds. 
 
 Assuming that the prices of bonds depend largely upon 
 money rates, we must naturally look for a reason for the 
 high money which prevailed. Many theories might be 
 advanced to account for this condition, and, among them, 
 the great prosperity and business expansion throughout 
 the land. No doubt earthquakes and wars played their 
 part, but it seems to me that what might be called over- 
 prosperity was the chief cause for high money. Gentle- 
 men, to continue my line of argument — what occasioned 
 over-prosperity? Was it the growth of a young country 
 with immense resources? Perhaps, but I believe the in- 
 creased output of gold played a most important part. 
 It is an established economic fact that an increased gold 
 production will cause a rise in commodities. We had a 
 similar result in 1849, ^^ the time of the gold discoveries in 
 California. Does it not seem rational that, with a rise 
 in commodities, over-speculation will be engendered not 
 only in the commodities themselves, but, through their 
 rise, in general lines of trade, and does not this over- 
 speculation mean a demand for money, naturally fol- 
 lowed by higher rates? And higher rates denote lower 
 prices for bonds. 
 
 It may occur to you to ask why we are witnessing easier 
 money while the gold output continues. May we not 
 assume that the shock to credit and loss of confidence have 
 brought an end to over-speculation, and that curtailment 
 in speculation more than offsets the effects of a continued 
 output of gold? 
 
 It is extremely difficult in a few words to explain the 
 effects of the ever-increasing supply of gold, but for the 
 present I am convinced that the continued output (more
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 433 
 
 than the needs of the country demanded) has been an 
 important, perhaps the most important, cause for the 
 decline in the value of securities of fixed income, a decline 
 which has extended, with intermittent rallies, over a 
 period of twenty years. 
 
 Let us now turn to some special Savings Bank bonds. 
 Several years ago the deposits of the Savings Banks had 
 grown to such an extent that it seemed advisable to en- 
 large the scope of investment, yet the men who were 
 influential in bringing this about might have acted in a 
 different manner had they been able to foresee the con- 
 sequences. It was essential that the scope should have 
 been broadened, but the result was unfortunate. For 
 fear of pernicious legislation the door was opened slowly 
 and first a few bonds admitted. Immediately a great 
 demand was created for these particular issues, with the 
 effect that their prices were forced far above the compara- 
 tive investment value. I do not desire to criticise the 
 motives of those who were interested in extending the 
 scope, for there were reasons then why it was inadvisable 
 to admit too many bonds at one time. 
 
 Another feature must not be passed unnoticed, the law 
 of supply and demand. We know the scope of Savings 
 Bank investments is being enlarged from time to time 
 as new securities become available under the law, and a 
 large rise in bonds cannot be expected until the demand 
 becomes greater than the supply. In considering values 
 for the immediate future it is well to be optimistic. The 
 over-extension of credit brought to an abrupt end by the 
 October panic caused a decline in general business ; hence, 
 temporarily, easier money should prevail and does prevail; 
 for how long, it cannot be said. A similar result occurred 
 in 1903 and 1904. In 1904 high-grade investment securi- 
 ties advanced materially, to be followed by the fall in 
 values between the years 1905 and 1907. Should history 
 repeat itself, we will see an advancing market for at least 
 a year or more, but the improvement will be slow. Con- 
 fidence was badly shaken, and confidence is a thing of
 
 434 mSTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 slow growth, lost in a moment; months, nay years, are 
 often required to restore it. 
 
 Perhaps it would be well not to assume bonds will sell 
 again at the high prices reached in the past, for, if there be 
 truth in the theory of an ever-increasing output of gold, 
 Savings Bank securities may sell on a still higher income 
 basis in the future. On the p>ossibility that bonds may 
 again decline, I would call your attention to the effect 
 of such decline upon the surplus of the banks, and so to 
 turn to the second part of my subject, "The Relation of 
 Future Values to a Bank's Surplus." 
 
 On December 31, 1907, the Savings Banks of this State 
 were (under the law since altered) obliged to determine 
 their surplus by taking their security investments at the 
 estimated market value. December 31st was two months 
 after the panic, and prices then were practically the same 
 as they had been in the July previous, and, furthermore, 
 on the average, the fall in values between December, 1906 
 and 1907, and the rise since the last mentioned date have 
 been small. This statement may seem astounding, never- 
 theless it is true, and I have the proof before me. It fol- 
 lows, then, that on December 31, 1907, bonds were not at 
 panic prices. The crisis of the panic had passed, and an 
 improvement in values begun. The point that should be 
 emphasized is this: that, after securities have ruled at a 
 certain level of price for a period of six or twelve months, 
 it is time to recognize that their current quotations express 
 their true value. 
 
 Gentlemen, is it not true that the great decline in high- 
 grade securities has eaten into the surplus, if based upon 
 market values? I fully realize that there are those who 
 believe the surplus of a Savings Bank should not be based 
 upon the market, which is ever changing, but with those 
 gentlemen I beg to differ. I believe the surplus of a Savings 
 Bank should be based upon the estimated market value 
 of its assets. In fact, although opposed to making it a 
 law, I favor greater conservatism, believing it would be 
 better for a Savings Bank not to value those assets selling
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 435 
 
 above cost for more than their purchase price until sold, 
 for, in doing so, it is crediting its depositors with profits 
 before they are earned. In the future, if the banks were 
 required by law (which I believe essential) to maintain a 
 fixed percentage of surplus, such a process would increase 
 it, and permit a bank to pay a larger dividend than it 
 actually earned, A Savings Bank should not value those 
 assets selling below cost above the market, for, if so, it is 
 crediting its depositors with funds which do not exist, 
 even on paper, and amortization at cost might cause this 
 to be done. 
 
 Is it necessary to mark bonds up which have risen above 
 cost, though still unsold, merely because it is essential 
 to mark bonds down which are selling below cost? I 
 hardly think so, when we realize that Savings Bank invest- 
 ments as a whole are of such high order that to a large 
 extent their values rise and fall together. Why build up 
 a surplus through a rise in bonds? One built upon such 
 lines could easily be depleted by a corresponding decline. 
 If securities were never valued above cost, the reported 
 surplus would not be so ever-changing. Moreover, when 
 bonds were selling at abnormally high prices the surplus 
 in reality would be larger than what appeared on the 
 surface, and would not this be an excellent automatic 
 arrangement? 
 
 There are those who claim figuring the surplus on market 
 values is unnecessary, presuming that all Savings Bank 
 bonds will be paid at maturity. Mortgages have an 
 average of three years to run, but many bonds have fifty. 
 Why discount conditions so far ahead? If we keep our 
 bonds at the market, every six months we will know 
 whether our surplus be adequate. They also claim that 
 depositors, as a unit, will not withdraw their money. 
 For the present this is true. For the depositors have 
 confidence in the Savings Banks of this State. But sup- 
 pose at some future time there should be such a decline 
 in securities that the banks found their assets not equal 
 to their liabilities, and a deficit existed — imagine these
 
 436 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 conditions to prevail long enough for the depositors to 
 find them out! If one bank were in this condition, it 
 would be proper for the Superintendent to close it, but 
 conceive a situation where all the banks suddenl]^ found 
 themselves in a similar position. Of course we believe 
 the trustees and the officers are not legally responsible. 
 But is there no moral responsibility? The depositors 
 are not told that if at some future date there be a decline 
 in the market it might be impossible to pay all in full, yet, 
 they, as a unit, expect to be paid in full, and, as a matter 
 of fact, every one has been paid for years. 
 
 Should not a Savings Bank at all times, under all con- 
 ditions, be in a position to treat depositors with equal 
 consideration? Is it morally right to pay back the prin- 
 cipal and interest to some during a period of depressed 
 value and not maintain an adequate reserve, based upon 
 market values, to safeguard the remainder? Who are 
 the remainder? Men, women, the majority poor and 
 ignorant, who, not knowing how to invest their money, 
 have shown their confidence by leaving their funds in the 
 care of the bank. Gentlemen, it would be better to reduce 
 the dividend rate to two and a half per cent., and build 
 up a surplus of twenty, then jeopardize the principal of 
 these depositors, and I believe they represent seventy- 
 five per cent, of the depositors of our banks to-day. 
 
 The law which has just passed our Legislature, provid- 
 ing in a manner approved by the Superintendent for the 
 amortization or gradual extinction of premiums or dis- 
 counts of securities, appears to me to be unwise. It does 
 not follow the original recommendations of our Superin- 
 tendent. It may operate to hide a deficit or destroy a 
 surplus, but one thing it will never do — show the actual 
 and true condition of a bank. For the law no longer 
 exists which at stated periods compelled an institution to 
 value its assets at the estimated market value. In the 
 crisis of one of our panics I am a firm believer in the 
 adoption of an emergency measure, but I do not believe 
 in the enactment of an emergency law.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 437 
 
 We know the Superintendent has the right to ask for a 
 report of the surplus based upon market values, in order 
 that he may learn whether a bank be solvent, but should 
 so vital a matter be left to the discretion of the Superin- 
 tendent? Should not the law make it mandatory for 
 officers and trustees to keep themselves posted and furnish 
 at stated periods to the Superintendent the amount of 
 their bank's surplus? If they were not required by law 
 to value their securities at the market, at times, some 
 might be ignorant as to whether their assets were equal 
 to their Habilities, and is not this knowledge essential, 
 in order to treat depositors with equal consideration? 
 
 Once and for all time to mark off the premium on a 
 bond, when purchased, is a form of amortization which 
 is not perfect, because it destroys forever the opportunity 
 to judge the true earning power of an institution for any 
 six months' period. Amortization, as suggested by the 
 new law, if used for the purpose of arriving at the true 
 earning power of an institution for a period of six months, 
 is an excellent plan, for there is no better way to figure 
 the earning power of a Savings Bank than through this 
 form of amortization, and I believe we would welcome 
 such a law if reenforced by another compelling the banks 
 to figure their surplus on market values. 
 
 The advocates of the present law claim that their plan 
 would work automatically, bringing in the end the desired 
 results, but ultimately they would be obliged to turn to 
 market values to learn if the desired results had been 
 obtained. Again the very condition of affairs which 
 makes it possible to purchase Savings Bank bonds at a 
 high income basis and offset those purchased on a low, 
 while brought about by other causes, is partly maintained 
 because the Savings Banks at such times have no money 
 to invest. And by the time they are ready to invest the 
 bargains may be gone. Even if some had money, human 
 nature is such that I believe only a few would be disposed 
 to take advantage of the conditions prevailing. Are we 
 not all inclined to buy securities when high and sell them
 
 438 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 when low? If the desired results were attained, I am 
 sure it would take a great number of years to bring them 
 about. How many bonds have been bought by the Sav- 
 ings Bank during the last twelve months, when bargains 
 were offered? 
 
 The panic of 1907 and the long decline have brought us 
 face to face with an interesting situation, so interesting 
 that it warrants serious thought; for the great, unexpected 
 decline in securities and the possibility of its recurrence, 
 force us to contemplate a new phase in Savings Bank 
 affairs. If there be truth in the theory of an ever-increas- 
 ing output of gold, there may be another great decline in 
 the future, and if there be no truth in the theory, is it 
 not even then a mistake to remain idle in the hope that 
 bonds will again sell at high prices, and adequate reserves 
 be restored? Why not stop speculating as to the future? 
 Is it not necessary for a Savings Bank officer, at times, to 
 meet a situation as he finds it? Some guessing is un- 
 avoidable, but too much is fatal. 
 
 We concede the money belongs to the depositors, and 
 that the maintenance of too large a surplus would be an 
 injustice to them, for a Savings Bank should not be a 
 stock company nor a money-making concern. All earn- 
 ings above the maintenance of an adequate surplus should 
 belong to the depositors. The fact, nevertheless, that 
 there are no stockholders to hold liable, nor capital to fall 
 back upon, is an excellent reason for maintaining an ade- 
 quate reserve. 
 
 The Savings Banks differ materially from the national 
 banks and trust companies. The sixty-day notice in it- 
 self annuls the necessity of a large surplus, but can it be 
 said that a Savings Bank should have no surplus at all? 
 No doubt in the past the reserve was adequate, for then we 
 had no idea that Savings Bank securities could decline to 
 so great an extent, but I am trying to call your attention 
 to existing conditions and to future possibilities. 
 
 Properly to build up the reserve of the banks will require 
 a reduction in dividend rates. This could easily be effected
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 439 
 
 if the banks would stand together and make their rate 
 uniform. Under present conditions, I do not believe they 
 would lose many deposits, and they certainly would not 
 if the depositors knew the reason why the dividends were 
 reduced; but what if they should lose? Can we doubt 
 that in the end they would regain from bona fide deposi- 
 tors all they lost and more? The Post Office Savings 
 Banks of Great Britain, backed by the government, to be 
 sure, pay only two and one half per cent, interest, and 
 have an army of depositors composed absolutely of the 
 non-investing class. The amount of those deposits on 
 January i, 1906, was £155,000,000. Even though our 
 Savings Banks are not Government institutions, is it not 
 possible, and would it not be beneficial, for the State of 
 New York, in proportion to its inhabitants, to strive for 
 a similar result? There is a Savings Fund Society in 
 another State which pays but three and one half per cent, 
 interest, and has a fist of 265,000 depositors composed 
 almost entirely of the non-investing class. In the year 
 1907 this institution gained over 5,000 depositors, and 
 increased its deposits over three and a half million dollars. 
 Since January ist it has gained two hundred thousand 
 dollars in deposits. Even though we recognized the fact 
 that it is one of only three institutions in a large city, 
 nevertheless its record is a proud one. 
 
 Gentlemen, a Savings Bank is an institution for savings, 
 and should resemble a safe deposit company more than a 
 trust company. If we are to compete for trust company 
 business, we had better become stock companies at once 
 and enter the field fully equipped to succeed. If it be the 
 ambition of some of our officers and trustees to be con- 
 nected with the biggest Savings Bank in the State, nat- 
 urally it must be their ambition to be connected with the 
 strongest, and should not the size of a Savings Bank be 
 measured by the number of the depositors rather than 
 by the amount of its deposits? And should not its strength 
 be measured by the amount of its actual surplus rather 
 than by the amount of a false one obtained through amor-
 
 440 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tization? \\Tiat are the functions of a Savings Bank? 
 And for what purpose was it created? It was created for 
 the sole purpose of encouraging thrift — saving — among 
 the non-investing class of our population, and the rate 
 of interest is a secondary matter. Is not its function to 
 receive the savings of these people, to invest them with 
 the greatest care, and to manage the affairs of the bank 
 in such a way that the principal of all shall be to the best 
 knowledge and belief of the officers and trustees at all 
 times intact? Certainly this is the understanding of 
 every depositor, whether he be intelligent or other\vise. 
 Safety of principal — rpayable on demand — should be the 
 aim of every Savings Bank officer and trustee. Unfor- 
 tunately, in this great country of ours, owing to our de- 
 fective currency system, we are visited occasionally by 
 severe panics, and so we are forced to reserve the privilege 
 of demanding a thirty, sixty, or ninety day notice, the 
 purpose being to give our banks time to sell such securities 
 as are necessary, and also to give time for the panic to 
 subside and the depositors to recover from their fright. 
 I look upon our sixty-day clause as I do upon the Clearing 
 House certificates of a national bank, an unfortunate 
 necessity. Yet I believe it to be essential that a Savings 
 Bank should constantly endeavor to keep itself in a posi- 
 tion to meet its liabilities, and be able to liquidate at the 
 market, in a reasonable space of time, and remain solvent. 
 Are circumstances such to-day, or can they occur in the 
 future, as would compel us to depart from these fundamen- 
 tal principles? If so, I firmly believe it would result in 
 the estabhshment of Postal Savings Banks throughout 
 the cities of this State, and would signify a change in the 
 whole system, with man}' new laws. The founding in 
 this country- of Postal Savings Banks, with the Govern- 
 ment behind them, is not a dream. It is a probability. 
 And yet I doubt if there be a man present who is anxious 
 to see them established in the cities of this State. And 
 too large a dividend will not keep them out, for if, by pay- 
 ing four per cent, and catering to the investor class, the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 441 
 
 chances are increased of being forced to fall back upon 
 the sixty-day clause, it would not take many experiences 
 of this character before depositors would much prefer to 
 place their money in the Postal Savings Banks, where 
 it would always be payable on demand. 
 
 Gentlemen, can it be denied that considerable money 
 drifted into the Savings Banks, especially in this city, 
 which should have found its way into the trust companies 
 and national banks? Several cases have been brought to 
 my attention where individuals have had from $25,0x30 
 to $50,000 scattered among the banks of this State, and 
 the people I have in mind were capable of investing their 
 own money, and were much distressed during the panic, 
 that they were unable to obtain their funds for the pur- 
 pose of investment. Some of the individuals to whom I 
 refer deposited their money two years ago when the 
 Savings Banks, by paying four per cent., were offering to 
 the public a better investment than could be obtained else- 
 where with like security, and now the same individuals are 
 withdrawing their deposits, principal and interest intact. 
 Who are the losers? The remaining depositors. Such 
 being the case, can it be denied that an adequate reserve 
 is essential to protect them, and would a reserve based 
 upon amortization at cost, regardless of whether securities 
 were selling above or below, answer the purpose? 
 
 If the banks had been paying three and one half per cent, 
 the public would not have been so anxious to deposit its 
 money, but, by paying four per cent., they invited these 
 people to do so. Can the public be blamed for taking ad- 
 vantage of such a golden opportunity? 
 
 Some banks claim they are earning over four per cent., 
 and are entitled to pay four per cent, to their depositors. 
 But how is it sometimes earned? Because the law does 
 not compel them to maintain a fixed percentage of surplus. 
 Suppose the two years' decline had been much greater 
 and every bank in the State had a large deficit to-day; 
 would it not be folly to claim that during those two years 
 they had earned four per cent.? It would seem as though
 
 442 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 a Savings Bank should decide upon, adopt, and maintain 
 a fixed percentage of surplus, or at least know it is solvent, 
 before it can consider earnings, and after this fact is known 
 then and only then can it base its earnings upon amortiza- 
 tion at cost. In the past a small surplus appeared ample, 
 but when you remember the immensity of the decline, and 
 the fact that it was entirely unforeseen, can we now main- 
 tain that five per cent, is too large? In the light of what 
 has occurred, would it not be better for the larger banks 
 to maintain even ten per cent.? In Pennsylvania the 
 law requires the maintenance of a seven and one half per 
 cent, surplus. In Massachusetts the law compels a Sav- 
 ings Bank every six months to set aside from net profits 
 not less than one eighth nor more than a quarter per cent, 
 of total deposits in order to build up and maintain a five 
 per cent, surplus or a guarantee fund. And when ten per 
 cent, is reached it must pay an extra dividend. Are you 
 aware we have no such law in our State, and do you realize 
 it is left to the discretion of the trustees to reserve such 
 amount as they deem expedient? A law, similar to the 
 ones existing in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, should 
 be enacted In this State, for the adoption of such a law 
 would tend to prevent the recurrence of the situation 
 which our banks were obliged to face in December. The 
 fact that we shall be forced to pay a larger tax to the 
 State is no reason to my mind why we should not have a 
 law which compels us to maintain a fixed percentage of 
 surplus to assist us in keeping our banks solvent. 
 
 The panic of 1907 is behind us, but has not the decline 
 in bonds proved the truth of three things which in the past 
 were considered doubtful? First: Savings Bank invest- 
 ments are not always free from great shrinkage in value. 
 Second: Depositors will at times withdraw large sums 
 of money. And third: Securities occasionally must be 
 sold. 
 
 Gentlemen, we are entering upon a period of slow up- 
 building and reconstruction, and the men needed to-day 
 are the men who can rebuild, upon sound banking princi-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 443 
 
 pies, the weak financial structures which fell in October; 
 but let us not forget a panic exposes the weak spots in the 
 strongest of institutions, and even the Savings Banks have 
 not escaped this time unscathed. We should not lose 
 sight of the fact that the banks have sustained during the 
 past few years a continuous decline in the value of their 
 assets, culminating in the panic prices of October. The 
 failure to realize this protracted decline, and the earnest 
 desire on the part of the banks to pay full earnings, have 
 operated against the safety of the depositors' principal. 
 
 I am optimistic as to the immediate future, but, in 
 writing on the financial outlook, I am forced to consider 
 the ultimate future, and I believe we will again experience 
 periods of depression with declining bond markets, until 
 at least our currency and banking system has been im- 
 proved, and when I realize the necessity of a Savings Bank 
 remaining solvent, and, what is more, maintaining an 
 adequate surplus to insure solvency, I am anxious to take 
 time by the forelock and correct any weaknesses that may 
 exist to-day. If the Savings Bank Law now on the statute 
 books of New York State, forbidding the payment of over 
 five per cent, dividends, were modified to establish a uni- 
 form rate not exceeding three and one half per cent, with 
 permission to pay an extra dividend after the surplus shall 
 equal fifteen per cent, of total deposits, I am confident that 
 many puzzling problems would be solved; and I believe 
 the law could be changed were the majority of the banks 
 to favor it and exert their influence to that end; and if I 
 am correct, why not change it? But, gentlemen, if the 
 majority of you concur in the wisdom of reducing the rate 
 of interest, why wait for the law? 
 
 If any bank has a ten per cent, surplus at market values 
 to-day, it has the unquestionable right to pay four per 
 cent., but should not this payment be carefully weighed, in 
 deference to the interests of sister institutions, for a mem- 
 ber of an association must concede there are rights, not 
 enforceable by law, which, nevertheless, should be re- 
 spected?
 
 444 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Gentlemen, there are many able men before me, and it 
 is unbecoming in me, a stranger among you, to criticise. 
 I assure you I have had no desire to do so, in fact, criticism 
 is out of place, for no one can be blamed for a situation 
 which could not have been foreseen, but, in attempting 
 to read the future, we are compelled to consider present 
 conditions and recall unavoidable errors of the past. 
 
 An interesting paper was read by Mr. Wm. J. Lovejoy, 
 of the Fulton SavingsBank, on the "Insuring of Deposits." 
 
 THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 The following paper on The Theory and Practice of 
 Savings Banks was read by Mr. Hanaman, President of 
 the Troy Savings Bank: 
 
 When Mr. Van Rensselaer and Mr. Miller urged me to 
 address you on this occasion, I had in mind the writing of a 
 paper in which would be traced the development of the 
 idea upon which our form (the Trustee Savings Bank) 
 is based, gi\^g an analysis, both of the theory involved 
 and of the manner in which we have put that theory into 
 practice, which would be as exhaustive as I could make it. 
 Circumstances over which I have no control have pre- 
 vented my doing this, and what I have to say to-day will 
 be limited to pointing out one or two phases of our prac- 
 tice, which it seems to me are, to say the least, antithetic to 
 our theory. 
 
 Our theory, or, rather, the theor>' of the Trustee Savings 
 Bank, as I understand it, and as such writers as Prof. 
 James H. Hamilton of the Syracuse University defines 
 it, is that of an institution established by members of the 
 well-to-do for the purpose of improving the condition of 
 the poorer classes, and involves a self-sacrificing service 
 on the part of a few in the interests of the masses. The 
 method by which it is sought to affect the improvement 
 attempted is that of encouraging habits of saving and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 445 
 
 thrift among wage-earners, and those who are naturally 
 inclined to be improvident. 
 
 A glance at the manner in which the laws which govern 
 our work have had their origin most clearly defines the 
 theory involved. Certain well-to-do citizens, actuated 
 by a purely philanthropic motive, having offered to give 
 their services to the pubHc without reward or recompense 
 of any sort, in the work of encouraging the small wage- 
 earner, the laboring man, the clerk, the artisan, the 
 mechanic, etc., to lay by for a time of need a portion of 
 his daily earnings, which the said philanthropists would 
 surely care for and cause, by most conservative investment, 
 to increase in value by the addition to the original deposit 
 of interest earned by the said investment. 
 
 The public, accepting this offer, has gradually caused 
 to be enacted such laws as shall protect both the givers and 
 the recipients of this service from the intrusion of others, 
 who, under the guise of philanthropy, might be actuated 
 by motives of self-interest ; in other words, the public has 
 locked the offer of the philanthropists in the iron grasp of 
 the law, so that, in so far as the main features of the origi- 
 nal offer are concerned, the Savings Bank Trustee has now 
 no discretion, excepting within the hard and fast lines 
 marked out for him by the public in the law. 
 
 On the other hand, the Savings Bank Trustee, as a mem- 
 ber of the said public, has used his influence with the law- 
 makers to prevent legislation that would jeopardize the 
 philanthropic intent of the original offer. The result is 
 that we have the philanthropic intent of the originators 
 of this service reasonably protected by law, and more per- 
 fectly so in New York State than anywhere else in the 
 country. But after all, the law is not our theory, and is 
 not intended nor expected to do more than prevent any 
 flagrant misuse of the money with which our trustees have 
 been entrusted. Our theory should be the searchlight 
 by which the path of duty shall be most clearly marked 
 out and kept in view, and the intent of the conception 
 which justifies the existence of a Savings Bank be most
 
 446 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 effectively carried out. Our theory requires that we 
 should not only safely invest the money with which we 
 have been entrusted, so that the deposits shall increase 
 in value, by the addition to them of the net earnings pro- 
 duced by such investments, but that this duty of re- 
 ceiving and caring for these deposits shall be performed 
 in the interests of a certain class of persons— namely, 
 those who need encouragement in order to develop and 
 establish in themselves habits of saving and thrift; and 
 of a class whose earning capacity is not greatly in excess 
 of their daily needs. 
 
 It seems to me that no other influence can be logically 
 drawn from the premises which justifies the existence of 
 our institutions than that they are intended for a single 
 class of persons, and that all other financial needs of the 
 community are amply provided for by the commercial 
 banks, to which our institutions are positively antithetic, 
 both in conception and function. How about our prac- 
 tice? We have not violated the law, perhaps, but have 
 been impelled by a desire to reach the class of citizens 
 who, according to our theory, furnish the only justification 
 for the existence of our institutions. Have we not been 
 impelled too much by a perhaps unnatural desire to see 
 our institutions grow, without any particular regard as 
 to how that growth has been attained so long as we did 
 not infringe the law? Have we not measured the success 
 of our work more by the amount of our liabilities than by 
 the number of people among our depositors who belong 
 to the class for whose benefit our theory declares it to be 
 our whole duty to labor? But many will probably say, 
 and a majority probably think, that such a state of affairs 
 is rather to our credit than otherwise, for, say they, do 
 we not show the true spirit of altruism if we extend the 
 gift of our service to all who are willing to accept it? 
 
 There might be no objection to such freedom in our 
 philanthropy if it did no harm to the interests of those 
 who most need our service and for whose particular benefit 
 that service stands. That such excess of generosity on
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 447 
 
 our part has not been wholly free from harm to the higher 
 interests of those who may be called the legitimate Savings 
 Bank depositors is a point to which I desire to call your 
 attention. 
 
 I have heard some hard things said in this room about 
 the injustice of the franchise tax, and I remember that 
 at the last meeting of this Association, at which we were 
 privileged to have with us my friend the late John Harsen 
 Rhoades, of hearing Mr. Rhoades tell us that, in his opin- 
 ion, the franchise tax is, from the standpoint of the 
 citizen, an absolutely just tax, and I most heartily agreed 
 with Mr. Rhoades in that statement. The franchise tax 
 bill was based on the assumption that not less than thirty 
 per cent, of the depositors in the Savings Banks of the 
 State were people who had reached a plane of prosperity 
 which justly demanded their sharing the burden of the 
 State's expenses, and while I agree with Mr. Rhoades's 
 statement that this tax is a just one from the standpoint 
 of the citizen, I regretted, as I know he did, that seventy 
 per cent, of our depositors, who should not be discouraged 
 in their attempt to become, by our aid, thrifty citizens, 
 were thus compelled to bear this burden, and all because 
 we had inadvertently made use of a standard, in measuring 
 the success of our work, which formed no part of the 
 theory upon which logicall}^ our right to exist as a bank 
 is based. 
 
 Now, if it is true, as I think it unquestionably is, that 
 because of our strife to excel in bigness, without due re- 
 gard to our mission, the franchise tax is justifiable, it 
 seems to me that this same cause of offence to our theory- 
 has worked another injustice to our legitimate depositors, 
 viz.: If we place the amount on deposit in the Savings 
 Banks of the State at, in round numbers, $1,000,000,000, 
 we find that thirty per cent, of that sum is $300,000,000. 
 Now, our investments are restricted to certain clearly 
 defined classes of securities; and we all admit that there 
 are other securities of a conservative character quite equal 
 to those that have been selected, outside our Unes of re-
 
 448 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 striction. A comparison of the selling value of one class 
 with the other, during times of prosperity, will show how 
 far short we have come of earning all that we might have 
 earned for our legitimate depositors, had we restricted the 
 total number of our depositors somewhat nearer than we 
 have done to the class required by our theory, for supply 
 and demand regulate the price and earning power of our 
 investments. 
 
 Furthermore, when the market is rapidly declining, 
 those of our depositors who are accepting our free service 
 for their own convenience rather than from their needs 
 kindly repay us by making large withdrawals in order that 
 they may take advantage of the times, and make their owti 
 investments, and their action, being misconstrued by the 
 legitimate depositor as being due to a loss of confidence, 
 will frequently cause him to withdraw his money also, 
 with a result which is not infrequently to his disadvantage 
 and loss. There is one other point I would like to make 
 and then I am done. I heard a sermon a good many 
 years ago by the famous Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in 
 which the preacher used words to this effect: "Men and 
 institutions will always be regarded by the public as being 
 just what they look like," and then Mr. Beecher pointed 
 out the importance of making a truthful impression upon 
 the pubUc mind, relative to ourselves and our work, if 
 we desired to attain lasting success in this world. As a 
 matter of fact, you do not have to talk many mmutes 
 nowadays with a citizen of average intelligence to find 
 that he is utterly ignorant of the fact that our Savings 
 Banks differ in their conception or organization and busi- 
 ness methods from the commercial banks, excepting that 
 they are considered somewhat safer; he does not know 
 how or why, and he is very much surjorised to be told that 
 they have no stockholders; that the services of their trus- 
 tees are freely given to the public, and that all their net 
 earnings accrue to the sole benefit of the depositors. And 
 when a time of panic comes, a time when the security of 
 the Savings Bank depositors should not be questioned,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 449 
 
 and would not be questioned if rightly understood, we 
 find that these institutions share more or less with other 
 banks the loss of the confidence which so often brings 
 disaster to the community. 
 
 Why should such a state of things exist? Is it not in 
 a large measure due to the language used by the majority 
 of the Savings Bank men in their conversation about our in- 
 stitutions and in their advertisements? I quote from an 
 advertisement of a Savings Bank, which is not unlike many 
 I have seen, and which reads thus: "Interest at three and 
 one half per cent, paid (itaUcs mine) on deposits of $3,000 
 and under." Other Savings Bank advertisements may not 
 infringe the spirit of the law, as this one does, by naming 
 a rate of interest, but to offer to pay interest per se for 
 deposits, at once, it seems to me, aligns the Savings Banks 
 so advertising, in the minds of the readers, with the com- 
 mercial banks, which desire to sell their services to the 
 public for the benefit of their stockholders and not, as is 
 the case with the Savings Banks, to give a service to the 
 public. 
 
 Now, I am not theorizing. I have had the temerity, 
 during the past twenty years, to test in a practical manner 
 the points to which I am directing your attention. In 
 regard to the matter of discriminating between the class 
 for which, according to our theory, we solely exist, and 
 the investor, tax-dodger, and others who desire to use 
 our institutions for their temporary convenience. I have 
 frequently been told that it is practically impossible to 
 keep out the latter. 
 
 Well, it is not easy, and perhaps it is impossible to 
 wholly eliminate the intruder, but it goes without saying 
 that if we make no effort in that direction we certainly 
 cannot get rid of him. The $3,000 limit is not a success 
 in this regard, as we have already shown, but I have found 
 it practically possible to limit the number of that sort of 
 depositor by very simple means. 
 
 In every Savings Bank, when a new account is opened, 
 certain questions are asked and recorded for purpose of
 
 450 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 identification, and among these questions is one relative 
 to the occupation of the depositor. The answer to this 
 question usually gives the key to the situation, and one or 
 two leading questions will draw out information, more or 
 less voluntarily given, which will enable us to class the 
 individual without trouble. 
 
 In regard to the use of commercial language at the 
 counter and in our advertisements, it seems to me that 
 by the use of such language we are not only inviting the 
 class of persons to become depositors who are not con- 
 templated by our theory, and whose presence is detri- 
 mental to the best interest of the legitimate depositor, 
 but we are discouraging the latter from saving as much 
 money as he would otherwise do if we used language 
 which would discourage unnecessary withdrawals. 
 
 Let me give you from personal experience an example 
 of what I mean. When I have explained to a depositor 
 that his interest had been deposited to his credit, and had 
 become a part of his interest-earning principal, in more 
 than one instance the reply has been: "Then I don't want 
 it; I thought I had to draw it to get it; I don't need it 
 now." 
 
 It has not been my purpose, as I said in the beginning 
 of my remarks, to do more than to indicate, for your con- 
 sideration, certain points in practice which I think are 
 working against the successful achievement of the pur- 
 pose for which our institutions have been established. 
 
 I ask you to think well of what I have said, and not 
 too hastily put aside the points I have tried to make, for I 
 believe that the time is not far distant when their impor- 
 tance will be forced upon us, as has recently been the case 
 with the principle involved in the amortization of our 
 security values; a principle long recognized by a few, but 
 very slowly by many, and I fear not yet fully by the 
 majority. 
 
 Mr. Stevens: I hesitate to say a word because there 
 are so many gentlemen here of riper years who have had 
 more experience in Savings Banks, although as a practical
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 451 
 
 worker in such institutions I have had considerable ex- 
 perience. It does seem to me that the paper read by 
 Mr. Rhoades deserves the thanks of the Association, and 
 I believe it represents to a considerable extent the feeling 
 of many Savings Bank officers and trustees throughout 
 the State in its treatment of the question of the amortiza- 
 tion of bond investments. This question appeals to me so 
 strongly that I feel obhged to say before the Association 
 something in regard to the matter. The principle of 
 amortization undoubtedly must be followed to get at the 
 earning capacity of a Savings Bank, but it would be mani- 
 festly unfair and unwise to compel banks which have suc- 
 ceeded in reducing the book and market value of their 
 bond investments to present market values, thereby 
 marking off much more than enough to properly amortize 
 their investments, to reinstate these bonds on an invest- 
 ment basis of many years ago, which was largely artificial 
 and wiU probably never return. 
 
 I think that there are many Savings Bank men present 
 who agree with me; and, hearing, as we have, from a gen- 
 tleman who has had large experience in bond investments 
 and who has placed tliis matter so forcibly before us, it is 
 a question which deserves our careful thought. 
 
 Mr. Maynard: May I say a word on what the gentle- 
 man has just said? I beUeve there is a verj^ strong 
 sentiment among members of this Association against the 
 Savings Bank taking the amortized value of its securities. 
 We all agree that it is a proper bookkeeping method to 
 arrive at the actual earning capacity of the bank. The 
 Brooklyn Savings Bank, of which I am an officer, has an 
 actual surplus on market value at the present time of 
 about the sum of $4,300,000. We wiU be compelled to 
 report to the department on the amortized value that 
 we have a surplus to-day of $6,000,000. We could not 
 realize that sum if we sold our bonds. We simply are 
 misleading the public, if those figures get to them, and 
 they will through the department, because those figures 
 are published and commented on in the press annually.
 
 452 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 As has just been called to my attention by Mr. Felsinger, 
 New York Central bonds have been purchased by us at 
 as high as 113, and to my knowledge as high as no. They 
 can be bought at 89 to-day. Are we to put those in our 
 statement as to what we actually own at no or 113? Now 
 it seems to me that the only real object of making the 
 report is to state to the department and the pubUc the 
 actual condition and the soundness of the institution. 
 Therefore, I say that it is highly improper from a business 
 standpoint for us to state that we have a surplus of 
 $6,000,000, when if we sold the stock, we could only get 
 $4,300,000 for it. 
 
 Mr. Stevens: May I be heard once more? We have 
 with us to-day a gentleman (Mr. Rhoades) who I beUeve 
 can give information to any of the Savings Bank men 
 present who have any uncertainty in their minds in re- 
 gard to this matter, and also the Superintendent of 
 Banks, who can hear expressions from a great many Savings 
 Bank men on a matter of such vital importance. 
 
 Amortization based on the original extremely high pur- 
 chase prices, existing from one to fifteen years ago on 
 bonds running fifty or more years into the future, would 
 largely over-value the assets, increase the surplus, and 
 decrease the earning capacity of the institution. It would 
 place the banks on an inflated and unfair basis which 
 would not truly represent the present actual conditions of 
 the banks or prices of their securities — it would deceive 
 the depositors and public generally, compelling the offi- 
 cers to swear to a valuation of assets perhaps in accordance 
 with law but inaccurate as to present actual conditions. 
 I know a Savings Bank that holds $100,000 Chicago & 
 Alton Railroad three per cent, bonds for which they paid 
 9of ; that is $100,000 bonds at par that cost $90,500. That 
 bank has written the bonds down on its books to $82,000, 
 and can sell them to-day for about $75,000. A scientific 
 amortization of the bonds would compel the bank to in- 
 crease their value on its books roughl}' $200 a year. Ac- 
 tually the bonds have gone down thousands of dollars.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 453 
 
 It seems to me inevitably true that the present market 
 value of our securities is the only reliable test of a bank's 
 solvency, and that it cannot be otherwise. 
 
 Mr. Coombs: The idea of estimating the value of our 
 securities upon the amortization basis has its origin in 
 the hypothesis that all of the investments in bonds are 
 permanent, and that they will be held by the institutions 
 until maturity. It also assumes that our deposits are 
 permanent, or, in other words, that we accept the deposits, 
 invest them, pay over the interest as earned to the depos- 
 itors, and the principal at the maturity of the bonds in 
 which they are invested. If this were true it would very 
 much simphfy the work of the institutions. 
 
 Unfortunately many of us have during the past four 
 months realized that deposits are far from permanent, and 
 that such bonds as have been sold to meet drafts have 
 been worth their market value. If the withdrawals had 
 continued, resulting in the liquidation of the banks, our 
 ability to pay would have depended upon the price at 
 which we could market our securities. The provision en- 
 abling us to require notices of withdrawals, which is a 
 perfectly proper one, would probably extend the period 
 for Hquidation for a year or more. 
 
 I appreciate the injustice to the institutions in the re- 
 quirement that the values should be stated as those existing 
 on the first day of July and the first day of January, at which 
 periods, for various reasons, the conditions of the bond 
 markets are abnormal. If it was provided that the prices 
 should be based upon the average price during the pre- 
 ceding six months it would be much fairer and safer. 
 The law requiring us to give the amortization values has 
 been passed, and wiU be observed, but I insist that at the 
 same time the reports should contain a statement of the 
 market values. The remark of Mr. Maynard, of the 
 Brooklyn Savings Bank, that under the amortization 
 plan their surplus would be increased from $4,000,000 at 
 market value to $6,000,000, as well as the calculation 
 made by the cashier of the South Brooklyn Savings Insti-
 
 454 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tuticn, that our surplus of $1,848,919 at market value 
 would be increased to $2,800,000, seem to me to be un- 
 answerable arguments. We cannot afford, on account 
 of the unfortunate conditions that have prevailed during 
 the last year, to adopt policies that lead to an over- 
 estimate of our strength. The fact that during the period 
 of stress every Savings Bank in the State has been able to 
 meet its obligations is proof that they do not need any 
 artificial props to insure their solvency. 
 
 Note: Mr. Wm. F. Patterson was elected Secretary 
 of the Association in 1908 to succeed Mr. Wm. G. Conklin, 
 who had declined a reelection; in the following year 
 Mr. Jonathan B. Currey was chosen to that office, and in 
 1910 Mr. Frederic B. Stevens became Secretary.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Sixteenth Annual Convention — Address of President Miller — 
 Election of Mr. Thomas F. Mulry, of the Emigrant Industrial 
 Savings Bank, New York, as President — Addresses by Edgar 
 J. Levey, John A. Johnson, President of the Savings Bank 
 Section of the American Bankers' Association; Clark Williams, 
 Superintendent of the Banking Department, and Mr. E. P. 
 Mavnard. 
 
 T 
 
 HE Sixteenth Annual Convention was called to 
 order in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, 
 New York City, on Thursday, May 27, 1909. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT MILLER 
 
 In opening the proceedings of the Convention, Mr. 
 Miller said: 
 
 Fifteen years ago, when we held our first annual meet- 
 ing, the Savings Banks of New York State had in their 
 care deposits amounting to $17,089,448.98. To-day the 
 amount due on deposits is $1,396,443,327.78. We could 
 congratulate ourselves unreservedly on these figures as 
 showing a healthy growth if these increased deposits 
 represented altogether the savings of the thrifty poor. 
 That this is not entirely the case, we who know actual 
 Savings Bank conditions do not need to be told. During 
 these fifteen years the average size of our accounts has 
 risen from $389 to $510, and while part of this increase is 
 due to the constant addition of dividends to accounts 
 which are otherwise undisturbed, we all know that part 
 of it is due to the deposits with us — especially during 
 periods of cheap money' — of funds which are in no sense 
 savings, by persons who ought not to be Savings Bank 
 
 4SS
 
 456 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 depositors. Perhaps the heavy withdrawals which ac- 
 companied and followed the panic have had a tendency 
 to make us welcome new deposits, no matter what their 
 source. Still, even in that connection, it is worth while 
 to consider whether the large deposits which represent 
 investment rather than savings are not a source of weak- 
 ness rather than of strength in any period of stress. I 
 hope that some day this Association may undertake the 
 task of devising a plan to keep out undesirable accounts. 
 Its ultimate failure to do so, will result, I fear, in the task 
 being undertaken by the Legislature. 
 
 The Mutual Savings Bank differs fundamentally from 
 every other business enterprise. The underlying principle 
 of all business is, in a way, selfish. The directors of rail- 
 roads and banks and manufacturing enterprises are all 
 financially interested in the success or failure of the busi- 
 ness which they direct. Usually they represent a large 
 portion of the capital invested. Even in the case of mut- 
 ual life insurance companies, the trustees are policy holders, 
 and have to that extent the same financial interest as the 
 other policy holders. 
 
 In the management of a Mutual Savings Bank, however, 
 selfishness or self-interest has, theoretically, at least, no 
 place. Our trustees cannot be depositors. They cannot 
 borrow of the bank. For nearly a century we have been 
 giving a practical demonstration of altruism in business, and 
 I think we may safely claim to have proved that unselfish- 
 ness can go hand in hand with good business management. 
 
 So far as we continue true to our ideal, so far as we 
 think only of the good of classes in our community which 
 we were created to serve, so far will our success continue. 
 The moment, however, when we managers of Savings 
 Banks begin to consider, consciously or unconsciously, our 
 owTi interest, then danger to the whole system will arise. 
 Conscious self-seeking among us is unlikely to be trouble- 
 some. I suppose none of us to-day would be influenced 
 by personal consideration in selecting investments or in 
 designating depositories for our funds.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 457 
 
 Unconscious selfishness, however, is vcrv' insidious, and 
 doubly dangerous. The desire for legitimate growth is 
 proper. Each of us wishes to do his full duty in the com- 
 munity. If those who have never saved can be induced to 
 begin, if those who saved little can be persuaded to save 
 more, the result is beneficial to them and the community, 
 and the resulting increase in deposits a matter of proper 
 congratulation. 
 
 Every other increase is undesirable, and if we strive for 
 it, if we compete for investment deposits by too high in- 
 terest rates, or by undue advertisement, we are actuated, 
 consciously or unconsciously, by selfish motives. The 
 pride which makes us wish to outstrip our neighbors in 
 size is essentially selfish. It may be proper to use the 
 money of our frugal depositors to teach and induce others 
 to save, but to use it to attract the idle funds of persons 
 of wealth cannot benefit those to whom it belongs, and 
 if the result gratifies our selfish pride, it does so at the 
 expense of our usefulness as instruments for good. 
 
 Competition is the life of trade where trade depends on 
 selfishness as a motive force, but competition is out of 
 place when the motive force is altruistic. In my opinion 
 the greatest service which could be done to the Savings 
 Banks of this State would be to awaken their officers and 
 trustees to a consciousness of the essential solidarity of 
 the Savings Banks system; to make them realize that we 
 are not one hundred and thirty-eight institutions, any 
 one of which may gain at the expense of the others, but 
 really one hundred and thirty-eight branches of the same 
 institution inseparably bound up by a community of in- 
 terests and of motives, so that the gain of one is the gain 
 all. 
 
 I feel it my duty to call the attention of the Association 
 to the proposed amendments to the Constitution of the 
 State, the adoption of which will result in a considerable 
 extension of the debt limit, not only for New York City, 
 but for the cities of the third class as well. Unless vigor- 
 ous opposition manifests itself, gentlemen, this amend-
 
 458 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 ment will go by default. To my mind no class in the 
 community is more interested in the defeat of this project 
 than the depositors in our Savings Banks. We invested in 
 New York State municipal securities with a distinct un- 
 derstanding of the constitutional limits placed upon the 
 municipal debt. Those limits were already distinctly more 
 liberal than was considered safe in the cities outside 
 of the State, as the legislation restricting our investments 
 in foreign municipal bonds shows. To extend these limits 
 further, and permit a much larger debt than we counted 
 on when we made our investments, is, to my mind, very 
 like a breach of faith. While such a course may not, and 
 probably will not, result in a failure to pay the principal 
 and interest on our city bonds, it must result in a depre- 
 ciation in their market value which we ought not to be 
 called on to face. 
 
 In conclusion, gentlemen, I wdsh to express to this Asso- 
 ciation, and to you my colleagues, so much as I can express, 
 my gratitude for the high honor which you did me a year 
 ago — an honor far exceeding any other which has ever 
 come to me — and to pledge to you that the expiration of 
 my term of ofhce will not diminish my interest in this 
 Association nor my work in its behalf. 
 
 The President-elect, Thomas M. Mulry, of the Emigrant 
 Industrial Savings Bank, New York, was then escorted to 
 the platform. He said: 
 
 Fellow-members of the Savings Banks Association of 
 the State of New York: Like the retiring President, 
 I feel this is the greatest honor which has ever been 
 accorded to me; and, while I appreciate the honor very 
 much indeed, I also appreciate the fact that it is not 
 meant to be personal to me, but as an acknowledgment 
 of the high standing of the institution over which I have 
 the honor to preside. 
 
 I also think, with our retiring President, that there is 
 enough presidential timber in this room to go around, and
 
 PRESIDENT, IQOg 
 
 THOMAS M. MULRY
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 459 
 
 I believe he has established a very wise precedent when he 
 has insisted on only serving one term. Before having a 
 second term offered to me, I mean to tell you now that I 
 will be satisfied with one term, and will only take one 
 term. 
 
 I do not intend to say very much, because I believe that 
 the time for a man to do his talking is when he is leaving 
 office, so there will be nobody to come back at him after- 
 ward. 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Committee held March 
 18, 1909, Mr. William P. Sturges, President of the Dime 
 Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, was elected to the Execu- 
 tive Committee to fill the vacancy caused by the death of 
 General Meserole. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. EDGAR J. LEVEY 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New York Savings 
 Banks Association: The Savings Banks of the State of 
 New York own nearly $150,000,000 of New York City 
 bonds. This represents just about one fourth of the 
 city's net funded debt. It also represents nearly one 
 tenth of the total assets of the Savings Banks. No other 
 creditor class holds anything like so large an amount of 
 the city's obligations, and, with the exception of real- 
 estate mortgages, no other one class of security is held 
 by the Savings Banks to anything like the same extent. 
 The relation of debtor and creditor between New York 
 City and the Savings Banks is therefore one of unusual 
 intimacy and importance, and neither party to this rela- 
 tion can afford to remain indifferent to the attitude and 
 the policies of the other. If the credit of New York City 
 should become seriously impaired, and the market value of 
 its bonds should continue to decline, such a misfortune 
 would materially affect the financial condition of Savings 
 Banks. And, on the other hand, should the Savings Banks, 
 from motives of prudence, decide in the future not to be-
 
 46o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 come purchasers of city bonds, or to purchase them in 
 much smaller quantity than in the past, the deprivation 
 or restriction of the city's best market for its bonds would 
 influence its fiscal operations in no small degree. 
 
 It is only within recent years that any serious discussion 
 has been heard concerning the intrinsic merits of New 
 York City's bonded obligations. Previously, their merits 
 had always been taken for granted. With a hmited out- 
 put and a constant demand, these bonds far outranked 
 in popularity and in price the most gilt-edged railroad 
 bonds, and their fluctuations were mainly a reflection of 
 the ease or scarcity of money. More recently, however, 
 a greatly increased supply has been coincident with a re- 
 duced demand, due partly to the legislation enlarging the 
 scope of Savings Bank investments, and partly to a 
 change in the method of raising State revenue, which 
 rendered these bonds no longer available to trust com- 
 panies as a tax-exempt security. Omng to these and to 
 other causes, to which brief reference will be made. New 
 York City bonds have depreciated enormously. In order 
 to measure the full extent of this depreciation, it is not 
 necessary to go back more than twenty years. In 1889 
 New York City sold about nine millions of dollars of two 
 and a half per cent, twenty to forty year consolidated 
 stock at prices ranging from par to loi J. This represented 
 the high-water mark of New York City's credit. In 
 1907 the low-water mark was reached, when four and a 
 half fifty year bonds sold at a shade over 102, or on a 4.39 
 per cent, interest basis. By coordinating and comparing 
 these two sales, it would be found that the price which the 
 city was made to pay for the use of money had increased 
 in the interim about seventy-seven per cent. An examina- 
 tion of the prices reaUzed by the city for its bonds in the last 
 twenty years shows that the depreciation has been gradual, 
 but substantially constant. It is true that depreciation 
 in the value of municipal bonds has been a world-wide 
 phenomenon; but in the case of New York City this 
 movement has acquired a peculiar significance because
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 461 
 
 of the fact that whereas in former years the bonds of the 
 metropoHs commanded a higher premium than those of 
 any other city in America, this distinction has not been 
 wholly lost. In fact, it is not only the bonds of other 
 large cities, like Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Min- 
 neapolis, and Buffalo, which are sold on measurably better 
 terms than those of New York, but the same is also true of 
 many smaU towns and villages. 
 
 Conditions affecting the price of city bonds — conditions 
 of aU kinds — market or natural conditions, legislative or 
 artificial conditions, and political or sentimental condi- 
 tions — are so different now from what they were twenty 
 years ago that the comparison with the sales of 1889 pos- 
 sesses httle more than historical interest. The practical 
 banker of to-day is more concerned about the future of 
 New York City's credit than its past. And as to the fu- 
 ture, there are in plain sight to-day influences which to the 
 thoughtful are disquieting. It is not that any holder of 
 New York City bonds has cause to-day to fear the loss of 
 either principal or interest if he holds his bonds to matur- 
 ity. Such a possibility is entirely too remote for serious 
 consideration. But ad interim marketability is a factor 
 which influences most investors, and even where invest- 
 ment is of such a permanent character as it is with the Sav- 
 ings Banks, the element of marketability and marketable 
 prices cannot be ignored . The student of municipal finance , 
 undertaking an inquiry into the causes of the decline in 
 New York City's credit, as measured by the selling price of 
 its bonds, would first be struck by the abnormal increase 
 in the city's debt in recent years. On January i, 1898, the 
 date of consohdation, the net funded debt of the city was 
 $232,248,785.89. On May i, 1909, the net funded debt 
 was $603,187,850.87. During the ten years preceding con- 
 solidation the average annual issues of consolidated stock 
 were $12,289,480, which, with an average population of 
 1,750,010, amounted to $6.99 per capita. The average 
 annual issues of corporate stock since consolidation have 
 been $45,150,907, or $11.94 per capita. These figures
 
 462 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 are impressive, but not necessarily alarming. Every intel- 
 ligent observer knew that consolidation would inevitably 
 bring about some such result, and if the extent of the 
 increase of the city's indebtedness has somewhat out- 
 run expectations, there is still no question about the city's 
 ability to care for its existing indebtedness. The really 
 disquieting feature in the present situation is the proof 
 which is to be found on every side that the city's recent 
 financial excesses have superinduced a flippant attitude 
 of irresponsibility on the part of the public and a large 
 part of the pubHc press toward the question of the city's 
 obligations. The constitutional amendment enlarging the 
 city's debt limit, which is to be voted on by the people 
 next fall, was opposed by the Chamber of Commerce 
 with practical unanimity, and for reasons which appealed 
 to the common sense of every conservative man. It sub- 
 sequently passed the Assembly by a vote of 126 to 13, 
 largely, if not mainly, because of a skilful appeal to prej- 
 udice made on the ground that its passage would strike 
 a blow at the so-called "traction interest." It seems 
 likely to be adopted next fall by a popular vote in some- 
 what similar ratio to the New York City majority, 
 for it will probably be obtained by creating a vague im- 
 pression in the minds of many voters that its adoption 
 means "sending the traction thieves to jail," or restoring 
 transfer privileges on the surface railroads, or providing 
 free rides on some new municipal subway. 
 
 Few realize the extent to which the constitutional bar- 
 rier to excessive municipal debt has been weakened in 
 recent years. Soon after consolidation the Constitution 
 was amended so that the counties comprised within the 
 territorial limits of the City of New York should not be 
 counted in estimating the city's debt. Under this pro- 
 vision every twenty-one million dollars of county debt — 
 which is, of course, a debt of every citizen of New York 
 City — is now excluded. In 1903 the law regulating the 
 city sinking funds was amended so as to bring about a 
 reduction in the provision made for the redemption of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 463 
 
 the city debt, which now amounts to about $15,000,000 
 annually. In itself, this amendment to the law was jus- 
 tified; but taken in connection with the breaking down 
 of the constitutional barrier, it has helped to accentuate 
 the growing weakness of the city's financial position. 
 
 By the constitutional amendment which took effect on 
 January i, 1906, all indebtedness incurred by the city for 
 water purposes subsequent to January i, 1904, was simi- 
 larly excluded. Under this provision about $40,000,000 
 of water bonds are now excluded in computing the city's 
 debt limit, and the enormous bond issues which the city 
 will have to make for the new Catskill water supply will be 
 — for constitutional purposes — as though they did not 
 exist. But for every practical purpose, this new forth- 
 coming water debt will produce its full effect upon the 
 finances of the city. These bonds will have to find pur- 
 chasers, and the principal and interest of them wiU have 
 to be raised by taxation. And now it is proposed to ex- 
 clude from constitutional computation additional classes 
 of city bonds, presumably to the end that the city may 
 build subways of such an impracticable and unprofitable 
 character that private capital cannot be induced to touch 
 them. 
 
 The flippancy with which the constitutional debt limit is 
 treated by a part of the press leads me to wonder why it 
 was ever incorporated in the Constitution. If it is not to 
 be allowed to operate when the shoe pinches, of what use 
 is it? At other times it is unnecessary; and it would seem 
 that at the very time when its provisions can take effect 
 and become of practical value, then it must be stretched — 
 and restretched again, as often as new opportunities arise. 
 
 It has now become quite a commonplace remark that 
 the present is an age of social unrest. One of the most 
 seductive, and therefore one of the most dangerous, politi- 
 cal movements of the day is that which passes under the 
 name of municipal socialism. This movement, by the 
 alluring promises which it holds forth of improving social 
 conditions, has enlisted the support of many philantliro-
 
 464 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 pists and well-meaning reformers. There are also others, 
 whose past records have not been so distinguished by 
 altruism, who have been attracted to municipal socialism 
 because of the obvious advantages which it affords of be- 
 coming charitable and public-spirited with other people's 
 money. Its real political strength lies, of course, in its 
 menace to property rights and in its promise of giving to 
 one man the fruit of another's toil; but this menace and 
 this promise are concealed beneath a smDing and benevo- 
 lent mask of humanitarianism. Of the many aspects of 
 this movement, there is only one to which I wish now to 
 call your attention, and that is this: municipal sociaUsm 
 involves public expenditures on a scale so vast as to make 
 the budgets of the past seem insignificant in comparison. 
 These gigantic expenditures mean either a crushing bur- 
 den of taxation, felt immediately by incorporation in cur- 
 rent tax levies, or postponed in part by public borrow- 
 ings. The latter is the method sure to be preferred by 
 municipal sociaUzers; because higher tax bills spell higher 
 rents ; and, slow as the average rentpayer is to appreciate 
 that he does pay taxes in the shape of rent, sooner or 
 later the truth is apt to dawn upon him that there is 
 no profit in a man's trying to lift himself up by his own 
 boot-straps. But in the case of public borrowing the evil 
 day of reckoning is postponed. The voters of New York 
 City think very little of the loss of a million dollars a 
 year in operating the municipal ferries, because the loss 
 does not appear in the budgets, but is concealed in the 
 bond transaction of the Dock Department. And in like 
 manner those gentlemen who insist that our future sub- 
 way construction should be undertaken solely with a view 
 of its social consequences — such as a pre-planned distri- 
 bution of our congested population — and not at all from 
 the standpoint of profitable or self-supporting operation — 
 these gentlemen count upon concealing the economic effect 
 of their social experiments by a profligate use of the city's 
 credit. 
 
 But in one sense these gentlemen are counting without
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 465 
 
 their host. The sale of city bonds imphes buyers for 
 them ; and the question of price is also involved. The 
 attractiveness of utilizing the city's credit when the inter- 
 est rate on its obligations was two and one half per cent, 
 is diminished when that rate becomes four per cent., and 
 as that rate continues to rise, the popularity of its use — 
 or rather abuse — will decline correspondingly. How will 
 you gentlemen controlhng the Savings Banks of this State 
 regard a doubling, or a trebling, of the city's debt? Is 
 it not true that the excesses of municipal socialism are 
 likely to be regulated and controlled to no smaU extent 
 by the increasing unwiUingness of investors to buy munic- 
 ipal bonds? 
 
 So much nonsense has been spoken and written on this 
 subject in the last year that it is a special pleasure to be 
 able to call attention to a remarkably able series of edito- 
 rials which have recently appeared in the New York Times 
 on this subject of the city's credit. In one of these edito- 
 rials the writer, answering the question, why the city's 
 credit is suffering, says: "The reason plainly is that the 
 city is not a good moral risk, in the language of the in- 
 surance companies. It is demeaning itself in a manner 
 which would cut off the credit of any borrower at a bank. 
 The city's credit has not yet been stopped, it has merely 
 reached the stage where lenders are in effect saying to it, 
 as an old bank officer once said to an impetuous borrower: 
 ' You wiU get yourself into trouble, young man, some day, 
 if you sign your name so easily as that.' The city is sign- 
 ing its name too easily, and is proving that it is doing so by 
 the mental, as weU as moral, attitude it assumes toward 
 the assumption of its obligations." 
 
 And then, referring to the passage of the constitutional 
 amendment, the writer proceeds to ask : — m regard to which, 
 by the way, I was so glad to hear the retiring President 
 refer in the terms that he did: "Can it be assumed that 
 the holders of the city bonds, the probable grantors of 
 the city's further applications for accommodation, take a 
 similar view of a movement which detracts from the \'alue
 
 466 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 of every bond now outstanding? The law requires only a 
 popular vote to authorize such action, but ought there 
 not to be some perception of a moral obligation to consult 
 the holder of outstanding bonds which were taken upon 
 the faith of the limitation, perhaps to be repealed? The 
 legal answer to these questions will be given at the polls. 
 The financial answer will be given in the private parlors 
 of bankers, and in the thoughts of such individuals as 
 buy bonds. Who will buy a city bond because of a pop- 
 ular majority in favor of extending the constitutional 
 limit upon the city's borrowing power? The bonds to 
 be excepted from the constitutional limitations remain 
 outstanding and are the city's obligations. Every lender 
 capable of adding will combine the excepted and the in- 
 cluded bonds, and find the total of the city's financial 
 burdens, and will take note that the city is evading a limi- 
 tation which has approved its necessity by the very fact 
 that, being reached, it is not obeyed, but repealed." 
 
 ADDRESS BY MR. JOHN A. JOHNSON 
 
 Mr. John A. Johnson, President of the Peninsula 
 Savings Bank, of Detroit, Mich., and President of the 
 Savings Bank Section of the American Bankers' Associa- 
 tion, addressed the Convention as follows: 
 
 When your President invited me to be with you to-day 
 and incidentally hinted that it would be in order for me to at 
 least make a passing comment on some pertinent subject, 
 I confess to serious hesitation. I possess none of the gifts 
 that would warrant my taking the time of so prominent 
 and so experienced a body, fearing at best that I could not 
 interest you; but, on second thought I reaUzed that the 
 invitation was not extended to me as an individual but 
 rather as the President of the Savings Bank Section of 
 the American Bankers' Association, and this courtesy of 
 your favor must be acknowledged. I am here to do this 
 in person, and since the opportunity has been given, to in-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 467 
 
 cidentally beg your serious consideration of a question 
 that is now claiming the attention of our body, and also 
 that of every thinking and progressive banker. 
 
 I have been a member of the American Bankers' Asso- 
 ciation for a number of years, but until I became in- 
 terested in the Savings Bank Section I was disposed, like 
 many of your members, to regard the meetings rather in 
 the light of a pleasant junket with delightful associates 
 than as a weighty business proposition. As I took up the 
 section work, I became more and more impressed with the 
 great task ahead of us, with the power at our command, 
 and with the necessity of our using that power in leading 
 the work of bettering Savings Bank conditions, and not 
 in being led by people who know little or nothing about the 
 requirements of the situation. The first thing to attract 
 my attention was the lack of uniformity in Savings Bank 
 laws and conditions, and at my suggestion two years ago a 
 Committee was appointed to investigate the situation and 
 report. Up to date this is what they find : 
 
 Eighteen States which have no Savings Bank laws; 
 eight States where stock banks may be organized with 
 separate departments for commercial and savings busi- 
 ness ; a few States, notably New York and the New Eng- 
 land States, with Trustee Savings Banks, and one (Ohio — 
 new) providing for commercial, savings, trust, and safe 
 deposit business; another, California, providing for com- 
 mercial, savings, and trust business; this latter modeled 
 in its most prominent features after your own law, with 
 a suggestion or two from Michigan, and the remainder with 
 practically no restrictions or regulations. 
 
 While this investigation was being made, our Committee 
 worked most industriously to lay the foundation for im- 
 provements to follow, and they feel rather proud in having 
 assisted several States in some one of the several features 
 we considered desirable, planting seeds for the better 
 fruit to follow. This brought us up to the second stage 
 of our work, and before we could proceed it became nec- 
 essary to define what is a savings deposit. In the early
 
 468 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 days of your history you had no difficulty in determining 
 this. Your institutions were purely philanthropic, man- 
 aged by broad-minded and experienced business men, who, 
 as a civic and patriotic duty, took upon themselves the 
 trusteeships of the provident members of the community 
 who had neither the judgment nor the experience with 
 which to invest their savings, and not unfrequently the 
 necessary amount to handle to advantage. In the wisdom 
 of these long-headed predecessors of yours, they limited 
 the amount, but as this country became more populated 
 and its wealth increased, changed conditions naturally 
 followed, and herein Hes the problem of the hour, second 
 not even to the currency question. What do we find? 
 
 According to figures carefully prepared by our Secretary, 
 the total savings deposits pf the United States aggregate 
 $5^560,837,016, of which $3,660,553,945 is in 1,453 ex- 
 clusive Savings Banks; $1,568,720,391 in the State banks, 
 Stock Savings Banks, trust companies, and private banks 
 (estimated in number at 15,000), and $331,562,680 in the 
 sa\'ings departments of national banks, to which in my 
 opinion many millions more could be added for time cer- 
 tificates of deposit that are clearly savings, to which as 
 evidence of the further thrift of our people may be added 
 three quarters of a billion in the building and loan associa- 
 tions, and hundreds of millions in the different life in- 
 surance companies, both of which are not taken into con- 
 sideration in this data. 
 
 What should be done with this vast sum belonging, it 
 is safe to say, to probably twenty milhons of people, and 
 how can we best safeguard their interests? The Sage of 
 Lincoln says, "By guaranteeing the deposits." I think 
 you will agree that this is clearly an appeal to the masses 
 for their votes, and as it has been said, "Not in the in- 
 terests of the people . ' ' The Administration insists that the 
 Postal Savings Banl^ would be a potent factor in the solu- 
 tion, and while I have not the slightest fear of the competi- 
 tion created by its establishment, yet I question not only 
 the desirability but the practicabilit}' of any plan yet sub-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 46Q 
 
 mitted. Each of these questions being prominent in itself, 
 I will pass on without further comment, other than to say 
 that we must meet this popular cry. The mere fact that 
 we have protested publicly and otherwise against both 
 of these prominent features is not sufficient to convince 
 the masses of their undesirability. We must give them 
 something as good or better, and prove it to them. What 
 form should this take? 
 
 Naturally you will say that there is but one proper 
 depository for savings, the trustee, or mutual, bank. In 
 settled communities like New York and New England this 
 may be true, but in all sections this is not even feasible, 
 and since we find a condition and not a theory, it is our 
 bounden duty as bankers and as citizens of this great coun- 
 try to make the best of it, to safeguard in every possible 
 way the trust funds left in our care, and to assist those 
 who have neither the experience nor the wisdom of you 
 gentlemen, in bringing about a better condition. Frankly, 
 I find a woful lack of unanimity as to the remedy. Leav- 
 ing out the trustee feature which I think you will agree 
 cannot be taken advantage of universally, we find the 
 Stock Savings Bank men claiming exclusive privileges in 
 denying any savings rights to the national bank or to the 
 trust company. Possibly they are right, and yet these 
 institutions receive savings deposits sometimes openly and 
 sometimes as "interest" deposits, and the masses are not 
 able to distinguish either the depository or the security 
 offered by them. That this condition exists is clearly 
 evidenced at your own doors. Your most efficient Com- 
 missioner, Mr. Williams, calls attention to it in his report 
 for 1907, and repeats it almost verbatim in 1908. Let me 
 quote by way of emphasis : 
 
 ''It was evidently the original legislative intent that the different 
 classes of financial institutions should confine their public service 
 to their own particular spheres. Lack of clear differentiation be- 
 tween the functions of each class and confusion as to the statutory 
 limitation have prevented the holding of these institutions strictly 
 within the original lines of their intended activity. As a result,
 
 470 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the encroachment of one upon the legitimate field of another has 
 ensued. It was not the original legislative intent that the trust 
 company should engage in commercial banking, trespassing upon 
 the field of the bank of discount. It was not the original legislative 
 intent that the bank of discount should engage in the business of a 
 Savings Bank. 
 
 ''However far these encroachments may have extended, or 
 whatever may have been their impropriety, it would seem that no 
 class has assumed the additional functions without some warrant 
 in law. It would be injudicious to demand a return by each class 
 to the particular sphere of activity originally contemplated by the 
 Legislature, as that would result in great disturbance to their 
 patrons as well as to the corporations themselves. It would seem 
 equally unwise to set aside such distinguishing features of corporate 
 power and restriction as have characterized each from the outset. 
 So far as is possible, however, the assumption of powers and functions 
 outside of the appropriate fields should be checked and the in- 
 stitutions under State Supervision restrained from further trespass 
 upon one another's domains. 
 
 "It is generally recognized that Savings Banks are philanthropic 
 institutions whose function is to care for the savings of the provi- 
 dent poor. Restrictive laws have been acted with a view to abso- 
 lute protection in the investment of these accumulated deposits, 
 and the laws pertaining to the administration of the trust contem- 
 plate the use of these funds solely for the greatest benefit of the 
 depositor. 
 
 "Yet we find the bank of discount, with questionable authority, 
 encroaching to a very large extent upon the legitimate field of the 
 Savings Banks through what is commonly termed the 'interest 
 department,' so named in evasion of the spirit of the law. In this 
 interest department there are used pass-books with regulations 
 similar to those adopted by the regularly organized Savings Banks, 
 in some cases with the evident purpose of deceiving depositors as to 
 the character of the institution in which they are depositing their 
 savings, 
 
 "It has been the evident intent of the Legislature to mark clearly 
 the distinction between the Savings Bank and the bank of discount 
 by fixing certain limitations upon the use of the word 'savings.' 
 These provisions, however, have been practically set at naught 
 through the installation of the 'interest department.' The savings 
 deposits of these banks are protected by the safeguards which it has 
 seemed proper to impose upon the legitimate savings institutions. 
 They may be used with those of commercial accounts, in loans 
 and discounts; they are in no way preferred. I deem it proper 
 that the investment of such deposits should be limited to securities 
 approved for Savings Banks, and that these securities should be set
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 471 
 
 aside for the protection of such deposits in case of hquidation or 
 other need. These conclusions apply with equal force to trust 
 companies in so far as they have encroached upon the legitimate 
 field of the Savings Bank. 
 
 "It might be suggested that a minimum limit might be placed 
 upon the size of a deposit account upon which a bank or trust com- 
 pany might pay interest, and it is clear that such legislation would 
 contribute to a cure of the existing condition. It would be difficult, 
 however, to apply this principle in localities within the State not 
 affording Savings Bank privilege. In such localities the use of the 
 bank of discount by small depositors is common, and in our judg- 
 ment worthy of encouragement. 
 
 "An injustice would be done were we to deal with all financial 
 institutions in accordance with the names under which they oper- 
 ate, rather than with reference to the character of business in which 
 they are engaged. In short, if the commercial bank or trust com- 
 pany is actually doing a Savings Bank business, whatever it may be 
 called, its deposits of that character should be protected by such 
 safeguards as the Legislature has thought proper to apply to the 
 legitimate Savings Bank business." 
 
 That jealousy and resentment exist as a result of present 
 conditions is evidenced in a report of the New Jersey State 
 Bankers' Association, held only a few days since. It says: 
 
 "The formation of a separate organization by the Savings 
 Banks seems to have had its inception in a feeling among certain 
 Savings Bank men that their interests were endangered by the trust 
 companies and national banks doing a Savings Bank business. 
 How far this feeling is justified it is not the purpose of this report 
 to determine. It is sufficient to say that the existence of this feeling 
 keeps the Savings Banks out of the New Jersey Bankers' Association 
 as individuals and causes them to think that their interests can be 
 best subserved by an organization of their own, either within or 
 without this Association. The action of that organization indi- 
 cates that they would come into the New Jersey Bankers' Associ- 
 ation if they would be received as a section with privileges similar 
 to the sections of the American Bankers' Association. 
 
 And another: 
 
 "While we may oppose the plan of State or Government insurance 
 on guarantee of deposits, we must sympathize with the desire of 
 the people at large to have their deposits made as safe as they can 
 possibly be made. It is not sufficient for us as bankers merely to
 
 472 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 oppose this proposition. It is incumbent on us to take steps to 
 make impossible just as nearly as we can the failure of any State 
 or national bank, and we shall fail in our opposition unless we are 
 able to present a plan which will practically accomplish the desired 
 end and at the same time be based on sound business principles. 
 Is it better to regulate your own afifairs or to have them regulated 
 for you? Is it better to be compelled by Government influences to 
 do what is right or to do it of your own initiative? 
 
 "Realizing that the interest of every bank in the community 
 is vitally bound up in the soundness of every neighboring banking 
 institution, what better way to protect and further our interests 
 than close association? For no matter how sure you are of the 
 soundness of your institution, you want to know that the other 
 bank is all right, too. The only way to remove this distrust is by 
 closer affliation and proper'examination. 
 
 I hold that we should not attempt to curtail any of the 
 banking facilities now enjoyed in this country. The 
 people should be given every possible agency consistent 
 with safety and good business principles. The Savings 
 Bank man says the national bank should not receive 
 savings deposits; he says the same thing about the trust 
 companies, and yet all seem to be doing a very commend- 
 able duty in the communities in which the}' are established. 
 Would you take away from these two last-mentioned 
 classes of banks these privileges? I doubt very much 
 whether you could, and I doubt further whether it would 
 be desirable. The figures which I have given you are 
 evidence that the people want these depositories, and I 
 think it is our duty as bankers to recognize the demand 
 of our clients from a purely unselfish standpoint, and 
 permit our people to deposit their savings where it is most 
 convenient; but for their protection, these funds should 
 be most sacredly safeguarded and their investment re- 
 stricted, no matter by whom received. A savings deposit, 
 whether made in the national bank, a Mutual Savings 
 Bank, a Stock Savings Bank, a State bank, or a trust com- 
 pany, should be under the law of the State in which those 
 institutions are located, and we should see to it that the 
 laws are made reasonably uniform. I have not the slight- 
 est doubt but that the Federal Government will cooperate
 
 SECRETARY, IgOQ 
 TREASURER, loOO-OT 
 
 JONATHAN B. CURREY
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 473 
 
 with us, and while I have not been definitely advised yet 
 I am convinced that the same restriction now imposed on 
 national banks as to taxation in the respective States could 
 be made to apply to the investment of savings deposits. 
 I could quote you letters by the dozen received from the 
 Commissioners of Banking, Governors, and the Presidents 
 of State bank associations, all accepting, practically with 
 unanimity, the situation of the dual or departmental in- 
 stitution, but demanding, whether it could be under one 
 charter or separate ones, that they all be required to act 
 under one and the same law, embodying these prime req- 
 uisites : " Savings deposits should be segregated, and their 
 investment most carefully safeguarded." 
 
 California, a most progressive State in our line, has re- 
 cently adopted a new banking law compiled by a commis- 
 sion of bankers and leading members of their legislative 
 bodies, which to my mind bids fair to be the banking law 
 of the future. Clean-cut, concise, and comprehensive, it 
 permits the organization of the three principal types that 
 I have referred to separately or collectively. In the latter 
 case it permits of most economical administration so 
 necessary in the smaller communities. My good friend 
 WiUiams may not agree with me in this rather sweeping 
 recommendation, and possibly you will not, because of 
 the security you feel in your special class. You need 
 no legislation or advice, but there are other sections 
 that do, and we want you to deal kindly with your 
 neighbors, and help along the good work. As an in- 
 centive, let me quote a few messages from widely different 
 communities : 
 
 Illinois. — J. L. Hamilton, ex-President of American 
 Bankers' Association: "The kind of Savings Banking in- 
 stitutions that we most generally favor in this State I think 
 are the ones that would carry with them the trust and 
 Savings Bank features, and to which may be added the 
 commercial deposit. These banks are very popular and 
 very strong in this State, and people seem to have great 
 confidence in them. I think, however, that the savings
 
 474 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 deposits, trust funds, and the commercial accounts should 
 be kept in separate and distinct departments." 
 
 Iowa. — A. Reynolds, President Des Moines National 
 Bank : "I am in receipt of report of the Savings Bank Law 
 Committee, and I heartily approve of all the suggestions 
 contained therein. Indeed the suggestions are in the 
 line with those which I presented to the Monetary Com- 
 mission of Congress a few months ago relative to savings 
 departments connected with the national banks." 
 
 Maryland. — President Maryland State Bankers' Asso- 
 ciation: "Savings are being deposited in all kinds of 
 banks, savings, commercial, and national. No rule seems 
 to govern the matter." 
 
 Missouri. — H, Hunicke, Cashier German Savings In- 
 stitution, St. Louis: "We have the word 'Savings' incor- 
 porated in our name, but we have never operated as a 
 Savings Bank, and we have never conducted a savings 
 department. We are strictly a commercial bank. There 
 are no Savings Banks in Missouri; trust companies hold 
 the field." 
 
 Montana. — State Examiners: "Savings deposits in 
 Montana are banked in the State, national, and private 
 banks." 
 
 North Dakota. — R. C. Kittel, President First National 
 Bank, Casselton: "Savings deposits in North Dakota are 
 banked with all of the State banlvs, trust companies, and 
 national banks. At the last meeting of our Executive 
 Committee for the North Dakota Bankers' Association, 
 the question of segregated savings deposits and providing 
 a special form of investment was discussed." 
 
 I hope I have impressed you with the gravity of the 
 situation and the weight of our task. Will you not as 
 members of a great banking organization join us and add 
 the weight of your membership to our efforts? The 
 Savings Bank Section extends the right hand of fellow- 
 ship, and hopes that you will grasp it with a vigor that 
 will tell us plainly that you arc with us, heart and soul, 
 in the reforms that we hope ultimately to bring about."
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 475 
 ADDRESS OF aiR. CLARK WILLIAMS 
 
 Mr. President and Members of the Savings Bank Asso- 
 ciation of the State: First of all, gentlemen, I desire to 
 return my sincere appreciation to Mr. Mulry for the ex- 
 pression of his personal opinion as to the accomplishments 
 of the Banking Department during the recent past. 
 
 When your President asked me to address you on this 
 occasion, I advised him that whatever I might have the 
 opportunity to say could not be characterized as an ad- 
 dress, and if in this particular he has taken advantage of 
 you he must bear the full weight of responsibility. It is a 
 pleasure to me personally to be with you again and to 
 congratulate you upon the condition generally of the in- 
 stitutions under your management and under the super- 
 vision of the Banking Department of the State of New 
 York. Your officers, doubtless, through their reports, 
 have reviewed the history of the year so far as the interests 
 of our Savings Banks are concerned, and your Legislative 
 Committee has probably given you the result of its efforts 
 for the meagre legislation desired in your interest. It may 
 be interesting to you to know certain facts regarding our 
 failure and our accomplishment along the line of legisla- 
 tion this year. At this session of the Legislature it seemed 
 to be wise to hold our legislation to a minimum. There 
 were, however, two conditions which we deemed worthy 
 of adjustment. A bill was introduced in the Legislature, 
 which had the approval of the Banking Department and 
 of your Executive Committee: to enable a Savings Bank 
 to rid itself of an objectionable trustee by a two- 
 thirds vote of the Board of Trustees. I have in mind, 
 and doubtless in your experiences you may have known 
 of a similar case of a trustee who in his local vi- 
 cinity has lost his standing; he has not the respect of 
 the community, and he adheres naturally with great 
 tenacity to this one element of respectability, his trustee- 
 ship in the Savings Bank. Another measure provided 
 that not exceeding two trustees of a Savings Bank might
 
 476 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 be residents of contiguous States and that two other trustees 
 might be non-residents, provided that each had and main- 
 tained a regular place of business in the State of New 
 York. 
 
 This legislation, perhaps, was not clearh^ understood. I 
 know of a number of cases where the trustees of Sa\dngs 
 Banks are compelled by the present statute indirectly to 
 take a hall bedroom in the City of New York as their per- 
 manent residence, though they sleep in Stamford, Con- 
 necticut, or in some town in New Jersey. Now, that 
 hardly seems a dignified position. What is the real reason 
 that a trustee of a Savings Bank should be resident of the 
 State of New York? You turn the helm of the ferr^'boat 
 from south to west, and you will not land in Brookyn, 
 but in Hoboken. Gentlemen, it is the man who makes the 
 trustee ; it is not his residence. 
 
 Through the cooperation of Assemblyman Francis, the 
 Chairman of the Banking Committee, this bill was passed 
 in the lower house. It was divided, however, in the 
 Senate Committee on Banks, and that part containing 
 the first provision was on the last day of the session passed 
 again by the lower house. That portion of the bill con- 
 taining the provision for non-resident trustees was not 
 reported by the Senate Committee on Banks. Gentlemen, 
 there is an overworked phrase that is frequently applied 
 and appealed to to protect the legislator in his desire to 
 advance his personal interests when they conflict with 
 measures for the public good; it is frequently "out of re- 
 spect for the opinions of my constituents that I must favor 
 or oppose legislative enactment." The fact that this pro- 
 vision had the unqualified approval of the Executive 
 Committee of your Association and was suggested by the 
 Banking Department in good faith seems not to have been 
 regarded as of sufficient importance to certain members 
 of the Senate Committee on Banking to justify its con- 
 sideration by the higher branch of the Legislature. 
 
 Although we have met with some success in the past, as 
 our experience with legislative methods broadens I am
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 477 
 
 convinced, gentlemen, that I lack the essential qualities 
 of a good bill passer. As we review conditions affecting 
 Savings Banks, I believe the most striking evidence of your 
 characteristic conservatism is reflected in the general con- 
 sideration of the reduction of the rate of interest paid 
 to depositors. A knowledge of the general conditions 
 throughout the State compels the conclusion that the 
 greatest offence to economic principles and sound banking 
 lies in the present high interest rate. This evil results, as 
 I have frequently stated before, from improper competition 
 and unreasoning desire for quantity rather than quality. 
 Deposits are still a liabilit}^ and should not be recklessly 
 solicited or procured by the offering of high interest rates 
 at the sacrifice of safety. The practice of this offence 
 against the principles of sound banking is indulged in by 
 banks of discount, both State and national, as well as by 
 the trust companies, largely through the instrumentality 
 of their so-called interest departments; and it is proper 
 for me to say, in Mr. Johnson's presence, that I am speak- 
 ing now to the Savings Banks of the State of New York, 
 and whatever I sa}^ should not be interpreted as being an 
 indication of the conditions which might in my judgment 
 be proper in the States in the far West and in the South. 
 The Savings Bank, as we all know, in this State is a semi- 
 philanthropic institution. It is created as the depository 
 for the savings of the provident poor. No one can prop- 
 erly profit by its operation but the depositors themselves. 
 The restrictions laid upon the Savings Banks by the 
 statutes are such as to require the safest possible invest- 
 ments, and the statutes also contemplate the largest pos- 
 sible return to the depositor consistent with sound bank- 
 ing. So in the discussion of the rates Savings Banks should 
 pay, it is fair to keep this fundamental fact in mind. But 
 what is the condition, at the present time, regarding the 
 Savings Banks in the State of New York? We find by 
 comparison of the deposits with the percentage of surplus 
 which our Savings Banks have laid away from year to year 
 a most remarkable diminution. You are doubtless famil-
 
 478 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 iar with the statements which show this result. Suffice 
 it to say that on January i, 1890, the percentage of sur- 
 plus to deposits was seventeen per cent., and practically 
 each year since that time there has been a decrease until 
 now it is at seven per cent. Whatever be the reason for 
 this decrease with the falling rate of interest on conserva- 
 tive investments, this disregard of surplus in the payment 
 of high interest rates would in time result disastrously 
 for the depositors, 
 
 I am not impressed with the argument that because cer- 
 tain banks are paying at the rate of four per cent, all should, 
 and conversely, because certain banks are paying at the 
 rate of three and a half per cent, all should. But I do 
 believe that, so far as the Savings Banks are concerned, 
 the affairs of each are administered by trustees who 
 are competent to discharge the duties imposed upon 
 them by the trust. Conditions in banks may differ, 
 and it is for the trustees in every Savings Bank to deter- 
 mine for themselves the proper rate of interest to pay 
 to depositors, taking into consideration, as they must, 
 the absolute safety of the principal and the main- 
 tenance of the proper surplus reserve, to which the 
 present depositor may in fact properly contribute for the 
 benefit of posterity. 
 
 It is most unfortunate that the interest departments 
 have been permitted to develop in national banks, State 
 banks, and trust companies throughout the State. This is, 
 to my mind, an improper encroachment upon the legitimate 
 field of the Savings Banks, and if it is impracticable to 
 prevent it at the present time, it should be properly con- 
 trolled in the interest of sound banking and for the public 
 good. There is no economic analogy which justifies the 
 payment of the four per cent, rate by these institutions 
 because the Savings Bank in their vicinity pays at that 
 rate; and I find elements of danger in the practice which 
 should be apparent to any one analyzing the proposition. 
 Four per cent, interest, plus the expense account, plus the 
 proper charge for reserve! Gentlemen, these represent a
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 479 
 
 cost price for money which is difficult to cover, if conser- 
 vative use is made of the funds. 
 
 As to the interest to the depositors, I would say a deposi- 
 tor's savings are not protected by a compulsory investment 
 in high-grade securities, but may be used in general loans 
 and commercial discounts. In time of stress there is no 
 postponement of depositors' claims for sixty days which 
 may be relied upon, and the attack may be made not only 
 through the doors of such an institution but through the 
 exchanges and clearances. I consider it my most pressing 
 duty to endeavor to effect a general reduction of rate of 
 interest in our institutions throughout the State, not only 
 in the interests of the corporations themselves, but in the 
 interest of those who have entrusted their funds to these 
 depositories for safekeeping. And, gentlemen, I have 
 ventured to prophesy on several occasions that because 
 of the conservatism to which I have referred as character- 
 izing the management of our Savings Banks, there wiU be 
 a general reduction in the interest rates, and it is for you 
 to determine whether this prediction shall come true. If 
 it is right that the interest rate in your bank be reduced, 
 it Hes with you to answer with your good judgment in the 
 interest of those who have intrusted and shall intrust 
 savings to your care, regardless of the action of your 
 neighbor. If your institution will be any stronger at the 
 present time, or in the years to come, if you reduce your 
 rate, it is clearly your duty to adopt that policy. 
 
 General observation, gentlemen, compels the conclu- 
 sion that the management of our Savings Banks is char- 
 acterized by an unselfish adherence to the principles upon 
 M^hich these philanthropic institutions are founded, and 
 I most sincerely congratulate you upon the result of your 
 unselfish efforts in the interests of your f ellowmen. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. E. P. MAYNARD 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association : That 
 I might not be charged with plagiarism, I may say that 
 strangely enough my line of thought has run almost
 
 48o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 exactly along that followed by Superintendent Williams 
 in his address, and I hope, even though he spoke 
 before I did, that my remarks may receive his endorse- 
 ment. 
 
 Wliat came most forcibly to my mind when requested 
 by the President of the Association to say a few words — 
 because I will not characterize what I am to say as an 
 address — was this: That some one ought to speak upon 
 the evident tendency among Savings Bank officials to con- 
 sider that there must be some uniform rate of interest 
 among the Savings Banks when the next dividend is de- 
 clared. Early in January a number of nevv^spapers had 
 long articles quoting various ofhcials of Savings Banks, 
 though not by name, as to what the rate of interest should 
 be in July. We had not then paid the January dividend. 
 Some of the up-State newspapers even went so far as to 
 communicate with the officials of the Savings Banks of 
 the City of New York asking what a definite rate should 
 be, and there was correspondence between Savings Bank 
 officials and various persons as to what the Savings Bank 
 rate ought to be. I noted yesterday in the newspapers 
 that the dividends of all the Savings Banks of the County 
 of New York and of the County of Kings had just been 
 declared, and that they are generally to be four per cent., 
 although the trustees of the various Savings Banks in 
 these two counties have not yet met and considered the 
 subject. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, as the Superintendent of Banking of 
 the State has said, it seems to me that every individual 
 board of trustees and every individual set of officials of 
 every Savings Bank must pass on the question as to 
 whether their individual bank is able to pay four per cent. 
 The question is not whether it has earned four per cent, 
 in the last six months, but whether it can add sufficient 
 to its surplus to make it the strong bank that it should be 
 if it does declare a four per cent, dividend. I am aware, 
 as an official of an old bank, a bank of moderate strength, 
 a bank that carries a moderately large surplus, that that is
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 481 
 
 a comfortable position for one to take. But I take it as a 
 business man and as a Savings Banl<. man of many years' 
 experience. I looked over the reports of the Savings 
 Banks of the State, and, without criticising the manage- 
 ment of any particular bank, I noticed many banks that 
 are not really capable of paying four per cent, interest. 
 Now, gentlemen, my plea is for a strong surplus. I have 
 been reading articles lately in some publications which 
 seem to be endeavoring to ascertain as to what the mini- 
 mum surplus may be; not the maximum, or how much 
 we can accumulate to a reasonable point to protect our 
 depositors, but how small a surplus we can get along with, 
 and stiU be safe, perhaps. Now my position is, in the first 
 place, the Legislature in its wisdom has said we can accu- 
 mulate a surplus equal to fifteen per cent, of our deposits 
 on the par value of our security. We will shave that sum, 
 but do let us aim at ten per cent, at least and strive to 
 get there. There is only one way to do this, and that is 
 to add consistently every six months to our surplus, and 
 have the courage, if necessary, to cut our dividend to 
 do it. 
 
 I have been looking over the records of the institution 
 with which I happen to be connected, and have been for 
 many years, and I observed many instances where they 
 have cut their dividend even to three per cent., in order 
 to keep the surplus where it should be. Failure to add to 
 the surplus, I take it, is not the only cause of a decrease 
 in the percentage of the suiplus by any means, but an 
 abnormal increase in deposits caused by the large divi- 
 dends that are paid, and the attraction of sums of money 
 which do not belong in Savings Banks, but are accepted 
 on deposit. 
 
 Gentlemen, I want to talk plainly to you as members of 
 the Association, and I do not mean to specialize any one 
 particular bank, but I know what the general practice is 
 among Savings Banks, and, as we are a lot of Savings 
 Bank men here together to-day, I think it well to talk 
 plainly. I have noticed that though we add a very sub-
 
 482 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 stantial amount to the surplus in six months, the increase 
 in liabilities caused by the additional dividend, and even 
 a small increase in the deposits comparatively, will barely 
 serve to keep your percentage of dividend where it was; 
 that if your depositors increase very materially, you have 
 got to add heavily to the surplus in order to keep the per- 
 centage where it belongs. There is a common practice 
 among Savings Banks — I won't say how common it is, but 
 I know that many banks do it — and that is allowing a man 
 to open a three thousand dollar account with the bank, 
 and, if he happens to have fifteen thousand dollars, per- 
 mitting him to open four more accounts in that bank in 
 trust for various members of his family. Gentlemen, I 
 call that increasing deposits abnormally, and that line of 
 policy, if pursued, will make it almost impossible for you 
 to keep your percentage of surplus where it belongs. I 
 have a common feeling with the smaller Savings Banks 
 in their desire to grow and to increase in size and to be- 
 come more useful, but I believe the smaller banks have got 
 to get through the troubles of childhood just as the present 
 large banks did in their earlier days, and that they must 
 pay a dividend that they can afford, and still add to the 
 reserve. I was taught when I started in this business 
 that the main object of a Savings Bank was to see to it 
 that it was always ready to pay back to depositors their 
 money, and next to declare dividends. Not dividends 
 first and pay depositors afterward. Be sure your deposi- 
 tors are protected first. The smaller Savings Banks, 
 especially in the suburban localities, have had this thing 
 to contend with, namely, that the larger banks are very 
 attractive to depositors, and sometimes their territories 
 have been invaded by the larger banks by means of ad- 
 vertising, and deposits withdrawn from the places where 
 they would naturally be made. I sympathized with the 
 gentleman who arose in his seat at one of our meetings 
 a year or two ago and protested against such policy. He 
 represented an out-of-town bank. He was right. 
 
 The law says the Superintendent shall approve of the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 483 
 
 location of a Savings Bank, intending that that particular 
 bank should have the territory in which it is located, and 
 that other banks should not enter it. And when this 
 gentleman protested, I thought he knew what he was 
 talking about, and I believed he had good grounds for what 
 he said. 
 
 I very much deprecate personally the public discussion, 
 especially in the newspapers, as to what the rate of interest 
 shall be, by the Savings Banks. I think it is prejudicial 
 to the situation; I think it rather compels to some degree 
 at least the trustees of smaller Savings Banks to a con- 
 clusion that they also must pay this rate of interest when 
 they cannot properly afford it. I think, gentlemen, that 
 these things should be matters of discussion between Sav- 
 ings Bank officials, and, if you will pardon me for saying 
 so, not discussions with reporters for newspapers until 
 after the trustees have decided first without any persuasion 
 from outside. 
 
 I anticipate, gentlemen, that the plenitude of money, 
 and the fact that it is seeking investment, will turn a great 
 deal of it into the Savings Banks this coming July, during 
 the ten days allowed for the commencement of interest. 
 In many banks of the city there is a standing resolution on 
 the books authorizing the officials not to accept more than 
 five hundred dollars a day in any one six months in their 
 discretion. I believe that is a good resolution for every 
 board of trustees to adopt and have on their books, to be 
 applied and used, and I believe it should be specially used 
 against the three thousand people because they are the 
 first people to come down on you in time of panic ; they are 
 the first people to demand their money. Why, one man 
 complained to me during the recent panic that it was very 
 hard on him that he could not get his money when stocks 
 were so low. He wanted to take advantage of the very 
 situation that would compel us to sell securities to get the 
 money to provide him with funds with which to speculate. 
 Gentlemen, those people have no place in the Savings 
 Bank. You meet them every day; people that have an
 
 484 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 account, several accounts; they will have a whole bunch 
 of bank books, and I tell }'ou that we can do much as offi- 
 cials to keep down this tendency, and to help out the sur- 
 plus in that way, for it suffers as much in that way as it does 
 in the other. We add too much to our deposits, and do not 
 put enough to our surplus. 
 
 There is one feature of the surplus question that I have 
 never heard spoken of that has always appealed to me. 
 Once in a while I read in the newspapers about some man 
 that wants to divide up his suiplus all at once. Indeed, I 
 met a man who has been for years in one of the large 
 banks in the City of New York, who stated to me that he 
 did not think there should be any surplus in the Savings 
 Banks; he thought they ought to pay out all their divi- 
 dend, and if they made any losses, why, take it out of the 
 earnings for that period. But he did not seem to be in 
 that state of mind during the panic. It was before the 
 panic. 
 
 Some people seem to have the idea that where a Savings 
 Bank has a large surplus it is withholding something from 
 its depositors. I do not know but what to some extent 
 that may be perhaps slightly true, but it is a fact that 
 we must all contribute for the good of the many. If we are 
 to build up a strong institution, every depositor must pay 
 his share toward it. It is a great deal better to have a 
 strong institution at the end of ten years than to have a 
 strong institution at the end of seventy-five years, and 
 then not be there to see it at the time. Did it ever occur 
 to you that the income from the surplus alone, where it is 
 perhaps ten per cent., is more than sufficient to pay the 
 entire local expenses of the bank, and add something to 
 the surplus also? Did it ever occur to you that as a matter 
 of fact the depositor in a bank which reaches that point 
 pays none of the local expenses of the bank? That is the 
 way it figures out, gentlemen, and if you reach that point, 
 you find yourselves in the position where you do not pay 
 all the market cost — I beg your pardon — I mean the 
 market value of the securities. Keep your eye on the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 485 
 
 surplus, gentlemen, keep it strong, and add to it every 
 year. This is my advice, if you will take it from a 
 comparatively young man. Then you will keep the 
 banks as they are to-day, the pride of the State of New 
 York.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Seventeenth Annual Convention — Severe Illness of President 
 Mulry Prevents His Attendance — Resolutions in Opposition 
 to the Constitutional Amendment Authorizing Congress to 
 Impose a Tax on Incomes Adopted — Election of Charles E. 
 Hanaman, as President — Notable Addresses by Hon. O. H. 
 Cheney, Superintendent of Banks, Mr. Pierre Jay, and William 
 Frederick Dix. 
 
 ^T THE Seventeenth Annual Convention of the Asso- 
 
 /-^ ciation, held in the usual place on Thursday, May 
 
 26, 1910, the Chairman, Second Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman, announced the severe illness, following 
 
 a great bereavement, of President Thomas M. Mulry, and, 
 
 upon motion, former President Andrew Mills took the chair. 
 
 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 The Report of the Executive Committee was read by 
 Mr. Hanaman: 
 
 Mr. Charles A. Miller was appointed counsel to the Com- 
 mittee for one year, at a salary of $1,000. 
 
 A Committee of three, consisting of Messrs. Mills, 
 Schenck, and Felsinger, was appointed to take charge of 
 the opposition to the amendment to the State Constitu- 
 tion enlarging the Hmits of municipal indebtedness. 
 
 This Committee was directed vigorously to oppose any 
 legislation tending to engraft a life insurance business on 
 the New York Savings Banks. 
 
 On April 27, 19 10, the Committee met to consider the 
 demand made by the United States Collector of Internal 
 
 486
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 487 
 
 Revenue for payment of a tax upon the income of the 
 Albany County Savings Bank, and its bearing on all the 
 Savings Banks of the State. 
 
 Counsel for the Association was directed to procure an 
 official decision as to the liability of the Savings Banks in 
 regard to such tax, and communicate the same to each Sav- 
 ings Bank of the State. Subsequently a favorable opinion 
 was obtained from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
 in Washington, and a copy of his letter mailed to each of 
 the banks. 
 
 The attention of the Chairman of the Executive Com- 
 mittee and of the Committee on Legislation was called by 
 the President of the Law and Order Union of New York 
 State to the resolutions ratifying the proposed amend- 
 ment to the Constitution of the United States permitt- 
 ing Congress to impose a tax on income, from whatever 
 source derived. The attention of the Legislative Com- 
 mittee having been called to this matter too late to permit 
 of reference to the full Executive Committee before the pro- 
 posed resolution came up for action in the Senate, it was 
 decided to call the attention of each bank to the matter by 
 telegram, so that if its officers saw fit they might com- 
 municate with their representatives in the Senate and urge 
 such action on this resolution as they deemed best. The 
 Committee on Legislation did not feel that it could take 
 official action in the matter in the absence of instructions 
 from the Executive Committee. Each bank was commu- 
 nicated with by telegram and a number of the banks 
 registered with their members of the Senate their oppo- 
 sition to the resolution. By a close vote the resolution 
 was adopted by the Senate, and at this writing it is in the 
 hands of the Committee on Rules in the lower house of 
 Congress.
 
 488 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 The following resolution, recommended by the Executive 
 Committee, was adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the Savings Banks of the State of New 
 York believe that the amendment to the Federal Consti- 
 tution, authorizing Congress to impose a tax on incomes, 
 would be detrimental to their depositors, and might even 
 endanger the existence of the Mutual Savings Bank Sys- 
 tem. And further. 
 
 Resolved, That the Executive Committee be and hereby 
 is directed to oppose the ratification of the amendment. 
 
 Upon Mr. Charles E. Hanaman, President of the Troy 
 Savings Bank, was conferred the honor of unanimous 
 election to the Presidency of the Association, Mr. Mulry 
 having declined reelection. 
 
 In accepting the office, Mr. Hanaman said : 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT CHARLES E. HANAMAN 
 
 Gentlemen of the New York State Savings Bank Associa- 
 tion: I thank you for the honor you have conferred not 
 only upon me but upon the third oldest bank in the State 
 by electing me to the highest office in your gift. 
 
 I am also impressed by the fact that you are by this act 
 endorsing that conception of our work which one hundred 
 years ago gave birth to our institutions, and which I be- 
 lieve is still the only conception which justifies the exist- 
 ence of ''The Trustee Savings Bank." 
 
 I am going to ask you to stand with me upon the plat- 
 form of that original conception, and to do all in your 
 power henceforth to stamp out that tendency to commer- 
 cialism which has done so much in late years to create 
 confusion and misconception in the public mind as to 
 what the Savings Banks of the Great Empire State really 
 stand for. 
 
 I am going to ask 3^ou to help me in my endeavor to 
 bring about a realization of the fact that our institutions
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 489 
 
 are not independent of one another but are engaged in 
 one great philanthropic work; that "the weakest Unk 
 is the measure of the strength of the chain"; that our 
 strength is not to be measured by the amount of our liabili- 
 ties, but by the security of our investments, the protec- 
 tive power of our " Surplus," and by the confidence of the 
 public in our sincerity and singleness of purpose. 
 
 With the lapse of years, men have entered our ranks, 
 fresh from commercial fields, where they have achieved 
 success in making money and in building up great busi- 
 ness enterprises. These men, filled with the enthusiasm 
 of commercial success, have not always stopped to realize 
 that their new field of labor is the exact opposite, in con- 
 ception and function, to that in which they have won 
 their spurs. And so it has come about that some of them 
 have deemed it their privilege to compete in a commercial 
 way with their neighbor to substitute themselves and their 
 personal ambitions for the highest interests of the benefi- 
 ciaries for whose welfare alone their Savings Bank work 
 is justified. 
 
 Let us therefore endeavor by our acts, our conversation, 
 our public statements, to see to it that we stand honestly 
 and honorably before the public; to see to it that we do 
 not allow our alleged altruism to be but a cover for some 
 form of selfishness; our honor to be lost in a fog-bank of 
 vanity. Let us stand for the character and quahty of our 
 work rather than for its quantity; for honor rather than 
 for vanity. Let us teach the pubUc what we really stand 
 for and, what is equally important, let us teach ourselves 
 that our mission is not to obtain control over the largest 
 aggregate sum of money that we can secure from the public 
 nor that the success of our work is to be measured by the 
 greatness of that sum. Let us teach ourselves that we 
 are not justified in seeking deposits by a kind of competi- 
 tion which is subversive of all true philanthropy; which 
 makes it impossible for us to teach the public how to make 
 a proper use of our institutions; which fills the minds of 
 our legislators with false and wild notions relative to our
 
 490 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 work. A kind of competition which causes our commer- 
 cial banks to enter into an unfair competition with us, 
 who, in consequence of the character and the necessary- 
 restrictions of our work, cannot compete with them, 
 excepting at the expense of our legitimate depositors 
 and the maintenance of a false attitude toward the pub- 
 lic. Let us remember that we are not playing the 
 game of commercial chess, and we surely do not wish 
 to earn the reputation of playing that game with trust 
 funds. 
 
 What I have said would seem to imply that, in our rapid 
 development, some of us have forgotten or have never taken 
 the trouble to think out just what a trustee or so-called 
 "Mutual" Savings Bank really is; that some of our ships 
 have lost their compasses and are sailing wildly. Now I 
 think that our New York State Savings Bank Law, al- 
 though it has some imperfect spots in it, is the best and 
 most perfect Savings Bank Law in the world. I think 
 also that our law has crystallized out of the original con- 
 ception of our institutions in a manner which has preserved 
 most perfectly the motive and intent of the projectors 
 of our banks. According to our law, the Savings Banlis 
 of this State have no capital stock and are not organ- 
 ized for profit. The income earned through the invest- 
 ment of the depositors' money is incidental to, and is not 
 the primary object for, which these institutions were organ- 
 ized. That object has been truly stated a great many 
 times in the "information for depositors" attached to 
 the semi-annual statements of a large number, if not of 
 the majority, of our banks for years past, viz.: "Savings 
 Banks are institutions created for the purpose of encour- 
 aging thrift and the habit of saving on the part of the 
 people." It is therefore evident that our institutions are 
 not commercial in any sense. The commercial bank is a 
 public necessity, for it makes possible the great credit 
 system of the business world. It sells its service to the 
 people for profit. Our Savings Banks do not sell their 
 service, but give it in the spirit of pure philanthropy for
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 491 
 
 the benefit of a certain class of citizens who stand in need 
 of such help, and the corporation per se does not receive 
 a dollar for that service. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that the Savings Bank is the 
 antithesis of the commercial bank, and the principles 
 governing the management of the one cannot be applied 
 to that of the other; that the competition normal to one 
 will work to the detriment of the other. 
 
 The recent competition between some of our Savings 
 Banks on the so-called "interest rate" will illustrate the 
 point. Keeping well in mind the fact that, according to 
 almost invariable law, income is in inverse ratio to the 
 security of the investment, the bank whose income is larger 
 than that of its neighbor will be the weaker bank, if it does 
 not set aside a larger proportion of its income to increase 
 that protective group of its assets known as its surplus, to 
 an amount sufficient to offset the comparative weakness 
 of the investments which resulted in the greater earnings. 
 And if by competition such a bank forces its intrinsically 
 stronger neighbor to impair the capital of its depositors 
 by drawing upon its surplus in order (for self-preservation) 
 to pay a like rate of interest to its depositors, then, through 
 this act, both banks have lessened the security of their 
 depositors, and the bank that began the competition is 
 chiefly responsible for an injury to the cause of a class of 
 people it is in honor bound to protect, for the cause is a 
 common one, and one group of depositors cannot fairly 
 and honorably be favored at the expense of another group 
 in order that one bank may gratify its vanity to appear 
 larger than its neighbor when the measures of its great- 
 ness is confined to its liabiUties. Now this sort of com- 
 petition has unfortunately been indulged in quite freely 
 of late, and the rapid shrinkage of the surplus of some of 
 our banks on that account has already reached the danger- 
 point. It is humiliating, but it seems to me that nothing 
 short of the manacles of a law regulating the apportion- 
 ment of the net income between the depositors' dividends 
 and the surplus will hold in check that insane desire for
 
 492 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 bigness rather than security, for quantity rather than 
 quahty, that seems to control the acts of so many people 
 even when their honor is at stake. 
 
 But this sort of competition does harm to the cause of 
 our depositors in another way in that it is utterly sub- 
 versive of that teaching of the thrift which is the principal 
 justification for the existence of our institutions. We 
 cannot teach thrift to the class of people who represent 
 the legitimate Savings Bank depositor by offering him 
 a prize for his money in the form of a practically guaranteed ' 
 interest rate. The result of such procedure is to him 
 extravagance, for he will wait with bated breath for the 
 coming of the interest day when he can rush to the bank 
 and withdraw the prize and have a good time spending it, 
 and some depositors have told me that they thought that 
 they had to draw their interest in order to get it at all. 
 To teach thrift, unnecessary withdrawals should be dis- 
 couraged, and the depositor taught to regard his account 
 as an emergency fund to protect him from want in the un- 
 expected time of need. In fact, I am fully convinced that 
 it is our duty to disabuse the pubHc mind of the idea that 
 our Savings Banks are available for purely investment 
 purposes; to make prominent the idea that they exist 
 solely for the purpose of affording the public an oppor- 
 tunity to accumulate an emergency fund which will be 
 safer than a deposit in a bank where it will be subject 
 to the more or less speculative risks of commercial bank- 
 ing. 
 
 In my opinion, if our institutions are not safer than the 
 commercial bank, we should make them so, or there will 
 be nothing to justify their existence. If the time has 
 arrived when there no longer exists a class of people in the 
 community who need our encouragement in order to 
 develop in them habits of thrift and forehandedness; 
 if, in fact, the work for which our institutions came 
 into being has been accomphshed, or if the commercial 
 bank has developed to a point where it can do our work 
 better than we can, then our institutions should be
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 493 
 
 converted into trust companies or some form of com- 
 mercial bank. 
 
 I do not believe that such a time has arrived, and there- 
 fore I earnestly contend that we should make and keep 
 clear the distinction between our institutions and com- 
 mercial banks; that we should cease to hold out the in- 
 terest rate as a prize or as the purchase price of deposits. 
 And I want to emphasize the fact that we should see to it 
 that the margin of safety called the surplus is not only 
 drawn upon either directly or indirectly, for the purpose 
 of keeping up an unwise and unjustified interest rate, but, 
 that no matter at what rate the interest dividends may 
 figure out, we shall endeavor to attain, and afterward 
 maintain, a minimum margin of safety of not less than ten 
 per cent, as based upon the best attainable market 
 value of our securities. For, although in my opinion the 
 so-called market value surplus as a whole never has any 
 actual existence excepting upon paper, nevertheless its 
 statistical value as a guide to careful and safe manage- 
 ment is very great. 
 
 The investment value surplus, on the other hand, has a 
 true and actual existence, and will be gradually as fully 
 realized, as time goes on, as will the par value of our se- 
 curities; and I am fully persuaded that the possibility is 
 very remote of any accident happening which wiU prevent 
 that reaUzation if only we can succeed in driving out and 
 keeping out of the management of our institutions what 
 I have characterized and tried to point out as commer- 
 ciaUsm. 
 
 It is said of a man who has been kicked by a mule that, 
 while he doesn't look so beautiful as he did before being 
 kicked, he knows a great deal more. Now I want the 
 Savings Banks of our State to accumulate sufficient knowl- 
 edge beforehand to avoid the necessity of a kick from the 
 mule called disaster and so preserve their beauty. And I 
 hope that a year from now, when I shall take leave of this 
 chair in which by your grace and your courtesy I have to- 
 day been placed, I may be able to congratulate you upon
 
 494 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the fact that we have all with one accord moved beyond 
 the reach of the mule, and have bid defiance to his kick. 
 
 ADDRESS OF HON. O. H. CHENEY, SUPERINTENDENT OF 
 
 BANKS 
 
 I have looked forward with much pleasure to the oppor- 
 tunity of meeting the members of this Association. In 
 common with other citizens of this State I have the high- 
 est respect for the Savings Bank Trustee. In him we see 
 developed that high sense of duty and responsibility pecu- 
 liar to the citizen who desires to be helpful to his com- 
 munity. Without consideration of personal gain, he is 
 intent upon providing an agency potent to influence the 
 upbuilding of the community and the betterment of its 
 citizens. In New York State he is a part of the greatest 
 Savings Bank system the world has ever seen, a system 
 with which it is my good fortune to have temporarily a 
 somewhat intimate relation. It is therefore with pride 
 in the institutions and respect for the trustees that I ex- 
 press myseK as fortunate in being privileged to appear here 
 to-day. 
 
 No legislation directly bearing on Savings Banks has 
 been enacted this present year. Of the few bills relating 
 to the subject which were suggested, only one covering 
 segregation of savings deposits in commercial institutions 
 had the sanction of the Banking Department. No action 
 was taken by the Legislature upon the measure, but prog- 
 ress has nevertheless been made toward the solution of 
 a very important problem. The Trust Companies Asso- 
 ciation has authorized the appointment of a Committee to 
 confer about the matter with the Superintendent of 
 Banks, and any Committee that may be selected by the 
 State Bankers' Association, and would doubtless welcome 
 being joined in their deUberation by a Committee from 
 your Association, should you care to appoint one. 
 
 As I am here solely because of my official position, it 
 will, perhaps, be well for me to refer again to a condition
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 495 
 
 affecting the Savings Banks of our State, set forth in my 
 recent report to the Legislature. Permit me to say at the 
 outset of these remark that, contrary to intimations re- 
 cently published, I have no wish to dictate the policy to 
 be adopted by your institutions. In my humble opinion 
 that is not the province of the Superintendent of Banks. 
 
 The large gain in Savings Bank deposits during the year 
 1909 has been called to your attention, and I need not 
 dwell upon that marvellous growth. At the same time 
 the amount of interest paid depositors was so great that 
 the ratio of surplus to depositors decreased more than 
 one third of one per cent. Another factor which we can- 
 not faU to consider in connection with this continued de- 
 crease in surplus is the reduction in earnings and the large 
 depreciation in bond values prevalent since the first year. 
 
 For the last twenty years there has been an annual de- 
 crease in the Savings Banks surplus, so that to-day the 
 percentage is less than one half of what it was in 1890. 
 WhUe this condition has not heretofore proved disturbing, 
 I personally am convinced that the time has now arrived 
 when steps should be taken to prevent a further reduction. 
 There can be no successful challenge of the principle that 
 every doUar of net earnings that can be distributed with 
 prudence among the depositors should be so distributed, 
 yet is it not time to analyze present conditions and deter- 
 mine what real prudence demands? The first considera- 
 tion which should be given to aU savings funds is absolute 
 safety. The surplus of a Savings Bank represents its mar- 
 gin of safety. It cannot be too strongly urged that the 
 management of every Savings Bank whose deposits are 
 increasing should carry proportionate sums to its surplus 
 fund at every dividend period. 
 
 Savings Bank Trustees establish their institution 
 through a fine exhibition of unselfish devotion and dis- 
 interested philanthropy, but when the bank's deposits 
 grow, some trustees are attacked with the "grow big" 
 fever. I believe in the call of ambition, but when men en- 
 gaged in a purely philanthropic enterprise begin to scheme
 
 496 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 how to take business away from what they call rival in- 
 stitutions, it is time to scrutinize their real motives. Be- 
 tween beneficent institutions organized with such high 
 purpose as the proper care of the money of the frugal poor 
 there should obtain that helpful cooperation which is in- 
 herent in true philanthropy. Is it not important to your 
 institution to see every Savings Bank in this State strong 
 and prosperous? Will you have fulfilled your duty to your 
 own depositors if you do not help protect them through 
 the protection of the depositors of every other Savings 
 Bank in this State? 
 
 It has been stated that ninety per cent, of our Savings 
 Banks wish to reduce their four per cent, interest rate 
 until their surplus is properly restored, but owing to the 
 refusal of others to adopt the same course, nothing can be 
 done It is hard to reconcile the attitude of either side 
 to the very evident duty of the Savings Bank Trustee. 
 It is my opinion that under present conditions only a 
 limited number of our Savings Banks are in a position 
 warranting a continuance of the four per cent. rate. Yet, 
 even if I were a trustee of one of these institutions with 
 sufficient surplus, I would consider it my duty to the in- 
 dividual depositors of my bank to help strengthen the 
 whole Savings Bank system by voting to reduce the pre- 
 vaiUng rate, for a time at least. Pride in one's own institu- 
 tion, or a desire to get some one else's deposits, should 
 blind no one to the conditions which at present exist. 
 
 Gentlemen, your Association owes a duty to every 
 savings depositor in this State, and security is the first 
 requisite. Every savings depositor in this State must 
 bear his proportionate share of the cost of security. This 
 is not only right and proper, but he accepts it willingly and 
 cheerfully when he realizes the need and is assured that the 
 distribution of what otherwise might seem a burden is fair 
 and equitable. 
 
 I commend this important question to your Association 
 convinced that you will give it your further earnest con- 
 sideration. Upon its proper solution depends the con-
 
 CHARLES E. HANAMAN 
 
 PRESEDENr, igiO-II
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 497 
 
 tinued confidence of our citizens. No one in this room can 
 be more proud of the wonderful record made by our 
 Savings Banks than I. Because my position has given 
 me opportunity to know in some measure the problems of 
 all our Savings Banks rather than of one alone, and be- 
 cause I desire to see each and all of these institutions suc- 
 ceed and prosper for the sole welfare of the depositor, I 
 have been impelled to speak as I have in advocacy of a 
 generous conservatism. 
 
 SAVINGS BANK EXTENSION 
 
 The following address was delivered by Mr. Pierre Jay, 
 formerly Bank Commissioner of the State of Massachu- 
 setts: 
 
 The figures presented in the New York Bank Super- 
 intendent's Report each year, showing the steady piHng 
 up of deposits in the Savings Banks, gives one a tremen- 
 dous idea of the growth of our Savings Bank System: 
 $87,000,000 increase last year, and an average annual 
 increase for the last five years of $57,000,000. While this 
 growth is most gratifying, what I want to discuss with you 
 to-day is, whether, while the banks have been growing, 
 the system has been expanding and reaching out into the 
 more remote cities and towns of the State. In order to 
 bring the situation clearly before you I am going to present 
 a map and a very few figures covering the last twenty 
 years. On this map the places in which there are Mutual 
 Savings Banks are marked in blue. I have only put one 
 mark in Greater New York, for, otherwise, the whole space 
 would be blue, so many Savings Banks are there in this 
 great city. You will note that 29 out of 61 counties have 
 no Savings Banks within their boundaries. In 1890 there 
 were 119 Savings Banks in the State; in 1910 there are 
 142, or an increase of twenty-three in twenty years. 
 While the deposits were increasing three hundred per cent., 
 the number of banks increased only twenty per cent., 
 and of these twenty-three new banks, all but seven were
 
 498 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 in Greater New York. Yet in the last twenty years the 
 State, as well as the city, has been growing rapidly, and 
 in looking over a list of its cities and towns I find that to- 
 day there are thirteen with a population of 10,000 or over 
 which have no Savings Banks, and seventy-four others 
 having a population from 10,000 down to 2,500 which have 
 no Savings Bank. But it is by no means certain that 
 Savings Banks cannot be successfully established m places 
 of less than 2,500 population, for there are Savuigs Banks 
 in eleven such places, with deposits of nearly $18,000,000, 
 or omitting those two Long Island prodigies at Riverhead 
 and Southhold, an average of over $900,000 to a bank. 
 There is no fixed rule as to the size of the place in which a 
 Savings Bank may be successfully established. In each 
 case it is largely a question of individual initiative. 
 
 Proud as we are of our magnificent Savings Banks hold- 
 ing about a quarter of all the savings of the country, must 
 we not admit that a system devised to stimulate thrift 
 which does not expand with the expanding country, and 
 does not reach out into all communities of substantial 
 size, is a little rigid and inflexible? Of course there are 
 reasons why it does not expand. 
 
 First, there is no profit to be made by the organizers 
 of a Savings Bank, and a tremendous amount of inertia 
 has to be overcome before men will join together from 
 purely philanthropic motives to establish one. 
 
 Second, besides the inertia to be overcome, there is the 
 requirement of the banking department, and a very wise 
 one, that the expenses of the bank must be guaranteed by 
 its organizers untU it is on its feet and ready to allow in- 
 terest on its deposits. 
 
 Third, there is the discouraging prospect of an uphill 
 attempt to accumulate a surplus while paying at least 
 three and a half per cent, interest together with the 
 knowledge of the inevitably weak financial position of the 
 bank during the first few years of its existence. 
 
 These three general causes, and often still other local 
 causes, doubtless operate to prevent the establishment of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 499 
 
 more Savings Banks in the smaller communities of the 
 State. 
 
 What then is to be the future of our Savings Bank sys- 
 tem? Is it to stand still and confess that its limit of ex- 
 pansion, though not of growth, has been reached, or can 
 any way be devised to extend it into the smaller commu- 
 nities? 
 
 Those who think that no such extension is called for — 
 and they are many — point to the fact that Savings Banks 
 are established in all the largest centres, and that the mail, 
 the trolley, and the train put every one in ready touch 
 with the Savings Bank system. If the train were a suffi- 
 cient medium of communication, then there was no need 
 of establishing the Bank of Ogdensburg, for that was with- 
 in three hours' ride of Watertown, the nearest bank, or at 
 Patchogue, for that was within an hour's ride of an existing 
 Savings Bank; nor was there any need of establishing 
 additional banks in Greater New York, for most of them 
 were within a few minutes trolley ride of existing banks; 
 nor, if the mail as a medium were adequate, would there 
 be need of establishing any new banks whatever. The 
 fact is that the proportion of deposits by mail is very 
 small. It takes an ardent saver, indeed, to patronize the 
 distant Savings Banks by either of these three media. To 
 fulfil its function and to attract the money of the less 
 thrifty, the Savings Bank must be brought as near as pos- 
 sible to the people it seeks to serve. 
 
 My object in accepting the kind invitation of your 
 Secretary to be with you this morning was to suggest 
 three ways in which the Savings Bank System might be 
 extended. 
 
 First, in order to promote the establishment of new 
 banks and to overcome their weak financial position dur- 
 ing their first few years, the realization of which doubt- 
 less deters many from organizing banks, the law might be 
 changed so as to permit those desiring to incorporate 
 Savings Banks in country towns to put up a small amount 
 of capital, as a guarantee of solvency, upon which interest
 
 500 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 should be allowed at the same rate as the interest allowed 
 on deposits, and which should be returned to the stock- 
 holders as soon as a sufficient surplus has been accumu- 
 lated to make the capital unnecessary. There is precedent 
 for this, I believe, in the case of some of the mutual life 
 insurance companies of this State, and it seems to me both 
 reasonable and not in conflict with the traditions and prin- 
 ciples of the Mutual Savings Bank System. The second 
 way is not by establishing new banks but by letting the 
 existing banks establish branches. This is a matter which 
 was discussed in his annual report more than once by 
 Superintendent Kilburn, but I understand that it never 
 took definite shape in the form of a bill before the Legisla- 
 ture. Branch Savings Banks, though common abroad, 
 are rare among the mutual systems of this country, but 
 there are a few examples which I want to call to your at- 
 tention : 
 
 The Provident Savings Bank of Baltimore, a mutual in- 
 stitution established twenty-five years ago in a city already 
 well supphed with Savings Banks, with a board of trustees 
 determined to reach out for the smaller deposits, has 
 twelve branches in the more or less outlying portions of 
 the city, where both deposits and withdrawals may be 
 made, and has some sixty agencies in drug stores and other 
 similar places where deposits only may be made. This 
 bank now has deposits of about $5,000,000, with 50,000 
 depositors, or exactly $100 to an account, an average lower 
 than that of any other Savings Bank of which I know. 
 What has been done in Baltimore can be and is being done 
 in other places. 
 
 In Massachusetts, in 1908, an amendment to the law 
 was passed permitting the Savings Banks to establish 
 branches, for the receipt of deposits only, in places within 
 fifteen miles of the main office of the bank in which no 
 Savings Bank already existed. The Savings Banks were 
 not much interested in this amendment, but they did not 
 oppose it. Fortunately, a few came forward who were 
 willing to give it a trial. One of these, the North Attle-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 501 
 
 boro Savings Bank, established a branch in Attleboro some 
 three miles away, and in the first year picked up $101,000 
 there. Some of this doubtless would have come to the 
 bank without the branch, but unquestionably a large 
 majority of it represented money which the Savings Bank 
 would not otherwise have gotten. 
 
 But the test of this amendment which to me is the most 
 interesting is that which has been made by the Lowell In- 
 stitution for Savings. Instead of maintaining a branch 
 which keeps open all the time, the LoweU bank decided 
 to have the branch keep open only on one afternoon of the 
 week. It selected two small manufacturing villages about 
 ten miles from Lowell. In these two villages, which are 
 close together, there are three mills, employing in all about 
 five hundred hands. Thursday is pay day, and every 
 Thursday afternoon a clerk of the Lowell bank goes out by 
 trolley to the mills to receive deposits. At the time the 
 branch was opened the bank had accounts from thirty-four 
 out of the five hundred operatives and their families. It 
 now has 235 accounts from them. This means that, during 
 the twenty-two months of its operation, 201 out of the 500 
 operatives had opened accounts, practically none of whom 
 ever had a Savings Bank account before. During the 
 first ten weeks of the branch, the average number of de- 
 posits made each week was only nine ; during the last ten 
 weeks the average has been thirty-three; and the total 
 amount of money deposited from those two little com- 
 munities composed only of the mill, the houses of the em- 
 ployees, and the village store, has been in all over $35,000. 
 Could any more complete proof be offered of the inade- 
 quacy of the mail, the trolley, and the train as means of 
 attracting money into Savings Banks than this little ex- 
 tension of Savings Bank facilities into cormnunities whose 
 citizens had for years been in touch with Lowell by all 
 three of these avenues of communication? 
 
 In this State, with its great diversified manufacturing 
 interests, there must be dozens of places where the Lowell 
 experience could be duplicated.
 
 502 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 These are two methods of extending the field of the Mu- 
 tual Savings Bank, but there is a third and easier way of 
 extending the Savings Bank System of the State which will 
 bring it into communities where the Mutual Savings Bank 
 has never dreamed of penetrating. 
 
 Let me show you another map of New York State. Here 
 again the Savings Banks are marked in blue, but we see 
 that those twenty-nine counties and those scores of cities 
 and towns apparently without Savings Bank facilities 
 are well filled up with red dots indicating that there 
 are either State or national banks or trust companies in 
 them. 
 
 Your superintendent estimates that these three classes 
 of banks in New York State hold three hundred millions of 
 savings deposits. 
 
 By the passage of a single page of law all these banks, al- 
 ready aggressive accumulators of savings deposits, could 
 be transformed into safe investors of savings deposits and 
 made a part of the Savings Bank System of the State. By 
 such enactment an extension of the system which would 
 otherwise require decades of slow and toilsome effort can 
 be brought about at once. The law which would accom- 
 plish this is one which would permit these banks to receive 
 savings deposits, but require them to keep them separate 
 from their commercial deposits, and to invest them in 
 loans and securities which are prescribed for our Savings 
 Banks. Both Superintendent Cheney and his predeces- 
 sor recommended such legislation as a restrictive measure. 
 I urge it confidently as a constructive measure, the safety 
 and practicability of which has been proved in several other 
 States. I say this confidently because I am as sure of its 
 adoption in the future as I am that most of you are at pres- 
 ent opposed to it. But without discussing the point of view 
 from which the State banks and trust companies oppose it, I 
 am only going to ask you to lay aside your particular prej- 
 udice against it, and to look the situation squarely in the 
 face, having in mind solely the benefit of the people of the 
 State.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 503 
 
 What is the situation? As I have shown, and as the 
 Superintendent in his latest report frankly admitted, the 
 Mutual Savings Bank System is not extending. Whether 
 or not the law permits it, the national banks, the State 
 banks, and the trust companies are receiving savings de- 
 posits in one form or another, and it has not been found 
 possible, either in New York or in any other State, to pre- 
 vent them from doing so. If I remember correctly, Super- 
 intendent Williams said it was a question whether he would 
 think it wise to prevent them if he could. 
 
 Is there any valid reason why, if they invest savings 
 deposits safely, they should not be permitted to receive 
 them? To this you will reply that no competition with 
 the Savings Banks should be permitted. But even now, 
 with their unrestricted investments, they are able to com- 
 mand public confidence sufficiently to compete with you, 
 and yet the very fact that their investments are unre- 
 stricted adds to the severity of the competition and makes 
 it dangerous, both for your depositors and for their own. 
 The present restriction on the use of the word "savings" 
 not only does not prevent the competition with the Savings 
 Banks which it was designed to prevent, but it actually 
 fosters unfair and unsafe competition. From the Savings 
 Banks point of view it seems to me that the way to make 
 the competition fair and safe is to abandon the idea that 
 you can stop it, and to take up the idea of regulating it by 
 putting your competitors on the same footing as yourselves 
 in regard to the investment of savings deposits. Then they 
 cannot make any more profit out of their savings deposits 
 than you can, and having stockholders to provide divi- 
 dends for, they will soon reduce the interest they pay to a 
 level which will leave a profit for them. Thus the com- 
 petition in interest rates will be checked, and we shall see 
 Savings Bank surpluses gradually return to those percent- 
 ages which prevailed ten or fifteen years ago. 
 
 But, you may say, if capitalized banks are permitted to 
 do a Savings Bank business no more Mutual Savings 
 Banks will be organized. The possibility, though not the
 
 504 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 certainty, of this must be frankly acknowledged; but I 
 cannot see that any one would be injured thereby, for if the 
 capitalized banks are made safe Savings Banks, it is of 
 little importance to the people of a given community 
 whether they put their savings in a mutual or a stock bank. 
 Operating under a uniform investment law, and supervised 
 by the splendid Banking Department of the State, who can 
 sa}^ that both would not be equally safe? 
 
 I will not take up your time by discussing whether it is 
 practicable for a bank to do both savings and a commercial 
 business. It is enough to say that, under the safeguards I 
 have suggested, it has been found practicable in New 
 Hampshire since 1891, in Michigan since 1893, ^ Idaho 
 since 1905, in Connecticut since 1907, in Massachusetts, 
 Rhode Island, and Ohio since 1908, and in Texas and Cali- 
 fornia for the last year; and that without the safeguards I 
 have suggested it has been carried on for many years in 
 every other State of the Union, as well as in most of the 
 Canadian banks. If you are to condemn it as impracti- 
 cable, then you must condemn substantially the entire 
 banking system of the United States and Canada, for an 
 overwhelming majority of the banks in both countries are 
 conducting this dual business. I will admit that, without 
 the safeguards suggested, there are two elements of un- 
 soundness in it. 
 
 The first is that when complete segregation of savings 
 from commercial assets is not required, it is possible in 
 time of stress for a bank, by requiring sixty days' notice of 
 its savings depositors, to defer their demands during a 
 period in which the commercial depositors may drain it of 
 its Hquid assets. This causes uneasiness and distrust be- 
 tween the two classes of depositors. The experience of 
 Michigan has been that with segregation the uneasiness 
 and distrust disappear, for each class knows that whether 
 its deposits are payable on demand or on time, its assets 
 are not subject to attack by the other class. The second 
 and more evident element of unsoundness is that unless 
 the law requires it, many banks will not put their sa\angs
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 505 
 
 deposits into the loans and investments which have that 
 degree of security considered requisite for such deposits. 
 
 In view of the opposition which has arisen to it from all 
 classes of banks in this State, it may interest you to know 
 that at the Annual Convention of the California Bankers' 
 Association, just prior to the adoption of the new law last 
 year, the vote in favor of segregated departmental banking 
 was 176 to 14. In Michigan, where it prevails in nearly 
 all of the 376 State banks, leading bankers express thern- 
 selves enthusiastically in favor of it. From what I have 
 said concerning this third method of extending our Savings 
 Bank System, possibly some of you will go away with the 
 impression that I am against the Mutual Savings Banks 
 and in favor of substituting for them the discount banks 
 and trust companies. Some of those who have heard me 
 present similar arguments on this subject, in States where 
 they have no Mutual Banks, accuse me of trying to put 
 their trust companies and discount banks out of business 
 and to substitute for them the Mutual Savings Bank. So 
 it all depends upon the point of view. The fact is, that I 
 express no preference, but am in favor of both systems. I 
 advocate no changes in the law which are not based on 
 sound banliing principles and the safe investment of savings 
 deposits, but I am in favor of such changes in the law as 
 will permit any banking institution complying with these 
 two conditions openly to solicit and receive savings de- 
 posits. Some people are attracted to one kind of a bank 
 and some to another; and the evidence is conclusive that 
 the more properly constituted agencies there are for the 
 encouragement of thrift, and the nearer they are brought 
 to the doors of the people, the greater will be the volume of 
 their savings. 
 
 This is an age of enterprise and extension. Passive 
 methods no longer suffice. In these days you do not have 
 to travel to New York to buy bonds; the officers of the 
 smallest and youngest of your banks are fairly besieged in 
 their office by travelling bond men who bring the bond 
 market to their doors. So the Government delivers the
 
 5o6 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 mail to the farmer, and the department stores deHver then- 
 goods to the suburbs. In every field of business activity 
 facilities are being extended, and new facilities create new 
 business. The vast telephone traffic of the country rep- 
 resents new business; it decreased the use of none of the 
 previous means of communication. The latest facility in 
 communication, the "night letter, " is creating entirely new 
 business for the telegraph companies. A Western Union 
 solicitor told me that one of his customers sent 25,000 
 night letters in sixteen days. In the field of banking the 
 instances I have cited prove just as strikingly that new 
 Savings Bank facilities create new deposits. Can we not 
 look to this powerful Association to encourage the exten- 
 sion of the Savings Bank System into the smaller commu- 
 nities of the State, so that it may expand as well as merely 
 grow, and so that the facilities for saving money may in 
 some measure keep pace with the ever-increasmg tempta- 
 tions to spend it? 
 
 THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF SAVINGS BANK INSURANCE 
 
 The following address was delivered by Mr. WiUiam 
 Frederick Dix, Secretary of the Mutual Life Insurance 
 Company : 
 
 The theory and practice of life insurance have been so 
 scientifically developed during the last half century that 
 they are as nicely adjusted to the needs of the man of small 
 earnings as they are to those of the capitalists. The most 
 sagacious business men in this country are the most liberal 
 patrons of it, the multi-millionaire is just as sure to carry 
 insurance on his life as is the clerk in his office, and to-day 
 the great life insurance companies stand as a formidable 
 bulwark against poverty. As a factor in economics they 
 are mighty anchors of safety. 
 
 The question of Savings Bank insurance is a most in- 
 teresting one. In theory it is admirable. Savings Bank 
 insurance, as in vogue to-day, means industrial insurance 
 with the elimination of the agent. Industrial insurance
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 507 
 
 is expensive because it is like buying coal by the bucket- 
 ful. It is necessarily expensive because of the cost of col- 
 lecting, so frequently, such small premiums. Not only is 
 the bookkeeping in the home office enormous, but the agent 
 must make weekly visits to the insured, and a much larger 
 proportion of premium receipts must go to him than is 
 necessary in ordinary insurance. Savings Bank insurance 
 is expected to do away with the large proportionate cost of 
 the agent and give the insured more protection for his 
 money. It is devised to teach the wage-earner to be prov- 
 ident, and if it could teach the workingman systemati- 
 cally to save a portion of his wages, its influence for good 
 would be enormous. It would help cure one of the great- 
 est economic evils of our modem social industrialism. The 
 average wage-earner is a mighty poor investor. Either he 
 saves nothing, or through ignorance he dissipates his 
 savings in unwise investments. If he could be taught reg- 
 ularly to place his surplus earnings with a Savings Bank 
 which would not merely be there kept for him in trust, but 
 used, as premiums, to pay for insurance on his life, father- 
 less and poverty-stricken families among the laboring 
 classes would largely cease to exist. Or if he could be per- 
 suaded to put a certain sum in the Savings Bank each 
 week, and arrange to have the bank apply a portion of his 
 funds to pay premiums on his life insurance, still keeping 
 a steadily growing residue in the bank, this plan would be 
 still better because, in time of stress, when his wages 
 stopped temporarily, for instance, his reserve fund in the 
 bank would prevent his policy from lapsing. 
 
 State Actuary Hunter estimates that Savings Bank in- 
 surance would cost twenty-five per cent, less than indus- 
 trial insurance, and states that a Savings Bank can return 
 to a policy holder who is unable to continue his premium 
 payments a larger percentage of those premiums than an in- 
 dustrial company, and can give a surrender value at the 
 end of sLx months, whereas industrial companies do not 
 give one under three years. 
 
 A very substantial proportion of industrial insurance
 
 So8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 policy holders either lose their enthusiasm within three 
 years, or are forced by lack of funds to sacrifice their poli- 
 cies, and the money they have paid into industrial com- 
 panies in excess of the value of the protection received 
 during the time is thus an absolute loss to them. On the 
 death of the insured, a Savings Bank can automatically 
 place the amount of his insurance in his Savings Bank ac- 
 count, thus somewhat removing the temptation from his 
 widow to misuse an unfamiliarly large amount of cash in 
 hand. She would be less likely to squander a Savings Bank 
 fund than actual money in her possession. 
 
 On the theoretical side, it is hard to find any argument 
 against Savings Bank insurance. The man of small wage 
 commonly believes that he cannot afford to carry any of 
 the regular old line forrns of insurance, and the small 
 amount he could save would, if merely left in the Savings 
 Bank, hardly suffice to provide for more than the imme- 
 diate needs of his family when bereaved by his death of 
 their chief item of assets. A wage-earner, by systemati- 
 call}' adding to his Savings Bank life insurance for a number 
 of years, could build up an insurance estate which would be 
 considerable. Theoretically, Savings Bank insurance, by 
 the elimination of agency expenses, gives the maximum of 
 protection for the minimum of cost. No wonder it has 
 had the interested attention of Savings Banks and large 
 business corporations employing numbers of wage-earners. 
 If any scheme could be devised to make it a practical suc- 
 cess, it would become a tremendous factor for good. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, there is sometimes a great gulf 
 fixed between theory and practice, and that gulf, in this 
 case, is expressed by the personal equation. The whole 
 history of life insurance seems to show that it is human 
 nature for a man readily to agree to the excellence of life 
 insurance in general, but to avail himself of it only in a 
 moment of enthusiasm, after having been hauled and ca- 
 joled and flattered and frightened into it by the resourceful 
 agent. It is a fine thing — for the other fellow! As State 
 Actuary' Hunter has remarked: "The elimination of the
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 509 
 
 collector would be practically equivalent to the elimina- 
 tion of the policy holders." All attempts to conduct the 
 business of life insurance without the aid of agents or solici- 
 tors have been virtual failures. Four English life in- 
 surance companies, the London Life, Metropolitan Life, 
 the "Old Equitable," and the Clergy Mutual have always 
 conducted their business without the assistance of solicit- 
 ing agents. Of the companies named, the Equitable of 
 London is the oldest life insurance organization in the 
 world. By saving agents' commissions, it has furnished 
 insurance at somewhat lower net cost than its contempora- 
 ries, but, like the other companies named, it has done a 
 very small part of the life insurance business of the world. 
 After a career of 147 years, it has about $40,000,000 of in- 
 surance in force. In 1908 it wrote 243 policies, and that 
 was one of the best years it ever had. The other three 
 companies named have done no better. 
 
 For forty-one years the government of Great Britain 
 has conducted an industrial life insurance business through 
 the instrumentality of the postal department. Its rates 
 are even lower than those of the regular industrial com- 
 panies, and the protection it offers is as safe as the perma- 
 nence of the British Empire itself. After forty-one years 
 the government insurance department has only 13,261 
 policies in force — an average of 323 per year — while the 
 total amount insured is about $3,845,690, or an average 
 of $290 per policy ! The insurance costs as little as, or less 
 than, that offered by private companies, and there is no 
 question of safety; but as no agents are employed to solicit 
 business, comparatively no business is procured. In 1906 
 all the post offices of the kingdom secured only 641 policies 
 aggregating $140,000 of insurance. 
 
 Government insurance in Germany is more successful 
 for the reason that it is compulsory. Every year nearly 
 $125,000,000 is paid to sick, injured, infirm, or old persons 
 in the way of annuities or weekly payments. Of this 
 amount $62,500,000 is provided for by employers, 
 $5Ij550j000 by contributions of the insured persons, and
 
 5IO HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 $12,225,000 by the State. A compulsory system of in- 
 surance, compelling the working classes to contribute a 
 certain portion of their wages to the general insurance 
 fund, while their employers contribute a larger amount, 
 and the wState the balance, might well be successful without 
 the employment of solicitors, but the plan would scarcely 
 be acceptable in this country. 
 
 The most successful system of voluntary life insurance 
 conducted by a State is that of New Zealand. Here, how- 
 ever, the government operates on the same plan as the 
 private companies, employing soliciting agents and all 
 other expedients of a conservative, well-regulated insur- 
 ance office. Nevertheless, the system has not been con- 
 spicuously successful in furnishing protection at low cost. 
 While the cost has indeed been reasonable, the Australian 
 Mutual Provident Society, the largest British Company 
 in existence, furnishes life insurance in New Zealand at 
 lower cost than the government department, and for some 
 years has been increasingits business at agreater ratio than 
 the latter. 
 
 The first, and so far the only plan of Savings Bank in- 
 surance instituted in this country, is that in Massachu- 
 setts. An act of the Legislature of that State passed in 
 June, 1907, authorized Savings Banks to establish in- 
 surance departments for the issuance of life insurance and 
 old age annuity policies. The purpose of the law is to en- 
 able the working class to obtain what is known as indus- 
 trial insurance at lower cost than the industrial companies 
 can furnish it. The plan was not received with favor by 
 the banks of Massachusetts, only two so far having estab- 
 lished insurance departments. These are the Whitman 
 Savings Bank of Wliitman, Massachusetts, and the Peo- 
 ple's Savings Bank of Brockton, Massachusetts. Three 
 other banks, as well as numerous manufacturing concerns, 
 department stores, and other parties act as agents to re- 
 ceive applications and premiums. The law prohibits the 
 banks from employing solicitors or agents to solicit busi- 
 ness, the purpose being to eliminate agents' commissions.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 511 
 
 This practically is the only item of expense that can be 
 saved, except that the State pays the salaries of the actuary 
 and medical director and the compensation of their assist- 
 ants, and furnishes stationery, supphes, etc. Without 
 doubt industrial life insurance could be furnished more 
 cheaply if these expenses could all be eliminated, provided 
 that the people would not apply for insurance except on 
 the solicitation of the Hfe insurance agent, and the ex- 
 perience of all the world so far tends to prove the proposi- 
 tion. 
 
 The friends and promoters of Savings Bank insurance 
 in Massachusetts discovered very early that this was a real 
 obstacle. Accordingly, a number of prominent manufac- 
 turers interested in the enterprise employed, at their own 
 expense, experienced canvassers to push the work of solicit- 
 ing insurance for the two Savings Banks. The dismter- 
 ested efforts of the friends of the measure in thus endeavor- 
 ing to place the business on a prosperous basis are to be 
 commended, but they are, of course, in direct opposition 
 to the Savings Bank insurance idea, and are an illustration 
 of the weakness of the scheme. Ultimately the system 
 must prosper or decline on its own merits. 
 
 Now let us consider the plan from the point of view of 
 Savings Banks. Massachusetts Savings Bank officials 
 generally are opposed to the experiment. Some of their 
 objections are embodied in the following abstract from an 
 article contributed to the American Law Review, by Al- 
 fred L. Aiken, President of the Worcester County Institu- 
 tion for Savings, one of the leading Savings Banks in the 
 State. 
 
 "Time alone will demonstrate whether over-the-coimter 
 insurance, so undertaken, can succeed, but the question of 
 the moral right of Savings Bank Trustees to undertake 
 such an entirely extraneous venture, and the wisdom of 
 the commonwealth becoming a contributor to such a plan, 
 are both worthy of consideration and open to serious 
 doubt." 
 
 The reason that the Savings Banks of Massachusetts
 
 512 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 hold the high position that they do in the minds of the peo- 
 ple of the State and the country is because of the absolute 
 confidence, bred of experience, in the conservatism, hon- 
 esty, and success of the management. Depositors have 
 placed their money in the banks, believing that by so doing 
 they establish the relation of beneficiary and trustee be- 
 tween themselves and the banks' directors and officers, the 
 sole purpose of the trust being the careful investment of 
 the depositors' funds, that the interest and profit arising 
 therefrom may accrue to the benefit of the depositors, and 
 no one else. The very foundation of this relation is the 
 confidence of the depositor in the bank. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the insurer pins his faith to the rep- 
 utation of the old Savings Bank, and, no matter how 
 plainly the fact is stated in the policy that none of the five 
 or ten or twenty millions of dollars of assets are available 
 for the satisfaction of his contract, and that only a special 
 guaranty fund that shall not be less than $25,000 is avail- 
 able for him — he cannot separate his faith in his poUcy 
 from his faith in the bank as a whole. Have the trustees 
 of a Savings Bank any moral right to jeopardize that con- 
 fidence and good-will by the undertaking of an entirely 
 extraneous business, and to risk backing it with the bank's 
 name and prestige, from which not one cent of direct profit 
 can accrue to the depositor as such? 
 
 The answer that the danger is small is not satisfying, 
 for it is not true. There is a popular impression which has 
 been bravely supported by the enthusiastic adherents of 
 the law under discussion, that the life insurance business is 
 of necessity an immensely profitable one. There was never 
 a greater mistake than this. An investigation of the facts 
 is worth while in this connection. According to the In- 
 surance Year Book of 1908, a standard pubhcation and 
 statistical authority, 389 so-called old fine life insurance 
 companies have been started in the United States. Of this 
 number, 222 have either retired from business outright or 
 been obliged to reinsure their risks in other companies; 
 twelve were, on January i, 1908, in the hands of receivers,
 
 SECRETARY, 19IO-13
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 513 
 
 so that approximately sixty per cent, of the insurance 
 companies organized have gone out of business in some 
 way, leaving but 155, or less than forty per cent., still doing 
 business. No better evidence can be prescribed to show 
 the risk involved in such an undertaking. 
 
 As further evidence of the risk as a real one, the law 
 makes specific provision for receiverships for the insurance 
 departments of the Savings Insurance Banks. Certainly 
 the sight of a receiver, winding up the insurance depart- 
 ment of a bank at one end of the counter, while the very 
 ofi&cers, who, through their mismanagement brought about 
 this condition, are still busily engaged in managing the 
 savings department at the other end, would be a severe 
 shock to the faith of the most devoted adherent of the 
 savings department. As a matter of fact, any one at all 
 famiUar with Savings Bank depositors as a class knows 
 that the injury to the good-wiU of the bank would be in- 
 calculable; an,d this good- will is one of its most valuable 
 assets, though an intangible one, an asset that in some 
 cases is the growth of almost a century. Certainly no 
 trustees have the right to risk sacrificing this for the sake 
 of an undertaking acknowledged to be an experiment, and 
 from which the depositors for whom they act can gain 
 nothing. 
 
 The wisdom of the commonwealth contributing all the 
 stationery and supplies, and going into the pockets of its 
 taxpayers to pay for them, is a second question worthy of 
 consideration, and one that brings up the whole question of 
 benevolent paternalism. If the State provides poUcies, 
 ledgers, and premium receipt books free of charge to the 
 insurer in its Savings Insurance Banks, why should it not 
 furnish supplies of the same sort for the industrious and 
 thrifty wage-earners, who are savings depositors in these 
 same banks, and if this is equitable, and for the best of the 
 community, where shall the State stop in its benefactions? 
 The departure is a radical one. The old-fashioned Mass- 
 achusetts Savings Bank has always been a self-respecting, 
 self-supporting institution, akin to the people who form
 
 514 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 its constituency. Have things come to such a pass that it 
 and its thrifty depositors are to become, even to a small 
 extent, charity wards of the commonwealth? 
 
 The real question at stake is whether the trustees of the 
 Savings Banks of the State are to so broaden the interpre- 
 tations of their trust that they are prepared to put behind 
 them the old traditions and practices on which has been 
 built a world-wide reputation for soUdity and strength, and 
 venture into new and entirely unknown fields, the fruits of 
 which are at least problematical. 
 
 Every fair-minded citizen of the commonwealth would 
 welcome any plan that would mean cheaper and better Hf e 
 insurance for the thrifty wage-earner, but there are many 
 who doubt the wisdom or fairness of a plan that involves 
 the use of the prestige and good name of the Savings Banks 
 for its support, and risks that prestige and good on the suc- 
 cess or failure of any such experiment. 
 
 Notwithstanding the employment by private parties of 
 many experienced agents to soHcit business for the Savings 
 Banks of Massachusetts, their efforts can scarcely be said 
 to have been conspicuously successful. The Whitman 
 Savings Bank began business on the 2 2d of June, 1908, and 
 on the 8th of June, 1909, after virtually one full year, had 
 $403,790 of business in force, representing 1,131 policies. 
 
 The Brockton Savings Bank commenced business No- 
 vember 1, 1908, and on June 8, 1909, it had $303,383 insur- 
 ance in force, represented by 747 policies. In other words, 
 and to sum up, the idea of Savings Bank insurance was 
 born and fostered by men sincerely interested in the wel- 
 fare of the wage-earner. It is a laudable attempt to in- 
 culcate thrift, and the realization of the desirability for the 
 man of small means to so provide for his family that it will 
 not be plunged into poverty on the occasion of his death. 
 It is an attempt to find a means for him to save and to place 
 his savings where they will do the most good. It opens up 
 a safe field of investment for those who can lay by so Uttle 
 that ordinary securities are beyond them. As such it is 
 wholly admirable.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 515 
 
 Unfortunately, however, experience shows that a pecu- 
 liarity of human nature is a great bar to its practice. Life 
 insurance m any form needs teachers to spread its gospel, 
 and teachers cost money. The agent is expensive, but 
 he is necessary. He is the teacher, taskmaster, and the 
 promoter, all in one. The whole experience of the prac- 
 tice of life insurance throughout the world demonstrates 
 that theory and practice are widely separated, and that 
 neither the Savings Banks nor the business concerns em- 
 ploying wage-earners have as yet devised a scheme where- 
 by men of small earnings can be successfully stimulated to 
 become permanent poUcy holders without the help of the 
 agent.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Eighteenth Annual Convention — Address of President Charles 
 E. Hanaman — Report of the Executive Committee — Proposed 
 Celebration of the Centennial of the Savings Bank Movement 
 in the United States — Opposition to the So-called Grady Bill — 
 The Association Favors the Establishment of a Minimum 
 Surplus by Legislation — Address of Superintendent Cheney 
 of the Banking Department. 
 
 THE Eighteenth Annual Convention of the Associa- 
 tion was held at the rooms of the Chamber of 
 Commerce, in the City of New York, on Thurs- 
 day, May 1 8, 191 1. The meeting was called to order by 
 the President, Mr. Charles E. Hanaman, who said: 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HANAMAN 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this our 
 eighteenth annual meeting. The report of your Executive 
 Committee will acquaint you with the legislative work 
 of the year. It is with deep regret that I am obhged 
 to note the sudden death, during the summer, of your 
 late Treasurer, Samuel D. Styles, whose most efficient ser- 
 vice for ten years or more deserves an expression of appre- 
 ciative recognition. By virtue of the authority given by 
 Article VI of our by-laws, the Executive Committee ap- 
 pointed Mr. Frank M. Hurlbut, President of the Union 
 Square Savings Bank, to fill the vacancy due to the death 
 of Mr. Styles. 
 
 A number of articles have appeared in the public prints 
 during the year relative to the shrinkage of the percentage 
 of the market value surplus to the deposits in the Savings 
 Banks of the State, the cause of this shrinkage in addition 
 
 S16
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 517 
 
 to that produced by the decHne in the market value of the 
 securities in which our assets are invested being the pay- 
 ment to depositors of an excessively high interest rate. It 
 will be remembered that at our meeting a year ago both 
 the present speaker and the Superintendent of Banks 
 urged most earnestly that our trustees assume a more con- 
 servative attitude in this regard, and reserve a larger por- 
 tion of their earnings for the surplus fund, in order to 
 maintain the high protective power which has always char- 
 acterized the Savings Banks of the Empire State. 
 
 A number of banks gave heed to this advice, among 
 them being several of the largest and strongest banks in the 
 City of New York. It seems to me that the failure of a 
 large number of our institutions to follow suit may be due 
 in some measure to a confusion of mind as to the meaning 
 and real import of the term surplus. 
 
 There are four forms in which the surplus of a Savings 
 Bank may be stated: First, the surplus based on the in- 
 vestment value of the bank's securities; second, the sur- 
 plus based on the par or face value of its securities; third, 
 the surplus based (as required by section 1 54 of the Bank- 
 ing Law) on the par and market value of the securities, in 
 which securities seUing at par or over are estimated at par, 
 while securities seUing below par are estimated at their 
 market value ; fourth, the surplus based upon their market 
 value alone. 
 
 For practical purposes the four forms may be reduced to 
 two, viz.: investment value surplus, and market value 
 surplus. The first, or investment value surplus, repre- 
 sents the excess of assets over liability, when the value of 
 the former is determined by the "amortization" method. 
 
 It goes without saying that such a surplus has practi- 
 cally no protective value. It is in large measure an earning 
 surplus and represents the portion of invested assets which 
 are in excess of the liability. But, in a time of stress, 
 when securities must be sold to meet the demands of de- 
 positors, it at once gives place to that margin of safety 
 which is represented by the selling value of the securities at
 
 5i8 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 the moment. And this brings us to the second form of 
 surplus, known as the market value surplus. 
 
 A moment's consideration will suggest the fact that this 
 surplus cannot be realized nor accurately determined as a 
 whole until the securities have been sold and converted 
 into cash. But this surplus can be estimated from time 
 to time with sufficient accuracy to furnish a basis for cal- 
 culating a factor which will act as a reasonably accurate 
 gauge of the security of the depositors' money, viz.: the 
 percentage ratio which the selling value of the assets bears 
 to the liabihty. 
 
 The use of this gauge does not require (as some people 
 seem to think) that the trustees shall be continually mark- 
 ing up or marking down the value of their securities with 
 every wave or change in the investment market, but it does 
 mean that when, at regular intervals, an inventory is taken 
 to meet the requirements of our reports to the Banking 
 Department, the position of this gauge or marker may be 
 noted on the safety scale, and the proportion of the semi- 
 annual earnings to be credited to depositors as an interest 
 dividend may be governed thereby. 
 
 It seems to me to be simple common sense, that when 
 natural causes beyond the control of the trustees are de- 
 pleting this surplus, that it is without question our duty 
 to our depositors to retain a sufficient amount of our earn- 
 ings to keep this gauge or marker well above the danger 
 line. When the mercury in a ship's barometer persists in 
 falling below the 30-inch mark the sailing master begins to 
 prepare for a storm. The storm may not come, but the 
 captain realizes his responsibility for the lives aboard, and 
 to the owners for the safety of the vessel and its cargo. 
 In like manner should we keep an eye on our barometer 
 and note at what percentage mark our ratio-indicator 
 stands, so that we may take in sail when that indicator 
 points to danger ahead, for we also are responsible to our 
 depositors, who are owners. 
 
 The depletion of the surplus by an excessive interest rate 
 reminds me of a story that is told of an old colored man
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 519 
 
 who lived in Washington when the old Freedman's Bank, 
 estabUshed for the savings of colored people, was in exist- 
 ence. Old Joe deposited ten dollars in the bank and, at 
 the expiration of two years, attempted to withdraw his 
 money in order to meet some family expense. At the 
 paying teller's window he said: "Mah name is Joseph 
 Jackson and I wants mah ten dollars." "When did you 
 put in dat ten, Mister Jackson?" inquired the teller. ''Two 
 yeahs ago," replied Joe. "Two yeahs ago!" exclaimed the 
 teller in astonishment. " Yas, suh," rephed Joe. "Well, 
 sholy. Mister Jackson," said the teller, "you ought to 
 know dat in dat time de intrus done eat up de principal. 
 Yor ain' got no money lef heah." The application of this 
 btor>^ is so evident that no comment is necessary. 
 
 In an institution where the law requires that the assets 
 shall be kept in invested form, and where there is no capital 
 nor stockholders' liability, a margin of safety or guarantee 
 fund built up from a portion of the earnings is a necessity, 
 for there is no other source from which protection can be 
 looked for to offset any depreciation that may occur in the 
 cash value of those assets. And it was this fact that the 
 framers of our law undoubtedly had in mind when they 
 suggested the accumulation of a surplus which they di- 
 rected the trustees to "hold to meet any contingency or 
 loss in its business from the depreciation of securities or 
 otherwise." 
 
 Now that little verb "to hold" means to maintain, re- 
 member that ; and then think, have we kept the law in this 
 respect? When this law was framed the danger was that, 
 owing to the large earnings of that day, too large an 
 amount would accumulate and be held as surplus, and 
 therefore a check was placed upon the maximum amount 
 that could be so held. It evidently did not occur to our 
 lawmakers that the time would come when commercialism 
 would compete with philanthropy for the possession of our 
 institutions, and security stand in danger of being lost 
 sight of in a desire for a large liabiUty, and that a mistaken 
 generosity would develop to a point where the surplus
 
 520 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 would face the risk of being "eaten up by the interest" 
 paid to depositors. I am well aware that, when securities 
 again appreciate in value, our market value gauge of 
 solvency will ascend the scale, and then will be the time to 
 be generous with our interest dividends. 
 
 It seems to me that the only justification for the exist- 
 ence of the trustee or Mutual Savings Bank is that it 
 should afford greater security to the depositor than it is 
 possible for the commercial bank to offer, and this cannot 
 be the case if the importance of the surplus is not more 
 highly regarded than the interest rate. \\Tiile our Savings 
 Banks are without capital they cannot be regarded nor 
 managed as commercial institutions, nor were they ever 
 intended to be other than purely philanthropic in function. 
 And this being the case, they are necessarily independent 
 in the sense that while no bank is the keeper of any other 
 bank, the trustees of all the Savings Banks of the State are the 
 keepers of one common cause and cannot afford to assume 
 an independence of policy nor a competitive attitude that 
 will be detrimental to the weakest link in the chain. 
 
 We hear it said by the exponents of high interest rates : 
 "Why should we not pay these high rates? We have 
 earned them and our earnings belong to the depositors, and 
 it is only right that we should give this money to them." 
 I submit that the legitimate depositor demands of you the 
 unquestioned security of his principal first, last, and all the 
 time, and in order to give him that securit}^ you will have 
 to deduct from your earnings for credit to his margin of 
 safety an amount that will offset the shrinkage in the 
 market value of the securities in which, by his order 
 (through the law), you have invested his deposits, and this 
 deduction will cut down your supposed earnings to a much 
 lower level than that in which you have recently estimated 
 them. 
 
 The cr>' for higher interest rates does not come from the 
 legitimate depositor, but from the investor and speculator 
 who is your depositor only for the sake of the income that 
 your mistaken generosity is giving him at the expense and
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 521 
 
 risk of the frugal poor who desire to use your institution 
 properly — that is to say, for the accumulation and safe- 
 keeping of their hard-earned savings — and no one, rich or 
 poor, should have enough money at any time in a Savings 
 Bank for the income to be an object. The bank, therefore, 
 that seeks and accepts the money of the investor is fav- 
 oring the comparatively rich at the risk of the poor man, 
 for the deposits of the rich do not shrink with the surplus, 
 and, as I have pointed out elsewhere, in a time of stress the 
 investor depositor is a menace to the bank and to the poor 
 man's deposit. 
 
 I am unwilling to believe that any true man would be 
 willing to knowingly make use of a philanthropy for selfish 
 ends, and if no selfish ends are at the bottom of our Savings 
 Bank management to-day, why this competition on a 
 basis so destructive to all the principles of philanthropic 
 endeavor? I believe in ambition properly directed, but 
 I have lived long enough to have learned that misdirected 
 ambition is sure in the long run to defeat its own ends. 
 
 Recent experience has shown that the commerciaHsm 
 which has developed in the management of our institu- 
 tions can be controlled by nothing less than a law. And 
 while I deeply regret that the warnings that have been 
 given by conservative members of this Association, by at 
 least two successive Superintendents of the Banking De- 
 partment, and through the public prints by such members 
 of our commonwealth as are interested in preserving the 
 philanthropic character of our institutions — while, I say, 
 I deeply regret that these warnings have failed to cause 
 this Association to take the initiative in placing such a law 
 upon our statute books, I hope that you will not allow this 
 meeting to close without instructing your Executive Com- 
 mittee to favor any legislation which will place our institu- 
 tions most firmly upon the high plane which is consonant 
 with their true function and is the justification for their 
 existence. 
 
 I have not held up for your admiration the increase in 
 deposits during the past year, for it seems to me that to
 
 522 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 grow larger without a corresponding growth in strength is 
 not a subject for congratulation. I do, however, con- 
 gratulate you upon the evidence of a return to right 
 principles furnished by the action of some of our largest 
 and strongest banks, to which I called attention at the be- 
 ginning of my remarks, and I congratulate those banks for 
 having avoided the compelling force of a law which is 
 bound, sooner or later, to become a fact, and I congratu- 
 late them for having shown their appreciation of the true 
 function of a Savings Bank and the danger to our institu- 
 tions of the commercial tendencies of the day. 
 
 Let us set before us an ideal that will be high enough, so 
 that although we can never fully attain to it, we may ap- 
 proach it in a manner that will satisfy every call of ambi- 
 tion without defeating our purpose in the end. 
 
 Mr. Frank M. Hurlbut, President of the Union Square 
 Savings Bank, New York, was elected Treasurer of the 
 Association, September 22, 1910, in place of Mr. Samuel 
 D. Styles, deceased. 
 
 ADDRESS OF SUPERINTENDENT O. H. CHENEY 
 
 I appreciate very much the kindly thought of your Presi- 
 dent in calling upon me and for this evidence of your 
 friendly consideration. I, however, came to this meeting 
 not expecting to say anything. If I had thought that I 
 might have been called upon, perhaps I might have gotten a 
 sermon which I understand was preached a number of years 
 ago by a gentleman, from the text, *'We are here to-day 
 and gone to-morrow." In fact, any one might have 
 tossed a coin as to the opportunity which might be afforded 
 me to be present here to-day, but I want to say to you, 
 gentlemen, now that I am here — and those of you who 
 know me I perhaps do not need to say it to — that there is 
 nothing that interests me more than the problem which 
 is presented by the Savings Banks and their condition in 
 this State to-day. I think we have the finest system
 
 FRANK MOSLEY HURLBUT 
 
 TREASURER, igll
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 523 
 
 known in the history of the world, and I agree heartily 
 with the proposition that we have the finest Savings Bank 
 Law in the world. Through official connection I have had 
 opportunity to ascertain, for my own benefit, and for 
 the purposes of the department, something of the work, 
 the unselfish work, that is being done by the Savings Bard: 
 men and their trustees in this State, and it is a record that 
 the State itseh will never be able thoroughly to under- 
 stand, because it will not have the opportunity to get at 
 all the facts. However, if I should say anything to you 
 to-day of import, it would perhaps be somewhat of a rep- 
 etition of what I had the opportunity of saymg to you a 
 year ago, because further experience has confirmed me in 
 my belief that the time has arrived when the Savings 
 Banks Association of this State should take some action 
 upon the problem which is presented to-day. I am glad 
 to see, gentlemen, that your President has prepared for an 
 executive session this afternoon. I hope, Mr. President, I 
 shall have the opportunity to attend that session. I am 
 ver>' anxious to hear what may be said this afternoon upon 
 a subject which is of interest to all of us. I beheve that 
 it is a subject that we must meet, and I earnestly call to 
 your attention the importance of meeting it fairly and 
 squarely and not dodging anything. 
 
 Gentlemen, I appreciate this opportunity of saying just 
 a word to you again. My interest in the Savings Banks 
 of this State shall always remain, and I shall always look 
 with pleasure upon the opportunities that have been af- 
 forded me to become acquainted with you who manage so 
 successfully, so vigorously, and so unselfishly the interests 
 of the savings depositors of this State. 
 
 CENTENNIAL OF THE SAVINGS BANK MOVEMENT IN THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 Mr. Lersner, of the Williamsburgh Savings Banks, said: 
 
 The question of the centennial of Savings Banks in this 
 country was possibly induced more by the fact that our in-
 
 524 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 stitution was represented at the now memorable centenary 
 last year, held in Edinburg, Scotland, from which an im- 
 mense amount of good was derived, and it gives me great 
 pleasure to offer this resolution and move its adoption: 
 
 Whereas, The year 191 6 will witness the Centennial of 
 the Savings Bank movement in the United States, and 
 whereas, this movement has been attended with results so 
 beneficial to the community, the individual, and the na- 
 tion, therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That it be the sense of this meeting that the one 
 hundredth anniversary of the introduction of the Savings 
 Banking into this country should be properly commemo- 
 rated during the above named year, and that a Committee 
 be appointed to act in the matter in conjunction with the 
 Savings Banks Section of the American Bankers' Associa- 
 tion, and New York Chapter American Institute of Bank- 
 ing; and that the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, the 
 Provident Institution for Savings of the Town of Boston, 
 the Bank for Savings in New York, and the Savings Bank 
 of Baltimore, the first four American Savings Banks, be 
 requested to unite in this movement, to the end that this 
 event may be celebrated in a manner becoming its im- 
 portance. 
 
 The resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote. 
 
 OPPOSITION TO THE GRADY BILL 
 
 Mr. Hurlbut offered the following resolution in connec- 
 tion with Mr. Miller's report upon the so-called Grady 
 Bill in the Senate: 
 
 Resolved, That the Savings Banks Association oppose 
 the Grady Bill, Senate Bill No. 1608, in its present form, 
 and urge that no action be taken upon the same at this 
 session of the Legislature, owing to the fact that the session 
 is too far advanced to permit deliberate action.
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 525 
 
 This motion being duly seconded, was put and carried. 
 Mr. Mills offered the following: 
 
 Resolved, That the Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York favor the estabhshment of a minimum 
 surplus by legislation, and 
 
 Resolved, That the counsel for the Association be in- 
 structed to embody in the form of bills such suggestions as 
 maybe made for carrying into effect the foregoing resolution, 
 and submit them to a special meeting of the Association. 
 
 This was duly seconded and adopted. 
 
 "the safe and sane rate of interest" 
 
 Mr. James H. Manning said: I am not one of those who 
 have been referred to by the President as boiling over to 
 say something, but I believe as delegates representing the 
 great Savings Bank System of the State of New York it is 
 our duty to take up and discuss, as suggested, some sub- 
 ject or subjects of interest and importance to our institu- 
 tions. I have attended at least six of these conventions, 
 and while the proceedings have been interesting and in- 
 structive, it has occurred to me that there has been an 
 absolute indifference to the discussion of questions that 
 confront us at all times while performing our duties as 
 officers, and which to-day are more vital than they have 
 been in the past. I have been a silent member, and silence 
 is usually construed as giving consent. Things have trans- 
 pired that have not met with my approval, but I raised no 
 voice, and I fear very much that my case is the case of a 
 good many who gather once a year in this beautiful Cham- 
 ber of Commerce. I do not propose to take up what 
 would be considered a constitutional question as to whether 
 you and your respective banks have a right or not to pay 
 four per cent., or only three and a half per cent.; but, in 
 line with what the late Superintendent of Banking has 
 said to us, the time has arrived when the Savings Banks 
 of the State of New York must take an offensive, not a
 
 526 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 defensive, position. Banking is divided into three classes 
 wliich are just as distinctive as classes can be: the dis- 
 count banks, the trust companies, and the Savings Banks. 
 Now I know that in addressing you I am speaking to 
 Savings Bank officers, quite a few of whom are also dis- 
 count bank directors and trust company trustees. I 
 respect you for the various positions you hold in financial 
 circles, but I contend we should consider matters here to- 
 day from purely a Savings Bank standpoint. It is our 
 duty not merely to attend the annual convention of this 
 Association and listen to addresses or papers that are cer- 
 tain to be interesting, but it is mcumbent upon us to be 
 at our banks the regular number of working hours each 
 day, and to see that the savings entrusted to our care are 
 protected in every sense against the inroads that may be 
 made by banks of discount or trust companies with which 
 we may or may not be connected. The troublesome ques- 
 tion as to a safe and sane rate of interest, as I remember, 
 dates back to about the time the trust companies began 
 to grow strong. I do not blame the trust companies for 
 getting all the legislation that they do — it is up to them to 
 protect themselves, to advance their interests, and when 
 we stop to consider that in the State of New York they 
 show, I believe, this last year, a growth of about thirty-six 
 millions, it means that they are up and doing, that they 
 are working together. They have invaded the Savings 
 Bank field, but they have done it openly and fearlessly. 
 I do not blame them, but I do blame the Savings Bank 
 men of the State for being so backward in going forward 
 with legislative measures that mean protection to Savings 
 Bank deposits and depositors. 
 
 The time is rapidly coming, if it is not here now when, in 
 order to get on a proper basis in our reports, we will have 
 to standardize market values of securities. That means a 
 great deal, gentlemen, for it will show us all up in our true 
 light, and that has got to be done by the highest body, the 
 Banking Department of the State of New York. It is up 
 to us to ask that department to do it for the protection of
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 527 
 
 all concerned. I believe evety official in the Savings 
 Banks of the State of New York is an honest man, but it 
 is claimed some figures that are presented from time to 
 time in the way of reports are not altogether correct. If 
 they were, reports would not be frequently returned to 
 certain Savings Banks for correction. 
 
 I understand that Mr. George Van Tuyl has within an 
 hour been appointed State Superintendent of Banking. 
 He will enter upon his duties as a well-trained and capable 
 trust company man. We must soon let him know where 
 we stand in regard to Savings Bank matters, particularly 
 as to the standardizing of market value of securities 
 twice a year. 
 
 Then, too, some plan should be worked out by the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee and submitted to the Superintendent 
 of the Banking Department that will lead to a better un- 
 derstanding as to just how to base real-estate values when 
 taking a mortgage. When that is done there will be no 
 occasion for the remarks that are now and then made to the 
 effect that loans are granted on a seventy or eighty per 
 cent, valuation, when, as we know, they should not ex- 
 ceed sixty per cent. 
 
 Those are some things that are vital. As to the ques- 
 tion of interest at the rate of three and a half per cent., or 
 four per cent., as I told you, I am not going to discuss that. 
 I believe in the protective power of a surplus, and I am 
 not going to criticise my neighbor, because I think each 
 bank, its officers, and its board of trustees will see that 
 nothing is done that will reflect upon them and upon the 
 great Savings Bank System of the Empire State. 
 
 Mr. Beach, of the Rome Savings Bank, Rome: I wish 
 to state that I thoroughly agree with the speaker who just 
 preceded the last speaker in the fact that we ought to take 
 more general part in these discussions, and that the more 
 general these discussions can be made the more vitality 
 and more vim there will be in this organization. We sit 
 here and listen oftentimes, not concurring in what is said 
 and what is done, when we should voice what we really
 
 528 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 think. Now I listened this morning to a gentleman who 
 stated that owing to the present excellence of the Savings 
 Bank Law, if they would leave it alone we would get back 
 the confidence of the people. Now, that method of making 
 the statement grated harshly on my ears, because I believe 
 that the Savings Banks of the State of New York not only 
 merit but have the unmeasured confidence of the people 
 of the State of New York. But because we have the best 
 Savings Bank Law in the world does not mean that that 
 law cannot be better. A note of warning was sounded by. 
 Superintendent Clark WiUiams. He called our attention 
 to a weak spot in the law, but the gradual experience of the 
 years has demonstrated the weak spot, and that is that the 
 law does not require and demand of the trustees of the 
 Savings Banks of the State of New York that they main- 
 tain a guarantee fund, to guarantee to their depositors the 
 full return of the money which is deposited with them. 
 This wedge started by Superintendent Williams has been 
 followed up by the vigorous methods with which Super- 
 intendent Cheney has marshalled the figures and statistics 
 and facts which bear upon this question, and it is due to the 
 Superintendent of Banks for us to voice what we think 
 about these suggestions; and I would like to say that when 
 we have this special meeting, when this question is coming 
 up, that that is a meeting we should go to, and thoroughly 
 understand what we want to ask the Legislature to pass 
 in the shape of a law. There is a law of civics known as 
 the line of least resistance. A river comes down a moun- 
 tain and follows along down the valley in a crooked way 
 instead of a straight way, because it follows the line of 
 least resistance, but this body of intelligent men does not 
 need to follow the Une of least resistance, and we should 
 not remain supine, and not correct, repair, and make new 
 this vitally weak link in our chain. 
 
 REMARKS OF SUPERINTENDENT CHENEY 
 
 I am very glad to have another opportunity to speak to 
 you. It so happened that since I have the opportunity
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 529 
 
 of standing on the platform alongside of you, Mr. Chair- 
 man, my successor has been confirmed by the Senate. 
 I understand that he takes office next Tuesday, so you can 
 see my time is very short. I therefore appreciate this 
 chance to say just a word on this subject. 
 
 I am glad to see that this Association is showing some 
 signs of life. It has been disturbing to find that there 
 were prospects of your doing what was done last year, 
 eating a luncheon and letting it go at that. You must 
 not be loath to meet this subject, for fear that it ought not 
 to receive the light of day. The time has long passed when 
 a subject of this kind can be kept in the dark. The public 
 is becoming educated in financial matters, and it seems 
 to me there is nothing more advisable than for the Savings 
 Bank men to take up a subject of this kind, which every 
 one of us loiows, down in our hearts, must be met, and 
 meet it fairly and squarely. I like the idea of my brother 
 member, that the members of the Association should be 
 constructive, that this Association should do something. 
 
 Now, it was suggested three months ago, in the annual 
 report of the Superintendent, that this whole subject 
 might be best reached by providing a measure in the law 
 which would compel the Savings Banks to put aside in a 
 guarantee fund a certain percentage of the net profits for 
 the six months period before declaring dividends. Now, 
 that would defeat any necessity for fixing the amount of 
 dividends, and it would accomphsh the purpose that we 
 are all seeking to accomphsh — namely, the building up of 
 the guarantee fund. It is somewhat alarming to a Super- 
 intendent of Banks upon his examination of a Savings 
 Bank, that, two years ago, going back to the previous 
 examination, the institution had two million dollars on 
 deposit, it had a surplus of sixty thousand dollars, and on 
 his recent examination to find that it owed its depositors 
 four miUion dollars, and its surplus fund was forty-eight 
 thousand. The guarantee fund had been reduced twelve 
 thousand dollars, and the obligations had been increased 
 a million dollars. Now a situation of that kind cannot
 
 530 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 be disregarded. It is up to this Association to take such 
 things into consideration. We cannot go on bHndly and 
 indefinitely disregarding such conditions, and therefore 
 it seems to me as an Association you should do what the 
 Association promises to do by its action this afternoon, 
 and suggest something in the way of an amendment to the 
 present law that will meet these new conditions. Figures 
 upon that subject have been carefully worked out. I am 
 not going to detail them here to you, but it has seemed to 
 me that it would be very feasible to require of the Savings. 
 Banks having a market value surplus of between five and 
 ten per cent, to put aside at each dividend period five per 
 cent, of its net profits, and an institution having a surplus 
 of less than five per cent, in market value should put aside 
 ten per cent. If something of that sort could be done, it 
 seems to me it would be possible and feasible, and if that 
 had been done you would have increased the surplus last 
 year, during 1910, about two and a half times, and we 
 would be getting somewhere. I hope that this Associa- 
 tion will bear that in mind, and that this Committee will 
 bear it in mind as one of the suggestions as to one of the 
 possible things that can be done to meet this condition. 
 
 SEGREGATION 
 
 Mr. Hoy t : I would like to give a little useful informa- 
 tion for this Convention on the subject of segregation. 
 The Committee met the Superintendent, and he presented 
 a tentative bill that defines the amount that should be seg- 
 regated in a commercial bank or trust company, and those 
 banks that pay in excess of the two per cent, on $500 or 
 less. We discussed that subject, and finally appointed a 
 Committee to aid in drafting a bill. The reason I mention 
 this is that I beheve that will be the solution of the rate of 
 interest paid to the depositors in Savings Banks. A bank 
 or trust company cannot compete with a Savings Bank 
 deposit, which should be a small deposit, and those banks 
 should keep their reserve. I wish to call the attention of 
 the Association to the fact that there is a report of the law
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 531 
 
 made to the American Bankers' Association that will give 
 you a very complete account of the extent of segregation 
 that is going on throughout the United States. Massachu- 
 setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Texas, and 
 some other States have had it in operation for ten years. 
 In Rhode Island the limit of a segregated account is 
 $3,ocK). I want to state that this was supposed to be for 
 the interest of the depositor, and was opposed by the banks 
 and trust companies, and to-day the banks and trust com- 
 panies favor the bill, and would not have it repealed for 
 anything. I advise every member to get that report for 
 1910, and read it. It is coming in this State. 
 
 Mr. Marcus T. Hun, of the Albany Savings Bank, of- 
 fered a resolution that the Committee which has been 
 requested to report legislation be requested to incorporate 
 into that legislation some provision which should be ade- 
 quate to provide for a proper increase in the surplus of the 
 Savings Banks of this State. 
 
 This was duly seconded and carried.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Nineteenth Annual Convention — ^Address of President Hanaman — 
 Amendments Made to the Constitution — The Group System 
 Adopted — Letter from Bank Superintendent Van Tuyl — . 
 Remarks of Mr. Coombs on Railroad Bonds — Address by 
 Hon. Clark Williams, ex-Superintendent of Banks, State of 
 New York — By-laws Amended — The Group System Adopted. 
 
 IN CALLING the Nineteenth Annual Convention to 
 order, on May 23, 191 2, President Charles A. Hana- 
 man, of the Troy Savings Bank, addressed the dele- 
 gates as follows: 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT CHAS. A. HANAMAN 
 
 Gentlemen: It is again my pleasant duty to welcome 
 you to the annual meeting of our Association, which is con- 
 vened here to-day for the nineteenth time in its history-. 
 The year now closing has been replete with important 
 topics for thought, discussion, and effort. I shall leave to 
 the report of the Executive Committee the description of 
 the legislative work of the year. 
 
 It is my sad duty to make official announcemnent of the 
 death during the year of two members of this Association 
 holding official positions. On the 2d of January last my 
 dear friend, the Treasurer of our Association, Mr. Frank 
 Moseley Hurlbut, President of the Union Square Savings 
 Bank of this city, died after a short illness, to be followed 
 on the I St of March by the death of Colonel Charles Ezra 
 Sprague, a member of our Executive Committee and Presi- 
 dent of the Union Dime Savings Bank of New York City. 
 The Executive Committee fiUed the vacancies thus created 
 by the appointment of William H. Rockwood, now Presi- 
 
 532
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 533 
 
 dent of the Union Square Savings Bank, to the office of 
 Treasurer, and H. P. Brewster, President of the Rochester 
 Savings Bank of Rochester, N. Y., to succeed Colonel 
 Sprague as a member of the Executive Committee. 
 
 Pursuant to a resolution passed at our annual meeting in 
 May last a special meeting of this Association was held at 
 the Fort Orange Club, in the city of i\lbany, N. Y., on the 
 1 2th of January, and was called for the purpose of receiv- 
 ing the report of the counsel and of the Executive Com.- 
 mittee relative to the form of a bill for the purpose of 
 establishing by law a minimum market value surplus in the 
 Savings Banks of the State. SLxty-nine banks were repre- 
 sented at this meeting, and, after due discussion, the form 
 of the bill presented by the counsel and recommended by 
 the Executive Committee was approved by a vote of sixty- 
 one to eight of the banks represented. 
 
 I shall not encroach upon the report of the Executive 
 Committee relative to this subject further than to say that 
 through the opposition of members of this Association 
 the bill was held up until too late to come to a vote in the 
 Legislature before its adjournment. But permit me to 
 point out that if this Association is to be of any benefit 
 to the Savings Banks of this State, disloyalty to the will 
 of the majority must cease. If this Association cannot go 
 to the Legislature with an unbroken front, it would far 
 better remain away. 
 
 Our counsel worked with his usual enthusiasm, and with 
 that rare abihty for which he is justly noted, to place the 
 real and amply acknowledged needs of the hour in the form 
 of a law which would, in large measure, correct a serious 
 and growing evil with the least possible hardship to the 
 greatest number of Savings Bank depositors, and with 
 the result that, for the time being at any rate, his efforts, 
 after they had become the will of the majority of this 
 Association, are held up, in so far as the Legislature of 
 the moment is concerned, by the disloyal acts and politi- 
 cal influence of a ver}^ small minority. Such a display 
 of the undemocratic spirit, unless checked in the future,
 
 534 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 will soon render our Association practically useless. The 
 usefulness of this Association depends upon the loyalty of 
 the majority to those altruistic principles which gave birth 
 •to the Trustee Savings Bank, 
 
 One of the chief difficulties to overcome in making a law 
 for the establishment and maintenance of an adequate 
 surplus in our institutions is the spirit of commercialism 
 exhibited in the competitive importance given to the in- 
 terest rate to depositors. In a practical experience of 
 nearly a quarter of a century, in one of the most difficult 
 environments for Savings Bank work in the State, I have 
 accumulated ample evidence to prove that, if the public has 
 reason to believe in the sincerity and singleness of purpose 
 of the trustees of an institution, and is properly instructed 
 as to the character of the work of that institution, the in- 
 terest rate is of very little importance as a competitive 
 factor between it and its commercial neighbors, be they 
 commercial banks or commercially managed Savings 
 Banks. 
 
 I am ver}^ well satisfied of the fact that commercial com- 
 petition is no bar to the establishment or growth of a new 
 Savings Bank in any environment where there is any real 
 need for such an institution. 
 
 One of the most serious evils of the day is the congestion 
 of Savings Banks in small areas, and while there are some 
 counties in the State where no Savings Banks exist, there 
 are, on the other hand, comparatively small cities where 
 Savings Banks are many times too numerous for the needs 
 of the legitimate Savings Bank depositors of the neighbor- 
 hood. This unfortunate condition of affairs naturally 
 leads to the development of abnormal and commercial 
 practices, which are at the bottom of most of the evils 
 which threaten the future success of Savings Bank work in 
 the State. 
 
 Notwithstanding the serious evils with which commer- 
 cialism has threatened the highest interests of our institu- 
 tions, we have much to be thankful for in the great good 
 our institutions have accomplished and the growing ten-
 
 WILLIAM H. ROCKWOOD 
 
 TREASURER, lgI2-I3
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 535 
 
 dency to correct the errors of the past by an mcreasing 
 number of banks. I have the utmost faith in the sincerity 
 and honor of the great majority of the trustees in our 
 Savings Banks, and I beheve that New York State leads 
 the world in its Savings Bank work. With all its weak 
 spots, we have the best Savings Bank Law that the world 
 has ever known, and, under the conditions of our phe- 
 nomenal growth, our law is appreciated and lived up to 
 in a manner that is worthy of all praise. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, as I shall retire from this post of 
 honor at the close of this meeting, I want to express to this 
 Association and to you my colleagues my gratitude for and 
 appreciation of the high honor which has come to me 
 through the bestowal for two successive terms of the high- 
 est ofhce in your gift. And let me further say that my 
 retirement from this office will not diminish in the least 
 degree my interest in the Association nor my work in its 
 behalf. 
 
 I thank you for your many courtesies and for your loyal 
 support. 
 
 REMARKS OF HON. CLARK WILLIAMS 
 
 Mr. Clark Williams said : It was three years ago that I 
 had the pleasure of addressing you, then as Superintendent 
 of Banks, and I took occasion and felt it incumbent upon 
 me to give you advice. Now by the courtesy of your offi- 
 cers I am before you again, not as a State officer, but as a 
 plain citizen striving as you all are to earn an honest living 
 and to do something worth while. Therefore, I am not 
 here to give you advice, but to be thankful with you that 
 I am no longer Superintendent of Banks. 
 
 I should not feel an easy conscience, however, if I did 
 not briefly revert to the expressions of official opinion of 
 the vintage of 1909. Although the ideas expressed at that 
 time may seem trite to you, I believe they are none the less 
 true. I said: "A knowledge of the general conditions 
 throughout the State compels the conclusion that the 
 greatest offence to economic principles and sound banking 
 lies in the present high interest rate. This evil results, as
 
 536 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 I have frequently stated before, from improper competi- 
 tion and an unreasoning desire for quantity rather than 
 quahty. Deposits are still a liability and should not be 
 recklessly solicited or procured by the offering of high in- 
 terest rates at a sacrifice of safety. The practice of this 
 offence against the principles of sound banking is indulged 
 in by banks of discount, by State and national banks, as 
 well as by trust companies, largely through the instru- 
 mentality of their so-called interest departments. The 
 Savings Bank, as we all know, in this State is a semi- 
 philanthropic institution. It is created as the depository 
 of the savings of the provident poor. No one can properly 
 benefit or profit by its operations but the depositors them- 
 selves. The restrictions laid upon Savings Banks by 
 statute are such as to require the safest possible invest- 
 ments, and the statute also contemplates the largest 
 possible return to the depositors consistent with sound 
 banking. So in the discussion of the rate Savings Banks 
 should pay, it is fair to keep these fundamental principles in 
 mind. But what is the condition at the present time re- 
 garding the Savings Banks of the State of New York? We 
 find by comparison of deposits with percentage of surplus 
 which our Savings Banks have laid away from year to 
 year a most remarkable diminution. You are doubtless 
 familiar with the statements which show this result. Suf- 
 fice it to say that on January i, 1890, the percentage of 
 surplus to deposits was seventeen per cent., and practically 
 each year since that time there has been a decrease, until 
 it is now seven per cent. Wliatever be the reason for this 
 decrease with the falling rate of interest on conservative 
 investments this disregard of surplus in the payment of 
 high interest rates would in time result disastrously for 
 depositors. I am not impressed with the argument that 
 because certain banks are paying at the rate of four per 
 cent, (the Big Four) all should; and, conversely, because 
 certain banks are paying at the rate of three and a half per 
 cent., that all should. But I do believe that so far as 
 Savings Banks are concerned the affairs of each are ad-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 537 
 
 ministered by trustees who are competent to discharge the 
 duties imposed upon them by that trust. Conditions in 
 banks may differ, and it is for the trustees in every Savings 
 Bank to determine for themselves the proper rate of in- 
 terest to be paid to depositors, taking into consideration, 
 as they must, the absolute safety of the principal and the 
 maintenance of the proper surplus reserve to which the 
 present depositor may in fact properly contribute for the 
 benefit of the posterity." 
 
 And I then ventured the prophecy that because of the 
 conservatism which characterizes the management of our 
 Savings Banks there would be a general reduction in in- 
 terest rates. It was left for your determination whether 
 this prediction should come true. If it is right that the 
 interest rate in your bank should be reduced, it lies with 
 you to answer in your good judgment in the interest of 
 those who have entrusted and shall entrust their savings 
 to your care, regardless of the action of your neighbor. If 
 your institution will be any stronger at the present time 
 or in the years to come if you reduce your rate, it is clearly 
 your duty to adopt that poUcy . This is enough, gentlemen, 
 of the vintage of 1909, and my conscience is satisfied. You 
 doubtless are tired of the interest subject, and I feel some- 
 what reminiscent to-day ; so, if you will permit me, I will 
 take you back to October, 1907, during the trying days of 
 that panic. I am reminiscent for more reasons than one; 
 for, in describing a picture which I shall ask you to look 
 upon for a moment as a matter of Savings Bank history, 
 I am compelled to mention the names of two institutions. 
 On the 2ist of October, 1907, I had comfortable employ- 
 ment as an executive officer of the Columbia Trust 
 Company, and I expected to continue in that capacity. 
 On the 2 2d of October the Knickerbocker Trust Company 
 closed its doors. There has been a union of these com- 
 panies in the very recent past, as you are aware, and I may 
 state my position as being at the birth of one and the 
 resurrection of the other. I doubt if the newspaper men 
 have yet determmed that the union is a morganatic mar-
 
 538 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 riage. I think not; but it was just at that time that 
 Governor Hughes asked me to come to Albany. I had 
 never met the Governor in my life until the night he ap- 
 pointed me Superintendent of Banks. I returned on 
 Thursday, and received from Mr. Mills an invitation to 
 visit the Dry Dock Savings Bank the next day ; there was 
 to be a meeting there of the Presidents of Savings Banks. 
 I knew very little about Savings Banks, but of course I 
 went there to learn; and I recollect on entering the room 
 I heard a very strong expression of opinion against avail- 
 ing of the sixty-day clause. My neighbor informed me 
 what the sixty-day clause meant. It was stated on that 
 occasion that to avail of that clause would result in dis- 
 credit to the banking system as a whole, and particularly to 
 the Savings Banks; that there was no occasion for it, as 
 it was evident that the panic was practically over and there 
 was no real reason for general uneasiness. There were 
 those who opposed that view of the conditions, and op- 
 posed them strenuously. I was asked to say a few words, 
 and, as I was about to express a half-baked and very aca- 
 demic opinion on the question, I was called out of the 
 room to the telephone. Upon my return, at the risk of 
 rudeness, I interrupted the speaker and announced the 
 fact which I had learned through my chief examiner, that 
 the Terminal Bank, the Jenkins Trust Company, the Wil- 
 Hamsburg Trust Company, and the First National Bank 
 of Brooklyn had just closed their doors. It was not more 
 than two minutes before that room was empty. The res- 
 olution had been passed. I believe it was on the 25th, 
 that Friday afternoon, that Savings Banks generally de- 
 termined to avail themselves of the opportunity of post- 
 poning the demands of depositors. 
 
 Then came a period within which the banks were pre- 
 paring for resumption. It may be interesting to you to 
 hear of the predicament that the Superintendent found 
 himself in then. By that time I had learned the attitude 
 of the Attorney-General's ofhce regarding the interpreta- 
 tion of statutes generally. I had learned that unless there
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 539 
 
 was specific permission given by statute for Savings Banks 
 to do certain things we could not consider that they had 
 permission, or that the statutes were permissive in any 
 other particular. The daily records of the department — 
 which, doubtless, are still lodged there — would indicate 
 how many calls we had from our Savings Banks friends, 
 and I shall never forget the friendly advice given me at 
 that time by those for whom I now have the highest regard 
 — those Savings Bank presidents who taught me the ru- 
 diments of the business. It was at that time that a former 
 Superintendent of Banks addressed a letter to me officially 
 asking if the Savings Banks would be permitted to borrow. 
 He stated in that letter that he was making some inquiry 
 from the Attorney- General. I communicated by tele- 
 phone with the Attorney-General at once, requesting that 
 in case he received a letter with a certain man's name at 
 the left-hand corner and postmarked on a certain date 
 that he would not open it, but that, if the letter had been 
 opened, he would kindly withhold his official opinion for 
 the time at least. I foresaw the inevitable result of in- 
 quiry from that quarter as to a strict interpretation of the 
 law. As a result. Savings Banks were permitted to bor- 
 row, thereby avoiding the sacrifice of depositors' interest 
 by the sale of securities at panic prices. Since that time 
 you all know that there is proper legislative provision for 
 such borrowing, and I trust it will cure that situation for 
 all time to come. 
 
 I have one observation to make, which I make because 
 of my experience with banks and with Savings Banks at 
 that time, and I beheve you will appreciate the spirit in 
 which I make it. It seems the poUcy of a number of 
 Savings Banks to rather scatter their deposits with other 
 institutions, probably on the theory that it is safer to have 
 one's eggs not all in a single basket. I believe from my 
 observations and the happenings and the conditions during 
 the panic that perhaps the wisest course would be to choose 
 institutions of undoubted strength, and a few of them, 
 with whom the bank may have close affiliations — institu-
 
 540 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 tions which are dependable and strong in any conditions 
 and whose management is appreciative of the obligations 
 which are incurred by the depositary in the interest of the 
 Sa\'ings Bank depositor, for those relations in times of 
 stress are of the highest importance to the interests of your 
 institutions. 
 
 I have only one more thought, and I do not know that 
 it is novel, but I have given some consideration in the re- 
 cent past, and particularly since the suggestion of the 
 Postal Savings Bank idea became a fact in practice and 
 has not been successful, so far as I know, in its result gener- 
 ally in this State. I. feel that I might easily become a 
 strong advocate of the branch system for Savings Banks 
 in the State of New York. I base this somewhat upon my 
 experience as Superintendent of Banks in being asked to 
 authorize new savings institutions. I think there were 
 only three authorized during the two years that I was in 
 that position at Albany. There is great danger to be met 
 in supplying a new community, or a community which has 
 not had the Sa\dngs Bank privilege at its door. 
 
 The smaller institution must struggle, and frequently it 
 is not a credit to the general Savings Bank System. It may 
 be thought that the field is well covered, but I know of cer- 
 tain manufacturing communities, thickly populated neigh- 
 borhoods, that have not the facilities of a Savings Bank. 
 The Superintendent of Banks is hardly justified in es- 
 tablishing new institutions which, as I say, must struggle 
 for their existence; but I can see the possibility of large 
 service for the pubHc if the stronger banks would avail 
 themselves of these opportunities and would lend their 
 confidence in the organization of these branch insti- 
 tutions in such localities. I beUeve that great strength 
 would be added thereby to our economic structure. I 
 recommend this thought for your consideration, gentle- 
 men, and for the consideration of the Superintendent of 
 Banks. 
 
 In closing, I sincerely congratulate you on the great 
 satisfaction your calling must afford you in your unselfish
 
 PRESIDENT, lgl2 
 
 HAROLD P. BREWSTER
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 541 
 
 effort in the interest of those who entrust their savings to 
 your care. 
 
 LETTER FROM SUPERINTENDENT VAN TUYL 
 
 The Secretary received from Mr. Van Tuyl, who was in- 
 vited to be present at this meeting, the following letter, 
 under date of April 29: 
 
 "My dear Mr, Stevens: I wish to thank you for your 
 kind letter of the 27th instant, inviting me to attend the 
 annual convention of the Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York, in the rooms of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce, New York City, on Thursday, May 23d, next. 
 
 "I can assure you it would give me great pleasure to be 
 present and meet the members of your Association, many 
 of whom I have known for a long time. Unfortunately, 
 circumstances over which I have no control make it im- 
 perative that I be in another section of the State on that 
 day. Therefore, I regret that it will be impossible for me 
 to accept. 
 
 "I can assure you that I wish your Association all the 
 success it surely deserves, for this department has always 
 been benefited by the suggestions it has received from it. 
 
 "With best wishes, I beg to remain, 
 " Very respectfully yours, 
 (Signed) "Geo. C. Van Tuyl, Jr., 
 
 ' ' Superintendent . ' ' 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT-ELECT BREWSTER 
 
 President-elect H. P. Brewster, of the Rochester Savings 
 Bank, addressed the Convention as follows: 
 
 Gentlemen : It is with a deep sense of appreciation that 
 I accept the honor which you have conferred upon me in 
 electing me President of this Association, but I take the 
 compliment more as one offered to the Rochester Savings 
 Bank, which I represent, an institution which, through its
 
 542 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 eighty-one years of active service, has made for itself a 
 name which stands to-day unimpeachable. We have 
 listened with great interest to-day to the details of the 
 Savings Banks' work in this State, and I shall not tire you 
 or ask your time to listen to any further statistics as re- 
 gards the growth of the institutions which we represent, 
 but shall invite your attention for a moment to a topic 
 which I think is all important and which has taken so 
 much time of this Association, and especially of the Execu- 
 tive Committee, during the last year. I refer to the ques- 
 tion of "Legislation." 
 
 At our eighteenth annual meeting the question of prom- 
 ulgating legislation which should be for the benefit of all 
 Savings Banks was referred to a Committee who later on 
 reported to the Association at Albany the result of their 
 conferences, and, after free and thorough discussion, as you 
 all know, the bill, as submitted by this Committee, was 
 approved by the decisive vote of sixty-one to eight. 
 
 Later on we were again called together to meet with the 
 joint committees of the Assembly and Senate in the As- 
 sembly Chamber at Albany, and a thorough opportunity 
 was given for those present to express their approval or 
 disapproval of the measure. We are well aware that the 
 resolution passed by the Association did not receive favor- 
 able attention. The cause for the inaction on the part of 
 the Legislature in regard to the Association's bill is a mat- 
 ter that is still unexplained. Be that as it may, the bill died 
 a natural — or an unnatural — death, and now we are prac- 
 tically back where we were a year ago as regards legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 It seems to me that the paramount question at the pres- 
 ent time with this Association is. Do we need legislation? 
 Is it necessary? Cries of " No! No! " Possibly that last 
 sentence should be changed to read. Should it be necessar>' 
 to have additional legislation? What has been the cause 
 for suggesting legislation? Well, one of the causes has been 
 the numerous bills that have been presented to the Legis- 
 lature, drawn by men connected in their official capacity
 
 EDWIN P. MAYNARD 
 
 PRESroENT, 19I3
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 543 
 
 as either Senator or Assemblyman, which bills have been 
 drawn by them to meet certain things supposed to exist. 
 If my opinion is correct, your Executive Committee has 
 spent a large portion of their time during the last two 
 years in opposing improper legislation; and it was con- 
 sidered necessary, with the knowledge and experience 
 which they possessed, that they should formulate some 
 legislation that would cover the ground. This was done 
 as stated before, with the result, as is well known, that we 
 remain in just exactly the same position that we were in in 
 1911. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I bring up for your attention the an- 
 swer to the question. Do we need legislation? In this 
 State we have one hundred and forty odd Savings Banks, 
 organized under the same law, granted the same powers, 
 and organized for the same specific purpose; and, if my 
 conception of their organization is correct, it is for the 
 purpose of providing a safe place, as stated by Mr. Williams 
 here to-day, for caring for the money of the thrifty. I do 
 not like to call it the money of the — What did you call 
 them, Mr. WiUiams? (Here the speaker addressed Mr. 
 Clark Williams, who was sitting on the platform.) 
 
 Mr. WilUams : The provident poor. 
 
 Mr. Brewster: I do not like that expression as applied 
 to those people. I think they are the bulwark of this 
 country. In a panic these depositors do not become un- 
 necessarily alarmed. They believe in the institution in 
 which their money is deposited, and are satisfied that it is 
 a much safer place than any other they can find. As I say, 
 my conception of their organization is that it is for the 
 purpose of providing a safe place for caring for the money 
 of the thrifty and safely investing it, paying to the depos- 
 itors such a rate of interest as may be consistent with 
 safety, and setting aside such portion of the earnings as the 
 trustees may decide upon for a surplus fund. Now, if this 
 statement is correct, then the words "safety" and "sur- 
 plus" mean the same. We all know that there is a great 
 difference in regard to this question of per cent, to surplus.
 
 544 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 It is an academic question and can be argued from many 
 different standpoints. But the fact remains and cannot 
 be gainsaid that the only safeguard which the depositor 
 has, as between success and failure, is the surplus, and it 
 should not be necessar^^ for Savings Banks to have legisla- 
 tion enacted to make them perform their duties properly. 
 There should be in the mind of every trustee and officer of 
 every Savings Bank institution in this State such a desire 
 to safeguard its deposits and to so conduct the institution 
 with which he is connected as to make that feeling of safety 
 to the depositor genuine. 
 
 The growth of the Postal Savings Barik, which pays 
 but two per cent, to its depositors, is certainly not 
 based on the interest or dividend which the depositor 
 receives, but has been brought about by the fact that 
 back of its deposits stands the great strength and high 
 purpose of the United States of America. Unless the 
 Savings Banks of this State can offer to the depositors 
 the same guarantee of safety as is offered to the de- 
 positors of Postal Savings Banks, then the time is not 
 far distant when the usefulness of the Savings Banks 
 will be but a memory. Legislation? No! It should not 
 be necessary, and if it becomes essential that new laws be 
 enacted, regulating the business of Savings Banks as to the 
 rate of interest or dividend which they may pay, then the 
 officers who have drifted away from the purpose for which 
 Savings Banks were organized have no one to blame but 
 themselves if any hardship may come to the institutions 
 which they represent. I, therefore, plead to-day not for 
 legislation, but for an honest conception of the purposes for 
 which Savings Banks were incorporated. It is up to us, 
 each one of us, to make it unnecessary to be continually 
 discussing the question of new laws to regulate Savings 
 Banks, and we should not be put in the embarrassing posi- 
 tion of being called upon to produce or to submit to new 
 laws. Ever}' effort which it is possible for us to put for- 
 ward toward a solution of the question of safeguarding 
 Savings Banks I pledge you here w ill be given, but I know
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 545 
 
 nothing can be accomplished without cooperation on the 
 part of all the Savings Banks, and no successful outcome 
 of this question can be had until such time as those gen- 
 tlemen who are interested in Savings Banks, whose per- 
 centage is close to the danger line, take such action as is 
 necessary- to make their institutions sound and safe. Un- 
 less we put philanthropy ahead of commercialism, the ex- 
 istence of Savings Banks is simply a matter of time, and I 
 submit that if philanthropy— the love of fellowmen, the 
 high ideal for which these institutions were created — is 
 maintained, then discussions like this and what has oc- 
 curred during the last few years would be unnecessary. 
 But some say to me that while these are perhaps the cor- 
 rect principles, that it is an impossibiUty to get all the 
 Savings Banks to look at the question in this light. Well, 
 if that is so, I see but one thing that can be done, and that 
 is to sit patiently by until things get to such a pass as to 
 make a drastic legislation necessary. I have not been able 
 to discover why any one connected with Savings Banks 
 should object to legislation if that legislation tends to 
 strengthen his bank. I have been told by men — some of 
 them I think are in this room — men who were in the bank- 
 ing business before I was born, that there has not been the 
 need, except in minor instances, for the organization of 
 a Savings Bank in the State in the last twenty years. I 
 think probably that is borne out by what was said by Mr. 
 Williams to-day. Of course it has been suggested that 
 the bill regulating the rate of interest would increase the 
 size of the larger banks and automatically wipe out of 
 existence the smaller banks. And I have been told, too, 
 that there are Savings Banks enough at present that are 
 sound and which have the right principle back of them to 
 care for all Savings Bank business that exists. Why, then, 
 this great opposition to safe and sound methods? Can it 
 be that there are in this State Savings Banks that have 
 been organized for the purpose of creating positions for 
 men who have not thoroughly conceived in the organiza- 
 tion of their institutions the great purpose for which the
 
 546 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 law created them? I do not wish to think that the great 
 Savings Banks of this State, be they large or small, have 
 fallen so low as to commercialize their business. But it is 
 claimed by some people that this is being done, and if it 
 is true, then I have no sympathy for such a bank, and I 
 see no reason for the existence of such a bank. 
 
 We occupy to-day the position of temporary trustees of 
 a trust fund in which, outside of the ordinary expenses, no 
 man can honestly make a dollar. Why, then, if this ideal 
 is correct, should there be any difference between the safe 
 and sane methods to be employed? We do not need legis- 
 lation, but if we receive it, and of the kind that means a 
 hardship to many, it will not be the fault of the Legislature, 
 but will be the fault of those institutions who have not 
 conceived the purpose for which they were created. 
 
 AMENDMENT OF THE BY-LAWS — THE GROUP SYSTEM 
 ADOPTED 
 
 At this meeting Mr. Mills called attention to the fact 
 that at the previous convention a Committee consisting of 
 Mr. Andrew Mills, Mr. Chas. A. Miller, and Mr. Frederic 
 B. Stevens had been appointed to revise the by-laws of the 
 Association, and that after much careful consideration 
 proposed amendments had been prepared and printed 
 copies of the same quite generally circulated among the 
 members of the Association. 
 
 Mr. Miller, in explaining the plan, said: 
 
 The plan was proposed in recognition of a feeling which 
 seemed to be prevalent among certain of our members that 
 the Association in its past history and at the present time 
 was perhaps too much of a close corporation, especially as 
 to the membership of the Executive Committee, and that 
 an opportunity was not afforded to the up-State members 
 especially to participate in the discussions and to assist in 
 arriving at conclusions regarding Savings Banks manage-
 
 PRESroENT. IOT3 
 
 WILLIAM FELSINGER
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 547 
 
 ment that they ought to have. The matter was called 
 quite forcibly to my attention by some of the up-State 
 members at the time of our special meeting in Albany, and 
 this plan was suggested. The proposed amendment calls 
 for five groups as follows: 
 
 Group I — 16 counties, 12 banks, and deposits 
 Group 2—15 " 20 " 
 
 Group 3-23 " 34 " 
 
 Group 4— 2 " 42 " 
 Group 5- 5 " 32 " 
 
 $161,000,000 
 109,000,000 
 178,000,000 
 878,000,000 
 291,000,000 
 
 After a spirited debate, the proposed plan was adopted 
 by a decisive majority. 
 
 Group I. — Chairman, John M. Satterfield, Vice-Presi- 
 dent American Savings Bank, Buffalo; Secretary, David 
 Hoyt, Treasurer Monroe County Savings Bank, Roches- 
 ter; Treasurer, John Mackay, Secretary Niagara County 
 Savings Bank, Niagara Falls. Executive Committee: 
 Cassius C. Davy, Attorney East Side Savings Bank, 
 Rochester; F. W. H. Becker, Treasurer Western Savings 
 Bank, Buffalo; H. S. Hanford, Treasurer Rochester Sav- 
 ings Bank, Rochester; Harold P. Brewster, member ex- 
 officio; Robert S. Donaldson, member ex-officio. 
 
 Group 2, — Chairman, Clinton T. Rose, President Onon- 
 daga County Savings Bank, Syracuse; Secretary, W. B. 
 Couch, Treasurer Oswego County Savings Bank, Oswego; 
 Treasurer, William H. Meaker, Treasurer Cayuga County 
 Savings Bank, Auburn. Executive Committee: Isaac L. 
 Hunt, President Watertown Savings Bank, Watertown; 
 Samuel H. Beach, President Rome Savings Bank, Rome; 
 Asbury C. Deyo, Treasurer Binghamton Savings Bank, 
 Binghamton. 
 
 Group 3.— Chairman, James H. Manning, President 
 National Savings Bank, Albany; Secretary, S. Mitchell
 
 548 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 Rainey, Treasurer Hudson City Savings Institution, Hud- 
 son; Treasurer, Charles E. French, Treasurer Amsterdam 
 Savings Bank, Amsterdam. Executive Committee: Mar- 
 cus T. Hun, President Albany Savings Bank; Charles E. 
 Hanaman, President Troy Savings Bank; Allen W. John- 
 ston, Treasurer Schenectady Savings Bank; Frederic B. 
 Stevens, member ex-ojicio. 
 
 Group 4. — Chairman, Andrew Mills, President Dry 
 Dock Savings Institution, New York City; Secretary, 
 George E. Edwards, President DoUar Savings Bank, New 
 York City; Treasurer, Edward E. Young, Treasurer Peeks- 
 kill Savings Bank, Peekskill. Executive Committee: 
 Thomas M. Mulr}'-, President Emigrant Industrial Savings 
 Bank, New York City; Casimir Tag, President German 
 Savings Bank, New York City; William G. Conklin, Presi- 
 dent Franldin Savings Bank, New York City; Walter 
 Trimble, member ex-officio; William Felsinger, member 
 ex-officio; William H. Rockwood, member ex-officio. 
 
 Group 5. — Chairman, Eugene F. Barnes, President East 
 Brooklyn Savings Bank, Brooklyn; Secretary, Henry 
 Stumpf, Cashier German Savings Bank, Brooklyn; Treas- 
 urer, George W. Felter, Secretary Greenpoint Savings 
 Bank, Brooklyn. Executive Committee: Edwin P. May- 
 nard. President Brooklyn Savings Bank;Lindley M. Frank- 
 lin, President Queens County Savings Bank, Flushing; 
 Charles M. Blydenburgh, President Riverhead Savings 
 Bank, Riverhead.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Twentieth Annual Convention — Address of President Harold P. 
 Brewster, of the Rochester Savings Bank — Report of the 
 Nominating Committee and Election of Officers — Trust Ac- 
 counts Aggregating More than $3,000 — Valuable Information 
 Relative to the Banking System of New York — The Banking 
 Law Revision. 
 
 IN OPENING the proceedings of the Twentieth An- 
 nual Convention of the Association on the 2 2d day 
 of May, 1 9 13, in the City of Nev^ York, President 
 Harold P. Brewster, of the Rochester Savings Bank, said: 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT BREWSTER 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association: With 
 much pleasure I welcome you to this, the twentieth annual 
 meeting of the Savings Banks Association of this State. 
 
 The Executive Committee's report will be presented to 
 you, and I shall, therefore, not take your time by any ref- 
 erence to it. 
 
 During the past year there have been many important 
 matters brought to the attention of the Association, the 
 most important of which was the Banking Department 
 bills affecting Savings Banks. Of the numerous bills 
 which were introduced by the department, I think but 
 one needs any reference on my part, and that was the bill 
 known as the "Reserve Bill," which has to do with in- 
 creasing the market value surpluses of the Savings Banks 
 of this State. This bill, as has been stated both by the 
 Legislative Committee and by Mr. Skinner, the Deputy 
 Superintendent, emanated from the Banking Department, 
 was submitted to the Legislative Committee of the Asso-. 
 
 549
 
 5 so HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 elation for their approval or disapproval, and whatever 
 changes were deemed advisable by the Legislative Com- 
 mittee were agreed to by the department. A meeting of 
 the Executive Committee of the Association was held, and 
 the measure was approved by practically a unanimous vote. 
 Later on a special meeting of the Association was held at 
 Albany, at which time by a majority vote the "Reserve 
 Bill " was approved. A pubUc hearing was held before the 
 joint Committee of the Senate and the Assembly on Bank- 
 ing, and arguments were made for and against the "Re- 
 serve Bill." The condition of the Savings Banks of this 
 State was thoroughly brought out in the arguments made, 
 and these hearings (as those of you who attended them 
 will remember) were listened to not only by members of 
 the Association but by many members of the Legislature 
 and the public in general. But the bills, as you are all 
 aware, failed of passage, and we, therefore, stand to-day, 
 as regards legislation, in the same position that we have 
 for the last two years; that is, as regards any changes in the 
 laws as they affect Savings Banks. 
 
 It is the opinion of a large number of Savings Bank men 
 that the bills presented by the department were moderate 
 and fair, and the only purpose in introducing them was to 
 suggest improvements in the conditions of the Savings 
 Banks of this State, which the department felt were abso- 
 lutely necessary. Even the opponents of this bill admitted 
 that something was necessary, and that something should 
 be done, but to come to any harmonious conclusion in the 
 matter seemed to be impossible. This lack of harmony 
 which failed to prevail is unfortunate as regards the general 
 condition of the Savings Banks, and it would seem as 
 though such a condition should not exist. We are all, I 
 take it, inspired by high motives in the conduct of the 
 institutions with which we are temporarily connected, and 
 if this Association is to continue as a benefit to the Savings 
 Bank question as a whole in this State, harmony must pre- 
 vail. It is not necessary for me to say that every man 
 connected with a Savings Bank should have but one idea,
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 551 
 
 and that is, the highest possible regard for the safety of his 
 institution. 
 
 The large depreciation in the market surpluses of the 
 Savings Banks of this State has, of course, been caused by 
 many conditions. In some instances — in fact, in a large 
 majority of cases — it has been caused by a continued depre- 
 ciation in the price of securities. Added to this (perhaps 
 in some cases), the payment of excessive dividends; but 
 whatever the cause may be, the facts exist, and some rem- 
 edy must be found which will meet the general approval 
 of all the Savings Banks of this State to correct this un- 
 fortunate condition. Unless this Association can agree on 
 some plan, it must sooner or later be referred to the mem- 
 bers of our Legislature to act for us, but this would seem 
 unfortunate. Would it not be better that the views of the 
 men, who through years of practical experience have been 
 able to give the valuable advice of long experience, be met 
 with respectful attention, not only on the part of the Legis- 
 lature of the State, but on the part of the Savings Banks 
 as a whole? 
 
 I have in my possession hundreds of letters from trustees 
 throughout the State, men of abihty and intelligence, who 
 appreciate the fact that there can be no division of re- 
 sponsibihty as between the officers and trustees, but that an 
 attitude of cooperation should exist, and that the officers of 
 the Savings Banks in this State should perhaps take into 
 their confidence and more thoroughly explain and counsel 
 with their co-trustees. 
 
 The group meetings which have been held during the 
 last year have, in my judgment, been a most excellent 
 means of drawing into closer relationship all of the Savings 
 Banks of the State. Much was expected in the change in 
 the Constitution which made these groups possible, and I 
 believe much good has been done, for certainly many men 
 have expressed themselves more fully and freely than they 
 have ever been known to do at a meeting of the Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 This organization, which is the custodian of the enor-
 
 552 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 mous fund of the provident poor of this State, has a right 
 to expect from the men who are in charge of these institu- 
 tions the highest ideals as regards their positions and the 
 work which they are expected to perform. This Associa- 
 tion should be all powerful in working toward the harmony 
 of all of the Savings Banks of the State. Nothing, how- 
 ever, can be accomplished without harmony, and that 
 harmony must be real and genuine. I think that a large 
 majority of us feel that in favoring or opposing legislation 
 we should have in mind the whole situation rather than 
 some bill that will affect the particular institution with 
 which you or I may be connected. 
 
 Differences of opinion as to methods have existed, and 
 will continue to exist to the end of the world, as regards 
 the right way to accomphsh any purpose, and cooperation 
 on the part of all the members of this Association cannot 
 spell but one word, and that word is ''success." There is a 
 right way and a proper way to solve this great question 
 which confronts us, and, gentlemen, this question is going 
 to be solved in some way, either by our ovra uniform ac- 
 tion or by legislative action. It is, therefore, up to this 
 Association as a whole to not deal in personalities but to 
 join together, man to man, in their determination to pre- 
 serve, by ever}' legitimate means which we may possess, 
 the good name and the great dignity with which the Sav- 
 ings Banks have been honored by the people of this State 
 in the years gone by. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT 
 
 The first meeting of the Committee was held at the Van- 
 derbilt, in New York City, on October 14, 191 2, and the 
 Committee organized by electing the President of the 
 Association as Chairman, and Mr. F. B. Stevens as Secre- 
 tary. 
 
 The President was authorized to appoint a Legislative 
 Committee of three, of which he and Mr. Miller should be 
 members. 
 
 Messrs. Miller and Fincke were appointed counsel for
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 553 
 
 the ensuing year, at a compensation of two thousand 
 ($2, OCX)) dollars. 
 
 The Committee adopted a resolution to the effect that 
 it was the sense of the meeting that the Association should 
 support an act or general resolution for the appointment 
 of a commission to revise the Banking Law, so far as it 
 applies to Savings Banks, and directed that the resolution 
 be transmitted to the chairmen of the respective groups, 
 with a request for its immediate consideration by their 
 group. 
 
 The second meeting of the Committee was held at the 
 Dry Dock Savings Institution, in New York City, on 
 January 28, 191 3, at which bills in relation to the removal 
 of Savings Bank trustees, and oaths of trustees, which had 
 been introduced in the Legislature at the suggestion of the 
 Superintendent of Banks, were approved. Various amend- 
 ments and alterations were suggested in bills in relation to 
 branch banks and the merger of Savings Banks, as well as 
 to the bill requiring a reserve fund. It was determined 
 further to refer these bills to a special meeting of the Asso- 
 ciation to be held at Albany. 
 
 During the legislative session just past the following 
 bills affecting Savings Banks were enacted by the Legisla- 
 ture, approved by the Governor, and are now laws of the 
 State : 
 
 Senator Pollock's bill, providing for the removal from 
 office of trustees of a Savings Bank under certain condi- 
 tions, is Chapter 95 of the Laws of 19 13. 
 
 Senator Pollock's biU, requiring all trustees who have 
 not taken oath of office to do so before July ist, and further 
 requiring annual statements from the trustees to the effect 
 that they are still acting, is Chapter 133 of the Laws of 
 
 1913- 
 
 Senator Pollock's bill, making it a felony for any officer, 
 trustee, or employee to abstract or wilfully misapply any 
 of the bank's money or property, or to wilfully misapply 
 its credit, is Chapter 102 of the Laws of 1913. 
 
 Senator Pollock's bill, legalizing for Savings Bank in-
 
 554 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 vestment State bonds issued to refund an obligation 
 which was itself a legal investment, where there has been 
 no default in payment of principal or interest, has become 
 a law. 
 
 The following bills passed both houses of the Legisla- 
 ture and are at present in the hands of the Governor: 
 
 Senator Pollock's bill for the revision of the entire Bank- 
 ing Law by a commission of five (5), to be appointed by 
 the Superintendent of Banks. This bill has now been 
 signed. 
 
 Senator Pollock's bill permitting the Superintendent of 
 Banks to direct a change in bookkeeping methods when 
 the methods in use seem to him unsafe or fail to give him 
 desired information. 
 
 Most of the foregoing bills were somewhat modified at 
 the suggestion of the Association, and have seemed to the 
 Committee to be, on the whole, harmless. 
 
 The following bills failed of passage either in the House 
 or Senate: 
 
 The bill for the merger of Savings Banks; the bill per- 
 mitting branch Savings Banks; Senator Pollock's reserve 
 bill; Senator Herrick's reserve bill; Mr. Wilmott's bill 
 forbidding the use of loose-leaf systems or card systems in 
 Savings Banks, Senator Griffin's bill in regard to the pay- 
 ment of interest to the executors or administrators of a 
 depositor. 
 
 The Executive Committee, in addition to its work in the 
 Legislature, undertook to get Mutual Savings Banks ex- 
 empted from the provisions of the Income Tax Law, in 
 which they had been included, either by inadvertence or 
 design. 
 
 The responses to the telegrams which were sent to all the 
 banks in the State were so effective that the law was im- 
 mediately amended by inserting a provision that it should 
 not apply to "Mutual Savings Banks not having a capital 
 stock represented by shares." 
 
 The total number of bills directly affecting banks re- 
 ceived and carefully examined by your Committee was one
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 555 
 
 hundred and two (102); of these, only those mentioned 
 above appear to be appHcable to Savings Banks. 
 
 H. P. Brewster, Chairman. 
 
 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT MAYNARD 
 
 The President (Mr. Brewster) : Gentlemen, I have the 
 pleasure of presenting to you your new President, Mr. 
 Maynard.^ 
 
 Mr. Maynard, upon assuming the chair, said: 
 
 Gentlemen: To begin with, I would like to say that I 
 am the President of the whole Association. As your Nomi- 
 nating Committee knows, I was not a candidate for the 
 office. They seemed to think that what the Association 
 needed was the services that I could render; therefore I 
 am here at your disposal, to give the best in me for the in- 
 terests of the Savings Banks Association, and for the inter- 
 est of the smallest bank there is in it. While we are part of 
 the same system, our circumstances and conditions differ 
 so that it is exceedingly difficult and almost impossible in 
 matters of legislation to enact something that is going to 
 be for the good of the general system, and stiU at the same 
 time to avoid doing what may seem to be some temporary 
 injury or inconvenience to some one bank. I defy the 
 wisest man that God ever created to do that thing, because 
 it is an impossible situation. 
 
 To tell the truth, gentlemen, when I came here this 
 morning I was a Uttle late, and I did not think that the 
 vote was to be taken on the presidency until after lunch- 
 eon; and I advertently came in here, and I heard a great 
 deal more than I wanted to hear, but I could not get out. 
 Two men next to me were talking about "Maynard." 
 They did not know that I was Maynard until I had to tell 
 them tha t I was; it got to be so hot. Our friend here that 
 
 ^Mr. Maynard resigned the presidency of the Association when he assumed 
 the presidency of the Brooklyn Trust Company, and automatically First 
 Vice-President William Felsinger, of the New York Savings Bank, became 
 President of the Association, and so continued during the balance of the year.
 
 556 fflSTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 I see in front of me got up and asked you what Maynard 
 knew about that Reserve Bill. I did not want to sit still 
 and say nothing; but that did not seem to be the time for 
 me to get up and declare whether I was for or against the 
 Reserve BUI; ever^'body knows that I was for the Reserve 
 Bill, but only because I thought it was for the best in- 
 terests of everybody. That is past and gone. Let us see 
 what we can do for the interest of everybody. That is my 
 job as President of this Association. 
 
 I do not think there is any use in talking any more about 
 that Reserve Bill. We will only hope that the condition 
 of the market will make further discussion of that unneces- 
 sary. 
 
 TRUST ACCOUNTS AGGREGATING MORE THAN $3, COO 
 
 It was moved, seconded, and unanimously carried, that 
 a Committee be appointed with power to consider the deci- 
 sion of the Banking Department in connection with all 
 bank accounts, the Committee to have the power to pros- 
 ecute a case and secure a decision from the Court of Ap- 
 peals if necessary. 
 
 The Committee appointed was constituted as follows: 
 Charles A. Miller, Eugene F. Barnes, George C. Edwards, 
 Marcus T. Hun, and William H. Rose. 
 
 Thus closes the twenty-year period intended to be cov- 
 ered by the present liistory of the Savings Banks Associa- 
 tion of the State of New York. 
 
 It is a record of earnest, unselfish, disinterested labor on 
 the part of some of the best citizens of the State and nation 
 — men who are looked up to in their respective communities 
 as promoters of thrift, virtue, economy, financial stability, 
 and domestic happiness, men worthy to be trusted in every 
 relation of life. It is also the record of a growth as per-
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 557 
 
 manent as it is marvellous, and of achievement as substan- 
 tial as it is brilliant. 
 
 If the next twenty years shall show an equal growth 
 and prosperity, the people of the State of New York will 
 be indeed fortunate.
 
 INTERESTING AND VALUABLE INFORMATION 
 
 PERTAINING TO THE BANKING 
 
 SYSTEM OF NEW YORK 
 
 The following excerpts from the annual report of the 
 Superintendent of Banks of New York, George C. Van 
 Tuyl, Jr., for the year 19 13, transmitted to the Legislature 
 March 13, 19 14, cannot fail to prove of interest to aU con- 
 nected with banking: 
 
 NEW York's commanding position 
 
 The banking power of the United States, including cap- 
 ital, surplus, undivided profits, deposits, exclusive of bank 
 deposits and national bank notes issued as circulation, as 
 computed by the Comptroller of Currency, aggregate 
 $23,181,000,000. 
 
 The banking power of the New York State banks and 
 trust companies aggregates $2, 03 5, 000,000, and the Savings 
 Banks of the State contribute an additional$i, 926,000,000, 
 making New York State's percentage seventeen per cent, 
 of the total for all banks in the United States. 
 
 The total banking capital, including surplus and undi- 
 vided profits of aU banking institutions in this country, 
 approximates $4,448,000,000. This figure includes the 
 aggregate capital, surplus, and undivided profits of Savings 
 Banks in many States where such banks are operated as 
 stock corporations. 
 
 The resources of all banks in the United States aggregate 
 $26,300,000,000, and the resources of the New York State 
 
 5S8
 
 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 559 
 
 banks and trust companies $2,230,000,000, or about eight 
 and a half per cent, of the whole, but again, by adding the 
 figures of the Savings Banks ($1,926,000,000), the total is 
 largely increased to $4,156,000,000, or fifteen and eight 
 tenths per cent., the percentage for New York State. 
 
 Savings deposits in all the banks of the United States 
 are estimated at $6,972,000,000. The aggregate deposits 
 in New York State Savings Banks are $1,741,000,000, so it 
 appears that the Savings Banks of this State have about 
 twenty-five per cent, of the entire savings deposits of the 
 country. The estimated savings deposits in Savings 
 Banks in the United States, including Mutual Savings 
 Banks, and those operated as stock corporations, aggre- 
 gate $4,743,000,000, and on this basis of comparison the 
 aggregate deposits in the Savings Banks of this State are 
 thirty-six and three fourths per cent, of the total for the 
 country. 
 
 The aggregate resources of the Savings Banks of the 
 State of New York on January i, 1914, according to figures 
 contained in the annual report of the Superintendent of 
 Banks, were $1,926,334,331. 
 
 The amount due depositors at the close of the year 19 13 
 was $1,741,697,466. 
 
 The number of open accounts on the same date was 
 
 3,1435444. 
 
 The dividends paid to depositors for the year aggregated 
 $60,611,029. 
 
 The expense per one thousand dollars of assets held in 
 all the Savings Banks of the State was $3.21. 
 
 The average amount of each account was $554.07. 
 
 There are one hundred and forty Savings Banks in the 
 State at the close of the year 19 13, which number has re- 
 mained unchanged for several years past.
 
 56o HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 These facts and figures show at a glance the comm&^nd- 
 ing position of the State of New York in the banking power 
 of the United States. 
 
 BANKING LAW REVISTON 
 
 This record of twenty years of labor and achievement 
 would not be complete without a reference to the revision 
 of the Banking Laws of the State of New York, the most 
 important event in the administration of Superintendent 
 Geo. C. Van Tuyl, Jr., the immediate predecessor of Super- 
 intendent Eugene Lamb Richards. 
 
 .The Commission appointed by the Superintendent of 
 Banks to revise the Banking Law, pursuant to the provi- 
 sions of Chapter 705 of the Laws of 19 13, as amended by 
 Chapter 3, Laws of 19 14, made its report to the Legisla- 
 ture on February 26, 19 14. This report was in the form 
 of a bill containing new Chapter 2 of the Consolidated 
 Laws, embodying a Banking Law adapted to present busi- 
 ness conditions, expressed in clear, concise language, and 
 very carefully drawn, which the Legislature at once passed 
 and the Governor signed. 
 
 The Commission appointed by Superintendent George 
 C. Van Tuyl, Jr., was constituted as follows: 
 
 A. Barton Hepburn, President Chase National Bank, 
 New York, Chairman; Frank M. Patterson, Attorney, 
 New York, Vice-chairman; Charles L. Bernheim, mer- 
 chant, New York City; Louis Goldstein, Assistant District 
 Attorney, Kings County, Brooklyn; John H. Gregory, Vice- 
 President Central Bank, Rochester; Frank E. Howe, Presi- 
 dent Manufacturers' National Bank, Troy; Joseph French 
 Johnson, a member of the faculty of New York University; 
 Herbert H. Lehman, private banker. New York City;
 
 ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 561 
 
 Randall J. LeBoeuf, former Judge of the Supreme Court, 
 Albany; Elliott C. McDougall, President Bank of Buffalo; 
 Edwin P. Maynard, President Brooklyn Trust Company; 
 Jeremiah T. Mahoney, Judge, New York City; Charles A. 
 Miller, President Savings Bank of Utica; John J. Pulleyn, 
 Comptroller Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, New 
 York City; John Harsen Rhoades, Trustee Greenwich Sav- 
 ings Bank, New York City ; Leopold Stern, merchant. New 
 York City. 
 
 The secretary of the Commission was Edwin F. Rore- 
 beck, and the counsel were John DeWitt Warner and 
 George W. Morgan, both of New York City, and George 
 I. Skinner, the latter gentleman, since March i, 1897, 
 First Deputy Superintendent of Banks, being able to serve 
 the Commission through a leave of absence granted him 
 for that purpose by the Superintendent of Banks. It is no 
 exaggeration to say that Mr. Skinner's assistance was in- 
 valuable to the Cormnission. Upon the completion of his 
 labors he returned to his original duties as Deputy Super- 
 intendent of Banks. 
 
 Vice-chairman Patterson served the Commission with 
 great acceptability, devoting all his abundant energies to 
 the difficult and delicate task that confronted the board. 
 
 The members of the Commission were representative of 
 the various classes of bankers and banking institutions in 
 this State, of business and commercial interests, and in- 
 cluded attorneys with special banking experience and 
 technical knowledge of Banking Law. The Commission 
 was divided into various Committees with special duties, 
 and repeated hearings were given to the various interests 
 affected by the proposed changes in the statute ; in addi- 
 tion to this, in order to give the widest possible publicity 
 to the proposed changes and reforms, and to invite
 
 562 HISTORY OF THE SAVINGS BANKS 
 
 helpful criticisms, redrafts of the different articles of the 
 Banking Law were from time to time submitted to the rep- 
 resentatives of these interests. As to arrangement, the 
 Commission sought to make each of the articles of the 
 Banking Law complete in itself and to define terms when- 
 ever definition was deemed necessary to a complete and 
 accurate understanding of the language used. 
 
 The work of the Commission was somewhat retarded 
 by the repeated postponements in Congress of action upon 
 the present Federal Reserve Act, in view of the necessity 
 of conforming the provisions of the State law to it, in order 
 to create a harmonious and sound financial system. 
 
 As to the completed work of the Commission, it seems to 
 be the consensus of opinion among banking men and ex- 
 perts that the new Consolidated Law is a model of its kind, 
 one under which the State's financial interests will be con- 
 served and safeguarded, and at the same time room be left 
 for all legitimate expansion.
 
 APPENDIX
 
 LIST OF 
 SAVINGS BANKS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 ARRANGED IN THE ORDER OF THEIR INCORPORATION 
 
 Together with the Original Incorporators of Each Bank Specially 
 Chartered up to the Passage of the General Act of i8/j. 
 
 HEREWITH is given a list of the Savings Banks in the State 
 of New York on the first day of January, 1914, arranged in 
 the order of their incorporation, together with a Hst of the 
 original incorporators of each, up to the passage of the General 
 Incorporation Act, iniSys, after which time the Legislature was for- 
 bidden by the revised Constitution to pass special acts of incorpora- 
 tion. It has been thought that such a list will be found valuable for 
 purposes of reference. The data have been obtained at first hand 
 from the Session Laws of the State of New York containing the 
 original acts of incorporation. No one can look over this list, even 
 casually, without being struck by the high character of the men 
 whose names appear among the hsts. Almost at random one comes 
 across such as William Bayard, Brockholst Livingston, Chauncey 
 M. Depew, Hamilton Fish, Isaac Newton, and John C. Beekman, 
 in New York; Millard Fillmore and Dean Richmond, in Buffalo; 
 Samuel Blatchford, in Auburn; Matthew Vassar, in Poughkeepsie; 
 Washington Irving, in Tarry town; Ezra Cornell, Ithaca; Joseph 
 C. Yates, in Schenectady; Esaias Warren, in Troy; Harmon Pum- 
 pelly and Abraham Lansing, in Cohoes; Harmanus Bleecker, 
 Charles R. Webster, Jesse Buel, Volckert P. Douw, Erastus Corn- 
 ing, John V. L. Pruyn, William L. Marcy, Thomas W. Olcott, and 
 Ira Harris, in Albany. 
 
 For fully half a century, a large part of the time and attention of 
 the Legislature was occupied with the consideration of these special 
 
 565
 
 566 APPENDIX 
 
 charters and the subsequent amendment of the same, not only for 
 banks of discount and savings, but in all fields of business enterprise. 
 
 An act of the Legislature, as far back as 1782, prohibited any other 
 bank within the limits of the State than the Bank of North America. 
 But the Legislature subsequently chartered State banks from time 
 to time. In 1829 the Safety Fund was created and the appoint- 
 ment of three bank commissioners provided for. The commis- 
 sioners visited the banks of the State, examined into their condition, 
 and reported the results of their investigations to the Legislature 
 each year. The appointment of a fourth commissioner was author- 
 ized in 1840, and the banks of discount organized under the general 
 law were placed imder the supervision of the banking commissioners. 
 
 The office was aboUshed in 1843 ^-nd the banks required to report 
 to the Comptroller. 
 
 The number of trustees designated in the acts of incorporation 
 was not uniform, varying from nine to as many as forty-three. 
 Neither was there any uniformity concerning reports of operations. 
 Many of the charters required annual reports to the Legislature, 
 while others required none at all. Some also required annual 
 reports to be made to the Common Council of the city in which 
 the bank was located. By the General Act of 1857, Savings Banks 
 were required to report semi-annually, on the first days of January 
 and July, to the Superintendent of Banks. Usually the charters of 
 the respective banks provided that the books should be open to the 
 inspection of the Comptroller of the State, or such other persons as 
 he or the Legislature might designate, but as no duty was imposed 
 upon anybody, nothing appears to have been done. 
 
 There was no Savings Bank Law in the State of New York, aside 
 from the charters of the several banks incorporated, until the year 
 1851, when an Act was passed to organize a Bank Department 
 (Chapter 164, Laws of 1851). Under the provisions of this Act a 
 Superintendent was appointed for the period of three years, who 
 was to receive a salary of $2,500 a year. It was provided in the law 
 that all the expenses of administration were to be paid by the incor- 
 porated banks. The Constitution of 1846 had forbidden the special 
 chartering of Banks of Discount, though not of Savings Banks, and 
 for many years thereafter the latter continued to be specially incor- 
 porated.
 
 APPENDIX 567 
 
 These charters were usually granted in perpetuity, subject, of 
 course, to repeal or modification. In many cases special privileges 
 — some of them of doubtful propriety — had been granted, which 
 they desired to retain, while others, quite as naturally, wished to 
 obtain for themselves the same or still greater powers and immuni- 
 ties. Thus, much jealousy was engendered among the banks, and 
 the hectored legislators naturally became cautious, not to say sus- 
 picious, as to all of them. In a general way the powers of the banks 
 were regulated, but within certain limitations the trustees were per- 
 mitted great freedom of action and management. 
 
 In the year 1869, by reason of the steady increase in the number 
 of applications for special charters, a law was passed (Chapter 213, 
 Laws of 1869) to regulate and restrict the organization of institu- 
 tions for savings. This Act required all persons desirous of organ- 
 izing such banks to set forth a statement for the information of the 
 Superintendent of Banks and to obtain his approval of the proposed 
 charter before submitting it to the Legislature for passage. 
 
 In the year 1874 an amendment of the Constitution of New York 
 was adopted by vote of the people, directing the Legislature to enact 
 a general law for the incorporation of Savings Banks, and forbidding 
 the passage of special acts. Thus the year 1875 is notable for the 
 passage of a law which not only relieved the Legislature from an em- 
 barrassing position, but standardized the Savings Banks of the 
 State. The General Act repealed all provisions of special Acts that 
 were inconsistent with the General Act, thus adding vastly to the 
 financial stability of the banks, as well as to the facility of supervi- 
 sion and inspection. 
 
 The Act of 1875, undoubtedly one of the wisest and most compre- 
 hensive bank laws to be found on the statute books of any State, 
 properly may be regarded as the foundation of all subsequent legis- 
 lation on the subject, a fact sufficiently attested by the frequent use 
 of it as a model in numerous other States. 
 
 1819 
 BANK FOR SAVINGS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered March 26, i8ig (Chap. 62, L. 1819). (Act petitioned for by the 
 Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, in the City of New York.) Original in- 
 corporators named in the Act: Geo. Arcularius, Wm. Bayard, Noah Brown, 
 Thomas Buckley, Cadwalader D. Colden, Duncan P. Campbell, Francis Cooper, 
 James Eastbum, Henry Eckford, Thomas Eddy, WilUam Few, Philip Hone.John
 
 568 APPENDIX 
 
 E. Hyde, Peter A. Jay, Brockholst Livingston, Zachariah Lewis. John Murray, 
 Jr., Dennis McCarthy, Andrew Morris, James Palmer. John Pintard, Abraham 
 Russell, Jacob Sherred, Joseph Smith, Najah Taylor, Jeremiah Thompson, Wil- 
 liam Wilson, Samuel Wood. William Bayard was the first President; died in 
 oflBce in 1826. 
 
 1820 
 ALBANY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 24, 1820 (Chap. 100, L. 1820) , on the petition of Wm. James, 
 Charles R. Webster, Jesse Buel, John Townsend, and Joseph Alexander. Origi- 
 nal incorporators: Stephen Van Rensselaer, Wm. James, Joseph Alexander, 
 John Townsend, Charles R. Webster, Jesse Buel, Thomas Russell, Volkert P. 
 Douw, John W. Yates, Wm. Durant, Douw Fonda, Simeon De Witt, Peter Boyd, 
 John Spencer, John L. Winne, Wm. McHarg, Matthew Gill, Harmanus Bleecker, 
 and Silvanus P. Jermain. 
 
 1823 
 TROY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 23, 1823 (Chap. 232, L. 1823), on the petition of Esaias War- 
 ren, Richard P. Hart, Nathan Warren, William Smith, James Van Schoonhoven, 
 and Joseph Russell. Original incorporators: Esaias W^arren, Richard P. Hart, 
 Nathan Warren, Wm. Smith, James Van Schoonhoven, Joseph Russell, Derick 
 Lane, Gurdon Corning, David Buel, Jr., Piatt Titus, and Thaddeus Mead. 
 
 1827 
 BROOKLYN SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 7, 1827 (Chap. 77, L. 1827). Original incorporators; David 
 Anderson, Robert Bache, James B. Clark, Andrew Demarest, Charles I. 
 Doughty, Thomas Everitt, Jr., James Engle, Augustus Graham, Andrew Mercein, 
 Hezekiah B. Pierpoint, Peter W. Radcliff, Eleakim Raymond, Robert Snow, 
 Joshua Sands, Clarence D. Sackett, Jeffry Smith, Alden Spooner, Fanning C. 
 Tucker, Adam Tredwell, Peter Turner, Abraham Vanderveer, Losee Van Nos- 
 trand, Adrian Van Sinderin, Henry Waring, and Richard Wells. 
 
 1829 
 SEAMEN'S BANK FOR SAVINGS, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered January 31, 1829 (Chap. 17, L. 1829). Original incorporators: 
 Najah Taylor, Rufus Davenport, Silas Holmes, Lockwood De Forest, Peletiah 
 Perit, Peter Remsen, Reuben Brumley, Gurdon Buck, Benjamin Clark, Hubert 
 Van Wagenen, Brittain L. Woolley, Geo. T. Trimble, Gould Hoyt, Benjamin L. 
 Swan, Anson G. Phelps, John R. Hurd, Benjamin Strong, George Douglass, 
 James Lovitt, Jeromus Johnson, Oliver H. Hicks, John Pintard, and Horace 
 Holden. 
 
 183 1 
 POUGHKEEPSIE SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 16, 1831 (Chap. 134, L. 1831). Original incorporators: Wm. 
 Davies, James Emott, James Hooker, Frederick Barnard, Matthew Vassar, 
 Teunis Van Kieeck, Thomas W. Tallmadge, Nehemiah Conklin, Griffin William- 
 son, Henry A. Livingston, and Stephen Armstrong.
 
 APPENDIX 569 
 
 1831 
 ROCHESTER SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 21, 1831 (Chap. 207, L. 1831). Original incorporators: Levy 
 Ward, Jr., Jacob Graves, Everard Peck, Wm. S. Whittlesey, David Scoville, 
 Edward R. Everest, Willis Kempshall, Jonathan Child, Ezra M. Parsons, Ash- 
 bell W. Riley, Albemarle H. Washburn, Joseph Medbury, Lyman B. Lang- 
 worthy, Elihu F. Marshall, and Harvey Frink. 
 
 [Rochester, at this time, was a village of about 11,000 inhabitants. There 
 were no railroads, but the Erie Canal, then regarded as a magnificent commercial 
 enterprise, had been completed six years previously. Canal packets and stages 
 performed the work now done by the railroads. Rochester was the wheat market 
 for the entire Genesee Valley. Nearly 300,000 barrels of flour were milled in the 
 year 1 83 1 . One daily paper, the A dvertiser, was published.] 
 
 1833 
 GREENWICH SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 24, 1833 (Chap. 215, L. 1833). Original incorporators: James 
 N. Wells, Geo. Suckley, Charles Oakley, Stuart F. Randolf, John R. Satterlees, 
 Wm. L. Morris, James B. Murray, Samuel Whittemore, Michael Van Beuren, 
 John De Lamater, Robert Halliday, John Groshon, Washington W. Rodman, 
 Timothy Whittemore, Floyd Smith, Joseph Tucker, Thomas Gumming, D. A. 
 Cushman, Joseph W. Beadel, John Milderberger, Nathaniel Jarvis, John Bolton, 
 David Vandervoort, John Rogers, George Riblet, Gideon Lee, Abraham Van 
 Nest, George P, Rogers, Wm. C. Rhinelander, and Thomas I. Stevens. 
 
 1834 
 SCHENECTADY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 29, 1834 (Chap. 205, L. 1834). Original incorporators: Joseph 
 C. Yates, Archibald Craig, Harmanus Peek, Thomas Palmer, Ephraim Benedict, 
 Wm. Cimingham, Alonzo C. Page, Harvey Davis, Wm. A. S. North, Archibald 
 Campbell, George McQueen, John Pangburn, and Cornelius C. Van Vranken. 
 
 1834 
 BOWERY SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered May i, 1834 (Chap. 229, L. 1834). Original incorporators: Benja- 
 min M. Brown, Anson G. Phelps, David Cotheal, E. H. Warner, Wm. Hibbard, 
 Peter G. Stuyvesant, Jacob Aims, Thomas Jeremiah, James Mills, Andrew C. 
 Wheeler, Francis Fickett, Reuben Munson, Hamilton Fish, Wm. E. Craft, John 
 Wood, Frederick R. Lee, Chas. Dusenberry, Gideon Ostrander, Peter Coutant, 
 Caleb Bartlett, Joseph R. Taylor, Isaac L. Varian, Jacob P. Bunting, Wm. C. 
 Wales, Robert M. Hartley, Wm. Lee, Henry C. Sperry, Nicholas Schureman, 
 Lambert Suydam, Geo. C. Thomas, E. D. Comstock, Samuel J. Willis, Peter 
 Gassner, Peter Pinckney, Jobez Lovett, Samuel Andreas, Wm. J. McNeven 
 John O'Neal, Smith Ovutt, and Luke Usher. 
 
 [The building was to be located in the Bowery, north of Grand Street.] 
 
 1839 
 SAVINGS BANK OF UTICA 
 
 Chartered April 26, 1839 (Chap. 242, L. 1839). Original incorporators: 
 Thomas Walker, John C. Devereux, Samuel Stocking, Joseph Kirkland, S. D. 
 Childs, Stalham Williams, John Savage, Thomas H. Hubbard, John H. Ostrom,
 
 570 APPENDIX 
 
 Hiram Denio, Charles P. Kirkland, James McGregor, J. M. Church, William 
 Francis, and N. Devereux. 
 
 1846 
 
 BUFFALO SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered May 9, 1846 (Chap. 176, L. 1846). Original incorporators: Albert 
 H. Tracy, Millard Fillmore, John L. Kimberly, Noah H. Gardner, Francis J. Han- 
 del, Frederick Dellenbaugh, Jacob Seibold, Elijah D. Efnor, Russell H. Hey wood, 
 Warren Bryant, Daniel Bowen, Isaac Sherman, WiUiam Tweedy, Hiram P. 
 Thayer, Benjamin Caryl, Charles Townsend, Francis C. Brunk, and Ernst G. Grey. 
 
 [The amount of the deposits was limited in the charter to $750,000.] 
 
 EAST RIVER SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 11, 1848 (Chap. 256, L. 1848). Original incorporators: John 
 C. Beekman, Curtis Peck, Dow D. Williamson, Alexander C. Poillon, Moses 
 Smith, John Harper, Daniel H. Brooks, James R. Wood, Richard L. Schief- 
 felin, Benjamin Drake, Robert L. Case, John Leveridge, Geo. M. Clearman, 
 Eiias G. Drake, Henry P. Havens, Thomas Williams, Jr., Daniel Holt, Edward 
 J. Midgely, James A. WiUiamson, James Appleby, John W. Avery, Henry 
 Dougherty, Geo. B. Whitfield, Robert Bilsborrow, James V. Rich, Lawrence M. 
 Luther, Gardner Sherman, and James R. Rapelye. 
 
 1848 
 UNION SQUARE SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Incorporated as "The Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks," 
 April 12, 1848 (Chap. 324, L. 1848), under the auspices of the New York Chamber 
 of Commerce and the Mercantile Librarj'. Original incorporators: Moses H. 
 Grinnell, James G. King, James DePeyster Ogden, Prosper M. Wetmore, Mat- 
 thew Maury, Townsend Harris, Thomas W. Groser, Isaac H. Bailey, W. A. Kis- 
 sam, John J. Palmer, and Wm. H. Macy. 
 
 [Began business in Beekman Street.] 
 
 1848 
 DRY DOCK SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 12, 1848 (Chap. 368, L. 1848). Original incorporators: Daniel 
 W. Townsend, Barney Hannegan, Geo. S. Mann, Charles Curtis, Jabez Williams, 
 Jacob Miller, John Briested, Theodosius Secor, Amos F. Hatfield, Robert M. 
 Stratton, Thomas B. Stillman, Robert J. Whittemore, John Dimon, Isaac New- 
 ton, and Isaac Shaurman. 
 
 1849 
 
 AUBURN SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 12, 1849 (Chap. 92, L. 1849). Original incorporators: Cyrus 
 C. Dennis, Samuel Blatchford, Nelson Beardsley, Sylvester Willard, Charles B. 
 Perry, Spencer Parsons, John L. Watrous, Thomas Y. How, Jr., William Beach, 
 Daniel Hewson, Josiah N. Starin, James C. Derby, and John Olmsted. 
 
 1849 
 SYRACUSE SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 30, 1849 (Chap. 179, L. 1849). Original incorporators: 
 Harvey Baldwin, Moses D. Burnett, James L>Tich, George Gaul, John D. Bur-
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 571 
 
 nett, Johnson Hall, Harvey Rhoades, Philander W. Forbes, John B. Wickes, Wm. 
 W. Teall, Thomas B. Fitch, Thomas T. Davis, James G. Tracy, Elias W. Leaven- 
 worth, George F. Comstock, Harvey Gifford, Thomas Bennett, and William 
 Clarke 
 
 1850 
 ALBANY CITY SAVINGS INSTITUTION 
 
 Chartered March 29, 1850 (Chap. 119, L. 1850). Original incorporators: John 
 Taylor, Lansing Pru3ai, James Kidd, Erastus Coming, James McNaughton, 
 John V. L. Pruyn, Wm. Humphrey, Watts Sherman, John T. Norton, James 
 Gould, Samuel Pruyn, Henry H. Martin, James Maher, John Knower, John 
 McKnight, Wm. Boardman, John G. White, EUis Baker, Christopher W. Bender, 
 and Thomas Noonan. 
 
 1850 
 HUDSON CITY SAVINGS INSTITUTION 
 
 Chartered April 4, 1850 (Chap. 145, L. 1850). Original incorporators: Olivet 
 Bronson, Robert A. Barnard, Geo. E. Seymour, Mathew Mitchell, Josiah W. 
 Fairfield, Peter Van Duesen, Charles Paul, Alexander C. Mitchell, Peter Hoff- 
 man, John Bennett, James Clark, Theodore Miller, and George H. Power. 
 
 1850 
 MONROE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, ROCHESTER 
 
 Chartered April 8, 1850 (Chap. 228, L. 1850). Original incorporators: Levi 
 A. Ward, Everard Peck, Freeman Clarke, Nehemiah Osbom, Ephraim Moore, 
 David R. Barton, Geo. W. Parsons, Wm. W. Ely, Wm. N. Sage, Alvah Strongj 
 Martin Briggs, Thomas Hanvey, Lewis Selye, Moses Chapin, Ebenezer Ely, 
 Daniel E. Lewis, Anson Bronson, Joel P. Milliner, Chas. W. Dundas, John El- 
 wanger, and Theodore B. Hamilton. 
 
 1850 
 MANHATTAN SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 10, 1850 (Chap. 284. L. 1850). Original incorporators: the 
 Mayor and Comptroller of the City of New York, Caleb S. Woodhull, Edwin J. 
 Brown, Silas C. Herring, Eleazer Parmly, Nathaniel G. Bradford, Wm. A. Mead, 
 James Van Norden, Wm. J. Valentine, Jacob B. Herrick, John S. Harris, Jonas 
 F. Concklin, Lewis Beach, Edmund K. Bussing, John S. Williams, Alonzo A. 
 Alvord, Ambrose C. Kingsland, Enoch Dean, Jay Jarvis, Geo. Hastings, Jacob 
 Miller, Denton Pearsall, James Harper, Daniel Burnett, D. Austin Muir, Daniel 
 Kingsland, James C. Baldwin, John P. Ware, Thomas W. Dick, Lewis B. Loder, 
 Luther C. Carter, Henry Stokes, Gilbert Cleland, and Charles Pitt. 
 
 1850 
 EMIGRANT INDUSTRIAL SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 10, 1850 (Chap. 290, L. 1850). Original incorporators: Greg- 
 ory Dillon, Robert B. Mintum, Joseph Stuart, Wm. Watson, Terence Donelly, 
 John Nicholson, Felix Ingoldsby, Andrew Carrigan, Peter A. Hargous, James 
 Kerrigan, John Milhan, John Manning, James Mathews, Hugh Kelly, John 
 McMenomy, Wm. Redwood, John P. Nesmith, and Fanning C. Tucker.
 
 572 APPENDIX 
 
 1850 
 SOUTH BROOKLYN SAVINGS INSTITUTION, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 10, 1850 (Chap. 299, L. 1850). Original incorporators: David 
 B. Baylis, Ira Smith, Gassner B. Lamar, Nicholas E. Luquere, Edward Dun- 
 ham, Isaac A. Storms, Wm. Spencer, John D. Cocks, James W. Pinkney, Geo. A. 
 Jervis, Edmund Fish, Peter R. Anderson, John C. Riker, Francis B. Stryker, 
 Tunis G. Bergen, Geo. Fletcher, Richard Whipple, Edward A. Lambert, John N. 
 Taylor, Arthur W. Benson, James S. T. Stranahan, Rollin Sanford, Wm. Powers, 
 John Skillman, John C. Smith, and Anthony F. Ostrom. 
 
 1851 
 WILLIAMSBURGH SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 9, 1851 (Chap. 109, L. 1851). Original incorporators: Tim- 
 othy Coffin, Geo. Ricard, Wm. Wall, Edmund Driggs, John B. Wells, Jonathan 
 S. Burr, Henry P. Freemen, Nathaniel Briggs, John S. Trctt, Jr., Richard Lake, 
 Henry Oltmans, Gerhardus L: Demarest, Richard Ten Eyck, Chas. W. Hough- 
 ton, Isaac Henderson, Samuel M. Meeker, Downing W. Graves, and Wm. M. 
 McCutchen. 
 
 1851 
 
 COHOES SAVINGS INSTITUTION 
 
 Chartered April 11, 1851 (Chap. 138, L. 1851). Original incorporators: Chas. 
 A. Olmsted, Truman G. Younglove, Egbert Egberts, Hugh White, Daniel Sim- 
 mons, Isaac D. F. Lansing, Henry D. Fuller, Wm. F. Carter, Abraham Lansing, 
 Joshua Bailey, Wm. N. Chadwick, Edward E. Kendrick, Teunis Van Vechten, 
 Andrew D. Lansing, Harmon Pumpelly, Wm. Burton, Joshua R. Clark, Jere- 
 miah Clute, and Miles White. 
 
 1851 
 
 ULSTER COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, KINGSTON 
 
 Chartered April 12, 1851 (Chap. 152, L. 1851). Original incorporators: Cor- 
 nelius Bruyn, Jonathan H. Hasbrouck, Wm. Reynolds, Maurice Wurts, Thomas 
 Cornell, Henry H. Reynolds, Alvan B. Preston, Geo. A. Dudley, Gilbert Dubois, 
 Aaron B. Dewitt, Wm. Burtt, Edmund Ettinge, Edwin Boddington, Archibald 
 Russell, ComeUus Battelle, James W. Baldwin, Caleb S. Clay, Wm. S. Kenyon, 
 Geo. P. Sharp, Benjamin F. Vallet, and Nicholas Elmendorf. 
 
 1851 
 BROADWAY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered June 20, 1851 (Chap. 245, L. 1851). Original incorporators: Jacob 
 A. Westervelt, Schureman Halstead, David A. Wood, Robert Nunns, John 
 Falconer, Francis P. Schoals, Silas C. Herring, Helmus M. Wells, Wilson G. 
 Hunt, Francis W. Edmonds, Francis A. Palmer, Benjamin F. Camp, John 
 Harper, John R. Laurence, John T. Fisher, Leonard Kirby, James S. Libby, 
 Lemuel Bangs, M. Hopper Mott, Peter Morris, Wade B. Worrall, John B. Cor- 
 nell, and Cornelius L. Everitt. 
 
 1851 
 
 ROME SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered June 30, 1851 (Chap. 324, L. 185 1). Original incorporators: Har- 
 vey Brayton, Seth Miller, Russel Fuller, Squire Utley, Lewis Rider, James S. 
 Whaley, Andrew C. Bettis, Eri Seymour, Merit Brooks, Calvert Comstock, Nel- 
 son J. Beach, Robert B. Doxtater, and Bloomfield J. Beach.
 
 APPENDIX 573 
 
 1851 
 IRVING SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered July i, 1851 (Chap. 370, L. 1851). Original incorporators: Caleb 
 S. WoodhuU, J. Phillips Phoenix, Edgar H. Laing, Henry R. Conkhn, Wm. Rad- 
 ford, Abram Wakeman, Alexander H. Schultz, Vanderbelt L. Buxton, David B. 
 Moses, Wm. S. Gregory, John Anderson, Reuben R. Wood, Henry I. Hart, E. 
 Tilden' Blodgett, Mason Thomson, Thomas Carnley, Wm. A. M. PuUis, Alex- 
 ander McKenzie, Warren Chapman, Henry J. Allen, Charles Jenkins, Geo. H. 
 Bell, David Morrison, Edmund Griffin, Wm. Flagg, Abraham Fraze, Horatio 
 N. Ferris, Richard F. Carman, and John Romer. 
 
 1851 
 WESTERN SAVINGS BANK, BUFFALO 
 
 Chartered July 9, 1851 (Chap. 469, L. 1851). Original incorporators: Heman 
 
 B. Potter, Gaius B. Rich, Harry Thompson, Geo. Palmer, Israel T. Hatch, Seth 
 
 C. Hawley, George C. White, Dean Richmond, Elijah Ford, Wm. O. Brown, 
 Henry K. Smith, Phihp Beyer, Rufus C. Palmer, Francis H. Tows, James 
 Hollister, George W. Tifft, Nelson K. Hopkins, Lewis L. Hodges, John R. Lee, 
 Henry Martin, and Lucius H. Pratt. 
 
 1852 
 NEWBURGH SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 13, 1852 (Chap. 252, L. 1852). Original incorporators: E. 
 Ward Farrington, John J. Monell, Chas. U. Cushman, Robert L. Case, Robert 
 A. Forsyth, Richard A. Southwick, Odell S. Hathaway, Gilbert C. Monell, David 
 H. Barclay, Adam Lilbum, Samuel W. Eagar, Comehus C. Smith, Robert Ster- 
 ling, Robert D. Kemp, Chas. Drake, David Moore, John H. Waters, James I. 
 Crawford, James Patten, Wm. K. Mailler, Benjamin Carpenter, and T. M. 
 Nevin. 
 
 1852 
 
 METROPOLITAN SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 Incorporated April 16, 1852 (Chap. 371, L. 1852), under the name of the Mar- 
 iners' Savings Institution in the City of New York; name changed February 8, 
 1865, to the Pacific Savings Bank (though never used), and finally changed to the 
 Metropolitan Savings Bank, New York City, April 28, 1865. Original incor- 
 porators: Peter H. Schenck, Adonijah J. Underbill, Russell Dart, Philip W. 
 Engs, John Y. Cebra, Hugh Munro, Samuel Leeds, Charles Miles, Francis H. 
 Abbott, Edward Bridge, Isaac T. Smith, Comehus W. Thomas, Francis B. 
 O'Connor, James O. Fish, Joseph Jamison, Charles L. Vose, Samuel B. Ashbey, 
 James W. Elwell, Wm. H. Hazard, Nathaniel L. McCready, Stephen Gregory, 
 James J. Nesmith, and Nathaniel L. James. 
 
 i8S3 
 WESTCHESTER COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, TARRYTOWN 
 
 Chartered July 21, 1853 (Chap. 591, L. 1853). Original incorporators: Na- 
 thaniel B. Holmes, John Thomas, Elijah Yerks, James W. Smith, Henry Sheldon, 
 Geo. H. Swords, Chas. F. Harrison, James Watson Webb, Jacob Storm, Loyal 
 S. Pond, Nathaniel Bayles, Bela S. Squires, Uriah Field, Josiah Q. Fowler, An- 
 drew D. Archer, Sanford Cobb, Jr., G. D. Morgan, Washington Irving, Edmund 
 Coffin, Shadrick Taylor, Cornelius W. Thomas, Elisha Horton, and Samuel C. 
 Nichols.
 
 574 APPENDIX 
 
 1854 
 BANK FOR SAVINGS, OSSINING 
 
 Chartered March 9, 1854, as the Sing Sing Savings Bank (Chap. 55, L. 1854). 
 Original incorporators: Benjamin Brandreth, Aaron Ward, William Fail, M. 
 Churchill, Benj. Moore, Stephen Todd, Rufus L. Todd, David Ludlam, Jr., 
 Joseph Hunt, James W. Robinson, G. H. Brandreth, and C. F. Maurice. 
 
 1854 
 ERIE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 10, 1854 (Chap. 187, L. 1854). Original incorporators: Henry 
 Roop, Samuel J. Holley, Stephen W. Howell, Richard Bullymore, Chandler J. 
 Wells, Hiram Barton, Abraham D. A. Miller, Wm. C. Sherwood, William Wilke- 
 son, Noah P. Sprague, James Hollister, Stephen V. R. Watson, James Wads- 
 worth, Noah H. Gardner, Wm. Fiske, Gibson T. WilHams, Myron P. Bush, 
 Bradford A. Manchester, James C. Harrison, and John R. Evans. 
 
 1854 
 YONKERS SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 13, 1854 (Chap. 2x4, L. 1854). Original incorporators: Ethan 
 Flagg, Robert P. Getty, John H. Williams, Wm. Radford, Thos. O. Farrington, 
 Horatio P. Prall, JohnT. Waring, Edward W. Candee, Henry W. Bashford, Lem- 
 uel W. Wells, Samuel D. Rockwell, Wm. L. Atwater, Wm. N. Seymour, Bailey 
 Hobbs, Duncan Macfarlane, Charles Archer, Henry F. Devoe, Geo. Gilro}', 
 Amos W. Gates, James C. Bell, James L. Valentine, Joseph S. Hawkins, Wm. G. 
 Ackerman, John Olmsted, Robert Grant, Wm. W. Scrugham, Jonathan Odell, 
 Benjamin Brown, Fielding S. Grant, Joseph H. Jennings, Geo. H. Bell, Frederick 
 A. Coe, Samuel S. Bairj', John Stilwell, James Scrymser, Josiah Rich, Edward 
 F. Shounard, Henry A. Underwood, Lawrence Post, Jr., Jacob Read, and Cor- 
 nelius M. Odell. 
 
 1854 
 
 NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Originally incorporated (as the Rose Hill Savings Bank) April 17, 1854 (Chap. 
 394, L. 1854). Original incorporators: Samuel Perry, James R. Keeler, Barrett 
 H. Van Auken, Wm. H. Piatt, Alexander H. Freeman, Peter Y. Cutler, E. S. 
 Brown, Alexander M. Lawrence, Wm. Good, Thomas Gumming, Jr., Robt. H. 
 Gregory, John Sparks, John W. Conklin, Wm. A. Keeler, George Hencken, Geo. 
 C. Baker, and Thomas S. Negus. 
 
 1855 
 ONONDAGA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, SYRACUSE 
 
 Chartered April 10, 1855 (Chap. 259, L. 1855). Original incorporators: Allen 
 Munroe, James L. Bagg, Robt. G. Wynkoop, Geo. Barnes, Perry Burdic, James 
 Foran, John W. Barker, Daniel P. Wood, Wm. E. Abbott, Harlow W. Chitten- 
 den, Isaac H. Bronner, Chas. F. Williston, Edward S. Dawson, John Yorkey, 
 Levi W. Hall, Cornelius L. Alvord, and John Fitzgerald. 
 
 1855 
 MECHANICS' AND FARMERS' SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 Chartered April 12, 1855 (Chap. 379, L. 1855). Original incorporators: 
 Thomas W. Olcott, Wm. L. Marcy, Wm. 11. DeWitt, Alden March, Thomas 
 Olcott, Alanson Sumner, Theo. F. Humphrey, Ira Harris, John F. Rathbone, 
 John N. Wilder, and William Kent.
 
 APPENDIX S7S 
 
 1856 
 ALBANY EXCHANGE SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 18,1856. Original incorporators : Chauncey P. Williams, Will- 
 iam Gould, Wm. McElroy, Samuel Pruyn, James McNaughton, Wra. G. Thomas, 
 John S. Perry, Alonzo Bruce, Lansing Merchant, Samuel Anable, Charles E. 
 Gifford, Christopher N. Bender, Charles L. Austin, James A. Gray, Thomas W. 
 Newcombe, Joseph M. Lovett, Sibboleth B. McCoy, John Stuart, Gaius M. Blod- 
 gett, and Isaac A. Chapman. 
 
 1857 
 FISHKILL SAVINGS INSTITUTION 
 
 Chartered February 25, 1857 (Chap. 52, L. 1857). Original incorporators: 
 Jireh Steams, Peter McKinlay, John Jaycox, Zachariah V. Hasbrouck, Guernsey 
 Smith, Charles Dubois, Joseph Cromwell, Jr., John Rothery, Adolphus Van De- 
 water, Charles Cook, Joseph I. Jackson, John H. Rosa, Samuel H. Mead, Lewis 
 H. White, Halsey F. Wolcott, Richard H. Brinckerhoff, Samuel A. Hayt, Coert 
 A. Van Voorhis, John V. Storm, Alexander Hasbrouck, Wm. H. Wells, Henry D. 
 Sherwood, Geo. F. Sherman, T. Van Wyck Brinckerhoff, James E. Van Steen- 
 burgh, James Mackin, and Theo. R. Wetmore. 
 
 SOUTHOLD SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 7, 1858 (Chap. 118, L. 1858). Original incorporators: Moses 
 C. Cleveland, Wm. H. Wells, John S. Howell, Joseph H. Goldsmith, Rensselaer 
 T. Goldsmith, James E. Horton, Ezra L. Goldsmith, Nathaniel Corwin, Henry 
 Hutting, Albert Albertson, Franklin H. Overton, Alvah S. Mulford, David L. 
 Horton, Hutchinson H. Case, Therm B. Worth, Henry H. Terry, Israel Peck, 
 Ira B. Tuthill, Henry Pike, Thomas J. Conklin, and Jeremiah Goldsmith. 
 
 1859 
 OSWEGO CITY SAVINGS BANK, OSWEGO 
 
 Chartered March 4, 1859 (Chap. 28, L. 1859). Original incorporators: Wm. H. 
 Herrick, StephenH. Lathrop,Wm. H. Wheeler,Thomas Kingsford, Royal L. Mack, 
 Wm. O. Hubbard, Orville J. Harmon, John N. Collins, Enoch B. Talcott, Joel 
 Turrill, and Sylvester Doohttle. 
 
 1859 
 JEFFERSON COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, WATERTOWN 
 
 Chartered April 5, 1859 (Chap. 135, L. 1859). Original incorporators: Jason 
 Clark, Adriel Ely, James I. Steele, Abner Baker, Bernard Bagley, Wm.Estes, Pat- 
 rick O'Dougherty, Alonzo Maxon, Clark Hewitt, Ambrose W. Clark, Orlen Wheel- 
 ock, John E. Dodge, Willard Ives, Benj. F. Hotchkiss, Lafayette E. J. Bigelow, 
 Peter Haas, Charles B. Hoard, MerrittAndrus,Chas. D. Smith, Fred. Emerson, D. 
 C. Tomlinson, and John L. Marsh. 
 
 1859 
 GERMAN SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 9, 1859 (Chap. 210, L. 1859). Original incorporators: Daniel 
 F. Tiemann, C. Godfrey Gunther, August Belmont, John W. Schmidt, Wm. Jel- 
 linghaus, Henry L. Keyser, Wm. Auferman, Wm. Loeschigk, R. A. Witthaus, 
 Edwin O. Oelrichs, Robert Schell, G. Henry Koop, Augustus Weismann, Jacob 
 Windmuller, O. Ottendorfer, Anthony Dugro, Charles Brueninghausen, Chas. 
 Brensing, Geo. Ebbinghausen, Hieronomus N. Wilhelm, F. Wiegand, Otto Ernst, 
 P. Bissinger, Theodore Victor, and John Loser.
 
 576 APPENDIX 
 
 i8S9 
 DIME SAVINGS BANK OF BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 12, 1859 (Chap. 248, L. 1859). Original incorporators: Cyrus 
 P. Smith, Daniel Embury, Harold Dollner, Josiah O. Low, Moses S. Beach, Isaac 
 H. Frothingham, Elwood Walter, Moses F. Odell, Geo. Hall, Wm. W. Edwards, 
 Thomas H. Sandford, Henry Rowland, Alanson Track, John A. Cross, David 
 Farley, Wm. Ellsworth, Samuel S. Powell, Peter O'Hara, Richard Field, Ed- 
 wards W. Fiske, John Halsey, Sherman H. Sterling, Adolph. Koop, Charles J. 
 Lowrey, Conkhn Brush, Isaac Carhart, John H. Baker, Jacob H. Sackman, 
 Daniel Chauncey, Stephen Hajoies, and Albert H. Osbom. 
 
 1859 
 UNION DIME SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 12, 1859 (Chap. 247, L. 1859). Original incorporators: 
 Maltby G. Lane, Geo. Seeley, Joseph U. Orvis, Harrison Hall, Aaron Close, John 
 McLean, Francis Frederick Guenther, Andrew Bleakley, Ezra Smith, Sillick 
 Nichols, Wm. S. Whitlock, Edward D. Nelson, Silas B. Dutcher, James Shaw, 
 Chas D. Bailey, Augustus F. Dow, Wm. T. Hemmenway, Henry W. Smith, 
 Bradbury M. Johnson, Emanuel Schloss, Gardner S. Chapin, Napoleon I. 
 Haines, Alexander Rich, Daniel Buhler, Eder V. Haughwout, Wm. S. Fogg, Solo- 
 mon L. Hull, Charles C. Leigh, Mathias Clark, John Creighton, Wm. H. Albert- 
 son, Wm. Watt, John Wetterau, and Isaac Dayton. 
 
 1859 
 QUEENS COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, FLUSHING 
 
 Chartered April 14, 1859 (Chap. 342, L. 1859). Original incorporators : Henry 
 Clement, Joseph H. King, Abraham Bloodgood, John D. Locke, Conrad Pop- 
 penhusen, Edward J. Mann, Alfred C. Smith, William Cock, Luther C. Carter, 
 Wm. T. Hemmenway, Robert B. Parsons, David S. Williams, Spencer H. Smith, 
 Robert Lowden, Chas. A. Hamilton, Robert Bell, Wm. H. Peck, James B. Par- 
 sons, Wm. H. Roe, Edward A. Lawrence, Simon W. Bowne, John E. Keeler, 
 Frederick W. Lawrence, Wm. H. Stiles, Walter Bowne, Gilbert C. Halsted, John 
 H. Brower, Geo. W. Peck, John Cryder, Peter R. Mumford, Edward E. Mitchell, 
 John W. Lawrence, Rufus Leavitt, Cornell Peck, Walter Jaggar, James M. Low- 
 erre, Wm. Chisholm, Henry A. Bogert, Wm. H. Wilkins, and Frederick Koenig. 
 
 1859 
 PEEKSKILL SAVINGS BANK, PEEKSKILL 
 
 Chartered April 18, 1859 (Chap. 432, L. 1859). Original incorporators: Geo. 
 F. Hussey, Wm. Nelson, James Brown, George Dayton, Thomas Southard, Ed- 
 ward Wells, Truman Minor, Cyrus Townsend, James B. Brown, Isaac L. Varian, 
 Nehemiah S. Jacobs, Chauncey M. Depew,Benj. H. Field, Gilbert B. Hart, Wm. 
 Rufus Nelson, Uriah Hill, Jr., Calvin Frost, Daniel J. Haight, Edwin Briggs, 
 Robert A. Depew, Orrin Frost, John Henry, Edward Underbill, and Saxton Smith. 
 
 i860 
 CITIZENS' SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 5, i860 (Chap. 166, L. i860). Original incorporators: Mar- 
 shall Lefferts, Lorenzo Draper, John A. C. Gray, Fletcher Westray, Louis Nau- 
 mann,John Bowne, Sylvester R. Comstock, T. Bailey Myers, Theodore G. Glau- 
 bensklee, Chas. F. Briggs, Samuel C. Swartz, Edward Robinson, Jr., Chas. T, 
 Rodgers, F.Willis Fisher, M. D., Thomas J. Gilderslceve, Daniel Butterfield,
 
 APPENDIX 577 
 
 P. D. Orvis, Thurber Bailey, Frank W. Ballard, VVm. Rockwell, M. D., Francis 
 M. Harris, Richard C. McCormick, Andreas Willman, Royal G. Millard, Fred- 
 erick Schwedler, Samuel A. Banks, Geo. R. Howell, Seymour A. Bunce, James 
 C. Harriott, and Wm. Ebbett. 
 
 i860 
 
 KING'S COUNTY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 10, i860 (Chap. 214, L. i86o). Original incorporators: Wm. 
 Marshall, Wm. A. Cobb, John Loughran, John M. Furman, Jonathan H. Stan- 
 ston, Andrew B. Hodges, Frederick Scholes, Henry E. Ripley, Thomas C. Moore, 
 Thomas W. Field, Charles H. Fellows, Geo. C. Bennett, Jacob Zimmer, John 
 Schneider, Geo. B. McGrath, and Jeremiah Johnson, Jr. 
 
 i860 
 RHINEBECK SAVINGS BANK, RHINEBECK 
 
 Chartered April 12, i860 (Chap. 336, L. i860). Original incorporators: Will- 
 iam Kelly, Lewis Livingston, Freeborn Garrettson, Joshua Bowne, Wm. B. 
 Piatt, James A. A. Cowles, Egbert Statas, Robert Massoneau, Ambrose Wager, 
 John N. Cramer, Homer Gray, John Glestrom, Alfred Drury, Jacob G. Lambert, 
 Wm. H. Brown, Tunis Wartman, George Veitch, William Cross, William Car- 
 roll, and Thomas Edgerly. 
 
 i860 
 SAG HARBOR SAVINGS BANK, SAG HARBOR 
 
 Chartered April 12, i860 (Chap. 312, L. i860). Original incorporators: David 
 Congdon, Nathan N. Tiffany, Wickham S. Havens, Wm. Buck, John Sherry, J. 
 Madison Hunting, Wm. H. Gleason, Edwin Rose, Thomas E. Crowell, Jonathan 
 Fithian, Geo. B. Brown, Abel C. Buckley, Geo. W. Hunting, Jonas Winters, 
 James L. Haines, Philander R. Jennings, John C. Hedges, Chas. N. Brown, Jason 
 M. Terbell, Nathaniel Topping, Wm. Adams, Elisha King, Isaac W. Osbom, 
 Jedediah Conkling, Joshua B. Nickerson, Jeremiah T. Parsons, Gilbert H. 
 Cooper, Nathan P. Howell, David H. Huntling, and Alanson Topping. 
 
 i860 
 FRANKLIN SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 14, i860 (Chap. 409, L. i860). Original incorporators: Leb- 
 beus B. Ward, Joseph Potter, Charles G. North, Thomas M. Patridge, Geo. T. 
 Cobb, Francis B. Guest, Alfred T. Serrell, Oliver H. Lee, John M. Grane, Theo- 
 dore Hyatt, Benjamin P. Fairchild, John F. Betz, Patrick Treacy, Samuel Newby, 
 George Crouch, James Moore, Geo. H. Beyer, Henry McLean, Andrew V. 
 Stout, Henry Bucking, Peter Valentine, John O'Neil, Matthew Helck, David 
 R. Doremus, Christopher Hitzelburger, Oliver Charlick, Amos M. Lyon, James 
 F. Chamberlain, Jeremiah Crowley, Thomas L. Braynord, John B. Hillyer, 
 Noah A. Childs, and John O'Keefe. 
 
 i860 
 EAST BROOKLYN SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 17, i860 (Chap. 496, L. i860). Original incorporators: Samuel 
 C. Barnes, Barnet Johnson, John M. Phelps, Edwin H. Mead, Joseph Oliver, 
 Thomas D. Hudson, Egbert K. VanBuren, Seymour L. Husted, Charles Halsey, 
 Jeremiah J. Rappelj'ea, Jeremiah Johnson, Henry Boerum, William Halsey, 
 James H. Hutchings, James M. Green, Frederick Scholes, and Richard Olmstead.
 
 578 APPENDIX 
 
 1863 
 HARLEM SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 17, 1863 (Chap. 175, L. 1863). Original incorporators: Daniel 
 T. Tieman, Jordan L. Mott, Cornelius W. Van Voorhis, Levi Adams, Bartlett 
 Smith, Henry G. Hadden, Wm. Brown, Samuel A. Hills, Louis Bro?i, Charles 
 Boice, Thomas B. Tappen, A. P. Wilson, Henry P. McGown, Louis Hart, E. S. 
 Marshall, Jacob M. Long, Andrew Smith, Charles B. Tooker, George Ebert, 
 Edward Jones, Alexander Lytic, J. O. Terrington, William Klinoz, J. W. Gilley, 
 Henry Schubert, Spencer Gregory, Henry Baumen, and J. Rosenbourgh. 
 
 1864 
 STATEN ISLAND SAVINGS BANK, STAPLETON 
 
 Chartered April 6, 1864 (Chap. 129, L. 1864). Original incorporators: Will- 
 iam Fellows, Geo. Francis Shaw, David J. Gardner, Thomas Conrad, Wm. Carey, 
 Geo. B. Davis, John Bechtel, Wm. C. Anderson, Dwight Townsend, John Lewis, 
 Dennis Keeley, Henry M. Weed, Abraham EUis, Jacob B. Ward, and Wm. Mc- 
 Lean. 
 
 1864 
 
 CAYUGA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, AUBURN 
 
 Incorporated April 16, 1864, as the Mutual Savings Bank of Auburn (Chap. 
 212, L. 1864). Name changed to the Cayuga County Savings Bank, of Auburn, 
 July I, 1875. , ^ 
 
 Original incorporators: James S. Seymour, Augustus Howland, Cyrus C. 
 Dennis, Elmore P. Ross, Edwin B. Morgan, Corydon H. Merriman, Christopher 
 Morgan,BenjaminB. Snow, Wm.H. Seward, Jr.,TheodoreM.Pomeroy,HoraceT. 
 Cook, Samuel Adams, GumseyJewitt,Horatio J. Brown, David Tompkins, Daniel 
 Hewson, and Morel S. Fitch. 
 
 1864 
 
 DIME SAVINGS BANK OF WILLLAMSBURGH, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 19, 1864 (Chap. 239, L. 1864). Original incorporators: Wm. 
 Grandy, Wm. W. Armfield, John R. Jurgens, Geo. B. Smith, Joseph W. Thomas, 
 Wm. Marshall, James Pell, James Broughton, Silas W. Brainard, Geo. W. Kel- 
 sey, Geo. Nichols, Peter M. Dingee, James Forster, Isaac Bamber, Adam Craig, 
 Wm. M. Raymond, Adolph E. Jacobson, Edward Burcham, Frederick Nisl- 
 witz, Henry Harmon, C. E. Bertand, Sigismund Kaufman, and Robert Butcher. 
 
 1865 
 PORT CHESTER SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 14, 1865 (Chap. 119, L. 1865). Original incorporators: 
 Philip Rollhaus, Amherst Wight, Jr., Robert McNeil, Wm. E. Ward, Ephraim 
 Sours, Wm. P. Abendroth, Geo. H. Lounsbury, Alvah A. Lyon, Wm. L. Bush, 
 Richard Vaughn, Samuel K. Satterlee, Daniel Strang, John E. Marshall, John 
 W. Mills, Wm. P. Van Rensselaer, and James Shea. 
 
 1866 
 ONEIDA SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered February 19, 1866 (Chap. 53, L. 1866). Original incorporators: 
 James Bamett, Ralph H. Avery, John J. Foote, John M. Wilson, Thompson E. 
 Barnes, Geo. H. Sanford, Samuel Breeze, James A. Bennett, Theodore F. Hand, 
 Edward C. Saunders, George Berry, Goodwin P. Loper, Timothy G. Seeley, 
 Milton Bamett, Ambrose Hill, I. N. Messenger, and Daniel G. Dorrance.
 
 APPENDIX 579 
 
 1866 
 MIDDLETOWN SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 5, 1866 (Chap. 104, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Ed- 
 ward M. Madden, Horatio R. Wilcox, Wm. M. Graham, John G. Wilkin, James 
 B. Hulse, Joshua Draper, Charles C. McQuaid, EHsha P. Wheeler, Leander 
 Crawford, Israel H. Wickham, Wm. Evans, Charles B. Roosa, Benjamin W. 
 Shaw, Hiram Brink, Jonathan M. Matthews, Selah R. Corwin, Halstead Sweet, 
 Wm. S. Webb, John H. Bell, Coe Robertson, and Charles H. Van Wyck. 
 
 1866 
 MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, BEACON 
 
 Chartered March 5, 1866 (Chap. 103, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Wal- 
 ter Brett, John Rothery, Wm. C. Oakley, James Mackin, R. D. Hine, T. J. B. 
 Schenck, Joseph Howiand, David Davis, Joseph Lomas, Wm. S. Verplanck, 
 John F. Gerou, John Boyce, Henry H. Hustis, Horatio N. Swift, Thomas Al- 
 dridge, Milo Sage, Lewis B. Ferguson, John T. Smith, Wm. H. Rogers, Wm. B. 
 Budd, Lyman Robinson, James E. Member, Wm. N. Vanderwerker, Daniel 
 Brinkerhofif, and John Jav Cox. 
 
 1866 
 
 PEOPLE'S SAVINGS BANK, YONKERS 
 
 Chartered April 5, 1866 (Chap. 405, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Robert 
 J. Douglass, Andrew Archibald, Orrin A. Bills, Jonathan Vail, Wm. Radford, 
 Wm. B. Edgar, Geo. B. Skinner, James P. Sanders, Wm. Macfarlane, Geo. F. 
 Coddington, John Phillips, Thomas F. Morris, Eli S. Seger, Nelson Ackert, Levi 
 P. Rose, Henry F. Brevoort, Peter U. Fowler, Michael W. Rooney, Clinton M. 
 Davis, Geo. B. Pentz, and James W. Mitchell. 
 
 1866 
 CORTLAND SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 13, 1866 (Chap. 557, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Wm. 
 R. Randall, Hiram J. Messenger, Thomas Keator, Jedediah Barber, Geo. W. 
 Bradford, Perrin H. McGraw, Henry Stephens, Frederick Hyde, Horatio Bal- 
 lard, Henry S. Randall, R. Holland Duell, Hiram Crandall, Horace P. Goodrich, 
 James W. Sturtevant, Alphonzo Stone, Silas Blanchard, Raymond P. Babcock, 
 Nathan Smith, Daniel E. Whitmore, and Stephen Patrick. 
 
 1866 
 SKANEATELES SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 16, 1866 (Chap. 600, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Rich- 
 ard Tallcott, Anson Lapham, Charles Pardee, Joel Thayer, Henry L. Roosevelt, 
 Caleb W. Allis, John Barrow, Josiah Garlock, Henrj^ T. Webb, Henry J. Hub- 
 bard, Thomas Isom, Jr., Leonard H. Earll, Ezekiel B. Hoyt, Geo. H. Earll, and 
 Jacob L. Clif t. 
 
 1866 
 
 JAMAICA SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 20, 1866 (Chap. 717, L. 1866). Original incorporators: John 
 A. King, James A. Fleury, Morris Fosdick, Aaron A. Degrauw, Wm. Phraner, 
 John J. Armstrong, James Rider, James H. Elmore, Daniel Garrison, Stephen L. 
 Spader, Wm. A. Lighthall, Wm. Durland, John Gracy, John O'Donnell, Sr., 
 Martin J. Duryea, John W. Demott, Ascan Backus, John H. Seaman, and John 
 N. Brinckerhoff.
 
 58o APPENDIX 
 
 1866 
 NORTH RIVER SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered April 20, 1866 (Chap. 739, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Martin 
 Thatcher, Geo. W. Palmer, Samuel B. Garvin, John Hooper, James W. Ranney, 
 M.D., Alexander Wilder, Samuel W. Sears, John Graham, Theron. R. Butler, 
 Robert Usher, Jr., Henry- J. Seaman, Charles M. Whiley, Matthew McDougall, 
 George Keyes, C. Y. Wemple, Edward Schlichting, Charles Kochler, James O. 
 Bennett, Meyer Eiseman, John Holzderber, Frederick Schutz, Robert L. Darragh, 
 Henry Richard, Adolphus C. Rau, Gustavus Levy, A. Sidney Doane, Edmond 
 Connelly, and Edson F. Emery. 
 
 1866 
 
 GERMAN SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 20, 1866 (Chap. 714, L. 1866). Original incorporators: Joseph 
 Wilde, Wm. Broistedt, Geo. H. Fisher, John Wills, Thomas Cotrell, John Raber, 
 J. A. G. Comstock, Jacob Fint, Francis Swift, Frederick W. Kalbfleisch, Geo. 
 Destler, Edward A. Jones, Carl Wittman, Jacob Rosengarden, Frederick Fries, 
 Herman Thieme, Edward Roehr, John Vv'igand, Louis Zechiel, Gottlieb Engels, 
 and John J. Hallenbeck. 
 
 1807 
 
 MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, ROCHESTER 
 
 Incorporated April 17, 1867 (Chap. 411, L. 1867). Original incorporators: Geo. 
 R. Clark, Patrick Barry, Lewis Selye, Thomas Parsons, Geo. J. Whitney, Geo. G. 
 Cooper, Jarvis Lord, Samuel Wilder, Martin Rcid, David Upton, Chas. H. Chopin, 
 Gihnan H. Perkins, Hamlet Scranton, Ohver Allen, Edward M. Smith, Abram S. 
 Mann, Charles J. Burke, Chauncey B. Woodworth, A. Carter Wilder, James M. 
 Whitney, and Eleazcr E. Sill. 
 
 1867 
 
 BINGHAMTON SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 18, 1867 (Chap. 423, L. 1867). Original incorporators: Fred- 
 erick Lewis, Horace S. Griswold, Cyrus Strong, Oliver C. Crocker, Wm. E. Tay- 
 lor, Harris G. Rodgers, Chas. W. Sanford, Erasmus D. Robinson, Wm. P. Pope, 
 Abel Beimett, Louis Seymour, Henry Mather, and Horace N. Lester. 
 
 GERMANIA SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 19, 1867 (Chap. 466, L. 1867). Original incorporators: Ed. 
 Unkart, Herrman Ackerman, John G. A. Vagt, Theodore Happel, Richard Forst- 
 mann, Oscar Strasburger, Carl C. Recknagel, W. G. Taaks, F. A. Schroeder, D. 
 Westfall, U. Palmedo, August Siburg, Fried Hitzelberger, John Ruck, Wm. D. 
 Veeder, Aug. Kurth, Richard Barthelmess, Geo. Tiemann, Ivan Von Auw, F. A. 
 Stohlmann, J. E. Stohlman, I. K. Limburger, Emil Magnus, S. Zollinger, P. K. 
 Weitzel, Henry Schutte, Theodore Juncke, S. W. Boden, C. G. Giebel, Martin 
 Von Hagen, and Francis Keyser. 
 
 1867 
 
 CHENANGO VALLEY SAVINGS BANK, BINGHAMTON 
 
 Chartered April 20, 1867 (Chap. 477, L. 1867, which revived and continued in 
 force Chapter 6i6, Laws of 1857). Original incorporators: Simon C. Hitchcock, 
 Benj. N. Loomis, Henry Mather, Joseph Ely, Ransom Balcom, Richard Mather, 
 Albert Way, Henry S. Hitchcock, Isaac L. Bartlett, Lewis Sejinour, Hiram M. 
 Myer, W. N. Wilson, Hallam E. Pratt, Charles McKinney, Augustus Morgan, 
 Sherman D. Phelps, Giles W. Hotchkiss, and Martin Stone.
 
 APPENDIX s8i 
 
 RONDOUT SAVINGS BANK, KINGSTON 
 
 Chartered March 24, 1868 (Chap. 50, L. 1868). Original incorporators: 
 Thomas Cornell, Wm. Kelly, James G. Lindsley, Henry A. Sampson, Lorenzo 
 A. Sykes, Walter B. Crane, Roeliff Eltinge, Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr., John 
 Derenbacker, John Maxwell, Wm. H. Gedney, Samuel D. Coykendall, Michael 
 J. Madden, Hiram Schoonmaker, Robert H. Atwater, Nathaniel Booth, Edward 
 Tompkins, Frederick Stephan, Jacob Hermance, Thomas Murray, and Henry 
 D. H. Snyder. 
 
 1868 
 CATSKILL SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April i, 1868 (Chap. 96, L. 1868). Original incorporators: S. Sher- 
 wood Day, John Breastead, Samuel Harris, Rufus H. King, Jacob H. Meech, 
 George Griffin, EUjah P. Bushnell, Frederick Cook, John H. Bagley, Jr., Burton 
 G. Morse, John A. Griswold, Luke Roe, Edwin M. Hubbell, Sheldon A. Givens, 
 Charles L. Beach, George Beach, George Robertson, Isaac Pruyn, John M. Don- 
 nelly, Francis N. Willson, Nelson Fanning, Manly B. Mattice, Edgar Russell, 
 and Joseph Hallenbeck. 
 
 1868 
 ITHACA SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 3, 1868 (Chap. 141, L. 1868, which revived Chapter 176, Laws 
 of 1863, and chapter 93, Laws of 1864). Original incorporators: Ezra Cornell, 
 Douglass Boardman, John H. Selkreg, Wm. Andrus, Joseph Esty, John Rum- 
 sey, John L. Whiton, Leonard Treman, Obadiah B. Curran, Geo. W. Schuyler, 
 and Wesley Hooker. 
 
 1868 
 GREENPOINT SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered April 16, 1868 (Chap. 210, L. 1868). Original incorporators: Ne- 
 ziah Bhss, Wm. M. Messerole, Edward F. WilHams, Geo. W. Watts, Christian 
 H. Koch, Archibald K. Messerole, Claus Olandt, Piatt C. IngersoU, James W. 
 Valentine, Jonathan Moore, Thomas P. Smith, Archibald M. Bliss, Samuel S. 
 Free, John D. Jones, Nathaniel S. Bailey, Andrew J. Hermion, Daniel D. Boyce, 
 Thomas F. Rowland, Carl Feitzinger, Geo. S. Barton, Adam Metz, Francis 
 Street, Charles Von Bergen, Geo. H. Stone, and William H. Peer. 
 
 1868 
 NATIONAL SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 Chartered May 6, 1868 (Chap. 662, L. 1868). Original incorporators: Adam 
 Van Allen, John H. Reynolds, John Tweddle, Rufus W. Peckham, Matthew H. 
 Read, William H. Taylor, Erastus Corning, William A. Rice, Robert L. Banks, 
 Albion Ransom, John H. Van Antwerp, James Edwards, Joseph Packard, Edwin 
 W. Corning, Isaac Edwards, Benjamin A. Towner, and John J. Conroy.
 
 582 APPENDIX 
 
 EAST NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered May 8, i868 (Chap. 753, L. 1868). Original incorporators: Gilliam 
 Schenck, Ditmas Jewell, Williamson Rapalje, Isaac C. Schenck, Stephen L. Van- 
 derveer, James L. Williams, Christopher I. Lott, John I. Sackmann, Henry L. 
 Wyckoff, Abraham Lynington, John S. Andrews, Samuel Davies, Peter J. Ber- 
 gen, John C. Schenck, Philip H. Reid, Herman H. Kattenhom, James PiUing, 
 Francis Lauzer, Stephen P. StoothofiF, Wm. Kramer, James McGuire, Horace 
 A. Miller, Charles W. Hamilton, WiUiamson Rapalje, Jr., Louis Altenbrand, 
 Martin Bennett, Jr., and Noyes G. Palmer. 
 
 1868 
 WESTSIDE SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered May 19, 1868 (Chap. 840, L. 1868). Original incorporators: Fred- 
 erick A. Conkling, Ignatius Flynn, Abram Leut, Robert W. S. Bonsell, Edward 
 Lynch, James Dignon, Thomas Kivlin, Peter Brunges, Thomas C. Finnell, James 
 R. Floyd, John Dargavel, Wm. H. Christie, James Boyle, John Hessian, Geo. A. 
 Mitchell, Thomas D. Conroy, Harris Bogart, Daniel Coyle, David S. Page, Geo. 
 Ackerman, Wm. McKay, James S. Scofield, Alexander Gaw, Samuel Mott, Geo. 
 J. Thompson, Vincent C. King, Walter W. Price, James Watson, John F. Cleve- 
 land, Maurice J. Power, Wm. C. Hanna, Alfred West, James Winterbottom, and 
 Richard Field. 
 
 ELMIRA SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 19, 1869 (Chap. 58, L. 1869) as the "Southern Tier Savings 
 Bank, in the City of Elmira, Chemung County." Original incorporators: 
 Solomon L. Gillet, James H. Loring, David Decker, Reuben H. Ransom, Harden 
 D. V. Pratt, Jackson Richardson, Thomas Gerrity, James S. Thurston, Joseph 
 Davis, Rufus King, Henry V. Colt, John J. Curtis, and Francis A. Stowell. 
 
 1869 
 EAST SIDE SAVINGS BANK, ROCHESTER 
 
 Chartered April 7, 1869 (Chap. 135, L. 1869). Original incorporators: Isaac 
 F. Quinby, Horatio G. Warner, Darius Perrin, Henry S. Hebard, Hiram Davis, 
 Michael Filon, Nehemiah P. Osborn, Wm. N. Emerson, Hector McLean, Ed- 
 mund Ocumpaugh, James Vick, Elias Wolff, Truman A. Newton, J. Moreau 
 Smith, PHney M. Bromley, Wm. A. Hubbard, Aramiah Moseley, Abner Green 
 David R. Barton, Erastus Danow, and Henry Lampert. 
 
 1869 
 ELLENVILLE SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 19, 1869 (Chap. 242, L. 1869). Original incorporators: John 
 J. BilUngs, Joseph H. Tuthill, Geo. A. Dudley, Geo. H. Smith, Jacob Hermance, 
 Judson Shultz, Gilbert DuBois, Abijah Otis, James B. Childs, Albert Corbin, 
 John H. Divine, Andrew S. Schoonmaker, Samuel Wilkinson, James O. Schoon- 
 maker, John C. Hoombeck, Justus Humphrey, Andrew Brodhead, William R. 
 Rose, John D. Watkins, Geo. B. Childs, Gilbert Palen, Eli Van Keuren, and Har- 
 vey R. Morris.
 
 APPENDIX 583 
 
 1869 
 WAPPINGER SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 23, 1869 (Chap. 299, L. 1869). Original incorporators: J, 
 Nelson Luckey, Samuel W. Johnston, Irving Grinnell, Josiah Falkner, Samuel 
 Brown,I. T. Nichols, Thomas W. Jaycocks, J. D. Harcourt, Elias Brown, Clayton 
 E. Sweet, Henry Mesier, Edward M. Goring, Andrew Jackson, Abraham D. 
 Smith, Wm. B. Millard, Benj. Clapp, Henry Suydam, A. W. Armstrong, Francis 
 Myers, Dennis Shehan, Z. V. Hasbrook, John R. Phillips, and Daniel McKinlay. 
 
 1869 
 ONEIDA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, ROME 
 
 Chartered May i, 1869 (Chap. 480, L. 1869). Original incorporators: Samuel 
 B. Stevens, Alfred Ethridge, John J. Parry, Henry Hager, John F. Mix, Henry 
 Johnson, James Walker, Alfred Sandford, Charles E. Frazer, Harold H. Pope, 
 Henry R. Hill, Thomas D. Roberts, and Samuel Tuttle. 
 
 1869 
 GREENBURGH SAVINGS BANK, DOBBS FERRY 
 
 Chartered May 8, 1869 (Chap. 729, L. 1869). Original incorporators: Abram 
 O. Wilsea, D. Ogden Bradley, Thomas L. Jewell, Peter M. Biegen, James Pat- 
 terson, Benjamin Lynt, James Wilde, Jr., John D. McKenzie, Geo. L. Osborne, 
 Geo. B. Taylor, Geo. Schmidt, Charles G. Storms, Hugh Downey, John King, 
 and Leonard W. Lawrence. 
 
 1869 
 
 EXCELSIOR SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK 
 
 Chartered May ii, 1869 (Chap. 863, L. 1869). Original incorporators: Walter 
 W. Price, Vincent C. King, James Watson, Emanuel B. Hart, Richard Field, 
 Edward Henry,Henry S. Osborn, Frank M. Bixby, Daniel Coyle, Ignatius Flynn, 
 Wm. M. Giles, Michael Watson, John W. Bockhom, Thomas Loughran, Michael 
 Connolly, Bernard Ackerman, John F. Pupke, Hugh Murray, Erastus Little- 
 field, Seth M, Harris, Horace K. Thurber, Henry Welsh, Wm. A. Hare. Elias 
 R. Lawrence, Henry Harms, and Peter Brunjes. 
 
 1870 
 OSWEGO COUNTY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered May 6, 1870 (Chap. 734, L. 1870). Original incorporators: John 
 B. Edwards, Alanson S. Page, Cheney Ames, Delos De Wolf, Gilbert E. Parsons, 
 Charles Doohttle, Wm. Wales, Alonzo H. Failing, J. Lawrence McWhorter, 
 Benjamin S. Stone, Geo. B. Sloane, Harvey Palmer, Peter Lappin, Charles 
 Rhodes, Samuel B. Johnson, Benjamin C. Turner, John H. Mann, Moses Merick, 
 Chas. H. Cross, Andrew Miller, Cornelius Wendell, Robert Scott, O. M. Bond, 
 D. L. Couch and John Dunn, Jr. 
 
 1870 
 SENECA FALLS SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered May 6, 1870 (Chap. 695, L. 1870). Original incorporators: Jacob 
 P. Chamberlain, Erastus Partridge, William Johnson, LeRoy C. Partridge, John 
 P. Cowing, Albert Jewett, Wm. A. Swaby, Frank Chamberlain, and George B. 
 Daniels.
 
 584 APPENDIX 
 
 1870 
 PAWLING SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered May 7, 1870 (Chap. 744, L. 1870). Original incorporators: Albert 
 J. Akin, John J. Vanderburgh, John B. Dutcher, Jackson W. Bowditch, J. Wes- 
 ley Stark, Edgar J. Hurd, Wilham H. Taber, Herman Ferris, Geo. W. Chase, 
 Morgan Horton, Patrick W. Tanday, Nathaniel Pierce, Jeremiah Denton, Her- 
 man Bancroft, Albert W. Corbin, Homer Chapman, Jedediah Wanzer, Richard 
 Osbom, Benj. V. Haviland, Thomas Wheeler, and David R. Gould. 
 
 1870 
 FARMERS' AND MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, LOCKPORT 
 
 Chartered May 11, 1870 (Chap. 779, L. 1870). Original incorporators: Robert 
 Dunlap, Erastus S. Mack, James Richmond, John T. Murray, Asa W. Douglas, 
 Jason Collier, Chas H. Francis, Ransom M. Skeels, Moses C. Richardson, John 
 Hodge, Lewis S. Payne, Edmund Voke, Moses G. Swift, Silas Osgood, and 
 Stephen Wilson. 
 
 1871 
 MATTEAWAN SAVINGS BANK, BEACON 
 
 Incorporated March 21, 1871 (Chap. 142, L. 1871). Original incorporators: 
 Willard H. Mase, Lewis Tompkins, Henry B. Schenck, John F. Gerow, David 
 Davis, Adolphus Vandewater, Francis R. Masters, Daniel Green, Lyman Robin- 
 son, John Mellor, Martin Ryan, Harvey Brett, Linde Belknap, Benjamin T. 
 Hall, John Boyce, John Halgin, Christopher A. Farrel, Wm. Jackson, Wm. C. 
 Harris, Henry A. Alden, and Charles W. Tompkins. 
 
 1871 
 EAST CHESTER SAVINGS BANK, MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Chartered March 8, 1871 (Chap. 78, L. 1871). Original incorporators: Archi- 
 bald Allerton, John H. Price, John M. Masterton, David Allerton, Henry S. 
 Murray, Cornelius Corson, Wm. H. Pemberton, Columbus S. Stevenson, James 
 T. Husted, James H. Ingersoll, Chas. E. Wilbour, Wm. A. Seaver, and Daniel 
 Clark. 
 
 1871 
 NEW PALTZ SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 22, 1871 (Chap. 158, L. 1871). Original incorporators: 
 Daniel L. Heaton, Zachariah Bru>Ti, Jacob Lefevre, Josiah J. Hasbrouck, Ed- 
 mund Bruyn, Thaddeus Hait, Derick W. Du Bois, Elijah Woolsey, Oscar Has- 
 brouck, Peter Lefevre, Solomon Deyo, Calvin T. Haizen, Hiram Hasbrouck, 
 Jesse Lyons, Floyd S. McKinstry, Nathan Williams, Abner Hasbrouck, Chas. 
 W. Deyo, John B. Deyo, Edmund Eltinge, and Jonathan Deyo. 
 
 1871 
 FULTON SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered March 29, 1871 (Chap. 206, L. 1871). Original incorporators: 
 Sands N. Kenyon, Geo. M. Case, John Harroon, John W. Pratt, Willis S. Nelson, 
 Charles G. Bacon, William D. Patterson, Colvin Osgood, Morris S. Kimball, 
 Willard Johnson, Benjamin J. Dyer, Stephen Pardee, John C. Wells, Amos 
 Dean, H. H. Merriam, Ira Canier, Henry N. Somers, Hiram Bradway, William 
 Dexter, Abraham Howe, and James N. Townsend.
 
 APPENDIX 58s 
 
 1871 
 PUTNAM COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, BREWSTER 
 
 Chartered April 6, 1871 (Chap. 340, L. 1871). Original incorporators: Augus- 
 tus D. Slasson, LeRay Bamum, Warren S. Paddock, Charles W. Budd, James 
 Haviland, Wm. F. Fowler, Ahaz S. Mygatt, Coleman K. Townsend, Thatcher 
 H. Theall, Samuel A. Townsend, James R. Kelley, Thomas Drew, Odell Close, 
 Lawrence McKenna, Joshua L. Dean, Augustus S. Dean, Wm. T. Ganung, Jesse 
 Haviland, Daniel W. Dykeman, George Hine, and Morgan Horton. 
 
 1871 
 SAUGERTIES SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 6, 1871 (Chap. 338, L. 1871). Original incorporators: John 
 Kiersted, Peter Cantine, Wm. F. Russell, Joseph M. Boies, Fordyce L. Laflin, 
 Gaston Wilbur, Chauncey P. Shultis, Cyrus Burbans, Jeremiah P. Russell, 
 Joseph B. Sheffield, Wm. Mulligan, James Welch, Peter H. Freligh, Wm. M. 
 Maginnis, Egburt Whittaker, Benjamin F. Freligh, John Maxwell, John L. But- 
 zell, John W. Davis, John C. Welch, and Thomas S. Dawes. 
 
 1871 
 GOSHEN SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 11, 1871 (Chap. 402, L. 1871). Original incorporators: Ellis 
 A. Post, Benjamin F. Edsall, George D. Willson, Alfred B. Post, Henry Merriam, 
 Charles M. Thompson, and Lewis Cuddeback. 
 
 1871 
 HOME SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 Incorporated as "The Sixth Ward Savings Bank of the City of Albany" May 
 10, 1871 (Chap. 915, L. 1871), name changed by Chapter 244, Laws of 1872, 
 passed April 16, 1872, to the "Home Savings Bank of Albany." Original incor- 
 porators: Wm. White, Stephen O. Shepard, Chas. E. Leland, Cornehus W. Arm- 
 strong, Robt. H. Waterman, Robert C. Blackall, Philip Ten Eyck, J. Wesley 
 Smith, John E. Capron, John Bridgeford, John W. Van Valkenburgh, Thomas 
 L. Goodwin, Edmund L. Judson, and Edward Coyle. 
 
 1871 
 CORNWALL SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered May 10, 1871 (Chap. 914, L. 1871). Original incorporators: 
 Stephen C. Gillis, James K. Hitchcock, James Broadhead, Stephen C. Young, 
 E. Adolph Matthissen, Albert Palmer, James G. Roe, James Dunn, Wm. T. 
 Cocks, E. H. Champlin, John Orr, Thomas Taft, Ira Wood, C. H. Smith, Thomas 
 George, H. H. Salmon, Noah T. Clark, Wilham Orr, W. I. Sherwood, B. L. Solo- 
 mon, Charles E. Cocks, L. P. Ledoux, Theron Turner, and Josiah G. Clark. 
 
 1872 
 WALDEN SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 25, 1872 (Chap. 366, L. 1872). Original incorporators: Seth 
 M. Capron, Wm. E. Gowdy, D. Wortman Rapalje, John S. Taylor, Thomas J. 
 Bradley, Thomas Hepper, Henry Bergen, D. M. Wade, Jonathan Hawkins, A. 
 Deo Bevier, Daniel D. Dubois, Wm. H. Deganno, Marcus K. Hill, James G. 
 Terbell, James Todd, George Weller, and John Tears.
 
 586 APPENDIX 
 
 1872 
 RIVERHEAD SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 27, 1872 (Chap. 415, L. 1872). Original incorporators : James 
 H. Tuthill, John Downs, Nathaniel W. Foster, Jeremiah M. Edwards, Gilbert 
 H. Ketchum, Daniel A. Griffing, J. Henr>- Perkins, Moses F. Benjamin, Edwin 
 F. Squier, John R. Corwin, Orville B. Ackerly, Richard T. Osborn, Isaac C. 
 Halsey, Simeon S. Hawkins, Richard H. Benjamin, John F. Foster, Thomas 
 Coles, J. Halsey Yovmg, John S. Marcy, Abraham R. Luce, and Jonas Fishel. 
 
 1872 
 COLLEGE POINT SAVINGS BAN^ 
 
 Chartered May 3, 1872 (Chap. 504, L. 1872). Original incorporators: Hugo 
 Funke, John H. Ranch, Emil Greeff, Herman C. Poppenhusen, Wm. Pauly, 
 Thomas Daley, Adolph Poppenhusen, Herman Funke, G. Cramer, A. D. Sche- 
 singer, J. H. Rehlender, and Peter Buhl. 
 
 1873 
 MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, COHOES 
 
 Chartered March 27, 1873 (Chap i48,L. 1873). Original incorporators: Robert 
 Johnston, Wm. S. Smith, William Nuttall, Abner J. Griffin, Edward N. Page, 
 Samuel Bilbrough, P. R. Chadwick, Wm. Stanton, John Clute, Peter Dandu- 
 rand, John Land, Laban Vredenberg, Wm. E. Thome, Jehial W. Himes, Jacob 
 Travis, Norman W. Frost, Alfred LeRoy, and N. J. Clute. 
 
 1873 
 BUSHWICK SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 Chartered June 14, 1873 (Chap. 769, L. 1873). Original incorporators: Aug- 
 ustus A. Leverich, Peter Totans, Henry Eckert, Chas. W. Godard, Joseph Lieb- 
 man, Jacob Suydam, John Beales, John S. Marshall, John H. Howard, Samuel 
 L. Carlisle, Peter Schamagle, Peter Wyckoff, Adrian M. Suydam, Frederick W. 
 Kalbfleisch, Frederick Herr, John L. Nostrand, Rufus L. Scott, Martin Ibert, 
 John G. Jenkins, Nicholas Wyckoff, John J. McRum, Thomas W. Field, and 
 Bernard Midas. 
 
 1874 
 ALBANY COUNTY SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 20, 1874 (Chap. 216, L. 1874). Original incorporators: Jacob 
 Leonard, Benj. W. Wooster, LeGrand Bancroft, Theodore D. Smith, Rufus H. 
 King, Albert M. Brumaghim, James H. Pratt, Royal Bancroft, Jasper Van 
 Wormer, Francis N. Sill, Frederick Hinckel, Elair Taylor, Thomas McCarty, 
 Cornelius Smith, Albert Wing, Henry A. Fonda, Willard Bellows, Joseph Mann, 
 Alexander Morris, and John Templeton. 
 
 1874 
 KINGSTON SAVINGS BANK 
 
 Chartered April 23, 1874 (Chap. 237, L. 1874). Original incorporators: Jacob 
 B. Van Dusen, Augustus T. Newton, Henry C. Connelly, Robert Loughran, 
 James Van Leu ven, James Myer, Jr., Wm. H. Rameyn, Geo. S. Coutant, Lucius 
 Lawson, Michael Hallahan, Luke Noone, Isaac Bernstein, Abraham Van Vand- 
 ling, John R. Freer, James S. Pine, Chas. H. Clearwater, Frederick W. Ingalls, 
 Wm. H. Fredenbergh, James H. Van Demark, Benjamin Turner, Jacob Frei- 
 leweh, and Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr.
 
 B 
 
 LIST OF 
 SAVINGS BANKS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THE OFFICERS A2^ TRUSTEES 
 
 Arranged Alphabetically* 
 
 ALBANY CITY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, ALBANY 
 
 (loo State Street; incorporated 1850) 
 John E. Walker, President William S, Hackett, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John E.Walker, James W. Cox, George H. Thacher, Albert Hessberg, Jonas H. 
 Brooks, Edward J. Gallien, P. N. Bouton, William S. Dyer, John A. Delehanty, 
 Charles H. Sabin, C. L. A. Whitney, John Bowe, Frederick W. Kelley, William 
 T. Meyer, Frank C. Herrick, E. Palmer Gavit, Wm. J. Nellis, Horace S. Bell. 
 
 ALBANY COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 (88 State Street; incorporated 1874) 
 
 Seth Wheeler, President 
 
 Wm. N. S. Sanders, Treasurer Henry H. Kohn, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Albert V. Bensen, William P. Rudd, Geo. H. Russell, Frederic C. Curtis, Seth 
 Wheeler, Wm. N. S. Sanders, John R. Camell, Andrew G. White, William Smith, 
 John W. Emery, James B. Lyon, Henry R. Wright, Malcolm S. Fearey, James 
 Mil wain, Wm. A. Wheeler, Chas. R. Sutherland, George A. White, Newton B. 
 Vanderzee, Richard Stephens, Henry H. Kohn. 
 
 ALBANY EXCHANGE SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 (450 Broadway; incorporated 1856) 
 Martin T. Nachtmann, President Joseph Guardenier, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John E. McElroy, John J. Gallogly, Matthew J. Wallace, Jacob S. Friedman, 
 D. C. SUngerland, Alden Chester, Charles H. Turner, John A. Becker, James 
 F. McElroy, Thomas E. Finegan, M. T. Nachtmann, W. S. Van Derzee, Lester 
 H. Helmes, Fred'k W. Cameron, Arthur T. Palmer, James H. Mead, Joseph 
 Guardenier, Walter S. McEwan, Hugh A. Arnold, George B. Russell. 
 
 •Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York. 
 
 587
 
 588 APPENDIX 
 
 ALBANY SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 (20 North Pearl Street; incorporated 1820) 
 Marcus T. Hxin, President Henry D. Rodgers, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Marcus T. Hun, Grange Sard, Ledyard Cogswell, Clarence Rathbone, Edward 
 Bowditch, Edward N. McKinney, Benjamin W. Arnold, Fred'k lowTisend, 
 James F. Tracy, Fred'k Tillinghast, Gerrit Y. Lansing, Wm. V. R. Erving, T. I. 
 Van Antwerp, Henry M. Sage, Luther H. Tucker, Robert C. Pruyn, Oscar L. 
 Hascy. 
 
 AMERICAN SAVINGS BANK OF BUFFALO, BUFFALO 
 
 (215 Main Street; incorporated 1907) 
 Herbert A. Meldrum, President William P. Luedeke, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Frank X. Argus, Chas. Antoniazzi, William T. Atwater, George K. Birge, 
 Alfred H. Burt, Myron P. Bush, Edward H. Butler, Charles J. Fix, F. E. Fron- 
 czak, L. p. Fuhrmann, James Hanrahan, Robert H. Heussler, Wm. H. Hotch- 
 kiss, Dudley M. Irwin, Bert L. Jones, Wm. P. Luedeke, Norman E. Mack, 
 George A. Ray, J. M. Satterfield, Thomas Stoddart, James Sweeney, Jr., George 
 R. Teller, Chas. W. Toynbee, H. A. Meldrum, G. M. Zimmerman, J. M. Wal- 
 lenmeier, Jr. 
 
 AMERICAN SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (lis West 42nd Street; incorporated 1882) 
 
 John V. Irwin, President William M. Hazelton, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Vincent Pisek, James F. Fargo, L. Duncan Bulkley, John V. Irwin, Wm. M, 
 Campbell, David Orr, William C. Story, Henry R. Sutphen, Edmond E. Robert, 
 Fred. Mathesius, Jr., Henry B. Britton, Fred. M. Johnson, Warren Thorpe, 
 Chas. O. Kimball, Carl L. Victor, Hicks A. Weatherbee, John R. Christie, 
 Michael I. Pupin. 
 
 AMSTERDAM SAVINGS BANK, AMSTERDAM 
 
 (11 Division Street; incorporated 1886) 
 S. H. French, President Charles E. French, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 S. H. French, Bernard Machold, Thomas Morphy, Thomas Mansfield, Seely 
 Conover, W. Barlow Dunlap, John Kavanaugh, James T. Sugden, C. Van Buren, 
 Charles E. French, William J. KUne, Nathan B. Smith, Robert J. Lindsey, 
 Samuel Wallin, W. C. Schaufler. 
 
 AUBURN SAVINGS BANK, AUBURN 
 
 (74 Genesee Street; incorporated 1849) 
 David M. Dunning, President William S. Downer, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Edwin R. Fay, David M. Dunning, George Underwood, Nelson B. Eldred, 
 George H. Nye, William I*'. Keeler, Henry D. Titus, Hobart L. Romig, William 
 H. Seward, Jr., Henry D. Noble, Frederick Sefton, William S. Downer, Samuel 
 V. Kennedy.
 
 APPENDIX 589 
 
 BANK FOR SAVINGS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 (280 Fourth Avenue; incorporated 1819) 
 Walter Trimble, President James Knowles, Comptroller 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Walter Trimble, Frederic W. Stevens, Charles S. Brown, Adrian Iselin, Jr., 
 Lewis B. Gawtry, John E. Parsons, Chas. A. Sherman, Henry W. de Forest, 
 W. Irving Clark, WilUam J. Riker, Wm. W. Appleton, Charles A. Peabody, 
 Thomas Dimond, Robert Bacon, Henry R. Hoyt, August Behnont, Charles H. 
 Tweed, William Sloane, James Knowles, Thomas Denny, Pierre Jay, John E. 
 Cowdin, James S. Alexander, Nicholas Biddle, George F. Baker, Jr., Otto M. 
 Eidlitz. 
 
 BANK FOR SAVINGS OF OSSINING, OSSINING 
 
 (Highland Avenue and Main Street; incorporated 1854) 
 
 Stephen M. Sherwood, President Seth G. Ellegood, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 S. M. Sherwood, C. Townsend Young, Theodore H. Calam, Seth G. Ellegood, 
 Wilbur F. Foshay, Warren A. Miner, George Hyatt, Dudley B. Holbrook, Jacob 
 Chadeayne, Leonard A. Ballard, G. S. Hilliker, Louis F. Washbume, Edwin L. 
 Todd. 
 
 *BAY RIDGE SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 (5517 Fifth Avenue; incorporated 1909) 
 Maurice T. Lewis, President Thomas L. Dowling, Jr., Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Maurice T. Lewis, Alfred Hamilton, Michael Murphy, John D. Holsten, 
 Gustave Grafenstein, Pierce Keefe, George Ihnken, Justus Berge, Henry Meyer, 
 Henry Schwanewede, Wm. E. Kays, Peter N. Meinke, Henry Kettelhodt, Wil- 
 liam J. Bolger, Olaf Olafson, Simon Henchel. 
 
 BINGHAMTON SAVINGS BANK, BINGHAMTON 
 
 (97 and 99 Collier Street; incorporated 1867) 
 Charles W. Gennet, President Asbury C. Deyo, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John G. Orton, Edward C. Smith, Edward P. McKinney, George M. Harris, 
 Charles F. Sisson, Charles W. Gennet, Charles M. Stone, S. J. Hirschmann, John 
 Bayless, Charles A. Weed, George F. Lyon, William H. Ogden, Asbury C. Deyo. 
 
 BOWERY SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (128 and 130 Bowery; incorporated 1834) 
 Henry A. Schenck, President Joseph G. Liddle, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry A. Schenck, Wm. M. Spackman, Wm. A. Nash, John J. Sinclair, David 
 S. Taber, Geo. H. Robinson, George Jeremiah, Henry C. Berlin, Charles E. 
 Bigelow, John C. Moore, William C. Wood, I. W. Drummond, H. B. Dominick, 
 C. L. Perkins, Robert M. Gallaway, C. H. Hackett, Robt. B. Woodward, John 
 W. Aitken, Mark W. Maclay, Ed. D. Faulkner, Thomas B. Kent, Francis S. 
 Bangs, James Stillman, Seth M. Milliken, Richard M. Hoe, George McNeir, 
 Charles H. Tenney, Hobart J. Park, W. Hull Wickham, Stephen Baker, Arthur 
 L. Lesher, S. W. Fairchild. 
 
 *Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 590 APPENDIX 
 
 BREVOORT SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (522 Nostrand Avenue; incorporated 1890) 
 Howard M. Smith, President Raymond Lounsbery, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Chas. M. x'\ikman, Joseph M. Bacon, John W. Bailey, Charles Cooper, Wil- 
 liam J. Gilpin, William H. Good, William H. Harding, G. W. Harman, Walter 
 C. Humstone, Alfred T. Seward, R. Lounsbery, Edward Lyons, John McNamee, 
 Ernst Nathan, George W. Pipe, James R. Ross, Howard M. Smith, Bertrand L. 
 Smith, John D. Sullivan, Thos. J. Washburn, L. A. Wray, Patrick M. Wood, 
 John H. Burroughs, Ernest H. Pilsbury. 
 
 BROADWAY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (5 and 7 Park Place; incorporated 1851) 
 Horace F. Hutchison, President William H. Rose, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 J. A. Geissenhainer, H. F.' Hutchinson, W. A. Conover, Eugene Britton, H. 
 Mortimer Brush, Oscar T. Mackey, W. L. Wellington, Richard B. Kelly, Remsen 
 Johnson, Edward Townsend, James Wotherspoon, Frederick W. Hunter, Charles 
 
 A. Frank, Samuel S. Blood, J. Seaver Page, Henry A. Howarth, William H. 
 Rose. 
 
 BRONX SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (429 Tremont Avenue; incorporated 1906) 
 William B. Aitken, President William E. Stevens, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William B. Aitken, F. Brevoort AUin, Charles H. Bull, Clifton B. Bull, Wm. I. 
 Brown, Nelson F. Grififin, John F. Holmes, Chas. F. Schumann, William E. 
 Stevens, Albert E. Colfax, John S. Sutphen, J. Ostram Taylor, Livingston Wet- 
 more, T. Tasso Fischer, Walter S. Wilson, Thos. Le Boutillier, Thos. A. Nos- 
 worthy. 
 
 BROOKLYN SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (141 Pierrepont Street; incorporated 1827) 
 Crowell Hadden, President A. C. Hare, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Crowell Hadden, Richard L. Edwards, Edw. H. Litchfield, Frank Lyman, 
 David G. Legget, Willis L. Ogden, John F. Halsted, Jonathan Bulkley, Frank L. 
 Babbott, Henry F. Noyes, Sanford H. Steele, Daniel J. Creem, CHnton R. James, 
 
 B. Herbert Smith, Francis L. Noble, F. A. M. Burrell, Edwin P. Maynard, 
 WiUiam L. Moffat, Harold I. Pratt, Charles J. Peabody, Martin Joost, Albert L. 
 Mason, Frank D. Tuttle, William Mason, Charles L. Morse. 
 
 ♦BUFFALO SAVINGS BANK, BUFFALO 
 
 (545 Main Street; incorporated 1846) 
 Spencer Clinton, President Edward G. Becker, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Spencer Clinton, E. C. Townsend, Chas. L. Gurney, Edward G. Becker, W. 
 H. Glenny, George Bleistein, Seymour P. White, John L. Clawson, C. B. Porter, 
 De Witt Clinton, Henry M. Gerrans, Richard E. Gavin, John B. Olmstead. 
 
 Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 591 
 
 BUSHWICK SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (726 Grand Street; incorporated 1873) 
 Jere E. Brown, President George J. Merked, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Rufus L. Scott, Daniel Canty, Edward Bush, Henry Schade, John H. Scheidt, 
 William S. Wandel, William G. Miller, Augustus P. Avery, Jere E. Brown, John 
 H. Vanderveer, M. L. Reynolds, F. H. Narwood, Louis G. Burger, George W. 
 Schaedle, Andrew F. Wilson, Peter E. Nostrand, M. Fackenthal, Herrman C. 
 Huelle, Theophile Thonet, Christian D. Homeyer, Charles Trietschler, David H. 
 Moore. 
 
 CATSKILL SAVINGS BANK, CATSKILL 
 
 (343 Main Street; incorporated 1868) 
 W. Irving Jennings, President Jeremiah Day, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 W. I. Jennings, Jeremiah Day, Orrin Day, Wm. Palmatier, Charles E. Bassett, 
 Emory A. Chase, C. E. Bloodgood, A. C. Bloodgood, Lucius R. Doty, Addison 
 P. Jones, Wm. H. Van Orden, George S. Lewis, Frank H. Osbom, Omar V. Sage, 
 William J. Hughes. 
 
 CAYUGA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, AUBURN 
 
 (113 and 115 Genesee Street; incorporated 1864) 
 William F. Wait, President William H. Meaker, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William H. Seward, Benjamin B. Snow, William H. Meaker, James Lyon, 
 Chas. A. McCarthy, William F. Wait, David Wadsworth, Jr., Edwin D. Metcalf, 
 George B. Turner, Sidney J. Westfall, C. F. Baldwin, Charles W. Brister, G. V. 
 Loughborough, Hull Greenfield, William W. Eccles, Charles P. Mosher, Daniel 
 L. Ramsey. 
 
 ♦CHENANGO VALLEY SAVINGS BANK, BINGHAMTON 
 
 (2 Chenango Street; incorporated 1867) 
 George A. Kent, President William R. Ely, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Arthur S. Bartlett, George A. Kent, C. F. Hotchkiss, William W. Sisson, 
 James W. Manier, Robert S. Parsons, George F. O'Neil, WiUiam G. Phelps, 
 Leslie M. Wilson, William R. Ely, Renna Z. Spaulding, Arthur L. Kent, Harry 
 Rubin. 
 
 CITIZENS' SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (56 and 58 Bowery; incorporated i860) 
 Henry Hasler, President Henry Sayler, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Chas. H. Steinway, Henry Hasler, Charles Gulden, Percival Kuhne, James 
 Rowland, Arthur W. Watson, John C. Juhring, John N. Fuchs, David C. Town- 
 send, Frederick W. Wurster, Charles H. Smith, John A. Beall, Charles H. Clark, 
 Edward H. Titus, Barak G. Coles, Jr., Richard A. Bachia, Julius De Long, John 
 L. Dudley, Henry Sayler, Warren D. Orvis, William H. Schmidt. 
 
 *Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 592 APPENDIX 
 
 CITY SAVINGS BANK OF BROOKLYN, BROOKLYN 
 
 (Comer Lafayette and Flatbush avenues; incorporated 1886) 
 Remsen Rushmore, President William A. Avis, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Francis O. Afield, William A. Avis, David F. Butcher, Jacob G. Dettmer, 
 Simon J. Harding, James Matthews, Theophilus Olena, Lewis H. Pounds, Rem- 
 sen Rushmore, John M. Rider, H. V. Raymond, J. B. Summerfield, Frederick H. 
 Webster, Edwin H. Sayre, Rufus T. Griggs, James G. Shaw, Clarence T. Corey, 
 Frank C. Swan, Ralph E. Dayton, Barthol'w A. Greene. 
 
 COHOES SAVINGS INSTITUTION, COHOES 
 
 (65 Remsen Street; incorporated 1851) 
 George H. McDowell, President Charles R. Ford, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry A. Strong, Geo. H. McDowell, James W. Ablett, George R. Wilsdon, 
 George A. Harper, John W.- Kline, James Aitken, John Laughlin, Merritt D. 
 Hanson, William D. Boswell, Charles R. Ford, Isaiah Fellows, John F. Scott, 
 James S. Calkins, John F. McGarrahan, Charles L. Mitchell, WiUiam J. Elhott, 
 Napoleon Favreau. 
 
 COLLEGE POINT SAVINGS BANK, COLLEGE POINT 
 
 (254 Second Avenue; incorporated 1872) 
 Fred. W. Grell, President Geo. W. Gillette, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Ferdinand Martens, Wm. W. Weitling, A. H. Schlesinger, George W. Gillette, 
 Frank Hunold, Fred. W. Grell, Edwin P. Roe, William F. Buhl, Henry Bohne, 
 George Duer, Wilham Schmidt, G. A. S. Wieners, H. C. Poppenhusen. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH SAVINGS BANK OF NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (2007 Amsterdam Avenue; incorporated 1910) 
 John H. Boschen, Presidetit Charles S. G.\ubert, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Herman W. Beyer, John H. Boschen, John F. Cowan, John R. Davies, Frank 
 
 B. French, Murtha J. Garry, Charles S. Gaubert, Valentine J. Hahn, Philip 
 Hano, Henry O. Heuer, Cornelius Huth, George H. Hyde, Thomas F. McAvoy, 
 John A. Murray, Christian Schierloh, Wm. F. Schneider, Richard H. Smith, 
 Louis K. Ungrich, Martin Wallace, Burton J. Wilke, William S. Bennet, Otto H. 
 Schlobohm, Frank P. Schimpf, Gustav Scholer, Donald G. Sinclair. 
 
 ♦CORNWALL SAVINGS BANK, CORNWALL-ON-THE-HUDSON 
 
 (Incorporated 1871) 
 TowNSEND D. Wood, President Gilbert T. Cocks, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William Brewster, Patrick Bevans, Henry N. Clark, Rowland Cocks, Charles 
 
 C. Cocks, Gilbert T. Cocks, Harvey A. Call, L. Grant Goodnough, Frank Vickere, 
 Townsend D. Wood, Stephen B. Young, George B. Mailler, Edward L. Sylcox. 
 
 *Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 593 
 
 CORTLAND SAVINGS BANK, CORTLAND 
 
 (hi Main Street; incorporated 1866) 
 Calvin P. Walrad, President Benjamin L. Webb, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Calvin P. Walrad, Benjamin L. Webb, Marcus H. McGraw, Lewis Bouton, 
 Hubert T. Bushnell, Peter D. Muller, Stratton S. Knox, Lester P. Bennett, 
 Grove T, Maxon, Arthur F. Stilson, William J. Buchanan, Byron Maxson, Wm. 
 A. Stockwell. 
 
 DIME SAVINGS BANK OF BROOKXYN, BROOKLYN 
 
 (9 De Kalb Avenue; incorporated 1859) 
 J. Lawrence Marcellus, President Russell S. Walker, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 J. L. Marcellus, John Truslow, Geo. W. Chauncey, Samuel Rowland, R. W. 
 Bainbridge, Horace C. Du Val, Ludwig Nissen, Wm. McCarroll, N. T. Thayer, 
 J. T. E. Litchfield, Russell S. Walker, George Cox, Charles E. Teale, Geo. T. 
 Moon, Frank H. Parsons, Frederic B. Fiske, James L. Brumley, Edward B. 
 Jordan, Frederick W. Rowe, Frederick W. Jackson. 
 
 DIME SAVINGS BANK OF WILLIAMSBURGH, BROOKLYN 
 
 (Corner Havemeyer and South Fifth streets; incorporated 1864) 
 W. P. Sturgis, President C. M. Lowes, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Jacob F. Healey, William P. Sturgis, Robert B. Ferguson, Augustus Wenzel, 
 Frederick V. Dare, H. F. Mollenhauer, John McKee, Otto F. Struse, Alex. D. 
 Seymour, Warren F. Goodwin, James A. Sperry, John Hoerle, Alvah Miller, 
 H. R. Ferguson, C. C. Mollenhauer. 
 
 DOLLAR SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (2808 Third Avenue; incorporated 1890) 
 George E. Edwards, President William M. Kern, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 George E. Edwards, Brian G. Hughes, William M. Kern, James M. La Coste, 
 Bernard French, J. Harris Jones, John S. Hanson, Geo. M. MacKellar, Charles W. 
 Bogart, James S. Bryant,William S. Beckley, Howell T. Manson, Charles P. Faber. 
 
 DRY DOCK SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (341 Bowery; incorporated 1848) 
 Andrew Mills, President William F. Patterson, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 David J. Taff, Andrew Mills, Frederick Zittel, John A. Tackaberry, William 
 S. Gray, Benj. DeF. Curtiss,W. M. Bennet, Walter E. Frew,Wm. H. Remick, 
 Wm. F. Patterson, Samuel E. Slaymaker, Augustus H. Teunis, George B. Hodg- 
 man, Richard T. Davies. 
 
 EAST BROOKLYN SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (643 Myrtle Avenue; incorporated i860) 
 Eugene F. Barnes, President David Morehouse, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Charles A. Peck, Eugene F. Barnes, John H. Ireland, James N. Brown, John 
 H. Rowland, Henry Von Glahn, John T. Barry, Marvin Robbins, Robert L. 
 Wensley, E. J. Phillips, Frederick E. Gunnison, A. R. Boerum, Chnton P. Case, 
 Harry A. Moody, William A. Graham, Alfred S. Hughes, George Nicholson.
 
 594 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 ♦EASTCHESTER SAVINGS BANK, MOUNT VERNON 
 
 (g South Third Avenue; incorporated 187 1) 
 George H. Brown, President Oliver A. Westfall, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 J. Mortimer Bell, Samuel W. Bertine, George H. Brown, A. M. Campbell, 
 Franklin T. Davis, Minot C. Kellogg, J. Milford McKee, Jonah Rockett, James 
 S. Van Court, Oliver A. Westfall, Marx Wintjen, Charles Rockwell, Theodore 
 Taylor. 
 
 EAST NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (2644 Atlantic Avenue; incorporated 1868) 
 Frederick Middendorf, President John M. Linz, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Frederick Middendorf, C. W. Colyer, Rudolph Reimer, Frank C. Lang, David 
 Hopkins, Frederick D. Hart, Louis A. Tranberg, Clarence F. Colyer, John M. 
 Linz, Adolph Kiendl, Rudolph C. Werner, Carl E. Anselm, A. H. Ackerman, 
 Edward A. Richards, Henry Meyer. 
 
 EASTERN DISTRICT SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY OF 
 BROOKLYN 
 
 (1024-1026 Gates Avenue; incorporated 1895) 
 Lewis E. Meeker, President A. Manning Shevill, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 J. Parker Sloane, Charles L. Sicard, John W. Fraser, Geo. W. Paynter, Henry 
 L. Gaus, Henry Vollweiler, Homer L. Bartlett, C. Jerome Edwards, John Moore, 
 Fred E. Brandis, John Bossert, Lewis E. Meeker, Charles Jacob. 
 
 EAST RIVER SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (291-295 Broadway; incorporated 1848) 
 Dick S. Ramsay, President Charles A. Whitney, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry T. Nichols, George Abeel, Dick S. Ramsay, Warren C. Barber, Richard 
 Young, J. Worrall Arthur, William C. Smith, Daniel W. Whitmore, Chas. A. 
 O'Donohue, Charles F. Bassett, William C. Taber, Julian D. Fairchild, William 
 Coverly, William H. Taylor, James B. Clews, J. Fred. Pierson, Julian P. Fair- 
 child, Richard Young, Jr., Darwin R. James, Jr., James A. Smith, Charles E. 
 Perkins. 
 
 EAST SIDE SAVINGS BANK OF ROCHESTER, ROCHESTER 
 
 (233 Main Street, E.; incorporated 1869) 
 Benjamin E. Chase, President Burton H. Davy, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Cassius C. Davy, Benjamin E. Chase, W. Henry Mathews, William R. Peters, 
 Alex. B. Lamberton, Austin C. Jackson, William Bausch, Frank A. Brownell, 
 Burton H. Davy, Charles A. Green, William H. Dunn, Arthur T. Hagen, V. F. 
 Whitmore, John H. Engert, Chas. H. Ocumpaugh. 
 
 Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 595 
 
 ELLENVILLE SAVINGS BANK, ELLENVILLE 
 
 (io8 Canal Street; incorporated 1869) 
 DwiGHT Divine, President John A. Tice, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Dwight Divine, Geo. H. Dutcher, William H. Deyo, James B. Smith, J. C. 
 Young, Isaac N. Cox, Henry F. Hoornbeek, Webster Wilkinson, Gilbert Du 
 Bois, U. E. Terwilliger, R. Dwight Clark, William C. Rose, C. D. Divine, George 
 B. Holmes, Phillip Patterson, Cornelius H. Sheely, William A. Hoar, Garret Le 
 Roy. 
 
 ELMIRA SAVINGS BANK, ELMIRA 
 
 (212 East Water Street; incorporated 1869) 
 Jesse L. Cooley, President M. A. Leahy, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 
 Irving D. Booth, Jesse L. Cooley, John J. Curtis, Henry J. Haase, Fred. D. 
 
 Herrick, John W. Huston, Michael A. Leahy, Wm. H. Ferguson, Louis N. 
 
 Mathews, Henry Simpson, William M. Ufford, Alexander S. Diven, H. C. Man- 
 
 deville. 
 
 EMIGRANT INDUSTRIAL SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (51 Chambers Street; incorporated 1850) 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry, President John J. Pulleyn, Comptroller 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 L. V. O'Donohue, C. V. Fomes, James G. Johnson, Herman Ridder, Myles 
 Tierney, M. J. Drummond, Joseph P. Grace, Thos. M. Mulry, M. F. McDer- 
 mott, James Clarke, Frank S. Gannon, John J. Pulleyn, Henry Heide, William 
 Harkness, John J. Deery, Samuel Adams, John D. Ryan, F. F. Fitzpatrick, John 
 G. O'Keeffe. 
 
 EMPIRE CITY SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (231 West 125th Street; incorporated 1889) 
 John Beaver, President A. S. Van Winkle, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William Moores, John H. Loos, B. G. Mitchell, John Beaver, Arthur E. Wood, 
 E. H. Hamilton, William T. Koch, J. C. Watson, John Bottomley, Geo. H. 
 Taylor, Edward L. Young, Richard E. Cochran, Lyman T. Dyer, Chas. W. 
 Dayton, Albert E. Merrall. 
 
 ERIE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, BUFFALO 
 
 (Niagara and Main streets; incorporated 1854) 
 RoBT. S. Donaldson, President Robert D. Young, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Robt. S. Donaldson, George L. Williams, William A. Rogers, G. Barrett Rich, 
 George R. Howard, L. D. Rumsey, Carlton M. Smith, Thos. T. Ramsdell, John 
 W. Robinson, H. W. Sprague, Whitney G. Case, Robert D. Young, George C. 
 Ginther, Seymour H. Knox, John K. Walker. 
 
 EXCELSIOR SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (79 West Twenty- third Street; incorporated 1869) 
 William J. Roome, President John C. Griswold, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John C. Gulick, Robert C. Brown, Henry Dazian, William H. Barron, William 
 J. Roome, Henry D. Brewster, John Burke, Robert J. Horner, William Craw- 
 ford, Rich G. HoUaman, Patrick F. Giffin, Ephraim M. Youmans, Benj. A. 
 Hegeman, Jr., Clarence Price, Michael Coleman.
 
 596 APPENDIX 
 
 * FARMERS* AND MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY 
 OF LOCKPORT 
 
 (ii6 Main Street; incorporated 1870) 
 Wm. a. Williams, President J. E. Emerson, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Wm. A. Williams, Charles A. Hoag, Joseph Dumville, Jerome E. Emerson, 
 George H. Moody, John T. Damson, Wm. Richmond, H. J. Babcock, Thos. M. 
 McGrath, M. D. Clapsattle, John B. Arnold, E. M. Grigg, I. A. Bronson. 
 
 ♦FISHKILL SAVINGS INSTITUTE, FISHKILL 
 
 (Main Street; incorporated 1857) 
 Franklin R. Benjamin, President Chas. R. Montfort, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 F. R. Benjamin, J. S. Luyster, Alex. H. Dudley, Chas. D. Sherwood, Chas. R. 
 Montfort,^ Robert W. Doughty, Hyman B. Rosa, James E. Dean, S. L. Van Voor- 
 his, Lewis E. Wood, Jarvis S. Phillips, Cyrus Tompkins, John Rapelje, E. H. 
 Foshay, S. H. Parsons, Wm. H. Haight, James Adriance, J. B. Waldo. 
 
 FRANKLIN SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (656 Eighth Avenue; incorporated i860) 
 WnxiAM G. CoNKLiN, President James A. Stenhouse, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John D. Robinson, John S. Sills, Wm. H. Van Kleeck, Bernard Karsch, James 
 G. Cannon, J. Edgar Leaycraft, William G. Conklin, Wilson M. Powell, Jr., 
 Howard C. Smith, Jr., Charles A. Walker, William H. Porter, Stuart Duncan, 
 Gardner Wetherbee, Wm. C. Muschenheim, T. Frank Manville, John I. 
 Downey, Simeon Ford. 
 
 FULTON SAVINGS BANK, FULTON 
 
 (75 South First Street; incorporated 1871) 
 Arvtn Rice, President William J. Love joy, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 
 Arvin Rice, Giles S. Piper, William J. Lovejoy, George P. Wells, H. Putnam 
 
 Allen, Cameron C. Benedict, Edwin F. Palmer, Arthur G. Gilbert, Harry L. 
 
 Stout, Watson A. Butts, Elmer E. Morrill, George E. True, Herbert J. Wilson, 
 
 George G. Chauncey, Albert I. Morton, Frank W. Lasher, John R. Sullivan. 
 
 GENEVA SAVINGS BANK, GENEVA 
 
 (31 Seneca Street; incorporated 1910) 
 James E. Brown, President George D. Whedon, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Alexander D. Allen, James E. Brown, WilUam G. Dove, Frederick M. Fast, 
 John C. Fitzwater, Lansing G. Hoskins, Whitman H. Jordan, Alfred G. Lewis, 
 George F. Licht, Patrick O'Malley, Samuel D. Pierson, Arthur P. Rose, H. H. 
 Schieffelin, Theodore J. Smith, Edwin S. Thome, D. J. Van Auken, Henry A. 
 Wheat, George D. Whedon, George H. Whitwell, Thomas B. Wilson. 
 
 'Those marked with asterisk, not members of the Savings Banks .\ssociation of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 597 
 
 GERMAN SAVINGS BANK OF BROOKLYN, BROOKLYN 
 
 (531 Broadway; incorporated 1866) 
 Charles Froeb, Vice-President Henry Stximpf, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John L. Gaus, Theo. Engelhardt, J. A. Mollenhauer, Charles Froeb, A. C. 
 Scharmann, Henry C. Deck, J. Henry Dick, John R. Thompson, George B. 
 Goodwin, J. H. Schumann, Jr., Henry Stumpf, Joseph Huber, J. M. Otto. 
 
 GERMAN SAVINGS BANK IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 (157 Fourth Avenue; incorporated 1859) 
 Alfred Roelker, President Adolph Koppel, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Alfred Roelker, Dallas B. Pratt, James Speyer, Edw. C. Schaefer, R. Sieden- 
 burg, Fritz Achehs, D. Schnakenberg, G. C. Clark, Jr., Fred. T. Steinway, 
 Thomas F. Vietor, George S. Runk, Ernest Steiger, Carl Goepel, O. F. ZoUikoffer, 
 Adolf Kuttroff, Hubert Cillis, August Zinsser, A. Pagenstecher, William Schall, 
 F. T. Fleitmann, Rudolph Keppler, Joseph F. Stillman, Ernst Pfarrius, Rudolf 
 Erbsloh. 
 
 GERMANIA SAVINGS BANK, KINGS COUNTY, BROOKLYN 
 
 (375 Fulton Street; incorporated 1867) 
 
 A. Goepel, President J. C. M. Lorenz, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Adolph Goepel, Chas. A. Schieren, P. H. Reppenhagen, T. EUett Hodgskin, 
 Edward L. Graef, Jacob Dangler, August Jahn, J. C. Hacker, J. F. Hildebrand, 
 Richard Kny, Otto Wissner, G. W. Rasch, J. R. Mannheim, Herman A. Metz, 
 Louis Scheling, Frederick Renken, William Rasmus. 
 
 GOSHEN SAVINGS BANK, GOSHEN 
 
 (11 West Main Street; incorporated 187 1) 
 William D. Van Vllet, President Henry B. Knight, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry Bacon, Frank Drake, Seneca Jessup, WiUiam Kniffin, Henry B. Knight 
 Ralph L. McGeoch, Thomas Mould, Edwin L. Boys, Aaron V. D. Wallace, 
 Joseph R. Weir, William A. Wells, Harry B. Smith, Wm. D. Van Vhet. 
 
 GREATER NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (498 Fifth Avenue; incorporated 1897) 
 C. J. Obermayer, President Wm. Obermayer, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 C. J. Obermayer, Charles Ruston, William J. Maxwell, W. F. Vanden Houten, 
 Allan Bowie, Thomas Murphy, Alex. G. Calder, Frank A. Selle, Milo M. Beld- 
 ing, Jr., H. B. McNair, Chas. G. Balmanno, Wm. Obermayer, W. M. Meserole, 
 Adolph Rehbein, Walter Critchley, John Lamont, Archibald Simpson, Gustave 
 Hartung, John E. Ruston, Frederick W. Starr, Wm. W. Spence, Ludwig Merk- 
 lein, GuyLoomis, Wm. D. Buckner. 
 
 GREENBURGH SAVINGS BANK, DOBBS FERRY 
 
 (93 Main Street; incorporated 1869) 
 W. Ward Tompkins, President W. Howard Losee, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 W. W. Tompkins, Thomas Losee, Thomas Maher, Charles G. Storms, Syl- 
 vester L. Storms, Charles H. Bevers, Henry Y.. Bliss, Louis F. Murray, Sylvester 
 Buckhout, Robert Denniston, Matthew Alhson, Jerome Bradley, Walter Keys, 
 W. Howard Losee, Anthony S. Lester.
 
 598 APPENDIX 
 
 GREENPOINT SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (807 Manhattan Avenue; incorporated 1868) 
 Ephraim a. Walker, President George W. Felter, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Ephraim A. Walker, John D. Felter, Peter Burden, Henry Ducker, Donald A. 
 Manson, Lewis Jurgens, Jas. A. McCafferty, George W. Felter, David Martin, 
 Albert L. Perry, Frank S. Harlow, Femand S. Bellevue, Chas. H. Reynolds. 
 
 GREENWICH SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (246 and 248 Sixth Avenue; incorporated 1833) 
 James Qxtinlan, President Charles M. Dutcher, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Lowell Lincoln, Edward N. Tailer, Algernon S. Frissell, David M. Morrison, 
 James Quinlan, Wm. R. Stewart, Alfred L. White, B. Aymar Sands, L. K. 
 Wilmerding, Chas. D. Dickey, Theo. D. Whitmarsh, Bradish Johnson, Geo. A. 
 Morrison, William A. Street, Carl Schefer, Chas. F. Hoffman, Frank H. Dodd, 
 John H. Rhoades, Arthur Iselin, Francis M. Bacon, Jr., C. N. Bliss, Jr., George 
 Blagden, Henry C. Swords, B. Ogden Chisolm, Lawrence L. Gillespie, Allen 
 Wardwell, Edwin S. Marston, Edwin G. Merrill, W. de L. Kountze, Albert H. 
 Wiggin, Gates W. McGarrah, Elgin R. L. Gould, Archibald D. Russell. 
 
 ♦HAMBURG SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (1451 Myrtle Avenue; incorporated 1906) 
 James Moffett, President George C. Unbescsheider, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 James Moffett, David Engel, N. A. Stemmermann, H. L. Schelling, Henry C. 
 Bohack, Albert L. Levi, Theodore C. Eppig, H. J. Holtermann, Chas. Aichmann, 
 Rudolph Stutzmann, Ernest A. Fleischer, Otto Spangenberg, Henry C. Bain- 
 bridge, Wm. P. Boggs, Robert E. Moffett, David Schmidt. 
 
 HARLEM SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (124 East 125th Street; incorporated 1863) 
 WiLLLVM E. Trotter, President Thomas R. Ebert, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William E. Trotter, WilUam T. Purdy, Granville F. Dailey, William Somer- 
 ville, John J. Bell, Frank E. Wise, Henry B. Pye, M. J. Ennis, John F. Steeves, 
 Walter P. Silleck, Ohn J. Stephens, Warren A. Leonard, Alexander Walker, 
 William Hills, Thomas R. Ebert, Ransom E. Wilcox, James A. Bennett. 
 
 HOME SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, ALBANY 
 
 (13 North Pearl Street; incorporated 1871) 
 David A. Thompson, President Wm. F. Hourigan, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Thomas Austin, David A. Thompson, Samuel L. Munson, Henry Russell, 
 William Sayles, M. W. Tebbutt, Samuel C. Wooster, William McDonald, 
 Howard N. Fuller, Thomas R. Ward, Jr., J. Edward Poole, W. W. Batchelder, 
 Geo. W. Van Slyke, Silas Sporborg, Wm. F. Hourigan, Hildreth J. Ackroyd. 
 
 *Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 599 
 
 HOME SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (804 Manhattan Avenue; incorporated 1906) 
 Geo. H. Gerard, President V. M. Powell, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 George H. Gerard, M. W. Gleason, John W. Burr, John J. Cashman, Thos. 
 F. Kelly, Louis Stem, Oscar A. Boch, Chas. F. Ball, Chas. W. Griffin, Edgar H. 
 Hazelwood, Edwin J. Sutphin, Thomas F. Kelly, J. R. Hazelwood, M. H. Kavan- 
 agh, George H. Rowe. 
 
 HOME SAVINGS BANK, WHITE PLAINS 
 
 (114 Central Avenue; incorporated 1893) 
 David Cromwell, President John F. Krepps, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry R. Barrett, T. E. Carpenter, David Cromwell, Charles J. F. Decker, 
 Henry P. Griffin, Charles Hammond, Harry S. Hamilton, James F. Horan, 
 Charles D. Horton, Harvey Husted, John Y. Lavery, F. Herbert Nowill, Will- 
 iam H. Lyon, Aaron Radick, Edward Schirmer, Stephen C. Smith, Elijah C. 
 Sniffen, John F. Krepps, J. T. Lockwood, William H. Lyon. 
 
 HUDSON CITY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, HUDSON 
 
 (560 Warren Street; incorporated 1850) 
 R. B. Benedict, President S. Mitchell Rainey, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Russel B. Benedict, Louis A. Bristol, Noah H. Browning, Louis P. Church, 
 A. V. S. Cochrane, Herman F. Dernell, Robert W. Evans, John W. Gillette, 
 Frank B. Harder, Jacob P. Mesick, S. Mitchell Rainey, Chas. A. Van Deusen, 
 Everts Ten Broeck. 
 
 IRVING SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (115 Chambers Street; incorporated 1851) 
 Hampden E. Tester, President George B. Dunning, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Wm. H. B. Totten, John W. Nix, Henry Kroger, John O. Williams, Wm. C. 
 Demorest, James H. Killough, D. Beckermann, Samuel S. Conover, George B. 
 Dunning, Hampden E. Tener, Samuel B. Downes, John Tiebout, Lewis E. 
 Pierson, Nathan F. Vought, William H. Frame, John J. Walton, Willard S. 
 Brown, George N. Robinson, Eugene M. Travis. 
 
 ITALIAN SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 (64 and 66 Spring Street; incorporated 1896) 
 Joseph N. Francolini, President Pasquale I. Simonelli, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Domenico Abbate, Antonio C. Astarita, Nicholas Barrett, Vito Contessa, 
 Jos. N. Francohni, Lawrence M. D. McGuire, Antonio Pisani, Celestino Piva, 
 Domenico Saladino, P. I. Simonelli, James J. Slevin, Antonio Stella, John Elton 
 Wayland, Alexander S. Webb, Antonio Zucca, Bernard J. McCann.
 
 6oo APPENDIX 
 
 ITHACA SAVINGS BANK, ITHACA 
 
 (ii8 North Tioga Street; incorporated 1868) 
 Roger B. Williams, President A. B. Hillick, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Charles H. Blood, Edward H. Bostwick, F. C. Cornell, John C. Gauntlett, 
 Alvah B. Hillick, James A. McKinney, Jared T. Newman, George E. Priest, 
 David B. Stewart, Henry A. St. John, Robert H. Treman, Mynderse Van Cleef, 
 Roger B. Williams, Emmons L. WiUiams. 
 
 JAMAICA SAVINGS BANK, JAMAICA 
 
 (360 Fulton Street; incorporated 1850) 
 William A. Warnoch, President Martin S. Rapelye, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William A. Wamock, William W. Gillen, Stephen Ryder, J. Tyler Watts, 
 Martin S. Rapelye, Leander B. Faber, George K. Meynen, Willet C. Durland, 
 William L. Wood, Philip M.,Wood, Robert W. Higbie, Edgar Dubs Shimer, 
 Charles E. Twombly, A. James Van Siclen, Starr Brinckerhoff. 
 
 JEFFERSON COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, WATERTOWN 
 
 (202 Washington Street; incorporated 1859) 
 A. T, E. Lansing, President F. H. Waddlngham, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 F. R. Farwell, D. C. Middleton, O. E. Hungerford, G. V. S. Camp, Geo. C. 
 Sherman, Robt. J. Buck, H. Purcell, S. R. Cleveland, D. M. Anderson, D. M. 
 Cosgrove, A. T. E. Lansing, S. A. Upham, F. M. Parker, P. A. Pitcher. 
 
 THE KINGS COUNTY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, BROOKLYN 
 
 (Broadway corner Bedford Avenue; incorporated i860) 
 HtreERT G. Taylor, President Jacob Hentz, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Wm. S. Liptrott, Edward McGarvey, Hubert G. Taylor, John S. McKeon, 
 George P. Jacobs, Alfred Hodges, Augustus P. Day, John H. Mowen, William 
 C. Carrick, Charles G. Bennett, J. Carhsle Loudon, Cornehus E. Donnellon 
 James R. Brennen, W. Winthrop Taylor, S. A. Coykendall. 
 
 KINGSTON SAVINGS BANK, KINGSTON 
 
 (273 Wall Street; incorporated 1874) 
 James A. Betts, President Charles Tappen, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 James A. Betts, George Burgevin, Zadoc P. Boice, Sam Bernstein, Joseph de 
 Graff, Everett Fowler, John E. Kraft, John J. Linson, Charles Tappen, Myron 
 Teller, V. B. Van Wagonen, Levan S. Winne, D. N. Mathews. 
 
 LONG ISLAND CITY SAVINGS BANK, LONG ISLAND CITY 
 
 (Bridge Plaza; incorporated 1875) 
 W. J. Burnett, President J. H. Smedley, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William J. Burnett, Charles W. Hallett, D. S. Jones, A. T. Payne, J. Harvey 
 Smedley, C. A. Thompson, H. F. Jones, G. W. Williams, D. G. Morrison, L. P. 
 Dexter, W. H. Siebrecht, John Harvey, Benjamin Moore, H. K. Lines.
 
 APPENDIX 6oi 
 
 MAIDEN LANE SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (170 Broadway; incorporated 1903) 
 
 F. A. RiNGLER, President J. Heynen, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Isaac W. Cokefair, John Q. Adams, Charles R. Jung, L. Burton Hall, Walter 
 
 G. King, M. R. Maltbie, Aug. Oppenheimer, Andrew Patterson, F. A. Ringler, 
 Hugo B. Roelker, Joel S. DeSelding, Robt. Schalkenbach, Leopold Stern, C. Ed- 
 ward Billquist, Chas. W. Lucas, John P. Windolph, Jacob Werner, Hugo R. 
 Ritterbusch, M. M. Schwarzschild. 
 
 MANHATTAN SAVINGS INSTITUTION, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (644 and 646 Broadway; incorporated 1850) 
 Joseph Bird, President Frank G. Stiles, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry B. Stokes, Benjamin Griffen, Simeon J. Drake, Edward V. Z. Lane, 
 Richard Lathers, Jr., Robert A. McKim, Joseph Bird, Frank G. Stiles, James E. 
 Ware, Edwin S. Schenck, Joseph T. Brown, Samuel Carey, J. McLean Walton, 
 Walter C. Stokes, Erastus T. Tefift, Phihp J. Ross, Francis B. Griffin, Herbert 
 W. ^Morse, Z. Taylor Emery, Frederic W. Frost, Thomas E. Lovejoy. 
 
 MATTEAWAN SAVINGS BANK, BEACON 
 
 (572 Main Street; incorporated 1866) 
 Samuel K. Phillips, President Benjamin Sullivan, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Addison G. Ormsbe, Benjamin Sullivan, B. Frank Greene, Samuel K. Phillips, 
 T. J. Cunningham, Garret Storm, Frank H. Brett, Wm. H. Southard, Benj. I. 
 D. Roosa, John O. Wixom, Peter H. Vosburgh, Gustave A. Schrader, Sherwood 
 Phillips, Myron Smith, F. H. Van Houten, John H. Ljoich, Herbert F. Steams, 
 Louis E. Kampf, Henry S. Comey, Eugene B. Smith, Henry D. Jackson. 
 
 MECHANICS' AND FARMERS' SAVINGS BANK, ALBANY 
 
 (63 State Street; incorporated 1855) 
 
 Dudley Olcott, President 
 
 Clarence W. Stevens, Secretary Robert Olcott, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Dudley Olcott, Charles Newman, Daniel Leonard, Robert Olcott, James 
 McCredie, Nathan Hatch, Parker Coming, Willard M. Douglas, Isaac D. F. 
 Lansing, A. Page Smith, Charles H. Douglas, John T. Norton, Walter L. Palmer. 
 
 MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, BEACON 
 
 (91 Main Street; incorporated 1866) 
 John T. Smith, President Bertram L, Smith, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John T. Smith, Benjamin Hammond, John P. Rider, John W. Corwin, Ber- 
 tram L. Smith, Preston Greene, Ferd. Loughran, Chester Bond, Hugo Doob, 
 Andrew Barnes, James Van Houten, George W. Beach, Aaron E. Aldridge, Wm. 
 J. Conklin, Frank L. Howard, S. M. Davidson, A. H. Blackburn, Robert R. 
 Neade, W. T. Pralatowski.
 
 6o2 APPENDIX 
 
 MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, COHOES 
 
 (89-91 Remsen Street; incorporated 1873) 
 Rodney Wilcox, President G. W. Hxjmphreys, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 RodneyWilcox,Abner J. Griffin, Frank Tessier, Edward Foley, James S. Clute, 
 John E. MacLean, G. W. Humphreys, Wm. B. Le Roy, Hugh Graham, George 
 Oliver, William E. Thorn, Andrew Scotland, Richard Bolton, John F. Reavy, 
 Jay Gilbert, Thos. H. Sprague, Henry L. Shaver, S. T. Page. 
 
 MECHANICS' SAVINGS BANK, ROCHESTER 
 
 (18 Exchange Street; incorporated 1867) 
 J. J. Bausch, President Fedor Willimek, Asst. Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John J. Bausch, A. P. Little, WilHam R. Seward, Louis J. Ernst, James H. 
 Boucher, Wendell J. Curtis, William Karle, WiUiam B. Hale, Wilmot Castle, 
 James C. Clements, Thomas B. Dunn, John S. Bronk, Chas. C. Beahan, Morris 
 D. Knapp, George W. Robeson., 
 
 METROPOLITAN SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (59-61 Cooper Square; incorporated 1852) 
 J. B. CuRREY, President Edward Sherer, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Aug. S. Hutchins, William Sherer, Jonathan B. Currey, Waldo Hutchins, 
 William E. Hutchins, Grove P. Mitchell, Willis S. Paine, Augustus K. Sloan, 
 Robert D. Andrews, Augustus H. Sands, Edward H. Swan, Chas. P. Emmons, 
 Edward Sherer, DeWitt C. Falls, John S. Spencer. 
 
 MIDDLETOWN SAVINGS BANK, MIDDLETOWN 
 
 (2 South Street; incorporated 1866) 
 George A. Swayze, President Harold B. Woodward, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Daniel H. Bailey, Edmund Millen, Jesse W. Canfield, John E. Iseman, James 
 
 A. Clark, John W. Slauson, Edward Canfield, Charles L. Mead, Geo. W. 
 Ballou, James E. Gibbs, James H. Smith, H. B. Woodward, George A. Swayze. 
 
 MONROE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, ROCHESTER 
 
 (33-35 State Street; incorporated 1850) 
 James E. Booth, President Hxytd Hoyt, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 James E. Booth, Rufus K. Dryer, Alex. M. Lindsay, Cyrus F. Paine, Henry A, 
 Strong, Thomas J. Devine, William B. Lee, Phar. V. Crittenden, Edward Bausch, 
 William Carson, William C. Barry, David Hoyt, Martin F. Bristol, Joseph 
 Michaels, Wm. A. Hubbard, Jr. 
 
 NATIONAL SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, ALBANY 
 
 (70 and 72 State Street; incorporated 1868) 
 James H. Manning, President Frederic B. Stev'ens, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 James H. Manning, Chas. J. Buchanan, Harry C. Cushman, W. M.Woodward, 
 Charles Gibson, James B. McEwan, Edward J. Hussey, James F. Maas, Syd- 
 ney T. Jones, Thomas A. Horton, Charles I. Oliver, Edwin L. Draper, Frederic 
 
 B. Stevens, Edgar M. Haines, Charles AL Stuart, Jonas Muhlfelder, Frank 
 Sherman.
 
 APPENDIX 603 
 
 NEWBURGH SAVINGS BANK, NEWBURGH 
 
 (40 Smith Street; incorporated 1852) 
 Thomas F. Balfe, President Frederick C. Balfe, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Thomas F. Balfe, Isaac C. Chapman, William O. Mailler, Joseph Chadwick, 
 A. Y. Weller, George W. Green, F. W. Senff, William F. Cassedy, S. V. Schoon- 
 maker, Frederick C. Balfe, John T. Howell, Hiram Merritt, Thos. F. Chadwick. 
 
 NEW PALTZ SAVINGS BANK, NEW PALTZ 
 
 (Main Street; incorporated 1871) 
 Lewis H. Woolsey, President Abram B. Du Bois, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Lewis H. Woolsey, Jesse Eltinge, Abram B. Du Bois, Daniel Black, John J. 
 Hull, A. W. Williams, Thomas Snyder, Frank J. Lefever, Abram P. Lefever, 
 C. I. Lefever, Luther Hasbrouck, C. L. Van Orden, Charles M. Harcourt, Josiah 
 P. Lefever, Simon Du Bois. 
 
 NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (83 Eighth Avenue; incorporated 1854) 
 William Felsinger, President James L. Wandling, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Archibald M. Pentz, John Webber, William Felsinger, James L. Wandling, 
 Eibe D. Cordis, Benj. A. Williams, John H. Armstrong, John A. Greene, Thomas 
 P. Spencer, WiUiam J. Hoe, Alexander M. Welch, William W. Hall, Frank B. 
 Smidt. 
 
 NIAGARA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, NIAGARA FALLS 
 
 (304 Niagara Street; incorporated 1890) 
 C. M. Young, President John MacKay, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 L. W. Pettebone, Alex. J. Porter, Julius Krakoski, Francis H. Salt, Fred. J. 
 Coe, George F. Nye, William C. Wallace, Joseph E. Montague, John T. Wil- 
 liamson, Chris. M. Young, Augustus G. Porter, Eugene Cary, De Lancy Ran- 
 kine, John H. Ellenbaum, Richard Crick, Frederick Chormann, Drake Whitney, 
 John MacKay, Henry Hubbs. 
 
 NORTH RIVER SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (31 West Thirty-fourth Street; incorporated 1866) 
 Adolpho H. Fischer, President George T. Connett, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Benjamin F. Mills, Adolpho H. Fischer, Christian F. Tietjen, John H. Selmes, 
 Noel B. Sanborn, Charles Rohe, Thomas Stokes, Robert H. Goffe, R. H. Mac- 
 donald, William H. Sage, Albert B. Ashforth, John A. Hance, Chas, W. Car- 
 penter, Charies H. Parsons, W. C. Otterson, T. A. Ball, Theodore H. Banks. 
 
 NORTH SIDE SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (3230 Third Avenue; incorporated 1905) 
 John G. Borgstede, President Arthur A. Ekirch, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John G. Borgstede, T. J. Chabot, T. Joseph Dunn, J. Clarence Davies, Henry 
 Hahnenfeld, John C. Heintz, Thomas J. Higgins, Louis F. Kuntz, Richard W. 
 Lawrence, Chas. F. Minor, Geo. N. Reinhardt, John Riegelman, George M. S. 
 Schulz, Constantin Wagner, Fred. H. Wafer, George Wohn, Joseph Miller, 
 Christian Rieger, Jr.
 
 6o4 APPENDIX 
 
 ONEIDA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, ROME 
 
 (178 West Dominick Street; incoqaorated 1869) 
 Charles W. Lee, President A. E. Weatherbee, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 F. M. Orton, D. L. Greenfield, Howard C. Wiggins, John R. Edwards, W. W. 
 Parry, Lawrence Carey, Arthur J. Wylie, John S. Wardwell, Charles W. Lee, 
 James P. Obey, F. G. Rathbun, D. L. Bradt. 
 
 ONEIDA SAVINGS BANK, ONEIDA 
 
 (103-105 Main Street; incorporated 1866) 
 R. B. Downing, President H. L. Baldwin, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Roswell B. Downing, Eugene E. Coon, Ira L. Snell, Theo. F. Hand, Jr., E. 
 Emmonds Coe, Le Grand Colton, E. Leland Hunt, WiUiam M. Baker, Geo. A. 
 MarceUus, Anthony B. Munroe, Howard L. Baldwin, Rhody Toher, H. W. 
 Coley. 
 
 ONONDAGA COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, SYRACUSE 
 
 (loi South Salina Street; incorporated 1855) 
 Henry M. Rowling, President Douglas E, Petit, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Geo. M. Barnes, Chas. E. Chappell, W. D. Dunning, Charles A. Hudson, 
 Salem Hyde, A. E. McChesney, T. Wm. Meachem, A. E. Nettleton, Anson N. 
 Palmer, Hiram W. Plimib, John R. Clancy, Henry M. Rowling, Adolph H. 
 Schwarz, Charles W. Snow, Charles L. Stone, Edward A. Powell, Clinton T. 
 Rose. 
 
 OSWEGO CITY SAVINGS BANK, OSWEGO 
 
 (214 West First Street; incorporated 1859) 
 Elliott B. Mott, President Charles S. Wright, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Karl Kellogg, Niel Gray, Jr., Benjamin Denton, John Smith, James B. Far- 
 well, Edward H. Farrell, James K. Stockwell, Edgar D. Johnson, Charles H. 
 Bond, Thomas F, Gleason, Elisha B. Powell, Elliott B. Mott, Arthur C. Hall, 
 John D. Higgins, Frank E. Sayer, Luther W. Mott. 
 
 OSWEGO COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, OSWEGO 
 
 (44 East Bridge Street; incorporated 1870) 
 W. B. Couch, President James Dunlap, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Cadwell B. Benson, Lawrence Clancy, S. Mortimer Coon, W. B. Couch, R. 
 Arthur Downey, Oren F. Gaylord, Peter Hilbert, Frederick B. Shepherd, O. S. 
 Osterhout, Hubert J. Peebles, Charles A. Tanner, Herbert A. Wilcox. 
 
 PAWLING SAVINGS BANK, PAWLING 
 
 (Incorporated 1870) 
 Wm. H. Osborn, Vice-President Geo. A. Daniels, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William H. Taber, Henry A. Holmes, George H. Adams, Henry S. Wanzer, 
 Merrick D. Green, Howard N. Allen, Benjamin F. Burr, Francis F. Cole, Wil- 
 liam H. Osborn, George A. Daniels, Henry D. Warner, Fred. C. Taber, Frank 
 A. Denton, Fraiik Hoag, Orson W. Sloat.
 
 APPENDIX 605 
 
 PEEKSKILL SAVINGS BANK, PEEKSKILL 
 
 (916 South Street; incorporated 1859) 
 Charles C. Knight, President Sanford R. Knapp, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Sanford R. Knapp, Henry L. Armstrong, Ira D. Strang, Frederick Lent, Oscar 
 Grifim, Alonzo Seymour, Robert S. Allen, Frank M. Dain, Edward E. Young. 
 J. R Decatur, Charles C. Knight, Edward G. Halsey, William H. Croft, George 
 W. Buchanan, Edmund Jordan. 
 
 *PEOPLE'S BANK FOR SAVINGS, NEW ROCHELLE 
 
 (252 Huguenot Street; incorporated 1906) 
 Henry M. Lester, President A. L. Hammett, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 W. W, Bissell, John Conlon, George T. Davis, R. C. Eddy, Mott Emigh, 
 G. F. Flandreaux, J. F. Frantz, Geo. E. Galgano, William Kirchhoff, J. F. Lamb- 
 den, Henry M. Lester, George W. Mahlstedt, W. R. Marvin, John F. New, John 
 A. Peck, Charles Pryer, Samuel F. Swinburne, L. E. Van Etten, Howard R. Ware, 
 George Watson. 
 
 PEOPLE'S SAVINGS BANK OF THE TOWN OF YONKERS, 
 YONKERS, N. Y. 
 
 (12 and 14 Getty Square; incorporated 1866) 
 Charles E. Gorton, President Frank E. Wheeler, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Frank E. Wheeler, Charles E. Gorton, Robert H. Neville, Alexander Saunders, 
 Gustav Schleuter, Charles E. Skinner, Andrew B. Barr, Alonzo P. Hazard, Albert 
 C. Benedict, George H. Warren, Joseph Miller, Campbell Scott, Ralph B. 
 Hibbard, Louis Spreckles, William Halley, Arthur Land E. B. Embree. 
 
 PORT CHESTER SAVINGS BANK, PORT CHESTER 
 
 (North Main and Willett streets; incorporated 1865) 
 William Ryan, President John W. Diehl, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 William Ryan, Edwin F. Studwell, John Miller, Ellwood Burdsall, H. L. 
 Marshall, Jr., Josiah N. Wilcox, John W. McCarty, Charles H. Tibbits, Robert 
 B. M. Cook, Leander Horton, John W. Diehl Frank H. Brown, Thomas Byrnes, 
 Jr., Theodore C. Parker, Samuel Clock. 
 
 POUGHKEEPSIE SAVINGS BANK, POUGHKEEPSEE 
 
 (21 Market Street; incorporated 1831) 
 Floy M. Johnston, President John K. Sague, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Frank B. Lown, Henry V. Pelton, Edward S. Atwater, Henry E. Lowey, Wm. 
 T. Reynolds, John C. Otis, Floy M. Johnston, Guilford Dudley, Charles F. Cos- 
 sum, John K. Sague, Clarence W. Pierce, Henry Booth, James H. Young. 
 
 *Tho3e marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 6o6 APPENDIX 
 
 PRUDENTIAL SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (Broadway and Vernon Avenue; incorporated 1908) 
 
 Dietrich W. Kaatze, President Hollis H. Searles, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Dietrich W. Kaatze, John Auer, Sr., John H. Scannell, Herbert A. O'Brien, 
 Francis B. Mullin, Hollis H. Searles, Louis P. Buck, Charles Wiesman, Joseph 
 F. Bischoff , Alfred E. Peck, Manasseh Miller, August Hasenflug, Chas. VoUmer, 
 Robert W. Martin, Wm. H. Frank, Jos. VoUkommer, Wm. J. Elliott, Thos. H. 
 Ireland, George P. Busch, Le^vis C. Gehring. 
 
 PUTNAM COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, BREWSTER 
 
 (Main Street; incorporated 1871) 
 Warren S. Paddock, President George H. Reynolds, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Warren S. Paddock, Myron P. Howes, Frederic S. Barnum, David P. Vail, 
 L. Starr Bamum, Alex. F. Lobdell, Arthur P. Budd, William E.Smith, Emerson 
 W. Addis, H. Frank Paddock, Oscar Bailey, Geo. H. Reynolds, Daniel M. 
 Barnes, Fred. A. Purdy, Benjamin O. Nichols, S. Pierr Fields. 
 
 QUEENS COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, FLUSHING 
 
 (80 Main Street; incorporated 1859) 
 William T. James, President A. C. Hageman, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry L. Bogert, Joseph Dykess, John W. Weed, E. Covert Hulst, Abram C. 
 Hageman, John H. Wilson, John Hepburn, William T. James, Frank A. Collins, 
 George E. Lewis, Harrison S. Moore, James H. Quinlan, D. H. Vandevvater, 
 James A. Macdonald, David Master. 
 
 RHINEBECK SAVINGS BANK, RHINEBECK 
 
 (15 Montgomery Street; incorporated i860) 
 Augustus M. Trax^er, President Thaddeus A. Traver, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Augustus M. Traver, M. V. B. Schryver, William Thomson, Thad. A. Traver, 
 Martin Heermance, C. S. Van Etten, A. Lee Wager, Jas. S. Armstrong, William 
 R. Carroll, Mandeville S. Frost, Ekner Coon, Chas. B. Hoffman, Eugene P. Budd, 
 Charles Ferris, Tracy Dows. 
 
 ROCHESTER SAVINGS BANK, ROCHESTER 
 
 (47 Main Street, West; incorporated 1831) 
 Harold P. Brewster, President Henry S. Hanford, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Rufus A. Sibley, Granger A. Hollister, James S. Watson, Hiram W. Sibley, 
 Erickson Perkins, Josiah Anstice, Thos. W. Finucane, Harold P. Brewster, 
 George Eastman, James C. Cutler, William S. Morse, J. Craig Powers, Wm. A. 
 E. Drescher, Edward Harris, Daniel M. Beach. 
 
 RICHMOND COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, WEST NEW BRIGHTON 
 
 (1619 Richmond Terrace; incorporated 1886) 
 John ¥. Syi.nii, President George H. Treadwell, decretory 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John F. Smith, Azel F. Merrell, Benedict Parker, George M. Matthius, Frank 
 W.Tompkins, John A. Snyder, Henry P. Morrison, George H. Tredwell, Wm. J. 
 Davidson, Samuel Eckstein, Albert K. Buhl, Samuel W. Fancher, Melvin L. 
 Decker, Chas. E. Simonson, Jacob I. Housman, Joseph H. Maloy.
 
 APPENDIX 607 
 
 RTVERHEAD SAVINGS BANK, RIVERHEAD 
 
 (Main Street; incorporated 1872) 
 Chas. M. Blydenburgh, Presidettt Usher B. Howell, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Timothy M. Griffing, George W. Cooper, Geo. F. Stackpole, C. M. Blyden- 
 burgh, George M. Vail, Usher B. Howell, Joseph M. Belford, Thad. N. Benjamin, 
 Otis G. Pike, Henry H. Preston, Erastus F. Post, Nat. S. Tuthill, George H. 
 Perkins, F. Porter Howell, Jacob Meyer, Frank H. Wells, O. Edmund Griswold, 
 Elbert M. Davis, Abram S. Post, Willis D. Van Brunt, Gilbert D, Rogers. 
 
 ROME SAVINGS BANK, ROME 
 
 (122 West Dominick Street; incorporated 1851) 
 Samuel H. Beach, President James T. Stone, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Samuel H. Beach, Henry Barnard, Sr., John D. McMahon, Theo. J. Mowry, 
 James M. Ethridge, Carl Simon, Fred. M. Shelley, Geo. G. Clarabut, James A. 
 Bailey, Herbert T. Dyett, James A. Spargo, George A. Clyde, A. R. Kessinger. 
 
 RONDOUT SAVINGS BANK, KINGSTON 
 
 (20 Ferry Street; incorporated 1868) 
 Isaac M. North, President J. E. Derrenbacher, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 S. D. Coykendall, Isaac M. North, John S. Thompson, Wesley D. Hale, F. H. 
 Grifi&ths, Frederick Stephan, Jr., Alexander A. Stern, J. D. Schoonmaker, J. E. 
 Derrenbacher, James G. Rose, Harry H. Fleming, Nicholas Stock, Edward Coy- 
 kendall. 
 
 ROSLYN SAVINGS BANK OF ROSLYN, ROSLYN 
 
 (Incorporated 1875) 
 Thomas Mott, President Frederick E. Willits, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry M. W. Eastman, Thomas Mott, Joseph H. Bogart, George P. Titus, 
 Frederick E. WiUits, Thos. W. Albertson, Frederick C. Hicks, Daniel J. Hege- 
 man, John C. Baker, Richard U. Clark, Jotham Post, S. T. Rushmore, William 
 W. Cocks, J. Clifton Monfort, Richard Downing. William Witte, Daniel 
 Underbill, John A. Albertson, Daniel S. Woolley, Eugene W. Denton, Charles 
 E. Conklin, Alfred V. Eraser, James Willets, George S. Emory, George W. 
 Eastman. 
 
 *SAINT LAWRENCE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, OGDENSBURG 
 
 (79 State Street; incorporated 1909) 
 Andrew Irving, President James E. Kelly, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Ernest M. Akins, Frank W. Ames, Frank Chapman, George F. Darrow, Ed- 
 ward Derochie, Robt. J. Donahue, John P. Dunne, Edgar B. Elethorp, John 
 Hannan, John C. Howard, Felix Hulser, Richard P. Hutchins, Andrew Irving, 
 Walter G. Kellogg, James E. Kelly, Samuel W. Leonard, Grant C. Madill, Chas. 
 D. Randies, Thomas Spratt, John B. Tyo, Geo. E. Van Kennen, James M. Wells, 
 Abner D. Whitney, Dennis B. Lucey, Dennis Lynch. 
 
 *Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 6o8 APPENDIX 
 
 SAG HARBOR SAVINGS BANK, SAG HARBOR 
 
 (Main Street; incorporated i860) 
 James H. Pierson, President E\t£rett L. Tindall, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John H. Hunt, Hervey T. Hedges, Oliver H. Nickerson, Henry F. Cook, Wil- 
 liam C. Greene, Everett L. Tindall, William R. Reimann, Olin M. Edwards, 
 John Y. Convin, Casper Schaefer, John M. Woodward, Burton D. Corwin, Ed. 
 B. Hill, Frank W. Corwin, Addison M. Cook, Edward A. Hildreth, Wilham D. 
 Halsey, James H. Pierson, John Nugent, Edgar A. Hildreth, John Scott, Charles 
 W. Rackett, Chas. W. Rackett, Jr., J. Henry Barnes, J. H. Mulford, Joseph S. 
 Osborne, Jonathan Baker, William H. Pierson, Benj. F. Rogers, Clifford J. 
 Foster. 
 
 *SAUGERTIES SAVINGS BANK, SAUGERTIES 
 
 (244 Main Street; incorporated 1871) 
 Albert Carnwright, President J. A. Freligh, Secretary 
 
 ■ TRUSTEES: 
 Jacob Van Gelder, John W. Shults, Albert Carnwright, Alfred P. Lasher, Theo. 
 B. Cornwell, Chas. T. Montgomery, Louis J. Butzel. James T. Maxwell, Myron 
 Bedell, E. Clark Reed, Ed. M. Wilbur, Charles Lusk, Charles Lamb, Orville L. 
 Cam. 
 
 SAVINGS BANK OF UTICA, UTICA 
 
 (233 Genesee Street; incorporated 1839) 
 Charles A. Miller, President Rurus P. Birdseye, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 WiUiam Keman, Rufus P. Birdseye, Thomas R. Proctor, Charles A. Miller, 
 Charles S. Symonds, Frank E. Wheeler, Theodore S. Sayre, Henry H. Cooper, 
 George L. Curran, Geo. L. Bradford, J. De Peyster Lynch, Charles B. Rogers, 
 N. E. Devereux. 
 
 SCHENECTADY SAVINGS BANK, SCHENECTADY 
 
 (500 State Street; incorporated 1834) 
 Everett Smith, President Allen W. Johnston, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Everett Smith, William L. Pearson, H. W. Deimington, John McDermott, 
 Henry Bradt, Allen W. Johnston, Herman V. Mynderse, Lewis A. Skinner, Will- 
 iam Dalton, George E. Emmons, H. Roger Hegeman, Chas. S. Washburn, F. W. 
 McClellan. 
 
 SEAMEN'S BANK FOR SAVINGS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 (74 and 76 Wall Street; incorporated 1829) 
 Daniel Barnes, President George M. Halsey, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 George H. Macy, Frederick Sturges, Anson W.Hard, William E.Stiger, George 
 F. Crane, W. H. Benedict, Anton A. Raven, Daniel Barnes, PMward VV. Sheldon, 
 George C. Clark, P. A. S. Franklin, Eugene Delano, Samuel Sloan, Henry R. 
 Taylor, Thomas H. Hubbard, V. Everit Macy, Benjamin Strong, Jr., William A. 
 Hazard. 
 
 •Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 609 
 
 SENECA FALLS SAVINGS BANK, SENECA FALLS 
 
 (55 Fall Street; incorporated 1870) 
 Edwaiu) W. Addison, Presidc7it Peter Trautman, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Edward W.Addison, Norman J. Gould, Chas. F. Hammond, Horace D. Knight, 
 Elias Lester, Fred Maier, Jr., Carl W. Maier, C. A. MacDonald, Chas. S. Sander- 
 son, Fred. L. Story, Peter Troutman, Thomas J. Yawger, Henry R. Micks. 
 
 SKANEATELES SAVINGS BANK, SKANEATELES 
 
 (Genesee Street; incorporated 1866) 
 J. Horatio Earll, President Emerson H. Adams, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 J. Horatio Earll, John C. Stephenson, W. F. Cuddeback, Emerson H. Adams, 
 Philo S.Thornton, Geo. D. Cuddeback, Henry W. HoUon, David Colton, Charles 
 W. Hunt, George Smith, Forest G. Weeks, F. Eugene Stone, Wm. T. Thome. 
 
 SOUTH BROOKLYN SAVINGS INSTITUTION, BROOKLYN 
 
 (160-162 Atlantic Avenue; incorporated 1850) 
 William J. Coombs, President C. S. DxnsTNiNG, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Walter M. Aikman, Charles A. Boody, Joseph E. Brown, Thos. O. Callender, 
 WiUiam J. Coombs, Walter V. Cranford, Isaac H. Cary, Charles B. Denny, John 
 W. Dodsworth, Clarence S. Dunning, J. Warren Greene, J. Morton Halstead, 
 Arthur M. Hatch, Percy S. Mallett, Edgar McDonald, Albro J. Newton, John 
 J. Pierrepont, Robt. L. Pierrepont, Jacob Steiner, Joseph H. Sutphin, Henry N. 
 Whitney, William H. Cary, D. Irving Mead, Arnold W. Sherman, William L. 
 Newton. 
 
 SOUTHOLD SAVINGS BANK, SOUTHOLD 
 
 (Main Street; incorporated 1858) 
 Jonathan B. Terry, President H. Howard Huntting, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Jonathan B. Terry, Henry W. Prince, H. Howard Huntting, Abraham F. 
 Lowerre, William H. Terry, Joseph N. Hallock, Chas. Gildersleeve, WilHam A. 
 Fleet, Silas F. Overton, George H. Terry, John J. Bartlett, Clarence C. Miles, 
 EUas P. Jennings, John H. Brown, Edward W. Latham, Josiah C. Case, Ralph G. 
 Duvall. 
 
 STATEN ISLAND SAVINGS BANK, STAPLETON 
 
 (81 Water Street; incorporated 1864) 
 Edward C. Bridgman, President Herman C. Hagadorn, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 E. C. Bridgman, Willy Sonntag, W. Hudson Clark, Fedor Schmidt, J. B. 
 Pearson, Ernst Wehneke, Otto Linderaann, Patrick Brady, Ed. C. Meurer, Chas. 
 A. Bruns, Otto P. Heyn, William L. Voorhis, Charles Kappes, Edmund L. Judson, 
 Geo. S. Humphrey, J. Ed. Stake, Frederick Seemann, John Carmichael, Otto J. 
 Thomen, Carl F. Grieshaber, Ernest R. Moody.
 
 6io APPENDIX 
 
 SUMNER SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (i2 Graham Avenue; incorporated 1906) 
 Arthxfr S. Somers, President Wallace L. Conner, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Moses Bernstein, George Freifeld, Nathan S. Jonas, Ralph Jonas, Edward 
 Lazansky, Ben Levy, Chas. Lyon, Matthew T. Meagher, S. B. Kraus, Henry 
 Newman, Henry Roth, Arthur S. Somers, Victor B. Wolf. 
 
 SYRACUSE SAVINGS BANK, SYRACUSE 
 
 (102 North Salina Street; incorporated 1849) 
 George Doheny, President William J. Reidel, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Jacob Amos, Frederick W. Barker, Joseph W. Dawson, Carleton A. Chase, 
 J. Frank Durston, George Doheny, Alan C. Fobes, Frank Hiscock, Francis Hen- 
 dricks, Edward Joy, William Muench, Dennis McCarthy, A. Judd Northrup, 
 Nicholas Peters, William K. Pierce, Wing R. Smith, De Forest Settle, Leroy B. 
 Williams. 
 
 TROY SAVINGS BANK, TROY 
 
 (State and Second streets; incorporated 1823) 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman, President J. Er\vin Anthony, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Charles E. Hanaman, Walter P. Warren, Edward C. Gale, James K. P. Pine, 
 George S. Robinson, Thomas Vail, James H. Caldwell, William F. Gurley, Har- 
 vey S. McLeod, William H. Shields, Frank E. Norton, Henry S. Ludlow, W. 
 L. Thompson, EUas P. Mann, Paul Cook, William M. Sanford. 
 
 ULSTER COUNTY SAVINGS INSTITUTION, KINGSTON 
 
 (280 Wall Street; incorporated 185 1) 
 E. H. Loughran, President John B. Alliger, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John B. Alliger, Harry R. Brigham, Peter C. Black, Howard Chipp, Philip 
 Elting, George Hutton, E. H. Loughran, John L. McGrath, James S. Winne, 
 Charles S. Wood, Geo. W. Washburn, J. M. Schaffer, A. W. Thompson. 
 
 UNION SAVINGS BANK OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, 
 MAMARONECK 
 
 (60 West Post Road; incorporated 1887) 
 Rettben G. Brewer, President Geo. L. Lyon, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Bradford Rhodes, William A. Boyd, Thomas J. Meighan, Reuben G. Brewer, 
 Chas. Field Griffin, Burton C. Meighan, William R. Bull, Edwin T. Cornell, 
 Henry Fatten, George L. Lyon, Henry Moore, Charles C. Holden, Charles M. 
 Baxter, Patrick H. Collins, Samuel R. Bell, Edward M. Clark, Michael Staub . 
 
 UNION DIME SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (701 Sixth Avenue; incorporated 1859) 
 Alex. P. W. Kinnan, President Francis M. Leake, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Wm. H. Locke, Charles A. Sackett, James H. Herrman, John R. Hegeman, 
 Francis M. Leake, Wm. G. Ross, Clermont H. Wilcox, Alex. P. W. Kinnan, Fred- 
 erick H. Ecker, William C. Lane, Abram C. DeGraw, John F. Thomson, Edgar 
 A. Tredwell, William R. Innis, George Hadden, Willard E. Edmister, Frederic 
 C. Meacham, Malcolm B. Dutcher, Wm. McMaster Mills.
 
 APPENDIX 61 1 
 
 UNION SAVINGS BANK OF PATCHOGUE, PATCHOGUE 
 
 (Ocean Avenue and Church Street; incorporated 1896) 
 Joseph Bailey, President Walter S. Rose, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Walter H. Jaycox, Joseph Bailey, Emerson G. Terrell, Arthur H.Terry, Nelson 
 McBride, Milton G. Wiggins, Alden J. Woodruff, Gelston G. Roe, George B. 
 Howell, William A. Hulse, Josiah Robbins, Charles E. Rose, Winfield S. Ben- 
 nett, John T. Dare, Charles W. Avery, Ralph Dayton, E. Eugene Hawkins, 
 Francis Gerber, Jacob Ockers, Julius Hauser, Robt. S. Pelletreau, H. Clay Losee, 
 Riley P. Howell, Walter S. Rose. 
 
 UNION SQUARE SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (20 Union Square; incorporated 1848) 
 William H. Rockwood, President Henry R. Brinckerhoff, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 E. L. Winthrop, Hewlett Scudder, W. Emlen Roosevelt, Chas. G. Thompson, 
 Frederic S. Wells, Albert M. Patterson, Wm. DeF. Haynes, Isaac Townsend, 
 Samuel Woolverton, Frank B. Keech, Bronson Winthrop, Edward M, Town- 
 send, Lorin K. Scudder, Wm. H. Rockwood, Newbold T. Lawrence. 
 
 UNITED STATES SAVINGS BANK OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 (606 Madison Avenue; incorporated 1889) 
 Chas. N. Taintor, President John Hyslop, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Richard A. Anthony, Payson Merrill, Noah C. Rogers, John Hyslop, Alfred E. 
 Marling, Charles N. Taintor, John P. Munn, James A. Frame, Edward I. Devlin, 
 Edward H. Landon, Wm. C. Adams, William E. Peck, Francis G. Lloyd, W. 
 Willis Reese, N. C. Fisher, Edwin J. Gillies, John E. Weeks, Adolphe F. Le Gost, 
 Isaac N. Seligman, Langley W. Wiggin. 
 
 ♦UNIVERSAL SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (149 Broadway; incorporated 1907) 
 Wilbur F. Brown, President Wilbur F. Brown, Jr., Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Wilbur F. Brown, Robert McLean, C. L. Mitchell, Byron W. Greene, Wilbur 
 F. Brown, Jr., Robert Mazet, Fancher Nicoll, Russell Dart, Samuel D. Folsom, 
 Frank H. Hines, Courtney Hyde, August H. Tiemeyer, Blair S. Williams, Will- 
 iam M. Morgan, Richard C. Corner, Robert C. Hill, Charles J. Austin, Sam. R. 
 Outerbridge, Grover A. Whalen. 
 
 WALDEN SAVINGS BANK, WALDEN 
 
 (Corner Ulster Avenue and Bank Street; incorporated 1872) 
 Hiram B. Wooster, President Charles W. Sadlier, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 T. L. Millspaugh, Hiram B. Wooster, Albert S. Embler, Simon Vernooy, Ehas 
 Mulford, Edward Whitehead, Charles W. Sadlier, R. A. Demarest, C. Fred 
 Fowler, Harvey N. Smith, Samuel Andrews, John Simpson, George N. Stoddard. 
 
 *Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 6i2 APPENDIX 
 
 WAPPINGER SAVINGS BANK, WAPPINGER FALLS 
 
 (2 Mill Street; incorporated 1869) 
 James R. Barlow, President William A. Brewster, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John H. Dakin, Wm. A. Brewster, William K. Roy, James R. Barlow, J. Wick- 
 off Cornell, John H. Wixson, George H. Angell, Charles T. Jones, Thomas J. 
 Cashin, WilUam J. Workman, I. T. N. Harcourt, G. A. Cunningham, R. H. 
 Breed. 
 
 WARWICK SAVINGS BANK, WARWICK 
 
 (12 Main Street; incorporated 1875) 
 
 John Sayer, President Joseph E. V. Miller, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 John Sayer, Jos. E. V. MiUer, Thomas WeUing, Wilbur C. Lazear, Benj. F. 
 Vail, Henry Pelton, John W. Sanford, Joel H. Crissey, CUfford S. Beattie, John 
 B. Bradner, Fred. C. Cary, W. B. Van Devoort, Morris Rutherford. 
 
 WATERTOWN SAVINGS BANK, WATERTOWN 
 
 (125 Washington Street; incorporated 1893) 
 Isaac L. Hunt, President Harvey W. Steele, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Allen C. Beach, John R. Pawling, Fred. George, George H. Babcock, Silas L. 
 George, H. W. Steele, Herbert E. Harmon, W. W. Conde, H. P. Dunlap, Charles 
 
 D. Bingham, Andrew C. Comwell, George J. Dryden, Lorenzo Smith, Isaac L. 
 Hunt, Antonio F. Mills, Ira Sharp, Adam Bickelhaupt, Eli B. Johnson. 
 
 ♦WESTCHESTER COUNTY SAVINGS BANK, TARRYTOWN 
 
 (Broadway and Main Street; incorporated 1853) 
 Isaac Requa, President Elmore T. Willsea, Treastirer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Richard B. Coutant, Moses W. Taylor, David Silver, Eugene Barnes, Isaac 
 Requa, Frank V. Millard, Elmore T. Willsea, Chas. E. Eddison, Joseph Blouin, 
 B. F. Tompkins, Frederic G. Le Roy, Charles F. Smith, Wm. A. Bumham. 
 
 WESTERN SAVINGS BANK, BUFFALO 
 
 (438 Main Street; incorporated 185 1) 
 Albert J. Wheeler, President Franklin W. H. Becker, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Henry Erb, Henry Zipp, Albert J. Wheeler, Howard H. Baker, Charles Die- 
 bold, Jr., Henry E. Boiler, William F. Wendt, F. W. H. Becker, Wilham Simon, 
 Lewis J. Heintz, Carl A. Strangmann, Chas. H. Donaldson, Daniel Good, Edw. 
 
 E. Coatsworth. 
 
 WEST SIDE SAVINGS BANK, NEW YORK CITY 
 
 (110-112 Sixth Avenue; incorporated 1868) 
 Clarence O. Bigelow, President Wm. V. Hudson, Secretary 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Clarence O. Bigelow, Walter V. Bishop, John J. Brogan, John C. Carpenter, 
 Charles E. Duross, Edward R. Finch, Frank L. Frugone, Robert L. Harrison, 
 James B. Horner, John W. Jacobus, George E. Marks, Arthur J. McClure, 
 Joseph Rowan, F. L. Satterlee, Peter J. L. Searing, Thomas F. Somers, Chas. H. 
 Van Aken, W. I. Lincoln Adams, V. Chapin Daggett, Joseph H. Emery, N. S. 
 Westcott. 
 
 'Those marked with asterisk not members of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York.
 
 APPENDIX 613 
 
 WILLIAMSBURGH SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN 
 
 (175 Broadway; incorporated 185 1) 
 Andrew D. Baird, President Charles J. Pasfield, Cashier 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 Ezra B. Tuttle, Brainard G. Latimer, Andrew D. Baird, Samuel M. Meeker, 
 James H. Post, Jas. F. Bendernagel, Edward T. Horwill, Alfred Romer, Welding 
 Ring, Herbert F. Gunnison, Francis W. Young, Paul E. Bonner, Edward E. 
 Pearce, Albert S. Richey, Ralph H. Tiebout, John V. Jewell. 
 
 YONKERS SAVINGS BANK, YONKERS 
 
 (16 and 18 South Broadway; incorporated 1854) 
 James H. Weller, President Charles F. Hulbert, Treasurer 
 
 TRUSTEES: 
 S. Francis Quick, Wm. H. Thorne, James H. Weller, R. Eickemeyer, Albert L, 
 Skinner, Harry L. Twine, John O. Campbell, Charles F. Hulbert, Benj. W. Stil- 
 well, Wm. M. Dick, John Bellows, Wm. W. Scrugham, Eugene C. Clark, L. J. 
 Schlesinger, Joseph H, Beall, Charles H. Ketcham, N. A. Warren.
 
 MEMBERS OF 
 
 THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 BY GROUPS 
 
 Group i 
 
 American Savings Bank Buffalo 
 
 Erie County Savings Bank Buffalo 
 
 Western Savings Bank Buffalo 
 
 East Side Savings Bank Rochester 
 
 Mechanics' Savings Bank Rochester 
 
 Monroe County Savings Bank Rochester 
 
 Rochester Savings Bank Rochester 
 
 Niagara County Savings Bank Niagara Falls 
 
 Seneca Falls Savings Bank Seneca Falls 
 
 Group 2 
 
 Auburn Savings Bank ,. . . . Auburn 
 
 Cayuga County Savings Bank Auburn 
 
 Ithaca Savings Bank Ithaca 
 
 Elmira Savings Bank Elmira 
 
 Binghamton Savings Bank Binghamton 
 
 Cortland Savings Bank Cortland 
 
 Onondaga Savings Bank SjTacuse 
 
 Syracuse Savings Bank Syracuse 
 
 Skanea teles Savings Bank Skaneateles 
 
 Fulton Savings Bank Fulton 
 
 Oswego City Savings Bank Oswego 
 
 Oswego County Savings Bank Oswego 
 
 Jefferson County Savings Bank Watertown 
 
 Watertown Savings Bank Watertown 
 
 Rome Savings Bank Rome 
 
 Oneida County Savings Bank Rome 
 
 Savings Bank of Utica Utica 
 
 Oneida Savings Bank Oneida 
 
 Geneva Savings Bank . Geneva 
 
 Group 3 
 
 Albany Savings Bank Albany 
 
 Albany City Savings Institution Albany 
 
 Albany County Savings Bank Albany 
 
 Albany Exchange Savings Bank Albany 
 
 Home Savings Bank Albany 
 
 614
 
 APPENDIX 6is 
 
 National Savings Bank Albany 
 
 Mechanics' and Farmers' Savings Bank Albany 
 
 Cohoes Savings Institution Cohoes 
 
 Mechanics' Savings Bank Cohoes 
 
 Amsterdam Savings Bank Amsterdam 
 
 Goshen Savings Bank Goshen 
 
 Middletown Savings Bank Middletown 
 
 Walden Savings Bank Walden 
 
 Warwick Savings Bank Warwick 
 
 Ellenville Saving Bank Ellenville 
 
 New Paltz Savings Bank New Paltz 
 
 Kingston Savings Bank Kingston 
 
 Rondout Savings Bank Kingston 
 
 Ulster County Savings Bank Kingston 
 
 Catskill Savings Bank Catskill 
 
 Schenectady Savings Bank Schenectady 
 
 Matteawan Savings Bank Beacon 
 
 Mechanics' Savings Bank Beacon 
 
 Pawling Savings Bank Pawling 
 
 Poughkeepsie Savings Bank Poughkeepsie 
 
 Rhinebeck Savings Bank . Rhinebeck 
 
 Wappinger Savings Bank Wappinger Falls 
 
 Putnam County Savings Bank Brewster 
 
 Hudson City Savings Institution Hudson 
 
 Troy Savings Bank Troy 
 
 Newburgh Savings Bank Newburgh 
 
 Group 4 
 
 American Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Bank for Savings New York City 
 
 Bowery Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Broadway Savings Institution New York City 
 
 Bronx Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Citizens' Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Commonwealth Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Dollar Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Maiden Lane Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Dry Dock Savings Institution New York City 
 
 East River Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Empire City Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Excelsior Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Franklin Savings Bank New York City 
 
 German Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Greenwich Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Harlem Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Irving Savings Institution New York City 
 
 Italian Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Manhattan Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Metropolitan Savings Bank New York City 
 
 New York Savings Bank New York City 
 
 North River Savings Bank New York City 
 
 North Side Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Seamen's Bank for Savings New York City 
 
 Union Dime Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Union Square Savings Bank New York City 
 
 United States Savings Bank New York City
 
 6i6 APPENDIX 
 
 West Side Savings Bank New York City 
 
 Bank for Savings Ossining 
 
 Greenburgh Savings Bank Dobbs Ferry 
 
 Home Savings Bank White Plains 
 
 Peekskill Savings Bank Peekskill 
 
 People's Savings Bank Yonkers 
 
 Port Chester Savings Bank Port Chester 
 
 Union Savings Bank of Westchester Co Mamaroneck 
 
 Yonkers Savings Bank Yonkers 
 
 Group s 
 
 Brevoort Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Brooklyn Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Bushwick Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 City Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh Brooklyn 
 
 Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn Brooklyn 
 
 East Brooklyn Savings Bank - Brooklyn 
 
 Eastern District Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 East New York Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Germania Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 German Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Greater New York Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Green Point Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Home Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Kings County Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Prudential Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 South Brooklyn Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Sumner Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 Williamsburgh Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 College Point Savings Bank . College Point 
 
 Long Island City Savings Bank Long Island City 
 
 Queens County Savings Bank Flushing 
 
 Riverhead Savings Bank Riverhead 
 
 Sag Harbor Savings Bank Sag Harbor 
 
 Southold Savings Bank Southhold 
 
 Union Savings Bank Patchogue 
 
 Roslyn Savings Bank Roslyn 
 
 Richmond County Savings Bank West New Brighton 
 
 Staten Island Savings Bank . Stapleton 
 
 Jamaica Savings Bank Jamaica
 
 D 
 
 OFFICERS OF 
 
 THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 1894-1914 
 
 (inclusive) 
 
 I 894-1 89s 
 
 President 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Chairman Executive Committee 
 
 Wm. C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 Trustee, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 J. Howard King 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Edward C. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga Savings Bank 
 
 A. C. Miller 
 
 Treasurer, Utica Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel R. Rainey 
 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City 
 
 Savings Institution 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Banks 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 1895-1896 
 President Chairman Executive Committee 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades Wm. C. Sturges 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 617
 
 6i8 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 1895-1896 — Continued 
 Secretary David Hoyt 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin Secretaty, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank Ba.nk 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Samitel R. Rainey 
 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City 
 
 Savings Institution 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 Vice-President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 J. Howard King 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John P. Townsend 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 John Harsen Rho.^des 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Benjamin H. Huntington 
 
 President, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 1896-1897 
 
 President 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Samuel R. Rainey 
 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City 
 
 Savings Institution 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 Vice-President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 J. Howard King 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John P. Townsend 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 619 
 
 1 896-1 897 — Continued 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 Samuel D. Styles, President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 J. B. CuRREY, Secretary, Metropolitan Savings Bank 
 
 Henry Geckler, Secretary, Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh 
 
 1897-1J 
 
 President 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 Samuel R. Rainey 
 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City 
 
 Savings Institution 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seaman's Bank for Savings 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 Vice-President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 J. Howard King 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John P. Townsend 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 J. B. CURREY 
 
 Secretary, Metropolitan Savings Bank 
 
 Henry Geckler 
 
 Secretary, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh 
 
 I 898-1899 
 President 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 Samuel R. Rainey 
 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City 
 
 Savings Institution 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank President, Seamen's Bank for Savings
 
 620 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 1 898-1 899 — Contiinted 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 Vice-President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 J. Howard King 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John P. Townsend 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 J. B. CURREY 
 
 Secretary, Metropolitan Savings Bank 
 
 Henry Geckler 
 
 Secretary, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh 
 
 I 899-1 900 
 
 President 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 VVm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 Samuel R. Rainey 
 
 Secretary and Treasurer, Hudson City 
 
 Savings Institution 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 Vice-President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 J. Howard King 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John D. Hicks 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 J. B. CuRREY 
 
 President, Metropolitan Savings Bank 
 
 Henry Geckler 
 
 Secretary, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 621 
 
 1900-1901 
 
 President 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Han.vuan 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 President, Metropolitan Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 John Harsen Rho.\des 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 Vice-President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 J. Howard King 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John D. Hicks 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, T>ry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 President, Metropolitan Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 Henry Geckler 
 
 Secretarj', Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh 
 
 B. H. Huntington 
 
 President, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Frank M. Hurlbut 
 
 President, Institution for the Savings 
 
 of Merchants' Clerks 
 
 1901-1902 
 
 President 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 President, Metropolitan Savings Bank
 
 622 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 1901-1902- 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 William C. Stitrges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for 
 
 Savings 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 President, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer' 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John D. Hicks 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 -Continued 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 James Mc. Mahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 President, MetropoUtan Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 B. H. Huntington 
 
 President, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Brooklyn 
 
 Frank M. Hurlbut 
 
 President, Institution for the Savings 
 
 of Merchants' Clerks 
 
 J. V. Meserole 
 
 President,Williamsburgh Savings Bank 
 
 1902-1903 
 
 President 
 
 Chas. a. Schieren 
 
 Germania Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 President, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Bryan H. Smith 
 President, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 John D. Hicks 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 623 
 
 1902-1903 — Continued 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Chas. a. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Chas. A. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 D. C. Smith 
 
 Vice-President, Mechanics' Savings 
 
 Bank of Fishkill 
 
 1903-1904 
 
 President 
 
 Chas. A. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 President, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Secretary, Erie County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Wm. H. S. Wood 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Charles A. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The FrankUn Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 
 Fishkill-on-the-Hudson
 
 624 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I 904-1905 
 
 President 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 James M. Wentz 
 
 President, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 Secretar}', Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 VVilll\m C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Savings Bank 
 
 Wm. H. S. Wood 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Daved Hoyt 
 
 Secretarj", Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Drj' Dock Savings Bank 
 
 Chas. a. Schieren 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Ckas. a. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 
 Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
 
 I 905-1 906 
 
 President 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 625 
 
 1 905- 1 906 — Continued 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For Otie Year 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Wm. H. S. Wood 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Treasurer, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 Treasurer, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 James McMahon 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Chas. a. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 
 Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
 
 Henry Hasler 
 
 President, Citizens' Savings Bank 
 
 S. Mitchell Rainey 
 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 1906-1907 
 President Secretary 
 
 William B. Van Rensselaer William G. Conklin 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 Alexander E. Orr 
 
 Trustee, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution
 
 626 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I 906- 1907- 
 David Hoyt 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 Bank 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Treasurer, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Chaexes a. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 
 Treasurer, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 William C. Stueges 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Wm. H. S. Wood 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Edward S. Dawson 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 -Contimted 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 President, Greenwich Savings Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Charles A. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 
 Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
 
 Henry Hasler 
 
 President, Citizens' Savings Bank 
 
 S. Mitchell Ralney 
 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 1907-1908 
 
 President 
 
 William B. Van Rensselaer 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Seamen's Bank for Savings 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, The Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samxhcl D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Treasurer, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 
 Treasurer, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 J. V. Meserole 
 
 President, Williamsburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Wm. H. S Wood 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 Wm. J. Coombs 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Institution
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 627 
 
 1 90 7- 1 908 — Continued 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Charles A. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 I 908-1 909 
 President 
 Charles A. Miller 
 Vice-President, Savings Bank of Utica 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 Secretary, Franklin Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 
 Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
 
 Henry Hasler 
 
 President, Citizens' Savings Bank 
 
 S. Mitchell Rainey 
 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 President, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 William F. Patterson 
 
 Treasurer, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 J. V. Meserole 
 
 President, Williamsburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 Wm. J. Coombs 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe Coimty Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 President, Erie County Savings Bank 
 
 Henry A. Schenck 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 
 Treasurer, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 President, Troy Savings Bank
 
 628 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I 908-1 909- 
 
 Charles a. Schieren 
 
 President, Germania Savings Bank 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 President, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 W. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 President, Albany Savings Bank 
 
 -Contitiued 
 
 William F. Patterson 
 
 Treasurer, Dry Dock Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank,- 
 
 Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
 
 Henry Hasler 
 
 President, Citizens' Savings Bank 
 
 S. Mitchell Rainey 
 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 President 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President, Emigrant Industrial 
 
 Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Chas. E. Hanaman 
 
 President, Troy Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Wm. Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 President, Metropolitan Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 1909-1910 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 President, Erie County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Henry A. Schenck 
 
 President Bowery Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 
 President, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 Wm. G. Conklin 
 
 President, Franklin Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Wm. C. Sturges 
 
 President, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh 
 
 E. T. Maynard 
 
 Comptroller, Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Treasiirer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 Wm. J. Coombs 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 President of the Association 
 
 Chas. E. Hanaman 
 
 Second Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 Treasurer of the Association 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Chas. A. Miller 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 First Vice-President of the 
 
 Association
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 629 
 
 1909-1 910 — Continued 
 
 Wm. Felsinger 
 
 Third Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 Chas. a. Schieren 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Wm. B. Van Rensselaer 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 Secretary of the Association 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank 
 
 Fishkill 
 
 Frank M. Hxjrlbut 
 
 President, Union Square Savings Bank 
 
 S. Mitchell Rainey 
 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 1910-1911 
 
 President 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President, The Troy Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings, 
 
 New York City 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 President, Erie County Savings Bank, 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 
 Treasurer, National Savings Bank, 
 
 Albany 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 President, North River Savings Bank 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 Henry A. Schenck 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 
 President, Newburgh Savings Bank 
 
 Casimir Tag 
 
 President, German Savings Bank 
 
 New York City 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 William G. Conklin 
 
 President, Franklin Savings Bank 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh 
 
 E, T. Maynard 
 
 Comptroller, Brooklyn Savings Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 Wm. J. Coombs 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Charles E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution, New York City 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank, Rochester 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President of the Association 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 First Vice-President of the Association 
 
 William Felsinger 
 Second Vice-Pres. of the Association 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Third Vice-President of the Association 
 
 Samuel D. Styles 
 
 Treasurer of the Association 
 
 Charles A. Schieren 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 
 Secretary of the Association 
 
 Nominating -Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 
 Fishkill
 
 630 
 
 x\PPENDIX 
 
 1910-191 1 — Continued 
 S. MiTCHELi, Rainey William F. Patterson 
 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings Treasurer, Dr>' Dock Savings 
 
 Institution, Hudson, N. Y. Institution, New York City 
 
 1911-1912 
 
 President 
 
 Charles E, Hanaman 
 President, The Troy Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings, 
 
 New York City 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Willi.au Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 President, Erie County Savings Bank, 
 Buffalo 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 
 Treasurer, National Savings Bank, 
 
 Albany 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 Frank M. Hurlbut 
 
 President, Union Square Savings Bank, 
 
 New York City 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 For One Year 
 
 Henry A. Schenck 
 
 President, Bowery Savings Bank 
 
 Thomas F. Balfe 
 
 President, Newburgh Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Casimir Tag 
 
 President, German Savings Bank, 
 
 New York City 
 
 For Two Years 
 
 Willlam G. Conklin 
 
 President, I-'ranklin Savings Bank 
 
 William C. Sturges 
 
 President, Dime Savings Bank of 
 
 Williamsburgh 
 
 E. T. Maynard 
 
 Comptroller, Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 For Three Years 
 
 William J. Coombs 
 
 President, South Brooklyn Savings 
 
 Institution 
 
 Chas. E. Sprague 
 
 President, Union Dime Savings 
 
 Institution, New York City 
 
 David Hoyt 
 
 Secretary, Monroe County Savings 
 
 Bank, Rochester 
 
 Members, Ex-Officio 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 
 President of the Association 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 First Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 William Felsinger 
 Second Vice-Pres. of the Association 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Third Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 Charles E. Schieren 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Andrew Mills 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Frank M. Hurlbut 
 Treasurer of the Association 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 Secretary of the Association 
 
 Nominating Committee 
 
 John T. Smith 
 President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, 
 Fishkill 
 S. Mitchell Rainey 
 Treasurer, Hudson City Savings 
 Institution, Hudson, N. Y. 
 William F. Patterson 
 Treasurer, Dry Dock Savings Institu- 
 tion, New York City
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 631 
 
 1912-1913 
 
 President 
 
 Harold P. Brewster 
 
 President, Rochester Savings Bank 
 
 First Vice-President 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 President, Bank for Savings, 
 
 New York City 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings Bank 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 President, Erie County Savings Bank, 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 
 Treasurer ,Tlae National Savings Bank, 
 
 Albany 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 William H. Rockwood 
 
 President, Union Square Savings Bank, 
 
 New York City 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 Harold P. Brewster 
 
 President of the Association 
 
 Walter Trimble 
 
 First Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 Second Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Third Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 Charles E. Hanaman 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 Secretary of the Association 
 
 William H. Rockwood 
 Treasurer of the Association 
 
 John M. Satterfield Chairman Group No. 
 
 Clinton T. Rose Chairman Group No. 
 
 James H. Manning Chairman Group No. 
 
 Andrew Mills Chairman Group No. 
 
 Eugene F. Barnes Chairman Group No. 
 
 David Hoyt Secretary Group No. 
 
 W. B. Couch Secretary Group No. 
 
 S. Mitchell Rainey Secretary Group No. 
 
 George E. Edwards Secretary Group No. 
 
 Henry Stumpf Secretary Group No. 
 
 1913-1914 
 
 President 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President, New York Savings 
 
 Bank 
 
 Second Vice-President 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 President, Erie County Savings Bank, 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Third Vice-President 
 
 Clinton T. Rose 
 
 President, Onondaga County Savings 
 
 Bank, Syracuse 
 
 Secretary 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 
 Treasurer, The National Savings Bank, 
 
 Albany 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 William H. Rockwood 
 
 President, Union Square Savings Bank, 
 
 New York Cty 
 
 Caunset 
 
 Charles A. Miller 
 
 President, The Savings Bank of 
 
 Utica
 
 632 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Executive Committee 
 
 William Felsinger 
 
 President of the Association 
 
 Robert S. Donaldson 
 
 Second Vice-Pres. of the Association 
 
 Clinton T. Rose 
 
 Third Vice-President of the 
 
 Association 
 
 Edwin P. Maynard 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Harold P. Brewster 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Charles E. Han.aman 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Thomas M. Mulry 
 
 Ex-President of the Association 
 
 Frederic B. Stevens 
 
 Secretary of the Association 
 
 William H. Rockwood 
 Treasurer of the Association 
 
 John M. Satterfleld Chairman Group No, i 
 
 Samuel H. Beach Chairman Group No. 2 
 
 James H. Manning Chairman Group No. 3 
 
 Henry A. Schenck . . . . . . . . Chairman Group No. 4 
 
 Eugene F. Barnes Chairman Group No. 5 
 
 Davxd Hoyt Secretary Group No. i 
 
 W. B. Couch Secretary Group No. 2 
 
 S. Mitchell Rainey Secretary Group No. 3 
 
 George E. Edwards Secretary Group No. 4 
 
 Henry Stumpf Secretary Group No. 5 
 
 List of Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurers of the 
 Savings Banks Association of the. State of New York from i8qj to 
 and including the year IQIJ. 
 
 Presidents 
 
 1893. James McMahon New York City 
 
 1894. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 1895. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 1896. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 1897. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 1898. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 1899. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 1900. Andrew Mills 
 
 1901. Andrew Mills 
 
 1902. Charles A. Schieren 
 
 1903. Charles A. Schieren 
 
 1904. William B. Van Rensselaer Albany, N. Y. 
 
 1905. William B. Van Rensselaer " " " 
 
 1906. William B. Van Rensselaer " " " 
 
 1907. William B. Van Rensselaer " " " 
 
 1908. Chas. A. Miller Utica, N. Y. 
 
 1909. Thos. M. Mulry New York City 
 
 1910. Chas. E. Hanaman Troy, N. Y. 
 
 191 1. Chas. E. Hanaman « i< « 
 
 191 2. Harold P. Brewster Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 1913. Edwin P. Maynard (resigned) Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 1913. Wm. Felsinger " << «< 
 
 First Vice-Presidents 
 
 1 893-1 905. James McMahon New York City. 
 
 1906. Edward S. Dawson Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 1907-1912. Walter Trimble New York City 
 
 1913. William Felsinger " " "
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 633 
 
 Second Vice-Presidents 
 
 1900-1905. Edward S. Dawson Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 1906-1909. Chas. E. Hanaman Troy, N. Y. 
 
 1910-1912. William Felsinger New York City 
 
 1913. Robert S. Donaldson Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 Third Vice-Presidents 
 
 1900-1905. Charles E. Hanaman Troy, N. Y. 
 
 1906-1908. Thos. M. Mulry New York City 
 
 1909. William Felsinger " " " 
 
 1910-1912. Robt. S. Donaldson Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 1913. Clinton T. Rose Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 Secretaries 
 1893-1907. Wm. G. Conklin New York City 
 
 1908. William F. Patterson 
 
 1909. Jonathan B. Currey " " " 
 
 1910-1913. Frederic B, Stevens Albany, N. Y, 
 
 Treasurers 
 
 1893. 
 
 1894. Andrew Mills New York City 
 
 1895-1899. Andrew Mills 
 
 1900. Jonathan B. Cxirrey 
 
 1901. Jonathan B. Currey 
 
 1902-1909. Samuel D. Styles 
 
 1910. Samuel D. Styles, Frank M. Hurlbut .... 
 
 1911. Frank M. Hurlbut 
 
 1912-1913. Wm. H. Rockwood 
 
 Counsel 
 1908. Chas. Addison Miller ... Utica
 
 £ 
 
 NOMINATING COMMITTEES 
 
 1894-I913 INCLUSIVE 
 
 1894 
 J. Howard King, President, Albany Savings Bank; Samtiel R. Rainey, 
 Secretary-Treasurer, Hudson City Savings Institution; and Constant A. 
 Andrews, President, United States Savings Bank, New York City. 
 
 1895 
 Charles E. Spragtje, President, Union Dime Savings Institution; Charles 
 E. Hanaman, President, Troy Savings Bank; Benjamin H. Hxn^xiNGTON, Pres- 
 ident, Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn. 
 
 I 896- I 899 
 Samuel D. Styles, President, North River Savings Bank; J. B. Currey, Secre- 
 tary Metropolitan Savings Bank; Henry Geckler, Secretarj', Dime Savings 
 Bank of Williamsburgh. 
 
 1900 
 Henry Geckler, Secretary, Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh; H. B. 
 Huntington, President, Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn; Frank M. Hurl- 
 but, President, Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks. 
 
 1901 
 H. B. Huntington, President, Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn; Frank M. 
 HuRLBUT, President, Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks; J. V. 
 Meserole, President, Williamsburgh Savings Bank. 
 
 1902 
 William Felsinger, President, New York Savings Bank; Chas. A. Miller, 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of Utica; D. C. Smith, Vice-President Me- 
 chanics' Savings Bank of Fishkill. 
 
 1903-1904 
 William Felsinger, President, New York Savings Bank; Chas. A. Miller, 
 Vice-President, The Savings Bank of Utica; John T. Smith, President Me- 
 chanics' Savings Bank, Fishkill. 
 
 I 905-1 909 
 John T. Smith, President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, Fishkill; Henry Has- 
 LER, President Citizens' Savings Bank; S. Mitchell Rainey, Treasurer, Hud- 
 son City Savings Institution, 
 
 John T. Smith, President Mechanics' Savings Banks, Fishkill; Frank M. 
 Hurlbut, President, Union Square Savings Bank; S. Mitchell Rainey, Treas- 
 urer, Hudson City Savings Institution. 
 
 634
 
 APPENDIX 63s 
 
 1910 
 John T. Smith, President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, Fishkill; S. Mitchell 
 Rainey, Treasurer, Hudson City Savings Institution, Hudson, William F. 
 Patterson. Treasurer, Dry Dock Savings Institution, New York City. 
 
 1911 
 John T. Smith, President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, Fishkill; S. Mitchell 
 Rainey, Treasurer, Hudson City Savings Institution, Hudson; Wm. F. Pat- 
 terson, Treasurer, Dry Dock Savings Institution, New York City. 
 
 1912 
 John T. Smith, President, Mechanics' Savings Bank, Fishkill; William F. 
 Patterson, Treasurer, Dry Dock Savings Institution, New York City; S. 
 Mitchell Rainey, Secretary -Treasurer, Hudson City Savings Institution. 
 
 1913 
 Marcus T. Hun (Chairman), Albany Savings Bank; A. P. W. KxnnaiS, 
 Union Dime Savings Bank, New York City; Franklin W. H. Becker, Western 
 Savings Bank, Buffalo.
 
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 FIRST AND PRESENT CONSTITUTIONS OF 
 
 THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 THE FIRST CONSTITUTION 
 
 ADOPTED JUNE 15, 1 894 
 
 AfiTicLE I. This Association shall be called The Savings Banks Association 
 of the State of New York, and shall have for its objects the general welfare of 
 Savings Banks in this State, the securing of the proper consideration of all legis- 
 lative action affecting Savings Banks, and the discussion of all subjects relating 
 thereto. 
 
 Article II. Any Savings Bank, or Savings Institution, of the State of New 
 York may become a member of this Association upon payment of such annual 
 dues as may from time to time be decided upon, and may send one delegate to 
 the meetings of the Association, and any members may be expelled by the vote 
 of two thirds of the delegates present at the regular meetings. 
 
 Article III. The officers of this Association shall consist of a President, 
 Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall be elected armually; and 
 the affairs of the Association shall be administered by an Executive Committee, 
 to be elected at each annual meeting, who shall hold office until their successors 
 are elected or appointed. 
 
 Article IV. A Committee of three to nominate officers and an Executive 
 Committee shall be appointed at each annual meeting, who shall present names 
 for election to the subsequent annual meeting of the Association, but nomina- 
 tions may be made by any member at such meeting. 
 
 Article V. The President shall preside at all meetings, preserve order, ap- 
 point all committees unless otherwise ordered, and arrange for holding special 
 meetings at the written request of ten members of the Association. 
 
 In case of absence or disability of the President, all the powers and duties 
 devolving upon him may be performed by the Vice-President; or in case of ab- 
 sence or disability of the President and the Vice-President, the Association may 
 designate one of their own number to act as President pro tern. 
 
 667
 
 668 APPENDIX 
 
 Article VI. The Executive Committee shall consist of five of the members 
 of the Association (the President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer being 
 members also, ex officio). 
 
 It shall take charge of the general business of the Association, receive com- 
 munications, arrange for holding meetings, procure and arrange subjects for 
 discussion and the order in which they may come before the Association, provide 
 for speakers, and carry out resolutions passed. 
 
 The attendance of five members of the Executive Committee, of which the 
 ex officio members may form a part, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction 
 of business, and they shall have power to fill vacancies occurring during the year 
 in their own body, and also vacancies for Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 Article VII. Special meetings of the Executive Committee may be called 
 by request of three of its own members, giving one week's notice to the Secretary 
 desiring him to call such special meeting. 
 
 Article VIII. The Executive Committee shall provide: 
 First: For keeping the records of the proceedings of their own meetings as 
 well as those of the Association's annual or special meetings. 
 
 Second: They shall submit at each annual meeting a report covering their 
 own ofiicial acts, as well as a statement of any new or unfinished business re- 
 quiring attention. 
 
 Article IX. The Secretary shall make and have charge of the records of the 
 Association, as well as those of the Executive Committee, and of the correspond- 
 ence of the Executive Committee, and also of all other committees that may be 
 attended by the President. 
 
 Article X. The Treasurer shall receive and disburse all moneys as directed 
 by the Executive Committee, all vouchers for payments being countersigned by 
 the President or Chairman of the Executive Committee. 
 
 Article XI. The annual meetings of the Association shall be held at such 
 times and places as may be determined by the Executive Committee. 
 
 Article XII. The expenses of the Executive Committee in carrying out the 
 business to be done by them shall be provided for by the annual dues of the mem- 
 bers of the Association, provided, however, that the Committee shall have no 
 authority to incur or contract, onbehalf of the Association, any liability beyond the 
 annual dues hereby authorized, and only that for the purposes hereby mentioned. 
 
 Article XIII. The annual dues of the Banks, members of the Association, 
 shall be as follows: 
 
 Those having deposits of $100,000 or less shall pay $5; between Si 00,000 and 
 $1 ,000,000, $ ro; between $1 ,000,000 and not exceeding $5 ,ooo,ooo,$2o; $5,000,000 
 and upward to $10,000,000, $25; in excess of $10,000,000, $50. Such dues shall 
 be payable on the first day of June in each year. 
 
 Article XIV. Any Bank failing to pay the annual dues within three months 
 after notice shall be considered as having withdrawn from membership. It may
 
 APPENDIX 669 
 
 be reinstated with the consent of the Executive Committee upon payment of all 
 arrears; and any Bank may withdraw from membership by giving thirty days' 
 written notice to the Secretary of the Association. 
 
 Article XV. Subjects for discussion must be submitted to the Executive Com- 
 mittee in writing at least thirty days before any general meeting of the Association. 
 
 Article XVI. The order of business at the annual meeting shall be as follows : 
 ist. The President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President, or the Chairman 
 of the Executive Committee shall call the meeting to order. 
 
 2d. Roll call. 
 
 3d. Address by the President. 
 
 4th. Reading of minutes. 
 
 5th. Report of Executive Committee. 
 
 6th. Report of the Treasurer. 
 
 7th. Unfinished business. 
 
 8th. New business. 
 
 9th. Reading of papers. 
 loth. Report of Committee on Nominations, 
 nth. Election of new officers and committees. 
 1 2th. Election of Committee on Nominations. 
 
 Article XVII. This Constitution may be amended at any annual meeting 
 by a vote of three fourths 6l the delegates present, notice of such proposed amend- 
 ment having been given by the Secretary to each member at least thirty days 
 before said meeting. 
 
 PRESENT CONSTITUTION 
 
 Revised, May 2j, IQ12 
 
 Article I. The Association shall be called The Savings Banks Association 
 of the State of New York, and shall have for its objects the general welfare of the 
 Savings Banks in this State, the securing of the proper consideration of all legis- 
 lative action affecting Savings Banks, and the discussion of all subjects relating 
 thereto. 
 
 Article II. Any Savings Bank, or Savings Institution, of the State of New 
 York, may become a member of this Association upon payment of such annual 
 dues as may from time to time be decided upon, and may send one delegate to the 
 meetings of the Association, and any member may be expelled by the vote of two 
 thirds of the delegates present at the regular meetings. 
 
 Delegates shall be officers or trustees of the Bank they represent, and shall vote 
 in person, and not by proxy. 
 
 Article III. The officers of this Association shall consist of a President, 
 three Vice-Presidents, Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall be elected annually; 
 and who shall hold office until their successors are elected or appointed. 
 
 The officers shall be ex officio members of the Executive Committee of their 
 respective groups, and of the Executive Committee of the Association.
 
 670 APPENDIX 
 
 Article IV. For the better realization of the aims of the Association, the 
 members shall be divided into five groups, as nearly as possible according to 
 geographical division, as follows: 
 
 Group I. Consisting of the Counties of Niagara, Erie, Chautauqua, Orleans, 
 Genesee, Wyoming, Cattaraugus, Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Ontario, Yates, 
 Seneca, Steuben, and Allegany. 
 
 Group 2. Consisting of the Counties of Cayuga, Tompkins, Chemung, Tioga, 
 Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Onondaga, Oswego, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, 
 Lewis, Herkimer, Oneida, Madison, and Schuyler. 
 
 Group 3. Consisting of the Counties of FrankUn, Hamilton, Fulton, Mont- 
 gomery, Otsego, Delaware, Sullivan, Orange, Ulster, Greene, Schoharie, Schenec- 
 tady, Albany, Saratoga, Warren, Essex, CUnton, Washington, Rensselaer, Co- 
 lumbia, Dutchess, Putnam, and Rockland. 
 
 Group 4. Consisting of the Counties of New York and Westchester. 
 
 Group 5. Consisting of the Counties of Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Nassau, and 
 Richmond. 
 
 Article V. The President shall preside at all meetings, preserve order, ap- 
 point all committees unless otherwise ordered, and arrange for holding special 
 meetings at the written request of ten members of the Association. In case of 
 absence or disability of the President, all the powers and duties devolving upon 
 him may be performed by the Vice-Presidents, or, in case of absence or disability 
 of the President and Vice-Presidents, the Association may designate one of their 
 own number to act as President pro lem. 
 
 Article VI. The Executive Committee shall consist of the officers of the 
 Association, the Chairman and Secretary of each group, who, when unable to 
 serve, shall appoint a temporary substitute, and those who have held the office of 
 President of the Association within five years. 
 
 It shall take charge of the general business of the Association, receive commu- 
 nications, arrange for holding meetings, procure and arrange subjects for discus- 
 sion, and the order in which they come before the Association, provide for speak- 
 ers, and carry out resolutions passed. 
 
 The attendance of six members of the Executive Committee, of which the ex 
 officio members may form a part, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction 
 of business, and they shall have power to fill vacancies occurring during the year 
 in the office of Secretary or Treasurer. 
 
 Article VII. Special meetings of the Executive Committee may be called 
 at the request of three of its own members, giving two days' notice to the Secre- 
 tary desiring him to call such special meeting. 
 
 Article VIII. The Executive Committee shall provide: 
 First: For keeping the records of the proceedings of their own meetings, as 
 well as those of the Association's annual or special meetings. 
 
 Second: They shall submit to each annual meeting a report covering their 
 own official acts, as well as a statement of any new or unfinished business re- 
 quiring attention.
 
 APPENDIX 671 
 
 Article IX. The Secretary shall make and have charge of the records of 
 the Association, as well as those of the Executive Committee, and of the cor- 
 respondence of the Executive Committee, and also of all other committees that 
 may be attended by the President. 
 
 Article X. The Treasurer of the Association shall receive and disburse all 
 moneys as directed by the Executive Committee, all vouchers for payments 
 being countersigned by the President or Chairman of the Executive Committee. 
 
 Article XI. The annual meetings of the Association shall be held at such 
 times and places as may be determined by the Executive Committee. 
 
 Article XII. The expenses of the Executive Committee in carrying out the 
 business to be done by them shall be provided for by the annual dues of the mem- 
 bers of the Association, provided, however, that the Committee shall have no 
 authority to incur or contract, on behalf of this Association, any Uability beyond 
 the annual dues hereby authorized, and only that for the purposes hereby desig- 
 nated. 
 
 Article XIII. The annual dues of banks, members of the Association, shall 
 be as follows: 
 
 Those having deposits of $100,000 or less shall pay $5; between $100,000 and 
 $i,ooo,ooo,$io; between $1,000,000 and not exceeding $5 ,000,000, $20; $5 ,000,000 
 and upward to $10,000,000, $25; in excess of $10,000,000, and not exceeding 
 $20,000,000, $50. For each $10,000,000, or any part thereof in excess of 
 $20,000,000 of deposits, the annual dues shall be increased by $10. Such dues 
 shall be payable on the first day of June in each year. 
 
 Article XIV. Any bank failing to pay the annual dues within three months 
 after notice shall be considered as having withdrawn from membership. It may 
 be reinstated with the consent of the Executive Committee upon payment of all 
 arrears; and any bank may withdraw from membership by giving thirty days' 
 written notice to the Secretary' of the Association. 
 
 Article XV. Subjects for discussion maybe subinitted to the Executive Com- 
 mittee in writingat least thirty days before any general meeting of the Association. 
 
 Article XVI . The order of business at the annual meeting shall be as follows : 
 I St. The President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President, or the Chairman 
 of the Executive Committee, shall call the meeting to order. 
 
 2d. Roll caU. 
 
 3d. Address by the President. 
 
 4th. Reading of minutes. 
 
 Sth. Report of Executive Committee. 
 
 6th. Report of the Treasurer. 
 
 7th. Unfinished business. 
 
 Sth. New business. 
 
 9th. Reading of papers, 
 loth. Election of new officers.
 
 672 APPENDIX 
 
 Article XVII. Members of the Association shall belong to the group in which 
 their place of business is located, but members may be transferred from one 
 group to another with the approval of the Chairman of the group to which they 
 belong and of the Chairman of the group to which they desire to be transferred. 
 
 Notice of such transfer shall be filed with the Secretary and Treasurer of the 
 Association. 
 
 Article XVIII. Each group shall hold at least one meeting each year, at 
 such time and place as each group may determine; provided, however, that one 
 of such meetings, to be called the annual meeting, shall be held not later than 
 December ist, and that the first meeting shall be called by the President of the 
 Association. 
 
 Unless otherwise arranged, the meetings shall be held as follows: Group i, at 
 Buffalo; Group 2, at Syracuse; Group 3, at Albany; Group 4, at New York; 
 Group 5, at Brooklyn. 
 
 Each group shall elect at its annual meeting a Chairman, a Secretary, a Treas- 
 urer, and an Executive Committee consisting of three members. 
 
 Article XIX. The Chairman of each group shall, previous to each annual 
 meeting of the Association, appoint a representative from his group to act as a 
 member of the Nominating Committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year. 
 No member of the Executive Committee, nor any candidate for office, shall be a 
 member of such Nominating Committee. 
 
 Article XX. The Executive Committee may appropriate such sums as in 
 its opinion may be necessary for the expenses of the several groups, and the 
 amounts so appropriated shall be paid by the Treasurer of the Association to the 
 Treasurer of each of said groups. But the Association shall not be liable for any 
 debt contracted or obhgation incurred by any group or the officers thereof. 
 
 .\rticle XXI. This Constitution may be amended at any annual meeting 
 by a vote of three fourths of the banks represented at such meetings, notice of 
 such proposed amendment having been given by the Secretary to each member 
 at least thirty days before said meeting.
 
 H 
 
 FIRST MEETING OF SAVINGS BANKS OFFICERS 
 OF NEW YORK STATE 
 
 A meeting of the representatives of various Savings Banks of the 
 State of New York was held at the Chamber of Commerce, New 
 York City, on Thursday, May 26, 1892. At this meeting Mr. 
 James McMahon, President of the Emigrant Industrial Savings 
 Bank, New York City, presided, after the meeting had been called 
 to order by Mr. Alexander E. Orr. Mr. Andrew Mills, President 
 of the Dry Dock Savings Bank, New York, was chosen Secretary. 
 The demand for legislation to increase the scope of investments for 
 Savings Banks was the primary cause for the calling of this meeting. 
 It is believed that this was the first time that officers of the Savings 
 Banks of the State of New York had ever met as a body. As Presi- 
 dent McMahon said in his opening address: "Nothing can be lost 
 and very much gained through coming in personal contact with and 
 knowing each other. Our interests are identical, and having no 
 other ends to serve than to do our duty faithfully to the public at 
 large, we are in a position to discuss the various questions coming 
 before us calmly, soberly, and in a spirit of absolute fair dealing as 
 between ourselves as officers, the depositors we represent, the Bank- 
 ing Department at Albany, and the Legislature of this State, which 
 properly controls and governs the management of the institutions 
 we serve." 
 
 Secretary Mills stated, in response to a question, that he had re- 
 ceived responses from upward of eighty Savings Banks throughout 
 the State, all of them either expressing the intention of sending a 
 representative, or at least approving very heartily of the idea of a 
 Convention of Savings Banks Officers. 
 
 The following Savings Banks were represented at this initial 
 meeting : 
 
 Albany Savings Bank, Albany, by J. Howard King, President. 
 
 Exchange Savings Bank, Albany, by J. F. McElroy, Second Vice-President. 
 
 Home Savings Bank, Albany, by John D. Capron, Treasurer. 
 
 Albany County Savings Bank, Albany, by Wm. N. S. Sanders, Treasurer. 
 
 Auburn Savings Bank, Auburn, by E. H. Tovvnsend, Treasurer. 
 
 Cayuga County Savings Bank, Auburn, by W. H. Meaker, Treasurer. 
 
 Amsterdam Savings Bank, Amsterdam, by S. H. French, President. 
 
 673
 
 674 APPENDIX 
 
 Binghamton Savings Bank, Binghamton, by H. G. Rogers, Treasurer; J. K. 
 Weldon, Trustee. 
 
 South Brooklyn Savings Institution, Brooklyn, by A. E. Orr, President. 
 
 Germania Savings Institution, Brooldyn, by F. W. Schroeder, President. 
 
 Dime Savings Institution, Brooklyn, by G. S. Hutchinson, President; E. H. 
 Kellogg, Vice-President. 
 
 Kings County Savings Institution, Brooklyn, by James S. Beams, Vice-Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Brooklyn Savings Bank, Brooklyn, by F. E. Flandreau, Cashier. 
 
 Erie County Savings Bank, Buffalo, by Philo D. Beard, First Vice-President. 
 
 College Point Savings Bank, College Point, by Hugo Funke, Second Vice- 
 President. 
 
 Queens County Savings Bank, Flushing, by L. M. Franklin, Secretary. 
 
 Hudson City Savings Institution, Hudson, by Samuel R. Rainey, Treasurer. 
 
 Farmers' and Mechanics' Savings Bank, Lockport, by Isaac H. Babcock, Presi- 
 dent; J. E. Emerson, Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 Union Savdngs Bank, Mamaroneck, by Bradford Rhodes, President. 
 
 Portchester Savings Bank, Portchester, by VV. P. Abendroth, President. 
 
 Poughkeepsie Saxangs Bank, Poughkeepsie, by Henry V. Pelton, Treasurer; 
 Edward S. Atwater, Treasurer. 
 
 Rhinebeck Savings Bank, Rhinebeck, by T. W. Bates, President; T. A. Traver, 
 Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 Riverland Savings Bank, Riverland, by Nat. W. Foster, President; Clifford B. 
 Ackerly, Secretary. 
 
 Rochester Savings Bank, Rochester, by S. J. Macy, Second Vice-President. 
 
 Mechanics' Savings Bank, Rochester, by T. A. Whittlesey, Attorney and 
 Trustee. 
 
 Rondout Savings Bank, Rondout, by J. E. Derrenbacher, Secretary. 
 
 Sing Sing Savings Bank, Sing Sing, by Isaac B. Noxon, Secretary. 
 
 Southold Savings Bank, Southold, by H. H. Hunting, Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 Onondaga County Savings Bank, Syracuse, by E. S. Dawson, President; R. A. 
 Bonta, Secretary. 
 
 Savings Bank of Utica, Utica, by Ephraim Chamberlain, President. 
 
 Warwick Savings Bank, Warwick, by W. L. Ogden, Vice-President, Thos. Burt, 
 Treasurer. 
 
 People's Savings Bank, Yonkers, by R. Dutton, President. 
 
 Yoiikers Savings Bank, Yonkers, by S. E. Getty, Secretary. 
 
 Bowery Savings Bank, New York, by Edward Wood, President. 
 
 Bank for Savings, New York, by J. A. Roosevelt, Second Vice-President. 
 
 Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, New York, by Jas. McMahon, President. 
 
 Seamen's Bank for Savings, New York, by W. C. Sturges, President. 
 
 Greenwich Savings Bank, New York, by J. Harsen Rhoades, President. 
 
 German Savings Bank, New York, by G. F. Amthor, Treasurer. 
 
 Dry Dock Savings Institution, New York, by Andrew Mills, President. 
 
 Union Dime Savings Institution, New York, by Chas. E. Sprague, Treasurer. 
 
 Citizens' Savings Bank, New York, by E. A. Quintard, President. 
 
 East River Savings Institution, New York, by W. H. Slocum, President. 
 
 New York Savings Bank, New York, by S. W. Jones, President; Fred. Hughson, 
 Treasurer. 
 
 Franklin Savings Bank, New York, by W. G. Conklin, Secretar>'. 
 
 Institution for Savings Merchants' Clerks, New York, by And. Warner, Presi- 
 dent; Geo. A. Robbins, Vice-President. 
 
 Metropolitan Savings Bank, New York, by Geo. N. Conklin, Secretary. 
 
 Harlem Savings Bank, New York, by Chas. B. Tooker, President. 
 
 United States Savings Bank, New York, by Cons. A. Andrews, President; G. A. 
 Middlcbrook, Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 1 2th Ward Savings Bank, New York, by Anton Rasines, President. 
 
 Newburgh Savings Bank, Newburgh, by Thos. F. Balfe, Treasurer.
 
 APPENDIX 67s 
 
 Letters were received from the following Banks approving of the 
 meeting and endorsing its objects: 
 
 National Savings Bank Albany- 
 Albany City Savings Institution Albany 
 
 Mechanics' & Farmers' Bank Albany 
 
 Williamsburgh Savings Bank Brooklyn 
 
 East Brooklyn Brooklyn 
 
 Western Savings Bank Bufifalo 
 
 Buffalo Savings Bank Buffalo 
 
 Mechanics' Savings Bank Cohoes 
 
 Cohoes Savings Bank Cohoes 
 
 Cortland Savings Bank Cortland 
 
 Goshen Savings Bank Goshen 
 
 Ithaca Savings Bank Ithaca 
 
 Kingston Savings Bank Kingston 
 
 Long Island City Savings Bank Long Island City 
 
 Middletown Savings Bank Middletown 
 
 West Side Savings Bank New York 
 
 American Savings Bank New York 
 
 Excelsior Savings Bank New York 
 
 Pawling Savings Bank Pawling 
 
 Monroe County Savings Bank Rochester 
 
 Syracuse Savings Bank Syracuse 
 
 Troy Savings Bank Troy 
 
 And Hon. C. M. Preston, Bank Superintendent.
 
 FIRST REPORT OF 
 
 THE BANK FOR SAVINGS IN THE 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 (1820) 
 
 It is proper briefly to note the practical success of this institution 
 w-ithin a short period after its organization and the favorable effect 
 of this success in disarming hostility to similar measures thereafter. 
 
 The first report of the institution was made to the legislature the 
 following year (1820), and was accompanied by an application for 
 an amendment of its charter so as to authorize investments in loans 
 upon real estate. 
 
 Concerning the subject generally, Governor Clinton, in his mes- 
 sage to the legislature, said: 
 
 "The Bank for Savings in the City of New York, instituted at the 
 last session, to cherish meritorious industry, to encourage frugality 
 and retrenchment, and to promote the welfare of famihes, the cause 
 of morality, and the good order of society, has already manifested its 
 claims to your confidence by an accumulation of more than one 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars in small deposits, and by shed- 
 ding a benign influence on society. The application of this institu- 
 tion to authorize loans on real estate, as well as any other provisions 
 subsersdent to its salutary objects, will undoubtedly receive your 
 sanction." 
 
 The following is the report of the Bank made to the Legislature in 
 1820, covering the operations of only six months, the first report of 
 the kind ever made to the Legislature of New York. It is a model 
 of its kind, pure in thought and chaste in diction: 
 
 REPORT 
 
 Conformably to the provisions of an Act entitled: "An Act to in- 
 corporate an Association by the name of a Bank for Savings, in the 
 City of New York," the trustees now beg leave to present their first 
 report to the honorable the Legislature of the State, and the honor- 
 able Common Council of the City of New York, as follows: 
 
 First: That the Bank for Savings was opened for deposits in a
 
 APPENDIX 677 
 
 room of the New York Institution, granted to the trustees by the 
 Academy of Arts, and approved by the Corporation, for the term of 
 two years, gratis, on Saturday, the 3d of July, 1819, when, from 
 eighty depositors, the trustees had the satisfaction of receiving the 
 sum of $2,807. 
 
 Second: That from the aforesaid 3d day of July, until the 27th 
 of December inclusive, being a period of six entire months, there 
 had been deposited in the Bank for Savings, by 1,527 depositors, the 
 sum of $153,378.31. 
 
 Third: That the sum of $148,372.27, as will appear by the treas- 
 urer's account hereunto annexed, has been invested in the public 
 funds, agreeable to law, and that the sum of $6,606 has been drawn 
 out by the depositors. Of those who have drawn out, the number of 
 forty-six have closed their accounts, and twenty-one have taken 
 out only a part, and, therefore, their accounts remain open. 
 
 Fourth: The depositors, having been classed under various 
 heads, they stand in the books of the trustees as follows: [Here fol- 
 lows an enumeration of occupations of depositors, embracing me- 
 chanics, laborers, tradesmen, and domestics, 840; minors, male, 
 287; minors, female, 276; widows, 98; orphans, 20; apprentices, 15; 
 unclassified, 24; total, 1,527.] Having given these statements which 
 the act aforesaid and the sense of their own duty to the depositors re- 
 quired, the trustees hope that they shall stand excused in making 
 such remarks as this interesting subject obviously suggests. 
 
 It was to be expected that an institution which, by inculcating 
 economy among the middle and lower classes of society, and in- 
 ducing them to spare their earnings for future exigencies, would 
 necessarily withdraw them from places of pubHc resort, and thus 
 excite the enmity of those whose emolument was the fruit of prodi- 
 gal expenditure. The trustees, however, are gratified in saying that 
 few such instances have come to their knowledge. On the contrar}% 
 the classifications of depositors will furnish several instances, even 
 of pubUc tavern-keepers who have brought their money to the bank 
 for safety and increase. Nor are the trustees without hope that 
 such examples v/ill operate upon many of those whose conduct has 
 heretofore been reprehensible. A reform at the source of waste \\dll 
 soon spread its influences through a large portion of our population. 
 
 The Board of Trustees, previous to opening the books for the re- 
 ceipt of deposits, established a system of management and inspec- 
 tion for the bank, which in its operation has proved highly benefi- 
 cial. They appointed, in rotation, three of their number to attend 
 at the bank as a Committee for one month. It was made the duty 
 of this Committee to receive deposits, to see that, the entries were 
 duly made, to make inquiries as to the situation of the depositors, 
 and ask such further questions as might promote the welfare either 
 of the individuals or of the institution. By this means the whole of
 
 6 78 APPENDIX 
 
 the Board of Trustees have become familiar with the depositors, and 
 while their confidence in those to whom they have committed the 
 safeguard and improvement of their Uttle funds has been confirmed, 
 it has afforded an opportunity, readily embraced by the trustees, 
 of giving such advice to many of the depositors as they believed 
 would tend to promote careful habits and moral feeUng. The grati- 
 fication which they have received in numerous instances has amply 
 repaid the attending Committee this gratuitous labor. 
 
 The investment of the funds has been intrusted to a special Com- 
 mittee, consisting of Messrs. John Mason, Jacob Sherred, and 
 William Wilson, who report to the board at their monthly meeting 
 the manner in which the funds have been disposed of. The Treas- 
 urer also reports once a month the amount received from the de- 
 posits, and how it has been expended. By this mode, every opera- 
 tion is at once known to each individual trustee; and such checks 
 are furnished as to prevent the possibility of the smallest loss to de- 
 positors. 
 
 The different classes of depositors will furnish various reflections 
 calculated to place banks for savings high in the esteem of the polit- 
 ical economist, the practical philanthropist, and the diligent pro- 
 moter of sound morals. 
 
 In every part of an active population, and particularly in large 
 cities, the difficulty of procuring the reward of labor is not so great 
 as the power to preserve it. The man who attends to the regular 
 discharge of his duties, and is enabled to lay up a weekly sum from 
 his hard-earned income, is too often the dupe of the idle, the profli- 
 gate, the designing, or the unfortunate. Incaution, and sometimes 
 an excusable vanity, prompts the possessor of an increasing fund to 
 reveal it to his less prosperous neighbor. The desire of accumula- 
 tion and the hope of bettering his condition will induce the listener 
 to try the means with which his friend can furnish him on some ob- 
 ject of speculation. He tries and both are ruined. There are others 
 who live only to prey upon society; they insinuate themselves into 
 the confidence of the unsuspecting; give the most plausible reasons 
 for the small sums they ask, and the strongest assurances of a speedy 
 repayment. The money is loaned; but the lender too soon finds 
 that the fruit of years of labor is gone forever. 
 
 Many cases have come before the trustees wherein the above 
 was justified by ample details. The causes, as after stated by the 
 sufferers themselves, arose alike from their want of some secure place 
 of deposit and their ignorance how to improve what they had laid 
 up. The sums are generally too small to be received at any of the 
 banks; and when this is not the case, it was found equally as diffi- 
 cult to retain it as if it had been actually in the owner's hands; the 
 temptation to loan was the same. Though many depositors under- 
 stood how to invest their money in public stocks, yet anticipating an
 
 APPENDIX 679 
 
 early use for it, or fearing a loss from the fluctuation of the funds, 
 they preferred letting it lie useless. In numerous instances sums 
 from $100 to $300 had lain unimproved for many years, while others 
 had loaned and lost the whole. The banks for savings provide 
 almost the only remedy : they give security to the depositor, improve 
 his little stock, and, at fixed periods, allow him to withdraw the 
 whole, if his inclination or interest should prompt him. 
 
 The value of an institution is to be estimated by the evil which it 
 prevents, or by the good which it produces. In some, the effects are 
 more remote, in others more immediate. Banks for savings are 
 among the latter; the attempt is no sooner made than the most salu- 
 tary effects follow. It has formed the most pleasing and interesting 
 part of the duty of the monthly Committee to observe and note these 
 effects. The effect on the moral habits is not more certain than 
 striking; he who has learnt to be economical has first gotten rid of 
 pernicious modes of spending money. Every time he adds to his 
 amount, he has an additional motive for perseverance. In the pro- 
 vision he is making for futurity is associated all which can gratify 
 him as a father, a husband, a guardian, or a friend. The talent 
 which heaven has committed to his care, he improves for the objects 
 of his affections; this, again, endears them to him, and thus the sum 
 , of human happiness is increased and extended. It is impossible for 
 men continuing to act on such principles to be immoral. 
 
 The trustees are glad to report that the habit of saving among the 
 depositors becomes very soon not only delightful but permanent. 
 Those who have brought their one dollar are anxious to increase it 
 to five, and so on. The number of re-deposits sufficiently confirms 
 this fact; and such has been the effects on emigrants from Great Brit- 
 ain that the very guineas which they received from the banks for 
 savings at home they have deposited in the one in this city imme- 
 diately after landing. 
 
 There are several classes of depositors which the trustees cannot 
 forbear to remark upon. 
 
 Seamen are proverbially improvident, not so much perhaps from 
 a love of waste as from a total ignorance how to dispose of their 
 money. Having no one to direct them, the wages which they have 
 earned, amidst storms and tempests, they scatter on shore without 
 reflection. Of this useful class of men, a few have found their way 
 to our bank, and the trustees will do all in their power to increase 
 the number. One seaman on one of the regular traders for Liverpool 
 brought home with him in silver $360; his captain directed him to 
 the Bank for Savings. He soon deposited his burden, and appeared 
 heartily pleased that, under the guidance of his commander, he had 
 at last found a harbor of safety for his small property. 
 
 The clergy are a body of gentlemen perhaps more entitled to our 
 gratitude and care than any other in the community. Their means
 
 68o APPENDIX 
 
 in general arc small, their families usually large, and, from the nature 
 of their office, they are prevented by trade to increase their income. 
 Many of them, however, can save a little, and they have availed 
 themselves of the bank to deposit it for improvement. When the 
 trustees look round on the number of destitute widows of once re- 
 spectable and useful clergymen, they cannot but hail the institution 
 as the means of affording, by the provident care of the living, com- 
 fort, and perhaps independence, for future widows and orphans. 
 
 The attention which has been paid by parents and guardians, 
 since the opening of our Bank, to the future comfort and security of 
 minors, is not one of the least blessings which shall flow from this 
 institution. The deposits for this class are very numerous; and 
 while it is calculated to excite the gratitude of the young beings for 
 whose use the deposits have been made, it holds out to them, v/hen 
 arrived at maturity, the example and the means by which succeed- 
 ing generations are to be benefited and improved. 
 
 As parents, as citizens, and as men, the trustees exult in the pros- 
 pects which the Bank for Savings holds out to this growing city and 
 State. The habits which a resort to it induce hold out the best 
 pledge for a reduction in the public burdens, as they are connected 
 with indigence and want. They tend to inspire a spirit of inde- 
 pendence, and in their moral operation lessen crime, poverty, and 
 disease. They teach man to depend upon his own exertions, en- 
 courage industry, frugality, cleanHncss, and self-respect; and effec- 
 tually prevent those who are so fortunate as to be influenced by 
 them from applying either to public provisions or private bounty 
 for support. 
 
 The trustees take this opportunity of thanking the gentlemen con- 
 nected as tellers, clerks, and porters, in the different banks, for the 
 cheerful manner in which they have rendered their services on the 
 evenings of deposit. Their kindness was both acceptable and use- 
 ful. 
 
 In conclusion: the trustees are fully aware that they have under- 
 taken an arduous task; but in the approbation of the public author- 
 ities, the countenance of their fellow-citizens, and the increasing 
 comfort of the community, they will have a full reward. 
 
 James Eastbury, William Bayard, 
 
 Secretary. President.
 
 LIST OF 
 
 SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE 
 
 BANKING DEPARTMENT OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 (1851-1914) 
 
 SUPEMNTENDENTS RESIDENCE APPOINTED 
 
 Daniel B. St. John Newburgh April 15, 185 1 
 
 Marius Schoonmaker Kingston April 4, 1854 
 
 James M. Cook Ballston Spa January 30, 1856 
 
 Henry H. Van Dyck Albany April 16, 1861 
 
 Edward Hand Catskill August 9, 1865 
 
 *Emerson W. Keyes Brooklyn November, 1865 
 
 George W. Schuyler Ithaca January 3, 1866 
 
 Daniel C. Howell Bath February 3, 1870 
 
 DeWitt C. Ellis Rochester February 19, 1873 
 
 Henry L. Lamb West Troy August 17, 1877 
 
 A. Barton Hepburn Colton April 13, 1880 
 
 Willis S. Paine New York City April 27, 1883 
 
 *Charles R. Hall Norwich October i, 1889 
 
 Chas. M. Preston Kingston December 23, 1889 
 
 Frederick D. Kilburn Malone January 8, 1896 
 
 Chas. H. Keep Buffalo January 17, 1907 
 
 Clark Williams New York City October 24, 1907 
 
 Orin H. Cheney New York City November 24, 1909 
 
 Geo. C. Van Tuyl, Jr Albany May 18, 191 1 
 
 Eugene Lamb Richards W. New Brighton, S.I. May 9, 1914 
 
 *Deputy and acting Superintendent. 
 
 681
 
 K 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF REPORT OF 
 
 COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY AS TO 
 
 SAVINGS BANKS IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 (from 1820 TO AND INCLUDING I913) 
 
 Year 
 
 1820. 
 1825. 
 1830. 
 
 1835- 
 1840. 
 
 1845- 
 1846. 
 
 1847. 
 1848. 
 1849- 
 1850. 
 1851. 
 1852. 
 
 1853. 
 1854- 
 i8s5- 
 1856. 
 
 i8S7- 
 1858. 
 
 I8S9 
 
 i860. 
 
 1861. 
 
 1862. 
 
 1863. 
 
 1864. 
 
 1865. 
 
 1866. 
 
 1867. 
 
 1868. 
 
 1869. 
 
 1870. 
 
 1871. 
 
 1872. 
 
 No. of 
 Banks 
 
 IS 
 36 
 52 
 61 
 70 
 
 74 
 76 
 
 83 
 
 90 
 
 108 
 
 128 
 
 141 
 
 159 
 190 
 
 215 
 222 
 231 
 24s 
 259 
 278 
 
 285 
 289 
 293 
 30s 
 317 
 33^ 
 371 
 406 
 476 
 517 
 577 
 647 
 
 No. of 
 Depositors 
 
 8,635 
 16,931 
 38,03s 
 60,058 
 78,701 
 145,206 
 158,709 
 
 187,739 
 199,764 
 217,318 
 
 251,354 
 277,148 
 308,863 
 365,538 
 
 396,173 
 
 431,602 
 
 487,986 
 
 490,428 
 
 538,840 
 
 622,556 
 
 693,870 
 
 694,487 
 
 787,943 
 
 887,096 
 
 976,025 
 
 980,844 
 
 1,067,061 
 
 1,188,202 
 
 1,310,144 
 
 1 ,466,684 
 
 1 ,630,846 
 
 1,902,047 
 
 1,992,925 
 
 Deposits 
 
 $1,138,576 
 2,537,082 
 
 6,973,304 
 10,613,726 
 14,051,520 
 24,506,677 
 
 27,374,325 
 31,627,479 
 33,087,488 
 36,073,924 
 43,431,130 
 
 50,457,913 
 59,467,453 
 72,313,696 
 77,823,906 
 84,290,076 
 95,598,230 
 98,512,968 
 108,438,287 
 128,657,901 
 
 149,277,504 
 146,729,882 
 169,434,540 
 206,235,202 
 236,280,401 
 242,619,382 
 282,455,794 
 327,009,452 
 392,781,813 
 457,675,050 
 549,874,358 
 650,745,442 
 735,046,805 
 
 Average due 
 each Depositor 
 
 $131.86 
 149.84 
 183.09 
 176.72 
 
 178.54 
 168.77 
 172.48 
 168.46 
 165.63 
 165.99 
 172.78 
 182.06 
 
 192.54 
 197.82 
 196.44 
 195-29 
 195-90 
 200.87 
 201 . 24 
 206.87 
 
 215-13 
 211 . 27 
 21503 
 232.48 
 242.08 
 
 247-35 
 264. 70 
 283.63 
 299 . 80 
 312.04 
 337-17 
 342.13 
 368.82 
 
 Average per capita 
 in the U. S. 
 
 $0.12 
 
 •54 
 .82' 
 
 1.87 
 
 4-75 
 
 14.26 
 
 682
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 683 
 
 
 No. of 
 
 No. of 
 
 Deposits 
 
 Average due Ave 
 
 rage per capita 
 
 Year 
 
 Banks 
 
 Depositors 
 
 each Depositor 1 
 
 n the U. S. 
 
 1873.. 
 
 669 
 
 2,185,832 
 
 802,363,609 
 
 367.07 
 
 
 
 1874. 
 
 
 693 
 
 2,293,401 
 
 864,556,902 
 
 376 
 
 98 . . . . 
 
 
 
 1875- 
 
 
 771 
 
 2,359,864 
 
 924,037,304 
 
 391 
 
 56 .... 
 
 
 
 1876. 
 
 
 781 
 
 2,368,630 
 
 941,350,255 
 
 397 
 
 42 
 
 
 
 1877. 
 
 
 675 
 
 2,395,314 
 
 866,218,306 
 
 361 
 
 63 . . . . 
 
 
 
 1878. 
 
 
 663 
 
 2,400,785 
 
 879,897,425 
 
 366 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 1879. 
 
 
 639 
 
 2,268,707 
 
 802,490,298 
 
 353 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 629 
 
 2,335,582 
 
 819,106,973 
 
 350 
 
 71 
 
 16.33 
 
 
 1881. 
 
 
 629 
 
 2,528,749 
 
 891,961,142 
 
 352 
 
 73 
 
 
 
 1882. 
 
 
 629 
 
 2,710,354 
 
 966,797,081 
 
 356 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 1883. 
 
 
 630 
 
 2,876,438 
 
 1,024,856,787 
 
 356 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 1884. 
 
 
 636 
 
 3,015,151 
 
 1,073,294,955 
 
 355 
 
 96 . . . . 
 
 
 
 1885. 
 
 
 646 
 
 3,071,495 
 
 1,095,172,147 
 
 356 
 
 56 . . . . 
 
 
 
 1886. 
 
 
 638 
 
 3,158,950 
 
 1,141,530,578 
 
 361 
 
 36 . . . . 
 
 
 
 1887. 
 
 
 684 
 
 3,418,013 
 
 1,235,247,371 
 
 361 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 1888. 
 
 
 801 
 
 3,838,291 
 
 1,364,196,550 
 
 355 
 
 41 
 
 
 
 1889. 
 
 
 849 
 
 4,021,523 
 
 1,425,230,349 
 
 354 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 1890. 
 
 
 921 
 
 4,258,893 
 
 1,524,844,506 
 
 358 
 
 03 
 
 24-35 
 
 1891. 
 
 
 1,011 
 
 4,533,217 
 
 1,623,079,749 
 
 358 
 
 04 
 
 25.29 
 
 1892. 
 
 
 1,059 
 
 4,781,605 
 
 1,712,769,026 
 
 358 
 
 20 
 
 26.11 
 
 1893- 
 
 
 1,030 
 
 4,830,599 
 
 1,785,150,957 
 
 369 
 
 55 
 
 26.63 
 
 1894. 
 
 
 1,024 
 
 4,777,687 
 
 1,747,961,280 
 
 365 
 
 86 
 
 25-53 
 
 1895. 
 
 . 
 
 1,017 
 
 4,875,519 
 
 1,810,597,023 
 
 371 
 
 36 
 
 25.88 
 
 1896. 
 
 
 988 
 
 5,065,494 
 
 1,907,156,277 
 
 376 
 
 50 
 
 26.68 
 
 1897. 
 
 
 980 
 
 5,201,132 
 
 1,939,376,035 
 
 372 
 
 88 
 
 26.56 
 
 1898. 
 
 
 979 
 
 5,385,746 
 
 2,065,631,298 
 
 383 
 
 54 
 
 27.67 
 
 1899. 
 
 
 987 
 
 5,687,818 
 
 2,230,366,954 
 
 392 
 
 13 
 
 29.24 
 
 1900. 
 
 
 1,002 
 
 6,107,083 
 
 2,449,547,885 
 
 401 
 
 10 
 
 31-78 
 
 1901 . 
 
 
 1,007 
 
 6,358,723 
 
 2,597,094,580 
 
 408 
 
 30 
 
 33-45 
 
 1902. 
 
 
 1,036 
 
 6,666,672 
 
 2,750,177,290 
 
 412 
 
 53 
 
 34 89 
 
 i9<'3- 
 
 
 1,078 
 
 7,035,228 
 
 2,935,204,845 
 
 417 
 
 21 
 
 36.52 
 
 1904. 
 
 
 1,157 
 
 7,305,443 
 
 3,060,178,611 
 
 418 
 
 89 
 
 37-52 
 
 1905- 
 
 
 1,237 
 
 7,696,229 
 
 3,261,236,119 
 
 423 
 
 74 
 
 39-17 
 
 1906. 
 
 
 1,319 
 
 8,027,192 
 
 3,482,137,198 
 
 429 
 
 64 
 
 41-13 
 
 1907. 
 
 
 1,415 
 
 8,588,811 
 
 3,690,078,945 
 
 433 
 
 79 
 
 42.87 
 
 1908. 
 
 
 1,453 
 
 8,705,848 
 
 3,660,553,945 
 
 420 
 
 47 
 
 41.84 
 
 1909, 
 
 
 1,703 
 
 8,831,863 
 
 3,713,405,710 
 
 420 
 
 45 
 
 41-75 
 
 1910. 
 
 
 1,759 
 
 9,142,908 
 
 4,070,486,246 
 
 445 
 
 20 
 
 45-05 
 
 1911. 
 
 
 1,884 
 
 9,794,647 
 
 4,212,583,598 
 
 430 
 
 09 
 
 44.82 
 
 1912. 
 
 
 1,922 
 
 10,010,304 
 
 4,451,818,522 
 
 444 
 
 72 
 
 46.53 
 
 1913- 
 
 
 1,978 
 
 10,766,935 
 
 4,727,403,950 
 
 439-07 
 
 48.56 
 
 Population estimated at 97,337,000.
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
 
 OF OFFICERS 
 
 OF THE SAVINGS BANKS ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 HAROLD P. BREWSTER 
 
 President of the Rochester Savings Bank, was born in Rochester, 
 March 27, 1859. For more than forty years he has been identified 
 with the commercial Hfe of his native city, being engaged most of 
 that time in the tobacco business. He was elected a trustee of the 
 Rochester Savings Bank in 1889, and was chosen its President in 
 February, 1909. 
 
 WILLIAM G. CONKLIN 
 
 President of the Franklin Savings Bank, was born October 28, 
 1848. On December i, 1867, he entered the Franklin Savings 
 Bank as clerk, and after nearly twenty years of faithful service 
 was elected its Secretary. He was elected a trustee in February, 
 1887. In April, 1907, he was promoted to the Presidency of the 
 Bank and still holds that office. He is a member of the Union 
 League Club, of the Chamber of Commerce, a hfe member of the 
 New York Athletic Club, a member of the New York Electrical 
 Society, and the Press Club. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln 
 Trust Company and of the Hanaman Hospital, and a member of 
 the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of the City of New York. 
 
 JONATHAN B. CURREY 
 
 President of the Metropolitan Savings Bank, New York City, was 
 born at Yorktown, N. Y., March 9, 1847, the son of the Rev. 
 Benjamin and Susan (Hart) Currey. His education was obtained 
 at private schools and the Washington County Collegiate Institute. 
 He studied marine law for six years with Judge James S. Chew, and 
 for twenty years has practised adjusting marine losses. Mr. 
 Currey has been President of the Metropolitan Savings Bank since 
 
 684
 
 APPENDIX 68s 
 
 1893; is also a member of the Board of Trustees. He was married 
 at St. Louis, Mo., April 17, 1894, to Miss Mary S., daughter of 
 Col. Henry Clay Moore. In poUtics Mr. Currey is a Republican. 
 He attends the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. 
 Mr. Currey is a member of the Average Adjusters' Association of 
 the United States, of which he was chairman in 1894-95, and a 
 member of the Chamber of Commerce, the G. A. R., and the S. A. 
 R., and of the Lotos Club. His residence is at Mohegan Lake, N. Y. 
 
 WILLIAM FELSINGER 
 
 President of the New York Savings Bank, was born July 3, 1852. 
 At the age of seventeen he entered the New York Savings Bank as 
 junior clerk. After a service of thirteen years there, he went to the 
 Greenwich Savings Bank, returning to the New York Savings 
 Bank as Secretary, June i, 1891. On March 4, 1893, Mr. Fel- 
 singer was elected a trustee of the last-named institution, and be- 
 came its President April 8, 1902, an office which he has since held. 
 Mr. Felsinger is a member of the Union League and Republican 
 clubs of the City of New York. 
 
 CHARLES E. HANAMAN 
 
 was born in Port Schuyler, Albany County, N. Y., November 19, 
 1848. He prepared for college, but was obliged to enter the busi- 
 ness world in 1865. He continued in business as a manufacturer 
 and flour merchant until 1886, when he was forced to retire by 
 reason of ill-health. 
 
 Mr. Hanaman accepted the office of Secretary and Treasurer 
 of the Troy Savings Bank in February, 1888, and became President 
 and a trustee of the institution in February, 1893. At that date 
 the Bank's assets were about $6,000,000; to-day, figured on the 
 same basis, they are over $13,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Hanaman, as a recreation hobby, has devoted much of his 
 leisure for a number of years to scientific (biological) study. 
 
 FRANK MOSLEY HURLBUT 
 
 President of the Union Square Savings Bank, New York City, was 
 born in Milan, Ohio, in 185 1. At the age of sixteen years he entered 
 the services of the Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks, 
 the title of which was afterward changed to the Union Square Savings 
 Bank. In 1896 he became Vice-President, and in 1897 President. 
 
 He succeeded Mr. Styles as Treasurer of the Savings Banks As- 
 sociation in 19 10, and continued in that office until his death 
 January 2, 19 14. 
 
 He was a member of the Player's Club in New York City, and 
 of the Morris County Golf Club, at Morristown, New Jersey.
 
 686 .\PPENDIX 
 
 JAMES McMAHON 
 
 was born in Franklin County, N. Y., October 15, 183 1. His edu- 
 cation was acquired in Rochester, N. Y., where his parents re- 
 moved in his boyhood. In 1864 he was appointed deputy grain 
 measurer in New York City, and shortly thereafter, with James 
 T. Easton, organized the Protective Grain Association, out of 
 which the firm of Easton, McMahon & Co. developed. Having 
 established a line of freight steamers between New York and 
 Philadelphia, the business was reorganized in 188 1 and incorporated 
 as the Easton & McMahon Transportation Company, of which 
 Mr. McMahon was president, until he retired in 1886. Meanwhile, 
 he had become identified with the Emigrant Industrial Savings 
 Bank in New York City. He was elected a member of the Executive 
 Committee in 1881, became Chairman of that Committee in 1891, 
 and was chosen President of the Bank in 1892, continuing in that 
 ofiice until his resignation in 1906. Under his direction the in- 
 stitution became one of the best-known Savings Banks in New 
 York City. Mr. McMahon's public life was conspicuous in the 
 two fields of banking and philanthropy. Although he had never 
 sought public office he was appointed to membership on several 
 important boards in Greater New York. He served on the Board 
 of Education and took a prominent part in the movement which 
 resulted in the consolidation of Brooklyn with Greater New York 
 in 1898. He served as a director and member of the finance com- 
 mittee of the Equitable Life Assurance Society from 1906 to 1912, 
 director of the National Surety Company, the Produce Exchange 
 Bank, the People's Trust Company of Brooklyn, the Realty As- 
 sociates of Brooklyn, and other leading financial institutions. He 
 was a trustee of the House of Good Shepherd, a vice-president of 
 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, chairman and 
 vice-president of the finance committee of the Irish Emigrant 
 Society, and an incorporator and director for twenty-three years 
 of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, of which he became 
 a life member m 1890. He also served a term on the board of 
 management of the Long Island State Hospital. Mr. McMahon 
 enjoyed a wide reputation as an educator, financier, mathemati- 
 cian, and physicist, and received several gold medals for his re- 
 search work in mental philosophy and literature. He possessed a 
 balanced judgment and untiring industry, while his frank and 
 cheerful disposition, the honesty and candor of his nature, and a 
 warm alTection for his associates won for him a host of friends in 
 all walks of life. He was thrice married: first, February 19, 1855, 
 to Katherinc Augusta Cummiskey, of Rochester, N. Y., who died 
 May 28, 1895; second, June 17, 1896, to Rose Mary Devereux, who 
 died July 18, 1909, and third, April 7, 1910, to Helena Devereux, his
 
 APPENDIX 687 
 
 deceased wife's sister, receiving a special dispensation from the 
 Pope permitting the ceremony. Mr. McMahon died at his coun- 
 try home in Smithtown, L. I., December 10, 1913. (National 
 Cyclopedia of Am. Biog.: J. T. White & Co., New York.) 
 
 EDWIN P. MAYNARD 
 
 was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., July 12, 1864, and was educated in 
 the public schools. At the age of fifteen he entered the employ- 
 ment of Ammidon, Lane & Company, drygoods commission mer- 
 chants. In 1882 he went into the employ of the Brooklyn Savings 
 Bank as assistant bookkeeper, filling various positions up to the 
 year 1902, when he was elected Assistant Comptroller of the Bank, 
 and a few months later Comptroller of the institution. In 191 2 
 he was elected President, to succeed Mr. Bryan H. Smith, deceased. 
 This institution, as is well known, is the third oldest Savings Bank 
 in the State of New York and the oldest on Long Island. In May 
 Mr. Maynard became President of the New York State Savings 
 Banks Association. Upon his election to the presidency of the 
 Brooklyn Trust Company, in July of the same year, he resigned 
 the Presidency of the Association, and also that of the Brooklyn 
 Savings Bank, at the same time resigning his directorship in the 
 Broadway Trust Company. 
 
 At the present time Mr. Maynard is a director of the Nassau 
 National Bank and of the New York Telephone and Telegraph 
 Company, and trustee of the Brooklyn Savings Bank and of the 
 Brooklyn Trust Company. 
 
 CHARLES ADDISON MILLER 
 
 was born at Utica, New York, December 29, 1867, the son of Addi- 
 son Charles and Cynthia Jervis (Brayton) Miller. He was edu- 
 cated in the public schools of Utica, at Trinity Military Institute 
 at Tivoli-on-the-Hudson, and at Harvard College. Mr. Miller 
 was graduated from college in June, 1890, and was admitted to the 
 bar in the fall of 1892. He began practice as a member of the firm 
 of Miller, Fincke & Brandegee, and has continued a member of 
 that firm and of its successor. Miller & Fincke, until the present 
 time. In January, 1894, he became a trustee of the Savings Bank 
 of Utica, and at the same time his firm became the attorneys for 
 that institution. He became the Vice-President in 1899 and 
 President in 1907. Mr. Miller was elected as a member and as 
 Chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York State 
 Savings Banks Association in the fall of 1904, and immediately 
 took up the work of endeavoring to amend the Investment Law in 
 such a way that the securities in which Savings Banks might in- 
 vest should be given by general rules and not be established simply
 
 688 APPENDIX 
 
 by legislative enactment. This work resulted in the amendment 
 in 1905 which standardized the securities for Savings Bank invest- 
 ment. Mr. Miller was assisted in his efforts to get this act en- 
 acted by the Legislature by Mr. Van Rensselaer, who was then 
 President of the Association, without whose assistance there is 
 little likelihood that the amendment would have been adopted. 
 Mr. Miller succeeded Mr. Van Rensselaer as President of the As- 
 sociation in the spring of 1908, and served for one term. After 
 Mr. Miller retired as President of the Association, his firm was 
 retained as attorneys for ,the Association and has served in that 
 capacity to the present time. 
 
 THOMAS M. MULRY 
 
 President of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, New York, is 
 one of the stalwart figures in the financial life of the metropolis. 
 He was born in New York City, February 5, 1855. His father 
 was one of five brothers who came to this country from Ireland in 
 1873 and settled in New York City. His mother was Mrs. Par- 
 thenia M. Corlius, whose ancestor, the Hon. Clarkson Corlius, was 
 a representative from New York in the State Legislature at Albany 
 during the early part of the last century. Mr. Mulry received his 
 early education in the Catliolic parochial schools; he afterward 
 spent one year at the De La Salle Institute, conducted by the 
 Christian Brothers, and was for three years a pupil of the night 
 school conducted at Cooper Institute. The family removed to 
 Wisconsin in 1862, but returned to New York City nine years 
 later. Mr. Mulry became interested in the contracting business 
 in connection with his father, and continued to pursue that calling 
 for many years. He was elected a trustee of the Emigrant In- 
 dustrial Savings Bank on December 12, 1901, and served on the 
 Executive Committee of the institution in 1904 and 1905. In 
 January, 1906, he was elected President. This institution, as is 
 well known, is one of the largest in the world. Mr. Mulry has 
 always been a very busy man, being a director of the Broadway 
 Trust Company, the United States Title Guarantee and Indemnity 
 Company, the Fourteenth Street Bank, and the Prudential Realty 
 Company. He is also a member of the Mechanics' and Traders' 
 Exchange, the Employers' Association, and other business organi- 
 zations. In politics he is a Democrat and a member of Tammany 
 Hall, but has uniformly declined to accept political office. Mr. 
 Mulry is a member of the Democratic, Catholic, Hardware, Build- 
 ing Trados, and other clubs, and of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick 
 and other social organizations. He is probably best known to the 
 public for the deep interest he has always taken in the charitable 
 organizations of New York City, particularly those connected 
 with the Roman Catholic Church. He is president of the Superior
 
 APPENDIX 689 
 
 Council of the St. Vincent De Paul Society, covering the whole 
 United States; president of the National Conference of Charities 
 and Corrections, a member of the Board of Governors of the Man- 
 hattan State Hospital, a commissioner of the New York State 
 Board of Charities, and prominently identified with many im- 
 portant Catholic institutions. Mr. Mulry is married and, with his 
 family, lives at No. 10 Perry Street, New York City. 
 
 SAMUEL R. RAINEY 
 
 who died in the city of Hudson, March 17, 1900, was one of the 
 founders of the Savings Banks Association and up to the time of his 
 last illness one of the most active and influential in its councils. 
 From the year 1882 to the time of his death he was the Treasurer 
 of the Hudson City Savings Institution. He was also one of the 
 directors of the National Hudson River Bank, and during his long 
 and active life had been connected with many enterprises of first 
 importance. His soundness of judgment, large experience, and 
 knowledge of men and affairs enabled him to fill every position he 
 occupied with distinguished ability. For several years he was the 
 secretary of the board of managers of the House of Refuge for 
 Women at Hudson; when steam fire-engines were made in Hudson 
 Mr. Rainey was the secretary and manager of the Clapp & Jones 
 Manufacturing Company, and later he became secretary of the 
 Hudson Iron Works. In politics, Mr. Rainey was an ardent Re- 
 publican, being for four years and at the time of his death president 
 of the Lincoln Republican Club of Hudson. He was an elder of 
 the Presbyterian Church, and for a long time the superintendent 
 of the Sunday-school. 
 
 JOHN HARSEN RHOADES, SR. 
 
 was one of the best-known public-spirited citizens of the metrop- 
 olis. To him is due the greater share of the credit of estabHshing 
 the Savings Banks Association of the State of New York, an in- 
 stitution in which he ever took a fatherly pride and satisfaction. 
 Up to the time of his death, in December, igo6, Mr. Rhoades at- 
 tended every session, taking a leading part in all discussions as 
 well as proposed reforms, and for many years was the honored 
 President of the organization. Mr. Rhoades was President of the 
 Greenwich Savings Bank for twenty-nine years, and was an author- 
 ity upon all matters pertaining to savings institutions. He was 
 frequently consulted by legislators, and was instrumental in 
 bringing about many reforms which have taken place in the con- 
 duct of these institutions in the last twenty years. Mr. Rhoades 
 was a leader in all reform movements for the benefit of the City 
 of New York, and was largely responsible for the reforms brought
 
 690 APPENDIX 
 
 about by the so-called Lexow Committee, one of which was the 
 making of the ofl&ce of Sheriff a salaried position and stopping the 
 tremendous graft which had so long existed under the fee system. 
 Mr. Rhoades held directorships in many prominent and powerful 
 financial institutions, including the Bank of North America, the 
 Lawyers' Title Insurance and Trust Company, the Madison Safe 
 Deposit Company, the Lincoln Trust Company, the United Shoe 
 Machinery Company, the United States Trust Company, and the 
 Washington Trust Company. In politics Mr. Rhoades was a 
 Republican, casting his first vote for Lincoln. Among the clubs 
 and organizations in which he had membership were the Union 
 League, Metropolitan, Century, Lotos, and City Lawyers' clubs, 
 the Municipal Art Society, the American Geographical Society, 
 St. Nicholas Society, and the Chamber of Commerce. He was 
 vice-president of the Eye and Ear Infirmary, and was interested in 
 other philanthropic institutions. Mr. Rhoades was born in New 
 York City, his paternal ancestors being of English and Welsh 
 stock, and his maternal of Dutch blood. Starting in life as a 
 clerk in a drygoods commission house, his rise was due to his own 
 efforts. He always saved money, and soon became recognized as 
 a capable business man of integrity. His noble name he never 
 sullied. At the time of his death Mr. Rhoades was a widower. He 
 left two daughters and a son, John Harsen Rhoades, Jr., who is 
 following closely in the footsteps of his honored father. 
 
 WILLIAM HEWITT ROCKWOOD 
 
 President of the Union Square Savings Bank, New York City, was 
 born in the metropolis in 1856. He entered the service of the 
 institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks (now the Union 
 Square Savings Bank) in 1884, was made its Secretary in 1807, 
 Vice-President and Secretary in 1898, and President in 191 2. He 
 was for a number of years subsequent to 1908 treasurer of the West 
 End Association, New York City; he also served as Treasurer of 
 the Savings Banks Association of the State of New York from 191 2 
 to 1914. He is a member of the West Side Club and the Seventh 
 Regiment Veteran Association of the City of New York. 
 
 CHARLES ADOLPH SCHIEREN 
 
 manufacturer and statesman, of 30 Ferry St., New York City, was 
 born on February 28, 1842, in Prussia. In 1856-64 he was em- 
 ployed in his father's store in New York City. Then for four years 
 he was connected with a belting factory, and in 1868 established 
 on a small scale the business now known as the Charles A. Schieren 
 Company, tanners and belting manufacturers, one of the largest 
 in the United States. He was a trustee of the Brooklyn Trust Com-
 
 APPENDIX 691 
 
 pany and a director of the Germania Life Insurance Company 
 and of the Nassau National Bank. In 1894-95 he was Mayor of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y.; in 1900-01 he was chairman of the New York 
 Commerce Commission, and became president of the Brooklyn 
 Academy of Music. Mr. Schieren for a num.ber of years held the 
 office of First Vice-President of the Germania Savings Bank, of 
 which he has been a trustee since 1886. He was chosen President 
 of the Bank in 1900. He died at his home in Brooklyn, March 10, 
 1915- 
 
 FREDERIC B. STEVENS 
 
 was born in Albany, N. Y., June 9, 187 1, and was educated at the 
 Albany Academy. Soon after leaving the Academy he entered 
 the National Savings Bank of the City of Albany, an institution 
 which his father, Albert Parsons Stevens, helped to organize in 
 1869. He was content to begin at the lowest round of the ladder, 
 entering the bank in the capacity of messenger, January i, 1888, 
 and rising to the position of Treasurer, which he has held since 
 January 15, 1907; prior to that time he had been Secretary for two 
 years. Since December 18, 1911, Mr. Stevens has been a trustee 
 of the institution. During the years 1910-1913, inclusive, he was 
 Secretary of the Savings Banks Association of the State of New 
 York. He served five years as a member of the Third Signal 
 Corps, N. G. N. Y., part of the time with the rank of sergeant. 
 He is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, New 
 England Society of the City of New York, Society of the Colonial 
 Wars, Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society, Fort 
 Orange and Country clubs, the Albany Chamber of Commerce, 
 and the Albany Academy Alumni Association. He is also a life 
 member of Masters' Lodge, No. 5, F. & A. M., of Albany. 
 
 SAMUEL D. STYLES 
 
 late President of the North River Savings Bank, New York City, 
 was born in the metropolis, September 25, 1841. At an early 
 age he entered business. In 1865 he founded the printing business 
 of Styles and Cash, from which he retired in 1903. Mr. Styles 
 was a director in the West Side Bank, the Lincoln Trust Company, 
 and in the Home Insurance Company, being for many years a 
 member of the finance committee of the last-named institution. 
 He was chosen a member of the Board of Trustees of the North 
 River Savings Bank, November 20, 1897, and was elected President 
 of the institution, January, 8, 1894 which office he held up to the 
 time of his death, July 2, 19 10. Mr. Styles served in the capacity 
 of Treasurer of the Savings Banks Association of the State of 
 New York from the year 1903 to the time of his death.
 
 692 APPENDIX 
 
 WILLIAM BAYARD VAN RENSSELAER 
 
 was born in Albany, N.Y., October 4, 1856, the son of Bayard and 
 Laura Reynold Van Rensselaer, and a direct lineal descendant of 
 Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, of Amsterdam, Holland. Had not the laws 
 of New York prohibited the entailing of property, he would have been 
 the eleventh Patroon and owner of the Rensselaerwyck property. 
 He attended the Boys' Academy and various other institutions of 
 learning, and matriculated at Harvard in 1875, being graduated 
 four years later. Subsequently he attended the Harvard Law 
 School. Being admitted to the Bar in 1882, he opened an office at 
 No. 25 North Pearl Street. For many years he had full charge 
 of the Van Rensselaer estate, and up to the time of his death, in 
 1909, served as Treasurer of the Van Rensselaer Land Company, 
 which he was instrumental in organizing. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
 became a director of the New York State National Bank in 1885, 
 and was made its Vice-President in 1900. He was elected a 
 trustee of the Albany Savings Bank in 1883, Vice-President in 
 1897, and upon the death of J. Howard King was chosen its Presi- 
 dent, an office which his grandfather, General Stephen Van Rens- 
 selaer had held when the Bank was chartered, March 25, 1820. 
 Upon the organization of the Union Trust Company he was made 
 its Vice-President; was the organizer of the Albany Terminal 
 Warehouse Company, a director of the Cohoes Company, which 
 supplies the great mills at Cohoes with water power; an organizer 
 and charter member of the Fort Orange Club; a member of the 
 Albany Country Club and of the Albany Institute and Historical 
 and Art Society, of the Holland Society, and the University Club 
 of the City of New York, the Reform Club; one of the trustees of 
 the New York State Normal College and of the Rensselaer Poly- 
 technic Institute, and one of the officers of the Albany Chamber of 
 Commerce. In 1901 he was chosen Chairman of the Executive 
 Committee of the Savings Banks Association of the State of New 
 York, and on May 12, 1904, was elected President of that body, 
 because of his widely recognized ability and conservatism, serving 
 for four years. Among various appointments in rendering public 
 service was his designation by Governor Morton on the Albany 
 Bi-Centennial Celebration Committee, and his appointment by 
 Governor Hughes as one of the State's representatives on the 
 Hudson-Fulton Commission in 1909. While in politics a Republi- 
 can, Mr. Van Rensselaer not infrequently asserted his independ- 
 ence; he consistently refused to accept political position. Mr. 
 Van Rensselaer married, at Cambridge, Mass., November 3, 1880, 
 Louisa Greenough Lane, a daughter of Prof. George Martin Lane, 
 of Harvard University.
 
 APPENDIX 693 
 
 WILLIAM H. S. WOOD 
 
 was bom in New York City in April, 1840, the son of William 
 and Mary (Underhill) Wood, and grandson of Samuel Wood, who 
 founded our business in 1804. He was educated at the College 
 of the City of New York and at Haverford College (Pa.), and 
 entered the business in 1859. In 1865 he married Emma, daughter 
 of Gilbert Congdon, of Providence, R. I. He died on December 
 II, 1907, leaving four children: William C, Gilbert C, Arnold, and 
 Mary. 
 
 For forty-eight years, and until his death, he was actively en- 
 gaged in the business of William Wood & Co., publishers of medical 
 books, most of that time as senior partner. In 1903 he was elected 
 President of the Bowery Savings Bank, which position he held 
 until the time of his death. He took an unusual interest in the 
 affairs of the Bowery Savings Bank, and of Savings Banks gener- 
 ally. He brought great energy and considerable originality into 
 the conduct of this Bank, and under his Presidency the deposits of 
 the Bowery Savings Bank passed the $100,000,000 mark. He 
 especially endeavored to have the franchise tax on the surplus of 
 Savings Banks abolished. 
 
 He was, at various times, a trustee of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association, of the American Bible Society, of the Bowery Savings 
 Bank, an incorporator of the New York Botanical Garden, and a 
 member of a great many scientific societies and of several clubs. 
 
 His chief recreations were yachting and horticulture, his coun- 
 try place at Greenwich, Conn., having the largest collection of 
 herbaceous plants in the State. He was a birthright member of 
 the society of Friends (Quakers). — William C. Wood.
 
 694 
 
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 INDEX 
 
 Advantages to Savings Banks of Con- 
 certed Action in the Purchase of 
 Municipal Bonds — Address by An- 
 drew Mills, 58 
 
 Advertising, bank, 413 
 
 Aggregate resources of Savings Banks 
 in State of New York, Jan. i, 1914, 
 
 559- 
 American Law Review, extract from, 
 
 Sii 
 
 "Amortization," Chas. E. Sprague, 
 406 
 
 Amount due depositors of Savings 
 Banks in New York State (1913), 
 559. Open accounts in Savings 
 Banks in New York State (19 13), 
 
 559 
 Appendix, 565 
 "Aristocracy of the Dollar," Col. 
 
 Thos. Wentworth Higginson, 199 
 Assets of banks invested in railroad 
 
 bonds, method of computing, 385 
 Astor, John Jacob, early advertising 
 
 issued by, 330 
 Atkinson, Edward, address. Fourth 
 
 Annual Convention, 90 
 Attorney General, opinion of, on right 
 
 of trustees to use surplus for the 
 
 purpose of paying dividends in 
 
 excess of amount actually earned, 
 
 217 
 Average amount of Savings Banks 
 
 accounts in New York State, 559 
 
 B 
 
 Baltimore, establishment of branch 
 banks in, 500 
 
 Bank advertising, 413. 
 
 Bank bookkeeping, uniformity in, 35 
 
 Bank for Savings, New York, pre- 
 amble to the charter of, in 1819, 221 
 
 Bank for Savings, New York, first 
 report (1820), 666 
 
 Banking Law Revision, 560 
 
 Banking Law Revision, personnel of 
 
 commission, 560 
 
 Banking power of New York State, 
 558 
 
 Banking System, valuable informa- 
 tion pertaining to, 558 
 
 Banks doing a savings and commercial 
 business combined, 504 
 
 Banks, number of, in the Association 
 in year 1899, 152 
 
 Banks represented at initial meeting, 
 
 .27 
 
 Bimetallists, claims of, 131 
 
 Bond and Mortgage Investments of 
 Banks of New York State, 75 
 
 Brewster, Harold F., biographical 
 sketch of, 674 
 
 Biographical sketches of officers of 
 the Savings Banks Association of 
 the State of New York, 674 
 
 Bloodgood Bill, provisions of, 6 
 
 Bonds Authorized for the City of 
 New York, List of, 70 
 
 Bond Investments of Savings Banks, 
 Andrew Mills, 388; statistics, 388 
 
 Bonds of the City of New York, Sav- 
 ings Banks investments in, 416 
 
 Bonds, of the City of New York, sold 
 since Jan. i, 1897, 70 
 
 Bowery Savings Bank, deposits of, 130 
 
 Branch Banks, advocacy of, E. J. 
 HiU, 239 
 
 Brewster, Harold P., appointment 
 as member of Executive Committee, 
 533; remarks of, as President- 
 elect, 541; remarks of, as Presi- 
 dent (1912), 550 
 
 Brooklyn, debt of, 43 
 
 Bryan, WUliam J., remarks as to free 
 silver, 128 
 
 Bucket shops and poolrooms, dele- 
 terious effect of, 326 
 
 By-laws, amendment of, so as to per- 
 mit of the Group System, 546 
 
 California, new banking law adopted 
 
 by, 473 
 Capital the chief means of protecting 
 lives of dependents, 176 
 
 697
 
 698 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Capital and Labor, relations of, 84 
 
 Centennial of Savings Bank move- 
 ment in the United States, celebra- 
 tion of, 523, 524 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., remarks on the value 
 of capital, 197 
 
 Cheny, O. H., address (1910), 494; 
 (1911), 522 
 
 Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., 
 purchase of bonds of, by Savings 
 Banks of New York, 311 
 
 Civilization, meaning of, 171 
 
 Civilization, reasons for slow progress 
 of, 174 
 
 Civil War, operation of tax on Sav- 
 ings Banks during, 118 
 
 Committee appointed to go to Wash- 
 ington, D. C., to present objections 
 to proposed national legislation on 
 Savings Banks, 124 
 
 Committee to go to \\^ashington to 
 protest against proposed war rev- 
 enue tax on Savings Banks, 150 
 
 Comptroller of the Currencj', re- 
 port of, as to Savings Banks in the 
 United States (from 1820 to and 
 including 1913), 672 
 
 Conant, Charles, address, 327 
 
 Conklin, William G., biographical 
 sketch of, 674; Secretary, 109; 
 retirement as Secretary, 414 
 
 Constitution (first) of the Savings 
 Banks Association of the State of 
 New York, 660; (present), 662; 
 amendment of, 315 
 
 Conventions of the Savings Banks 
 Associations of the State of New 
 York: First (1894), 3; Second 
 (1895), 30; Third (1896), 39; 
 Fourth (1897), 63; Fifth (1898), 
 109; Sixth (1899), 143; Seventh 
 (1900), 185; Eighth (1901), 211; 
 Ninth (1902), 227; Tenth (1903), 
 245; Eleventh (1904), 304; Twelfth 
 (i905)> 337; thirteenth (1906), 
 360; Fourteenth (1907), 385; 
 Fifteenth (1908), 414; Sixteenth 
 (1909), 455; Seventeenth (1910), 
 486; Eighteenth (1911), 516; 
 Nineteenth (191 2), 532; Twentieth 
 (1913), 550 
 
 Coombs, Wm. B., address (1907), 422 
 
 Counsel to the Savings Banks Asso- 
 ciation of the State of New York, 
 
 Counties in New York State without 
 Savings Banks, 332, 502 
 
 Crawford, Judge M. L., Dallas, Tex., 
 address on "Sound Money," 124 
 
 "Crime of '73," 131 
 
 Crown Point Mine, output of, 128 
 
 Currey, Jonathan B., biographical 
 sketch, 674 
 
 D 
 
 Department Stores, origin and mean- 
 ing of , 173 
 Depositors in Savings Banks, amounts 
 
 due to (1892), 198 
 Depositors in Savings Banks of the 
 
 State (1902), 227 
 Deposits, legal investment of, 6 
 Deposits in Savings Banks of the 
 
 State of New York, Jan. i, 1890, 185 
 Deposits in Savings Banks of the State 
 
 of New York (1901), 211 
 Deposits in Savings Banks of the 
 
 State (1902), 227 
 Deposits in Savings Banks of the 
 
 State of New York (1903), 245 
 Deposits in Savings Banks of Eng- 
 land, 246 
 Dingley, Governor, 123 
 Dividend rate, proposed uniformity 
 
 of, 417 . 
 
 Dividends paid to depositors in 
 
 Savings Banks in State of New 
 
 York (1913), 559 
 Dix, William Frederick, address 
 
 (1910), 506 _ 
 "Does Advertising pay for Savings 
 
 Banks?" Wm. H. S. Wood, 330. 
 Dogmas, some false, 171 
 Dormant Accounts, remarks on, by 
 
 Mr. Hurlbut, 224 
 Dormant Accounts, remarks on, by 
 
 Bryan H. Smith, 154 
 
 Edwards, Judge, Hudson, N. Y., 151 
 Edwards, John B., Death of, 44 
 Eighteenth Annual Convention (191 1), 
 
 Eighth Annual Convention (1901), 
 
 211 
 Eleventh Annual Convention (1904), 
 
 304 
 Elmira Savings Bank case, 35 
 Executive Committee, first appointed, 
 
 5 
 Executive Committee which recom- 
 mended formation of an Associa- 
 tion, composition of, 1 1
 
 INDEX 
 
 699 
 
 Executive Committee, report for 
 1898, 112; for 1899, 150; for 1901, 
 213; for 1902, 231; for 1903, 248; 
 for 1904, 307; for 1905, 339; for 
 1907, 417; for 1910, 486, for 1913, 
 5S2 
 
 F 
 
 Fairchild, Charles S., address on 
 "The Relation of Savings Bank 
 Deposits to General Business," 
 165. 
 
 Federal Reserve Act, bearing of, 
 upon New York Banking Law 
 revision, 562 
 
 Felsinger, William, biographical 
 sketch of, 675 
 
 Fiat Money, no room for, in a gold 
 standard system, 235 
 
 Fifteenth Annual Convention (1908), 
 414 
 
 Fifth Annual Convention (1898), 109 
 
 Financial Stringency, a time of, 4 
 
 First Annual Convention (1894), 3 
 
 First Report of The Bank for Savings 
 in the City of New York (1820), 
 666 
 
 Fourteenth Annual Convention 
 (1907), 384 
 
 Formation of an Association favored, 
 II 
 
 Fourth Annual Convention (1897), 
 63 
 
 France, Bank of, branch banks main- 
 tained by, 239 
 
 France, per capita debt of, 366 
 
 Franchise Tax, proposed repeal of, 
 317, 343, 362 
 
 Free Silver, how demand for, origi- 
 nated, 128 
 
 "Greenback," cost of maintaining, 
 since resumption in '79, 236 
 
 Group System, adoption of, 546, 547, 
 548, 549 
 
 H 
 
 Hart, A. E., Hartford, Conn., "Tax- 
 ation of Deposits," n6 
 
 Hanaman, Charles E., address as 
 President (1910), 488; address 
 as President (1912), 532; annual 
 address as President (19x1), 516; 
 biographical sketch of, 675; 
 "Theory and Practice of Savings 
 Banks," -] ']] 
 
 Hawley, Governor, sentiments of, as 
 to sound money, 133 
 
 Herrick, Myron T., address on "Postal 
 Savings Banks," 134 
 
 Higgins, Gov. Frank W., appreciation 
 of services of, 340 
 
 Hill, E. J., address on "Sound 
 Money," 232 
 
 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, ad- 
 dress on "The Aristocracy of the 
 Dollar," 199 
 
 High rate of interest, objections to, 
 
 535 
 
 House Bill, 10,100; Action by Con- 
 gress on, 116 
 
 Humphrey, Hon. L. H., 116, 153; 
 death of, 228 
 
 Hun, Marcus T., selected as resident 
 agent in Albany, 30; address on 
 "Mortgage Tax JBill," 276 
 
 Hurlbut, Frank M., biographical 
 sketch, 675; appointment as 
 Treasurer, 516; election as Treas- 
 urer, 522; death announced, 532 
 
 Gage, Ljonan J., attitude of, toward 
 Sound Money, 233; remarks on 
 Sound Money, 241 
 
 George, Henry, i68 
 
 German Imperial Bank, branches 
 maintained by, 240 
 
 Gold Standard, Association rallies 
 to support of, 39 
 
 Gold Standard, battle for the, 133 
 
 Gold Standard, Resolutions as to, 140 
 
 Grady BiU (S. B. No. 1608), oppo- 
 sition to, 524 
 
 Grant, President Ulysses S., message 
 to Congress on "Sound Money," 128 
 
 Income Tax, Federal, resolution in 
 
 opposition to, 488 
 Incorporators (original) of Savings 
 
 Banks in New York State, 565 
 Individual Action of Members of the 
 
 Association, discouragement of, 229 
 Industrial Virtues, what they are, 175 
 "Influence of Savings Banks in the 
 
 Community," John R. Van Wormer, 
 
 265 
 Initial meeting of Association, banks 
 
 represented at, 3 
 Interest rate, competition of banks as 
 
 to, 491 
 Interest, rate of, facts as to, 179
 
 700 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Investments, bill to enlarge the scope 
 of, 147 
 
 Investments, efforts to enlarge the 
 scope of, 5 
 
 Investments of Savings Banks of New 
 York, volume of, 75 
 
 Investments by Savings Banks, pro- 
 posed changes in law regulating, 
 340 
 
 J 
 
 Jackson, General, signer of bill to 
 
 restore gold currency, 131 
 Jacobs, J. J., Hartford, Conn., ad- 
 dress, 122 
 Jay, Pierre, address (1910), 497 
 Jefferson, Thomas, declaration of, 133 
 Johnson, John A., address, 460 
 Jones, Senator (Nevada), 128 
 
 Keep, Charles H., address (1907), 
 402 
 
 Kilburn, Hon. F. D., address, 49; 
 address. Fourth Annual Conven- 
 tion, 78; address, as Supt. of 
 Banking Department, 137; address 
 as Supt. of Banking Department 
 (1899), 161; address of (1904), 311 
 
 King, J. Howard, remarks on "Dor- 
 mant Accounts," 158; death of , 213 
 
 Krum Bill, when became a law, 231 
 
 Krum, Senator Hobart, 152 
 
 Labor and self denial, how they build 
 
 up capital, 174 
 Land Banks, Statistics as to, 107 
 Lansing, A. T. F., address on "Banking 
 
 Methods," 232 
 Legislation, vigilant watching of, 34 
 Levey, Edgar J., address, 459 
 Lincoln, Abraham, anecdote of, 358 
 List of Savings Banks in the State of 
 
 New York, arranged in the order 
 
 of their incorporation, with original 
 
 incorporators, 565 
 List of Savings Banks in the State of 
 
 New York, arranged alphabetically, 
 
 587 
 London, branch banks maintained in, 
 
 240 
 London Times on "National Money 
 
 Boxes," 246 
 
 M 
 
 McEwAN, James B., Senator, attitude 
 of, as to bills affecting Savings 
 Banks, 153 
 
 McMahon, James, remarks on "Dor- 
 mant Accounts," 159; biographical 
 sketch, 676 
 
 Maine, blowing up of battleship, 
 109 
 
 Manning, James H., on "The Safe 
 and Sane Rate of Interest," 525 
 
 Market value of securities, standard- 
 ization of, 526 
 
 Massachusetts, banking law of, per- 
 mitting establishment of branches, 
 500; Deposits in Savings Banks of, 
 
 94, ,98 
 
 "Maximum Accounts," address by Mr. 
 C. E. Sprague, 61 
 
 Maynard, Edwin P., address, 479; 
 biographical sketch, 677; address 
 as President, 555 
 
 Members of the Savings Banks 
 Association of the State of New 
 York, arranged by groups, 614 
 
 Miller, Addison C, death of, 32 
 
 Miller, Charles A., letter from, 335; 
 choice of, as President, 424; ad- 
 dress as President (1909), 455; 
 biographical sketch of, 677; ad- 
 dress on the "Restriction of Savings 
 Bank Deposits," 221 
 
 Mills, Andrew, address at Third 
 Annual Convention, 58; "Bond 
 Investments of Savings Banks," 
 388; retirement, as President of the 
 Association, 207; remarks on 
 "Dormant Accounts," 157; ad- 
 dress as President, 1901, 211; ad- 
 dress (1907), 426 
 
 Morris, Robert, financier of the Revo- 
 lution, declaration of, 127 
 
 Morris, Robert C, address on "Mort- 
 gage Tax Bill," 270 
 
 Minimum value surplus, action on 
 bill to estabhsh, 533 
 
 Mortgage Bonds of Railroads, invest- 
 ment in, 152 
 
 Mortgage Ta.\- Bill, resolutions in 
 opposition to, 182; attitude of the 
 Association as to, 183; joint legis- 
 lative hearing on, 270 
 
 Mortgages, Charles L. Stone, 304; 
 Savings Banks investments in, 398 
 
 Mortgage taxation in California, 187 
 
 Mortuary Record, 636
 
 INDEX 
 
 701 
 
 Mulry, Thomas F., election, as Presi- 
 dent, 458 
 
 Mulry, Thomas M., biographical 
 sketch, 678 
 
 Mullin Bill, Provisions of, 6 
 
 Municipal Securities held by Savings 
 Banks of the State, Jan. i, 1893, 
 list of, 9 
 
 Municipalities (N. Y.), indebtedness, 
 10, 145, 146 
 
 Mutual Savings Banks, number in the 
 United States, 123 
 
 N 
 
 Ninth Annual Convention (1902), 227 
 Nineteenth Annual Convention 
 
 (1912), 532 
 New York City, accounts and methods 
 
 of Dept. of Finance, 416; finances 
 
 of, 421 
 "New York City's Credit," Frank A. 
 
 Vanderlip, 363 
 New York City, debt of, by whom 
 
 held, 114 
 New York City, net funded debt of, 
 
 461 
 Nominating Committees (1894-1914), 
 
 634 
 Number of Savings Banks in the 
 State of New York (1913), 559 
 
 O 
 
 Organization of Association, dis- 
 cussion over, 12 
 
 Officers of the Savings Banks Asso- 
 tion of the State of New York, 
 (1894-1914), 617; biographical 
 sketches of, 674 
 
 Officers, first list of, 26 
 
 Original incorporators of Savings 
 Banks in State of New York, 565 
 
 Panics, strengthening banks during, 
 
 Parsons, Prof., Boston University of 
 
 Law, 130 
 Peckham, Wheeler H., address on 
 
 proposed taxation of Savings Banks, 
 
 202 
 Per capita, Debt of France, 366 
 Philadelphia, Building Acts of, 102 
 Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, 
 
 deposits and withdrawals (1907), 
 
 41S 
 
 Plehn, Carl C, on mortgage taxation, 
 
 188 
 Postal Savings Banks, 65; address on, 
 
 by Col. Myron T. Herrick, 134; 
 
 growth of, 544 
 Poverty, projects to abolish, 177 
 "Power and Beneficence of Capital," 
 
 address by Prof. William G. 
 
 Sumner, Yale University, 167 
 Proposed Taxation of Savings Banks, 
 
 address by Wheeler H. Peckham, 
 
 202 
 
 Railroad bonds, passage of first law 
 authorizing investment in, 398; 
 classification of, 390; legal restric- 
 tions, 393; legality of as Savings 
 Investments, 115; Banks, refunding 
 operations, 391 
 
 Railroad rates, resolution in oppo- 
 sition to fixing, by Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission, 351 
 
 Rainey, Samuel R., biographical 
 sketch of, 679; death of, 189; 
 Resolutions on death of, 190; 
 Services of, recognized by the 
 Association, 51 
 
 "Reform in Currency and Banking," 
 Prof. Taussig, Harvard University, 
 
 373 
 
 Relation of Savings Bank Deposits 
 to General Business, address by 
 Charles S. Fairchild, 165 
 
 Report of the Comptroller of the 
 Currency as to Savings Banks in 
 the United States (from 1820 to and 
 including 1913), 672 
 
 Restriction of Savings Bank Deposits, 
 Charles A. Miller, 221; resolution 
 regarding, 223 
 
 Rhodes, Bradford, resolutions offered 
 by, on the encouragement of thrift 
 among the people, 141 
 
 Rhoades, John Harsen, address as 
 first President (1895), 31; as Presi- 
 dent (1896), 39; as President (1897), 
 63; as President (1898), 109; as 
 President (1899), 143; as President 
 (1900), 185; retirement from the 
 office of President of the Associa- 
 tion, 189, 193, 195; address on 
 "Mortgage Tax Bill," 295; letter 
 from, 318; biographical sketch, 
 679; death announced, 384; reso- 
 lutions of respect, 386
 
 702 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Rhoades, John Harsen, Jr., address, 
 
 430 
 Rockwood, William H., appointment 
 
 as Treasurer, 532; biographical 
 
 sketch, 680 
 Rogers, Harris G., death of, ^;i 
 Russian Empire, lack of discontent 
 
 in, 168 
 
 Savings Banks Association of the 
 State of New York (The), members 
 of, arranged by groups, 614; 
 officers of (1894-1Q14), 617 
 
 Sanger, Col. William Carey, address 
 of, 355 
 
 Savings Bank Depositor, a hero of 
 Civilization, 175 
 
 Savings Bank Deposits, Taxation of, 
 
 Savings Banks in small areas, con- 
 gestion of, 534 
 
 Savings Bank insurance, 507 
 
 Savings Bank laws and conditions, 
 lack of uniformity in, 467 
 
 Savings Bank Statistics (1906), 360- 
 361 
 
 Savings Banks of New York, Statis- 
 tics as to, 163 
 
 Savings Bank Statistics for England, 
 246 
 
 Savings Bank System, ways of ex- 
 tending, 499 
 
 Savings deposits, aggregate in the 
 United States, 559; total in the 
 United States, 468 
 
 "Savings Institutions as a Social 
 Force," by Carroll D. Wright, 195 
 
 Schieren, Charles A., address on 
 "Mortgage Tax Bill," 275; address 
 as President (1903), 245; annual 
 address as President (1904), 304; 
 biographical sketch of, 680; elec- 
 tion of, as President of the Asso- 
 ciation, 227; 
 
 School Savings Banks, authorization 
 of, 310 
 
 Searing, John W., 151 
 
 Second Annual Convention (1895), 30 
 
 Senate Bill No. 97, hearing on, before 
 joint legislative committee, 183 
 
 Seventh Annual Convention (1900), 
 i8s 
 
 Seventeenth .\nnual Convention 
 (1910), 486 
 
 SLxth Annual Convention (1899), 143 
 
 Sixteenth Annual Convention (1909), 
 
 455 
 
 "Sixty-day rule," 428 
 
 "Sound Money," address by Hon. 
 E. J. Hill, Connecticut, 232; ad- 
 dress by Judge M. L. Crawford, 
 Dallas, Tex., 124; resolution in 
 reference to, 46 
 
 Social disease, character and nature 
 of, 177 
 
 Smith, Bryan H., remarks on "Dor- 
 mant Accounts," 154 
 
 Sprague, Chas. E., address on "Maxi- 
 mum Accounts," 61; "Amortiza- 
 tion," 406; '"Amortization," facts 
 as to, 45 1 ; death of, announced, 53 2 ; 
 Paper on "Uniformity in Bank 
 Bookkeeping," 35 
 
 State Banks and trust companies, 
 resources of, 558 
 
 Statistics from Annual Report of 
 Superintendent of Banks of New 
 York (1913), 684 
 
 Statistics of Savings Banks in 
 State (1903), 305 
 
 Stevens, Frederic B., biographical 
 sketch, 6qi 
 
 Stimson, Henry L., address on "Mort- 
 gage Tax Bill," 271 
 
 Stone, Charles, address on "Mortgage 
 Tax Bill," 289; "Mortgages," 304 
 
 Stranahan Bill, efforts to defeat the, 
 191; special meeting called to con- 
 sider, 182 
 
 Stryker, President, Hamilton Col- 
 lege, address of, 353 
 
 Sturges, William P., election of, as mem- 
 ber of Executive Corrmiittee, 459 
 
 Styles, Samuel D., biographical sketch 
 of, 681; death of, announced, 516 
 
 Superintendents of Banking Dept., 
 State of New York, list of (1851- 
 1914), 671 
 
 Superintendent of Banks of New York, 
 Statistics from the Annual Report 
 of, for the year 1913, 684 
 
 Sumner, Prof. William G., Address 
 on "The Power and Beneficence 
 of Capital," 167 
 
 Surplus, annual decrease in, 495 
 
 Surplus, income from, 484 ; increase 
 in, resolution in favor of, 531; 
 minimum, established by legisla- 
 tion, resolution in favor of, 525; 
 proper method of estimating, 434; 
 to be more highly regarded than 
 interest rate, 520
 
 INDEX 
 
 703 
 
 Surplus or Guarantee Fund of Sav- 
 ings Banks (The), by Mr. Hicks, 
 213 
 
 T 
 
 Taussig, Prof., Harvard University, 
 "Reform in Currency and Bank- 
 ing," 373 
 
 Taxation of Deposits, address of Mr. 
 A. E. Hart, Hartford, Conn., 116; 
 resolution of the Association with 
 reference to, 119 
 
 Tax on Guarantee Fund of Savings 
 Banks, passed by Legislature, 212 
 
 Taxation of Savings Bank Deposits, 
 
 73 
 "Taxation of Savings Banks," Wm. 
 
 H. S. Wood, 315 
 Tenth Anniversary of the Associa- 
 tion (1903), 245 
 "Theory and Practice of Savings 
 
 Banks," address by Chas. A. Hana- 
 
 man, 444 
 "Theory and Practice of Savings 
 
 Bank Insurance," address by Wm. F. 
 
 Dix, 508 
 Third Annual Convention (1896), 39 
 Thirteenth Annual Convention (1906), 
 
 360 
 Torrens System of Registering Land 
 
 Titles, 103 
 Townsend, J. P., address, 52 
 Trenholm, Hon. William L., address, 
 
 Fourth Annual Convention, 80 
 Trimble, Merritt, remarks with refer- . 
 
 ence to taxation of deposits, 120 
 Trust Accounts aggregating more 
 
 than $3,000, 556 
 Trusts and Combinations, meaning of, 
 
 173 
 Trustees, removal of objectionable, 475 
 Tweed Ring, lessons taught by, 368 
 Twelfth Annual Convention (1905), 
 
 337 
 Twentieth Annual Convention (1913), 
 
 550 
 
 U 
 
 Uniformity in Bank Bookkeeping, 35 
 
 Vanderlip, Frank A., "New York 
 City's Credit," 363 
 
 Van Rensselaer, William B., address 
 as President, 337; biographical 
 sketch of, 683; third annual ad- 
 dress as President, 384; election 
 of, as President, 318; fourth 
 annual address as President, 414; 
 retirement of, as President, 414 
 
 Van Tuyl, George C, Jr., appoint- 
 ment of, as Supt. of Banking, 527; 
 letter from (191 2), 541 
 
 Van Wormer, John R., "Influence of 
 Savings Banks in the Community," 
 265 
 
 Villages, bonds of, how carried, 145 
 
 W 
 
 War between Spain and the United 
 States, III 
 
 War Revenue Tax, Exemption of 
 Savings Banks from, 109 
 
 Western Savings Banks, nature of, 
 66 
 
 Wickersham, George W., employment 
 as counsel, 182, 184; opinion as 
 attorney, 113 
 
 Williams, Clark, address, 475; ad- 
 dress (1907), 419; address (1912), 
 
 535 
 
 White, Horace, "The Currency Ques- 
 tion," 249 
 
 Wood, Wm. H. S., "Does Advertis- 
 ing Pay for Savings Banks?" 330; 
 biographical sketch, 682; "Taxa- 
 tion of Savings Banks," 315 
 
 Woodford, Stewart L., address, 324 
 
 Wooster, Henry R., 150 
 
 Wright, Carroll D., address on "Sav- 
 ings Institutions as a Social Force," 
 
 195 
 Wright, Judge M. L., decision of, as 
 to Savings Banks deposits, subject 
 to taxation, 151
 
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