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BANK CLOSES DOORS Citizens State Bank Is Forced to Shut Its Doors Pending Reor rganization. Lamar business circles and citizens generally received the greatest shock for many years last Saturday when the early arrivals in the downtown district read the sign on the Citizens State Bank door that the institution had been closed by the board of directors for the purpose of reorganization. Later in the day a second sign went up that the bank was in the hands of the state bank commissioner. Excitement ran high all day as a bank failure was a forgotten feature of finance so far as Lamarites were concerned. The only previous experience the town had had was the failure of the Scott bank here in 1888. With a period of over one-third of a century between such incidents and only about two per cent of the population that is here now being residents at that time, the people can easily lose most all recollection of such events. The Citizens State Bank has been one of the leading financial institutions of the city for nearly fourteen years, and was the third largest bank of the county, having total assets of about $360,000 and deposits at the time of the last published statement on May 5th of $220,000. The latter had been considerably reduced at the time of closing the doors and are now under two hundred thousand dollars. Rumors that had been spread in various manners had been causing steady withdrawals for a week which on Thursday and Friday developed into a regular run. In face of this the bank kept up payments of all checks until the closing hour on Friday afternoon. They were unable to meet their clearings, however, with the other banks after the closing hour and were therefore forced to announce that the doors would not open on Saturday morning. The officers of the bank are J. M. Williams, president; Chas. Maxwell, vice president; J. D. Spooner, cashier; and Geo. A. Everett and Mrs. I. L. Maxwell, directors. They are all substantial business people of our city, and all have full faith that the difficulty is only temporary and the bank will be reorganized under a new name and opened again in a few weeks. Several additional business men of our city will assist in the reorganization. full a now The under depositors plan will being be paid formulated, in which will have to meet the approval of the state bank commissioner. Our citizens generally have accepted the inconvenience and trouble which the tying up of their funds will cause in a fine spirit ar they have confidence in the honor of the directors of the bank, and there has been a minimum amount of the usual complaints that are made on such occasion. It has complicated many business deals that were under way and has and will cause much annoyance, but it is not believed that there will be any serious loss ir. the long run. The temper of the people was best proved at the three other banks of the city. All had prepared for a panicky feeling on the part of the public and a run on all the banks. However, by closing time on Saturday all the banks found they had taken in as much on deposit as they had paid out and by Monday the people were over any semblance of distrust and the deposits overtopped the checks paid. Several of the banks in other towns of the county also prepared for a run but there was nothing even looking like excitement. Down in Baca county where there were two banks in which the Citizens State Bank owns an interest, The Bank of Baca County at Two Buttes and the Farmers State Bank at Springfield, there was more excitement. In Two Buttes the trouble was over long before closing time on Saturday as the bank had ample cash resources to quiet all alarm At Springfield a more serious situation developed as enemies of the Farmers State Bank organized a large sized run. The
