16062. Knickerbocker Trust (New York, NY)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Run → Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
October 23, 1907
Location
New York, New York (40.714, -74.006)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
c7f3ca9d

Response Measures

Borrowed from banks or large institutions, Capital injected, Full suspension, Books examined

Other: Clearing-house and federal/state officials coordinated deposits (Cortelyou, Morgan) to ease panic; receivership followed.

Description

Articles describe a heavy depositor run paying out about $8,000,000, followed by suspension of payments at all offices (Oct. 23, 1907). The trust later went into receivership (references to receivership and the president's suicide). Cause appears to be bank-specific weakness/overextension (real-estate/speculation) rather than a pure rumor. OCR errors corrected minimally (e.g., 'Eherry's' -> 'Sherry's').

Events (3)
1. October 23, 1907 Run
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Heavy withdrawals driven by loss of confidence in the Knickerbocker's condition; overextension and frozen real-estate assets and connections to speculative groups (Morse-Heinze) are cited as underlying weaknesses.
Measures
Paid out large sums to depositors during the run; subsequently suspended payments at all offices.
Newspaper Excerpt
it is expected that the Knickerbocker Trust bank, which closed last night after a run during which $8,000.000 was paid out
Source
newspapers
2. October 23, 1907 Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Depositors flocking to main office and branches and the institution's impaired condition led to suspension of payments; clearing house refused to clear for Knickerbocker indicating insolvency concerns.
Newspaper Excerpt
just before noon, came the announcement that payment had been suspended at all the company's offices
Source
newspapers
3. November 1, 1907* Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
What remains of the fortune left by her mother-about $15,000-is tied up in the Knickerbocker Trust receivership . . . The receivers and counsel for the Knickerbocker Trust, having finished their task, put in bills for $75,000 each ... the court cut the bills to $20,000 each . . . the temporary receivers served only for five months . . . . (mentions receivership and settlement actions).
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (19)
1. October 23, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY
Article from New-York Tribune, October 23, 1907

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The traders, however, apparently believed that the other banking institutions which were said to have been represented at the meeting of directors of the embarrassed trust company at Eherry's on Monday night would place ample funds at the disposal of the Knickerbocker Trust and that there would be no serious run on the bank. As a result, there was a smart rally after the opening break, which took many of the leaders up almost to the closing prices of Monday. When it was announced, however, that the depositors of the trust company were flocking to its main office and the three branches by the hundreds, the market quickly turned weak again and trading became highly nervous at sharply declining quotations. Then, just before noon, came the announcement that payment had been suspended at all the company's offices, and this was the sign for the market to plunge downward with renewed violence. Then it was that the supporting orders were sent into the market, and this was without doubt the only thing that saved the demoralized trading from becoming an actual panic. At the low points, which were reached about the middle of the day, Union Pacific was off

2. October 24, 1907 The Alaska Prospector Valdez, AK
Article from The Alaska Prospector, October 24, 1907

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New York, Oct. 24-It is expected that the Knickerbocker Trust bank, which closed last night after a run during which $8,000.000 was paid out, will reopen for business this morning. The bankers of the city held a meeting last night at which they decided not to assist the clearing house, which orders that every gambler and speculator be cleaned out of the banks of New York. Secretary Cortelyou had a conference with Morgan, Vanderslim and other banking men, at which he stated he would protect all legitimate banks, and ordered $20,000,000 deposited this morning to ease the situation He says more will be deposited in case of emergency. The officials of the Knickerbocker bank blame President Roosevelt for the trouble, saying that his policies have had a tendency to destroy confidence. Morgan has issued a statement to the contrary in which he says the panic has been caused by stock gambling alone. Spokane, Oct. 24 - Rancher Robert Crosby, of Dundee, Oregon, has been arrested by Pinkertons, who say that he is a bank thief who has been wanted by the authorities for several years. He has been working under a different alias each year. San Francisco, Oct. 23-Squires, the pugilist. has gone to the Arkansas hot springs for treatment for rheumatism, which has been bothering him considerably of late Manila, Oct. 24-At a legislative banquet last night Secretary Taft was presented to the audience as the next president of the United States. He was greeted by tremendous cheering, and at the conclusion of the banquet was presented with a loving cup. In his address Taft urged that the islands pay particular attention to education, adopt a moderate tariff and limit the exportations of sugar and tobacco. Portland, Oct. 24 -While preparing to leave for the Dalles, the boilers of the steamer Teal exploded and the vessel caught fire, burning to the waters edge. Mrs. Albert Jackson and Jack Collins vere killed and another man was 80 seriously injured that he will not recover.

3. October 24, 1907 The Alaska Prospector Valdez, AK
Article from The Alaska Prospector, October 24, 1907

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Officials Blame President New York, Oct. 24-It is expected that the Knickerbocker Trust bank, which closed last night after a run during which $8,000.000 was paid out. will reopen for business this worning. The bankers of the city held a meeting last night at which they decided not to assist the clearing house, which orders that every gambler and speculator be cleaned out of the banks of New York. Secretary Cortelyou had a conference with Morgan, Vanderslim and other banking men, at which be stated he would protect all legitimate banks, and ordered $20,000,000 deposited this morning to ease the situation He savs more will be deposited in case of emergency. The officials of the Knickerbocker bank blame President Roosevelt for the trouble. saying that his policies have had a tendency to destroy confidence. Morgan has issued a statement to the contrary in which he says the panic has been caused by stock gambling alone. Spokane, Oct. 24 - Rancher Robert Crosby, of Dundee, Oregon, has Leen arrested by Pinkertons, who say that he is a bank thief who has been wanted by the authorities for several years. He has been working ,under a different alias each year. San Francisco, Oct. 23-Squires, the pugilist. has gone to the Arkansas hot springs for treatment for rheumatism, which has been bothering him considerably of late Manila, Oct. 24-At a legislative banquet last night Secretary Taft was presented to the audience as the next president of the United States. He was greeted by tremendous cheering, and at the conclusion of the banquet was presented with a loving cup. In his address Taft urged that the islands pay particular attention to education, adopt a moderate tariff and limit the exportations of sugar and tobacco. Portland, Oct. 2i-While preparing to leave for the Dalles, the boilers of the steamer Teal exploded and the vessel caught fire, burning to, the waters edge. Mrs. Albert Jackson and Jack Collins were killed and another man was so seriously injured that he will not recover.

4. October 24, 1907 The Lake County Times Hammond, IN
Article from The Lake County Times, October 24, 1907

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END OF FINANCIAL TROUBLES SIGHTED Three More Small Banks in New York Close Their Doors. PANICKY FEELING SUBSIDES Clearing House to Give All Needed Assistance-Expected Knickerbocker Trust Will Resume. (Special to Lake County Times.) New York, Oct. 24.-The end of the depression in the values of stock which has been the cause of financial difficulties in New York, seems to be in sight at the present time. The big men of the financial world have come to the front, and such names at Morgan, Stillman and Rockefeller with illusions to their handling of the situatio in the future, had a quieting effect. Secretary Cortelyou will make deposits of $25,000,000. The following reports were received today: The Hamilton bank, a small bank at One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street, has suspended. Empire City Savings bank in West One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street, has closed, its doors. The Twelfth Ward bank has suspended and state examiner has been placed in charge. Comptroller Ridgely says National banks all over the country are in a healthy condition. The Trust company committee, under lead of Morgan, formed to take care of Trust companies. Bankers' clearing house will give all necessary assistance to Trust Company of America. Expected Knickerbocker Trust will be able to resume. Secretary Cortelyou says he will deposit up to $25,000,000 with banks in New work. Texas banks refuse to make further advances on warehouse holdings of cotton.. The Trust Company of America is continuing to pay off depositors who desire to withdraw their funds as rapidly as possible. It is understood one large insurance company has made a considerable deposit.

5. November 3, 1907 The Morning Astorian Astoria, OR
Article from The Morning Astorian, November 3, 1907

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The Portland Oregonian in yesterday morning's issue, in a terse but vigorous manner places before the public. through its editorial columns, the real reason for the present monetary disturbance, as follows: "Step by step the plot of the money pirates against Roosevelt and the country develops. When the game opened we were all on the alert and our combined common sense was too much for the freebooters. But as time passed vigilance began to drowse and they almost got the better of the public. "There was a step in the plot where they caught the country napping. The Wall street panics, made to order, having failed to frighten anybody, it became necessary to set a trap. Big interest rates were held out as a bait to lure the money of the country to New York. The bait took and thither the money went. Then the pirates set up their chorus, 'You're in, little mousie, but how to get out' is a very different question. Wall street got the money of the country and Wall street kept it. The banks of the west were literally disembowelled. Nobody feared trouble. Why should we not profit by the necessities of the East? So we profited by them. Then came another Wall street flurry, failures and rumors of failures. The Knickerbocker Trust went down. It went down just in the nick of time to serve the purposes of the pirates, and since they controlled it, one can easily discern the reason for its failure. Confidence throughout the country began to totter a little and the west awoke to the fact that its credit hung in the air.

6. November 3, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY
Article from New-York Tribune, November 3, 1907

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EVEN A PANIC HAS ITS HUMOR. 'SOME FUNNY SCENES AT THE BANK DOORS. Chronic Borrowers Pretend Their Money Is In the Knickerbocker Trust. A grim, trying period was that which has just been written into New York's financial . history as the panic of speculative bankers, but with all its grimness it was not without its humor. Even the depositors who waited so many weary hours in long, shivering lines that never seemed to get them any nearer the paying teller's window relieved the monotony of an at some more nervous their one waiting with and occasional excited than laugh themselves. There was no time or space to write about it while the panic was under way. Nor was it fitting, then, to tell of the tactics of delay resorted to by paying tellers in their efforts to wear out the bank runners. It would only have increased the panic. Now that the storm has worn itself out incidents of the lighter lining to that black and ominous cloud are coming out. Expert paying tellers, who ordinarily could pay off depositors with amazing rapidity and accuracy, became veritable snails at the time of panic. The prize for slowness certainly belongs to a dapper little teller of one of the big downtown trust companies, which, after vainly trying to wipe out the run by paying off at three windows, decided to tire it out. There were several hundred in the line, which stretched away from the paying teller's window and out into the street one morning when bank "running" was the all absorbing occupation of several thousand persons. "Checks from Montreal, calling for $29,372!" was the remark of the first man in line when the wicket finally opened disclosing the smiling face of the paying teller. Under ordinary circumstances he would have been paid off in ten minutes. But the paying teller took ten minutes for reading the checks over. Then he was ten minutes more making a list of them. It took seven minutes to check the list. "How long, o Lord, how long?" sighed the second man in line. "Twenty-seven minutes and no sign of cash." But the paying teller had just started. The signatures of the Montreal depositors were strange to him. They had to be verified, the teller informed the waiting line. This took so long that one of them was moved to ask: "Say, are you sending those checks to Montreal for verification?" "Just a minute, just a minute," said the teller, blandly. After an hour and fifteen minutes he brought out a pile of small bills and began to count them wearily. He would get halfway through a pile of one thousand and in some strange manner lose count. Finally he got the right amount. But the end was not yet. The customer had to count them, and a long and weary task it was. His pockets were filled with bills before he had half the amount stowed away. Finally he opened his waistcoat and filled his shirt front.

7. November 12, 1907 The Farmer and Mechanic Raleigh, NC
Article from The Farmer and Mechanic, November 12, 1907

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OF Recalls Panic of 1873, When President Grant Himself Stepped In. (Holland, in The Philadelphia Press) On May 9, 1901, the Northern Pacifle panic prevailed in Wall street, but It was confined to the stock exchange and the broker's offices, and the only visible demonstrations of It were those pictured by throngs of messenger and office boys. But for the first time in many years Wa!! street has this week been in possession of a great throng, a majority of whom no doubt were inspired by curiosity, and yet a large minority by fright, which impelled them to demand of the Trust Company of America the return of their deposits. It was a demonstration new to this generation in Wall street. Something like it was seen for a few hours at the time of the disaster which befell the old Metropolitan bank. and in 1873 long lines gathered in front of the savings banks, being inspired by fear and at last controlled by that kind of fear which is a peril to lives and property. Upon that occasion, not the Secretary of the Treasury. but the President himself, General Grant, came to New York and was in consultation until long after midnight at the Union League Club a Sunday night, fortunately, for upon that day, every bank being closed. it was not possible to maintain a run against any one of them. General Grant and the Clearing House Association had the situation well in hand before the president departed for Washington, and although the business demoralization continued and industry remained stagnant for many months, yet the banks of New York city were abundantly fortified so that they were able to stand a supreme obstacle against wide-spread financial disaster of a kind involving the whole fabric of the national bank system. What President Grant and the Clearing House Association, under the brilliant leadership of the late Frederick D. Tappin. accompanied in 1873, the Clearing House Association and the strong men in it in association with the Secretary of the Treasury believed on Wednesday that they were abundantly able also to accomplish. In other words, abundantly able to protect the national banks, since these constitute the citadel of American finance. Very likely one of the most beneficial results of this tempest will be a change in the methods adopted by many of the trust institutions, especially the younger ones. Every experienced banker has known that danger lurked in these methods. A part of them is curable by legislative action, but it is believed that the time has come when there must also be extended to the trust institutions authority similar to that which the Clearing House Association possesses over the national banks and some State banks of this city. In the first place, the experience of the Knickerbocker Trust has demonstrated the danger of conducting a banking institution without maintaining a reserve fund, and in such amount as the experience of fifty years in this city has shown to be wise. Trust institutions should be compelled

8. November 14, 1907 The Topeka State Journal Topeka, KS
Article from The Topeka State Journal, November 14, 1907

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A BUGABOO. The suspicion will not down that a large portion of the present financial flurry is artificial, purposely brought on by those who wish to see a panic in order to influence next year's presidential election and to scare Roosevelt and congress from further molesting criminal corporations, and also to compel the adoption of some sort of an asset currency scheme. The most influential paper in the Pacific northwest, the Portland Oregonian, is very pronounced in its views that the disturbance is only a "plot of the money pirates against Roosevelt and the country." It says: "Wall street panics made to order, having failed to frighten anybody, it became necessary to set a trap. Big interest rates were held out as a bait to lure the money of the country to New York. The bait took and thither the money went. Then the pirates set up their chorus, 'You're in, little mousie, but how to get out' is a very different question Wall street got the money of the country. and Wall street kept it. The banks of the west were 1 literally disemboweled. Nobody feared trouble. Why should we not profit by the necessities of east? So we profited by them. Then came another Wall street flurry, failures and rumors of failures. The Knickerbocker Trust went down. It went down just in the nick of time to serve the purposes of the pirates, and since they controlled it one can easily discern the reason for its failure. Confidence throughout the country began to totter a little and the west awoke to the fact that its credit hung in the air. The cash was all in the vaults of the freebooters. It was exactly where they wanted it, and w6 soon learned that they intended to keep it there. All other means of creating a national panic having failed, they tried the trick of buncoing the interior banks out of their funds and then refusing to return them. Their hope was that the people everywhere would start a run on the banks. If that had been done, nothing could have saved the country from disaster. Nothing can save it now but the steadfast exercise of common sense and courage. Everybody should keep in mind that the banks are sound, that they are abundantly able to pay all their obligations, and that the only thing which can endanger them is a concerted run. This is what the pirates are looking for. It is what they are working for. But it is what the intelligence and sanity of the country should not permit. This last blow of the freebooters at the president and the nation was well prepared and skillfully delivered. but if we keep our heads we can parry it as we have the others. The question is, Are we going to keep our heads or shall we fall into a panic and play their game for them?" Of course there is no doubt that Wall street is hard up compared with what it has been. Wall street produces nothing itself and the producing sections have been getting the wealth while Wall street has been gambling. There is that much reason for the panic so far as Wall street is concerned. The people as a whole have not been frightened in the least, although it is quite possible that our rapid development may slow down a little, for the country was going too fast. There was a greater demand for labor than the laborers could supply, and the same was true of capital. But with all the wheat and corn and cotton there is in the country, the producing sections are not worrying. They will furnish just as large a tonnage as ever for the railroads to haul away, for both America and Europe must have food and clothing. The producing regions, in return, will continue to spend their money for manufactured goods, keeping the factories and the mines busy, and making more tonnage for the railroads. There is no reason why legitimate business should not go ahead on conservative lines the same as usual, in spite of the financiers' screams about "the panic" and "hard times." We may not have speculative prices-it is to be hoped that we won't-but farm products and manufactured goods will both make their producers good to profits.

9. November 15, 1907 The Athena Press Athena, OR
Article from The Athena Press, November 15, 1907

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# THE PIRATES' GAME. Step by step the plot of the money pirates against Roosevelt and the country developes. When the game opened we were all on the alert and our combined common sense was too much for the freebooters. But as time passed vigilance began to drowse and they almost got the better of the public. There was a step in the plot where they caught the country napping. The Wall street panics, made to order, having failed to frighten anybody, it became necessary to set a trap. Big interest rates were held out as a bait to lure the money of the country to New York. The bait took and thither the money went. Then the pirates set up their chorus, "You're in, little mousie, but how to get out" is a very different question. Wall street got the money of the country, and Wall street kept it. The banks of the west were literally disemboweled. Nobody feared trouble. Why should we not profit by the necessities of the east? So we profited by them. Then came another Wall street flurry, failure and rumors of failures. The Knickerbocker Trust went down. It went down just in the nick of time to serve the purposes of the pirates, and since they controlled it, one can easily discern the reason for its failure. Confidence throughout the country began to totter a little and the west awoke to the fact that its credit hung in the air. The cash was all in the vaults of the freebooters. It was exactly where they wanted it, and we soon learned that they intended to keep it there. All other means of treating a national panic having failed, they tried

10. December 5, 1907 Bismarck Daily Tribune Bismarck, ND
Article from Bismarck Daily Tribune, December 5, 1907

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# PASSING OF THE FINANCIAL DEPRESSION The time is approaching—if it has not actually arrived—when it will be possible to refer to the panic in the past tense, says the Globe of New York. Even those who see darkly are compelled to admit that the money situation has practically straightened itself out. No considerable number of persons now entertain doubt as to the general integrity of the banks. The silly flurry has passed and confidence in them has been restored. This is not only true in New York, but throughout the country. In New York the majority of the savings bank depositors who gave the legal sixty days' notice in the closing days of their intention to withdraw have already revoked the notices and the remainder are likely to be revoked before the maturity. On reflection depositors have concluded it would be foolish not to participate in the January 1 dividend declarations. Throughout the country the banks seem to await a common authoritative signal to resume the unrestricted cashing of checks and the usual flow of currency among the various sub-centres. Even more cheering is the news that comes from the railroads and the mills. The gross earnings of the former are fairly up to the high record of last year and railway managers are making haste to put back to work employes who were laid off. The closed iron and steel furnaces—almost swallowed up by a flood of cancellations—are welcoming again the new order. In many places the effects of the recent disturbance will doubtless remain and the total volume of business will probably be less for a period. But the time has come when, apparently with safety, we can put away the paralyzing apprehension that the country is up against two, three or four years of grinding business depression. In certain aspects all panics are senseless and unreasonable, but as we contemplate in retrospect the one from which we are now emerging it seems unprecedentedly senseless and unreasonable. The Knickerbocker Trust suspension—an institution that promises to pay its depositors in full, and which in the popular sense was thus not insolvent—was hardly cause enough to produce so gigantic an effect. If the real cause was the doubt that had been created by the over-preaching of the enormities of flim-flam finance, and that the people wanted to know, wanted to get at the books, wanted a test of trial—then it is clear the net result of peremptorily forcing an examination has been to show that the internal management of not only our banks, but of our corporations has been surprisingly sound, honest and conservative. Barring the Brooklyn spot, and one or two minor blemishes, it has been revealed that things behind the door were wholesome. No rotten system of business could have endured the strain of the last few weeks. One reason for the return of confidence is that the men on the inside knew that the attacks on corporate management on the whole were unjust. With respect to the security market the outlook is particularly encouraging and as securities go up the basis for credit enlarges. Whatever theory be entertained as to the cause of the decline of prices, it seems as if the decline has already discounted any conceivable future. If politics and governmental interference be the trouble, this has been discounted. If it be an excessive gold supply that has raised the rate of interest and thus called for a readjustment of nominal values, then the readjustment has been made. If it be that overinvestment has used up the supply of liquid capital, then we have placed securities at a level that takes account of a long slack period as capital slowly reaccumulates. Speaking broadly, standard American securities now net a larger income return that at any time in our national history—not even excepting the civil war days, when the life of the nation was in danger. It is hardly possible

11. December 7, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY
Article from New-York Tribune, December 7, 1907

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ACTRESS'S BODY HERE FUNERAL HERE TO-DAY. Mrs. Clara Bloodgood's Body Accompanied by Husband. The funeral of Mrs. Clara Bloodgood, the actress, who killed herself in Baltimore Thursday evening. will be held at noon to-day at St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, in Stuyvesant Square. It will be private as will be the burial. A good deal of secrecy was thrown about the proceedings for the funeral last night by all concerned. The body of the actress was placed on a Baltimore & Ohio train, leaving Baltimore at 11:30 o'clock, yesterday morning. William Laimbeer, husband of the actress; his brother-in-law, Sheppard DeForest and several members of Mrs. Bloodgood's company playing in "The Truth," accompanied the body to this city. The train arrived at Jersey City about 4:30 o'clock. H. W. Chapman, sexton at St. George's, whose undertaking establishment is at No. 223 East 14th street, met the train and took charge of the body. Mr. Laimbeer has not revealed the contents of the letter which she left for him, and which the Baltimore coroner gave to him unopened. He said yesterday that the letter referred entirely to private and business affairs and gave no inkling of the motive which led the actress to end her life. Nevertheless the general impression is that this letter, as well as two special delivery letters sent by the actress to New Yorkers, whose names are at present unknown, a few hours before her death. would shed some light on the real cause of her self-destruction. Members of "The Truth" company, in which Mrs. Bloodgood was starring, believe she killed herself while temporarily insane from an overpowering combination of hard work, nervous depression and melancholy. Some friends of the actress in this city ascribe her act to financial difficulties, while others say she had nothing to fear SO far as money was concerned. The Shuberts and Mrs. Bloodgood were jointly interested in "The Truth," but Mrs. Bloodgood did not, as has been stated, stand to bear 80 per cent of the loss in case the play was a failure. Up to date on the road tour the play had not been a complete success; neither had it been a heavy loser. Mrs. Bloodgood's contract with the Shuberts guaranteed her a large salary and a place with them for three years. For next season arrangements had been made for her to star again in another Clyde Fitch play. What remains of the fortune left by her mother-about $15,000-is tied up in the Knickerbocker Trust receivership. Statements were madè yesterday that Mr. Laimbeer, who is a broker and a member of the New York Stock Exchange, was in financial straits, and that his wife had returned to the stage not because of her love for It but to support herself. He did clear a big profit-said to be $1,000,000-in a deal some time ago, but It is said recent losses and the expenses incident to a part ownership of the Newcastle Stable with Andrew Miller and Ferdinand Bishop have practically wiped out the million. Another puzzling feature is that Mrs. Bloodgood apparently premeditated suicide, yet made plans for meeting friends here the week before Christmas, when "The Truth" company was to rest. Early this week she sent an order to a New York furniture firm for the delivery of a table at her home here. At the same time she wrote to friends and made appointments for dinners and luncheons. Yet In a letter sent to Memphis last Saturday she wrote that she had not long to live before the footlights, and the members of her company had noted with anxiety throughout the succession of dreary, grinding one night stands which have comprised most of their season's tour, that she was depressed and desp ndent, and suffering mental and physical torture. Not a few there were who believed that the tieing up of her money in the Knickerbocker Trust, the hard path of "The Truth" and her husband's losses in the stock market were blows that at last snapped strands which had long been subjected to abnormal tension. They recalled that her life had been a most unhappy one from the time she first came into prominence by her elopement with WillIam Havemeyer. His career was so wild that his wife soon obtained a divorce. A year afterward she married John Bloodgood, jr., son of a well known and reputedly rich banker. When the father died "Jack" Bloodgood, as he was best known, found there was no estate. He became ill, and his wife not only gave up society to nurse him, but went on the stage to earn support for him. Six weeks after her stage debut in "The Conquerors" he died. In May, 1902, she was married to Mr. Laimbeer, who then was about twenty-eight years old. He is a son of the late William E. Laimbeer and was graduated from Harvard in 1896. "Man and Superman," "The Girl with the Green Eyes" and "The Coronet of a Duchess" were plays in which Mrs. Bloodgood had starred in recent years. Last January she was starred in "The Truth" at the Crtterion Theatre, but it was a failure. The Frohmans and Clyde Fitch took the play to London, and with Marie Tempest as the star it took London by storm. This determined Miss Bloodgood to try

12. February 5, 1908 The Birmingham Age-Herald Birmingham, AL
Article from The Birmingham Age-Herald, February 5, 1908

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chain banking seems to have fallen into disuse in the west. But it was revived and reappeared in New York, and at one time an audacious capitalist practically owned five national and four state banks in New York. The modus operandi, says the New York Evening Post, "was to buy shares in one bank, pledge them with another bank for a loan, use the proceeds to buy shares in yet another bank, and SO on. It was a remarkably inexpensive operation at the outset, and it was used, as might be supposed, to obtain access to the funds of such institutions to help along the personal operations of the ingenious promoters. In October, eight banks and at least two trust companies were dominated by one group of experts." The Morse-Thomas-Heinze group is referred to, and it is their peculiar method of financing that recently led to the failure of two national and two state banks, as it had during the panic swept away the Mercantile National bank and the Knickerbocker Trust. While the clearing house stood behind the banks the four mentioned banks stood secure, but as soon as cash payments to depositors were resumed they were forced to close. Confidence in them had been destroyed. The case was one of chain banking and it was well understood, and the failures of the four banks surprised no one. It was simply what all had expected. It means that there will not soon again be any chain banking in New York or elsewhere.

13. June 10, 1908 Omaha Daily Bee Omaha, NE
Article from Omaha Daily Bee, June 10, 1908

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ROUND ABOUT NEW YORK. Ripples on the Current of Life in the Metropolis. The new law of New York state, placing bankrupt finnacial institutions in charge of officers of the state banking department and dispensing with receivers appointed by the courts, did not come into operation in time for the business occasioned by the October panic. But its influence is felt mightily in checking greed which has made New York receiverships little short of legalized robbery. The importance of the change is shown in one instance, where the State department official settled up the affairs of an embarrassed institution at an expense of $1,100. This modest sum affords a striking contrast with the old looting system just revealed in court. The receivers and counsel for the Knickerbocker Trust, having finished their task, put in bills for $75,000 each, a total of $300,000 for five months' work. The court cut the bills to $20,000 each. Justice Gaynor, speaking for the court. said: "The claim that the court had no jurisdiction to fix such compensation and expenses is without foundation. But the amount allowed was so grossly excessive as to amount to a spoilation of the assets of the company, and the order must be reversed or else modified for that reason. To allow it to stand would implant general distrust of the administration of justice. The temporary receivers served only for five months. The allowance of $75,000 to each for compensation and the same sum to their counsel, in all the great sum of $300,000, is so disproportionate as not to wear the appearance of unhampered judicial discretion and judgment, but of having been arranged by agreement between the temporary receivers and the directors of the trust company and adopted by the court inadverently or without the exercise of its controlling judgment and discretion."

14. October 20, 1908 The Birmingham Age-Herald Birmingham, AL
Article from The Birmingham Age-Herald, October 20, 1908

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they were when the October panic occurred. One of the suspended banks, the Knickerbocker Trust, owed depositors $49,000,000, and the president promptly committed suicide. And yet that trust company is open today, enjoying the confidence of a wide circle of depositors. It promises to become stronger than ever before. The story of the other nine banks is full of interest, and so for that matter is the story of the five banks that have not been reopened and probably will not be. They were either Morse banks or banks interested in copper or other speculative movements. The panic closed, in other words, ten banks that should not have been closed, while it drove out of existence five that were unfit, although they have since paid all depositors in full, the most of them with interest. The net result has strengthened in the eyes of depositors the banks of New York, and the state banks in that city have proved as sound as the national banks.

15. October 20, 1909 New Ulm Review New Ulm, MN
Article from New Ulm Review, October 20, 1909

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king. For this purpose ne absorbed a string of New York city banks extend- ing from the Battery to Harlem. At this stage he was one of the big fig- ures in the financial world. Worth perhaps $30,000,000, president or di- rector of banks and corporations to the number of nearly a score, a manipula- tor of acknowledged ability, he was crowding close to the Wall street lead- ers. He had with him such men as F. Augustus Heinze, the copper king: President Barney of the Knickerbock- er Trust company. E. R. Thomas, the financier and patron of the races; also Thomas' brother and many more. The red headed Maine boy who had begun making money while he was still in college and had become an ice king before he went to New York had ar- rived. Charles Wyman Morse, small, blue eyed and soft spoken, but with plenty of nerve and gray matter, had reached his life goal and was one of the powers of that world of money that we usually dub Wall street. Then the end came. Overnight his castles crumbled. The panic caught New York-the panic he himself had helped to bring-and he was one of its first and most conspicuous victims. Those associated with him shared in his ruin. Along with some of his big- gest banks went the Knickerbocker Trust, the Heinze brokerage firm and other allied houses. Barney commit- ted suicide; Heinze was faced with several indictments, some of which are still to be tried; the Thomases were forced out of the banking business. and Morse himself went to England and returned to face arrest. ### Paying the Price. That is a part of the story-a mere outline of some of the dramatic chap- ters. Most people in reading it will say that he got only what was coming to him, or will have got it when he serves out his fifteen years in Atlanta. He sowed and is reaping. Morse thinks he is a victim of circumstances and of the "big stick." Others believe he is the victim only of himself. He coined money out of the necessities of the poor, lived for his own gratifica- tion, broke the laws of his country and involved others in the inevitable ruin that followed. He is now about to pay the price. Naturally he does not enjoy paying it. Each of us has some sort of price to pay, and few of us enjoy it, yet in some way and at some time we must settle the bill. Why should Charles W. Morse be an excep- tion? Because he has money? Too many rich criminals have escaped al- ready. Because others are doing the same thing? Wrong does not excuse wrong. Get this one and perhaps we may then get some of the rest. Yet there is another side to the pic- ture. Mr. Morse has not only paid most of his debts. but put the biggest of his failed banks on its feet and set- tled with the depositors dollar for dol- lar. It is on facts such as this that he will rely in his final appeal to the president. Morse was born in Maine in 1856. His father was a tugboat man on the Kennebec river. The boy wanted to go to college, but had not the money and became "candy butcher" on a boat to raise it. He succeeded, as he al- ways has succeeded when dollars were the objective. At the age of twenty- one he graduated from Bowdoin. While in college he had invested in a little ice business and doubled his money. He then began to study ice, got his father to go into business with him and in eleven years had control of the ice business of New York city. At one time he controlled twenty-one ice com- panies and at a later period eighty-one steamships and thirteen banks and trust companies. As it was his banks that finally floored him, superstitious people are entitled to draw any idiotic conclusion they see fit from the thir- teen thing. ### His Flier In Politics. It was in 1895 that Morse broke into Tammany Hall. The phrase "broke in" is used advisedly, as Morse used an ice pick. It was at this time he showed Van Wyck and Carroll a bunch of per- fectly good stock. They said, "Get thee behind us. Satan," holding their hands behind them, palms upward. Mr. Morse is a short man-physically short, also financially-with a direct way of looking at one, a bright eye, a white mustache and an optimistic philosophy. It is not every man who can be an optimist in jail. This ought to appeal to President Taft. With so many grouches at large it seems a shame to keep a cheerful loser locked up. When the dark days came Mrs. Morse sold her jewels, her best furni- ture and even mortgaged the home. She looked after her husband's busi- ness. She got signers to his bail bond.

16. August 12, 1911 New-York Tribune New York, NY
Article from New-York Tribune, August 12, 1911

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Letter Read into Record. Asked if he had received a communication from Mr. Stone regarding that matter. Mr. Thorne said he had, and he produced it. It was read into the record, written under date of November 18, 1907. In the letter Mr. Stone said: I have no doubt that Mr. Perkins's statement on the night of the 22d distinctly emphasized the run on the Trust Company of America, if, indeed, it did not precipitate 1t. 1 do not mean by this that I think there was the slightest purpose on the part of Mr. Perkins to injure you or the Trust Company of America. But we felt that the statement was so injudicious that we did not send it out. Later, when I said to Perkins that I thought it was very hurtful, he justified it on the ground that the condition was 80 strained that If public attention had not been centred upon the Knickerbocker Trust and the Trust Company of America every bank in New York probably would have been involved. I think the whole thing was a mistake-a most unfortunate mistake-for which you had to pay a heavy penalty, but I do not for a moment imagine that there was any malice involved in it." "Is it your opinion, then." Representative Gardner asked, "that Mr. Perkins did nothing more than make a damned big blunder?" "That is your way of expressing it," said Mr. Thorne. "I do not know that Mr. Perkins wrote that statement. I think he gave it out." "Then you acquit him of everything but stupidity?" "Abgolutely." Mr. Therne said that he had confidence in Mr. Perkins because he knew he had Morgan's ear, and it was Morgan's ear he wanted to reach

17. June 17, 1912 The Topeka State Journal Topeka, KS
Article from The Topeka State Journal, June 17, 1912

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rowed bonds, the borrowing having been inspired by the leadership of Mr. Morgan. It was under his leadership that Henry C. Frick, E. H. Harriman, John D. Rockefeller and others who were in possession of great amounts of bonds available as security for government deposits in national banks lent these bonds to the banks that needed them. It. is sometimes asked how, if there was a scarcity of money and if the rates were so great that brokers would be ruined if they borrowed money and paid these rates, Mr. Morgan and the various bankers of New York were able to utilize and were able to get together at a few moments' notice twenty-five million dollars in cash. The fact is that all the banks of New York were carrying a considerable amount of specie or legal tenders to protect their reserves and these funds were utilized. Furthermore Mr. Morgan and Mr. Stillman were able to negotiate upon the instant large amounts of foreign exchange. Mr. Stillman, on the day of the failure of the Knickerbocker Trust, bought, in the name of the National City bank, nearly ten million of bills drawn by cotton brokers. In payment he gave these brokers credit, their checks being honored by payment through the Clearing-House association. The ocean cable made it possible for Mr. Stillman to secure immediately in Lendon an amount of gold equivalent to the face of these cotton bills. Transactions of this kind were kept up not only by Mr. Stillman, but by Mr. Morgan and others, for several weeks, but they brought a hundred million of gold to the United States before the close of the year every dollar of which was sent to banks in other parts of the country while the New York banks permitted their legal reserves to fall to the lowest point ever known. The Pujo committee can do no better service, if its desire is to gain information which will lead to the protection of our banking system, than to secure testimony which will tell how the banks were so financed by co-operation under Mr. Morgan's leadership that they obtained over a hundred million of government money on deposit and how co-operation again under the leadership of Mr. Morgan resulted in the importation of a hundred millions of gold which was distributed throughout other parts of the country and which increased the loaning capacity of the banks of the country three hundred million dollars, thereby checking and practically ending the money panic. HOLLAND.

18. March 10, 1933 The Indianapolis Times Indianapolis, IN
Article from The Indianapolis Times, March 10, 1933

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BY FORREST DAVIS, Times Staff Writer HE chilling spectacle of bank T runs has been spared New York during this money stringency. Not so in 1907. In the last parallel emergency, occurring twenty-five years ago last October, the streets were crowded with anxious depositors and spectators drawn by New York's inveterate curiosity to the scenes of dread. Bank runs were for one week the most conspicuous feature in the town's life. The clergy sermonized; wits derided the people's fearfulness. Almost as abruptly as panic descended it lifted. Resolute cooperation between the government and bankers helped essentially sound institutions weather the storm. Confidence returned. Only nine banks went down during the dark week. Of the nine only one-the Knickerbock Trust-stood in the upper tier of the metropolis' banks. Its failure, which was due to special circumstances, brought on the panic. The stock market strain during the preceding week had affected nearly all the banks. But the Knickerbocker, fund a mentally, was weak. Its president, Charles T. Barney, rich, respectable, an art collector and typical nabob of his day, had overextended the bank in real estate speculations. When the storm broke far too large a share of the Knickerbocker's assets were frozen in real estate. The story of the Knickerbocker failure, from the midnight salvage party at Sherry's the night before the run to Barney's violent death three weeks afterward, is of high dramatic content. ### SHERING in the panic week U of Oct. 20, the National Bank of Commerce unexpectedly announced its refusal to clear for the Knickerbocker. That meant, as every one knew, that the National Bank of Commerce, convinced that the trust company had reached a state of insolvency, no longer would sponsor its checks with the clearing house. The announcement. symbolizing doom, came late in the day. It heightened and justified the apprehensions which had grown over the week-end while the clearing house directors were straightening out the affairs of the Morse and Heine banks. Barney resigned at once. A. Foster Higgins, a director not associated, as had been Barney, with Morse, took his place. Wall Street, accurately sensing the consequences, closed ranks. The remaining directors of the Knickerbocker, searching for means of saving the bank, capped a troublesome day with a foolish decision. They voted to dine at Sherry's then, as now, a resort of mag-

19. March 10, 1933 The Bradenton Herald Bradenton, FL
Article from The Bradenton Herald, March 10, 1933

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Conditions Less Alarming Than Previous Depressed Periods (Continued fro Page 4) India demonitized gilver. Banks would cash depositors' checks for only small amounts. Money was so scarce that currency was at premium and New York banks issued clearing house certificates for use instead of money. Despite presidential pressure, it took nearly three months to repea] the Sherman act in the face of bitter opposition by silver senators. But repeal was not enough So was business that bonds had to be sold to bolster up the gold reserve. By February 1895. had fallen to $41,000,000 and the head of the New York reported that he could continue redemption in gold for only one more day Saved by Morgan The situation was saved by J. Morgan,. bought $62,000, 000 of the government's gold bonds, turning over in exchange imported gold. That revived confidence. Commodity prices rose, and financial stability and busirecovery arrived hand in hand. Even so short a time ago that remember yourself, clearing house certificates were issued lieu of money, That was 1907. The Knickerbocker Trust failure brought down the financial skies, the reckless credit expansion by New York banks for speculative was rudely halted by panic. The depressed condition lasted only about year, however. bumper corn and grain crop in the fall had things definitely on the up-grade in 1908, with prices so much higher that cartoonists pictured the farmer the real capitalist of the country. Both in nature and extent. the financial panic and five-year depression that began in 1873 is startling parallel to what we are going through today. It came in the confused period that followed a great and destrucwar. It was ushered in by a period of speculation, too-optimistic business fraud and political corruption. And it was started rolling by an impetus from abroad. Jay Cooke & Co., the bankers who financed the Civil War. had embarked on course of financing western railroads. Many other bankers did the same. The roads mushroomed out over the plains, 30,000 miles of them at cost of $1,400,000,000 between 1868 and 1873. the close of sum mer. 1873, bonds of the Northern Pacific began to decline alarmingly. The Cooke firm, deeply volved, went under The nation was stunned. Whole sale failures one another. Stocks dropped 30. 40 points in day. were offered at ruinous prices with no one to The exchanges closed for eight days. Money was to be had. and banks clearing house certificates to take its place. Peo. ple withdrew money from banks and runs Bank ceased to pay large checks, but simply indorsed them good through the clearing house. By the end of September the money had run its course. having affected mostly speculators and financiers People felt the worst over. But the financial stringency drag ged busines industry down with it, "Hard times" set in. Violence Flared Up Forty-seven thousand failures followed rapidly Rents fell 30 per cent Business came nearly standstill. Millions were prived of work. There were not even as accurate figures on un employment as we have now, but estimates were made of not than 3,000,000 unemployed. and those in a country of 40,000,000 people. by 1877 the cities were de scribed as weary and aching mass of unemployed. Federal troops had to be called out to suppress disorders at Martinsburg and Cumberland Md. Other Parallels There are many other parallels our past which make clear that what we are passing through today is nothing that need cause abject despair or loss of hope in the The panic of 1837 gave us our first organization of an indepen-