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PUT PORTLAND UP AGAINST Remarkable Story of Last Year's Panic IT SAID THAT SEATTLE DID IN ONE DAY SEATTLE BANKERS SAID TO HAVE TAKEN SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS OUT OF PORTLAND. A story which seemingly puts a new phase on the financial disturbance in the northwest last fall has just come to town, being brought here by a well known Portland financier. That part of the story is true, there is no question; how much, it would probably be difficult to say. "Money Was Tight." One thing is certain, the publication of such a story during the strenuous days of last October would have created such a sensation in financial circles as this section of the country has never known. Everyone knew last fall that "money was tight." Walla Walla banks, howover, due to their great of strength, and to the sanity their depositors, continued to keep their doors open and pay out in good coin of the realm. Loyal to Banks. It was generally known that practically all of the local banks had heavy balances due from Portland, San Franthe cisco and New York, particularly former place, and that due to the holiday system in vogue in Oregon and the "general cussedness" of eastern bankers, the local banks were unable to realize on these balances. Local capitalists, business men and farmers, who carry large accounts at Walla Walla banks, understood this situation perfectly, and they simply slowed down until even a bank check became a as rare as a five-dollar gold piece in Methodist contribution box. The story which comes from Portland professes to explain how it was that Portland was "caught short" and compelled to request the governor of Oregon to inaugurate a long period of "legal holidays." Started a Run. Strange as it may seem, the first act of this drama of the dollars was laid in Seattle. Some Seattle bankers, the story goes, became jealous of the Scandinavian-American bank, one of the leading financial institutions of the Queen city, and a quiet run is alleged to have been started on that institution. Scandinavians are clannish. They stick together, not only in politics but in business as well, and up in Alaska where they dig the raw gold from mother earth, there are Scandinavians all and Scandinavians, and they are making money. When they make a "clean up" they ship their little bag of gold to the Scandinavian-American bank at Seattle, and since up in Alaska "the dust" is just as good as "the coin" and a heap more prevalent, many of the Scandinavians are not anxious that their gold dust be immediately converted into eagles and double-eagles. The dust is consequently stored in the bank, being subject largely to the discretion of the manager of this institution. Thus, at times the amount of raw gold dust in this bank reaches many millions of dollars. By the middle of last October, practically all of last year's clean-up in Alaska had reached Seattle and a goodly portion of it was in the Scandinavian-American bank. So, when Manager Chilberg, of that institution, began to notice that the daily withdrawals were largely in excess of the daily and deposits, he "smelled a mouse" went forthwith to the managers of the Seattle national banks which had been designated as government depositories. Had Some Gold Dust. "I know what you fellows are trying to do," he is reported to have said, "and if you want a fight here you can it. Let me tell you have first, stopped how- at ever, that if this run is not once I will come here tomorrow with $1,500,000 in dust and demand coin. If