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BANKERS AT ST. LOUIS. Trust and Savings Bank Sections Hold Meetings. St. Louis, Mo. Oct. 16 The American Bankets Association met to-day for its thirty-secand annual convention, when the trust companies section was called to order at the Olympic Theatre simultaneously with the gathering of the savings banks section at Schuyler Memorial Ha'll The meeting of the association as a whole will not take place until to-morrow Considerable opposition developed to-day at the session of the currency reform conference, held at the Jefferson Hotel, before the following resolutions, in part, were adopted: Resolved That it is the sense of the conference that the present supply of currency is inadequate for the needs of our growing country That the said currency is not sufficiently flex. ible to fill the requirements of our agricultural sections That certain changes in our existing banking laws are and expedient That Congress be requested to pass laws looking to the correction of these conditions. Hundreds of prominent bankers, representing every state and territory as well as the United States dependencies. are here as delegates, and officers of the association place the total attendonce including delegates and unaccredited vis. items at four thousand The principal meeting of to-day was the eleveath annual assembly of the trust company section which was called to order by Clark Willjame vice-president of the Columbia Trust Company of New York, and president of the section The address of welcome was made by Mr Festure J. Wade, president of the Mercantile Trust Company of St Louis President Clark Williams replied to the address of welcome and delivered his annual address saying in part From small beginning ten years ago, the trust companies section has become a great power with its seven hundred members. whose assets run into the billions of dollars The enormous growth of the trust company system as the result of the demands of existing business conditions and the progressive spirit of our times has required a response from this organization and we are under an ever increasing responsibility to sea that the power which in us lies is dire ted to the protection and safeguardinstitution of our ing Some good may come from the catastrophe of the Real Estate Trust Company failure at Philadelphia and the Stensland bank at Chicago, if only in the practical lessons we may learn of lasting benefit Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the wisdom of the policy in advocating adequate state supervision It seems to have been so lacking in this particular case that the trust companies of Pennsylvania are considering the advisability of calling a general convention to demand relief from present unsatisconditions factory believe it to be the duty of every trust company official not only to his institution, but to himself to adopt such means as are best calculated to keep the directors of his company close. by in touch with its affairs. not only by formal report but by requiring their frequent personal examination of the cash, securities and loans. The annual report of the secretary, James R Branch of New York, showed a credit balance for the fiscal year ended September 1, 1906, of $598.60 One hundred and thirteen trust companies were added to the rolls since September to 1. 1905 enlarging the present membership 718, the largest in the history of the section Pierre Jay. Bank Commissioner for the State of Massachusetts, was then introduced He said, in part: The president of a large surety company re. cently told me that his company had averaged the one bank embezzlement case a month for last twenty-two years When you consider that there are eight or ten other surety companies Issuing fidelity bonds to bank employee which are probably having proportionately similar experiences and when you consider that perhaps two out of three of the minor embezzlements never reach the surety companies, but are made good by relatives and friends, or are charged to profit and loss, I think I am safe in estimating that new case of bank embezzlement is being discovered in the United States on every day the in year Let US remember that no manecan embezzle without the opportunity and while it is impossible to devise system which shall be embezzlement proof. it is nevertheless the duty of those in charge of banking institutions in justice not only to their deposite ors and stockholders but also to their employes, to tempt to reduce the number of opportunities for embezzlement to the minimum How can this best be accomplished First By establishing a thorough system of accounting Second-The best accounting system obtainable having been installed, the entries made under it should be audited as frequently as pos= sible While proper systems of accounting and auditing will never altogether prevent defalca. tions, they will at least act as a powerful deterrent on those who might otherwise take advantage of loose systems. and they will. I believe serve to detect most irregularities in their early stages But however serious such defalcations of tellers bookkeepers and clerks may be, they with are not to be compared in disastrous results, the making of excessive or unsound loans and trusted officers of banks, of investments by Boston have which Chicago Philadelphis and each had such flagrant cases during the last few months and which has caused the failure of nearly every bank which has gone down in normal times The convention was then addressed by Controller Ridgely, who said, in part: There should be the closest bond of sympathy. the even if there is friendly rivalry, between national bank system. state banks and trust companies There is a place for each kind of a bank and each has field It is not 60 much done quest of quantity of banking business the is the quality done Whatever success have of the United States trust companies because they achieved has not been especially were honwere ably managed as because they estly managed, and they have made a remarkable record The following resolution, introduced by Festus J Wade of St Louis, first ce-president of the Rection was adopted Resolved That should a commission Bankers' or committee be appointed by the American Association to formulate a plan to be creating recomis mended to Congress for the purpose of the F credit or emergency currency it commissense of this convention that such a as have Fion committee, if appointed should trust some of its members a sufficient number of of company officials to represent the importance the trust companies as financial institutions. At the afternoon session of the trust company section Festus J Wade was elected president, and Philip S Babcock, vice-president of the Colonial Trust Company. of New York. was of elected vice-president. Ralph W. Cutler, Hartford Conn. was chosen a member of the executive committee The section convention then
