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Lot or Maverick Bank Assets Bring $454. BOSTON, Dec. 29.-The red flag of the auctioneers at the door of the Real Estate Exchange this morning announced the sale of a whole trunk full of securities held by the receiver of the defunct Maverick Bank. The face value of the securities sold was over $1,000,000. They brought $454. Even at this bidding was light. This sale is one of the steps in winding up what little remains of the affairs of the Maverick Bank.
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New-Dork Daily Tribune THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1897. THE NEWS THIS MORNING. FOREIGN.-Captain-General Blanco issued a decree announcing the lines on which the Home Rule Government is to be established. M Patenôtre, the new French Ambassador to Spain, was received by the Queen Regent in There has been a recrudescence Madrid. of the plague in India, especially in the Mandvie district, where the people are seeking safety in A fire destroyed eight hundred flight. houses, a hotel and a church in Port au Prince, Hayti; a few hours later an earthquake ocIt was reported in London that curred. the Marquis of Hertford would succeed the Earl of Aberdeen as Governor-General of CanLéon Carvalho, director of the Opéra ada. The French GovComique, died in Paris. ernment has granted a subsidy of 500,000 francs for a steamship line between France and Canada. Richard Arthur Prince, the assassin of William Terriss, was committed for trial at the Bow Street Police Court, London. DOMESTIC.-President McKinley signed the bill prohibiting pelagic sealing by citizens of the United States. Treasury officials express much gratification at the favorable showing made by the Government's financial operations for December: there will be a surplus of about Members of the Diplomatic $1,750,000. Corps in Washington are watching developments in the Far East with the greatest interest. Adjutant-General Tillinghast says he will not be a candidate for Major-General of the reA delegation organized National Guard. of Chicago politicians is on the way to NewYork to aid in the celebration of Tammany's The Chicago Board of return to power. Appeals decided against the Leiters on their charges brought against the elevator people that mixed wheat was being delivered. William James Linton, the engraver, died in Assets of the Maverick New-Haven. Bank of Boston, which originally cost over $1,000,000, were sold for $429. CITY.-The nominations for officers of the Union League Club were announced, Elihu Jacob Root being named for president. Worth received a diamond badge at a dinner The Iron given in his honor in Brooklyn. Steamboat Company was dispossessed from its old station at Pier No. 1, North River, by the Dock Board for non-payment of rent. The Police Board suspended for thirty days without pay Captain Frederick W. Martens, of the East Thirty-fifth-st. station, on charges of failing to suppress policy shops in his precinct. Stocks were dull and irregular. THE WEATHER.-Forecast for to-day: Rain, clearing in the afternoon: warmer. The temperature yesterday: Highest, 38 degrees; lowest, 23; average, 30%.
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BANK ASSETS AS CIRCULATION SECURITY. There was a time when the Maverick bank, of Boston, was looked upon as a great concern, and when, a few years ago, it failed, much surprise was expressed. By order of the United States district court, the bank's assets have just been sold. Their face value was $1,095,890; they brought $429. A few days ago a couple of large banks in Philadelphia failed, and failed because of a depreciation of assets, and not as the result of bad or reckless banking methods. It is very doubtful if the assets of the Philadelphia banks will be enough to save depositors harmless; if they do more than that, it will be an exception to the rule of banks that fail. Supposing that when these banks failed the Gage currency plan had been in operation, their circulation, permitted to the amount of 25 per cent of their assets, and based upon them (this, of course, in addition to their circulation secured by bonds), would fall as a debt on the government, its security being the 2 per cent tax per annum on the unsecured circulation, and by a first lien upon all assets. If the fund arising from this tax were not sufficient to make the government whole, the assets being wined out of existence, the difference between the amount of unsecured circulation of the failed banks and the unsecured circulation fund would fall as a dead loss on the governn it. When a bank is solvent, its assets are valuable, because they must be to make it solvent; and when it is not solvent, it is because, as a general rule, its assets are not valuable. Now, bank assets are very largely a matter of figures, and they can be run up high or down low, at the pleasure of those in control of the bank. Under the Gage plan, all notes issued by banks would be perfectly secure, for the government guarantee would be behind them. But what of the government? Its real security, practically its only security, is the 2 per cent tax on the unsecured circulation; the assets' security, save in rare cases, would be of little or no value. There is not any likelihood that the Gage plan will meet with favor at the hands of congress, but the failure of the two big Philadelphia banks cannot fail to draw special attention to the assets' security provision, and show its real weakness. Under it the strong banks, through the security tax, must carry the weak ones, and to them the government would have to look for its own indemnification.