Banks suspended and banks reopened.-The statistics of bank suspensions relate to banks closed to the public either temporarily or permanently, on account of financial difficul ties, by order of supervisory authorities or directors of the bank. They do not include closed temporarily under special or "moratorium" holidays declared by civil authorities. Reopenings are recorded as of the month in which they occur, and include for any given month reopenings both of banks closed during the month and of banks closed earlier. Deposits.-Figures of deposits in banks suspended are as of date of suspension whenever data as of this date are available; otherwise they are as of the latest available call date prior to suspension. For banks reopened the figures of deposits are not as of date of reopening, which are seldom available, but are taken from the record of suspensions. November 193 19 6 December. 1 161 19 15 1933-January. 1 241 1 44 15 2148 2 20 27 6 67 Bank suspensions and banks reopened BANK SUSPENSIONS AND BANKS REOPENED, BY DISTRICTS [Banks closed to public either temporarily or permanently, on account of financial difficulties by order of supervisory authorities or directors of the bank. The figures do not include banks closed temporarily under special or "moratorium" holidays declared by civil authorities. Figures for banks reopened during given period include reopenings both of banks closed during that period and of banks closed in prior periods. Deposits (including those of banks reopened) are as of date of suspension where available, otherwise as of the latest available call date preceding suspension] 1 At time of suspension the following number of banks with deposits as indicated, were State member banks: Cleveland district, 7 banks with deposits of $42,333,000; Atlanta district, 2 banks with deposits of $889,000; Chicago district, 9 banks with deposits of $36,151,000; St. Louis district, 1 bank with deposits of $400,000, and San Francisco district, 1 bank with deposits of $5,691,000. ? Includes 1 newly organized bank with 4 branches, which took over 6 banks previously suspended. 3 At time of suspension 1 bank in Cleveland district with deposits of $7,290,000 was a State member bank. At time of suspension 3 banks in Cleveland district with deposits of $10,244,000, and 1 in Atlanta district with deposits of $269,000 were State member banks. FOUR HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS DISCREPANCY SHOWN BETWEEN REPORTS OF NATIONAL INCOME FOR 1929 (By Henry Woodhouse, chairman of National Recovery Council, president of Historic Celebrations Association, scientific economist, and author) The Federal Government has never tabulated the gross income shown by the income-tax returns of the individual taxpayers. The Bureau of Internal Revenue of the United States Treasury has, however, tabulated the gross incomes of the corporations that have made tax returns, and have shown that, for instance, in 1929, the 509,000 corporations making returns had a gross of $160,621,000,000, with a net of $11,653,886,000. Applying the same ratio of net to gross, for the $24,800,735,000 net shown by the individual income-tax returns for the 4,044,327 individuals who reported in 1929, the gross income of those individuals would figure out at about $300,000,000,000, with a net "dividend" of over 8 percent on the $300,000,000,000! Likewise we find that the total gross income of the 509,000 corporations and the 4,044,327 individuals aggregated $460,621,000,000, with a net of $36,454,621,000, with a generous 8 percent net dividend! The 4,044,327 individuals represented less than 4 percent of the population of the United States in 1929. The balance of the population also had an income, but we do not know what that was. We only know that 48,000,000 were reported in the census of 1929 as being gainfully employed, and that there may have been hundreds of thousands not gainfully employed" living on dividends from investments in corporations. 66 The gross income of only the less than 4 percent of the population and the corporations aggregates $400,000,000,000 over the gross income of the entire United States accepted generally in the formula that "10 percent of the national income came from exports." The exports for 1929 aggregated $5,241,000,000. That included the exports to the Philippines, Hawaii, and other American possessions. Ten times $5,241,000,000 is $52,410,000,000. That sum is $408,211,000,000 less than the estimated income of less than 4 percent of the population of the United States and the 509,000 corporations. That mistake of over $400,000,000,000 in 1 year in estimating the national income has caused Nation-wide hardships for a number of years. It led people to believe that the $4,000,000,000 Federal Budget represented 10 percent of the national income, whereas it represents less than 1 percent of the income of less than 4 percent of the population. It led the officials, bankers, and business executives to reduce operations until such time as the Nation could recover the mythical 10 percent exports— which could never happen, since the exports have never amounted to as much as 1 percent of the national income! Gross income of corporations which made Federal income-tax returns It will be noted that, with the exception of the year 1930, the net was always over 5 percent of the gross, notwithstanding the fact that the law allows the corporations to deduct dividends as well as salaries, taxes, and all other expenses. [From advance pages from The Guide to the Emergency Banking Act and Regulations," by Henry Woodhouse] How THE EMERGENCY AND BANKING CONSERVATION ACT AFFECTS THE POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS When the Nation-wide bank holiday was terminated it was found that the Postal Savings banks had not suffered but had gained by the closing of the banks. While the Presidential proclamation of March 6, 1933, had suspended the operations of the Postal Savings System, as it had suspended the operations of all other financial institutions, their operations were promptly resumed the following day under a ruling of the Secretary of the Treasury. The ruling was asked on the grounds that the Postal Savings banks were so strictly organized and their funds so thoroughly under Federal control as to there being no possibility of any shortcomings. The question of possible excess by depositors in drawing deposits was disposed of by the fact that the total amount of deposits did not aggregate as much as $1,000,000,000, and most post offices had currency with which to pay money orders. The ruling that enabled the Post Office Department to continue business almost uninterrupted was incorporated in an order issued by the Post Office Department on March 7, 1933, reading as follows: "Announcement was made at the Post Office Department today that postmasters at all post offices having a credit on money-order account with the Treasurer of the United States are informed that the Secretary of the Treasury has ruled that all banking institutions are permitted to cash checks drawn on the Treasurer of the United States. "Such postmasters, if in need of cash for the payment of money orders, postal-savings certificates, or other postal expenditures, should draw a check against the money-order credit for the amount required and if one of the local banks has available funds, cash it there and use the money obtained as needed, making proper transfers to postal or postal-savings accounts. "If local banks cannot furnish cash, the checks should be drawn in favor of the postmaster of the most convenient city in the list given below. The check, when received by the postmaster selected will be cashed at the Federal Reserve bank and the postmaster in the Federal Reserve city will forward the cash by registered mail to the postmaster who drew the check. 66 Every effort should be made by postmasters to transact money-order and postal-savings business promptly and if, in any instance, payments must be delayed until funds are received, patrons should be assured that the money will be obtained at the earliest possible moment. 66 The list of cities referred to above follows: Birmingham, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.; Los Angeles, Calif.; San Francisco, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Atlanta, Ga.; Chicago, Ill.; Louisville, Ky.; New Orleans, La.; Baltimore, Md.; Detroit, Mich.; Boston, Mass.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis, Mo.; Helena, Mont.; Omaha, Nebr.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Portland, Oreg.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Memphis, Tenn.; Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas, Tex.; El Paso, Tex.; San Antonio, Tex.; Salt Lake City, Utah.; Richmond, Va.; Seattle, Wash.; Spokane, Wash.; Houston, Tex." The only restrictions that were placed on the paying of money orders and postal-savings certificates was in respect to payments in gold or gold certificates or equivalents of gold payments. Following the publication of restrictions imposed by the British Government on paying postal orders issued from the United States, Newfoundland, and Cuba, the Post Office Department of the United States issued orders suspending the issuing and payment of money orders outside of the United States, thereby stopping the payment of gold abroad through money orders. Being in a position to receive deposits while other financial institutions were closed, the Postal Savings System gained depositors during the bank holiday, and the aggregate of deposits reached the billion dollar mark for the first time since its founding. |