initial guarantee fund, and an expense fund, both of $5,000 in amount, and are required in addition to agree to make such further and additional payments to these funds as may be deemed necessary by the Superintendent. These funds may be returned after the organization of the bank when certain conditions have been complied with.

The investment of deposits and guarantee fund is strictly guarded. It can only be in the stocks or bonds or interest-bearing obligations of the United States or those for which the faith of the United States is pledged to provide for the payment of the interest and principal, including the bonds of the District of Columbia; in the stocks or bonds or interest-bearing obligations of the State of New York, issued pursuant to any law of the State; in the stocks, bonds or interest-bearing obligations of any State of the United States under certain restrictions as to past defaults; in the stocks or bonds of cities, towns, counties, villages, school districts or poor districts of this State, that were issued pursuant to law and that the faith and credit of the municipality or district that issued them are pledged for their support; in the stocks or bonds of incorporated cities in the United States, under certain restrictions; in bonds and mortgages on unincumbered real property situated in this State, to the extent of 60 per cent. of the appraised value thereof, but not more than 65 per cent. of the whole amount of deposits and guarantee fund shall be so loaned or invested; in the bonds of railroad corporations under certain restrictions. (These are fully explained in the chapter on the history and development of the law relating to investments in railroad bonds.) Not more than 25 per cent. of the assets of any Savings Bank are permitted to be loaned or invested in railroad bonds. Street railroad corporations are not considered railroad corporations within the meaning of this section.

Investments may also be made in promissory notes payable to the order of the Savings Bank on demand, secured by the pledge and assignment, if necessary, of the stocks or bonds or any of them enumerated in the railroad subdivision, but no such loan shall exceed 90 per cent. of the cash market value of such securities so pledged. Investment is also permitted in real estate under certain restrictions, one of which is that the cost of plot and building or buildings for the transaction of the business of the bank shall in no case exceed 25 per cent. of the guarantee fund of such bank, except with the approval of the Superintendent of Banks. Every parcel of real estate owned and not occupied by the Savings Bank as an office shall be sold within five years from the date on which it was acquired.

No Savings Bank is permitted to borrow money or pledge or hypothecate any of its securities except with the written approval of the Superintendent of Banks and in pursuance of a resolution adopted by vote of a majority of its board of trustees, duly entered upon the

minutes by ayes and nays. No stocks or bonds shall be entered upon the bank's books at more than the actual cost thereof or shall be carried for more than a year at a valuation exceeding their present cost as determined by amortization. All real estate must be carried on the bank's books at figures representing actual cost. Each Savings Bank is required to conform its methods of keeping books and records to the orders of the Superintendent.

Individual deposits are limited to $3,000 (exclusive of dividends), and those of societies or corporations to $5,000. Any Savings Bank is also permitted to further limit the aggregate amount which an individual, society or corporation may deposit, to such sum as it may deem expedient to receive, and may, in its discretion, refuse to receive a deposit or at any time return all or any part of any deposit.

It is required that all sums deposited shall be repaid on demand, with the proviso that the bank may, at any time, by resolution of its board of trustees require a notice of sixty days before repaying deposits. Such deposits, if not withdrawn within fifteen days after the expiration of the sixty days' notice, shall not then be due or payable under such notice or by reason thereof.

Banks are permitted to keep on hand or on deposit in other banks an available fund not exceeding 20 per cent. of the aggregate amount credited to its depositors, and are also required to have a guarantee fund, for the security of depositors and to meet any contingency or loss in business from depreciation of securities or otherwise.

Elaborate provision is made for the calculation of earnings for dividend periods and for deductions from net earnings for the guarantee fund. The rate of interest cannot exceed 5 per cent. per annum. For all dividends declared and credited in excess of profits earned, the trustees voting for such dividend shall be jointly and severally liable.

The trustees of any Savings Bank whose undivided profits and guaranty fund amount to more than 25 per cent. of the amount due depositors, are required, at least once in three years to divide equitably the accumulation beyond such 25 per cent. as an extra dividend to depositors.

No bank is permitted to change its place of business without the written consent of the Superintendent of the Banking Department. Each board of trustees shall consist of not less than nine nor more than thirty members. A person shall not be a trustee of a Savings Bank if he (a) is not a resident of the State of New York (provided, however, that one-fifth of the trustees of any Savings Bank in the city of New York may be residents of a State which adjoins said city; (b) has been adjudged a bankrupt or has taken the benefit of any insolvency law, or has made a general assignment for the benefit of his creditors; (c) has suffered a judgment recovered against him for a sum of money to remain unsatisfied of record or unsecured

on appeal for a period of more than three months; (d) is a trustee, officer, clerk or other employee of any other Savings Bank.

Provision is made for regular meetings of the board of trustees at least once a month, and for written reports to each trustee at each regular meeting, or to an executive committee of not less than five members of the board, of the purchases and sales of all securities and of every loan made since the last meeting of the board, with description of collateral.

Except as to those trustees acting as officers of a bank, or performing special duties under certain subdivisions of the Banking Law, no trustee is permitted to receive, directly or indirectly, any pay or emolument for his attendance at meetings of the board, or for any other service as trustee, except as in the act provided. (An attorney for a Savings Bank, although he may be a trustee, is permitted to receive a reasonable compensation for his professional services.)

The restrictions upon officers and trustees are severe and rigid. They are prohibited from borrowing any funds or deposits of the bank, either directly or indirectly, or from becoming the owner of real property upon which the Savings Bank holds a mortgage; they shall not become a member of the board of directors of a bank, trust company or national banking association of which board enough other trustees of the Savings Bank are members to constitute with him a majority of the board of trustees.

Provision is made for the removal or forfeiture of office of trustees whenever in the judgment of three-fourths of the trustees the conduct and habits of such trustees are of such a character as to be injurious to such Savings Bank; such action to be approved by the Superintendent of Banks.

Provision is made for the pensioning of officers and employees under certain restrictions, for example, after a service of thirty years, or after a service of twenty years or more with physical or mental incapacity, or one who shall have served twenty years or more and shall have reached the age of sixty years. The maximum annual amount paid to pensioners shall in no case exceed 60 per cent. of the average annual salary of such pensioner.

Banks are required to make semi-annual reports to the Superintendent, the contents of such reports being minutely specified in the law. Severe penalty is imposed for failure to make such reports promptly.

Annual reports, on or before the first day of September, are required on dormant accounts, and also their publication in the newspaper in the place where the bank is located, as well as in a newspaper in Albany in which notices by State officers are required by law to be published.

Advertisements of unauthorized Savings Banks and the use of the

word "savings" except by regularly incorporated Savings Banks, are prohibited under very severe penalties, the only exception being as to school savings.

CENTRAL BANKING COUNCIL ORGANIZED

After several conferences attended by a number of prominent representatives of the New York State Banking system, an organization of a Central Council of nine members, endorsed by the Superintendent of Banks, was perfected in March, 1916. This is primarily in the interest of the public and will mean much in the future concerning the introduction of amendments to the banking law, or imposing any legislation which may seem unwise. There are two hundred banks of discount, one hundred forty-one savings banks, and eighty trust companies, a total of four hundred twenty-one institutions, with aggregate resources of nearly $5,000,000,000. The new organization, though small, undoubtedly will be able to work effectively for the best interests of all state banks. Its personnel is as follows: Discount Banks: Elliot C. MacDougal, president Bank of Buffalo; Paul E. Bonner, president North Side Bank, Brooklyn; John H. Gregory, president of the Central Bank of Rochester. Savings Banks: James H. Manning, president National Savings Bank, Albany; Charles A. Miller, president Savings Bank of Utica; John J. Pulleyn, president Emigrant Savings Bank of New York. Trust Companies: Arthur W. Loasby, president Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga, Syracuse; F. I. Kent, vice-president Bankers Trust Company of New York; Mortimer Buckly, president New York Trust Company.

The officers of the Central Council are: Elliot C. MacDougal, chairman; James H. Manning, vice-chairman; Arthur W. Loasby, secretary.

CHAPTER XXV

THE SAVINGS BANK CENTENARY

Appropriately Celebrated in the City of New York, May 17, 1916More than Five hundred Present at Celebration, Convention and Dinner-Guests from Other States, but None from EuropeHigh School Prize Essay Contest-Many Messages of Encouragement and Congratulation Received from Abroad-The Addresses in Epitome.

THE celebration by the Savings Banks Association of the State of New York of the Centenary of Savings Banks in America, was held at the Hotel Biltmore, New York City, on Wednesday, May 17, 1916. There was a large and distinguished attendance, including representatives of Mutual Savings Banks from various States, more especially New England and the East.

The event had been looked forward to by those connected with the Savings Banks of the country, and particularly of the State, with the keenest interest.

The matter had been broached as far back as the year 1911, by the introduction of a resolution in the Savings Banks Association of the State of New York by Victor A. Lersner, of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Brooklyn, but no affirmative action was taken until the year 1915, when the executive officers of the association decided to celebrate the event in a manner befitting its national and international importance.

As planned by the committee of arrangements, the celebration proper was followed by a dinner in the evening at the Biltmore, one of the most famous of the great hostelries of the metropolis. The splendid banquet hall, one of the largest in the world, proved none too spacious to accommodate the diners, who, with their guests, numbered more than five hundred.

List of those present at the Centenary Celebration and