Abstract

Finance

The action taken regarding the Mercantile National Bank, the National Bank of North America, the New Amsterdam National, the Consolidated National, and the Hamilton Bank, by the executive committee of the New York Associated Banks, commonly known as the "Clearing House Committee," is of much wider importance than appears upon the surface. To most persons the fact that a national bank had been in danger, and that it had been saved by the intervention of this committee, will doubtless be the chief point of interest, and in the eyes of bank depositors and of investors generally the immediate significance of the fact is capital. In a general way, it has been inferred that the stipulation of the Clearing House Committee that the existing directorate of the Mercantile National and certain directors and officers of the above mentioned affiliated institutions should resign, was due to last week's breakdown of an attempt to corner United Copper stock. It was, in fact, disclosure of the extent to which the Mercantile Bank's funds had been involved in that operation which brought the matter to a head.