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THE NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE. 
 
j^^YING OF THE CORNER 
 ijH STONE AND OPENING 
 CEREMONIES OF THE 
 NEW BUILDING OF THE NEW 
 YORK CLEARING HOUSE IN 
 CEDAR STREET 
 
 NEW YORK, 1896 
 
AA 
 NN9 
 
 Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
 Astor Place, New York 
 
LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE 
 
 Tuesday, October 2d, 1894 
 
The New York Clearing House Association was organized 
 October 4, 1853, and on October 11, 1853, the initial exchanges 
 were made in the basement of No. 14 Wall Street. Here, with 
 merely sufficient room to make the exchanges between the fifty-two 
 banks, members of the Association, the transactions were effected 
 until the first of May following, when slightly more commodious 
 quarters were secured at No. 82 Broadway. Four years later the 
 increasing importance of the institution necessitated still greater 
 accommodations, and what were then considered elegant apart- 
 ments were obtained in the upper stories of the Bank of New York 
 Building, No. 48 Wall Street (May, 1858). 
 
 In 1874, the building on the corner of Pine and Nassau Streets, 
 formerly occupied, respectively, by the Bank of the Commonwealth 
 and the Tenth National Bank, was purchased and entirely remod- 
 elled to adapt it to the uses of the Association, which took pos- 
 session, June 17, 1875. 
 
 In 1893 it became apparent that the Association would soon be 
 again compelled to seek more extensive quarters ; the membership 
 had grown to sixty-six, the clearing room was inadequate in size, and 
 the means of light and ventilation in this era of model business 
 buildings were essentially primitive and insufficient. 
 
 The necessity of possessing vaults in which the gold coin belong- 
 ing to banks, members of the Association, might be securely stored 
 against certificates of deposit, which might be used in the settlement 
 
6 
 
 of balances, and also for the safe keeping of the collateral pledged 
 with Clearing House Loan Committees, when financial exigencies 
 called them into being, was also a very influential factor in the agita. 
 tion for the erection of a structure equipped to meet the wants of 
 the Association, and befitting its importance and dignity in external 
 appearance and interior decoration and appointments. 
 
 The motion to acquire land and erect such a building was 
 unanimously passed at a meeting of the Association held December 
 29, 1893, and, after securing the premises 77 to 83 Cedar Street, a 
 building committee, consisting of Messrs. Frederick D. Tappen, 
 President of the Gallatin National Bank, William A. Nash, Presi- 
 dent of the Corn Exchange Bank, and J. Edward Simmons, 
 President of the Fourth National Bank, was appointed, and clothed 
 with all the power necessary to enable it to erect the new Clearing 
 House. 
 
 After the submission of designs and plans by a number of emi- 
 nent architects, Mr. Robert W. Gibson was selected as the architect ; 
 and Messrs. Marc Eidlitz & Son, as general contractors, began work 
 upon the new structure about July i, 1894. 
 
 By October 2, 1894, sufficient progress had been made in con- 
 struction to permit the laying of the corner-stone, and invitations to 
 the ceremony were sent to the presidents and cashiers of all the 
 banks of the Association, to prominent bankers and brokers, mem- 
 bers of the bar, and noted citizens in commercial and mercantile 
 circles. 
 
 Tuesday, October 2d, was a perfect day for the occasion, and 
 the temporary platform erected for the convenience of the invited 
 guests was crowded with an interested audience which witnessed the 
 execution of the following programme : 
 
PROGRAMME OF THE CEREMONIES 
 
 LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE 
 
 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2d, 1894 
 
 1. Prayer 
 
 RT. REV. H. C. POTTER 
 
 Bishop of New York 
 
 2. Address 
 
 MR. G. G. WILLIAMS 
 
 President New York Clearing House Association 
 
 }. Reading of List of Articles to be Placed beneath the 
 Corner-Stone 
 
 MR. FREDERICK D. TAPPEN 
 
 Chairman Building Committee 
 
 4. Laying of the Corner-Stone 
 
 by president williams 
 
 Assisted by the Clearing House and Building 
 Committees and Directors of the Building Company 
 
 5. Benediction 
 
 BISHOP POTTER 
 
8 
 
 At noon, Mr. G. G. Williams, as presiding officer, called the 
 assemblage to order, after which Bishop Potter offered prayer, invok- 
 ing a blessing upon the work. 
 
 He recited certain collects, and read the prayer, " For the 
 Country," in which occur the following beautiful passages : 
 
 " Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure 
 manners. Defend our liberties, preserve our unity. Save us from 
 violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogancy, and from 
 every evil way. ... In time of our prosperity, temper our self- 
 confidence, and in the day of our trouble, suffer not our trust in 
 Thee to fail." 
 
 Mr. George G. Williams, President of the Chemical National 
 Bank, President of the Association, then read the following address : 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 It is appropriate to this occasion that brief reference be made to 
 the homes of the New York Clearing House Association during the 
 period of its existence, and that some incidents in its history be 
 recalled. 
 
 Like other useful institutions, a long-felt want called it into being. 
 The old method of making exchanges at the counters of the different 
 banks was laborious and inconvenient, and the settling of balances 
 at irregular and uncertain intervals was favorable to loose and 
 dangerous practices in banking. With no model at hand to follow, 
 the preliminaries of its formation were difficult and protracted ; a 
 constitution, however, finally adopted, and desk-room provided in 
 the basement of an old building, No. 14 Wall Street (long since 
 destroyed), there was witnessed on the morning of October 11, 
 1853, the first meeting, for its proper business purposes, of the first 
 and only clearing house then in the United States. The ceiling of 
 
9 
 
 the room was low ; it was lighted by gas and heated by a stove ; for 
 a working place for some scores of men it could not be excelled for 
 discomfort, and the contrast with the beautiful room we are soon to 
 occupy could not be greater. Necessity soon required a removal to 
 more comfortable quarters, and at No. 82 Broadway ( in a building 
 which no longer exists) for four years, from May, 1854, until the 
 year 1858, the Clearing House had its habitation. The building, 
 however, was not constructed for Clearing House purposes ; it was 
 incommodious in arrangement, and it was found desirable to find a 
 place better adapted to our use. In May, 1858, the Clearing House 
 was removed to the upper floor of the Bank of New York Building, 
 where quarters convenient for its occupation were fitted up, and there 
 it remained until 1875. These premises were in advance of those 
 hitherto occupied, but, having no elevator, the disadvantages of 
 climbing so many stairs by so many people were so great that the 
 present location, corner of Pine and Nassau Streets, was selected, and 
 the property bought which is now owned and occupied by the Asso- 
 ciation. That building has well served our purposes for nineteen 
 years ; but it is not fireproof ; it is without suitable vaults, and in con- 
 sequence of the great number of persons who are required daily to 
 visit it, and the large amount of money and valuables connected with 
 its business, and having in mind our future wants, it was deemed 
 imperative that the Clearing House Association should have a home 
 commensurate with these requirements. Lots were therefore bought 
 and a building projected, and we have this day assembled to lay, 
 with proper ceremonies, its foundation stone. 
 
 The work we are doing is not for ourselves only, but for gen- 
 erations to come ; eyes yet unborn will see and admire, equally with 
 our own, the beautiful structure we are about to rear. This section 
 of the city is rapidly being covered by buildings w^hich will be but 
 young when a hundred years have come and gone ; we trust our own 
 edifice, equally with these others, will have a hoary age. 
 
lO 
 
 Permanently located in our new home, we shall have a recorded 
 history of forty-one years ; a period of wonderful development and 
 progress, but in nothing greater than in the establishment of clear- 
 ing houses in almost every city of consequence in this land, and of 
 their increasing influence and importance. London had a clearing 
 house prior to our own, and it was suggestive of the formation of one 
 with us ; but none exists even to this day in Paris, where the methods 
 of exchanges are clumsy and antiquated. These institutions are 
 essential, not only as saving a vast amount of labor, but more 
 especially as needed checks to any irregularities in banking. In no 
 sphere of business is the temptation greater to overstep the limit of 
 prudence, and in none is the penalty more severe than in the manage- 
 ment of banks. A clearinghouse has a watchful eye for the public 
 good in preventing these transgressions by its members. 
 
 At our origin in 1853 the number of banks in the Association 
 was fifty-one, with a capital and surplus of $36,164,900, and deposits 
 of $39,000,000 (October 8th). It is now composed of sixty-five 
 banks, with a capital and surplus of $132,664,600, and deposits of 
 $583,000,000 (September 8th). The average daily exchanges for 
 the year ending September 30, 1854, were $19,100,000; the average 
 daily balances were $980,000. The average daily exchanges for 
 the year 1893 were $1 19,900,000 ; the average daily balances were 
 $5,600,000. 
 
 The purpose of our organization is very simple and specific — 
 that of making exchanges, and the settlement of balances ; and it 
 finds in its daily routine of duties done — like unobtrusive Chris- 
 tian service — the object of its existence fully attained. Yet it has 
 proved in times of peril a rallying-point and a centre of influence 
 unequalled in the land. At the breaking out of the war, the associated 
 banks represented in this Clearing House were the first to take the 
 great loans which maintained our armies in preserving the Union of 
 these States. No soldier offered his life to his country with more 
 
1 1 
 
 devotion than did these banks stake their existence upon that of the 
 Government of the United States. The first Union victory was 
 won, not by armies in the field, but by marshalled forces which 
 defeated the enemies of the public credit, then prostrate and well-nigh 
 destroyed. This triumph rendered possible those which followed. 
 
 But it has been especially in seasons of panic that the interests 
 centred in this Clearing House have been united to serve the public 
 good. These times of trial to all bank officers, though they may 
 arise from different causes, are all very much alike in effects. These 
 are, diminished ability on the part of banks to furnish needed facili- 
 ties for business, resulting in the cessation of industries, the dis- 
 charge of laborers, and general suffering in the community. To 
 erect a barrier against these evils. Clearing House certificates have 
 at various times been issued, resulting in each instance in diminish- 
 ing distrust, restoring confidence, and relieving commercial distress. 
 The circumstances attending these issues furnish some of the most 
 interesting chapters in our history. Brief reference only can be made 
 to them here. The first of them was made in the year 1857, They 
 took the form then of certificates of the Metropolitan Bank, were 
 received in settlement of balances, and were based on the security 
 of the circulating notes of the banks of this State. They proved 
 of great relief to those banks which were in danger of failing, from 
 inability to respond to demands for the redemption of their notes. 
 The total issue was $7,984,000. The next and all subsequent issues 
 of loan certificates were made by loan committees of the Clearing 
 House, and were in amounts as follows : In i860, $7,375,000 ; 1861, 
 $22,585,000; 1863-64, $29,199,000; 1873, $26,565,000 ; 1884, $24,- 
 915,000 ; 1890, $16,645,000; and in 1893, $41,490,000. 
 
 Never resorted to except in cases of imperious necessity, these 
 certificates have in each instance well fulfilled the purposes of their 
 issue, notably during the Civil War, in enabling the banks to carry the 
 great war loans — and again during the protracted panic of 1893, 
 
12 
 
 when the whole country from ocean to ocean was almost over- 
 whelmed with financial disaster. During these trying times, the one 
 conspicuous object looked to for relief, aside from Congress, was the 
 New York Clearing House. It boldly and successfully fulfilled its 
 mission. The history of finance records no action of greater conse- 
 quence in averting calamities arising from panics than that of this 
 Clearing House during the past year. Let us hope that such occa- 
 sions may not soon arise again ; but, should they do so, we are sure 
 in any event of wise and resolute action by this body. 
 
 In laying this corner-stone, we may say that the whole fabric 
 of the inner life of this Clearing House is built on the basis of the 
 best elements in character, on the most correct and conservative 
 principles in banking, and on the highest rules of business. No 
 vagaries of finance have ever found favor in our midst. Excessive 
 issues of unsecured paper money we dread, and a dishonest dollar we 
 abhor. Sound money is the very foundation of our existence, and 
 wise currency and banking legislation on the part of Congress is our 
 reasonable request. We are proud of the names of those who 
 have gone before, and who were identified with the work of this 
 Clearing House, and we pay this tribute of respect and veneration 
 to their memory. Their lives were useful in the work they have 
 done and the heritage they have left to us. While our edifice 
 lasts or our archives are preserved, their names will not pass into 
 oblivion. 
 
 The following persons have served as presidents of the institu- 
 tion since its organization : 1853 to 1858 inclusive, Thomas Tileston ; 
 1859, Sheppard Knapp ; i860 (to October 9th), Caleb O. Halsted ; 
 i860 to 1862, Thomas Tileston ; 1863, C. P. Leverich ; 1864 to 1870, 
 J. Q. Jones; 1871 to 1872, J. D. Vermilye ; 1873 to 1874, C. F. 
 Hunter; 1875 to 1876, George S. Coe ; 1877, Moses Taylor; 1878 to 
 1879, William Dowd; 1880, Henry F. Vail; 1881 to 1882, Frederick 
 D. Tappen; 1883 to 1884, Edward H. Perkins, Jr.; 1885 to 1886, 
 
13 
 
 George G. Williams; 1887 to 1888, Jacob D. Vermilye ; 188910 
 1890, George S. Coe ; 1891 to 1892, Frederick D. Tappcn ; 1893 to 
 the present time, George G. Williams, 
 
 The managers have been as follows; 1853 to 1863, George D. 
 Lyman; 1864 to 1892, William A. Camp; 1892 to date, William 
 Sherer. 
 
 When the address was concluded, the members of the Com- 
 mittee, and others who were participants in the ceremony, formed 
 a procession and proceeded to the Corner-Stone at the southeast 
 corner of the building, and upon which had been suitably carved : 
 
 NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE 
 MDCCCXCIV. 
 
 Arrived at the block of Lee (Massachusetts) marble, the Chair- 
 man of the Building Committee, Mr. Frederick D. Tappen, Presi- 
 dent of the Gallatin National Bank, read the following list of articles 
 which had been placed in the copper box to be deposited beneath 
 the corner-stone : 
 
 1. Constitution of the New York Clearing House. 
 
 2. List of Officers and Committees of the New York Clearing 
 House Association, 1894. 
 
 3. Manager's report, 1894. 
 
 4. Proof Sheet, October 2, 1894. 
 
 5. Blanks used in daily transactions. 
 
6. Last weekly report of the Associated Banks. 
 
 7. Last quarterly statement of National and State Banks. 
 
 8. Statement of Loans, Reserves, and Liabilities of the Asso- 
 ciated Banks for the past three years. 
 
 9. List of Banks and their Officers, members of the Association. 
 
 10. Report of the Loan Committee, 1893. 
 
 11. Set United States coins. 
 
 12. Programme of ceremonies. 
 
 13. Picture and description of building. 
 
 14. Address of the President on the occasion. 
 
 15. Engraved plate of invitation. 
 
 Mr. Williams, assisted by the members of the Clearing House 
 Committee, the Building Committee, and the Directors of the Build- 
 ing Company, then proceeded to lay the stone, using for this purpose 
 a silver trowel bearing this inscription : 
 
 " With this trowel George G. Williams, President of the New 
 York Clearing House Association, laid the Corner-Stone of the new 
 Clearing House building, Nos. 77-79-81 and 83 Cedar Street, New 
 York, Tuesday, October 2, 1894." 
 
 The box having been deposited and the mortar spread in a work- 
 manlike manner, Mr. Williams impressively tapped the stone thrice 
 and said : 
 
 " By the authority vested in me as President of the Clearing 
 House Association, I lay the corner-stone of this building, and I 
 hereby dedicate the same to the uses of the Associated Banks of 
 the City of New York." 
 
15 
 
 This ceremony concluded, the audience returned to the seats on 
 the platform and listened to the following address by Bishop Potter : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
 
 The words to which already you have listened are abundantly 
 sufficient for this occasion ; and I have certainly no smallest warrant, 
 unless it is to be found in the kindly persistence of your Committee 
 of Arrangements, for asking you to listen to anything from me. 
 There is, however, at least one element of fitness in the congratula- 
 tions of one who has no official relation to the Clearing House, 
 and that is to be found, I think, in the fact that he may consider 
 himself, as a citizen of New York, as representing that hearty sym- 
 pathy and admiration with which this whole community regards the 
 history and the services of the institution whose corner-stone we have 
 just united in laying. Though the Clearing House may be said, in 
 one sense, to have had a foreign paternity, since the original idea 
 upon which it is based occurred, I believe, to other minds than our 
 own, the high degree of perfection to which its operations have been 
 brought, and its happy efficacy in assisting to unite in a common 
 purpose and policy the banks of this great city, have been distinctly 
 ours. How much that common purpose and policy have had to 
 do in sustaining the financial credit and honor of this great city, and 
 through it of the whole land, I need not undertake to remind those 
 who know it all so much better than I. But if there is one fact in 
 its commercial history of which New Yorkers may well be proud, it is 
 how, once, and again, and again, in crises that threatened not alone 
 this community but the whole Republic, the Banks of New York 
 have stood shoulder to shoulder, retaining amidst hours of utmost 
 excitement a dignified serenity, and acting in grave emergencies 
 with a wisdom, courage, and large-visioned unselfishness which have 
 revealed to all men everywhere the best elements of our common 
 human nature. There are fields of battle, gentlemen, on which great 
 
i6 
 
 and brave deeds have been won, amid the plaudits of the world ; but 
 there are also fields of finance, where a heroism no less honorable, 
 a calm fearlessness no less rare and difificult, a statesmanlike fore- 
 sight no less able and acute, have equally illustrated themselves. No 
 victor's wreath of bays has been entwined for these, but, believe me, 
 gentlemen of the Banks of New York, your fellow-citizens have 
 recognized them and will remember them. 
 
 This Institution stands, unless I am mistaken, for certain tried 
 and well-proven methods and principles of business, from v*^hich 
 you do not mean to depart, and it stands also for that high integrity, 
 that scrupulous fidelity to a contract, that mutual trust and honor, 
 without which human society would soon relapse into barbarism. May 
 they never cease to prevail here, and, like this massive corner-stone 
 which to-day we have laid in its place, may they long endure to 
 the lasting prosperity of the city that we love, and as an example to 
 all mankind. 
 
 After the pronouncing of the benediction by the Bishop, the 
 audience dispersed and the Bank officers repaired to the old build- 
 ing in Pine Street, to attend the annual meeting of the Association 
 at One o'clock. 
 
 The following telegram was received from Buffalo : 
 
 " The Bankers' Association sends greeting to the New York 
 Clearing House Association, and congratulates it upon the founding 
 of its permanent home. 
 
 " William C. Cornwell, 
 
 " President" 
 
MANAGER'S AND ASSISTANT MANAGER'S ROOMS. 
 
OPENING CEREMONIES 
 
 Wednesday, January i^th, 1896 
 
As the building approached completion it was decided to for- 
 mally dedicate the structure to the uses for which it was designed. 
 The date was set for Wednesday, January 15, at noon, and about 
 fourteen hundred invitations were sent to bank officers in this City, 
 Brooklyn, and neighboring cities in New Jersey ; the President of the 
 United States and members of his Cabinet ; the Governors of the 
 various States ; the Comptroller of the Currency ; presidents of 
 trust companies, railroads and insurance companies ; distinguished 
 members of the bar, and clergy, members of the Chamber of 
 Commerce, State and City officials and prominent citizens. 
 
 Seats to accommodate about a thousand people were arranged 
 in the commodious Clearing room, in which the desks to be used in 
 making the exchanges had not yet been placed. On a platform 
 erected at the westerly end of the room, the speakers, the Build- 
 ing Committee, the Directors of the Building Company, and the 
 Clearing House Committee were seated. 
 
 The following programme of exercises had been arranged : 
 
PROGRAMME 
 
 1. Introductory Announcement 
 
 MR. WILLIAM A. NASH 
 
 President New York Clearing House Association 
 
 2. Invocation 
 
 RT. REV. HENRY C. POTTER 
 
 Bishop of New York 
 
 3. Dedication Hymn 
 
 BANK CLERKS' GLEE CLUB 
 Words and musical arrangement by Mr. H. R. Humphries, Conductor 
 
 4. Statement of Building Committee 
 
 MR. FREDERICK D. TAPPEN 
 
 Chairman Building Committee 
 
 5. Oration and Delivery of Building 
 
 MR. J. EDWARD SIMMONS 
 
 Of the Building Committee 
 
 6. Selection Mendelssohn 
 
 BANK CLERKS' GLEE CLUB 
 
PROGRAMME 
 
 7. Address and Acceptance of Building 
 
 president william a. nash 
 
 8. Address 
 
 HON. ALEXANDER E. ORR 
 
 President of the Chamber of Commerce 
 
 9. Chorus — " America " 
 
 GLEE CLUB AND AUDIENCE 
 
 (The audience is requested to join in singing the ist and 3d verses.) 
 
 My Country, 'tis of thee, Let music swell the breeze 
 
 Sweet land of liberty, And ring from all the trees, 
 
 Of thee I sing : Sweet freedom's song. 
 
 Land where my fathers died. Let mortal tongues awake, 
 
 Land of the Pilgrim's pride, Let all that breathe part.ike, 
 
 From every mountain side Let rocks their silence break, — 
 
 Let freedom ring ! The sound prolong. 
 
 Our Fathers' God, to Thee, 
 Author of liberty, 
 
 To Thee we sing. 
 Long may our land be bright 
 With freedom's holy light, 
 Protect us with Thy might, 
 
 Great God, our King ! 
 
 10. Address and Benediction 
 
 BISHOP POTTER 
 
 Collation in Board Room 
 
22 
 
 At 12 o'clock President William A. Nash announced the object 
 of the occasion in the following terms : 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 The New York Clearing House Association extends to you 
 a hearty welcome to its new home. After many wanderings and 
 sojournings, it rests at last in a permanent place ; in a building 
 admirably suited to its wants, and one which we believe to be an 
 ornament to the City. 
 
 The exercises to-day are designed to properly celebrate this 
 event. It is altogether right on an occasion of so much interest and 
 importance to us all, that we should invoke the Divine blessing, and 
 prayer will now be offered by the Bishop of New York. 
 
 Following the prayer, the dedication hymn was rendered by 
 sixteen members of the Bank Clerks' Glee Club, under the direction 
 of Mr. H. R. Humphries, after which the Chairman of the Building 
 Committee, Mr. Frederick D. Tappen, read the following statement : 
 
 I have been requested by the Building and Clearing House 
 Committees to state the object of this gathering of bank officers and 
 business men, which I will do as briefly as possible. This building 
 was designed especially for the use of an Association which has 
 always stood for the soundest and best in finance, and which has 
 many times interposed its united powers at periods of financial dis- 
 turbance, to prevent disaster and ruin, not only to the business inter- 
 ests of this great City, but to those of the State and nation. When 
 this site was purchased and the plans for the structure adopted, it was 
 thought eminently proper that the corner-stone should be laid with 
 appropriate ceremonies. On that occasion we requested the assist- 
 
23 
 
 ance of the Bishop of this diocese, who opened and closed the cere- 
 monies with prayer. This building being now completed and ready 
 for occupancy, we have again asked the services of the Bishop on its 
 dedication. In concluding its labors the Committee congratulates 
 the Association on the possession of a building which is not only an 
 ornament to the City, but a monument to the public spirit of the 
 Associated Banks of New York. 
 
 Mr. J. Edward Simmons, President of the Fourth National 
 Bank, and a member of the Building Committee, had been selected 
 to deliver the oration, which follows : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Nezu York Clearing House 
 Association : 
 
 The task you intrusted to your Building Committee, two 
 years ago, is ended. The new Clearing House is completed. All 
 that our architect's taste and skill, all that your Committee's zeal, 
 aided by your counsels, could do, has been done, not only to adapt 
 the building to the important purposes for which it is designed, but 
 also to make it worthy of the dignity and achievements of the New 
 York Clearing House Association. How great these achievements 
 are I need not tell you. They are manifest when you call to mind 
 the forty-two years of its history. More than once has the Clearing 
 House Association proven to be the breakwater that rolled back the 
 billows which threatened national disaster. In /\merican finance it is 
 as powerful as the Bank of England is in European finance. It has been 
 the bulwark of our commercial and national honesty, the rock on 
 which has rested the strong edifice of American business prosperity. 
 Its blessings have been scattered far and wide, and its influence has 
 been felt in every corner of the land. No wonder it has become the 
 
24 
 
 great power for good that it has been for many years, and which, I 
 am proud to say, it is to-day. The past of our Association augurs 
 for it a grand and beneficent future. Full of hope, I look upon our 
 new Clearing House. Full of pride, I contemplate this noble pro- 
 duction of the builder's art. It is a fitting monument to the wise and 
 strong men who have made the New York Clearing House Associa- 
 tion one of the great financial stays of our country. 
 
 To me the Building Committee has assigned the duty of intro- 
 ducing to you our new home. Nothing would give me greater 
 pleasure than to preface my address by sounding the praises of our 
 architect. But I shall leave it to others, who may speak more freely, 
 to do justice to the artistic excellence of this stately structure. To- 
 day you will permit me to be the interpreter of the message the new 
 Clearing House conveys to us all. There are sermons in stones, 
 the immortal bard tells us ; and this beautiful exchange, destined, I 
 feel, to be the scene of many a triumph, suggests to us many a wise 
 and useful teaching. 
 
 Let us take our stand in front of our new building. Look at it, 
 as it proudly rises, resplendent in its dress of purest marble, borne on 
 its graceful Corinthian pillars richly adorned by the sculptor's art ! 
 What is the meaning of all this outlay? The stern utilitarian would 
 rear a cheap, unadorned structure of Puritan simplicity. Why, then, 
 this costly marble, this expensive decoration ? Is all this the out- 
 come of paltry vanity ? No, gentlemen, it is but the material ex- 
 pression of a generous public spirit. The desire to please our fellow- 
 citizens, the wish to add our contribution to the beauty of the 
 metropolis, have prompted us — I use Mr. Ruskin's words — "to make 
 this offering of precious things, because they are precious, and not 
 because they are useful or necessary." The spirit which called into 
 existence the new Clearing House is the same public spirit that 
 created the immortal masterpiece of the Athenian Acropolis, the 
 same public spirit that built the wonderful structures of the Eternal 
 
25 
 
 City, the same public spirit that brought forth the grand municipal 
 buildings and cathedrals of mediaeval Europe. The men who erected 
 these marvels of architectural art were ready to sacrifice, yea often 
 did sacrifice, their treasures and their lives for their country. On the 
 rich and tasteful fagade of the new Clearing House are emblazoned 
 the arms of our nation, our state, and our city ; these are meant to 
 be a declaration that the bankers and the merchants of New York are 
 ready at their country's call to risk their fortunes for their country's 
 sake. This is no idle boast. Well may the New York Clearing 
 House Association be proud of its record for wise and splendid 
 patriotism. During the Civil War, was it not our Association that 
 enabled the bankers of the metropolis to provide the vast sums 
 by which the credit of the national Government was maintained ? 
 And since its formation has not our Association been a tower of 
 strength in the succession of panics through which the nation 
 has passed ? 
 
 Again and again has it been demonstrated that the great battles 
 of the world are not always won by the soldier. There are generals 
 in finance as well as in war ; and the intrepidity of the one is 
 equal to the heroism of the other. Who of us can ever forget the 
 great financial battle of 1893, its brilliant leadership, and the 
 glorious victory achieved by the Associated Banks of New York ? 
 The long-continued defiance by the Government of well-established 
 economic laws had filled men's minds with gloomy forebodings, 
 which in that eventful year culminated in a panic that swept into 
 insolvency commercial corporations, railroads, banks, and many of 
 the most influential business firms of the country. Their liabilities 
 reached the stupendous total of nearly two billion dollars. The 
 wealth of the nation had not been decreased, but the availability 
 of its resources had been almost destroyed. To uphold the value 
 of the world's silver coinage, the national Government had pur- 
 chased vast quantities of silver bullion for Treasury notes, which. 
 
26 
 
 under the terms of the parity clause of the Sherman Act, were 
 convertible into gold at the option of the holder. Men's heads 
 grew dizzy when they reflected on the magnitude of this gigantic 
 undertaking. They feared that gold would be driven out of the 
 country, and that all outstanding obligations would be discharged 
 in inferior currency. By the middle of June business was paralyzed. 
 Gold flowed from the United States Treasury in vast streams. 
 Unless this terrible drain on the gold reserve could be greatly 
 reduced, the redemption of the Treasury notes in silver seemed 
 inevitable. Financial ruin stared us in the face. The Clearing 
 House Association boldly confronted the threatening danger. At 
 a meeting called at this crisis the situation and its prospects were 
 thoroughly examined and discussed. The bank presidents came 
 to the conclusion that the only way in which the banks could 
 maintain the volume of their loans notwithstanding their rapidly 
 decreasing deposits, and thus avert serious commercial disaster, 
 was to extend their credits. A loan committee was appointed, 
 consisting of the presidents of five of the principal banks of the 
 city, with the President of the Association as an ex-officio member.* 
 This committee was empowered to issue to the banks Clearing 
 House certificates to enable them to pay their daily balances to the 
 Association without calling in their loans. This action proved to 
 
 * Frederick D. Tappen, Chairman, 
 
 President Gallatin National Bank. 
 
 William A. Nash, 
 
 President Corn Exchange Bank. 
 
 Edward H. Perkins, Jr., 
 
 President Importers^ and Traders^ National Bank. 
 
 Henry W. Cannon, 
 
 President Chase National Bank. 
 
 J. Edward Simmons, 
 
 President Fourth National Bank. 
 
 George G. Williams, Ex- Officio, 
 
 President Chetnical National Bank, 
 
27 
 
 be as wise as it was needful. Runs on financial institutions of all 
 kinds had been growing more and more frequent ; appeals for 
 help were pouring in from all parts of the country, and the 
 demoralization of business was well nigh universal. 
 
 New York was the centre of the storm ; but its banks, united 
 in interest and in policy, stood like the rock of Gibraltar, un- 
 scathed by its fury. Money, in many cases, was not to be had 
 at any rate of interest. There was even talk of closing the Stock 
 Exchange. In fact, it would have been closed but for the resource- 
 ful financiers on guard day and night. They clearly saw that 
 money rates must be broken by liberal advances to necessitous 
 borrowers. In no other way could the great corporations whose 
 interest payments became due on the first of July be saved from 
 calamitous failure. 
 
 The Clearing House Association, through its Loan Committee, 
 proved equal to the emergency, and on the 30th of June — a 
 memorable day in our history — it threw, with instantaneous effect, 
 eight million dollars upon the money market. The interest rate 
 fell from eighty to ten per cent. The deadly pressure was relieved, 
 and hope and confidence revived. The banks of the metropolis 
 continued to pour their securities in to the Loan Committee, and 
 to pour their money out to needy clients in all parts of the land. 
 By this action the devastating course of the financial tornado was 
 checked, but its destructive fury was not exhausted. While the 
 repeal of the Silver Purchase Law was pending, currency could be 
 obtained in the open market only at a premium of from three to 
 five per cent. Not infrequently due bills played the part of note 
 issues and subsidiary currency. Funds could not be had by im- 
 porters and brokers for the purchase of exchange on Europe. 
 Once more the Clearing House Association, through its Loan 
 Committee, was equal to the occasion. It made liberal advances 
 to dealers in foreign exchange at an interest rate that enabled 
 
28 
 
 them to import over thirty million dollars of gold. No sooner 
 did this golden tide reach our shores than the premium on cur- 
 rency began to decline. In a short time it wholly disappeared, 
 and money again flowed in its ordinary channels. The banks began 
 to redeem their Clearing House certificates at the rate of about 
 one million dollars per day ; and on the first day of November, 
 1893 — the day on which President Cleveland signed the bill 
 repealing the Silver Purchase Law — the last certificate was retired. 
 Forty-one million four hundred and ninety thousand dollars of the 
 Clearing House loan certificates had been issued. As security for 
 their liquidation the Loan Committee held fifty-six million dollars 
 of collateral, seventy-two per cent, in notes or merchants' bills 
 receivable and twenty-eight per cent, in stocks and bonds. Every 
 detail of these long and exhausting business transactions had been 
 so critically scrutinized that the whole undertaking was success- 
 fully carried through without the loss of a single dollar to the 
 Association. What did the Loan Committee achieve by these 
 heroic measures? Not a Clearing House bank closed its doors, 
 not an important firm failed in the City of New York. The 
 commercial community had been relieved, the Government finan- 
 ciers began to breathe more easily, the nation was saved from a 
 deadly convulsion, and prosperity prepared to smile again upon 
 the land. 
 
 Such was the patriotic spirit that animated the old Clearing 
 House ! With such effect did this Association step into the breach 
 when our country was threatened with the direst of perils ! The 
 beauty and the glory of the new Clearing House are but the 
 expression of the same spirit ; and now that new dangers assail the 
 nation, let us declare that our new building stands for a pledge 
 that never will the New York Clearing House Association shrink 
 from doing its full duty : ever will it stand in the front rank of 
 our country's defenders. 
 
29 
 
 Turning- our eyes again to the facade, who is not struck by 
 the cunning distribution of its members ? Parts project, parts 
 recede, and thus create a just proportion of Hght and shade. Has 
 not pur architect symbolized thereby the truth which every well- 
 ordered society has recognized and which only mad men assail, 
 that where men dwell together and work for a common end, some 
 must occupy the high and some the low places ? Everywhere 
 there must be rulers and ruled. Woe to the communities, financial 
 or social, that ignore this essential truth ! They enter into conflict 
 with nature, and sure destruction must be their end. Among the 
 many features that have secured the success of our Association, 
 one of the most marked is the symmetrical subordination of its 
 various factors. The Clearing House Committee is our executive 
 or governing body, and nowhere else do the ruled more readily 
 recognize the authority of their rulers. But as in the building the 
 prominent elements exist, not for themselves but for the structure, 
 so in our Association the members of the Clearing House Com- 
 mittee always labor, not for themselves but for the Association. 
 So long as governors, whether in political or commercial life, act 
 up to this rule, so long is the organism full of strength and energy. 
 But when corrupt rulers sacrifice the nation's welfare to their own, 
 when dishonest financial managers wreck the interests they are 
 bound in honor and honesty to protect, then woe to governors and 
 governed alike ! May our beloved country be safeguarded against 
 such a fate ! May Providence ever inspire the great American 
 people to confound the selfish schemers that would imperil their 
 country's weal for the sake of private pelf ! And if any member 
 of our Association should ever be tempted to be false to his trust, 
 may a glance at this noble building recall him to a sense of 
 duty, and induce him to follow in the footsteps of those great and 
 upright bankers who have safely led us through the perils of the 
 past. 
 
30 
 
 But the play of sunlight and shadow on the front of this 
 stately edifice is not always the same. As the sun ascends to the 
 zenith the Clearing House grows radiant with light, but as it 
 descends to the horizon its shadows deepen. They warn us that 
 our Association must always be ready for darkness and storm ; 
 that if there are periods of sunshine and prosperity, there are also 
 periods of panic and distress. He is not a man whose heart faints 
 when perils surround him. The leaders of the old Clearing House 
 have shown those who will rule in the new how to face dangers 
 and difficulties. By their prudence, by their courage, by their 
 strength, and by their honor they have for nearly half a century 
 safeguarded the prosperity of this Association. Let their successors 
 imitate their virtues ; and though at times sombre shadows may 
 creep over our Clearing House, its sun will continue to shine and 
 drive away the clouds of financial fanaticism and dishonesty. 
 
 Let us now enter and examine the interior of our new 
 home. Mark how wisely and fittingly the space is distributed. 
 Observe how admirably each room is adapted to its purpose. 
 Convenience is the characteristic of the rooms destined for the 
 workers ; while the more retired apartments are assigned to the 
 committees and to the watchful managers. In this architectural 
 adaptation of means to ends we see reflected everywhere the 
 marvellous method of clearing exchanges, of which we are so justly 
 proud. Contrast the present method with that formerly prevailing 
 in this city. Every day porters and clerks adjusted and paid the 
 balances due to and by the several banks at the desks of each. 
 Tons of gold and valuables, protected by guards, were carried 
 through the streets at imminent peril of robbery or loss : settle- 
 ments depended on memory, and numberless vexations compelled 
 weekly instead of daily clearings. Now in about ten minutes over 
 four thousand packages of checks, drafts, bills, and other com- 
 mercial instruments, belonging to the sixty-six banks that are 
 
CLEARING ROOM. 
 (Lookin^r from Manat;irr's Callcrv.) 
 
31 
 
 members of the Clearing House, are distributed and receipted for 
 without loss or error. The numerous balances of each bank are 
 quickly condensed into one, and that balance, whether a debit or 
 a credit, is liquidated on the same day. The whole process is one 
 of clockwork precision, and is almost unerring in its results. By 
 all who understand the sureness and simplicity of our clearing- 
 house methods, and their inestimable services to financiers in city 
 and country, the names of Lyman, Camp, and Sherer will ever be 
 held in appreciative remembrance. Into these methods they infused 
 new life and light ; and in laying the foundation of our triumphs 
 they had a preeminent share. 
 
 As we stroll through the spacious apartments of this beautiful 
 building we are impressed with the careful provision made for 
 lighting it. It is pervaded by light. Light streams in through 
 the dome and floods the offices through the windows ; there is 
 light from above and light from the sides ; light from the front 
 and light from the rear ; and should the great orb of day fail to 
 supply the light we need, modern science, which has chained the 
 lightning, flashes into the building new waves of light to make up 
 the deficiency. Is not this as it should be? The operations on 
 which the sun here sheds his radiance are of supreme importance 
 to society, and the welfare and progress of society demand that 
 man's brightest intelligence should illuminate the banker's work 
 with its most searching rays. Already the great bankers of this 
 and other countries have rent the veil which has so long covered 
 some of the most important laws controlling the economic world. 
 The daily experience of the New York Clearing House has 
 furnished, and will continue to furnish, many a solid stone 
 needed in completing the majestic structure of economic science. 
 Permit me to tax your patience for a few moments while I draw 
 your attention to one or two ways in which the Clearing House 
 throws light on the working of the laws of business and finance. 
 
32 
 
 Like most natural forces, business moves in waves. Sometimes 
 everything prospers and we are on the crest of the wave ; again, 
 there is a revulsion, prices sink, business is paralyzed, and we are 
 in the trough of the sea. What is more important than to have 
 the means to indicate and measure these movements — a business 
 barometer, let us call it ? Such a barometer the clearing-house 
 system furnishes. The clearings of the eighty-one exchanges of 
 the United States approximately measure the ebb and flow of 
 business throughout the country. 
 
 But this is not all. The books of the New York Clearing 
 House Association enable us to ascertain at any moment the 
 standing of every bank belonging to the Association and the 
 character of its management. Our daily proof-sheet supplies each 
 bank with an authentic exhibit of the Clearing House dealings of 
 all its associates, and, like a financial sun, it reveals the extent and, 
 in a degree, the character of their transactions. Imparting knowl- 
 edge, the Clearing House records naturally beget decision and 
 promptness in the conduct of business. They protect us against 
 the perils of excessive loans and discounts ; they are pointers of 
 the drift, as well as of the character, of business ; they serve as 
 prophets foretelling the course of financial storms ; they are trust- 
 worthy guides to the wise investor. It is scarcely possible to 
 exaggerate the advantages the American business man may derive 
 from the light shed by our Clearing House records on the nature 
 and the prospects of mercantile movements, not only in New York 
 but throughout the country. 
 
 Much more valuable is the light they shed on some of the 
 important financial questions now agitating the nation. Who has 
 not heard again and again the frenzied utterances of financial 
 quacks who maintain that on the abundance of the currency alone 
 depends the weal or woe of the people ; that the plentiful issue of 
 currency, whatever its intrinsic value or lack of value, is a panacea 
 
33 
 
 for all the world's financial ills ? In connection with the currency, 
 let us consider briefly the business of the New York Clearing 
 House during the forty-two years of its existence. The total 
 transactions from October, 1853, to October, 1895, amount in all 
 to the sum of $1,092,815,818,055 — a sum sufficient, if coined into 
 half-eagles, laid flat so as to touch each other, to make a golden 
 pathway ten feet wide around the world. The balances were a 
 little more than four and one-half per cent, of the clearings, and 
 even these balances were discharged, not in currency, but principally 
 by certificates on a common depository. Take, for instance, the 
 balances for the year 1883. One-half of one per cent, of these 
 balances, or less than one-fiftieth of one per cent, of the entire 
 clearings, was paid in legal-tenders and coin. Not long ago, when 
 the exchanges averaged $113,019,011 daily, the checks and drafts 
 presented by the several banks so nearly offset each other that of 
 every one hundred dollars of the balances all but four dollars and 
 seventy-eight cents were paid in checks. What do these figures 
 proclaim ? They tell us how insignificant a role currency — I care 
 not whether it be gold, silver, or legal-tender notes — plays in the 
 great mass of business represented by our clearings. Under the 
 clearing-house system legalized paper representing the commodities 
 for which it was given circulates as freely and almost as safely as 
 gold and silver coin, and far more conveniently. Is it not, there- 
 fore, true that the products of the country have, to a large extent, 
 become our currency ? Let me assure my countrymen, north and 
 south, east and west, that their marketable commodities are the 
 best of currency. Only let them produce enough of these, and 
 they need never dread the spectre of poverty. 
 
 Owing to the progress made by our system of clearings, 
 I can truly say that in no country is a business so immense 
 transacted with an amount of the precious metals so surprisingly 
 small. At least ninety per cent, of all the business of this country 
 
34 
 
 is a credit business done by checks, drafts, bills of exchange, and 
 other commercial instruments. Every step in advance made in 
 our system of exchanges reduces the importance of currency. 
 Already our progress has given to one dollar the power to do 
 the work done by a hundred dollars at the beginning of the 
 century. The currency of a country need not equal its wealth 
 nor the volume of its mercantile transactions. The figures denot- 
 ing the exchanges of the American clearing houses amounted in 
 1888 to over fifty billion dollars — thirty times all the gold and 
 silver and all the bank-notes then in the country. Therefore, 
 not alone on the abundance of the currency — I venture to say not 
 chiefly on the abundance of the currency — depends our country's 
 business prosperity. No legislation and no financial juggling can 
 make a country prosperous ; only industry, economy, thrift, and 
 self-denial can effect this result. Abundance of currency, provided 
 it be a sound currency, may be one of the factors of prosperity. 
 But abundant means of communication, the annihilation of time 
 and space by steamboats, railroads, telegraphs, and last, though 
 not least, improved clearing-house methods, these also are important 
 elements. Give us these, and let God smile on our fields, scattering 
 blessings from his bounteous hand, and happiness will dwell in the 
 abode of the farmer and the mechanic no less than in the home 
 of the banker and the merchant. 
 
 But it is time to resume our inspection of the new Clearing 
 House. Scan it with the critic's eye. Examine it from without 
 or from within ; in detail or as a whole. Search it with the aid of 
 God's sunlight or man's electric flashes. It is the ideal of honesty. 
 Honest in its material, from the pure marble of the facade to the 
 strong oak and mahogany of its inside fittings ; honest in its 
 decoration, from the proud and graceful Corinthian columns and 
 the richly carved arms of our nation, our State, and our city, to the 
 deftly worked scrolls of the interior ; honest in all its architectural 
 
35 
 
 features, that suggest no promise that is not fulfilled. Is not this 
 as it should be ? Has it not ever been the motto of this Associa- 
 tion that honesty is the best policy ? Has it not gone beyond 
 Franklin's aphorism, and stood for honesty and justice even if the 
 heavens fall ? No man can point to any act of this body that 
 has condoned the plausible untruth, the amiable fallacy, the provi- 
 dent evasion, the merciful concealment, or the positive and careless 
 lie. In all financial measures the Clearing House Association 
 has invariably insisted upon giving to all men that which is their 
 due. It has always believed in paying dollar for dollar, one 
 hundred cents for one hundred cents. It can see neither justice 
 nor truth, neither honor nor profit, in taking a piece of silver 
 worth fifty cents and stamping it with the legend, " One hundred 
 cents." We know that the safest of all currency is gold. It is 
 the standard of value throughout the civilized world. Everywhere 
 it is a commodity in demand, and everywhere exchangeable for 
 other commodities. It is less subject to fluctuations than other 
 forms of money, and therefore promises to the wage-earner greater 
 uniformity and safety in the payment of his labor, and to the 
 business man greater exemption from violent and dangerous com- 
 mercial convulsions. Surely these are strong reasons for the 
 maintenance of the gold standard. But above them all in im- 
 portance is the broad fact that honesty demands its retention. 
 Throughout the history of this Clearing House, its record for 
 good faith imperatively makes us the advocates of honest money 
 for the nation. Such has been our record in the old building. 
 Such will be our policy in the new Clearing House, every stone of 
 w^hich bears on it the impress of honesty. 
 
 Descending to the lower parts of the building, let me call 
 your attention to the massive foundations, the sturdy double walls, 
 the great steel vaults, the steel grilles, the hundred and one safe- 
 guards, open and concealed, that protect the building against the 
 
36 
 
 assaults of man's violence and the encroachments of time. Mark 
 the devices for turning the steam which supplies us with heat, 
 and even the electricity, which ordinarily gives us light, into means 
 of defence. Everything has been done that the builder's art can 
 do to make the new Clearing House safe against the robber, the 
 thief, and the anarchist. 
 
 Are not these appliances typical of the many skilful devices 
 invented by the accountant to guard us against error and dishonesty, 
 devices so perfect that in all its history I can proudly assert that 
 the New York Clearing House Association has never suffered the 
 loss of a single cent ? Are they not symbolic of the wisdom that 
 is slowly but surely working out a system of political economics 
 which will prevent, as far as human wisdom can prevent, the 
 insanities of visionary enterprises, the unhealthy inflation of prices, 
 and the ruinous disasters of panics ? Yes, these solid walls sym- 
 bolize the solid walls of American common sense, that heretofore 
 have guarded our beloved country against fantastic and destructive 
 financial schemes, and will do so forevermore. 
 
 But the strength and the solidity of this majestic building 
 suggest not only the strength and the solidity of the Clearing 
 House Association, but they also typify its unselfish care for those 
 that are to come after us. This unique and beautiful structure, 
 whose every part bids defiance to the ravages of time, is not built 
 for ourselves alone. The true American, the true patriot, is ever 
 mindful of posterity ; his plans always include the generations 
 unborn. The greatest glory of any building, says Mr. Ruskin, 
 is not in its cunningly wrought marble, iron, or gold, but "in that 
 deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sym- 
 pathy, nay even of approval or condemnation, which we feel in 
 walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of human- 
 ity." These attributes, of course, we cannot ascribe to a building 
 whose history is all in the future ; but what we feel, and truly feel, 
 
37 
 
 as we contemplate these powerful walls, is the sympathy, the watch- 
 fulness, and the protection they promise to the generations to come. 
 
 Our Association and our metropolis have always had a feeling 
 heart and an open hand for others. We rejoice with our sister 
 States and cities over their financial strength and commercial 
 development. We are proud of the majesty and power of our own 
 beloved country, and we love to see the nations of the world 
 prosper and grow in civilization. Never have those who have 
 been stricken by disaster appealed in vain to the bankers and 
 merchants of New York. Unselfishly, unstintingly, they have given 
 to others of that which God had given to them. Without boast, 
 without ostentation, they have practised that mercy which "drop- 
 peth as the gentle rain from heaven." Of this unselfishness, of this 
 mercy, these walls, built not so much for ourselves as for others, 
 are the emblem. So long as they stand, so long as they harbor the 
 great financiers of New York, they will tell us that the Clearing 
 House Association has open eyes for the claims of the poor and 
 the unfortunate. Never will it sanction any measure, political or 
 financial, that encroaches upon the rights of the weak and the 
 defenceless. Never will it seek its own advantage at the cost 
 of the helpless. As long as this edifice stands here, so long will 
 the bankers of this metropolis — our children and our children's 
 children — practise the noble virtues of generosity and charity. 
 
 The New York Clearing House Association serves not the 
 American people alone, but it extends its benefits to the whole 
 family of nations, and the world is better for its genial activities. 
 It symbolizes the fact that it is the duty and privilege of all nations 
 to seek peace with righteousness, prosperity through equity, and 
 the realization of the highest possibilities of humanity through 
 obedience to that supreme law which has its seat in the bosom 
 of God and whose voice — speaking in nature, reason, and society — 
 is the harmony of the world. 
 
38 
 
 And now, Messrs. Presidents and Gentlemen, the time has 
 come to bring this address to a close, much though our new home 
 has still to tell us. Into your hands, Mr. President, I deliver the 
 keys which will open this stately building for business. May it long 
 be the efficient shelter of the Clearing House Association. May 
 it ever be the home of wisdom and energy. May it ever be 
 the bulwark of honesty and honor. May it always remain what 
 we see it to-day — a monument to the virtues of those who have 
 gone before us. And as the great Trojan chief in the Greek epic 
 prays to Zeus that his son may be a better man than himself, so 
 in concluding I express the hope that to the new Clearing House 
 there may be granted a more prosperous, a more influential, and 
 a more beneficent career than has even fallen to the lot of the 
 old one. 
 
 Mendelssohn's " The Wayfarers " was given by the Glee Club, 
 after which the President, William A. Nash, accepted the building 
 on behalf of the Association, in an address as follows : 
 
 Gentlefuen : 
 
 In accepting, on behalf of the Clearing House Association, 
 this magnificent building, dedicated to its uses and purposes, it is 
 unnecessary to praise the work or the men under whose supervision 
 it has been created. Their encomium surrounds us, and is as 
 eloquent as it is beautiful. We have here a home suitable to our 
 needs for at least a century to come. The capacity of a Clearing 
 House is not tested by the volume of business which it transacts 
 but by the number of those who assemble to do the work. The 
 Clearing room in which we are now assembled is sufficiently 
 large to allow the representatives of one hundred and twenty-five 
 banks to meet for daily business. 
 
39 
 
 When this Association was formed in 1853, the membership 
 consisted of fifty-one banks. All the banks existing at that time 
 in the city became members. To-day our number is sixty-six, 
 showing a net gain of fifteen members in forty-two years. 
 
 The standard of admission to membership has steadily risen 
 with every year of our existence. The requirements as to capital 
 and character of those who now may knock for entrance are such 
 that only the really excellent are prepared to meet and pass the 
 scrutiny. 
 
 The severity of inspection is not for the purpose of suppress- 
 ing or discouraging new institutions, but to foster stronger and 
 better ones. We open our doors freely, but only the highest 
 grade are admitted to the close and trusting relations which prevail 
 in this body ; hence the assertion that this beautiful building, with 
 its splendid appointments, will be sufficient for our uses for at 
 least a century is probably not far from the truth. 
 
 It is altogether proper that this high standard of membership 
 should be maintained. The successful administration of a Clearing 
 House depends on mutual confidence and trust. We are partners 
 in the largest acceptation of the term. We have here assumed 
 liabilities and carried out projects involving tremendous responsi- 
 bilities to each and every bank, and we have done this successfully, 
 because the elements of faith and credit have been the controlling 
 influences of our acts. 
 
 It is well known that the mechanical work of making exchanges 
 and settling the resultant balances is really the legitimate business 
 of this Association. Its actions in other directions, in the opinion 
 of some who are technically inclined, have been irregular ; but 
 those actions of this Association for which no warrant exists in 
 its written laws constitute its claim to the high public considera- 
 tion which it receives, and which it is entitled to receive. I refer, 
 of course, to its action in times of crisis in financial affairs. The 
 
40 
 
 issuing of Clearing House certificates at such times is now regarded 
 as a wise policy, and as providing a remedy and help perfectly 
 adapted to monetary panics, and it has been administered by the 
 Association with a courage and conservatism that constitute, in 
 my opinion, the crowning glory of this organization. 
 
 This could not have been accomplished without the utmost 
 harmony and confidence between the members. They have met 
 these emergencies in the past in a spirit of unanimity ; they have 
 relied trustfully on their chosen leaders, and they have contemplated 
 at times the most disastrous prospects with courage and firmness. 
 The history of these triumphs has been recited often and ably. 
 It is my intention only to allude to them. It would be idle for 
 me to pursue the lines of thought so admirably followed by the 
 able speaker who has delivered this building into our hands. It 
 would be equally presumptuous if I should repeat the careful and 
 eloquent resume of our career given by President Williams at the 
 time the corner-stone was laid. The record of the New York 
 Clearing House and the spirit that made that record possible are 
 " known and read of all men," It is clear, unimpeachable, and 
 honorable. 
 
 In speaking the words of dedication and welcome assigned 
 to me on this occasion, I think it is a fitting opportunity to call 
 the attention of bank officers especially, and of the general public, 
 to the salient features of our organization. 
 
 Whether the question of representation in this body was 
 much considered by its founders I do not know, but it seems they 
 could not have hit upon a wiser device than our existing regula- 
 tions to insure strength and harmony of action. The basis of 
 franchise with us is individual and not corporate. The bank with 
 the smallest capital and the lowest line of deposits has, through 
 its representative officer, as potential a voice in our affairs as the 
 most colossal of our members. The selection of our officers and 
 
41 
 
 the members of our committees has not followed the plan of giving 
 the largest banks the greatest share, but we have preferred the 
 talents and availability of special men. Whenever we have found 
 bank officers fitted for the work of supervision and direction, we 
 have not hesitated to elect them over and over again. Thus it 
 has happened that our most prominent men have not always 
 represented our largest banks. 
 
 In like manner, this Association has from time to time thrown 
 itself to the relief of a troubled and distressed member, and has 
 made that member's difficulties the object of all its solicitude and 
 assistance. 
 
 When Clearing House certificates have been issued, there 
 have been no nice discriminations in their distribution. The need 
 of the applicant has been the only measure that has been applied 
 to the supply. No member has ever hesitated to ask for all it 
 wanted, and no committee has ever held back its hand for careful 
 examination of the deserts of those who have applied. There has 
 been a conspicuous freedom from that weighing and measuring 
 of interests that enter into the conduct of so many corporations. 
 Whether this result was foreseen by the men who took the first 
 steps in this work, as I have said, I do not know. I believe they 
 builded better than they knew. The strength of our Association 
 may be attributed to this disregard of those interests which are 
 usually considered of so much importance. To this policy may 
 be traced the splendid results that have been achieved. The 
 controlling idea among us has been that capital and financial 
 strength were to be used for the good of all, and to help, not to 
 discourage, small or struggling institutions. Hence has arisen that 
 wonderful unanimity in times of danger, that trust in our managers, 
 and that courageous confidence in the outcome of their labors. 
 
 When this occasion is used as a time to appeal to the members 
 of the present Association not to lightly disregard the spirit that 
 
42 
 
 has been regnant in the past, and to urge them to contend against 
 those suggestions of prorating of interests which every now and 
 then are . heard, I think it is being put to its best uses. The 
 legacy of the past is too valuable to be frittered away in paltry 
 considerations of what is mine and what is thine. I appeal to all 
 the bank ofificers now representatives in our body to highly resolve 
 that the ruling altruistic spirit of our history shall be nurtured and 
 cherished. In its maintenance lies our future success — in its neglect 
 we can easily see our degeneracy. 
 
 To this we are helped by recalling the men who have figured 
 in and made that history. I love to rehearse the names of those 
 who have made our annals illustrious. Their courageous advice 
 overawed the suggestions of timidity, and pointed us unerringly 
 to a road possibly thorny but certainly victorious. In hours of 
 reminiscence, the decisive actions of these men are told with a glow 
 of admiration. 
 
 We recall the names of Thomas Tileston, of the Phenix Bank, 
 the first President of the Association ; Moses Taylor, of the City 
 Bank ; Augustus E. Silliman and Jacob D. Vermilye, of the 
 Merchants' Bank ; John Q. Jones, of the Chemical Bank ; James 
 Gallatin, of the National Bank ; John A. Stevens, of the Bank of 
 Commerce ; James Punnett, of the Bank of America ; Charles F. 
 Hunter, of the People's Bank ; and James M, Morrison, of the 
 Manhattan Company. 
 
 These men represented large interests, but they themselves 
 were more and larger than those interests. They have passed 
 away, but they have left worthy successors. Among the living 
 examples whom we delight to honor on this day, surely I shall not 
 be thought invidious if I name George S. Coe, of the American 
 Exchange National Bank. 
 
 We have been singularly fortunate in the men who from time 
 to time have presided over our Association and have been active 
 
NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE, 1858-1875. 
 (Upper llo.ir. I?ank ol Xmv York HuiUlini;, 48 Wall Strcol. 
 
43 
 
 in our committees. They constitute a cluster of brave, inspiring, 
 and unselfish bankers, of whom this Clearing House is, and of which 
 any financial organization might well be, proud. 
 
 And if to-day we, under this spacious dome and amid all this 
 wealth of architectural ornament and device, shall seriously con- 
 sider the legacy of the past, and the noble lineage that is ours, 
 and shall resolve to preserve all that is useful and honorable, 
 and to discourage all that is narrow and unworthy, then this 
 assemblage and this celebration will not have been wasted or with- 
 out result. 
 
 Following the acceptance of the building, the Hon. Alexan- 
 der E. Orr, President of the Chamber of Commerce, made this 
 address : 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
 
 In answer to your kind invitation to be present here to-day, 
 I must first speak in words of unqualified praise and admiration of 
 the manly and dignified manner in which you have won for the 
 New York Clearing House Association, in greater measure than ever 
 before, the appreciation and respect of your fellow-citizens of the 
 mercantile classes, and especially of the members of the Chamber 
 of Commerce of the State of New York whom I have the honor 
 here to represent, and in whose name and behalf I beg to tender 
 you most cordial congratulations and earnest good wishes upon 
 this auspicious and, to you, ever-memorable occasion. 
 
 You have given the very best evidence possible of the growing 
 influence and usefulness of your organization, and you have pre- 
 sented every reason for the reaffirmation of the public faith in its 
 stability and permanence by the magnificent edifice you have 
 
44 
 
 provided for its future home. It is as artistic in its design as it 
 is comprehensive in its proportions and beautiful in its general 
 effect, and it will ever prove a lasting monument of the genius 
 of your architect and of the courage and self-appreciation that 
 influenced you to determine that it should be erected. But to 
 us this handsome and substantial building does not merely mean 
 an aggregation of comforts and conveniences to be used in the 
 operation of the purposes for which it has been constructed, and 
 a laudable desire on your part to present evidences of a refined 
 taste and a high order of architectural embellishment ; it reaches 
 further and deeper, and suggests a closer relationship which will 
 hereafter exist between the banking institutions of this city than 
 ever before, thereby broadening and enlarging their usefulness and 
 directly benefiting the community that extends to them its pat- 
 ronage and trusts them with its money. Indeed, it will reach 
 further and deeper still, for if advantage is taken of the possi- 
 bilities, and your members will make this place their rendezvous 
 for general conference and interchange of views, and will act up 
 to the dignity and strength of their position with a determination 
 that will not brook defeat, I firmly believe that this home of yours 
 will in time become the centre of financial thought and action in 
 the United States ; not only giving tone and character to the 
 banking institutions of the country, but also confidence and 
 incentive to the people of every walk in life, who will look to it 
 for guidance and suggestion in forming their demands for sound 
 financial legislation, for the lack of which this land stands in such 
 sore need to-day ; for be assured, gentlemen, that the metropolitan 
 cities of all great countries are now viewed as the recognized 
 leaders of public sentiment within their borders, and that what 
 London is to Great Britain, Paris to France, and Berlin to Germany, 
 so New York must ever be to the United States, wherein is centred 
 the wealth, the culture, the arts and sciences, and the refinement 
 
45 
 
 of the whole country. It is very meet, therefore, that our institu- 
 tions of every kind should line themselves up to a very high 
 standard of excellence, a credit to their members and an honor to 
 the city ; and in this respect, in the most praiseworthy manner, 
 you have brought your organization a good deal further forward 
 than just abreast of the times. 
 
 In this wonderful country of ours, so eminently commercial 
 throughout its length and breadth, there is to my mind no influence 
 more potent in insuring growth, prosperity, and development than 
 a sound and comprehensive banking system. While such a system 
 must of necessity be founded upon and operated under laws, these 
 laws should be the outcome of experience and practice very much 
 more than theory, and ought only to be formulated after the legis- 
 lating body has sought insight and counsel from recognized 
 financial authorities. For who among all the people are better 
 qualified to suggest financial requirements and remedies, or to 
 point out financial dangers, than those who are continually holding 
 their fingers upon the financial and commercial pulses of the 
 Nation ? 
 
 It will be remembered by many here present — I remember it 
 very well — that it was a source of keen regret and anxiety to the 
 financiers of 1 861-1865 that the necessities of the country during 
 our Civil War induced Congress to depart from the ordinary func- 
 tions of legislation and compelled an Executive department of the 
 Government to enter into a system of banking that was never 
 contemplated by the Constitution, and for which it was not then 
 and has never since been adequately equipped. The question is 
 not now whether such action was wise or warranted (for, indeed, 
 it is impossible at this distant period and without the presence of 
 that terrible anxiety and the pressure of that fierce struggle for 
 national existence to say what was then wise or warranted), but 
 what must now be done to work ourselves back again into those 
 
46 
 
 conditions of conservatism and safety that were enjoyed before 
 the pressure of necessity brought about the new departure. I think 
 we are all of one mind that there cannot be two great banking 
 systems successfully operated at the same time in the United 
 States, one by the Government and one by the people, and that 
 sooner or later that which is not legitimate must stand aside ; and 
 it is very evident, in fact there is not the shadow of a doubt 
 among men versed in financial affairs, that the Government, sooner 
 or later, must be that one. But the problem is, how to get back 
 with the least strain or hurt to any home interest, and at the same 
 time maintain our national honor and credit both at home and 
 abroad. This whole question is so important and its early solution 
 so necessary to our welfare as a country that it should be classified 
 as " urgent " and made to stand head and shoulders above parties 
 and politics. It should receive the prompt and earnest considera- 
 tion of Congress, and of every citizen in public or private life who 
 is constituted by his vocation or calling to express an intelligent 
 opinion on financial subjects ; and, above all, it should receive 
 yours in your corporate capacity. For rest assured, gentlemen, that 
 if you are true to the general expectation, to your responsibilities 
 and your opportunities, and will exert the influence that is due 
 to your position, the plan which receives the impress of your 
 indorsement and is earnestly pressed to a conclusion must finally 
 prevail. 
 
 Viewing your Association — this combination of the banking 
 talent in the commercial metropolis of the Union — from this stand- 
 point, you have a right to expect, and if needs be demand, for 
 your opinions and judgments recognition and following, not only 
 because of your present position and experience but also because 
 of your past record, which is acknowledged both at home and 
 abroad to be worthy of the very highest consideration. You have 
 time and again stemmed the torrent of financial and commercial 
 
47 
 
 disaster, sometimes the result of those somewhat normal business 
 vicissitudes which may be classified under the head of overtrad- 
 ing and of rampant and illegitimate speculation ; sometimes the 
 result of incompetent or vacillating legislation, which seemed 
 to be strangely blind or else criminally indifferent to the welfare 
 of the people, provided " the party " might obtain what was 
 supposed to be some political advantage ; and sometimes the out- 
 come of a craze — honest doubtless with many, but nevertheless 
 a craze — for a debased and debasing currency in the vain hope 
 that the quantity and not the quality of our money would prove 
 the long-looked-for panacea for all agricultural and trade depression 
 and general financial woe. You have more than once, under the 
 pressure of a great necessity, courageously circulated a currency of 
 your own invention, which for the time being gave elasticity to 
 the faulty and non-elastic currency of the country, and which, after 
 it had fulfilled its mission, promptly retired itself without strain 
 or hurt to any interest after the great necessity had passed away. 
 You have sometimes come together and, so to speak, consolidated 
 your assets in the public interest and for mutual protection, and 
 then parted asunder and again resumed your respective individual- 
 isms when the pressure was passed, and your protective and accom- 
 modating policy had accomplished its saving purpose. 
 
 Now, in the doing of all this you have unhesitatingly accepted 
 responsibilities in the interest of commerce, of the people and for 
 the national good, with a promptness and forethought that are 
 beyond all praise. It is true that you have never been called to 
 account for any possible legal shortcomings, for the simple reason 
 that you have always proved successful, and success, like charity, 
 often covers a very great number of sins. But the question that 
 I desire to ask you now is this : Should there not be vested some- 
 where a discretionary power to relieve from such responsibility 
 in times of grave emergency or stress? Under such circumstances. 
 
48 
 
 should there not be given to some prominent official or officials 
 of the Government authority to suspend for the time being that 
 part of the banking laws which it might be necessary to violate in 
 providing prompt relief ? There is precedent for such action to 
 be found among the great commercial countries of the globe, 
 whose governments, with wise forethought, have made just such 
 admirable provision for extraordinary times of need. Take Great 
 Britain, for instance. She empowers her Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer — an officer in her Government corresponding with our 
 Secretary of the Treasury — acting under an order from the Cabinet, 
 to suspend the operations of the Bank Act whenever in his judg- 
 ment the gravity of the situation demands the exercise of this 
 extraordinary power ; and it is well known that this authority has 
 been frequently availed of with immense advantage to the wide 
 range of the business interests of that country. I am not violating 
 any confidence when I state that I have it from the very best 
 authority that when the banking house of Baring Brothers & Co. 
 applied to the Bank of England in 1892 for assistance, and 
 made known the enormous volume of their commitments (some- 
 where about one hundred and thirty millions of dollars), and the 
 corresponding amount of their requirements, the Governor of 
 the Bank, realizing the disastrous consequences that would ensue 
 from their failure, but at the same time believing that if they 
 could be sustained their estate would ultimately prove solvent, 
 promptly laid all the circumstances of the case before the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, and that officer, recognizing the gravity of the 
 situation, as promptly agreed to stand by the bank to the full 
 extent of his delegated power whenever called upon to do so, 
 provided the directors finally determined that it was best to grant 
 the needed relief. Armed and encouraged with this assurance 
 (which, by the way, was not availed of, so potent was the knowl- 
 edge that it would be forthcoming if called for), in less than twenty- 
 
49 
 
 four business hours, a Sunday intervening, the Bank of England 
 formed that famous syndicate which guaranteed the Baring obH- 
 gations and thus averted what would have otherwise proved the 
 most disastrous panic of the nineteenth century. Now, all this 
 was accomplished without the loss of a single dollar to any of 
 the contracting parties, and a great financial crisis was safely passed 
 because the wisdom and forethought of the British Government 
 has always recognized the possibility of financial emergency, and 
 has wisely made provision beforehand, by reasonable flexibility 
 of law, for its relief. And just here let me make a further state- 
 ment — and it can be easily substantiated : The plan of the Baring 
 syndicate was founded upon your previous action, the inspiration 
 of its mode of procedure was largely drawn from you, and while I 
 would not wish to lessen by a single hair's-breadth the honor that 
 properly attaches to the Governor of the Bank of England of that 
 day, who so magnificently carried that transaction to a successful 
 issue, I cannot help saying to you, with both pride and pleasure, 
 that the entire credit of the method used properly belongs to you. 
 I see no reason whatever why the Congress of the United States 
 should not follow the example of the British Parliament and make 
 provision for extraordinary financial emergency in the same manner 
 that it has in its wisdom provided for the suspension of the right 
 of habeas corpus and the declaration of martial law in times of 
 riot or war, or the temporary suppression of immigration when 
 the danger of epidemic requires the exercise of extraordinary 
 power to protect the public health ; for surely it must be admitted 
 that there are no more vital conditions of public welfare entitled 
 to receive the protecting care of legislation than the financial, 
 industrial, agricultural, and commercial interests of this country, 
 upon the successful outcome of which so very many of our people, 
 and even the credit and stability of the Government itself, so 
 largely depend. 
 
50 
 
 And now, gentlemen, a single thought more and I have 
 done. While I believe that it is the sentiment of the country 
 that the Government should withdraw from its present banking 
 position at as early a date as practicable and with as little wrench 
 to existing conditions as possible, there is no reason why the 
 closest relationship and confidence should not exist between the 
 Government and the banks, to the mutual protection and benefit 
 of both. The banks of New York have ever proved loyal and true, 
 and have always been foremost in the laudable race to strengthen 
 the treasury and uphold the national honor and credit whenever 
 there was the slightest evidence that such assistance was needed, 
 and what they have done in the past in this respect we are sure 
 they will ever stand ready to repeat in the future. But it is not 
 my province or purpose even to suggest how all this may be 
 accomplished. It is for you to formulate the ways and means and 
 then concentrate public opinion upon the necessity, and stand by 
 your action until success rewards your courage and perseverance. 
 I am only here as the representative of the oldest commercial 
 organization in the United States, to express the deep sense of 
 our obligations for the great benefits that we, the representatives of 
 the commercial interests of New York, have received and are to-day 
 receiving by and through your admirable Association, to compli- 
 ment you upon your past record, to congratulate you on having so 
 magnificently compassed the present, to encourage you onward 
 towards even higher aims in the future, and, with assurances that 
 we shall ever look to you with pride and confidence as an indispen- 
 sable adjunct to all commercial interests as the years roll on, to 
 wish you, in the name and in behalf of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce of the State of New York, a cheering and sympathetic God 
 speed. 
 
51 
 
 An impressive feature in the ceremonies was then introduced 
 in the singing of " America " by the audience and the Glee Club, 
 after which Bishop Potter made the following address : 
 
 Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Board of Manag-ers, Felloiv 
 Citizens : 
 
 I can imagine nothing more unnecessary than any attempt on 
 my part to gild the refined gold, whether of this noble building 
 or of the no less impressive utterances of the orators of this day. 
 Indeed, it has been to me a matter of delightful surprise to find 
 among men devoted to business pursuits so many evidences of the 
 possession of a cultivated eloquence which the pulpit or the bar 
 might envy as well as admire. The clear and luminous address 
 of my friend, Mr. Tappen ; the scholarly and poetic oration of my 
 earlier friend and, amid other scenes, sometime fellow-townsman, 
 Mr. Simmons ; the admirable and forcible presentation of your Presi- 
 dent, Mr. Nash ; and, finally, the thoughtful and philosophic utter- 
 ances of my fellow-citizen (may I call him ?) in the bonds of that 
 Greater New York which, alas ! I fear he does not yet greatly love — 
 I mean our honored President of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. 
 Orr — these have convinced me that the New York Clearing House 
 must contain somewhere hidden away among its recesses a School 
 of Oratory, and that we whose trade it is to talk, in view of such 
 non-professional rivalry, may well look to our laurels. 
 
 But one word yet remains to be said, and perhaps I may as 
 well say it as any other. Outside the constituency represented 
 within these walls this morning, gentlemen, there is another and 
 a much larger one. The completion of this building, and the 
 illustrations here afforded of the ways in wdiich the convenience of 
 a vast business may be combined with dignity of construction, 
 grace of proportion, and refinement of decoration, are matters 
 which interest not only bankers and those who are associated with 
 
52 
 
 banking interests, but a great multitude of other people who will 
 never see this structure nor enter these halls. They are the people 
 who have for this, their metropolitan home, the old Roman instinct 
 of civism, who take a just interest in its history and a just pride in 
 its progress, who long to see it great, and honorable, and beautiful. 
 
 Yes, that is it — great, and honorable, and beautiful. But, in 
 order to be great, a city must have something more than wealth 
 or numbers ; in order to be honorable, it must have something 
 more than the mere reputation that it lives up to its written con- 
 tracts ; in order to be beautiful, it must have something besides 
 parks and well-lighted streets and stately homes. 
 
 Civic greatness means civic integrity, civic enterprise, civic 
 courage and large-mindedness ; civic honor means civic unselfishness, 
 civic enthusiasm for every noble and righteous cause, civic fearless- 
 ness in the face of unworthy influences or combinations ; and, 
 finally, civic beauty means a spirit that touches all works of con- 
 struction, whatever the use to which they are to be devoted, with 
 that finer grace and charm which makes the tasks of life some- 
 how easier because the surroundings amid which we do them make 
 some other appeal to us than to that merely which is serviceable 
 or convenient. I suppose that this building might have been reared 
 for less money, or finished with less ornament. I am sincerely glad 
 that it was not. If it had been bad, or inartistic, or unmeaning 
 ornament that had adorned it, I should have been as sincerely sorry. 
 But, as it is, it is an object-lesson in dignity and beauty of con- 
 struction which will have an influence far wider and more enduring 
 than you or I can estimate. 
 
 As such, surely, it is no unworthy home for the great principle 
 for which it stands. That principle might doubtless be stated in 
 many ways ; but one statement of it, I think, might be made in those 
 words of the Apostle's : " Owe no man anything, but to love one 
 another. Provide things honest in the sight of all men." This 
 
53 
 
 Clearing House stands as an example to all men everywhere of 
 promptitude in the payment of our debts, and of honesty in the 
 equivalents in which we pay them. Better still, it stands for those 
 coordinating forces of finance on which must always rest the 
 substantial prosperity of any country. These are times when 
 many clever people are declaiming loudly against wealth ; but, as 
 Mr. Buckle in his " History of Civilization" has unanswerably stated 
 the case : " Of all the results which are produced among a people by 
 their climate, food, and soil, the accumulation of wealth is the 
 most important. For, although the progress of knowledge eventu- 
 ally accelerates the increase of wealth, it is nevertheless certain 
 that, in the first formation of society, wealth must accumulate 
 before knowledge can begin ; because, without wealth there can 
 be no taste or leisure for that acquisition of knowledge on which 
 the progress of civilization depends." You are here, then, gentle- 
 men, as guardians of that which is not less necessary than those 
 other forces whose instrument it is, and which determine the 
 greatness of a community or a nation. You have shown yourselves 
 worthy of the confidence and respect of your fellow-citizens by 
 your discharge of a great trust in a great way ; and, to-day, we can 
 wish no better thing for this institution and its future than that that 
 future may not be unworthy of its most useful and honorable past. 
 
 The ceremonies were concluded by Bishop Potter pronouncing 
 the benediction, after which the audience inspected the building 
 and partook of the following collation in the Bank Officers' meeting 
 room : 
 
54 
 
 MENU 
 
 CHAUD 
 
 Consomm^ de volaille 
 Huitres a la Viennaise 
 Croquettes de poularde 
 Homard k la Newberg 
 Th6 et Caf6 
 
 FROID 
 
 Filet de boeuf, Boh^mienne 
 Galantine de poulet aux truffes 
 Terrines de foies-gras a la gel^e 
 Cailles brais^es garnies de cresson 
 Mayonnaise de volaille 
 Salade de homard 
 Pain de rillettes 
 Sandwiches 
 
 ENTREMETS DE DOUCEUR 
 
 Gel^e aux fraises 
 Gateaux noisettes 
 
 Gaufres Chantilly 
 Madeleine 
 
 Savarin h I'orange 
 
 Pieces mont^es 
 Glaces fantaisies 
 
 Fruits 
 
 Bonbons 
 
 Petits fours 
 Devises 
 
 Dessert 
 
 VINS 
 
 Moet Imperial Brut 
 
 Perrier Jouet Reserve 
 
 Apollinaris 
 
 Mercredi, 15 Janvier, 1896 
 New York Clearing House 
 
 DELMONICO 
 
NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE, PINE AND NASSAU STREETS. 
 1875-1895. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW BUILDING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE ASSOCIATION 
 
 The building occupies a site upon the north side of Cedar 
 Street, 77 to 83, between Broadway and Nassau Street, in the centre 
 of that district of financial institutions which has grown up about 
 Wall Street. 
 
 It is a structure quite different from the ordinary office building, 
 because of the special nature of the operations for which it is 
 designed. The Clearing House work is peculiar to itself, and has 
 arisen out of the necessities of the banks of New York which are 
 associated to maintain it. These are now sixty-six in number, and 
 their representative officers form the powerful financial association 
 which gives that unity and stability which distinguish the banking 
 interests of New York and which have become matters of national 
 pride and importance. The Boards and Committees for special 
 objects, which are perhaps the most important departments, have in 
 their new quarters accommodations of a kind not hitherto enjoyed, 
 although very much needed ; and the original function of the 
 Clearing House — the adjustment of balances in the daily routine 
 work — is facilitated by offices carefully adapted to the interesting 
 system which has been evolved, so to speak, from the demands of the 
 
56 
 
 work, and which is now so perfectly organized and defined that an 
 hour or two in the exchange department suffices each day to balance 
 and settle the accounts of all the hundred and forty-eight banks, trust 
 companies, etc., doing business together, and that another hour or 
 two in another department sees these balances actually paid or 
 received and the books closed. Each day completely finishes and 
 ends its own business. There are no running accounts in the usual 
 sense of the words. 
 
 The new edifice, designed by R. W. Gibson, the Architect, of 
 New York, is a handsome structure of white marble, in an Italian 
 Renaissance style, somewhat reminiscent of public buildings of the 
 Colonial and Independence periods. It has a frontage toward the 
 street of about ninety-four feet, and a depth a little less. The front 
 is of only three stories, but each is of palatial height, the first twenty 
 feet, the second twenty-five feet, and the third twenty feet, with a 
 domed roof of thirty feet more, making the total height about one 
 hundred feet, with a cornice about seventy-five feet high. A Corin- 
 thian order is used, extending through the two lower stories, which 
 not only gives a dignity of character but also serves to preserve 
 masses of solid masonry in the four columns, in spite of the very 
 large windows demanded for practical reasons, and to present the 
 material in a way which will be effective in the foreshortened view in 
 a narrow street. The first-story windows, extending almost from 
 column to column, have straight heads with a projecting balustraded 
 cornice. Those of the second story have semicircular arches upon 
 separate pilasters, with emblematic figures life-size, carved in the 
 spandrels, by J. Massey Rhind. Over the centre window the figures 
 represent "Method" and "Trust"; and over the other two, " Man- 
 ufactures " and " Agriculture," and "Railroading" and "Shipping." 
 Over these the main cornice is broken round each column, so as not 
 to obstruct daylight. An attic of liberal height surmounts the order. 
 It is divided into three panels separated by statues on pedestals 
 
57 
 
 standing on each column. The panels are rich carvings of the Na- 
 tional, State, and City coats of arms, set in elaborate openwork scrolls 
 and foliage, behind which are windows for the ventilation of the third 
 story. The dome which surmounts this attic is principally an internal 
 feature, providing great height and abundance of light to the large 
 Exchange room. It cannot be much seen from the street, except at 
 certain points, and the architectural composition of the exterior is 
 complete without it. 
 
 The entrances are by porches at each end of the facade. Rusti- 
 cated arched doorways, nine feet wide and seventeen feet high, with 
 handsome vestibules, afford dignified and ample approaches. 
 
 One, the eastern, is used by the Clearing House, and the other 
 by its one tenant, a bank occupying the whole of the ground floor and 
 a part of the basement. These banking offices are of unusual extent 
 and convenience. They include eight thousand feet of floor space, 
 with windows on the side alley and rear courts, as well as the great 
 windows fourteen feet wide at the front. The bank basement is 
 equally well lighted. It contains clerical space and vaults, and 
 dining-rooms and other accommodations. 
 
 The Clearing House for its own use reserves a wide hall on the 
 east side, with a principal staircase for general business and with a 
 private stair and elevator for staff and board uses. The main stair- 
 case is not supplanted by elevators in this building as in many 
 others. The peculiar circumstances of nearly two hundred clerks 
 arriving and departing almost simultaneously would, if elevators were 
 to be used, have required ten or a dozen cars which would be idle at 
 all other times. The stair is more available and is therefore treated 
 with more of the old-style importance. It is six feet wide, with easy 
 steps and square landings, and massively built with Ionic columns and 
 balustrades, so as to be a striking architectural feature. The white 
 effects of the marble exterior are also continued through the halls 
 and staircase work in marble, and enamelled white and gold ironwork. 
 
58 
 
 The second story is the principal one. Here are the Adminis- 
 tration offices of the Clearing House, consisting of a Reception office, 
 a Manager's office adjoining the Assistant Manager's and Clerks' 
 offices, all of which are toward the front of the building to the left of 
 the stair hall. On the right are placed the Board room, with one 
 hundred chairs and with desks for presiding officer, secretaries, etc. 
 There are anterooms with usual conveniences ; one for coats, etc. ; 
 one for small committees. The hall of this Board-room department 
 is reached from the main stair hall and also by a large private 
 elevator from the private hall below. This elevator, which is moved 
 by electricity, also serves for the transfer of bullion, coin, and books 
 to the vaults, and has been specially strengthened and secluded for 
 that purpose. In addition, a private stair extends from this floor up 
 to the roof and down to the basement. The Board room is a square 
 room treated massively with rich and heavy effects in decoration. 
 The ceiling is in deep gilded panelling, with large cornices supported 
 by marble pilasters. Daylight is afforded by a top light with orna- 
 mental panelled glazing, and by windows placed at the two sides, so 
 that neither the Board nor its Officers have to face an annoying 
 glare. Communicating with the Board room and the small Com- 
 mittee room is the Library, intended to be used also as a large 
 Committee room. It adjoins the Manager's office, and completes 
 the circuit around the whole of this story. An object in this 
 arrangement is to make these handsome rooms a suite available for 
 official receptions and other ceremonies, which, although of only 
 occasional occurrence, are yet of much importance. At such times 
 the movement of the visitors is in one direction only. Entering at 
 the Reception room, they pass on through the other departments and 
 reach the hall from the other side. 
 
 The remaining part of this floor is the Cash department, occu- 
 pying the central square of thirty feet immediately in face of the 
 stairs and adjoining the Assistant Manager's office. This is the 
 
59 
 
 office where the daily balances are received from or paid to each bank 
 after the amounts have been adjusted in the Exchange or Clearing 
 room on the floor above. The Cash department, and, in fact, the 
 whole of the second floor, is treated with considerable architectural 
 effect. The great height permits of handsome ceilings. Intersect- 
 ing vaults are used over the executive offices, and an elliptical dome 
 with glazed "eye" for daylight over the Cash department. The 
 Library has a coved ceiling of rectangular shape. The large Board- 
 room ceiling is of massive enriched panel work of Roman Renais- 
 sance type. The whole story has been treated in the manner of the 
 old public buildings upon which this is modelled. 
 
 The third story is reached by a continuation of the principal 
 stair. It consists chiefly of the great Exchange or Clearing room, 
 sixty feet square, with two extensions or wings, making its greatest 
 length eighty feet. This is a noble room, very simply treated yet of 
 great dignity. The ceiling is a dome rising twenty-five feet above 
 the twenty-foot walls. It is panelled in fireproof staff in Roman 
 Renaissance style, and the walls have pilasters of a Corinthian order 
 supporting the cornice and dome. The large floor is occupied by 
 the sixty-six desks of the settling clerks, each of whom has his own 
 numbered station. The great space is needed to facilitate the visit 
 of every clerk in turn to every other clerk, which is accomplished by 
 an arrangement of the desks in serial order and a sort of "counter 
 march " during which the exchanges are effected. This is an inter- 
 esting operation, which need not be more than referred to here. 
 The Manager's gallery, from which the business is directed, is at one 
 end of the room, raised a few feet and reached by marble steps. It 
 is also accessible by the private stair and elevator for the convenience 
 of the officers and visitors. The whole is lighted by a great iron and 
 glass skylight forming the upper part of the dome. 
 
 At the rear of the Clearing room is a wing of the building divided 
 into three upper stories. One floor, reached by private stair and 
 
6o 
 
 elevator, has dining-rooms for officers and clerks, and a large pantry 
 and other conveniences. The next has the kitchen and appurtenances 
 and janitor's dining-room, and above that the janitor's private rooms. 
 There are also two spare rooms, one arranged for staff use, with bath- 
 room, etc., another as a spare office. In the attics there are spaces 
 for storage, and others occupied by ventilating fans. 
 
 The basement remains to be described. The Engineer's depart- 
 ment occupies a space under the sidewalk and the entrance hall. 
 Here are steam boilers for heating and engines for pumping. The 
 motors for elevators and much of the other machinery are electric. 
 Four elevators for vault and cellar purposes are used in addition to 
 the passenger elevator. Two of these are used to receive coin or 
 bullion from the sidewalk and transfer it direct to the vaults. Beyond 
 the Engineer's department, and guarded by double walls and steel 
 grilles, are the large money vaults of the Clearing House, three in 
 number. These are of most perfect modern construction, of welded 
 steel and iron laminated compound plates, which combine drill-proof 
 tempered steel with the toughest fibrous iron, to resist explosive 
 forces, and, with a system of inspection devised by the architect, are 
 absolutely unassailable. The steel cells are surrounded by an open 
 space for patrol by the watchmen, who have clear view, not only of 
 the sides but also the top and bottom of the vaults. There are also 
 concealed defences against attack by force, and electricity and steam 
 may be utilized in new ways as means of defence and to give alarm. 
 
 The construction of the whole building is most massive and per- 
 fectly fireproof. A steel skeleton is used to strengthen the framing, 
 and the walls are all designed of the full thickness usual in buildings 
 not of the skeleton class. The columns, girders, and floor beams 
 throughout are each separately calculated for their strains and loads, 
 so that a rigid economy of construction is practised, although the 
 standard is fifty per cent, higher than that of the usual office build- 
 ing rules. 
 
6i 
 
 The sanitary engineering is thorough ; every part of the build- 
 ing is suppHed with fresh air by ducts from fans and relieved of foul 
 air by others, and this system is for summer use as well as winter, 
 supplying cool air independent of the heating. 
 
 FROM "STONE" 
 
 At the level of the main floor the stairway opens out in a vesti- 
 bule or entrance hall immediately adjoining the counting rooms of 
 the Clearing House. This occupies the centre of the building and 
 is supplied with counters and inclosures much like a bank. The 
 ceiling is filled with a low, plainly cofTered dome with a sky fiat sky- 
 light in the centre forming part of the floor of the Clearing room 
 above. On the front, and also opening into the entrance hall, is a 
 corridor-like series of apartments, lighted by the large windows of 
 the facade. Here is an anteroom, the Assistant Manager's room, and 
 the Manager's room ; the two former are separated only by a rail and 
 counter ; the latter is cut off from the other parts by a screen of 
 brass and marble. The three form a loggia-like series with a contin- 
 uous ceiling of arches and vaults agreeably frescoed. An interest- 
 ing point in the planning here is that, as the building line on the 
 street was not at right angles to the sides, there was an obliquity in 
 the site that must be taken care of in the plan. The inner wall of 
 these rooms is made straight, and the outer follows the building line. 
 The furthest arch of the ceiling, as we enter the anteroom from the 
 main vestibule, is a true round arch, but the others are ellipses of 
 different diameter. This succession of variously curved arches has, 
 however, been so cleverly managed that the differences between 
 them would be set down to the effect of perspective instead of to 
 structural causes. The result is entirely satisfactory, the rooms 
 being ample for the uses to which they are put, and so cleverly 
 
62 
 
 treated architecturally as to offer the utmost apparent symmetry. 
 Polished pilasters of white Italian marble line the walls, and light- 
 colored pieces of Sienna marble are used as panels in the wains- 
 coting, below the windows and the counter of the anteroom. 
 
 Passing through these rooms the visitor enters the Library, a 
 large rectangular apartment, lighted on the side and end, and finished 
 with a high wainscoting of panelled polished mahogany. The wood- 
 work is extremely well done, without any elaboration save the monu- 
 mental treatment of the doorways and the window frames, with a 
 large mantel on the side and bookcase opposite. Uncarved and un- 
 pretentious as the panelling is, the effect is very rich, with brass orna- 
 ments and delicate lines of gold, dependence being placed more on 
 the rich coloring of the material than on its architectural adornment. 
 The coved ceiling is panelled, with some spaces filled with a painted 
 decoration, while the others are left free for the paintings to be 
 added from time to time. The furniture of the room is in keeping 
 with its stately treatment, a fine dark green leather and curtains of 
 the same color affording a most agreeable harmony with the warm 
 dark wood. 
 
 The further door of the Library leads to a corridor running the 
 full length of the building, and marking, in a measure, the sepa- 
 ration between the front and rear portions. This division is not 
 accurately true on the second floor, which is wholly given up to the 
 monumental rooms, the state apartments, as they may be called, of 
 the Clearing House. Directly facing us, as we leave the Library, is 
 a small Committee room on the opposite side of the corridor. From 
 here we enter the Board room, which fills the centre of the back 
 part of the building, or we may walk down the corridor and enter it 
 at its main door. From whatever point of view the Board room is 
 entered, one receives an impression of splendor which is entirely in 
 keeping with the, use made of it. It is the largest room on this 
 floor, and is rectangular in shape and covered with a richly coffered 
 
63 
 
 ceiling, gilded and colored, with a large skylight in the centre. The 
 outer wall, which is the rear wall of the building, is left blank ; in 
 the centre is a monumental niche with Ionic columns carrying a 
 pediment, and before which is the chair and desk of the presiding 
 officer. Large windows admit light from the two sides of the room, 
 the walls being marked off by Corinthian columns of polished 
 Sienna marble, with gilded capitals, a dado of the same material 
 carried wholly around it. The frames of the doorways at the end 
 of the side walls are of the same rich material, which is also em- 
 ployed for the more elaborate monumental doorway in the centre 
 of the entrance wall, and for the niche opposite. The walls are 
 tinted pink and decorated in the upper part with a wide border or 
 frieze, containing the seal of the Association. It is a truly sumptu- 
 ous room, artistically treated in a very successful way, rich in effect, 
 and yet so well harmonized that the splendor of its materials is not 
 intrusive. 
 
 In the front of the building the third story is filled with the Clear- 
 ing Room, a large apartment covering the entire area of this part. 
 It is sixty feet square, with two wings, or extensions, that make its 
 greatest length eighty feet. It is covered with a large dome, whose 
 lower surface is treated in richly decorated panels, while the upper 
 part is of glass. Were the Clearing House situated in a free, open 
 space this dome would form a feature of the exterior ; but placed, as 
 it is, in a narrow thoroughfare, the dome has not been considered in 
 the external design, and has an internal value only. There it is 
 most successful, adding greatly to the spaciousness of the apartment 
 it covers and giving a sense of freedom and of space impossible 
 with a flat ceiling. Architecturally this room is treated with the 
 utmost simplicity. The walls are marked with plain white marble 
 pilasters surmounted with gilded Corinthian capitals, smaller pilas- 
 ters with Ionic capitals being placed on each side of the windows. 
 
64 
 
 The boldest effect is in the direct application of the dome to 
 the square of a flat ceiling without the use of pendentives or 
 other curved surfaces to effect the transition. The dome, therefore, 
 directly covers the room without the introduction of the usual 
 architectural conventions. It was a bold expedient perhaps, yet 
 eminently successful. It permitted the use of a dome — the most 
 beautiful of all coverings to a room — without the great expense 
 attendant upon the use of pendentives, giving this architectural 
 feature a practical utility that it does not have where the usual 
 conventions are followed. 
 
 The architectural treatment of the exterior of the Clearing 
 House is most impressive. Essentially simple in its elements, the 
 design has been so enriched with beautiful detail as to make it one 
 of the most notable buildings in the metropolis. The main building 
 — and the entrance wings are not more than mere entrances — is 
 treated with four engaged Corinthian columns, standing on pedestals, 
 the wall between which forms the base wall of the front. Large 
 windows fill the spaces between the columns, lighting the banking 
 room within. Above, each bay has a single high-arched window, 
 with panelled sides and enriched arches, with figures in the spandrels. 
 A balcony before each window, with rich balustrades, completes the 
 parts of this story. Over the arches is the entablature of the col- 
 umns, which is surmounted by the attic story, the front of which is 
 treated with a pierced design including the National, State, and City 
 coats of arms. The front practically comes to a conclusion with the 
 cornice of the attic, the dome, as already explained, forming no part 
 of the external design, though in the reproduction of the water-color 
 drawing made by the architect it is included in it. 
 
 There can be no question of the success of this front. It is 
 stately, dignified, rich ; it is monumental, it is good. The signal 
 concession to commercial requirements that may be noted in it is in 
 
65 
 
 the windows of the first story being wider than those of the second — 
 a detail of no great consequence in itself, though doubtless a point 
 that the conventionalists would object to. The great columns that 
 form the chief feature of the design are eminently effective in secur- 
 ing broad window space and serving, at the same time, as a thor- 
 oughly legitimate form of decoration. It should be noted that the 
 capitals of these columns have been especially studied for this build- 
 ing and are not direct copies from the antique, a procedure not often 
 followed in modern classical productions and the more notable since 
 the departures from ancient models are not sufficient to appear indi- 
 vidual or even original to the casual spectator. 
 
 Beautiful and successful as this building is, it teaches a more 
 important lesson than architecture alone. A new day has dawned 
 for architecture when shrewd men of business deliberately expend a 
 large sum of money in purely monumental construction, as has been 
 the case here. The building is eminently useful, and fitted for its 
 especial purposes in a very thorough manner, but there has been no 
 concession to commercial requirements in its art. It expresses a 
 noble public spirit, and its influence upon the community of which it 
 is so superb an adornment must always be for good. It is some- 
 thing to accomplish this with a building, but it is seldom it has been 
 so well done as here. — Barr Ferree. 
 
66 
 
 Members of the New York Clearing House Association, January, 1896 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 Ass't Cashiers. 
 
 Bank of New York, N. B. A . . . 
 
 Manhattan Company 
 
 Merchants' National Bank 
 
 Mechanics' National Bank 
 
 Bank of America 
 
 Phenix National Bank 
 
 National City Bank 
 
 Tradesmen's National Bank... 
 
 Chemical National Bank 
 
 Merchants' Exchange Nat'l B'k 
 
 Gallatin National Bank 
 
 Nat'l Butchers & Drovers' B'k. 
 Mechanics' and Traders' Bank 
 
 Greenwich Bank 
 
 Leather Manufac'rs' Nat'l B'k. 
 
 Seventh National Bank 
 
 Bank of the State of New York 
 American Exchange Nat'l B'k. 
 National Bank of Commerce . . 
 
 National Broadway Bank 
 
 Mercantile National Bank 
 
 Pacific Bank 
 
 National Bank of the Republic 
 
 Chatham National Bank 
 
 People's Bank 
 
 Nat 1 Bank of North America . 
 
 Hanover National Bank 
 
 Irving National Bank 
 
 National Citizens' Bank 
 
 Nassau Bank 
 
 Market & Fulton Nat'l Bank. . 
 National Shoe & Leather Bank 
 
 Corn Exchange Bank 
 
 Continental National Bank. . . • 
 
 Oriental Bank ^ 
 
 Importers' and Traders' Na- 1 
 tional Bank, )' 
 
 National Park Bank 
 
 East River National Bank 
 
 Fourth National Bank 
 
 Central National Bank 
 
 Second National Bank 
 
 Ninth National Bank 
 
 First National Bank 
 
 Third National Bank 
 
 N. Y. National Exchange Bank 
 
 Bowery Bank 
 
 N. Y. County National Bank . . 
 
 German-American Bank 
 
 Chase National Bank 
 
 Fifth Avenue Bank 
 
 German Exchange Bank 
 
 Germania Bank 
 
 United States National Bank. . 
 
 Lincoln National Bank 
 
 Garfield National Bank 
 
 Fifth National Bank 
 
 Bank of the Metropolis 
 
 West Side Bank 
 
 Seaboard National Bank 
 
 Sixth National Bank 
 
 Western National Bank 
 
 First National Bank, Brooklyn 
 
 Southern National Bank 
 
 National Union Bank 
 
 Liberty National Bank 
 
 N. Y. Produce Exchange Bank 
 
 E. S. Mason 
 
 Stephen Baker 
 
 Robert M. Gallaway 
 
 H. E. Garth 
 
 Wm. H. Perkins.... 
 
 D. B. Parmly 
 
 James Stillman 
 
 James Macnaughtan 
 George G. Williams. 
 P. C. Lounsbury 
 
 F. D. Tappen 
 
 G. G. Brinckerhoff. . 
 
 I. Boskowitz 
 
 John S. McLean 
 
 JohnT. Willetts.... 
 John McAnerney . . . 
 
 R. L. Edwards 
 
 Dumont Clarke 
 
 W. W. Sherman .... 
 
 F. A. Palmer 
 
 Wm. P. St. John.... 
 
 H. P. Brundrett .... 
 Oliver S. Carter .... 
 George M. Hard.... 
 
 ScottToster 
 
 Warner Van Norden 
 Jas. T. Woodward . . 
 
 R. B. Ferris 
 
 H. K. McHarg . . . . 
 
 E. A. Brinckerhoff. 
 Alexander E. Orr. . 
 
 F. P. Olcott 
 
 W. H. Male 
 
 J. A. Roosevelt . 
 
 A. S. Apgar 
 
 A. H. Stevens . . 
 
 Charles Olney 
 
 J. T. Baldwin 
 
 C. V. Banta 
 
 G. W. Garth 
 
 Walter M. Bennett. 
 Alfred M. Bull .... 
 Geo. D. Meeker . . . 
 J. W. Clawson 
 
 W. H. Macy, Jr... 
 
 James Hall 
 
 James B. Colgate. 
 
 J. Pierpont Morgan 
 H. Hoagland 
 
 '. F. Havemeyer. 
 M. M. Packard, I 
 J. M. Donald, )' 
 
 Charles H. Fancher. C. S. Brown 
 
 W. H. Oakley I 
 
 " " Harris !A. Si ' " 
 
 R. Bayles 
 
 John M. Crane 
 
 William A. Nash . . . 
 E. D. Randolph . . . . 
 Clinton W. Starkey . 
 E. H. Perkins, Jr. . . 
 
 Edward E. Poor 
 
 Charles Jenkins 
 
 J. Edward Simmons 
 Edwin Langdon 
 
 C. B. Fosdick 
 
 John K. Cilley 
 
 George F. Baker . . . 
 A. B. Hepburn 
 
 D. B. Halstead 
 
 H. P. DeGraaf 
 
 Francis L. Leland . . 
 
 H. Rocholl 
 
 H. W. Cannon 
 
 \. S. Frissell 
 
 M. J. Adrian 
 
 S. C. Schaefer 
 
 James H. Parker . . . 
 Thomas L. James . . 
 W. H. Gelshenen ... 
 
 Richard Kelly 
 
 Theo. Rogers 
 
 Christian F. Tietjen 
 Samuel G. Bayne. . . 
 
 A. H. Stevens 
 
 Brayton Ives 
 
 J. G. Jenkins 
 
 Isaac Rosenwald . . . 
 Joseph C. Hendrix. . 
 
 A. Gilbert 
 
 Ino. A. Hiltner. . . 
 
 T. T. Barr 
 
 J. T. Agnew 
 
 G. F. Goodhue . . . 
 
 Stuyvesant Fish. . . 
 Raymond Jenkins . 
 ( C. N. Bliss, / 
 "I J. G. Cannon, ( 
 
 ( H.C.Fahnestock. 
 
 / J. A. Garland, 
 1. B. Woodward... 
 
 W. H. Albro 
 
 R. Hamilton 
 
 W. H. Jennison.... 
 
 Theo. Dreier 
 
 Wm. H. Porter.... 
 
 Geo. Rothman 
 
 ( H. W. Schmidt, / 
 '/ Chas. A. King, f 
 
 W. P. Thompson . . 
 
 A. Van Santvoord . 
 
 las. McCutcheon . . 
 
 5. Kelly 
 
 W. B. Isham 
 
 J. Mulford 
 
 S. G. Nelson 
 
 W. E. Roosevelt... 
 
 V. P. Snyder 
 
 W. S. Johnson. . 
 J E. O. Leech, 
 I G. M. Haven, 
 
 H. M. Maxwell. 
 
 W. J. Quinlan, Jr.. 
 Allen S. Apgar 
 
 A. W. Sherman 
 
 W. H. Chase 
 
 Fernando Baltes. . . 
 William A. Hawes. 
 Isaac H. Walker... 
 Geo, W. Adams . . . 
 
 B. C. Duer 
 
 Edward Burns 
 
 William C. Duvall. 
 
 A. T. J. Rice 
 
 Fred. B. Schenck.. 
 
 S. C. Merwin 
 
 Charles H. Stout .. 
 
 H. P. Doremus 
 
 Wm. Milne 
 
 Alvah Trowbridge. 
 
 Wm. Halls, Jr 
 
 Geo. E. Souper 
 
 David C. Tiebout.. 
 
 W. H. Rogers 
 
 A. Gilbert 
 
 John I. Coles 
 
 Loftin Love 
 
 Alfred H. Timpson 
 Nelson G. Ayres. . . 
 E. Townsend 
 
 C. H. Patterson 
 
 , Scofield. 
 
 Henry Chapin, Jr. . 
 
 Isaac Howland 
 
 F. C. Mayhew 
 
 Frank M. Breese . . 
 T. F. Frederichs . . . 
 
 J. T. Mills, Jr 
 
 Frank Dean 
 
 Charles L. Adrian. 
 J. A. Morschhauser 
 Henry C. Hopkins. 
 Wm. T. Cornell . . . 
 
 R. W. Poor 
 
 A. Thompson 
 
 E. C. Evans 
 
 Theo. Bertine 
 
 J. F, Thompson ... 
 
 A. E. Colson 
 
 Henry A. Smith. . . 
 
 W. A. Field 
 
 J. H. Carr, ist Ass't 
 Edward O. Leech . 
 
 j E. T. Hulst. 
 
 I G. P. Hall. 
 W. E. Trotter. 
 J. W. Karriman. 
 
 Jno. Sage. 
 P. G. Dodd. 
 G. S. Whitson. 
 
 J. S. Carr. 
 N. Olcott. 
 Chas. J. Day. 
 
 J C. H. Bogert. 
 
 ) J. V. Lott. 
 
 W. B. T. Keyser. 
 W. H. Strawn. 
 Geo. A. Zabriskie 
 H. Dowd. 
 W. J. Lighthipe. 
 
 W. E. Williams. 
 A. D. Seymour. 
 
 j P. J. Graham. 
 I G. H, Hulin. 
 E. J. Baldwin. 
 
 D. O. Underhill. 
 L. S. Lee. 
 
 E. H. Baldwin. 
 
 C. C. Slade. 
 Geo. Goeler. 
 Geo. F. Krapp. 
 
 ( J. J. McAulifife. 
 
 I J. M. Doremus. 
 T.C.Van Santvoord. 
 W. L. Douglas. 
 
 Harburger. 
 I. D. Mallory, : 
 
 G. W. McGarrah. 
 
Officers and Committees 
 OF THE NEW YORK CLEARING HOUSE 
 
 FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 6, 1896 
 
 Tresident. 
 WILLIAM A. NASH, 
 
 President Corn Exchan^:- Bank. 
 
 Secretary. 
 WILLIAM H. PORTER, 
 
 Vice-President Chase National Bank. 
 
 Manager. 
 WILLIAM SHERER. 
 
 Assist ant -Manage r . 
 WILLIAM J. GILPIN. 
 
68 
 
 Clearing House Committee. 
 EDWARD H. PERKINS, Jr., Chairman, 
 
 President Importers' and Traders'' National Bank. 
 
 GEORGE G. WILLIAMS, 
 
 President Chemical National Bank. 
 
 HENRY W. CANNON, 
 
 President Chase National Bank. 
 
 JAMES T. WOODWARD, 
 
 President Hanover National Bank. 
 
 A. B. HEPBURN, 
 
 President Third National Bank. 
 
 Conference Committee. 
 HORACE E. GARTH, Chairman, 
 
 President Mechanics'' National Bank. 
 
 DUMONT CLARKE, 
 
 President American Exchange National Bank. 
 
 THOMAS L. JAMES, 
 
 President Lincoln National Bank. 
 
 GEORGE M. HARD, 
 
 CLINTON W. STARKEY, 
 
 President Oriental Bank. 
 
69 
 
 U^ominatwg Committee. 
 R. L. EDWARDS, Chairman, 
 
 President Bank o/tlu- State of New Vori. 
 
 WILLIAM H. OAKLEY, 
 
 President National Citizens' Bank. 
 
 A. S. FRISSELL, 
 
 President Fifth Avenue Bank. 
 
 RICHARD KELLY, 
 
 President Fifth National Bank. 
 
 F. M. HARRIS, 
 
 President Nassau Bank. 
 
 Committee on t/Jdmissions. 
 ALEXANDER GILBERT, Chairman, 
 
 Vice-President Market and Fulton National Bank. 
 
 GEORGE S. HICKOK, 
 
 Cashier National Park Bank. 
 
 STUART G. NELSON, 
 
 Vice-President Seaboard National Bank. 
 
 WILLIAM H. PERKINS, 
 
 President Bank of America. 
 
 A. TROWBRIDGE, 
 
 Cashier National Bank of North America. 
 
70 
 
 zArbitraHon Committee. 
 E. H. PULLEN, Chairman, 
 
 Vice-President National Bank of the Republic. 
 
 THEODORE ROGERS, 
 
 President Bank of the Metropolis. 
 
 STEPHEN BAKER, 
 
 President Bank of the Manhattan Company. 
 
 CHARLES H. FANCHER, 
 
 President Irving National Bank. 
 
 EDWARD C. SCHAEFER,