Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1910 — Attention Given Women Bank Patrons [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Attention Given Women Bank Patrons

NEW YORK.—“Ladies’ accounts respectfully solicited.” This polite invitation hangs up in numerous bank windows and is printed in alluring circulars setting forth the reliability, convenience and attractiveness of the banks that cater to women, as almost all banks do nowadays with the exception of those in the distinctly financial quarter. Yet it is within quite recent days that the anecdote - regarding the woman, presumably typical, who drew a check against “no account” in any bank she fancied was passed merrily around. In reality, she Is as much out of date as Dickens’ Dora, who wept over her household accounts because the figures would not add themselves up right. In 1869, when Joseph S. Case, at that time a teller in the Second National bank, persuaded the directors to fit up a room for the accommodation of women and give them a separate window Ter the transaction of their business, there were so few women carrying separate accounts that

other officers of the bank were far from enthusiastic over the -innovation. There were only five depositors when the bank opened this department. The substantial growth in the deposits made by women and the talk of the matter attracted the attention of other banks, not oniy »n New York, but in other cities, which sent representatives to look into the matter and the Second National’s plan, widely copied everywhere, met with success. It was only a few years after the Second National bank established its women’s department that the Fifth Avenue bank did the same thing. It has today probably the largest number of women depositors of any bank in New York—between four and five thousand. At the time of the panic, three years ago, the number of women depositors in the banks was emphasized. Many stood in line as doggedly as the men and others hired substitutes to keep their places. Ga-ihe whole they behaved neither better no? worse than, men under stress of panic. They were just human beings who did not want to lose their money. In a city bank one will notice that the women who put In and draw out money arc of all classes. Women of great wealth are conspicuous but not predominant.