Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1903 — RUN ON ST. LOUIS BANKS. [ARTICLE]

RUN ON ST. LOUIS BANKS.

•oraaada Are Promptly Mat by !»• ati tattoos Affected. From shortly before 1 o'clock Tuesday afternoon until the closing hour, 8 o’clock, runs were made in the savings departments of three banks of St Louis and at the same time more than the ordinary amount of withdrawals by savings depositors were noticeable in the other banking institutions. The run, so far as it can be traced, was started by a disquieting rumor from the outside that seemed to strike St Louis shortly after noon to the effect that the savings institutions there were unsound, and like a prairie fire it spread in a flash through the streets and different mercantile establishments whose employes represent the majority of the Savings depositors. With a rush the corridors of the Lincoln Trust Company, the Mercantile Trust Company and the Mississippi Valley Trust Company were filled with men and women, all eager to withdraw their money- The scene in any one bank was duplicated iu the other two. A line of people with bank books in their hands and faces eagerly scanning the Httle barred windows of the bank tellera stretched out into the street and intermingled were policemen and bank officials counseling calmness aud giving assurances of solvency. St. Louis bankers and trust company officials with one voice lay the blame for the runs on Chicago stock brokers, whom they accuse of deliberately circulating malicious and utterly unfounded rumors concerning St. financial institutions for the purpose of depressing aud “bearing” the stock market. As soon as the runs started all other business was laid aside and every facility was afforded for the prompt payment of deposits. The clause which gives the bank the privilege of withholding payment until sixty days after notification waa waived and amounts were paid rapidly, regardless of their Bize. There was no disorder manifested at any of the institutions, and in many eases depositors who had hurried to withdraw their money departed without it nfter haring conversed a few minutes with the officials. The directors of the different trust companies at meetings Tuesday night decided to euforce the thirty and sixty-day notification clause in an effort to stop all tendency to a continuation of runs.