Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/208

 clxxxvi UNITED STATES

silver, $5,255,491 ; fractional currency, $112,123 ; specie not classified, $434,845; "cash," $2,069,835. Legal tenders and other paper currency decreased $47,032,633.

In «Tuly, 1898, 3590 national banks, and, approximately, 9500 other banks, banking institutions, and private banks were in operation in the United States. During the year ending Oct. 31, 1898, 7 national banks were found to be insolvent and placed in charge of receivers. From reports made to the Bradstreet Company, covering the year closed Aug. 31, 1898, it is seen that the failures of banks other than national number 53, the assets and liabilities at date of failure being $4,493,577 and $7,080,- 190 respectively. There were 33 private bank failures, 14 State, 4 savings bank, and 2 trust company.

Building and Loan Associations "*

Building and loan associations are organizations created for the purpose of furnishing a safe means for the accumulations o.f savings, and an opportunity to secure money at reasonable rates to build homes. They are private corporations, and are usually conducted by men not trained or versed in banking. Every member of a building and loan association must be a stockholder, but the difference between a stockholder in such an association and one in an ordinary corporation for usual business purposes lies in the fact that in the latter the member or stockholder buys his stock and pays for it at once, and usually is not called upon for any further payment. In the building and loan association, on the contrary, the stockholder or member pays a stipulated minimum sum, say $1, when he takes a membership and buys a share of stock, continuing to pay a like sum each month until the aggregate of sums paid, augmented by the profits, amounts to the maturing value of the stock (usually $200), at which time the stockholder is entitled to the full maturing value of the share. It follows then that the capital of a building and loan association consists of the savings of its members paid to the association upon shares of stock, increased by the interest and premium which the association receives from loans made by it from the savings of its members. The amount of capital of the association, therefore, increases from month to month and from year to year. (See Ninth Annual Report of United States Commis- sioner of Labor.)

This class of associations has existed in the United States since about 1840. There has been no general statement for the whole country since 1893, although in some instances there