Note 389 — Chapter XIX

It is easier, sometimes, to make an assumption regarding a set of facts than to find out what they are! In this case, some work was involved. Old newspapers had to be hunted up for various cities, and letters had to be written, to find out, for various cities, (a) clearings for March 17, 1909, and (b) the number of banking days in the year 1909. This work was done by Mr. N. J. Silberling, who got figures from 12 cities which had 69% of all clearings outside New York. These cities are: Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Baltimore, New Orleans, Atlanta, Providence, St. Paul, and Seattle. The daily average of clearings for these cities in 1909 was $136,222,436; the actual clearings for March 17, 1909, was $132,961,273. The ratio of average daily clearings to actual clearings on March 17 was 1.0245:1. The increase needed in the figure for deposits outside New York, then, was only 2.45%. Mr. Silberling, wishing to be conservative in view of the 31% of outside clearings not investigated, allows outside clearings to be 3% below normal. On this basis, following Professor Fisher's method of computation, he multiplies the deposits assigned by Professor Fisher to New York by 1.28, and the deposits assigned to the country outside by 1.03, getting total deposits for the day of 1.11 billions, as against Professor Fisher's figure of 1.20 billions, and a total for the year of 333 billions, as against a total obtained by Professor Fisher of 364 billions.