The Daily Worker

'LOAN' PROMISE PROVES FAKE; MORE BANKS FAIL; HEAD OF MORGAN LIES

Bosses Press Hid Big Run on Banks That Followed Crash
Lamont Wants Faith Withdraw $100,000,000 in Less Than Week

NEW YORK. - Organization to demand return in full of their funds is taking place among the 300,000 small depositors of the Bank of the United States. A whole series of meetings of these depositors is being called. The first of these will take place Thursday, December 18th at Great Central Palace, 90-96 Clinton St. Everyone of the depositors who are concerned are urged to attend and take part in this meeting. Organizational steps will be taken to demand return of the deposits. Other meetings in other sections of the city will be organized.

NEW YORK. - Not one of the 400,000 depositors of the wrecked Bank of the United States received a penny Tuesday, despite the attempt of the capitalist press for the past week to make them believe that they would be given loans up to 50 per cent of their deposits.

Long lines waited in the zero weather in front of every one of the 62 branches Tuesday morning to get their deposits "authenticated." But no loans were given.

The depositors were told that maybe in the early part of next week they may get a loan at five per cent interest on half of the money they put into the Bank of the United States.

The Daily Worker was the only paper in New York City which pointed out that the promise of loans for Tuesday was a fake. The chances of loans for the depositors next week are very slim, as every day reveals worse and worse conditions of the bank. The promises were made just to keep back the resentment and indignation of the depositors.

Four More Banks Fail
Meanwhile, the prediction contained in the Daily Worker of at least 100 more bank failures, based on a statement of the editor of the Journal of Commerce, is beginning to be borne out by the report that four banks crashed on the very day the Daily Worker printed this statement.

"LOAN" PROMISE PROVES FAKE; MORE BANKS CRASH: MORGAN HEAD LIES

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Three mid-West banks, two in one Iowa county, with deposits of $1,000,000 closed their doors Monday. The First National Bank of Cherokee, Iowa, with $750,000 in deposits failed. The Cherokee County State Bank at Meridan, Iowa, also shut down. In Illinois the Ina State Bank smashed.

N.C. Bank Crashes.

Another bank in North Carolina closed its doors. More than a dozen in that state have already failed within the last month. The latest to close its doors is the Bank of Mars Hill, which had deposits of over $163,000.

So serious has the banking situation become in the United States that Thomas W. Lamont, partner of J. P. Morgan and Co., was forced to make a speech at the Stock Exchange Monday to quiet down the growing nervousness and to attempt to bolster up waning confidence.

Lamont, in the course of his remarks said: "This last week has been one of especial concern for the New York community, because of a bank suspension of considerable proportions."

Boss Press Hid This.

This is an admission that was never made in the capitalist press. Every boss newspaper in the United States played down what Morgan's partner admits has caused Wall St. "especial concern." Even Lamont does not begin to bring out the real seriousness of the banking situation occasioned by this big bank crash. Hooked up with the rapid downward swing of all basic industries, the future of American capitalism is black.

In order to stiffen the masses' belief in the indestructability of the capitalist financial system Lamont was forced to say to his fellow parasites, who didn't believe him for a minute, "You know as well as I that the leading banking institutions of this city are sound, strong and a bulwark to the community. You know that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is a tower of strength."

Same As Hoover's Lie.

This is exactly what Lamont, Hoover, Klein, Barnes, and more than a hundred other of the leading bosses said about the banking system months and weeks before the largest bank crash in U. S. history took place. The same line was handed out by Hoover and Co. about the economic crisis. Facts proved they were liars. Facts will prove that Lamont is just a plain liar. Being closely connected with Wall Street, and knowing the inside of the banking situation, he knows that the truth is exactly opposite to what he says for publication.

Lamont's statement about the banks is exactly in keeping with Hoover's promise of "prosperity in 60 days" last March. The workers should have as much confidence in Lamont as they now have in Hoover's "magic 60 days" promise.

Killed News of Runs.

At no time immediately after the closing of the Bank of the United States did the capitalist press admit that there was a wholesale run on other banks. Now this news is beginning to leak out. The Journal of Commerce (Dec. 16) says:

"Runs on branches of local banks in sections of the city where the greatest nervousness prevailed at the end of last week, chiefly where foreign-born residents predominate, were said to have abated markedly, and in many cases to have ended."

So far as the capitalist press is concerned they never existed. The fact is, as admitted by the Journal of Commerce, more than $100,000,000 was drawn out of other banks in the run that followed the smashing of the Bank of the United States.