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through local associations, they have cooperated to an unusual degree for the common good of all.

As I recently said at the conclusion of an address to the Corporate Fiduciaries Asso ciation of Chicago:

"There are, and will be, banks and trust companies whose reputation for

service is rated AAA 1, and of course we all recognize that the competition should be, not one of rates, which should be the same for all in the same locality, but a competition which strives to uplift the general level of fiduciary service and 80 benefits both the competitors and the public, as well.”

AN AID TO GOOD MANAGEMENT AND FAITHFUL ADMINISTRATION

JOHN S. ROSSELL

President, Security Trust and Safe Deposit Company, Wilmington, Del.

The Twentieth Anniversary of your splendid publication is the occasion for heartiest congratulations, and for expressions of gratitude for the magnificent work accomplished. The successful career of TRUST COMPANIES Magazine is another instance of the "survival of the fittest"; all the more deserving of the highest commendation because of the beneficial results attained.

I have followed TRUST COMPANIES Magazine closely since its first appearance, and have come to regard it as an authority in fiduciary matters. It can be truthfully said that it has made the very largest contribution to the development of the Trust Company as a useful American institution, and for this reason alone is entitled to the grate

ful acknowledgments of those upon whom the responsibility for good management and faithful administration devolves.

Substantial interests of our people are -largely associated with the services of trust companies, and their general welfare will be advanced and sustained in no small measure as this service is broadener and extended. My earnest hope is that the future of TRUST COMPANIES Magazine will be marked by the same forward step that has characterized it through the past years, and to this end I am sure friends everywhere will contribute their unstinted support. Permit me to add that you are deserving of special praise for your intelligent and tireless effort to make TRUST COMPANIES the valuable guide it has become.

EDUCATIONAL PUBLICITY HAS BROUGHT OUT THE HUMAN ELEMENTS IN TRUST COMPANY SERVICE

FRANK W. BLAIR

President, Union Trust Company of Detroit and former President of the
Trust Company Division, A. B. A.

To those familiar with past activities of trust companies in America there is nothing more indicative of their future development than the style of their present day advertising. When we look back a decade or two we find that banks having trust departments or trust companies themselves, used the old stereotyped form of financial salesmanship. Their advertising was heavy and dignified and in many instances repellent in that it too frequently appealed to the public in terms "over their heads." No attempt was made to differentiate between the very human ele

ment predominant in trust business itself and the sometimes too formal business relationship existing between the bank and its customers.

Undoubtedly, an early lack of foresight in the proper presentation of trust services hindered trust company development. Most of whatever customers learned about trust companies was the result of their having satisfied their curiosity. It is only recently that the clients of banks have become properly educated to the value of trust facilities through advertising. The business of trust companies

is founded on practical financial principles. The precepts of economy and thrift pertain to them and are as solidly a part of them as they are of the science of banking. There enters into trust work, however, the human element-that peculiar, sensitive, psychological aspect of business life which lays bare the emotions and workings of the heart in a way not calculated with in banking affairs.

Trust companies were negligent no doubt in not grasping earlier the opportunity of educating their clients to the value of what they had to offer in a personal way. Great stress is being laid on institutional service nowadays. Insurance companies though using it in the past as one of their most convincing arguments, are laying special stress now upon its value. The idea of institutional service was never properly impressed by financial institutions upon their clientele until very recently. Perhaps only when it became particularly apparent that the public were eager to learn, the idea of explaining such services through educational propaganda, illustrated advertisements, booklets prepared as choice literature, etc., matured under the auspices of the Trust Company Division of the American Bankers Association. Since the Division's inception, trust companies as a whole have prospered and have benefited by its well appointed Publicity Program.

Nowadays most progressive trust companies map out their advertising programs at the beginning of each year. These schedules are arranged so that each particular phase of trust service is given sufficient attention and is explained in an interesting manner. The result of these educational attempts has been to awaken in the public's mind a knowledge of the real heart interest that the trust company has in its affairs. The people have learned to differentiate between the cold hearted business corporation and the trust company greatly humane and exerting a cooperative, if not a beneficent interest, in the needs of the family and the home. Gradually folks are being made aware of the character of trust officials and are becoming conscious of the fact that dependents may be better cared for and estates more properly administered and conserved through the efforts of incorporated companies made up of sincere and capable members.

From a trust standpoint the phrase corporate trust, though foreign a few years ago in the average household, is gradually becoming

a known and respected term. Unquestionably while the surface of prospective business has not as yet been scratched, the educational propaganda fostered by the Trust Company Division is adding momentum to a movement which will make the trust company more essential, if not the most essential factor in financial life. Many of our companies have been looked upon in our several communities as "the friend of the family" as well as "the builder of business."

A decade or two ago business here prospered without the services of trust compa. nies generally. Today if the facilities of the modern trust body were removed from business there are countless enterprises which would cease to exist and many commercial and manufacturing endeavors which would be most sorely tried. We know the struggle trust companies have had in many sections of America and we have viewed with alarm the efforts of small minded characters to hedge in and encompass their work with insincere and ill born legislation. It is to be deplored that men of mean vision are given the power to check the development of seed sown on fertile soil. Yet our history for the past two decades has shown that where the greatest energy has been used to checkmate our progress, the best results have been achieved. This has been brought about through the increased endeavor of those conscientious characters who are found in the membership of every organization, whose purposes are humane, straightforward and true.

There can be no permanent restriction now to the growth and development of the trust idea. Provincial hindrances may arise, but the undaunted spirit which has characterized those sturdy pioneers who moved the frontier of trust company work ever westward will forever be perpetuated in our continued advancement. To fail to appreciate the tremendous value of the Trust Company Division of the American Bankers Association is to take from the flower its fragrance. Those who attempt to minimize its glory are not of the spirit reflected on our standard.

And we would add this personal touch. We, ourselves, have felt that in the enlightenment and education of a receptive and interested clientele. there has been no more efficient, appropriate and successful medium than the magazine in which these remarks appear.

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FORMER PRESIDENTS OF THE TRUST COMPANY DIVISION OF AMERICAN BANKERS

ASSOCIATION

It should be noted in the above grouping that F. H. Goff died March 14, 1923; that Oliver C. Fuller is Chairman of the First Wisconsin National Bank and President of the First Wisconsin Trust Company: that H. P. McIntosh is Chairman of the Guardian of Cleveland: that Ralph W. Cutler died Nov. 7, 1917 and John H. Mason is Chairman of the Bank of North America & Trust Co. of Philadelphia.

PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE TRUST COMPANIES DURING THE

PAST TWENTY YEARS

THEIR ROLE IN MAINTAINING THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL
INTEGRITY OF THE NATION

JOHN W. PLATTEN

President of the United States Mortgage & Trust Company of New York

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Apropos of the twentieth anniversary of TRUST COMPANIES Magazine, Mr. Platten presents a survey of the growth, the new avenues and objectives of trust company service which keep pace with the responsibilities and fiduciary tasks involved in the tremendous expansion of the nation's wealth and productiveness during the past two decades. In discussing the huge totals of banking and fiduciary business, Mr. Platten also dwells upon the duties and opportunities which they suggest for greater public and community service that must serve as inspiration to trust company men in their daily work.)

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XPLANATION for the impressive increase in the volume of banking and fiduciary business committed to the care of trust companies is to be found in the tremendous development and utilization of the nation's natural and productive resources, especially within the past twenty years. With such expansion and broad diffusion of wealth there is created a correspondingly greater demand for those composite, responsible and very necessary functions which can only be provided through a corporate entity like the modern trust company and banks with trust department with their immunity from the limitations and shortcomings of human life. The trust company has gone as far as any other type of business or financial organization in endowing a corporation with a soul and preserving the human element.

The presentation of available statistics showing the growth of their banking and fiduciary business must fail to give any adequate conception of the important place which the trust companies occupy in supporting the economic and financial structures of the country. We read much today that is misleading in regard to social and psychological aspects of wealth and perpetuation of fortunes. To lay bare the transactions and ramifications of trust company services, in connection with the administration of trusts and estates and in safeguarding corporate obligations, would be a liberal education. The billions that are held in trust or for estates

are mostly represented by securities and productive property that are vital to carrying on the business of the nation. Through the medium of trust companies they are prevented from going into non-productive or wasteful channels.

One year before TRUST COMPANIES Magazine was started in 1904 the United States Mortgage & Trust Company of New York issued the first compilation known as "Trust Companies of the United States," which, for the first time, made available detailed and most complete statistical survey of the banking resources of the trust companies of this country. Trust companies came into existence over a hundred years ago and the best traditions of the older companies have been preserved through varying conditions and changes, to the present day. It was not, however, until after the era of railroad and industrial incorporation during the last decade of the past century, that trust companies gave such promise of their later growth in volume of business. Also, with the more intensive use of educational efforts and systematic publicity, the public has arrived at a better appreciation during the past two decades of the real value and purpose of trust company service. Countless new avenues and improved methods of fiduciary and banking services have also been opened during this period in meeting new needs of business, finance and property conservation.

Trust Companies Twenty Years Ago and

Today

The first reliable statistics of trust companies, from the time the first corporation was clothed with trust powers over a century ago, are those for the year 1872 showing 40 companies with capital of $24,354,000; deposits of $90,713,000 and resources of $131,803,000. By 1895 the number had increased to 228 with resources of $705,000,000 and in 1900 there were 525 companies with combined deposits of $1,028,000,000. The first compilation issued by the United States Mortgage & Trust Company in 1903 showed 912 reporting companies with capital of $317,000,000; surplus and undivided profits of $362,000,000; deposits, $2,183,000, 000 and resources of $2,910,000,000. During only four years since 1903 in the exhibit of trust company progress, was there any interruption in the rapid upward movement of aggregated trust company resources, namely in 1908, following the panic year of 1907, when all banking resources declined; in 1913, 1916 and in 1921. By the year 1910 we find that there were 1,527 trust companies with combined capital of $446,000,000 ; surplus and undivided profits of $519,000,000; deposits $3,308,000,000 and resources of $4,610,000,000. Ten years later, in 1920, covering the period of the World War, the number had increased to 2,241 with aggregate capital of $716,000,000; surplus and undivided profits, $832,274,000; deposits, $9,764,000,000 and resources of $12,451,877,000. The latest issue of "Trust Companies of the United States" reveals further marked growth by June 30, 1923, with 2,478 reporting companies having capital of $910,971,000; surplus and undivided profits, $984,413,000: deposits, $11,828,000,000 and resources of $14,441,460,000.

Nation-wide Expansion of Trust Service

While fully two-thirds of aggregate trust company resources are held by trust companies in the six states of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and Massachusetts amounting to $9,767,000,000 the returns show that the "trust company movement" is gaining ascendancy in all parts of the United States. This is especially true of the Pacific Coast section where California trust companies alone report resources of $1,200,000,000. It may be of interest to show the relative standing of the thirteen states which show the largest amount of trust company resources as compared with the returns ten years ago as follows:

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Aggregate Individual and Corporate Trusts

Although the trust companies command approximately 28 per cent of the banking power of the United States their total of nearly fifteen billions of banking resources conveys no adequate measure of their vast holdings of individual and corporate trusts as well as their responsibilities in various other trust relationships in corporate finance. Except in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and one or two other states trust companies are not required to make official reports of their trust department holdings.

Constantly new fields of service are opening to trust companies as evidenced by the recent development of Life Insurance Trusts and Living Trusts. The increase and multiplication of estate and income taxes by the federal government and the various states have not merely added additional burdens and duties upon trust companies in protecting beneficiaries, but have also rendered their services more valuable to the public. Proof of their zeal in the protection of estate property is the constant vigil with which trust company interests, especially through the Trust Company Division of the American Bankers Association and through local associations, follow the trend of tax legislation and rulings which has resulted in more equitable enforcement and refunding of many millions of unlawfully collected taxes.

The New Vision

A well known public man recently said: "We have passed out of the age of individualism and into an age when practically every institution is being re-examined to ascertain its capacity to cooperate." That applies not only to finance, but in greater measure to new conceptions of public service and humanitarian progress. The Community Trust plan, conceived by the late Judge F. H. Goff and amplified and adapted to New York conditions by Mr. Frank J. Parsons is now

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