Business & Finance: Bankers

Nearly 2,200 bankers, from East, West, North, South, from the country, from the cities, convened at Atlantic City for the 49th annual session of the American Bankers' Association.

The city men were cheerful, said times are good, pointed gladly to extensive building, high wages, scarcity of skilled labor, slight unemployment, labor's big bank deposits, "more money in circulation than at any time since the War."

The country men were morose, talked gloomily of poor crops, unemployment, low farm prices, agricultural depression (particularly in the Southwest) the European situation, the "political rampage" of the Mid-West farmers. The country men expected, however, a swing of the pendulum. They sought no legislation.

Addresses, including a curtain-raiser by Charles E. Mitchell, President of the National City Bank of New York, and the Association President's annual address by J. H. Puelicher of Milwaukee, dealt largely with domestic economic problems—in contrast to last year's international speculations at the conference in Manhattan. Chief discussion topics: the Mid-West farmer revolt; sporadic distrust of bankers in general and the Street in particular; the attacks on the Federal Reserve system; the New York bucket shop exposeé: the return of competition to world markets.