MANILA DALLY BULLU'llN 



STAIRWAY AND INNER COURT 



services of all provincial treasurers, who 

 had acted as agents of the old bank, and who 

 had headquarters in the capitals of the var- 

 ious provinces of the archipelago. The 

 intimate knowledge of local conditions pos- 

 sessed by provincial treasurers, whose offices 

 contain up-to-date information as to the 

 assessment valuation of every piece of prop- 

 erty in the province, has proved invaluable 

 to the bank since its organization and may 

 be considered as one of the most important 

 factors, if not the most important factor, 

 in its record as an auxiliary to Philippine 

 agricultural development. 



It must not be conceived that this new- 

 born activity has not produced the inevita- 

 ble storm of criticism. There has been the 

 inevitable charge that the bank has been 

 attempting to control this or that agricul- 

 tural product, and at times, the business 

 community has been patently distrustful, 

 but always, when the true facts have become 

 known, the bank has emerged stronger than 

 ever before. And always, merely because its 

 directorate still adheres rigidly to the original 

 purpose, that of producing wealth where the 

 islands have produced no wealth before. 



As might well be expected from the fact 

 that the charter granted the bank by the 

 Philippine legislature provides that 51 per- 

 cent of its stock shall be held by the insular 

 government, the bank, in one sense at least, 

 has become largely a government agency. 

 Just as there is in the Philippines a govern- 

 ment of the people, for the people and by the 

 people, there is also a bank of the people, for 

 the people, and in actual fact, a bank by the 

 people. 



When the United States entered the war 

 against Germany, this bank became the 

 logical medium for handling the Liberty 

 Loan and War Savings Stamp campaigns 

 throughout the Philippine Islands. In Ma- 

 nila, a special department for the handling 

 of this work was installed on the ground 



floor of the bank, and each of the bank's 

 provincial agencies became provincial head- 

 quarters for loan and war savings "drives. 

 The Liberty Loans were handled by the 

 bank on the same basis as they were handled 

 by the federal reserve banks in the United 

 States. More liberal terms than the federal 

 government could offer were accorded to 

 subscribers, and, true to the best traditions 

 of American banking, the service of the in- 

 stitution in the hour of need of the country, 

 was furnished free to the Filipino people, 

 irrespective of their customary banking con- 

 nections. 



The bank itself has been the largest single 

 subscriber to Liberty Bonds in the islands, 

 and through its efforts and the public! y 

 which it gave to the War Savings Stamp 

 campaign last year, both these and Thrift 



Stamps disappeared faster than they could 

 be secured from the United States. 



Today the bank is on the threshold of a 

 greater career. In the past it has been a 

 Philippine institution, but tomorrow it is 

 destined to become an Oriental institution, 

 and to furnish an organization which will 

 connect the financial arteries of the Far East 

 with those of the American nation. In 

 American banking methods it is the peoneer 

 in the Orient, while its New York branch 

 furnishes an excellent means for affording 

 the American business man the financial 

 connections which his inevitable entrance 

 into Oriental trade is certain to demand in 

 the near future. Already a fully-equipped 

 branch has been opened at Shanghai, China, 

 and an agency at Vladivostok will be the 

 next link forged in a chain that, in time, 

 will cover the entire East. 



What the bank has done in the brief period 

 of its existence is but an earnest of what it 

 will do in the future, and by its record in 

 initiating those things which have aided so 

 greatly in maintaining the prosperity of the 

 Philippines it is possible to glimpse the vast 

 field which it has conceived for it endeavors. 

 Early in 1918, largely through the advant- 

 ages derived from the close relationship 

 existing between the bank and the Philip- 

 pine government, the then-president, Mr. 

 Samuel Ferguson, as a member of the special 

 committee sent from the islands to repre- 

 sent their interests before the conservation 

 and shipping boards, was able to accomplish 

 great things for the archipelago, despite the 

 stress and strain of war conditions. Phil- 

 ippine sugar, which filled the warehouses of 

 the southern island ports and overflowed 

 onto the wharves because of the lack of 

 bottoms to carry it to the American markets, 

 was at last placed aboard shipping board 

 vessels sent to the Philippines in response to 

 the urgent appeal of the bank, acting in the 

 interest of the planters and the centrals. 



MAIN ENTRANCE 



