Mercantile Conditions of Crisis of 1893 105 



stood as 169/166, or 1.05. That the great destruction of 

 banks was due to bad banking laws more than anything 

 else seems countenanced, to say the least, by these figures. 



Now we may take each kind of banking institution and 

 trace the facts that are most interesting in connection 

 witli it. Tlie national banks that failed were 154, or, in- 

 cluding two from South Dakota, 156; of these just half 

 (78) resumed. The liabilities of the 78 resuming were 53 

 per cent of the total for the class. The ratios of assets to 

 liabilities for all national banks was as |7/|5.65 or 1.23, 

 while for the banks .that did not resume it was 0.88. It 

 would be tedious to give in detail the figures showing the 

 distribution of failed institutions and of their liabilities 

 by sections. In general, however, almost 77 per cent of 

 the number and more than 77 per cent of the debts were 

 east of the Rockies (excluding Oklahoma, Indian Terri- 

 tory, and New Mexico). In state banks the per cent is 

 nearer 80, and other classes show in general a similar 

 condition. It would be needless, since the table shows it 

 more clearly than any save an extended discussion could 

 show it, to bring out the special features of the bank fail- 

 ures of each section. The West and Northwest show a 

 condition which may profitably be compared with the 

 showing in mercantile failures already brought out. 



A few facts regarding the whole country may -perhaps 

 be but indicated here. It will be seen that the national 

 banks failing held 40 per cent of all debts, state banks 22 

 per cent, private banks 13 per cent, savings banks 10 per 

 cent. The number of state banks was 17 per cent greater 

 than the national, but their debts were about 45 per cent 

 less, and so for the others. So also the ratio of assetS*lo 

 liabilities of all failures, whether resuming later or not, 

 was 1.23 for the national banks, 1,06 for private, 1.12 for 

 state banks, and only 0.64 for loan and saving institutions. 



311 



