Ear on Chicago; Let Me Have Tens and Fives: First National Bank

That was the sound of thousands of nickels and dimes being counted and sorted at the first national bank of Chicago, located at 38 South Dearborn in the heart of Chicago's loop. This bank covers a full city block and is bounded by Madison, Monroe, Dearborn, and Clark. Today we're going behind the scenes of this important financial institution and our story will open in the mail department. First of all, let's talk to the manager of the in -mail department, Gus Bridges. Gus would you tell us a little bit about the in -mail department? We handle approximately 25, 60 pound bags of mail a day, 10 to 15 ,000 letters. We receive approximately 70 sacks of registered mail daily, 800 to 1 ,000 letters registered. When the mail comes in in these large sacks, what happens to the sacks once they get here? They're dumped on a large table and certain

things, of course, are picked up first. And that's where the advantage of this RR comes in because those are in a separate box at the post office and that is kept out of the bulk mail. Do you handle anything else as far as the bank is concerned besides incoming mail? Yes, we do. We're a service department. We have the messenger service for the entire bank as well as the incoming mail. What do you mean by messenger service? Do you send messages throughout the bank to the personnel? Is that it? Oh, that's handled by the page department. We handle the outside the bank messages, the various items that are sent out by for the collection department to other banks for payment and various items which are presented to our own customers throughout the bank. We have boys on the street all day, some 75 to 100 all over the city. We cover the entire loop area and a good portion of the area outside. You certainly handle a tremendous amount of mail, don't you? We do.

That machine you're hearing is the outmail machine. We've moved over to a machine which does the stamping. Mike Burke is the manager of the outmail department. Mike, what's going on right here with this mailing machine? Well, we're sealing and stamping the mail through the meter machine. When the mail comes off of the machine it's placed on a table where it is checked for a postage end for sealing. It is then sorted into two categories, Chicago and out of town mail. Now this mail when we sort it helps not only helps the post office but gives us a better train mail schedule and also a better distribution of our Chicago mail. This is not only automatic but it also has a bottle of what looks like some sort of water or liquid over there. That water seals the envelope as it goes through. The water is placed on the gum end of the

envelope and sealed. I see. So in other words you put an envelope in here that is not sealed, not stamped and when it comes out it's a finished product. Finished product. Well, this is almost like a factory right inside of a bank, Mike. Now this machine is stamped number four and I see two more over there. How many do you have all two? We have five. Five machines. And how many pieces of mail do they put out each day? Well, we can our production our maximum production is about 100 ,000 pieces but we average about 28 ,000 pieces a day. And where do they go, Mike? All over the world, I guess. All over the world. Mail goes Africa, Europe, Chicago and every state in the Union. Is that right? That's right. All right, Mike. Thank you very much. That is a check processing machine. It's a tabulator at which a girl is working and punching keys. And this is the

check processing department which handles in -town checks out of town checks and checks on the first national bank. I want to talk to Ed Jeskey about the check processing department. And first of all, Ed, you have a number of machines over here. What do they do? Well, it's a combination machine that endorses, proves deposits, sorts them. Sorts them down 24 different and separate ways. Now, of course, in all check handling, there's one cardinal rule and that is the fewer times we listed check in order to collect that are sent it out of the bank. That's what we study in order to use this machine properly. When I Ed, she's pounding out a number of keys on this machine with numbers on them, going through a group of checks. Could you explain that process to us? Yes, we are. These checks have been sorted manually in a rack. We have a number of systems in the bank that we have to use at all time because of peak periods. Machines are used in this way. Those we can't process on the proof machine or run on adding machines.

Why is it that you can't prove them over there? Well, because of these peaks that we could have as many as 900 ,000 checks in the day on the floor and as many little is 500 ,000. So we have to find ways because of the cost of equipment and that, you have to find ways to process it. What is your volume, Ed? How many checks do you have? Well, we say we average around 600 ,000 a day and access to 600 ,000 a day. 600 ,000 checks. That's right. A day. And how much money would that come to? Well, it depends. We have deposits and excess of a 200 million on certain days. Is that right? That's both from banks and from commercial customers. This is the transit department and we're standing right in the middle of a large number of IBM machines in a large well -lighted room. We're going to talk to Bob Sornson, who is the manager of the transit department. Bob, you have a lot of machines in here and a lot of employees working. Tell us about it. We have roughly 110

people, including both the men and women. A number of IBM proof machines and use are about 47. The primary function of this department is the presentation and collection of checks drawn on out of town banks in American dollars, including Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, and certain other United States dependencies. In the processing of checks, we route them to many principal cities in the country including all 48 states. The checks are dispatched by an air mail wherever feasible. Bob, how many items do you handle each day here? Well, on an average, an upward of 250 ,000 checks a day. How about your yearly amount? Well, they run well over 65 million closer to perhaps 70 million. I guess these IBM machines do the work much quicker than the old method. Yes, they do. Considerably, the best feature of the proof machines, of course, is that the proof work

is in balance continually. So that the time they're closed out, the work is practically all balanced and the checks can be moved on much faster. Just a few steps away from the transit department is the out clearing department. The manager is Paul Brown. Paul, tell us about the out clearing department. Only out clearing department primary purpose of that is to clear all checks coming into our bank drawn on other Chicago banks on the 79 other Chicago banks throughout Chicago. Some are direct members, some are affiliated, some are non -affiliated members. We clear and handle all those checks. We break them down into the 79 different categories by processing through the IBM machines. They are delivered at the clearing house at a given time and settlement is made there, the dollar settlement. This dollar settlement can

exceed $100 million in a high day. It runs from $50 million upwards daily. We've come now to the bookkeeping department and we're going to talk to the manager, Fred Tenner. Fred, there's a young lady here working on a bookkeeping machine. Could you tell us what you do of what she does in this department and what the department handles? Yes, she handles checks drawn principally on our bank. We have accounts carried with our bank, both commercial and banks and bankers. On the commercial accounts we have approximately 46 ,000 accounts. On the banks we have a 2029 accounts. How many employees do you have in this department? I have 235 employees in this department. How many individual pieces of information do you handle here? We handle approximately 37

million items yearly. That average is 160 ,000 per day. We run an average of 0 ,610 to 620 accounts per bookkeeper. We have 85 bookkeepers in this particular department. Well, with that volume you keep everybody pretty busy. Well, there isn't much time for lagging. We do certainly keep after the work. We do want to do a good job and send out a statement that the bank can be proud of. Fred, do you handle only checks on this bank? We do. In this department we handle principally checks drawn on the first national bank of Chicago. We have come now to the commercial check tabulating department. We are going to talk to Howard Vistine. First of all, Howard, we are standing in front of a couple of machines which I understand that you are embedded, so to speak. That is correct. The first happens to be what we term a checks ray. It's a device where we x -ray a group of card

checks at one and one site. We can site through 300 card checks at one time. With this device we can remove all staples, clips or any metal matter that might be attached to a paper card check. Then the next machine just to the right of that. What happens there? That is a press, a hydraulic 25 ton hydraulic press which we use to press all card checks. We leave them in this device for four minutes at 25 ton of pressure. In this fashion we can iron out poles, wrinkles, or any mutilated checks. It cuts down our mutilated check operation to a very minimum. Then those press checks come over here to the top over to the solder and of course after being x -rayed and pressed we know as they pass through the solder they are not going to have any interference as far as machine breakdown by removing the pins and straightening out these checks. What about this machine over here Howard? This

happens to be a tabulator and this tabulator now is running checks at the rate of 150 checks a minute. In this manner we have eliminated the manual handing and got to strict mechanical operation. We have cut down our help and time by processing our card checks in this fashion. We have come now to the wire transfer department. We are going to talk to the assistant cash here, Mr. AF Fritz. Mr. Fritz, this teletype machine which we hear in the background is pounding out a message to the first national bank of Chicago from Birmingham, Alabama saying please send 20 dollars by wire to western union. Now tell us exactly how this transaction occurs. This particular transaction is coming to us from a permanent individual, one of our commercial customers asking us to send money to him to Alabama and in this particular case we will charge his account and forward his funds to a two to western union

rather than through a corresponding bank because he had specifically requested we be transferred through western union. Ordinarily these transfers are made through our corresponding banks in the various towns of substantial amounts. Now this is not a typical transaction. I would say this is not a typical transaction for this particular purpose which is our usual run of business in this department. All right, suppose we get into that usual run of business. Just exactly how does it happen? Well a bank who has carried balances with us for instance may request that the transfer of some of their balances through their New York Correspondent or through the Federal Reserve Bank in their particular city. They will wire us either over our bank wire or western union wire requesting us to charge their account, transfer these funds. We will then charge their account and credit the corresponding bank's account. How much volume do you do here? Our volume or annual or daily volume runs around $200 million

a day in transfer in and out. How many wires do you have? Our wires over a period of a year may run about 245 ,000 wired in and out. How much money is involved in these transactions per year? Our annual runs about 45 billion. 45 billion dollars. We've come now to the savings department of the First National Bank of Chicago and it covers the largest area of the entire bank. There's about 50 ,000 square feet and it covers a half of city block. Probably more people are connected with the savings department of a bank than any other. We're going to talk to the vice president of the savings department Mr. Walder -Clau. Mr. Claw, how large is your department? How many employees and how much money do you handle and so on? Well we have 170 employees in this department, 95 men and 75 women. We service

350 ,000 savings accounts. That's accounts of all kinds including regular savings accounts, Christmas club and vacation club accounts. Presently we have on deposit $473 million. Mr. Claw, how do most people bring their money in to put in their savings account? They bring it in cash or check or how? Well most people will bring it in the form of a check. However we have a great many people that save coins of various denominations at home and cigar boxes, coin banks, cookie jars and things like that. We have several hundred of those that come into the bank every day to have those coins counted and deposited to their account. Is that right? They bring in their coins and dump them in the window. That's right. We have coin counting machines there and offer that service to our depositors. Well you have a machine in which you put the coins to count them. That's correct. Well that's a wonderful way to save isn't it? It is. It's one of the most popular ways I had to say. Thank you very much Mr. Claw. Thank you.

Right next door to the savings department is the consumer credit department. Jim Thompson is the assistant cashier and manager of that department. Jim would you tell us what consumer credit is and what your department does? In our consumer credit department we make small monthly installment loans for any personal needs such as sickness, dental bills, consolidation of debts, any personal needs that the customer may need. In addition to that we finance the purchase of a newer used automobile, home improvements, home appliances and furniture and so forth. Well then that particular department of the bank is very important to the small man isn't it? Yes certainly is. How many accounts do you have Jim? Well roughly there are direct payment loans or probably about 20 ,000 accounts at the moment. How much money would that involve? Close to about 20 million dollars. 20 million dollars. Okay Jim thank you very much.

Now that sound you hear is the dropping of a good old American nickel out of a coin machine into the rows of paper and they're rolled up and placed over here in a bin. This is the silver department we're going to talk to Elmer Stang who is the manager. Elmer I suppose you have a machine for every coin down here don't you? Yes we have well they're interchangeable we can this particular machine is for nickels only but the most of them are for all the nomination except silver dollars. Well now just exactly tell us what happens Elmer. Where do you get the nickels from in the first place? All these nickels that we're running on this particular machine every day we receive from the Illinois Bell Telephone Company and they're nickels that are deposited in coin boxes throughout the city. Each dated deposit approximately 15 ,000, 16 ,000 dollars of nickels with us. Now how do they come to you and what kind of packages? 200 dollar packages and they're all each

bag weighs 44 pounds and in the course of a day we handle about four times of silver on this particular machine. You take the bag of nickels and just drop it into the hopper and it comes down and feels as true as that is. The shaking device distributes the coins to all five units and each unit is wrapping a roll of nickels. The empty tube is the nickel wrapper is fed into the unit and it makes a quarter turn and the 40 nickels are thrown into the wrapper and then to make another quarter turn and the roll is crimped and sealed and then it falls through below. That gives you a two dollar roll. That gives you a two dollar roll. Now here's the gentleman that came over here with the bag and shoved some of the rolls into the bag and tied it up and put it on a cart. What's he doing? Well he after the rolls are put into the tray you see why that tray holds 200 dollars in wrap nickels. They're prepared for our various customers who

need a wrap coin for their daily operation and when he gets about eight thousand dollars on that truck that's just about all you'll be able to handle and push so he pushes it into the ball and we put it in the bins and pay it out to the various customers who ask for it. I'm going to walk over here with me just a moment. Here is a machine which is being operated manually and it has dimes. Is this the only hand operated machine that you have? No we have 13 hand operated machines like this. We have 24 machines in the apartment all together. 13 are hand operated from this manner and and this one large one wraps five rolls at a time. Now this fellow here has a large bag of dimes and he's dumping it into a large tray with holes in the tray. What are the holes for? Well the release any dirt or any foreign matter that may have accumulated in the bag when it was prepared by the customer and it's foreign matter if it gets into our machine while it'll damage the machine so we have a perforated tray there to try to eliminate

some of that. Now there we have the sound of the dimes falling into this revolving tray and I think come down through the funnel and into the round container, a paper container again. All right Elmer thank you very much. A very interesting department indeed and thank you for showing it to it. You're welcome sir. In the foreign banking department we're going to talk to the vice president Mr. Leslie H. Dryer. Mr. Dryer I suppose that the foreign banking department is just what the name implies. That's true. We assist manufacturers and commercial people in the financing of their foreign trade involving both importation and export. In addition to assisting domestic companies and their operations abroad we also facilitate the payment for merchandise through banks abroad. Do you have any problems in regard to language? Languages not much of a difficulty in as much as

in recent years I would say in the past 15 to 20 years we find that the top financial and business people from almost all over the world speak excellent English. Obviously for certain transactions in the department we do have people that understand foreign languages. We have one of our interpreters speak seven languages for translating letters that might command and then a number of our other people speak foreign languages to individual customers that are not familiar with English that want to have personal transactions in the way of remittances and so forth from abroad. Thank you very much Mr. Dryer for telling me about this part. Those sounds you heard were a burst of a Thompson submachine gun and we've come now to the target range, the pistol range of the first national bank which is located down in the basement. Everybody

that goes into a bank obviously sees the guards who stand around but perhaps you didn't know too much about what their duties are and how the department is formed. So in order to clarify that situation we're going to talk to Captain George Hahn who is in charge of the police department of the first national bank. Captain Hahn I understand this is the third largest department in the state of Illinois. That's right Mr. Hill. Now Captain do you have certain processes through which you go through in case there was an attempt to hold up or something of that nature? Yes we have we have an alarm system of course and very so often we go through practice on this alarm system. Captain you have some targets over here and what you have registered some mighty fine scores. What is this particular group of targets? Well these of course are the better scores as you see and the various weapons for instance the target over here is a 38 such as we carry and the scores you see is 95 of course the possible there would be 100

and of course we have the the other caliber the 22 caliber which is a 20 which is also very effective for training and that score of course another 90 95. I noticed that Captain Hahn has a 97 over here. That's right that's the high mark. Well there's a few other lands that do equally as good and we hope that they all will eventually but they're generally pretty good marksman and we have a lot of experts. Captain you have somebody over here at the target range perhaps we could go over here and hear him fire a couple of rounds. Who is this gentleman? Mr. Hill this is Mr. McCoy in one of our range masters. How do you do sir? I wonder if you could fire a couple of rounds for us and see what kind of a shot you are. All right. 20 rounds in the Thompson sub -machine guys. That's right.

About where did you hit? I couldn't quite tell. Right down the center you can see them big bursts down there. Fire between three to five rounds to burst otherwise they're going to get away from shoot high. I see. All right thank you very much. We've come now to the Bond Department and today there's a special transaction in this department and we're going to let George be went vice president of the Bond Department tell us about it. We are now in process of completing a transaction totaling six and three quarter million dollars which represents the largest school suburban school bond issue of Cook County and I also believe school district bond issue in the state of Illinois. Our bank in conjunction with three other banks and 13 dealers purchased these bonds a month ago. Today we are completing the transaction and are now prepared to pay the township school treasurer for this bond issue. Bond council is here and has just tendered his approving opinion certifying to the legality

of those bonds. Mr. Burns I'm now pleased to present to you a check in the sum of six million six hundred and thirty seven thousand eight hundred and twenty seven dollars and fifty cents in consummation of this transaction. Mr. Burns. Thank you Mr. Went the proceeds of this bond issue are to be used for a much desired and a long awaited billing improvement and rehabilitation program for our district. It will provide for the additional enrollment in our school public schools. Thank you very much gentlemen. While Mr. Went we have witnessed a very unique ceremony here in the transaction of the bond. I suppose this is a routine business for you. Mr. Hill to a great extent it is we are one of many banks throughout the nation that engage in the underwriting and distribution of state county and municipal bonds. Today we

witnessed the largest transaction of a school bond issue in the state of Illinois outside of the city of Chicago. That's happening almost daily throughout the country. The primary function of a dealer bank such as ours is to bring buyer and seller together. We are now in the office of Mr. Walter M. Hyman the executive vice president of the First National Bank. Mr. Hyman what part has the bank played in the growth of Chicago? Mr. Edward E. Brown chairman of the board of the First National Bank of Chicago. Originated the bank slogan building with Chicago since 1863 when he assumed leadership of the bank many many years ago. We have used that slogan continually and we use it in practically all of our advertising. Under his leadership the First National Bank contributed substantially to the economic growth of Chicago not only Chicago and the middle west but the national economy as a whole. The bank has made funds available in the form of loans to national corporations located in cities distant from Chicago. So the bank's business is truly on a

national basis and through its foreign banking department is engaged in international finance as well. Thus it is evident that the bank as a matter of policy will always be intensely interested in the economic welfare of the Chicago area and will lend its aid and support for its continuous growth and importance both from a commercial and financial viewpoint. There is abundant evidence that Chicago is destined for even greater achievements in civic, economic, social and financial affairs and we may well be proud of the recognition given the new Chicago spirit by national publications. It will always be the policy and desire of the First National Bank of Chicago to participate to the fullest extent and the realization of these aspirations. Thank you very much Mr. Hyman.