The Bank Panic and the Fifty Million Dollar Backstop
A telegram from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad promises federal intervention to stabilize agricultural banking in the Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Local agent R. R. Woods received a communication this week from F. C. Dow, Coast Division Superintendent, quoting a telegram from Mr. Bryam, president of the C. M. St. P. railroad: 'The finance corporation which has been organized at the suggestion of President Coolidge which will have behind it the resources of the War Finance Corporation, the large financial and business institutions of the Country and the Railroads, will be in a position to function within a few days. This corporation is being formed for the express purpose of protecting the Banking and Agricultural situation in the Northwest and its full resources up to fifty million dollars will be available for that purpose. It will be used for protection of all Sound Banking institutions in the Northwest and later on for financial assistance to the farmers themselves. I suggest you wire this information to all agents on lines west where banking difficulties have been or are threatened as an assurance that as soon as this corporation can get in shape to function its resources will be available and it should quickly and effectively improve the situation, subdue the fears of depositors and afford protection for all sound banking and business institutions.'
“It should quickly and effectively improve the situation, subdue the fears of depositors and afford protection for all sound banking and business institutions.”
This 1924 dispatch reflects the acute anxiety of the post-WWI agricultural depression, where rural banks were failing in droves across the Pacific Northwest. The promise of a fifty-million-dollar federal backstop mirrors modern debates about government liquidity support during economic volatility.
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