The week that the Democratic Party assembled in Chicago to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 was the worst Depression week in Chicago banking. Nervous depositors swarmed into even the biggest Loop banks, demanded their money. Runs hit good banks and bad alike. That was the week that Charles Gates Dawes negotiated his notorious $90,000,000 RFC loan for his now defunct Central Republic. Long queues in the main banking rooms of First National were not dispersed until President Melvin Alvah Traylor addressed the crowd, explaining that he had enough cash for each &...
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