In Manhattan last week the developing billion-dollar merger of the Chase National Bank and the Mechanics & Metals National Bank (under the name of the Chase National Bank) seemed catalytic to three other banking consolidations similarly stupendous. Talk on Wall Street was that the National City Bank (the greatest in the U. S., with total assets of $1,215,033,702) was in process of absorbing the Corn Exchange Bank; that the Central Union Trust Co., the National Park Bank and the Chemical National Bank might be driven into union by Clarence Dillon, of Dillon, Read & Co. (he is reported a large stockholder in the first two); and that the Irving Bank-Columbia Trust Co. and the Chatham & Phenix National Bank and Trust Co. would join.
Comparable statistics for these banks, based on their most recent (December, 1925) publishing, are:
TOTAL ASSETS
National City $1,215,033,702
Corn Exchange 255,557,954
Total 1,470,591,656
Chase National 638,050,230
Mechanics & Metals 387,893,588
Total 1,025,943,818
Central Union 379,637,593
National Park 240,069,533
Chemical National 199,357,664
Total 819,064,790
Irving Bank-Columbia Trust Co. 454,172,040
Chatham & Phenix 308,848,271
Total 763,020,311
Of these the union of the Chase National and the Mechanics & Metals is most interesting, not only because the merger is the greatest of such in U. S. history or because their combined assets of $1,025,943,818 will make them the second billion-dollar bank in this country (outranked only by the National City), but because their histories, their traditions and their fields have been so dissimilar.
The Chase National Bank was organized 48 years ago with $300,000 capital and 18 clerks. Today it has 1,487 clerks, a capital of $20,000,000, surplus and undivided profits of more than $27,000,000 and deposits of more than $565,000,000. In deposits it ranks second only to the nearly 700 millions of the National City.
Much of its success has been due to Albert Henry ("Al") Wiggin, President 1911-17, Chairman of the Board 1918-21, holder of both jobs since 1921. Son of a smalltown, Massachusetts preacher, he could not afford to go to college. So, at 17, he got a clerk's job in a Boston bank; became an assistant national bank examiner at 23 and soon married Jessie Duncan Hayden of Boston. The panic of 1907 gave him his great opportunity. He had come to Manhattan shortly before. During the crisis J. P. Horgan found two young men upon whom he could rely, Henry Pomeroy Davison (died 1922) and 39-year-old "Al" Wiggin.
Now Mr. Wiggin is a financial giant; his counsel is eagerly sought. He is director and officer in about 30 financial, railroad and industrial organizations, member of a score of clubs, trustee of many philanthropic activities. All through he has kept his reputation of being "tremendously loyal. . . . generous to a fault ... of unlimited courage," of being a hard worker and player, "big, jovial, wholesome." Called by his first name more than any other Wall Street potentate, he is occasionally spoken of as "the man of a million friends."