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One of his friends is Gates W. McGarrah, Chairman of the Board of the Mechanics & Metals, who will become Chairman of the Executive Committee of the new bank. (Mr. Wiggin will be Chairman of the combined Board.) He too started banking early, at 18; came to Manhattan and has remained active in banking there more than 40 years. In 1902 he was made President of the old Leather Manufacturers' Bank and, when the Mechanics & Metals absorbed it, became President of the combination in 1904; Chairman of the Board in 1922. He is a director of the German Reichsbank, being on its General Board as a result of the Dawes Plan.
His President of the Mechanics & Metals since 1922, John McHugh, now becomes President of the new Chase National.
The Mechanics & Metals, founded in 1810 and one of the very oldest in the U. S., was originally a labor bank created by members of the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen for "the benefit of mechanical interests and to be conducive to the more successful conduct of the manufactories of the city." Their initial capitalization was $1,500,000, strong competition for the only three other banks then existing in Manhattan. Its first building was the three-story, onetime home of Alexander Hamilton. Customers approached the counting room over a front lawn, on which thrifty first President John Slidell kept tethered his family cow. He slept in a room above the vault as a deterrent to marauders.
The merging institutions will pool their resources. Besides the $25,000,000 Chase Security Corp., the Chase National puts in its foreign branches at Havana, Cristobal and Panama City and its seven branches in New York City. The Mechanics & Metals contributes its 13 New York City branches, and will become a branch office of the consolidation, which for at least the present will use the headquarters of the Chase National. Certain competing branches will be wiped out to afford economies. Other savings will result from a smaller, combined overhead. Jr.