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Noontime and bankers knew that the public was taking cash out of New York banks, savings banks in particular. A savings bank in Newark had already been besieged. Now in 42nd Street opposite Grand Central Station a crowd gathered in the magnificent Byzantine banking hall of the Bowery Savings Bank, largest private savings bank in the world, one of the oldest mutual savings banks in the U. S., famed for its conservatism and strength. Good natured but eager, bootblacks. Jewish matrons, silk-stockinged stenographers and shawled immigrants carried off cash from the paying windows. Three o'clock and the bank closed with a mob still at its doors. The banking disease had reached Manhattan, heart of the nation's banking system.
At 4 p. m. Citizen Roosevelt called at the White House—to pay the visit of courtesy due on the day before inauguration. Courtesies passed—and were forgotten. What to do about the banks? Citizen Roosevelt sent for Professor Moley, President Hoover for Secretary Mills. Four heads were put together. Messages from Governors were urging a national banking moratorium. Citizen Roosevelt was willing the President should proclaim it. President Hoover was not. Should the Government guarantee 50% of all bank deposits? President Hoover was willing to send an emergency message to Congress. Citizen Roosevelt was not. An hour and a half passed. They parted. Nothing was done.
Bankers everywhere began to count up the toll of damage done. Hasty calculators figured that on Thursday and Friday $500,000,000 of currency had been drained from the Federal Reserve System, $500,000,000 on top of $732,000,000 that had gone into circulation in the previous seven days. An all time record: $116,000,000 worth of gold had been taken from the Federal Reserve banks in one day, mostly by the withdrawal of foreign balances.
Citizen Roosevelt should have gone to bed early on the night before he became President. His mother and children were at a National Symphony Orchestra concert. First number played after the intermission was "On the Prairie," by Composer William H. Woodin. Mr. & Mrs. Woodin had a box and invited guests to hear it, but when the number was played, Mr. Woodin was not there. He was at the Mayflower Hotel along with Secretary of State-to-be Hull, and Texan Jesse Jones of the R. F. C. conferring with Citizen Roosevelt. Worry, worry—what to do about the banks?
When Citizen Roosevelt went finally to bed, little Mr. Woodin rushed with Professor Moley to the Federal Reserve Board which was in session, and connected by long distance telephone with two other meetings: one in the office of George Leslie Harrison, Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan, the other in the office of Eugene Morgan Stevens, Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago.
At the New York Bank were gathered: Thomas Lament and Russell Leffingwell, stalwarts of the House of Morgan, Frank Altschul of Lazard Freres, Richard Whitney, president of the Stock Exchange, Mortimer Buckner, head of the Clearing House, Joseph Broderick, State Superintendent of Banks, President Gordon Rentschler of National City Bank and James Perkins, its chairman—successor of Charles Edwin Mitchell whose downfall had helped precipitate the national crisis.