(3 of 3)
Before balloting could start, the meeting had to make way for the afternoon cinema show, and arrangements were made to install polls in the mezzanine of the Hotel Roosevelt. But soon Banker Bennett withdrew his name, and next day Banker Adams was elected second vice president by acclaim. The little bankers had been avenged for last year's convention.
Banker Adams will be preceded in office by Tom K. Smith of Boatmen's National Bank in St. Louis, who is now first vice president and close enough to the New Deal to have served for a while under Secretary Morgenthau of the Treasury. Thus, until after the next Presidential election the ABA will be directed by New Deal friends. As head of Riggs National, biggest bank in Washington, 1937 President Robert V. Fleming has played ball with the Treasury, the RFC, Home Owners Loan Corp. He made a point of sponsoring Marriner Eccles before local banking associations. An assiduous joiner, he is 45. bald, able, convivial, something of an institution in the Capital's social scene.