Banks

Only in Manhattan can the presidents of two multi-million dollar banks maintain practical anonymity. The two men in point are President Stephen Baker of the Bank of the Manhattan Co. (deposits: $281,483,902), and President Chellis A. Austin of the Seaboard National Bank (deposits: $175,056,084). The two men have been discussing the possible merger of their institutions, but so cautiously that some of their vice presidents and directors did not know what was going on.

As it was, in order to correct wild rumors, President Baker last week said: "While it is true that discussions . . . looking toward a possible merger of the two institutions have taken place, no agreement has been reached. It is impossible to say if a satisfactory agreement can be made." Shares in his bank are worth currently about $283 each; stock of President Austin's Seaboard National is worth about $755. If the merger succeeds, stock will be traded at about such values.

No anchorite of Wall Street, President Baker yet inherently dislikes publicity. That reticence, among other factors, prevented Mayor James Walker of New York City appointing Mr. Baker police commissioner last year, although Mr. Baker's friends assured Mayor Walker that the banker would accept the appointment as an obligation. They pointed to the facts that he is, quietly, the President of St. Luke's Hospital, Manhattan, a trustee of Columbia University, and an earnest, active Episcopalian.

So President Baker has stuck to his Bank of the Manhattan Co., the corporation which his grandfather (another Stephen Baker) helped conniving Aaron Burr create in 1799, ostensibly to furnish Manhattan drinking water against the yellow fever epidemic of that year, really to weasel a banking institution through the objections of Alexander Hamilton, whom Burr hated and later killed in duel.

In Pittsburgh, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon's Mellon National Bank has more deposits ($145,414,409) than his Union Trust Co. ($128,639,172). Union Trust employes assuage their pride by realizing that their industry brings their bank vast profits. Out of these, their directors last week declared a quarterly dividend of 50%, which is of course the equivalent of 200% a year. George Fisher Baker's First National Bank in Manhattan yields but 100% dividends yearly.