"Governor"

Controlling the destinies of Chase National Bank, Equitable Trust and Interstate Trust are some 80,000 stockholders. Representing them are three directorates whose membership is over 100. Administering the banks are three chairmen, three presidents. During the past fortnight these chairmen and presidents perfected a tremendous plan. Last week the combined directorates sat, approved. On April 24 the stockholders will meet, will undoubtedly approve a merger of the banks to form a $2,814,000,000 institution, the World's Biggest Bank (TIME, March 17).

Adding the resources, striking new balances, is a comparatively easy mechanical task unless, as happened in 1926 when Chase and Mechanics & Metals were merging, in the middle of a merger the Comptroller of the Currency should suddenly call for a statement of condition. But - adding the personnels together is difficult and baffling. Working for the three banks are some 450 Big Bankers and Little Bankers. To combine them, the directors last week created a new position for the No. i Banker, befitting such a high command.

The new position is Chairman of the Governing Board, the board to consist of principal senior officers, much as the "Managing Directors" or "Council of Directors"' used by many foreign banks. Into this position will go Albert Henry Wiggin, genial, well-known Chairman of Chase. Banker Wiggin is really self-made, having no college education, no "affiliations." A strenuous hiker, he often made the famed passage of "from Midtown to Wall Street," with Charles Hamilton Sabin of Guaranty Trust and the late Henry P. Davison of J. P. Morgan & Co. Almost as prime as Chase is among banks is his collection of etchings. Although he has neither the promotional instincts of Charles Edwin Mitchell, nor the international skill of the Warburgs, Mr. Wiggin is famed as a domestic banker, was often called No. 1 U. S. banker before Chase assumed its new position.

Adroitly arranged are the other senior executive positions, none of which represents a demotion. Under Mr. Wiggin will be: bespectacled Chairman of the Executive Committee John McHugh, who was "discovered" in Sioux City by Gates W. McGarrah ; Chairman of the Board Charles Simonton McCain, who began banking by beginning banks in Arkansas; youthful Vice Chairman of the Board Robert Livingston Clarkson, scion of a banking family; President Winthrop Williams Aldrich, young Rockefeller-sponsored Equitable president. Behind these will be a directorate whose membership is a roster of potency in railroads, copper, chemistry, shipping, insurance, steel, communications.

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