THE WORK OF COMMISSIONERS 115 
sioners, failing to get relief from Congress, were 
forced to proceed with their disagreeable task. 
This task was to close up the branch banks and 
transfer all accounts to Washington; to bring the 
chaotic accounts of the institution into some 
order; to manage the property belonging to it; 
to collect debts and claims, to turn assets into 
cash; and finally to pay dividends to the deposi- 
tors as soon as funds were available. The Ne- 
groes were so averse to seeing the branches closed 
that for several years it was necessary for the 
commissioners to keep agents on small salaries? 
at some of the old branches to explain the situa- 
tion to the depositors and persuade them to send 
in their claims. 
Although the commissioners advertised far 
and wide for the pass books to be turned in, the 
depositors for a while held back, as their suspi- 
cions had been excited by that faction of the 
trustees who had opposed the closing of the bank 
and by the speculators who wanted to buy pass 
books for a small fraction of their value. The 
accounts of about 50,000 depositors were quite 
small, and it was found that these were easily 
discouraged and soon became somewhat indiffer- 
ent. Some of the former trustees continued to 
announce that the bank would certainly be re- 
opened, declaring that the recent legislation of 
Congress relating to the bank was merely a 
Democratic attack upon the Negro race and that 
the closing of the institution was nothing but a 
political measure. Charges were also made that 
Leipold was speculating in bank books. To pro- 
22 10 to $25 a month.