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 depositors
 as soon as funds were available. The Negroes
 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 situation
 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 suspicions
 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 indifferent.
 Some of the former trustees continued to
announce that the bank would certainly be reopened,
 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.