APPENDIX 153 
The Freedmen’s Bank has been subjected to no less than 
three of these raids during the last eighteen months. The 
run made upon the bank by the failure of Jay Cooke & 
Co. cost us no less than $500,000, and required the with- 
drawal of a half million dollars from safe and profitable 
investments. Add to these causes the general prostration 
of business, the great loss of confidence to all moneyed 
institutions, the disturbed condition of affairs, especially 
in the District of Columbia, where most of our loans have 
been made, and you will easily understand why the Freed- 
men’s Bank is now under a heavy strain, and found it 
necessary to seek protection in the recent amendments to 
its charter. 
In respect to the future of the bank some of the main 
sources of danger and ruin have been entirely removed. 
The trustees, governed by an increasing concern for the 
safety of their depositors rather than for large profits in 
the way of interest, have abandoned their unwise compe- 
tition with others in the offer of a high percentage of 
interest, and have now resolved to pay only such a rate 
as the net earnings of the bank will warrant them in 
paying. They have also given up their wild and visionary 
schemes of banking, and have abandoned the policy of 
establishing branches in remote corners of the country. 
They will now establish none where there is not a very 
strong likelihood of their becoming self-sustaining. Not 
only have they discarded the policy of extension, they have 
adopted the policy of closing up as speedily as is convenient 
and practicable the non-paying branches now in operation. 
They are not only for decreasing the number of branches 
but also the number of employees, and for reducing the 
salaries of their agents to the lowest point consistent with 
securing the services of good men. With this retrenchment 
of expenses, with wise and vigorous management, and with 
the returning confidence of our people, it is believed that 
the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, which has 
already been a powerful instrument in promoting the 
moral, social, and intellectual welfare of our people, will 
survive and flourish despite the machinations of its 
enemies.