Printed for the use of the Special Committee Study Problems
of American Small Business

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1942

CONTENTS

Statement of Senator James E. Murray, chairman, United States Senate

Special Committee to Study the Problems of American Small Business_-

Statement of Senator James M. Mead, chairman, subcommittee on Small

Business Risk Capital and Loans Problems, United States Senate Special

Committee to Study the Problems of American Small Business_.

A composite picture of varying viewpoints on small business risk capital

problems

Digest of 17 bills to assist small business financially, introduced into

Congress during 1939-41_.

Thirty-eight typical statements selected from thousands of letters of

small businessmen addressed to the Senate Committee to Study the

Problems of American Small Business indicating the need for small busi-
ness risk capital and low-cost loans..

Pertinent viewpoints on the risk capital and loans problems of American

small business selected from hearings before the subcommittee of the

Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, on the Mead bills....

Page

1

2

3

5

15

I. Character loans_.

II. The small businessman viewpoint__

25

III. Testimony of representatives of the National Small Business

Men's Association_

38

IV. The banker viewpoint....

68

21

21

50

82

V. The Federal Credit Agency viewpoint..

Editorial in the American Banker, Apr. 30, 1936, on the effect of the cor-
porate chain system on the demand for commercial loans by local banks__

A credit association or credit-union plan enabling local retailers to extend

seasonable credit to farmers, submitted by Flint Garrison, editor, Gar-

rison's Magazine for Independent Retailers, formerly director general,

Wholesale Dry Goods Institute..

Independent commercial banker viewpoints_-

Excerpts from Why Business Failures, by Louis P. Starkweather, associate

professor of finance, New York University.

Notes from study of financial problems of small business by Peter R.

Nehemkis, Jr., former special counsel, Securities and Exchange Commis-

sion, presented in Temporary National Economic Committee Mono-

graph 17, pp. 245–370__.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans as of Feb. 29, 1940, from

Temporary National Economic Committee Monograph 17..

Private enterprise seeks solution to small business risk capital problems,

plan of the New England Industrial Development Corporation..

Table of contents of hearings on S 2998 and S. 3839 (Mead bills), June

1940, and on S. 1482 and S. 2343 (Mead bills), May and June 1939, before

a subcommittee of the Committee on Banking and Currency, United

States Senate_

Ayres, Leonard P., vice president, Cleveland Trust Co., Cleveland,

Ohio__

Brown, Edward E., president, First National Bank, Chicago, Ill

Statements by-Continued.

Cook, H. E., President, Second National Bank, Bucyrus, Ohio-

Courtney, Charles, New York City. -

Eccles, Marriner S., Chairman, Governors of Federal Reserve

System___

Elliott, Edward, vice president, Security-First National Bank, Los

Angeles, Calif.

Ellman, Samuel H., New York City.

Emery, Dewitt M., Akron, Ohio---.

Feyl, Albert J., Atlantic City, N. J.

Garrison, Flint, New York City.

Gottlieb, George A., New York City.

Huck, Wallace, Nutley, N. J----

Jones, Jesse H., Administrator, Federal Loan Agency-

Kleckner, Joseph B., Chicago, Ill.

Koeneke, H. W., president, Security Bank of Ponca City, Okla.---

Kurtz, William Fulton, president, Pennsylvania Co. for Insurances on

Lives and Granting Annuities, Philadelphia, Pa. -

Loeb, Howard A., chairman, Tradesmans National Bank & Trust

Co., Philadelphia, Pa--

Markel, Howard, president, Merchants Bank of New York City-

Mead, Senator James M. (New York).

Modell, Harry, New York City...

Murray, Senator James E. (Montana)

Nehemkis, Peter R., Jr.-.-

Pag

5

2

2, 33, 34,

Netherland, Wood, vice president, Mercantile Commerce Bank &

Trust Co., St. Louis, Mo..

Pepper, Senator Claude (Florida) --

Nugent, Rolf, Russell Sage Foundation, New York City.

552

Perkins, James H., board chairman, National City Bank, New York

City

Schwert, Congressman Pius L. (New York).

Shuman, William I., New York City...

Smith, Walter, president, First National Bank, St. Louis, Mo-

55,

Sprague, M. W., Jacksonville, Fla

Starkweather, Louis P., New York University-

Stoddard, W. L., Boston, Mass..

Tobey, Senator Charles W. (New Hampshire).

Wagner, Senator Robert F. (New York).

Westbrook, James, Bridgeport, Conn...

Wiggins, A. L. M., president, Bank of Hartsville, S. C., representative,

American Bankers Association_

Woodward, Donald, New York City.

90

21, 39

49

31

21

57