Minutes of actions taken by the Board of Governors of the

Pedera I Reserve System on Wednesday, February 2, 1949.

Neral

PRESENT: Mr. Eccles, Chairman pro tem.Mr. SzymczakMr. DraperMr. EvansMr. Clayton

Mr. Carpenter, SecretaryMr. Sherman, Assistant SecretaryMr. Morrill, Special AdviserMr. Thurston, Assistant to the Board

Minutes of actions taken by the Board of Governors of the

Reserve System on February 1, 1949, were approved unanimously.

Memorandum dated January 26, 1949 from Mr. Thomas, Director

ortha Division of Research and Statistics, recommending that Gordon

)1*. G.04,_-...mwood, a clerk in the Office of the Secretary, be transferred

t° the Division of Research and Statistics as a research assistant,

vith.0 change in his current basic annual salary of $3,225.601 ef-

rectiwwe as of the date on which he enters upon the performance of

401/ duties in the Central and Eastern European Section of the

n of Research and Statistics.

Coin,—4e1, recommending that the basic annual salary of each of the

toliowing employees in the Legal Division be increased as shown

belcv ) effective February 60 1949:

Approved unanimously.

Memorandum dated January 31, 1949, from Mr. Vest, General

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2/2/49 -2-Proposed Increase

NameJerome

Title From ToW. Shay Assistant Counsel $6795.40

Esther Knox Stenographer 2,799.24 2,874.48

Approved unanimously.

Memorandum from Mr. Bethea, Director of the Division of

Acialinistrative Services requesting authority to employ a key-punch

°Perator in the Machine Tabulation Unit on a permanent basis at a

41arY of not to exceed $2,724 per annum, and an additional key-

Operator on a temporary basis in the salary range for Group I

r(3:r period of not to exceed six months.

Approved unanimously.

Telegram to Mt. Sidney A. Swensrud, President, Gulf Oil

e°rPore.tion, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, reading as follows:

"Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System hasaPPointed you director of Pittsburgh Branch of FederalReserve Bank of Cleveland for unexpired portion of termending December 31, 1949, and will be pleased to haveYour acceptance by collect telegram."

Approved unanimously.

Letter to Mr. John Oden Bennett, Maxim Radio, 320 South

eelltral Avenue, Bartow, Florida, reading as follows:

A "This refers to your letter of January 24, 1949,to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

"Mr. Olin G. Barfield, Jr., representative of the.rederal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and of this Board, statesthat when he called on you on January 20, 1949, he showedjrc)11 his identification card, on the back of which there1:e his photograph, but that you refused to examine such

identification.

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"You have already received from Mr. Barfield acopy of Regulation W relating to Consumer InstalmentCredit but another copy is enclosed herewith for con-venient reference, and your attention is invited tosection 2 on pages 3 and 4, section 8(a) on pages 11and 12, and section 8(b) and footnote 3 on page 12.

"In order that there my be no possibility of mis-understanding, the Board wishes to state again and makePerfectly clear what has been requested of you and isnow being requested of you. It has not been requestedand it is not now requested that you remove any papersor records from your place of business and produce suchPapers or records, or copies thereof, at any other place.It is merely requested that you permit one or more rep-resentatives of this Board to make a routine inspectionOf the books of account, records, and other papers whichYou are required to keep pursuant to section 8(a) ofRegulation W. Any representative of the Board will befully identified. He will remove nothing from your placeOf business.

"Congress has authorized the making of inspections ofthis kind and they are necessary in order to carry out the

Provisions of the law. These routine inspections are maderegularly by the Board's representatives in all sectionsOf the country and involve no reflection of any kind onthe person whose records are inspected.

"Please advise this Board by return mail whether youWill permit such inspection to be made."

Approved unanimously.

Letter to Mr. Harris, Vice President of the Detroit Branch

or the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, reading as follows:

"Enclosed isa photostat of an article from theDecember 20, 1948 issue of 'Air Conditioning and Re-

News', published, we understand, at 450West Fort Street, Detroit 26, Michigan.

"The statement regarding the rental-purchase in-terpretation appears to be obviously in error.

"The editors may or may not wish to publish acorrection with respect to the statement, but we would

a3Preciate it if you would get in touch with them and4fer whatever assistance may seem appropriate now or

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"in the future to aid in clarifying their understandingOf the interpretation or of other phases of the regula-tion in which they may be interested from time to time."

Approved unanimously, togetherwith a similar letter to Mr. Woolley,Vice President of the Federal ReserveBAnk of Kansas City, reading as follows:

"This refers to your letter and enclosures of Janu-

arY 15, 1949, regarding your correspondence with Siebert& Willis, Inc., Wichita, Kansas, with respect to an ar-ticle in the December 20, 1948 'Air Conditioning and

Refrigeration News'."We agree with you that the view expressed in the

article is completely in error concerning the rental-purchase interpretation of Regulation W to which it

refers."We are sending a copy of the article to the Detroit

Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and request-

ing that it get in touch with the editors of the publica-tion with a view to clarifying their understanding of the

provisions of the regulation."

Telegram to the Presidents of all Federal Reserve Banks read-

as follows:

"One Federal Reserve Bank has informally suggested,vith a view to reducing difficulties experienced by mem-ber banks in adjusting their reserve positions, thatweekly reserve computation period of central reserveand reserve city banks be changed to end on Wednesday.

It has pointed out that weekly issues of Treasury billsare required to be paid for on Thursday, there is con-siderable uncertainty as to disposition of bills sub-

scribed for by dealers, sometimes there are large loansto dealers and, since the proceeds of such loans areimmediately paid to the Treasury, there is a resultingiMmediate loss of bank reserves. Please wire whetherYour Bank would have any objection to the proposedChange and, if not, please suggest effective date ofthe change."

Approved unanimously.

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Letter to to Mr. Sproul, President of the Federal Reserve

of New York, reading as follows:

"Receipt is acknowledged of Mr. Knoke's letter

of January 27 informing the Board of the action taken

With respect to a new account on your books for andin the name of the Central Bank of the Philippines.The Board approves the opening of the account as re-

quested with the understanding that you will in due

course, as you say, offer participation in the ac-

count to the other Federal Reserve Banks."

4131D1‘oved:

201,

Approved unanimously.

Chairman pro tem.

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