Mr. Stearns is director and member of the executive committee of the American Trust Co. which reported, in March, 1923, total resources of $30,413,000; a surplus of $2,000,000 and undivided profits of $1,049,000. This giant bank works hand in glove with such internationally known institutions of finance as the Chase National Bank, the Guarantee Trust Co., the Continental and Commercial Bank of Chicago, and the Girard National Bank of Philadelphia.
Mr. Stearns is also a trustee and member of the investment committee of the Provident Institution for Savings, a bank whose latest annual report shows a total of $4,147,000 in surplus and profits and $71,168,000 in deposits.
Another friend and maker of Coolidge is the banker and textile baron, William M. Butler. So great a debt does our President owe this industrial and financial magnate that many expect Coolidge to have him take Daugherty's place. It must be remembered that the Attorney General is the actual liaison between Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and Wall Street in New York; between the Stock Exchange and the White House. In so far as the assets column of the ledger goes and in so far as profitable business connections are concerned, there is no more lucrative office one can hold than that of the Attorney Generalship.
Mr. Butler, a class mate of Coolidge in Murray Crane's school of New England politics, is one of the leading textile manufacturers of the country. He is the president and director of a half dozen mills running about 10,000 looms and almost 500,000 spindles. The Butler Mill, Hoosac Cotton Mills, New Bedford Cotton Mills Corp., Quisset Mill, Nemasket Mills, and West End Thread Co. have, according to their latest reports, total assets of over $20,000,000. In December, 1922, in the midst of the textile strike, while the workers were fighting against a 20% decrease in wages, the New Bedford Cotton Mills Corp. declared a 200% stock dividend and the Quisset Mills a 60% stock dividend.
Besides being a powerful textile baron, Mr. Butler is also director of the Atlas Tack Co., 30% of whose product goes to the shoe trade and whose last total assets are $3,963,737. Among Mr. Butler's co-directors here are such influential men in finance and industry as H. C. Dodge, W. Bancroft, C. H. Dwinnell, W. F. Donovan, and Ralph Hornblower of the firm of Hornblower and Weeks, Boston bankers.
In the Boston and Worcester Electric Co. and in the Boston and Worcester Street Railway Co., Mr. Butler holds the office of president, trustee, director, and chairman of the executive committee. Mr. Butler is also a director of the Merchants National Bank of Boston which had, in March, 1923, an undivided surplus of $3,645,000; deposits amounting to $55,913,000 and total resources of $70,096,000.
All in all, Mr. Butler is interested as director, president, or in some other official capacity in corporations and banks whose total assets and
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