Excerpt from The Romance and Tragedy of Banking, Vol. 2: Problems and Incidents of Governmental Supervision of National Banks Lawrence O. Murray, the twelfth Comptroller of the Currency, was appointed April 28, 1908. He was born in Steuben County, New York, in 1864. He was educated at Addison College, Niagara University, and the Metropolis Law School of New York, and was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1893. He first entered the service of the Federal Government as private secretary to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Curtis, under President Cleveland's second administration, and later was appointed chief of the organization division in the office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In September, 1898, he was appointed Deputy Comptroller of the Currency. He retained this place ten months and resigned on June 27, 1899, to accept the position of trust officer in the Trust Company of America, of New York City, a new organization. He remained with this company three years and then became secretary and trust officer of the Central Trust Company of Illinois at Chicago, organized by Charles G. Dawes, former Comptroller of the Currency, who was president of the company. He resigned this position to accept appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor in January, 1904, and continued in that position until appointed Comptroller of the Currency. His only banking experience was that of trust officer in two trust companies, the principal duties of which were to pass upon the legal form of papers. His appointment as Comptroller was purely a personal one on the part of President Roosevelt. Mr. Murray qualified as Comptroller April 28, 1908, but on account of the condition of his health he did not assume active charge of the Bureau until September 2 following. Mr. Murray was the most peculiar character who ever occupied the office of Comptroller of the Currency. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.