Near-Billion-

Three Chicagoans, all sedately groomed and all wearing eyeglasses, sat at a banker's long table in Chicago last week. They were George McClelland Reynolds in the centre, Arthur Reynolds (his younger brother) at his left, Eugene Morgan Stevens at his right. The three were patiently posing for their group picture. On rare previous occasions they had appeared in the same photographs, but with other bankers and tycoons. Last week's picture was to have special significance. It symbolized the largest merger of the year, the well foretold consolidation of the Reynolds brothers' Continental National Bank & Trust Co. of Chicago with the Illinois Merchants Trust Co. of Chicago of which Mr. Stevens was president (TIME, Sept. 3). Their combination as the Continental Illinois Bank & Trust Co. gives Chicago the second largest bank in the U. S. (National City of Manhattan is first.) Its joined capital resources are $150,000,000, its joined deposits over $900,000,000. Chairman of the board is Arthur Reynolds; chairman of the executive committee, George M. Reynolds; president, Eugene M. Stevens.

Chicagoans these three mighty bankers are, but by migration. The Reynolds brothers were born at Panora, Guthrie County, Iowa. George M.'s first important job was as clerk with the Guthrie County National Bank at Panora. (The town's population is now barely 1,000.) Arthur ran a drug store there for ten years, and then followed his brother into the Guthrie

County bank. Later they progressed to Des Moines, to Chicago. Banker Stevens began his career in a Preston (Minn.) wagon factory as a small but husky boy, working overtime to help his mother balance the household accounts. At 20, he embarked for the nearest big city, which happened to be Minneapolis. He worked for the F. H. Peavey Co., who are now the largest grain merchants in the U. S. He became an investment banker. When he was 46, he went to Chicago, as vice president of the old Illinois Trust & Savings Bank. Last year he became president of its successor, the Illinois Merchants.