The substance of the work done in conference committee may be summarized somewhat further in order to bring out the points that had been accepted as innovations upon the House bill and those that had been rejected because the changes proposed in them were not deemed wise. Turning first to the alterations in the House bill that secured acceptance, the principal features may be enumerated as follows:

1. Introduction of provision for sale of stock in Federal Reserve banks to the public in the event that not enough banks subscribe for the stock to furnish an adequate capital in any given district.

2. Provision for alternative voting in the choice of directors of Federal Reserve banks so as to insure prompt election.

3. Reduction of number of Federal Reserve banks to not more than twelve, as against the "at least twelve" of the House bill.

4. Elimination of requirement that all national banks recharter.

5. Broadening of powers of Federal Reserve Board and modification of language relating to rediscounts between Federal Reserve banks, so as to render such rediscounts easier than was intended by the House bill.

6. Provision that the Secretary of the Treasury might, not must, deposit public funds in Reserve banks.

7. Reduction of reserve requirements placed upon member banks under House bill.

On the other hand, the following important points were yielded by the Senate in the conference:

1. Omission of provision that holders of stock sold to private individuals (if any) should have voting power in directorates of Federal Reserve banks and elsewhere.

2. Elimination of guaranty of bank deposits by use of surplus earnings.

3. Elimination of provision that Federal Reserve Bank notes might be counted in reserves of stockholding banks.

4. Restoration of provision that many classes of checks should be collected at par throughout the country, and that where such par collection was not enforced the charge for making collection should be fixed by the Federal Reserve Board.

5. Elimination of domestic acceptances, thereby excluding them for use by stockholding banks and from rediscount by Federal Reserve banks.

6. Modification of reserve requirements as formulated by the Senate so as to require actual cash reserves in the vaults of country banks (the Senate having entirely dispensed with such reserves after twenty-four months after date of the passage of the Act) and general stiffening of reserve requirements made by the Senate, although the final language still constituted a reduction below the House provision.

7. Reduction of period of maturity for which discountable paper might run.

While many other points of modification and concession on either side might, of course, be enumerated, it is believed that the foregoing presentation is representative, and shows sufficiently well the nature of the conference work and the character of the points conceded on either side. Assuming that such a fair or representative selection has been made, it is evident that the work of the conference resulted in the establishment of the House contentions at nearly every essential point, the exceptions to such a remark being found in two main particulars: (1) the reduction in the number of Reserve banks and their limitation to not more than twelve at any time, and (2) the provision that public deposits might or might not be made in the Reserve banks, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. While other points were significant and important in their way, it can certainly be fairly concluded that on those matters involving important issues of theory the House virtually held its own in most respects. In fact, it is an accurate generalization that the final bill as completed in conference committee, and as passed by both Houses, was a closer approach to the original House draft of the measure than anything that had intervened during the time the bill was going through the various permutations to which it was subjected in its slow progress from one stage to another of the legislative process.

At one other point there was marked and vital departure from the original House measure - the provision with reference to the refunding of United States 2-per-cent bonds and the treatment of the currency based upon such bonds. On this subject the final action of the conference was nearly equivalent to the acceptance of a plan formulated by the administration and designed to take the place of all of the various other schemes that had been recommended from different sources in either House.

To the scientific student of banking it need hardly be said that the striking aspects of the legislation were these three: (1) the creation of a general discount market for commercial paper; (2) the systematic pooling of reserves of existing banks; and (3) the provision of an elastic currency. In the multitude of details provided by the legislation, and in the various adjustments rendered necessary by it with respect to government deposits, bank reserves, examinations, and other more or less important matters, it is noticeable throughout that everything done had been for the purpose of promoting the objects already enumerated, and of insuring the transformation of American banking from its older basis of organization to its new proposed type of effort.