The most important functions of banking may be classified as follows: (1) to assemble capital and make it effective; (2) to receive deposits and make collections; (3) to check out and transfer funds; (4) to discount or lend; (5) to exercise fiduciary or trust powers; (6) to issue circulating notes. Every bank which expects to succeed must first of all prove its value to the community. The services which a bank performs are so generally taken for granted that the public is unaware of the real extent of the facilities offered. Banks are equipped to utilize funds, for either a short or long period of time, safely, and with some profit. Depositors individually do not enjoy the same ability. An individual's unused funds are perhaps small in amount, cannot be loaned to advantage with the assurance of immediate return when desired, and the care of the money involves worry and risk. The bank, on the other hand, possesses the necessary men, machinery and experience. By obtaining deposits, each perhaps small in itself, from many people, it acquires a large reservoir of funds. From this supply, which is constantly being increased by additional deposits and decreased by withdrawals according to the needs and circumstances of the depositors, the bank can now make loans and other investments from time to time. It is known as a place where loans may be sought, and it is protected in making these loans of funds which it has had left with it on deposit by the law of averages which usually operates in such a way that withdrawals and deposits about balance each other, the normal tendency being in favor of a net increase. By receiving deposits and making collections the bank saves the depositor much personal effort. To receive or deposit in one city a check made payable in another, hundreds or thousands of miles away, to convert that check in a relatively short time into cash available for the depositor's use, and all this with no direct assistance from the customer and at a very slight expense to him or none at all, is indeed service. So also is the willingness of the bank to collect promissory notes, drafts and other negotiable paper in a similar way. In addition to taking care of funds without charge and making collections, the bank provides the means of withdrawing and transferring funds readily by giving its customer a book of blank checks. If a depositor owes another man one hundred dollars, the depositor need not go to the bank, withdraw the cash and pay his debt. He can give his creditor an order on the bank, which can be presented at the bank in person and the cash obtained, or it can be deposited in this or another bank. By lending money the bank benefits the community to the extent that it supplies funds to assist worthy business. Temporary working capital to assist in the commercial, agricultural or industrial life of a community is very important. Borrowers logically look to a bank for such assistance and are thereby saved the necessity of either going without the funds they need or spending an endless amount of time and effort in negotiating many small loans from individuals. Note issue, originally a common right of a bank, is now restricted by law to National banks, Federal Reserve banks and the Government, and is chiefly valuable as a means of putting additional currency in circulation according to the needs of trade. There has been such an enormous growth in the business done by trust companies and by trust departments of banks in the last few years by acting in various fiduciary capacities that it seems necessary to include this as one of the important banking functions, which will be more fully discussed a little later.