After the bank has been established, it comes under the active supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. Under the act he is empowered, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury (and in that alone has the Secretary any control over the Comptroller's office, exercising the same right that the Senate of the United States does over the appointments of the President of the United States), to appoint a number of men to the office of National Bank Examiners. Their duties, under the direction of the Comptroller of the Currency, are to visit the banks in the districts to which they are appointed.

Here again comes into play the power assumed on the part of the Comptroller, for he makes it the duty of the examiner, not only to see that the capital stock is intact but to see further that all the methods of banking employed in the bank are of a character that insures not only safety to the public, but benefit to the stockholder. As a result, the examiner not only sees that all the cash is there, but he takes upon himself the duty of seeing to it, as far as he can, that the paper held by the bank is genuine, that the notes are of the value that they represent themselves to be, and that many other details are properly administered.

Thus it happens that when an inspector comes into a bank and finds an old-fashioned method of bookkeeping employed, he reports that fact; he also ascertains the salary of the various officials, the amount of rent paid, and all other details which enter into the conduct of a bank. The same method of examination is pursued whether in the National City of New York, with a capital of $10,-000,000, or in the smallest bank of medium capital.

The great strength of the national-bank system, the great source of its influence over the banking system of the country since its establishment, has arisen from the very uniformity of the control exercised in the Comptroller's office, bringing about in the individual banks, whether in Chicago, New York or elsewhere, the same method of bookkeeping and the same details which are necessary to the careful management of a bank.