1. The three forms of banks in the United States are private, state, and national. Any one with a little capital may become a private banker. There are "curbstone brokers" in almost every town, and some of the great financial houses are private banks. But the law will not allow this to go very far. Some states will not allow a man to put up a sign announcing himself as a banker unless he complies with certain banking laws. In some states even private banks are subjected to the same inspection as the state banks and are required to make the same reports to the state officials. State banks are those organized under special state banking laws. They are usually subject to inspection by state-bank commissioners, must make regular reports, and are required to comply with certain rules as to their reserves, rates, and investments. In any case they do not issue bank-notes, because the national laws now tax the notes of state banks so heavily that they are unprofitable. National banks, the largest and most important portion of our banking system, were authorized by law in 1863, during the Civil War. They are subject to stricter regulation and inspection than are other banks, and that regulation is perhaps an advantage to them, as it strengthens public confidence in their stability. Yet this regulation does not insure the depositors against loss, as some national banks fail every year. They may be organized with twenty-five thousand dollars capital in towns of less than three thousand population, with fifty thousand dollars in towns of less than six thousand, with one hundred thousand dollars in cities of less than fifty thousand, and with two hundred thousand dollars in larger cities.

2. Our national bank-notes have no essential mark of typical bank money. The one marked peculiarity of the national banks of the United States as compared with those of other countries, is their mode of note-issue. They perform all the other functions of banks, essential and unessential, and perform them well, but the issue of bank-notes is optional with them, and some of them do not issue any bank-notes. The legal condition to their issue is that bonds of the United States shall be purchased in the open market and deposited with the treasurer of the United States. Until 1900, notes might be issued only to ninety per cent, of the value of the bonds deposited; but now they may be issued up to the par value of the bonds. The notes, being secured by the value of the bonds, rest on the credit of the government, not on the credit of the bank. These notes are not promptly sent back for redemption to the banks issuing them, as is done with typical bank-notes. They may circulate thousands of miles away from the bank that issued them, and for years after that bank has gone out of business. They are not an "elastic currency" increasing or diminishing with the needs of business. The changes in their amount depend upon the chance of the banks to make more or less in this way than by any other use of their capital, and this in turn depends largely on the price of bonds and on the rate of interest they bear. From 1864 to 1870, fortunes were made from this source, but in recent years there has been little opportunity of gain from note-issues. Our present banknote issues are not on a logical basis, and satisfy no one entirely. They are of importance neither to the bank, to which they afford little or no profit, nor to the public, for which they do a service equally well done by silver certificates, greenbacks, or coins.

Nature of our national bank-notes.

Along with the discussion of the currency has gone, since 1896, a vigorous discussion of the banking system. The two problems are so closely related that a change in the one suggests readjustment of the other. One extreme plan is to abolish bank-notes entirely and to replace them with additional issues of greenbacks; the other extreme plan is to authorize the issue of almost typical bank-notes. A modification of the Canadian banking system, which has great merits, is held up for imitation. Bills have been repeatedly before Congress authorizing the maintenance of a general guarantee fund with which the notes of failed banks could be redeemed, and at the same time authorizing branch banks such as those in Canada. Public sentiment has never strongly favored this plan, however, and there is more likelihood of the passage of a bill providing for emergency notes in time of financial stress, after the plan followed in Germany.

Suggested reforms of the banknote system.

Bank regulation a protective measure.

That the control of banking is an important duty of government is the conclusion of the practical world. The various banking systems of the leading countries embody different plans for the one purpose of the adequate control of banking in the public interest. Government control of bank-notes is felt to be of the same nature as factory inspection, that is, to be a protective measure. When public interests are at stake and private interests conflict with them, government acts to forbid one citizen from doing harm, and to protect other citizens from injury.

Questions On Chapter 48. Banking And Credit

1. What does a bank do for a community?

2. What are the sources of income to a bank?

3. Can a bank that issues its own notes afford to lend cheaper than the ordinary capitalist?

4. What is discount and deposit?

5. Do all banks issue notes? Why?

6. What is the function of a clearing-house?

7. If there are twenty banks in a town and no clearing-house, how many collections would have to be made by all the banks daily assuming that each day depositors of each bank receive checks on the other nineteen banks?

8. Does a clearing-house enable the banks that belong to it to get along with a smaller cash reserve?

9. What element of security is furnished by clearing-houses during panics?