Part 35

SECTION 61. That any national bank desiring to wind up its affairs and go out of business shall be entitled to receive back all its advances made upon its deposits and note issue to the American Reserve Bank: _Provided, however_, That all the liabilities of such bank have been paid in full and satisfied, or any amount of lawful money equal thereto has been paid into the American Reserve Bank for that purpose, and the Comptroller of the Currency approves the repayment of said sum.

SECTION 62. That from and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fourteen, no national bank shall pay out over its counter any bond-secured bank note, but shall send the same to its financial centre, and the financial centre shall forward it to the United States Treasurer for redemption, cancelation and destruction.

SECTION 63. That any national bank that shall count any national bank note or notes as a part of its reserve shall pay into the American Reserve Bank a penalty of 10 per centum per diem on the amount so counted, and any national bank that shall, after January first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, count any bond-secured bank note as a part of its reserve shall pay into the American Reserve Bank a penalty of 10 per centum per diem upon the amount so counted.

COMMENT:--If there is one evil that should be crushed out in this country more than any other it is the practice of carrying debts as reserves. No bank should be allowed to carry any other bank's notes, any more than any other check or draft which it thinks is good. It has been this abuse of bank credit that has led to more trouble than almost any other single thing. It was the requirement of coin reserves and current coin redemption that made the banks of Virginia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and the Suffolk System such perfect successes.

Here is the crux. The very soul of sound banking is current coin redemption. So let us not fool ourselves by putting wind and water into our reserves.

SECTION 64. That any national bank may and is hereby authorized to accept any note, check, draft, or bill of exchange, with not more than four months to run, for any one of its regular customers: _Provided, however_, That the instrument of credit so accepted shall be for goods or merchandise sold and actually delivered or in transit to the buyer: _And provided also_, That the instrument of credit states this fact upon its face: _And provided further_, That the bank so accepting any such instrument of credit shall keep and maintain against such acceptance identically the same reserve as it is required to keep and maintain against a deposit subject to check, and it shall be subject to the same penalty as provided in section forty-six of this Act.

COMMENT:--Let us not fool ourselves by supposing that by creating liabilities we are actually creating new capital. By acceptances a class of paper will undoubtedly be created that will in turn create a market for itself. The object therefore of acceptances should be to facilitate the handling of commodities in transit.

SECTION 65. That any national bank having a paid-up capital and surplus of at least two million dollars may establish a branch in any foreign country with the consent and approval of the board of directors of the American Reserve Bank.

COMMENT:--If we hope for our share of profit upon our foreign trade and if we hope to secure for the American merchant an equal opportunity in securing that foreign trade, we must prepare here two aids: one is banking facilities and the other is shipping facilities. Is it not perfectly clear that a foreign banker would do anything in his power to divert all the traffic he could over the shipping lines of his country? We shall find in the end then that our foreign trade will be aided not by our foreign bank alone but by American shipping as well.

SECTION 66. That any national bank that has a paid-up capital of at least fifty thousand dollars, and the surplus required by law, may act as a guardian, administrator, executor, or trustee and in such capacity in any State, by whatever name known, in accordance with the laws of the State or Territory where situated or located, and the reserves required against trust funds shall be as follows:

_First_: Seven per centum thereof shall be deposited with the American Reserve Bank.

_Second_: Six per centum cash shall be carried against all trust funds up to six million dollars and one-half of 1 per centum for each additional five hundred thousand dollars up to ten million dollars, and upon this amount and all additional amounts, 10 per centum in cash shall be carried, but any national bank accepting trust accounts shall keep the same separate and apart from all other accounts in said bank, and shall establish a trust account department; and all such deposits shall be invested in such securities as are prescribed by the laws of the State where such bank is located.

SECTION 67. That if the laws of the State where any national bank accepting trust accounts is located do not prescribe how trust funds shall be invested, then the board of the American Reserve Bank shall fix rules and regulations for the investment of such funds.

SECTION 68. That any national bank may accept savings accounts, as distinguished from commercial accounts, but any national bank accepting savings accounts shall keep the same separate and apart from all other accounts in said bank, and shall establish a savings account department; and all such savings deposits shall be invested in such securities as are prescribed by the laws of the State where such bank is located.

SECTION 69. That if the laws of the State where any national bank accepting savings accounts is located do not prescribe how savings funds shall be invested, then the board of the American Reserve Bank shall fix laws and regulations for the investment of such funds.

SECTION 70. That all investments made for the benefit of the savings depositors of any national bank shall be held primarily and exclusively for the benefit of the depositors in the savings department; and in case of a bank failure, if the investments made for the benefit of the depositors in the savings department do not satisfy their claims in full, then the depositors of the savings bank shall be entitled to such a part of the capital, surplus, and capital liability as the savings deposits bear to all other deposits up to and until the savings accounts are paid in full.

SECTION 71. That any national bank accepting savings accounts shall, on the tenth days of January and July of each year, have with the American Reserve Bank an amount in gold coin equal to 5 per centum of the average deposit in such department during the preceding six months, and such national bank shall be required to carry cash reserves amounting to 5 per centum against such savings account.

SECTION 72. That the said 5 per centum so paid by the national banks to the American Reserve Bank as reserves against their savings deposits shall be invested in United States Government bonds or securities for the exclusive benefit of the savings depositors in the national banks as a savings bank fund, and the full interest earned upon said bonds shall be credited to the savings bank fund in the American Reserve Bank, and no part thereof shall be deducted for any other purpose whatsoever than the protection of savings bank depositors.

COMMENT:--This trust fund would absorb about $350,000,000 of the present bonds held by the national banks for circulation, as the total savings now approximate seven billion dollars ($7,000,000,000).

SECTION 73. That any national bank accepting a savings bank account may at any time demand the right to have thirty days' notice of an intention to withdraw the same, and may also reserve the right to pay all savings accounts in two installments--50 per centum thereof in three months, 50 per centum in six months.

SECTION 74. That from and after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fourteen, every person, firm, partnership, or corporation using the word banker or bank, and every State bank and trust company in the United States receiving deposits subject to check, or saving accounts in the usual way, or trust funds shall keep and maintain identically the same reserves against these respective funds as is provided for by the provisions of this Act; and any person, firm, partnership, or corporation using the word banker or bank, and every State bank and trust company, except mutual savings banks, that fails to comply with the provisions of this Act shall pay a tax of 10 per centum to the United States Government on the tenth day of January in each year upon all the deposits or trust funds against which the foregoing prescribed reserves have not been kept and maintained.

SECTION 75. That any person, firm, or corporation using the word banker or bank, and every State bank or trust company that shall, after January first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, hold as a part of its required reserves, as prescribed in section sixty-three, any national bank note, check, draft, or other instrument of credit, shall pay a tax thereon to the United States of 10 per centum per diem on the amount so held; and every person, firm, or corporation using the word banker or bank, and every State bank or trust company accepting deposits or trust funds as described in section sixty-three shall, upon the first day of January in each year, make a sworn statement to the United States Government showing exactly the amount and the character of reserves held during the preceding year against all of its deposits, and upon failure to do so shall pay a fine of one thousand dollars per day until such report is made.

COMMENT:--These Sections, 74 and 75, provide that every person or corporation in the United States shall not only carry its proper share of reserves, as we have all agreed they should, but the right kind of reserves as well. Quantity and quality must both be made obligatory if we are to have a banking system that amounts to anything.

SECTION 76. That as soon as the amount of money deposited by the national banks with the American Reserve Bank, as aforesaid, shall reach the sum of five hundred million dollars all the bonds now deposited by national banks to secure Government deposits shall be returned to the respective banks to which they belong; and from and after that date any national bank holding a Government deposit shall pay interest thereon to the Treasurer of the United States at the rate of 2 per centum per annum, and the said interest so received shall be paid into the division of reserve fund in the Treasury, and United States notes of an equal amount shall be retired, canceled, and destroyed and gold certificates issued therefor. The said interest shall be payable as follows: 1 per centum on the tenth days of January and July of each year on the average balance during the preceding six months.

SECTION 77. That all the profits growing out of the operations of the several commercial zones and the American Reserve Bank combined may be distributed between the United States Government and all the national banks pro rata, according to the amount they have respectively deposited with the American Reserve Bank, whenever in the judgment of the board of the American Reserve Bank it is advisable to do so, having made such provision for a reserve as is deemed necessary: _Provided, however_, That the distribution of profits shall not exceed 2 per centum per annum until practically all of the United States notes have been converted into gold certificates; and for that purpose all the profits in excess of 2 per centum shall be paid into the reserve fund of the United States Treasury in gold coin.

SECTION 78. That subject to the disposition made and provided for in this Act of all the various sums of money to be paid to the American Reserve Bank all such sums of money shall be combined and held in one common fund and be known as the American Reserve Bank Fund, and this fund shall guarantee the repayment of all Government deposits made with the American Reserve Bank and the redemption of the national bank notes of any failed bank.

COMMENT:--In paragraph three, under Section 59, provision was made for a 5 per cent guarantee fund to redeem the bank notes of any bank which has failed. This fund is held by the American Reserve Bank, which under Section 78 will be used to redeem the notes of all failed banks immediately and the amount of the notes so redeemed shall be recouped from the assets of the bank that issued the notes; if, by chance, one should fail after it has become a part of the proposed system, which I, for one, do not believe is possible.

SECTION 79. That the American Reserve Bank shall, on the first days of January and July of each year during the life of the 2 per centum United States consols up to nineteen hundred and thirty, pay into the Treasury of the United States an amount of cash in equal payments which shall be equal to 1 per centum per annum of all the United States 2 per centum bonds or consols now aggregating about seven hundred and thirty million dollars.

SECTION 80. That when the American Reserve Bank shall have paid into the United States Treasury the first half of 1 per centum in accordance with the preceding section, the United States Government shall thereupon refund all of the 2 per centum bonds or consols into 3 per centum bonds or agree to pay 3 per centum thereon; and thereafter the Government shall pay 3 per centum interest upon all of said 2 per centum consols.

COMMENT:--By this section all the 2 per cent bonds will be converted into 3 per cent bonds and they will then be returned to the banks to which they belong. They can then be sold by them, bringing into the commercial fund of the country $730,000,000.

This change ought to enable the banks to loan money more cheaply to the people; we must remember that the more expensive we make banking in this country the higher the rates of interest will be; for, in the end, the people bear every added burden.

SECTION 81. That when the United States Government shall have made provision for refunding the 2 per centum bonds or consols into 3 per centum bonds and the American Reserve Bank Fund shall amount to the sum of five hundred million dollars, the United States Treasury shall transfer to and keep with the American Reserve Bank a sufficient balance--upward of fifty million dollars--to meet all of its checks and drafts; and thereupon the American Reserve Bank shall become the fiscal agent of the United States Government for all purposes, except for the collection and current daily deposits of its revenues, which shall not be deposited thereafter in the United States Treasury or Sub-treasuries.

SECTION 82. That from and after the date that said American Reserve Bank Fund shall amount to the sum of one thousand million dollars the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States shall deposit from day to day all Government receipts from whatsoever source received in the American Reserve Bank.

COMMENT:--According to these two Sections, 81 and 82, the United States Treasury will cease to be a disturbing factor in the commerce of the country; and it will do its business, precisely, as any municipality, by check and draft upon the American Reserve Bank, where its money will be deposited, from day to day, currently, as received.

SECTION 83. That beginning on the first day of January after the "American Reserve Bank Fund" shall amount to one thousand million dollars, every National bank shall pay to the American Reserve Bank a tax of one-fifth of 1 per cent upon all of its deposits held upon said first day of January, and upon the first day of January thereafter for two successive years a tax of one-fifth of 1 per cent upon the amount of deposits held.

SECTION 84. Every National bank shall thereafter contribute a sufficient amount on the first day of January in each year to make the total amount that it has contributed equal to three-fifths of 1 per cent of its deposits.

SECTION 85. The fund so created by the payment of the said three-fifths of 1 per cent to the American Reserve Bank shall constitute and be known as "The Depositors' Insurance Fund."

SECTION 86. Any bank that shall come into the National banking system at any time after the passage of this act shall immediately proceed to make its contribution to "The Depositors' Insurance Fund" as prescribed in sections eighty-three and eighty-four of this Act.

SECTION 87. If any National bank shall fail after three years from the time that the first tax upon deposits was paid, all depositors shall be paid in full, as hereinafter provided, as soon as the amount due them respectively has been ascertained.

SECTION 88. The Board of Control of the commercial zone where the failed bank is located shall issue in the name of its commercial zone perpetual securities subject to call equal in amount to the amount of the deposits held by the failed bank. The securities so issued shall be in the denomination of five hundred dollars and multiples thereof, and be known as Bank Bonds of ---- Commercial Zone, and shall bear interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, payable annually.

SECTION 89. The Board of Control issuing Bank Bonds as in the foregoing section prescribed, may deposit an amount thereof with the American Reserve Bank equal to all deposits less than five hundred dollars and all fractions of deposits less than five hundred dollars, and receive in exchange therefor, an equal amount of money.

SECTION 90. The Board of Control may at its option sell the Bank Bonds so issued, and pay the depositors in cash in full or may pay the depositors in cash in part and in Bank Bonds in part.

SECTION 91. From time to time as cash is realized from the assets of the failed bank the Board of Control shall retire a corresponding amount of Bank Bonds, the bonds so retired to be determined by lot.

SECTION 92. As soon as the loss resulting from the failure of the bank is determined, the Board of Control shall proceed to assess a tax at the rate of one-fifth of 1 per cent per annum upon all the deposits of all the National banks in the commercial zone where the failed bank was located until one-half of such loss has been collected from such banks. The remaining one-half shall be borne by "The Depositors' Insurance Fund."

COMMENT:--Since the commercial zone where the failed bank is located is directly responsible for the failure because its board of control could have prevented it, that particular zone should bear at least half the loss. This is essential to impress upon all the bankers of the zone the importance of selecting the very best men upon the board of control.

SECTION 93. The board of directors of the American Reserve Bank may invest such part of "The Depositors' Insurance Fund" in United States Government securities as they may deem wise.

SECTION 94. If at any time in the future the board of directors of the American Reserve Bank shall find it necessary to reimpose upon all the deposits of the National banks the tax of one-fifth of 1 per cent to carry this act into effect, they are hereby authorized and empowered to do so.

SECTION 95. If the board of directors of the American Reserve Bank shall at any time deem "The Depositors' Insurance Fund" unnecessarily large, it may distribute a portion of the same among the banks as their interests may appear.

COMMENT:--MR. LAWYER: Gentlemen, by Sections 83 to 95 we have provided for the insurance of depositors, as you will perceive. We have accomplished this by financing, as it were, the assets of the failed banks so that all depositors can have their money immediately. We believe that the result of this plan will be not only to absolutely protect all depositors and give them their money immediately; but, to save the depositors from a world of worry; to protect the banks from panics and runs; to stop hoarding; to protect storekeepers, merchants, manufacturers and all business interests from the consequences of the inability of the people to meet their obligations because their money or cash resources are tied up in bank failures as heretofore. Our problem was to meet the condition confronting a community when a bank closed its doors, and I think we have solved it.

MR. BANKER: There can be no possible question but what this plan, which will put into the American Reserve Bank at least $35,000,000 before it becomes operative, will accomplish the purpose sought, since the total loss to all depositors in the National banks in forty-nine years have been only $38,000,000, and the estimated loss where the failed banks have not been closed out is only $6,000,000, or a total loss for the whole time of only $44,000,000.

MR. MERCHANT: You have undoubtedly solved every difficulty connected with this great and most benevolent purpose.

MR. LABORINGMAN: Gentlemen, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have just done. I want to thank you in the name of the millions of toilers. If I have had any influence in bringing this great reform about, I feel that I have been repaid a thousandfold for the time I have spent with you.

MR. LAWYER: To you, Mr. Laboringman, more than to all the rest of us, is due the insurance of depositors in our National banks; for you may rest assured now that it will come about sooner or later. Of course, that letter to Mr. Farmer from the Comptroller of the Currency paralyzed all opposition, and to you two men belongs the glory of this victory; to you two men will be due the gratitude of all depositors.

SECTION 96. That whenever the accumulations from the tax upon the national bank notes shall reach an amount equal to 5 per centum of the national bank notes outstanding during the preceding six months after paying all the expenses growing out of the administration of the four organizations established by this Act--the commercial zone, the bankers' council, the boards of control, the American Reserve Bank--and the 1 per centum per annum upon all the 2 per centum bonds or consols is being currently paid, the excess from whatever source remaining over, allowing for such a reserve as is deemed necessary, shall, on each succeeding tenth days of January and July in each year, be paid into the division of the Reserve Fund of the United States Treasury in gold coin; and as soon as the Secretary of the Treasury shall receive and cancel an amount of United States notes equal to the gold so paid in, he shall issue gold certificates therefor.

SECTION 97. That when the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States shall have received from the interest paid by the banks upon the Government deposits, and from all other sources, the sum of one hundred and ninety-six million six hundred and eighty-one thousand and sixteen dollars in gold coin for the purpose of redeeming and converting a like amount of the United States notes into gold certificates, and he shall have received, canceled and destroyed substantially all of the remaining United States notes outstanding, making due allowance for the United States notes estimated to be lost or destroyed, he shall then transfer all the gold coin and gold bullion in the Reserve Fund, amounting to one hundred and fifty million dollars, with all the accumulations, to the division of redemption of the trust fund; and thereafter no national bank shall hold a United States note as a part of its reserve, nor shall there be paid out of the United States Treasury any United States notes; but the same when received shall be canceled and destroyed, and gold certificates shall be issued therefor.