THE CURRENCY BILL

The Currency Bill is now passed, signed, and is a part of the law of the land. The sensible business men of the country will not want to waste time discussing its theoretical possibilities, but will begin at once to prepare themselves to conduct their business under its provisions. It is not, however, It is not, however, a waste of time briefly to review its history and the forces which brought it into being, and to consider what, if any, changes it will make in the daily work of the merchant, manufacturer, banker, and farmer.

To the average man or woman who has a bank balance or a check-book there will be no visible changes whatever in the banking system of the country, except such as may possibly appear in the form or typography of the five-dollar National bank note. Receiving tellers will go on accepting deposits, paying tellers will cash checks, and presidents, vice-presidents, cashiers, and boards of directors will continue to make loans under the new Currency Law just as they do to-day under the National Bank Act. The daily operations of the National banks will be unmodified; the depositor or borrower will have no new window to go to, no new officer to see, no different kind of a signature to make to his check or his note, and no new formulas or red tape to understand. The man who will feel the immediate difference is the merchant or the manufacturer or the farmer who is a legitimate borrower of money and who has assets or credit which entitle him to borrow money.

HOW THE BILL OPERATES

There is another type of man who will welcome the operation of the law, and that is the banker of moderate capital in a moderatesized city or town who knows his customers personally and wishes to take care of their legitimate needs, and who has been prevented from doing so in times of stress under the old National banking act. In 1893, and

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again in 1907, many of the richest and biggest National banks in the country practically suspended payment-that is to say, were technically bankrupts-because they could not get the bank-note currency necessary to pay their depositors' demands. During those panics practically every bank in New York adopted the rule not to pay out more than a very limited amount in bank notes to any one customer, no matter what the customer's credit and assets were. These banks adopted this rule because they themselves could not get the currency. Under the new law no such currency panic will be possible. A merchant who has tangible assets and unshaken credit may go to his local bank at any time and borrow money on his personal note properly indorsed. If the local bank has not the currency to give him, it may go to the Federal Reserve Bank in its district and, presenting the borrower's note as security, it may get bank notes for him which will circulate all over the country. If the Federal Reserve Bank has not the necessary bank notes, it can go to the United States Treasury and get them, provided the original borrower's assets or credit are good.

A CONSTRUCTIVE

MEASURE

This is a simple statement, shorn of all technicalities, of the fundamental and important operation of the law in commercial and financial transactions. It will be no easier than before for the man with poor assets or bad credit to borrow, but it will be immeasurably easier for the man engaged in a legitimate and profitable business to turn his wealth or his credit into a form which will be accepted without question throughout the country. The Outlook Company will probably never again have to pay its employees in checks because its bank has not the bank notes with which to meet The Outlook's legitimate demand on its weekly pay day for the money which it has deposited in the bank during the

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