fied, under the seal of the association, by its president or cashier, to the Comptroller, accompanied by an application made by the president or cashier for his approval thereof; and such amended articles shall not be valid until the Comptroller gives to such association a certificate, under his hand and seal, that the association has complied with all the provisions required to be complied with, and is authorised to have succession for the extended period named in the amended articles of association. Any shareholder not assenting to such amendment may give notice in writing to the directors, within thirty days from the date of the certificate of approval, of his desire to withdraw from the association, in which case he is entitled to receive from said banking association the value of the shares held by him, ascertained by an appraisal made by a committee of three persons,—one selected by him, one by the directors, and the third by the first two, the shareholder having right to appeal to the Comptroller of the Currency. Every association organised under the national bank laws, before it is authorised to commence business, has to transfer and deliver to the Treasurer of the United States registered bonds bearing interest to an amount not less than $30,000, and, where the capital is $150,000 or less, not less than one-fourth of such capital stock, or, where it is over $150,000, one-third. Upon this deposit being made, the association making it is entitled to receive from the Comptroller of the Currency circulating notes of different denominations in blank, registered and countersigned as provided by law, equal in amount to 90 per cent of the current market value, not exceeding par, of the United States bonds so transferred and delivered. The Secretary of the Treasury receives deposits of gold coin with the Treasurer or assistant treasurers of the United States, in sums not less than $20, and issues certificates therefor in denominations of not less than $20 each, corresponding to the denominations of United States notes. The coin so deposited is retained in the Treasury for the payment of these certificates on demand; and these certificates are receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and are not reissued. The Treasurer, or any assistant treasurer of the United States, may receive deposits of authorised silver dollars of 412 grains weight (Troy standard), in sums of not less than $10, and give therefor certificates of not less than $10 each. The coin remains in the Treasury to redeem the certificates on demand. The certificates are receivable for customs, duties, taxes, and all public dues, at their nominal value. The gold certificates are not to be paid in silver. The gold and silver certificates may form part of a bank's lawful reserve. Any association desiring to withdraw its circulating notes in whole or in part may, upon the deposit of lawful money with the Treasurer of the United States, in sums of not less than $9000, take up the bonds it has on deposit (leaving not less than $50,000); but no national bank so doing is entitled to receive any increase of its circulation for the period of six months from the time it made such deposit of lawful money for said purpose, provided not more than 3 millions of dollars of lawful money be deposited during any calendar month for this purpose. The amount of United States notes outstanding, and to be used as a part of the circulating medium, is not to exceed the sum of 382 million dollars; which said sum shall appear in each monthly statement of the public debt, and no part thereof be held or used as a reserve. After any association receiving | currency in the more important funccirculating notes has caused its promise to pay such notes on demand to be signed by the president or vicepresident and cashier thereof, in such manner as to make them obligatory promissory-notes payable on demand at its place of business, it may issue and circulate them as money, and the same shall be received at par in all parts of the United States, in payment of taxes, excises, public lands, and all other dues to the United States, except duties on imports, and also for all salaries, and other debts and demands owing by the United States, to individuals, corporations, and associations within the United States, except interest on the public debt, and in redemption of the national currency. No national bank issues post notes or any other notes to circulate as money. Any national bank or association may go into liquidation, and be closed by the vote of its shareholders owning twothirds of its stock. The Comptroller of the Currency in his 1886 annual report to Congress, in treating of the question whether the present national bank system should be preserved, and, if so, whether it is good enough as it is, or whether it can be improved, stated that the National Currency Act of February 12, 1863, was controlled as to its purposes by the paramount necessity of inducing banks and other capitalists to become purchasers of Government bonds, under conditions that would give a basis of solid value to the currency then being paid out in immense volume under the pressure of military exigencies; hence the consolidation of these banks into a national banking system adapted to commercial and industrial needs appears only as a subordinate incident in the general scheme. Subsequently the effort of legislation has been to subordinate the issuing of tions performed by the banks as institutions of discount and deposit. If the system could be preserved purely as one of deposit and discount, there would probably arise an almost universal sentiment in favour of bestowing upon its preservation immediate and careful attention, but it is doubtful whether the banks would find sufficient inducement to remain in the system without enjoying some privileges as to the issue of currency, and it has been questioned whether there is power under the Constitution for the charter of national banks, except as instrumentalities for a money circulation. It follows, therefore, that any legislation directed to the improvement and permanent establishment of the national banking system must include some provision for the maintenance of a national bank circulation; while, on the other hand, it appears that whatever opposition exists to the national banks, attaches to them mainly as banks of issue, and, under the United States system of Government, nothing can be regarded as permanently established until it has obtained the support of a well-settled public opinion. Hence it is evident that the problem now to be solved is how to remodel the currency features of the national bank system, so as to obtain popular approval of them. Objections to the present national bank currency appear to be comprised within three classes, namely— (1) a general objection to paper money in any form; (2) an objection to national bank notes, based upon the assumption that they take the place of an equal amount of paper money that might be issued directly upon the credit of the Government; (3) the objection that a currency, determined in volume by a definite percentage upon deposited securities of high value, can never possess the flexibility and elasticity of volume which are the chief commercial advantages of a bank currency in any form. Against these objections it is answered: 1. That the question as to having paper money at all is not at present a practical one, because it is evident that the people of the United States will have paper money in one form or another; and that of all forms of paper money of which they have had any experience, the present national bank currency is the least objectionable, even to those who think that all such money should be avoided. 2. That while a bank currency, based on Government bonds and redeemable in greenbacks, may be considered as a kind of Government money on which the banks are getting the profit, yet without this privilege, or some other equivalent to it, the national bank system could never have been established, nor could it now be maintained, and that this is the cheapest price at which any banking system, so good in all respects, and so valuable as this has proved to be, can be established and maintained. Another argument is, that the Government must pay interest upon its bonds, whether these are held by the banks or not, hence the profit to the banks on these bonds has been obtained without charge on the Treasury; while, on the other hand, if the banks had not been offered sufficient inducement to invest in these bonds, many more of them would have gone abroad at low prices, and the country, as a whole, would have been so much the worse off. 3. That the want of flexibility in the currency, and of elasticity of volume, are consequences arising from the scarcity of bonds, and the high prices to which they have risen, and that this could not have been foreseen, nor provided against in the original Acts, but may now be remedied by proper legislation. President Cleveland, in his annual Of message at the opening of Congress upon 6th December 1886, said that the sum paid upon the public debt during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, was $44,551,048.36. During the twelve months ended October 31, 1886, 3 per cent bonds were called for redemption, amounting to $127,283,100, of which $80,643,200 were so called to answer the requirements of the law relating to the sinking fund, and $46,639,900 for the purpose of reducing the public debt by application of a part of the surplus in the Treasury to that object. the bonds thus called, $102,269,450 became subject under such calls to redemption prior to November 1, 1886; the remainder, amounting to $25,018,650, matured under the calls after that date. In addition to the amount subject to payment and cancellation prior to November 1, 1886, there were also paid before that day certain of these bonds, with the interest thereon, amounting to $5,072,350, which were anticipated as to their maturity, of which $2,664,850 had not been called. Thus, $107,841,800 had been actually applied prior to the 1st of November 1886 to the extinguishment of the bonded and interest-bearing debt, leaving on that day still outstanding the sum of $1,153,448,112. Of this amount, $86,848,700 were still represented by 3 per cent bonds. They, however, have been since November 1, or will at once be, further reduced by $22,606,150, being bonds which have been called as already stated, but not redeemed and cancelled before the latter date. Returning to the Comptroller's annual report, it seems that 3580 national banks had then been organised in all: 2858 were then in operation, and of these, 174 had been organised during the last year, with a capital of $21,000,000; bonds, $3,700,000; circulation, $2,900,000. During the year 24 banks went into voluntary liquidation, 1 ceased to exist by expiration of charter, and 8 failed. The creditors of 2 of these banks were paid in full, principal and interest. In 2 cases dividends reached 50 per cent, in 1 case 75 per cent, and in 1 case 20 per cent : 8 banks were finally wound up, and their accounts closed, leaving 25 insolvent banks in the hands of receivers. Since the beginning of the system in 1863, only 112 national banks had then failed. Of these, 36 paid their creditors in full, and 20 paid interest besides, and 5 in part. The total number of shares of stock in national banks, in every state and territory, was 7,000,000, and the total number of shareholders 223,000. Over 40 per cent of the stock was held by residents of the state in which the bank was located; more than 91 per cent of the stock was held by natural persons, and over 96 per cent of the number of shareholders were natural persons. Among corporations holding stock, savings banks, trust companies, and I. The unfunded debt insurance companies held the greatest amount. More than half the entire number of shareholders held 10 shares or less, about one-third held over 10 but less than 50, while a little more than one-ninth of the whole body held more than 50 shares. The contraction in national bank circulation during the year exceeded $56,000,000, which was alleged to be the effect of the reduction of the public debt and the high premium on bonds. The aggregate deposits in the banks had increased from $522,000,000 in January 1866 to $1,173,000,000 in October 1886. Loans and discounts had risen from $500,000,000 at the former date to $1,443,000,000 at the latter date. The specie held by the national banks in 1866 was $19,000,000; in October 1875, $8,000,000; in July 1885, $177,000,000; October 1886, $156,000,000. According to the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury, the public debt stood, at the end of the fiscal year in 1886, thus : was such as to make these dollars intrinsically worth 78 cents each. These differences in value of the coins represent the fluctuations in the price of silver, and they certainly do not indicate that compulsory coinage by the Government enhances the price of that commodity, or secures uniformity in its value. Every fair and legal effort has been made by the Treasury Department to distribute this currency among the people. The withdrawal of the United States Treasury notes of small denominations, and the issuing of small silver certificates, have been resorted to in the endeavour to accomplish this result, in obedience to the will and sentiments of the representatives of the people in the Congress. On the 27th day of November 1886, the people held of these coins, or certificates representing them, the nominal sum of $166,873,041, and we still had $79,464,345 in the Treasury, as against about $142,894,055 or so in the hands of the people, and $72,865,376 remaining in the Treasury one year ago. The Director of the Mint again urges the necessity of more vault-room for the purpose of storing these silver dollars which are not needed for circulation by the people. The report of the Director of the Mint on the production of gold and silver in the United States during the year 1885 stated that the production of gold was estimated at $31,800,000, an increase of $1,000,000 over the estimate for the calendar year 1884. The production of silver for the calendar year 1885, calculated at the coining rate in silver dollars, was estimated at $51,600,000, as against $48,800,000 in 1884, an increase of $2,800,000. Colorado remained first, California remained second, largest producer of the precious metals. The pro duction in Montana had increased from $9,000,000 in 1884 to nearly $13,500,000 in 1885, and in Idaho the increase had been from $3,970,000 in 1884 to $5,300,000 in 1885. Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Dakota hold their own, while the production of Arizona had slightly decreased. The coinage executed during the calendar year at the coinage mints consisted of 47,544,521 pieces of the face value of $56,926,810. Of this amount 3,002,313 pieces, valued at $27,773,012, consisted of gold coin, and 31,925,544 pieces, valued at $28,962,176, of silver coin, the remainder minor coin. The number of silver dollars coined during the calendar year 1885 was $28,697,767. In addition to the coinage, gold and silver bars of the value of $27,490,095 were manufactured by the mints and assay offices during the year. The total value of the bullion and coin imported into the United States during the calendar year was $41,418,129, of which $8,322,909 consisted of bullion, and $33,095,120 of coin. Of the total imports, $23,645,311 consisted of gold, and $17,772,718 of silver. The total ex ports of gold and silver from the United States during the same year were $44,697,749, of which $11,417,207 were gold, and $33,280,542 silver. The United States gained $12,228,104 by net importation of gold. The Director of the Mint estimated the amount of gold coin in the United States on January 1, 1886, to have been $533,485,453; of silver dollars, $218,259,761; subsidiary silver, $75,034,111, or a total stock of coin of $826,779,325. Of the stock of gold coin, the United States Treasurer held, over and above outstanding gold certificates, $75,434,379, and the national banks, $156,353,592, including Treasury and clearing-house certificates. 1015 state banks and trust companies held, November 1, |