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expiration of three years, or bonds payable after three years and upon the expiration of seven years, or bonds due on a certain day within three years from the date of such bonds, as the Secretary of the Treasury may elect, such bonds to bear interest at a rate not exceeding three per centum per annum.

SEC. 13. That when the amount of the daily total reserve held by any national banking association averages to be less for any month than the amount required, it shall pay into the Treasury of the United States a tax at the rate of six per centum per annum on the amount of the average deficiency for that month in such reserve.

Whenever any association fails to pay on demand in silver or gold coin or in United States legal tender notes issued to other associations the greenbacks and currency signed by its officers and paid out by it, it shall be subject to and shall pay an additional tax, at the rate of one per centum per annum, on a sum equal to the average amount of the individual deposits in such association during such failure and until such payment is resumed: Provided, That in case any association pays one-half the tax herein imposed on or before the day it is due and payable the other half shall be and is hereby remitted. And whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Comptroller of the Currency that any one of the four kinds of money, namely, currency, greenbacks, silver coin, or gold coin, of the United States is at a premium in any one of the central reserve cities in any other one or more of the other kinds of money herein named, it shall thereupon become his duty to declare and publish the same in the "Statement of the Condition of the United States Treasury and its Receipts and Expenditures," and such publication shall be held to be conclusive evidence that all the associations of deposit, loan, and discount as herein described in the United States have failed to pay on demand in silver or gold coin of the United States their greenbacks and currency, and the tax herein imposed for such failure shall be due and payable from each of such associations from and after the day the notice of such failure is published by the Comptroller of the Currency in the "Statement of the Condition of the United States Treasury and its Receipts and Expenditures," and so long as such failure continues, and until the day the Comptroller of the Currency gives notice in like manner that such failure no longer continues.

In addition to all other taxes imposed in this Act, each association organized under it shall pay into the Treasury of the United States a tax in each year, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall from time to time prescribe, equivalent to not less than one-fifth nor more than one per centum per annum on the average amount of currency issued to it

*

*Four-fifths of the present paper-money circulation would be $800,000,000; one-half of 1 per cent per annum on the currency would yield $4,000,000 per annum. The losses on the circulation to the United States Treasury on notes of insolvent banks, as shown by thirty-two years' experience under the existing banking laws, were not $16,000,000 during the whole thirty-two years of the existence of the national banking system, about $500,000 per annum, had the national banks issued their notes under the provisions of this bill. The Government estimate for the bills lost and worn out past redemption, and to the advantage of the United States Treasury, is two-fifths of 1 per cent per annum on all circulation. Excluding the $1 and $2 bills, the loss might not be more than one-half, and the gain to the United States at one-fifth of 1 per cent on the $800,000,000 would be $1,600,000.

For the last five years the 1 per cent tax now collected on circulation has averaged $1,582,443. The banks are now in effect carrying without

and in circulation and for the purpose of covering any loss which the Treasury may otherwise sustain by reason of the insolvency of any association to which currency was issued under this Act: Provided, however, That such tax shall not be levied to exceed one-fifth of one per centum per annum at a time when the total amount of all moneys paid into the Treasury under the tax imposed in this clause exceeds by eight million dollars the total net amount paid out of the Treasary in redemption of the currency of insolvent associations in cases where the assets of such associations were not sufficient to pay such notes or sufficient to recoup the Treasurer of the United States for the payment by him of such notes. A tax equal in amount to one fifth of one per centum per annum is hereby imposed on the average amount of the individual deposits subject to payment by check or draft or like instrument, whether payable on demand or at some future time, that are in each incorporated banking association, trust company, insurance company, loan association, or other corporation doing a deposit and loan and discount business, by discounting and negotiating promissory notes, drafts, bills of exchange, and other evidences of debt; by receiving deposits; by buying and selling exchange, coin, and bullion; by loaning money on personal security, when any part of the obligations bought or received or sold or issued by it are used in whole or in part in commerce among the several States: (1) Provided, That in case any association pays one-half the tax herein imposed on or before the day it is due and payable the other half shall be and is hereby remitted: (2) And provided further, That any association is hereby authorized to deposit in the Treasury of the United States an amount of lawful money equal to not less than twelve and one-half per centum of the amount of its capital, and to receive legal-tender notes of the United States to the amount of such deposit. Such notes issued to it shall have a circulating note of such association printed on the reverse side, which note, when the note of the association printed on the reverse side is signed by the proper officers of the association, shall be known as a greenback, and may be paid out by it, but under the same liabilities, obligations, and restrictions as to redeeming such greenbacks in silver or gold coin or United States legaltender notes, and of keeping such greenbacks at a par with the silver coin and the gold coin of the United States, as are imposed upon national banking associations when like notes are issued to national banking associations: * Provided, however, That the securing such notes interest every dollar of the $1,000,000,000 paper money in circulation. The saving in interest to the people under this bill is estimated at from $36,000,000 to $50,000,000 per annum, ultimately making that much saving per annum in lower rates of interest on the loans made to the people. Besides these items, J. S. McCoy, Government actuary, estimates the loss to the people in interest on the gold carried in the United States Treasury from 1879 to 1895 at $144,241,556. It will be more, rather than less, in the next twenty-five years under the present system.

* Cash reserve required in 1897.. Cash reserve held in 1897...

Including State banks the cash reserve held could not be less than...

$287,742,000

388,883,000

563,000,000

Holding the cash reserve one-third in silver would equal $186,000,000, and one-third in gold would equal $186,000,000, one-third in greenbacks, $186,000,000; total, $563,000,000; so that the substitution of silver dollars for the $1 and $2 notes added to the $186,000,000 of silver dollars held in banks in the reserve fund would increase the actual coin silver dollar in constant use by $325,000,000.

by any association other than national banking associations shall confer upon it no authority to issue any other circulating notes. In case any association takes out circulating notes, as provided in this section and named greenbacks in this Act, the tax imposed on such association in this section shall be wholly remitted; but in case such notes are taken out and such tax is remitted such association shall keep such record and make such reports to the Comptroller of the Currency and submit to such examinations by national-bank examiners as are now or may hereafter be required of national banking associations.

Each deposit of money or funds made by any individual or by any association in any other association however organized doing the banking business defined in this section upon which the association receiving such deposit pays or agrees to pay any money or interest shall not be subject to withdrawal excepting on a day named in a notice given in writing to such association, and not less than thirty days before such withdrawal: Provided, That this section shall not apply to the total amount of all moneys or funds deposited within the seven days next preceding such notice, or to moneys or funds that banking associations are required to keep and are allowed to keep in other associations as a part of their reserve.

This section of this Act shall take effect on the first day of the first calendar quarter next succeeding the four months next succeeding the day of the approval of this Act.

SEC. 14. That all taxes imposed by this act shall be due and payable semiannually on the first day of April and the first day of October in each year. Any clearing-house association, when requested so to do by any banking association, and with the approval of the Comptroller of the Currency, may assume and may pay any tax imposed on such association by this Act.

All moneys received under this Act unless otherwise provided shall be covered into the Treasury as a miscellaneous receipt. The Treasurer shall keep an account of all moneys paid into the Treasury or paid out by him under each of the several sections of this Act and include a statement of the same in his annual report.

SEC. 15. That upon the insolvency of any association, or whenever, in the opinion of the Comptroller of the Currency, the complete redemption and retirement of the currency issued to and retained by any national banking association is then necessary for the protection of the United States Treasury or of the holders of such currency, the Comptroller may take possession of all the assets of such association, which assets shall be held to include the liability to assessment of all stockholders, and appoint a receiver, who is hereby authorized, under the direction and control of the Comptroller of the Currency, to create and deliver to the Treasurer of the United States a fund equal in amount to such currency; and the receiver, under the direction of the Comptroller of the Currency, is hereby authorized to sell the whole or any part of the property of such association, or to pledge the whole or any part of its property or assets, at any time, as security for any loan he may elect to make in order to create such fund; and if there shall be any assets remaining after the above-mentioned fund is created the Comptroller of the Currency shall then proceed in like manner to create and deliver to the Treasurer of the United States a fund equal in amount to the aggregate of all deposits of moneys made in the associa tion either directly or indirectly by the United States Treasurer, including those of any and all officers or agents of the United States Government; and the receiver, after the completion of such fund or funds or as much thereof as can be realized from the assets, and not before, shall

administer the remaining assets, if there be any, for the benefit of creditors and shareholders of the association; and the Comptroller of the Currency shall have like power and authority, and shall proceed in the same manner in the case of clearing-house associations organized under this Act.

The five per centum reserved from the moneys deposited by the insolvent association for the current redemption of the greenbacks of such association shall be free moneys in the Treasury, and the five per centum on the currency taken out which was deposited for the current redemption of such currency shall be returned to the receiver of the insolvent association.

The greenbacks and currency of an insolvent association shall be immediately redeemed and canceled by the Treasurer of the United States, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SEC. 16. That the Comptroller may at all times know the condition of each national banking association, each association shall make such record at the close of each day as the Comptroller shall request, in a book kept for that purpose, which record shall show the total amount of its currency paid out and in circulation, and the amount of currency received from redemption agents, and its total individual deposit account, and its total reserve account, as shown by its books at the close of each business day, and of what the reserve consisted, which daily record of deposits, reserve, and currency, and other matter requested by the Comptroller, shall be made up in duplicate for each month, and two copies or reports thereof transmitted to the Comptroller of the Currency on or before the tenth day of the following month.

Before making the record for the day, as required by the Comptroller, every transaction of that day pertaining thereto shall be duly entered in the books of the association.

The records and reports herein provided for, and any other facts and data he may request of associations or any director or officer thereof, shall be in such form as the Comptroller may direct.

National-bank examiners shall be held to be employees in the office of the Comptroller of the Currency while examining associations whose business is covered by this Act, and their fees for such examinations shall be paid out of the appropriation for the Bureau of the Currency. The operation of so much of all laws or parts of laws as are in conflict with this Act is hereby suspended.

NOTE.-The "visible gold"-gold in banks and in the United States Treasury-is reported by the Comptroller, on page 22, Report of 1896, to be $421,236,388. January 1, 1899, visible gold amounted to about $800,000,000.

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