The herald., 1896-02-23
to deposit With It securities for the fpll

1
amount Of their issue.
And by nice little trick in book.
| keeping the government even finds an
opportunity to make a little profit Ct
their expense when perhaps 1t should
| not. The charter of q national bank d
alive for only twenty years, and ct the
close of each twenty years the bank is
obliged to make renewal. Even ii IL
reorganizes under its old name and Z
charter the exact counterpart of it,
| former one, the government assumes
that it goes out of existence ct the
| close of its charter period, and sets it
up in business again for another
twenty years just as If it were new
| institution,
As q consequence, every time that
bank seeks renewal of its life 1t has to
clear up accounts with the Federal
treasury precisely az it would IL 1t were
on the point of going out Of business
forever, and, of course, it is forced,
! among other things, to make good the
full amount of its issue. If after the
settlement some of it's obligations Of
hand should fail to make their appear
ance for redemption, why the govern
ment is the gainer-and not the ma
tional bank-just to that amount
Comptroller Eckels' report for 1906
contains list of about 700 national
banks which have gone into voluntary
liquidation since 1854. Their total
issue was $45575.002, of which there
are SO, 534, ,465 outstanding. A fair pro-
portion of these Hquidations have oc-
CURED since 1890, and it is likely from
the amount of their unretired our
rency that all their notes Of hand that
tr ho v,vooonto1 for uyv1 ant hnUA
not yet been handed in.
The bulk of the outstanding oblign.
tions Of banks that closed their doors
prior to the end of 1877 is likely to re-
main in the treasury vaults. It should
be safe to assume that not any appre-
ciable quantity of it will ask redemp-
ton after being eight years upon the
market without an existing bank to
back it; and yet it is possible that a.
all the national bank obligations are
known to have the backing of the ma
tion they may still be passing current
from hand to hand as good legal tender.
The outstanding obligations of the
banks that went out of business prior
to 1887 are, in round numbers, $2,400,-
600. The national banks which have
gone into voluntary liquidation under
other sections Of the revised statutes
have 1881, ,067 outstanding; and those of
them which surrendered their charters
before 1885 have about 100000 OUT
standing. There is another table OF
national banks, showing additional
outstanding obligations of about $780,
900 prior to the close of 1885.
Although some of the national
banks ceased to do business more
than thirty years ago,"th comptroller
says in the text OF his report, ''each
bank still has currency that has not
been presented. Something like per
cent of the old state bank circulation
was not redeemed. A careful exami-
nation of the currency accounts Of the
liquidated national bank shows that the
percentage Of national bank currency
likely to be unredeemed will be very
much smaller.
"From present indications it seems
probable that about two-flfths Of per
cent of the national bank notes that
have been in actual circulation will re-
main unredeemed. On October 81,
1894, this amount (the actual circula-
tion) was $691, ,706,231. At the average
rate of redemption there will remain q
profit tn the government from this
source of $2,766,624.9 On October 81,
1894, the amount in the treasury to the
credit of the national bank redemption
fund was (35,883,957.73. Hence it will
be seen that the profits frbm unre-
deemed circulation are already avail
able"
Now to gather up the ends and bulk
them, SO as to show the possible profits
of the nation through its juggling with
its currency of one kind and another,
there is first the $15,000,00G and odd
gained by the disappearance of the
war shinplasters. Striking a mean be-
tween the extremes of United States
Treasurer Morgan's estimate of pro-
portion of loss of greenbacks to the en-
tire bulk. from $15,000,000 to 500 00O, 200
of greenbacks will never turn up again,
and, according to COMPTROLLER Eckels'
figures, an additional 81 750, 900 is made
by the disappearance of the national
bank notes.
So that the entire profit Of the gov
ernment from this source since it be-
gan putting paper money into the
hands OF the people is not probably
less than $4,000 000-Washington Cor.
Of the New York Herald.