Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-12-06
cash to met their outstanding notes
when presented. Their

i
ABILITY TO COMMAND GOLD
has always been beyond that Of the
! government, for in each financial ex-
lgency which has confronted the gov
| eminent, the banks have furnished to
| it the amounts necessary to maintain
| it's solvency. 1t is impossible to be-
lieve that with system of bank note
issues, based in part upon securities
| and in part upon bank assets, the
| country canot be provided with a
! sound, safe, AMI elastic bank note
issue, always commensurate with and
| responsive to the demands of trade.
| The Bank of England, the Bank of
| Scotland, and the Bank OF Ireland,
have been found to be ample in their
| resources to provide the note issues for
| use in the trade of the United King
dom. The same is true of the Bank Of
France. The Deutsche Reichsbank, or
| banks, has for more than twenty-five
| years issued bank note paper against
assets which has maintained it's value
and has been so controlled as to sue
| cessfully meet the commercial needs
of the empire"
! TIE Comptroller calls attention to
! the method Of organization of this
bank, and publishes some interesting
statistics in connection Herewith.
| The total
| NUMBER OF NATIONAL BANKS
| organized since the system was put in
operation in 1863 is shown to have been
5,095. On October 31st last there were
in active operation 3,617, having an au-
thorized capital of $500, 23o, 295. The
| total circulation of the banks then out
| standing was 1929, $50, of which
| 1902 1894, 555 was secured by bonds Of
the United States and the balance by
lawful money deposited with the treas
urer of the United States. The total
circulation outstanding of all national
| banks on October 31st last was $780,
| 131 ,005, of which amount S1,55S,S0
was secured by bonds held for account
of insolvent and liQuidating banks,
and $26,205,3 1926 by lawful money depos-
| tied for their account and by active
| banks reducing circulation. The net
| decrease in the amount of circulation
secured by bonds during the year was
| $12,5S4, 1874, and the gross decrease in
the total circulation was $4,S51, 292.
"The 3,s17 banks in operation are
DIVIDED GEOGRAPHICALLY
as follows: SIS, with an authorized
capital stock of $3.50 POI 500, in the New
| England States; 956, with an aggre-
gate capital stock of $195, 124,275, in the
Eastern States; SAG, with capital
stock of s66, 761,9 900, in the Southern
States; 1,046, with capital stock of
$3.50, 3,967 in the Middle States; 357,
with capital stock Of S32 1854, 160. in
the Eastern States, and 124, with cap
ital stock Of SIT, 465 900, in the Pacific
| States.
| During the year forty-four banks
were organized with an aggregate capt.
tai stock of $4,420,000. During the
year seventy-one banks went into vol
untary liquidation.
There was paid to creditors of insolv-
| ent banks during the year S13,169,78
in dividends. The magnitude of this
unequalled record, the report says, will
| be more forcibly illustrated if consid-
cred in the light of what has been ac-
| complished heretofore in the way of
| dividend payments to the creditors Of
| insolvent institutions. In 1898 there was
paid in dividends $3,433,646; in 1894,
s5,124,577; in 1895, S3,3SO,552; in 1896,
S2,45 $50, and in 1897, s19 Isl
making a total of dividends paid within
the five years from 1898 to 1897 of S27,-
$50, 515, or 36A' per cent. of all the div
! idends that have ever been paid to cred
itors of insolvent banks. From 1863 to
| 1897 there has been paid in dividends
| 1885, 925, and in the year embraced
in this report SIS, 1885, 81, or II 1-3 per
| cent. of all the dividends that have been
paid during the period of thirty-four
years of the
EXISTENCE OF THE SYSTEM.
Since October 31st, the end of the
report year, seventeen additional divi-
| dends have been ordered, amounting in
| the aggregate to about s625,00O.
The report contains the latest COM
piled statistics relative to the world
monetary system and the stock of gold,
silver and paper currency. A very in
| teresting feature of this statement is
the per capita averages in the principal
countries of the world, as follows:
United States, $29.7O; United King
dom, s20.65; France, s34.6S; Germany,
! S1S.95; Austria-Hungary, 1888, and
Russia, sS.95.
The Comptroller renews his recon-
mendations of last year urging that ma
tional bank examiners be paid an an
nual salary instead of fees as now.