Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1908-06-17
Making Plates for Emergency Cur.
rency

The Aldrich- Cannon amendment
of the banking laws, known as the
emergency bill, cuts out a nice job
in engraving new plates and print
ing new notes for all the national
banks in the country, whether they
are ever to be used or not. A diff
ferent form of note is prescribed for
the additional circulation, and it
is specifically declared that Gin no
event shall bank notes of the pres
ent form be issued to any bank as
additional circulation provided for
by the act" A certain limit is
prescribed for such circulation for
each bank, determined by capital
and surplus and amount of notes
already out, secured by United
States bonds, and the aggregate to
be outstanding at any one time is
limited, but the comptroller of the
currency, under the direction of the
secretary of the treasury, is abso-
lutely required, cas- soon as practi-
cable" to cause to be prepared cir
culating notes in blank "to an
amount equal to fifty per centum
of the capital stock of each ma
tional banking association" which
are to be kept in the sub treasury
nearest the place of business of each
association.
All of these notes kept on hand
do not have to be of the new kind,
but some of them for each bank
and of each denomination must be,
if all national banks are to be in
position to avail themselves of the
privilege of issuing additional Cir
culation. The comptroller will
have no discretion but to have the
notes ready for all of them in the
separate form required for the ad-
ditional circulation, to be supplied
when properly applied for. Any
bank having circulation secured by
government bonds to 40 per cent of
its capital would be entitled to the
additional notes within the limit
of its capital and surplus, subject
to the discretion of the secretary of
the treasury in the allotment and
distribution. But whatever the re-
quirement may be and whether the
emergency ever comes or not, the
plates and dies must be engraved
and more or less of the notes got
ready for all the banks "as soon as
practicable"
There are now about 1000 ma
tional banks and the law requires
different denominations of notes to
be prepared and printed in such
quantity as may be required to
supply the associations entitled to
receive them" and as the name of
each association must appear on
the face Of its notes there would
have to be a separate plate for each
denomination for each of the 1000
national banks. The wording on
the face being different for the ad-
ditional circulation from that of
the present form of note a great
many thousand additional plates
and dies will have to be engraved
in the best manner to guard against
counterfeiting and fraudulent al
as the law dema nds.
How long it will take to get up all
these plates, how much it will cost,
and how much use is ever to be
made Of them, are matters to
which apparently no thought has
been given, but it is evident that
lot of additional employment will
be put upon the bureau of engrav-
ing and printing, on the chance of
a financial emergency, which can.
not be met by a normal expansion
of bank currency but must have
separate emergency kind the very
of which is likely to
cause panic.-Journal of Finance
and Commerce.
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