The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-04-09
This Is Keynote of Address of
the Director Of the
Mint
GREATER CONCENTRATION N
THE NOTE ISSUE DEMANDED
National Monetary Commission Has
Gathered Much Valuable Information
That viii Help in Formulating Q
National Banking Statute.

Aitken, s. c., April Elm order to
bring the American banking system
into line with the drift of the world.
greater flexibility and greater mobility
In the banking reserves of the country
Is needed, as we'll as greater concen-
tration in note issue privileges and
greater conference and system in the
general control of the countrys bank
ing. This was the declaration made
today by A. Piatt Andrew, director of
the mint, in an address before the
South Carolina Bankers association
on the work of the national monetary
commission.
The commission has not yet begun
to discuss even the general outlines
of the recommendations which ulti-
mately it will have to make to con-
gress, according to Mr. Andrew. No
one today, he added, knows what that
plan will be. He expressed his belief,
however, that the material gathered by
the commission, which will be avail
able within the next few months, will
constitute IAN encyclopedia of bank:
ing without it's equal in the literature
Of any other country"
After drawing a comparison of the
banking system of some of the Euro
pean countries with that Of America,
Mr.. Andrew declared he entertained
no Illusion" that the same ends could
be accomplished in this country by
exactly the same means as in any
other country.
1T was on account of the striking
contrast between experiences here in
America with conditions abroad" said
Mr.. Andrew, that the national none
tary commission, in undertaking it's
Investigation of possible means for
improving the credit arrangements Of
this country, began by examining the
banking institutions. customs and reg
ulations of the leading countries of
Europe. If, among other people, in
most respects not unlike ourselves,
financial panics do not occur and the
credit systems maintain themselves
Intact in the face of stress and strain,
then the reasons for that difference
require examination"
Mr.. Andrew declared that Gin none
of the leading countries of Europe
during the past 100 years. except in
periods of war and revolution, has
there been any such general collapse
IF credit and general suspension of
the banks as occurred here only two
years ago.
Il do not mean to imply" he con-
sinued, "that there has not been in
these countries an unceasing altera-
lion of trade activity and trade relax
II 7 %
there have not been great failures of
banks and business firms of all sorts.
But upon all these occasions there
has been leadership and the situation
has been kept firmly in hand. There
aas been no infectious panic and no
general rout in which guilty and in
locent alike were crushed to earth,
.he failures in each of these cases
having been confined for the most
part to the persons and firms respon-
sible for the previous excesses."
Comparing the banking system of
his country with those abroad, Mr..
Andrew said:
A Comparison.
"Not only are our banking reserves
rendered less available in necessitous
times than the banking reserves of
other countries, because of the rigid
requirement under our laws of fixed
proportion Of cash. but our reserves
are far less available than are the
reserves in other countries because
they are scattered all over the coun-
try among our $4,000 different bank
ing institutions. No aspect of the
banking systems of other countries is
more impressive to an American than
the concentration Of banking reserves
which exists abroad.
"The institutions which in other
countries are charged with the re-
sponsibility of handling the greater
part of the balances Of the banks" he
added. "are not managed primarily for
the private profits of their stockhold-
ers are not operated primarily to earn
dividends, but are conducted with q
more or less admitted responsibility
for the maintenance Of the common
credit Of the country.
Another respect in which the drift
of the worlds banking is in a differ
ent direction from that of this coun-
try concerns the matter of note issue.
The tendency of note issue regulation
in every other country is manifestly
toward their concentration in a single
institution. The main advantage. in
my opinion, of concentrating the con-
troll of the note issue under single
body of men who are conscious of
public ends arises from the opportu-
nity which 1t offers for additional re-
lief in time of emergency and incipi-
ent panic.
~ have no idea. and no member of
the commission has any idea," he said