The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-22

owner of a great commercial bank; then,
 when that experiment seemed unsuccess- full and for the last 70 years. as fSe custodian of it's own vast revenues and checking accounts, and, finally, during the last half century, as the exclusive man. aeer of that branch of banking which has to do with the issue of circulating notes. No other important commercial country, at least, none or the countries of western Europe, has attempted for several generations to engage in govern ment banking in any of these forms, either as owner or partial owner of commercial bank, or as maintaining separate depository for it's own funds, or as handling the issue and redemption of bank notes
 Our government has long since ceased
 to participate In the share holdings of
 commercial banks, and among the null
 titudes of proposals for banking legisla-
 ton, sane and insane, with which the country has been flooded during recent years, I have yet to see the first sug-
 gestion that it should attempt a repeti- ton of the banking experiments of it's early decades. There is no danger of Congress ever again considering seri-
 ously the revival of a United States bank Our government still continues,
 however, to act as it's own banker, and still continues to monopolZe the note is ii.-+@AANAA system.''
 MT. Andrew declared that no other gov ernment in the world is so i'll adapted as this government to act as it's own
 banker. After referring to the machinery provided for a balanced budget and an approximate equivalent of revenue and ex- penditures under governments with re- sponsibe cabinets, he continued: Tn our government system we have not the machinery to insure a balance be- tween income and outgo. Under our pe- culiar methods of government, one pair of congressional committees prepare the bills for raising money, while another inae-
 pendent and much larger group of com-
 mittees prepare the bills for spending it,
 and no individual or committee is serious ly charged with the duty of adjusting
 the balance between them.
 This evening the bankers and guests attended a reception of the Country club and fete champetre at City park, where the club is located. Fireworks and il- luminat tions of an elaborate character were displayed in the park and on the lakes.
 Farnsworth's Report New York still tops all other states with membership in the American Bankers as sociation, according to the report of Fred
 E. Farnsworth of New York, general sec retary of the association. Of the 12,072 | institutions having membership in the organization, 919, or approximately one in every thirteen halls from New York
 Pennsylvania comes next with sig and Illinois is a close third with 799 Fourth
 place is claimed by California with 5l1 hard pressed by Ohio, with 5d9, the five states named furnishing 35i9 members, or nearly one-third of the entire enrolment The annual income of the association, MT. Farnsworth's report proclaimed was
 $2O5, 726 for the past fiscal year. Of this
 sum, the annual dues constitute $i999I2
 having. reached that figure from $127, T50 in 1905, and $11 ,606 in 1875.
 MT. Farnsworth touched upon the pro- posed National Reserve association, de- claring that the currency commission will hold itself in readiness to prosecute a vigorous campaign when the proposed measure shall be framed as bill and will come before Congress-