The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-09-20

federal reserve hanks have COM
pleted the taking over Of the func-
tons Of the sub-treasuries OF tho
United States and the independent
treasury has become a thing OF Inc
past. The federal reserve act All
thorixes the federal reserve banks
to act ~ fiscal agentss Of the United
States and they have been able to
handle this business 80 thoroughly
that the abolition of the sub
treasures has been made possible.
The sub-treasuries were created
In 1886 following the long series OF
difficulties which Andrew jackson
and other officials Of the early gov
eminent had with the Bank OF /ths
United States. They were branches
Of the treasury at Washington and
were designed to handle govern
ment bushes in various parts OF
the country. The sub-treasuries
were located at strategic points &C.
graphically.
With the growth of the banking
business in the United States it
was found that the system set up
in 1846 did not answer the demands
of modern commerce. The federal
reserve banks, which are quasi
governmental organizations. did
meet this demand, SO the change
was made.
These IL great banks are direct
agents of the government and,
with their % branches, render a
service which is declared to be SUI
/; perior to that possible through the
old sub-treasuries.
Under q general power furnished
by the secretary of the treasury,
the federal reserve banks may &C
cept revenues and hold them on
deposit, pay checks and war
rants of the treasury, redeem bond
and note coupons and conduct a
general banking agency business
for the federal treasury. Any gov
eminent check or warrant, no mat
ter where drawn, may be presented
to any federal reserve bank or any
one of the branches for payment
and payment will be made as read
lily as II the check we're presented
at the treasury of the United States
War Business in Bonds.
The federal reserve banks goi
deeply into this government bank
ing business during the war. As
fiscal agents, they handled a large
part of all the selling Of the Lib.
erty bonds and victory notes. This
service was not confined to the
actual banking alone. The fedora
RESERVE banks were the headQuar.
tiers for the publicity campaigni
which assisted in placing the Sc.
curities,
| The magnitude of this bushes:
is shown by the figures. During
the war the federal reserve banks
handled the subscriptions and pay
ments, distributed the bonds ant
kept the accounts Of an aggregate
of 81, 900, 100000 represented b,
more than 100000 subscriptions
During and since the war, the fed
eral reserve banks also handled fol
the treasury the short term Sc
curities known as treasury certifi
> Gates of indebtedness. The SALE
and distribution OF $4,000, 000, 0Ot
OF these were handled and the sub
. sequent redemption of $4,000, 900,
600.
!, There is a vast amount of detail
in performing this part Of worl
and treasury officials and banker
agree that il the task had fallen OF
, the old sub-treasuries they woul.
have been swamped.
The federal reserve bank G
New York is the greatest of the 1
banks. In fact in many respects
;; is as great as all the other II pu
. together in that it does about hal
Of the federal reserve banking Q
the entire country. An indicatio,
of the bulk of the federal reserv
bank operations is furnished b
. some Of the figures for the Ne,
: York bank. For the year 1921, tina
!. bank handled government check
to the amount Of S1,63S, 000. 900. Til
: IL federal reserve banks, their
!. branches and the treasury and fed
= eral reserve board at Washingto
= are all connected by private tele
, graph system which keeps them j
: constant touch. Through this sys