Show 1 NATiONAL BANK SYSTEM Cemptroller Ridgeley Submits I His Annual Report FACTS ABOUT OUR MONEY Interesting Statistics Regarding National Na-tional Ban Currency the Capital Stock of the 4279 Banks Tables I Showing Aggregate Resources of National State Savings and Private Pri-vate Banks and Lon and Trust I Companies What He Recommends in tho Way of legislation I Washington Dec lThe annual report re-port of William B Rldgeley Comptroller Comp-troller of the Currency has been prepared pre-pared for transmission to Congress I The report starts with n detailed statement state-ment of the resources and liabilities of the national banks as shown by the I five reports of condition made jn response I re-sponse to the call of the Comptroller In commenting on this stafemcnt the Comptroller says CAPITAL STOCK OF BANKS Tho authorized capital stock of the 4279 national banking associations in existence on October 1 1901 was 663 224195 which is a net increase during the year of 30721800 There was an increase In CPI l stock of 21674500 by banks organized during the year Including In-cluding 120000 of newlyorganized associations as-sociations which Increased their capital slock to that amount subsequent to the date of organization The Associations which were in existence ori October 31 I 1000 Increased their capital stock during dur-ing the year to the extent oC 21810000 There was a decrease of capital stock of 8040000 by voluntary liquidations OUTSTANDING CIRCULATION On October 31 1901 the outstanding circulation oC national banks amounted to 350832715 an Increase Or tho year of 28219447 and since the passage of the actof March 6 1900 of 105806485 The Comptroller has prepared tables j showing the aggregate resources of National Na-tional State savings banks private banks and loan and trust companies from reports made to him or obtained from other sources The result of this Investigation shows the existence of 12972 banks of all kinds In the country coun-try with an aggregate capital of 1 138042134 surplus and undivided profits prof-its of 693465095 and 270855255 respectively re-spectively deposits 8019285110 and loans and discounts 6491630743 BANKS IN ISLANDS Statistics obtained from one National three other incprporated and two private pri-vate banks in Hawaii three incorporated incorpo-rated banks In Porto Rico and seven Incorporated banks Including I branches In the Philippine islands making an I aggregate of sixteen institutions in these new territorial possessions show an aggregate capital of 4313978 surplus sur-plus and undivided profits 1627250 deposits 262 23018602 and loans 13908 BANKS NOW RUNNING Under the various acts of Congress 600G banks with an authorized capital a 735467682 have been organized of which 4379 werein active operation at the close of the report year 1340 In voluntary vol-untary liquidation and 387 In charge of receivers or finally closed Geographically the largest number of banks chartered during the report year were organized in the Middle States In the Pacific Slate Including Hawaii fourteen banks of smaller class were organized with aggregate capital of 360000 and twelve of the larger class with 1800000 capital I EXTENDING CHARTERS During the last session of Congress a bill to provide for the extension of the charters of National banks passed the House of Representatives but failed to receive consideration in the Senate Comptroller Ridgeley urgently urgent-ly recommended that this bill or a similar sim-ilar measure be enacted into tho law Comparing the volume of business of the savings banks of the United States with those of the European countries the report shows that in the matter of deposits the United States as for years past stands at the head The banking power of the United Stales since 1890 shows an increase of 121 per cent aggregating ag-gregating the banking power of the United Kingdom and the United States with the estimated power of continental continen-tal Europe and other countries an increase in-crease since 1S90 Is shown of 60 percent per-cent AS TO SUBTREASURIES In commenting on the present system sys-tem of subtreasuries the Comptroller calls attention to the disadvantages and derangements Its operations dorngmcnts is operUonscause in 6ur financial matters and says There could bo no better Illustration of this than its operations in tho last few months The result has been to needlessly lockup and take outoc circulation cir-culation vast sums of money just ala time when It was badly needed for moving crops and transacting the regular reg-ular business of the country If the Secrotanot the Treasury is given authority au-thority so he can arrange to have more of the money collected the Government Govern-ment deposited with the natibnal banks and kept there until needed it can be done under such regulations restrictions restric-tions and supervision as to Jnsuro the Government against loss and give relief re-lief from the present system SAFEGUARDING GOLD STANDARD Referring to the criticism which has been made of the act of March 1 1900 to the effect that It does not properly safeguard the gold standard but I leaves it possible for the Secretary of the Treasury to practically undo the effect of the act by departmental action ac-tion and regulation without further legislation the Comptroller says 1 the act can be made stronger by amendments and the gold standard of 1 value rendered more secure from any future uncertainty It should be done without any delay Since the passage of the act of March 1 1900 the total amount of circulation cir-culation which the national banks have outstanding had Increased from J254026230 to 153832715 an increase of S105SOGJCO or over 1 per cent Tho provisions of the act have also added somewhat to the elasticity of the national bank currency It however how-ever leaves much to be desired In tho way of elasticity the lack of which Is the greatest fault of our national bank Issues Congress has already had under discussion dis-cussion and consideration various measures for the modification of the i national bank currency There Is much discussion on the subject by bankers and financiers and many I plans ore urged for adoption Somewhere Some-where between the views of the ardent advocates of asset currency and those who oppose It with vehemence aa unsafe un-safe and unsound In every respect so there should be found safe middle I ground t |