Chapter XVIII: Section 3: That within ninety days after the designation of the cities

for the location of the financial centres of the commercial zones every national bank, with the approval of the five persons designated in section two of this Act, shall select one of the centres so designated as the place for its clearing house, and thereupon the Comptroller of the Currency shall notify all the national banks to meet at their respective financial centres on a given day and at a designated place for the purpose of organizing the several commercial zones, of which there shall not be less than twenty-eight nor more than forty-two in number.

COMMENT:--Referring to sections two and three I would urge upon your attention these points:

_Geographical Considerations_

Great Britain has only 120,000 square miles of territory. France has 204,000 and Germany 208,000 square miles. All Europe, outside of Russia, is only about half the size of the United States. It has 1,600,000 square miles, while we have 3,026,000 square miles. Including Russia, all Europe has only 3,600,000 square miles.

Extended as our territory is, our products are far more varied and more universally important to the human race than those of any other nation. They exceed in value $35,000,000,000 a year.

_Local Interests_

New England is essentially a manufacturing center of dry goods, wearing apparel, and metal wares. Pennsylvania is known the world over for its coal, iron, and oil industries. New Orleans is the market for cotton, sugar, and rice. Kansas City is the emporium for live stock and grain. Chicago, the greatest food market on earth, is fast coming to be one of the greatest manufacturing points in almost every line of industry. St. Paul and Minneapolis supply us with wheat and flour. The cities of the Rocky Mountains are growing in importance year by year, each one entitled to distinction for some particular industry. The development of the Pacific coast, from San Diego to Seattle, is challenging universal attention.

It is the opinion of your committee that it is highly important, indeed, absolutely essential, for the best interests of the people, industrially, commercially, socially, and politically, that each geographical zone of common business interests should have independent self-government in matters of banking, precisely as the several States have control of their local affairs.

At the same time, these commercial zones should be so harmonized and federated as to give to each the financial strength and power of all combined, precisely as every State is as strong and powerful politically as the Federal Government itself.

All the governments of Europe are traditionally monarchical and imperialistic. Their banking institutions not only all bear the insignia of their political origin, but also characteristically mark the times and conditions that gave them birth.

In England alone self-government found true expression in the selection of the board of directors of the Bank of England. The British Government has no relation to the management, either directly or indirectly. It neither appoints a single representative on the board, nor has any voice whatever in his selection.

Again, it is to be noted that the Englishman, ever tenaciously jealous of his rights, excluded from the board of directors all bankers. No banker has ever sat upon the board of directors of the Bank of England.

The French Empire of 1803 and the German Empire of 1873 are each reflected in the organization of the Bank of France and the Imperial Bank of Germany.

This Government was organized as a protest against royal rule and imperial power. It has been fighting the evils of centralization for more than a hundred years; and of nothing has it shown such persistent jealousy as the possible centralization of financial interests and the control of commercial credits.

Will it be said by some one who thinks only in the terms of the special interests that, notwithstanding this watchfulness and constant anxiety, great aggregations of capital in the business world have come practically to control the business situation; that our commerce is practically centralized now, and that our banking should be so, to make it the counterpart of the existing state of things?

Let us not assume that the problems of coördinated power and wealth have all been solved. Let us believe that the study of this modern mystery has just begun. Let us hope that if it is possible for us so to solve the financial and banking problem as to recognize the best traditions of the Republic and the highest aspirations of the American people, keeping steadily in view every economic law involved, we shall then save our beloved country from the tragic consequence of political controversies directly affecting our commercial credit and indirectly affecting every day's labor and every dollar of capital until the question is settled right.

We must not forget that every conceivable phase of the so-called "money question" has been the football of American politics from the organization of the First and the Second United States banks, down through the greenback madness, the silver craze and the gold standard fight. Not a single subject has aroused such intense bitterness as this one, excepting slavery alone.

Whoever, then, tries to solve this problem must recognize at every turn the origin of our political institutions, the genius of our people, and the peculiar characteristics of the American citizen or he will fail utterly in his undertaking.