(_c_) _Other Means of Safeguarding the Interests of the Public._--Experience has shown that publicity is a valuable safeguard against bad bank practices, and legislation has, therefore, provided for it by the requirement that statements of banking operations shall be published from time to time. The national banking act of the United States and many of our state banking acts, for example, provide for the publication five times a year of bank balance sheets, drawn up according to prescribed forms. The inspection of banks by public examiners and the requirement of detailed reports to public officials are also provided for in our federal and state legislation. Canada requires the reports but not the inspection by public officials, on the ground that the latter cannot be thorough and efficient, and is, therefore, likely to mislead the public and cause it to be less vigilant than it otherwise would be in the use of other means of safeguarding its interests. Legislation in this country has also concerned itself with the duties of bank directors and the enforcement of their performance, and with the relations of bank officers to their banks, particularly those involved in borrowing for their own uses or for firms or corporations in which they are interested. A recent legislative experiment along quite a new line has been undertaken in this country in the form of laws providing for the mutual insurance of depositors. Oklahoma started this experiment, and her example has been followed by other states. The essence of the experiment consists in the provision of a fund out of which is paid to the depositors of failed banks that portion of their claims which cannot be met from the liquidation of the assets of the defunct banks, such fund to be contributed by the other banks belonging to the system. The protection of depositors against loss is a commendable aim of legislation, but this method of attaining this aim is open to the serious objection that it removes from depositors all concern regarding the proper management of the bank with which they do business, and thus gives the unscrupulous, dishonest, and plunging banker an advantage. Attraction of depositors is the chief field in which competition between banks is carried on, and when the power of good management in this direction is removed, high rates on deposits, high lines of credit, low or no rates of exchange, extravagance in equipment, etc., remain the only attractions, and in the offer of these the unscrupulous and plunging banker will always outdo the conservative.