That checks and clearing-houses are a great convenience to commerce is not denied. They serve to a certain extent to make more effective the money volume of a country. By the clearing house system of off-setting the demands of the several banks, one against the other, and requiring payment in cash of the balances only, large amounts of loans may remain undisturbed and greater stability of industrial conditions be secured. Clearing-houses, however, were not established primarily for the convenience of commerce, but for the profit of bankers. Whatever amounts of money are economized by means of those institutions bring compensation, by way of interest, to the banks. We may, therefore, rely upon their being utilized to the utmost under all circumstances. But, however much checks and clearing-houses may economize the use of money, they are no novel devices. They are not some untried and newly-invented instrumentalities. Checks have been in use ever since the invention of banks. The clearing-house system was established in this country in 1853. Contributing, as it does contribute, to the pecuniary profit of the banks by making possible an economy in the use of invested money, which the banks have loaned out, and on which they are drawing interest, the system has grown with the growth of the business of the country. It will undoubtedly continue to grow, but with no greater acceleration than population and business will warrant. As it has been a part of the banking machinery of the country for nearly forty years, and during that period has been utilized to the utmost, the conditions of its existence and utilization have long since become static conditions. The demands for currency have borne relation to the needs of business, with clearing-house facilities in full sight and operation; and at all seasons, in the adjustment of prices, those facilities have had full force and effect. Assuming that at any given period the business of the country were conducted with a given volume of money, _plus_ a certain volume of clearing house exchanges, then, at a later period, an increase of business would demand an increase in the volume of money, _plus_ a proportionate increase in the volume of clearing-house exchanges; having had this system in full and effective use for forty years, it is as absurd to ascribe the _fall_ of prices in the last half of that period to any economy in the use of money effected by the clearing-house system as it would be to ascribe to the same cause the directly opposite effect--the _rise_ of prices--that took place in the first half of the same period. THE PROOF AFFORDED BY THE FALL OF INTEREST. If further proof were needed that gold has risen in value, it is, as I maintain, to be found in the coincident fact of a decrease of rates of interest on first-class securities. That decrease has kept even step and pace with the rise in the value of money.