[93] Adapted from W. H. Kniffin, _The Savings Bank and Its Practical Work_, pp. 54-75. The Bankers Publishing Company. New York, 1912. [94] E. W. Kemmerer, _The United States Postal Savings Bank_, _Political Science Quarterly_, Vol. XXVI, No. 3, September, 1911, pp. 465-77. [95] W. H. Kniffin, _The Savings Bank and Its Practical Work_, pp. 75, 76. The Bankers Publishing Company, New York. 1912. CHAPTER XVII DOMESTIC EXCHANGE [96]The banker has become the bookkeeper and settling agent of the business world. The products of a locality, let us say the State of Georgia, move out to the markets of the world and create credits in favor of that locality on the books of banking institutions in the commercial centers, while at the same time a counter movement of commodities is under way from other localities into Georgia, in like manner creating credits for those localities which are debits against Georgia. The practical effect is that the commodities moving between these communities are exchanged and pay for themselves, the running accounts being kept and settlements effected in the banks. To illustrate the details: A dealer in cotton in Atlanta makes a sale to a mill in Fall River and receives in payment a check or draft drawn on a New York bank, which he deposits for the credit of his account in an Atlanta bank, and which the latter forwards for the credit of its bank account in New York. Meanwhile an Atlanta merchant has bought goods in New York and in order to pay for them buys from the Atlanta bank an order for the New York credit, and this when forwarded completes the circle of payments for cotton and goods. If we would extend the investigation to include the bank accounts of the Fall River mill and the Atlanta dealer we would find, first, that the mill account was built up constantly by deposits of checks and drafts received in payment for goods sold in all parts of the country and perhaps all over the world, with almost no deposits of cash, and that it was drawn down by checks for raw cotton, and supplies and large amounts of cash for the pay-rolls; second, that the cotton dealer's account was built up entirely by deposits of checks or drafts received for cotton shipments and drawn down by checks and cash payments to farmers for cotton. For payments at a distance bank credit in the form of a check or draft is [commonly] used....