this request was readily complied with. They also asked that they might ship currency when necessary, at the expense of the Boston banks; this request was also granted, and in a few months all were remitting at par and checks from all the Boston banks were being collected through the Clearing House. On Sept. 21st, Maine was added to the list, followed by Rhode Island and Connecticut on Nov. 9th, and New Hampshire and Vermont in January, 1900. [Illustration: Fac-simile of the Back of the Check, Showing the Numerous Indorsements it Bore on Finally Reaching the Bank on which it was Drawn. _From James G. Cannon's Work on Clearing Houses._] "The first year the amount collected was $541,000,000 at a cost of ten cents per thousand dollars; the second year $565,000,000 at a cost of eight cents; the third year $607,000,000 with cost reduced to seven cents. Since the opening of the Foreign Department, as we term it, the average yearly business has been six hundred million dollars, and the average cost seven cents. The expenses are met by an assessment levied on the banks based on their daily average business. There are at present in New England six hundred and thirty-seven banks and trust companies to whom checks are sent daily, and the number of packages handled will average five thousand." [Illustration: Map Showing the Check's Itinerary. _From James G. Cannon's Work on Clearing Houses._] MR. BANKER: Mr. Merchant, I am very much surprised that you have made such a thorough study of this feature of the banking problem, but I am also equally gratified. You have certainly explained the question so clearly and fully that no one can fail to be impressed with the future possibilities of this plan of clearing country checks, and I am convinced that you are absolutely right that the time is not far distant when every check in the United States will be par everywhere precisely as our bank notes are today; and why should they not be so, since both are identically the same thing in principle. MR. LAWYER: I can see what a tremendous advantage that would be to our commerce, indeed, incalculable, and I can see that there is no substantial difference between a check on a bank and a bank note, which is a check of the bank on itself; both are mere credits, and as you say, when fully comprehended and rightly understood, will be treated in precisely the same way in the exchanges of the country. But it does seem to me as though we shall have to have a better knowledge of our banks, and the business houses of the country, too, if this great reform is to be brought about. MR. BANKER: That is true, but the bankers of the country have realized for a long time that their greatest peril came from the unsound practices and reckless methods of some of their own number and have already taken steps to protect themselves against such practices.