Los Angeles issued October 30th "Clearing House certificates or scrip," designed as a circulating medium for the general use of the public. Mr. Cannon records the action taken by the associated banks of Group No. 2 of the Ohio Bankers' Association, which includes twelve counties, and is worthy of comment since it offers the first concrete example of the possibilities of the banks of any particular section of any state, uniting in an effort to overcome the disastrous consequences resulting at times from false rumors in panic periods. MR. MERCHANT: _Now, gentlemen, why all this frightful agony, this terrific straining, this ever-recurring tragedy and universal ruin, simply because we persist in being utterly ignorant of the simplest economic truths which our own actions on every such occasion have demonstrated--that there is absolutely no difference between a bank book credit and a bank note credit, except that the people want something that passes current in greatly increased quantities, when loaning stops or credit is checked. You have only to go to Scotland, and note the fact that there has been in operation there two hundred and seventeen years the vital principle involved, the conversion of bank book credits into bank note credits, and the current redemption of all bank credits in gold coin, whenever called for._ Why, gentlemen, if the man who wants to find the cure would only shake the moss from off his back, and take time to read what I am going to submit to you now, or pull the cobwebs out of his eyes and go up to Montreal, or Toronto, or any Canadian city, and see the bank notes come into the Clearing Houses, with the checks and drafts, he would wonder why he had been such a complete idiot all his life, when our nearest neighbor was enjoying perfect immunity from our troubles. L. Carroll Root, an American economist and historical student of the first rank, after a most thorough and exhaustive investigation of banks and banking in New England before the war, concludes his comment as follows: "When the National Banking System appeared upon the scene it found the channels of circulation in New England filled by a State bank currency of well recognized soundness.