There are today one thousand two hundred and ninety-two stock savings banks, with $76,000,000 of capital, owing individual deposits of $842,000,000. There are thirteen thousand three hundred and eighty-one state banks, with $459,000,000 of capital, owing individual deposits of $2,912,000,000, with $250,000,000 additional liabilities. There are one thousand four hundred and ten loan and trust companies, with $419,000,000 capital, owing individual deposits of $3,674,000,000, with $450,000,000 additional liabilities. Here are sixteen thousand eighty-three stock savings banks, state banks and trust companies, with $904,000,000 capital, owing individual deposits of $7,428,000,000. These do not include one thousand ninety-one private banks reporting to the comptroller of the currency, nor the mutual savings banks, which bring the total number up to seventeen thousand, eight hundred and four and the individual deposits up to $11,198,000,000. The capital of the national banks is $1,033,570,000; their individual deposits are $5,825,000,000 and the amount due to banks is $2,178,000,000. These vast banking resources are without any general organization whatever and yet consists of four distinct economic functions, and our great danger lies in the fact that there is no harmonious development and unification that we can call a system under one influence and control. This is absolutely necessary for the safety of banking and commerce at home, and the protection of our reserves, especially against adverse influences in unfavorable times from abroad. MR. MERCHANT: To simplify the matter, so that we can follow it through to the end, I suggest that we begin with the unit of a banking system: the bank as we know it today, the individual, independent bank, and note just what changes we should make in the organization of a bank, to make it the perfect and complete machine that the people demand, that they may be served as well today as they were in certain sections of the United States before the war. MR. BANKER: That's a good idea; indeed, the only way to be thorough, and get results. As was pointed out last Wednesday evening, banking today consists of four distinct functions. A COMMERCIAL BUSINESS A SAVINGS BUSINESS A TRUST BUSINESS A NOTE ISSUE BUSINESS _First_: The commercial business: The use of capital in the production and distribution of consumable commodities--food and clothing and all the incidental tools and machinery. _Second_: The savings bank business: The accumulation of the money saved by the working people of the country. This is distinctly a trust fund, and belongs to the investment fund of the country, and should be treated or handled as such.