During the past ten years 119 National banks have been placed in the charge of receivers. The affairs of 78 of these banks have been finally closed and 41 are yet in the charge of receivers. The liabilities of these 119 banks, as shown by the enclosed statement, aggregate $66,804,214. Creditors have received $56,252,544, or 84.20 per cent. If creditors were, therefore, paid no further dividends, the loss during the ten years mentioned would average only about 15.80 per cent. It cannot at this time be determined what the ultimate loss will be to creditors of the 41 insolvent banks which failed since 1902. Yours very truly, W.J. Fowler, _Deputy Comptroller_. MR. LAWYER: Well, here goes another complete knock-out for me, I am plumb out, over the ropes this time. I don't know that I can ever recover from that blow. MR. BANKER: Just a moment, gentlemen, while I admit that you have won your fight for the depositors, you must remember that although you have an insurance that will cover net losses after you have cleaned up the failures and closed out the assets, you will still have quite a problem to solve to meet the demands of the depositors when the failure takes place. MR. LABORINGMAN: If the depositors in the National banks had been insured in some way during the past forty-nine years, I do not believe that we would have had one failure in ten that we have had, and if you will now protect the banks, as Mr. Banker proposes, through his supervision by a board of control, I do not believe that we will ever have another; then why not give our 20,000,000 depositors the benefit of it, as it will cost nothing and will absolutely prevent runs on your banks. MR. MERCHANT: Yes, and also stop the hoarding of money, which is a curse to any country where it takes place. I am not sure, gentlemen, but what the adoption of this principle of deposit insurance will do more to guarantee steady conditions than any other one thing. MR. BANKER: Well, while the problem has its difficulties, I really think it is up to us to work it out in some way. The folly, greedy purpose and unscrupulous methods of some of our fraternity have not only brought misfortune and overwhelming distress to their particular neighborhoods but a cataclysm to the whole commercial world because of the shock to banking credit generally. MR. MERCHANT: Well, Mr. Banker, how are you going to protect yourself against those bankers who think that they can do better by remaining outside of the National Banking System, because they can do a scalping and scavenger business if left free. Of course, it will be advantageous for the upright banker to come into the National System. MR. BANKER: You will remember that in 1865 Congress passed a law imposing a tax of 10 per cent upon all bank notes, except those based upon Government bonds. You also know from what has been said that the notes of all other banks immediately disappeared from circulation.