_Fourth_: I want to nail one fact down right here so that no one of you will ever overlook it, or forget it; and that fact is this: An acceptance is just as much a bank liability as a deposit subject to check, for if the seller and buyer, or the drawer and the drawee, don't pay the debt on the day named, the bank will have to pay it, just as much as it will have to pay the checks against its deposits, although the people who borrowed the deposits have not paid their notes. It is clear, therefore, that the same reserve should be carried to protect acceptances as deposits. MR. LAWYER: I am convinced of that, and I think we cannot insist upon this conclusion too strongly for two reasons. First, the credit facilities for trading, or carrying on business, are increasing at a tremendous rate, and this particular form of credit is probably increasing at a greater pace just now than any other. Second, there is no form of credit more indirect, subtle and liable to mislead than this; therefore, it will require double diligence to keep it as good as gold. We must remember that since gold is our standard of value, gold alone is the touchstone of all credit, acceptances as well as deposits and bank notes. MR. BANKER: There is no question whatever about that. If we want an absolutely sound and impregnable financial and banking system, we must meet checks and acceptances with gold just as well as bank notes, for they are all identical and the same thing--only in different forms--bank credit. Gentlemen, if you place our banks in a position where they can pay gold no one will ever ask for gold, except for some special purpose like that of export. MR. MERCHANT: Is it not a fact that credit transactions in business are increasing every year? MR. MANUFACTURER: Mr. Merchant, I presume you mean, relatively. That is, that the proportion of business transactions in credit as distinguished from cash is greater now than formerly. MR. MERCHANT: That is precisely what I mean, of course. I am aware that there is on the average a great increase of business every year.