What is the absolute, final and unquestionable test of a good banker, a real top notcher in his business? It is the volume of deposits which he attracts. That is the ultimate test of his ability and integrity--the confidence he inspires in his institution as measured by the volume of money entrusted to it! That volume of deposits must be obtained, retained and increased in the face of the hottest kind of hot competition. It is the absolute ability and integrity meter of a successful banker. There is no other. Are these strutting, preening, vociferating and vociferous Federal Reserve bankers measured--or measurable--by that standard? Do they battle for their deposits and by those deposits and the volume of them win their spurs? They do not. Their mass of deposits--the largest on earth--are dumped into their banks by law, conscripted into their coffers. They are not won in competition. Federal Reserve bankers don't prove their ability by competition--they smugly admit it. At this writing over $1,800,000,000 of deposits are in their coffers, conscripted there as were soldiers in the World War by law! And not only that, but that vast mass of deposits--the hugest on earth--is handed to them free of interest charge. All other banks in large American cities not only compete with each other for the deposits of country banks, but pay interest on them at a minimum of 2 per cent per annum. Federal Reserve bankers pay no interest--not even to the Government. If a National Bank wants Government deposits it must put up the unquestioned security to get them and then must pay interest on them, but Federal Reserve bankers do neither! Not much competition for Federal Reserve bankers there, is there? Peg that proposition and look at the next one.