This is done, too, often at a time most unfortunate for the general community. It is done at a time when the community should receive more and not less help from the banks. Banks ought to lend more freely in times of crisis than at other times, for it is that freer lending that will help the country to meet and get through the crisis. To stay help, to withdraw help already given, is to increase the difficulties of the general community, to feed alarm and apprehension, to aggravate the crisis. The banks do, therefore, what seems wise, perhaps, for them, but unwise for the community. They are not to be blamed so severely as some imagine. They have to look to the law in the same way as the individual has to look at it, and they cannot be blamed for acting in accordance with law. It is, perhaps, the law that is unwise and not the banks. Communities must abide by the laws they make, and by the limited freedom laws allow. Laws are not the last word in human wisdom. Laws can be modified and improved upon. Banks have to work within restrictions imposed upon them by the law, and if these restrictions become harsh in times of difficulty and crisis, then it is the law that is at fault and not the banks. Banks must pay out legal tender to their depositors on demand. The Government restricts the supply of legal tender by enacting that gold alone shall be legal tender. Therefore the Government is not irresponsible for the manner in which the machinery works in all sorts of conditions. If the supply of legal tender is restricted, no banking system, or any system like it, would be possible if the reserves in legal tender had to be equal, or nearly equal, to the deposits. If the banking system is to be worked in the highest interests of the community, then the gold reserves must necessarily be greatly less than the deposits. If the people of this country took to hoarding gold, then the banking system would eventually come to a stop, which shows again what the nature of the loan fund is. There can be no loan fund without gold, and in that case there could be no currency such as the cheque system of this country. Ought we, then, to reform and modify the law? I can imagine the time coming when legal tender will not be confined to gold. But this is far distant. I think reform can come in the manner in which we have experienced it since the war. The Government could ensure free working in times of apprehension and crisis in the manner in which it ensured it in August, 1914, by the creation of emergency currency. What can be done successfully and beneficially once can be done again.