Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1885 — BANKS AND BANKING. [ARTICLE]

BANKS AND BANKING.

Points from Comptroller Cannon’s Annual Report. The annual report of the Comptroller of the Currency contains some points of special interest. Carefully compiled tables show that banking is much less profitable in this country than in England or the This is a point that few people will he ready to accept without proof, and the Comptroller has taken pains to prove it. The rate of interest charged by banks on the other side of the water is usually lower, than here, but unless a depositor has a balance of £2OO or upward in the Bank of England, for instance, he is charged for every check he draws upon the bank, or for any business the bank may do for him, and even when he does have a balance of that amount he is limited in the number of checks he can draw in a year without charge. In short, it is the theory of the English banking system that the banker must be paid for everything he does. What would an American think of being charged for drawing a check on his deposits? The ease with which checks are drawn and circulated in this country is a great stimulus to business. Any one can keep an account at the bank and check it out with impunity. No other country is so easy in this respect except France. But in "Prance the system is so different from ours that it is hard to make a satisfactory comparison. The bankers there take charge of valuables, etc., to a much greater extent than here. In France the bankers are obliged by law to do the business of . the people at low rates and be very accommodating, but even in that country charges are made that people here would never think of. Mr. Cannon ealjs attention to the fact that private banking institutions generally seem to be on the decline in this country as well as in England, and that the national banking system seems to be gaining in favor with the people on account of uniformity and security to the people. He is confident that the national banks in some form or other will continue.

J. C. Higgins, of Florida, is six feet four inches high, weighs 415 pounds, and has had a hat expressly made for him at Camden, N. J., which measures thirty-two and one-half inches in circumference. E. A. Lever, a prominent journalist of New Orleans, who served at various times in the American, Peruvian, Chilian,'and Mexican armies, has just been commissioned a Brigadier General by the Hpnduras Government. There are 633 German papers published in the United States, of which eighty-three are daily, seventy-six Sunday, and 474 weekly. The circulation ranges from 400 to 65,000. • A subterranean outlet to .the Great Salt Lake of Utah has recently been found. The lake was discovered by Col. John C. Fremont in 1846.