Town Banks vs. Country

One result of the rural credits discussion in Washington last year was the authorization of a joint commission of Senators and Representatives, whose duty it would be to ascertain why it was that 9,678 banks in this country eligible for membership in the Reserve System, had not seen fit to join it. The commission will travel into every state in the Union and hold hearings in all significant banking centers.

Much of the hostility thus far shown to the Reserve System by country banks is believed to be due simply to the old but perhaps inevitable antipathy between country and city banks. New York bankers, viewing with no small alarm the tendency of recent years to tinker dangerously with the Federal Reserve Act in Congress, intend to bring to the attention of the commission some of the good points of the Federal Reserve System when its New York hearings are held.

The itinerary of the commission will take it first to New England, then to New York, thence through the Northwest to the Coast, and back again through the heart of the nation to Washington, with a final trip through the Southern States. The commission expects to have its recommendations ready when Congress convenes next December.