=Exercise 305=
Books that will Suggest Topics for Talks
CROCKER, U. H., The Cause of Hard Times.
FONDA, ARTHUR J., Honest Money.
GIBBS, H. C., A Bimetallic Primer.
MCADAMS, GRAHAM, An Alphabet in Finance.
NEWCOMB, SIMON, The A B C of Finance.
NORTON, S. F., Ten Men of Money Island, or The Primer of Finance.
REEVES, JOHN, The Rothschilds: The Financial Rulers of Nations.
WHITE, HORACE, Money and Banking.
=Exercise 306=
Write the following from dictation:
1
THE DAILY ROUTINE OF THE CLEARING HOUSE
Each bank sends two clerks to the Clearing House: a
delivering clerk and a settling clerk. There are three
rows of seats running through the clearing room
lengthwise, one in the center and one on each side
parallel with it. The settling clerks occupy these
seats and each one has a sufficient amount of desk
room in front of him to do his work on, his space
being separated from his neighbors' by a wire screen.
The delivery clerks, with their packages of checks in
separate envelopes, stand in the open space in front
of the settling clerks. At two minutes before 10
o'clock the manager, whose station is an elevated open
space at the extreme end of the room, strikes a bell.
The movement has all the precision of a military
drill. When the second bell sounds, at exactly 10
o'clock, each delivery clerk takes one step forward,
hands the proper package to the settling clerk of the
bank next to him, drops the accompanying ticket
showing the amount into an aperture like a letter box,
and places before the settling clerk his schedule, on
which the latter places his initials. Thus the
procession moves uninterruptedly until each delivery
clerk has presented to each settling clerk the proper
package and ticket. Usually this part of the operation
is completed in ten minutes. Meanwhile the proof
clerk, who occupies a desk near the manager, has
entered the claims of each bank under the head "Bank
Cr." on a broad sheet of paper.
Inasmuch as the amount of each bank's claim against
the Clearing House (entered under the head "Banks
Cr.") is the sum of all the tickets which its delivery
clerk has pushed into the letter boxes of the other
banks, it follows that all the tickets of all the
banks should equal all the entries under that head.
The next step in the operation is for each settling
clerk to arrange the amounts of all the tickets in his
letter box in a column, add it up, and send the amount
to the proof clerk, who transcribes and arranges it
according to the bank's number under the head "Banks
Dr.," so that the debit of Bank A shall be on the same
line with its credit.
Then the difference between the two will show how much
the bank owes the Clearing House or how much the
Clearing House owes the bank. The time occupied by the
settling clerks in arranging their tickets and adding
up the columns is about half an hour. As fast as these
footings are completed, they are sent to the proof
clerk, who puts them in the debit column opposite the
credits of the banks, respectively. When all are
completed, if no error has been made, the footings of
the credit and debit columns must be exactly equal and
the footings of the two other columns, which show the
differences, must be exactly equal. Then these
differences are read off slowly and in a distinct tone
by the manager, so that each settling clerk can write
down the sum that his bank has to pay or to receive.
As time is money at the Clearing House, a fine is
exacted for every error and every delay in making
footings, for every disobedience of the orders of the
manager, or for every instance of disorderly
conduct.--Horace White: _Money and Banking_.
2
The Treasury, in connection with its money washing,
has asked national banks to exercise more care in
sending in money for redemption. Banks frequently put
into the same bundle, good notes, bad notes, and notes
of different denominations. When they are mixed in
this way, it requires a good deal of work to separate
the money. The Treasury thinks that the banks could do
this work, so that, when the money reaches Washington,
it could easily be separated by packages instead of
each package having to be separated first. The
Assistant Secretary says he believes that, when he
gets the subject worked out in detail, new washed
money will be returned to the bank in any denomination
desired on the same day that it is received; that
money unfit for laundering will be destroyed and new
money issued. This expeditious handling of money sent
in for redemption cannot, however, be attained, he
admits, without the co-operation of the banks. In a
short time, he believes, all banks will see that it is
to their benefit to do this.