412 



FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Comptroller, Ac. This would seem to indicate that 

 these instruments should bear date about the same 

 time, and, as near as may be, be concurrent acts. 



8th. Section 11 of the act seems to require that the 

 Articles of Association should limit or fix the time for 

 which the association is to continue. 



9th. On the certificate of each bond (coupon or re- 

 gistered) to be deposited with the Treasurer, as the 

 basis of the National Currency to be issued thereon, 

 there must be written or printed (to be signed by the 

 President or Cashier of the Association depositing tire 

 same) substantially the following words : 



" This bond is deposited with the Treasurer of the 

 United States by the (Here insert the No.) National 

 Bank at (Here insert the name of the place) in trust for 

 said bank, under the act of Congress entitled " An Act 

 to provide a National Currency, secured by a pledge of 

 United States Stocks, and to provide for the circulation 

 and redemption thereof, approved February 25th, 1863." 



When registered bonds are deposited they must be 

 issued to the Treasurer of the United States, in trust 

 for the bank depositing the same. 



It is desirable that no bond of a less denomination 

 than one thousand dollars should be offered for deposit. 



A description of the bonds thus deposited will be 

 entered upon the books of the Treasurer and on the 

 books of the Comptroller, and the bonds will be kept 

 in the fire-proof vaults of the Treasury. 



AVith these precautions on the part of the National 

 Banks, and the proper officers of the Government, it is 

 difficult to conceive of any contingency by which any 

 loss or injury can result to the owners of bonds by rea- 

 son of their having been deposited with the Treasurer. 



10th. Except in special cases, which in the judg- 

 ment of the Comptroller may render an actual exami- 

 nation necessary, the statement, under oath, of the 

 President or Cashier, and a majority of the Directors 

 of the respective National Banks, setting forth the 

 place of residence of the Directors, and the amount of 

 stock held and owned by each, the amount of capital 

 actually paid in, and the fact that the requirements of 

 the act have been fully and in good faith complied 

 with, will be considered sufficient evidence to entitle 

 the associations to commence the business of banking ; 

 and on the receipt of such statement, the Comptroller 

 will give to the associations, respectively, the certifi- 

 cate contemplated by the 10th section of the act. 



llth. Whenever a new Director or Directors are elect- 

 ed, the oath taken or subscribed by him or them, and 

 duly certified, must be forwarded to the Comptroller, 

 according to the requirements of section 39 of the act. 



12th. Before circulating notes will be delivered to 

 any bank organized under the National General Bank- 

 ing Law, the Comptroller must have satisfactory evi- 

 dence, by the report of an examiner, or otherwise 

 1st. That the Bank ia located in some city, town, or 

 village which is easily accessible, and not in some out 

 of the way, inaccessible place, selected for the purpose 

 of making the return of its notes difficult or expensive. 

 2d. That the bank is supplied with a suitable banking 

 room or banking rooms, unconnected with any other 

 business, and also with a vault, or safe, for the safe 

 keeping of its funds. 3d. That the bank has procured 

 such books as may be required for the transaction of 

 a regular banking business, one of said books to be 

 a record or minute book, in which shall have been 

 recorded its Articles of Association, copies of which 

 shall have been forwarded to this Department, and in 

 which the proceedings of the Board of Directors shall 

 be entered and preserved. 4th. That the bank shall 

 have adopted by-laws for the management of its busi- 

 ness approved "by the Comptroller. 5th. That the 

 amouut of its capital stock required to be paid in, has 

 been so paid, and that the same remains in bank, in 

 cash, or with some safe depositary, subject to sight 

 check, or has been invested in United States bonds, 

 or in some other satisfactory manner. 6th. That the 

 bank has in its employment competent officers for the 

 transaction of its business, that its Directors are men 

 of fair standing, and that the bank has been organized 

 to carry on legitimate banking. 



The Comptroller will afford every aid and encour- 

 agement in nis power to banks organized for the pur- 

 pose of carrying into effect the spirit and intention of 

 the law, but it will discountenance and prevent, as far 

 as practicable, all attempts to pervert the law from its 

 proper object, by establishing banks upon fictitious 

 capital, which, by their inability to meet promptly 

 their engagements, may at any time bring the system 

 into disrepute. 



NOTK Under the late act of Congress, all communications 

 addressed to the Department must be prepaid. 



The rise in the prices of all commodities, 

 and also of rent, accompanied by a drain of 

 labor from nearly all pursuits, forced upon 

 working people the necessity of higher wages, 

 and at the same time presented the opportu- 

 nity of making the demand successfully. To 

 give the rise in rents in large cities is rather 

 difficult. In many parts of New York city a 

 dense population has rapidly filled up places 

 which a few years before were waste, or 

 sparsely settled. In other sections, on the 

 east side for example, quarters which were 

 formerly occupied as places of residence by 

 wealthy families, have been invaded by tene- 

 ment houses, and the character of the neigh- 

 borhood entirely changed, while other places, 

 formerly occupied as residences, have become 

 great business centres, and have experienced an 

 enormous rise in their local rentage. 



Where none of these or other causes have in- 

 terfered to change the character of the section ; 

 where localities remain about the same, and 

 have experienced only the effect of the steady 

 increase of productive real estate, rents may be 

 said to have advanced from twenty-five to fifty 

 per cent, within the past fifteen years. In many 

 instances, however, even in the more unchanged 

 sections of the city, a higher percentage than 

 this has been reached, and in some the rate of 

 augmentation has not been so great. But these 

 figures will cover, for the most part, the increase 

 in the price of the middling class of houses. 



In tenement houses, the price of rooms and 

 floors hardly averages as much now as in the 

 years preceding the war. Many former occu- 

 pants have enlisted or been drafted, the tide of 

 immigration, until quite recently, had somewhat 

 lessened, and other causes have combined to 

 prevent this class of houses from being crowd- 

 ed. At the commencement of the war, rents 

 fell very low, and continued so during 1861. 

 Many landlords did not profess to insist on 

 stipulated rents, but took what they could get. 

 This was especially the case in tenement- 

 houses. But in 1862 rents began to rise again 

 until tenement rates have now reached almost 

 their old figure. 



The rate of increase in wages from 1845 untH 

 1863, is perhaps best exhibited in relation to 

 carpenters, a class whose pay is generally the 

 last to be increased, and the first to be lower- 

 ed, on the occasion of any change in the condi- 

 tion of the affairs of the community. The wages 

 of this body of laborers will be seen to have 

 readied the price which they held at the begin- 

 ning of this year, in 1851 ; and to have under- 

 gone no change except in 1854 and 1857, which 



