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Let not par players mock their grubbing toil, Their awful score, their formless-swinging club; Nor scratch men hear with a disdainful smile

The long and woeful annals of the dub.

The boast of stance and grip, the pomp of par, And all that Ray holds, all that Vardon thinks, Await alike the inevitable bar:

The paths of golfing lead but to the drinks.

Full many a drive of purest arc and high

The dark, unfathomed water-hazards drown; Full many a putt is born to go awry,

And waste three strokes or so before it's down.

And thou who, mindful of the unhonored dub,
Canst in these lines his hapless story see,
When thou art gone, and at thy country club
Some kindred duffer shall ask after thee,

Haply some hoary-headed pro may say:
"Oft have I seen him at the peep of dawn
Tearing with hasty strokes the turf away,
Or losing balls along the upland lawn.

"One morn I missed him on the 'customed hill, Along the fair, and near the club-house tee. Another came; nor wading in the rill,

Nor in the pit, nor out of bounds was he.

"The next, I clipped ('t was too late by a day;
It must have been the obit-writer's fault)
These lines. Approach, O dub, and read the lay
Graved on the slab upon his Woodlawn vault":

THE EPІТАРН

Here rests his head upon the earth he scarred,
A youth to Bogey and to par unknown;
Fair twos and threes ne'er blossomed on his card,
And handicappers marked him as their own.

Large was his total, but his truth was more;
The handicappers' recompense is seen:

He gave to them ('t was all he had) his score;
They gave to him ('t was all he asked) nineteen.

No further seek his troubles to disclose,
Nor at his many difficulties scoff:

With him we all this trembling hope repose:
Where'er he be, may he play better golf!

MORE

FINANCE AND BANKING

The Federal Reserve System and the Public

By H. V. CANN

WORE than 7600 banks in the United States are members of the Federal Reserve System. Every one of these thousands of banks has its own group of depositors, borrowers, and shareholders, altogether millions of people, who are more or less directly benefited by such membership.

Those much discussed and carefully planned institutions, the federal reserve banks, began business on November 16, 1914, in a time of great stress, when everybody was anxious about the financial outlook, and soon became the most important factor in the restoration of general confidence. Their functions have been developed with such speed that the system already fills its intended place as a strong and dependable underpinning of the national banking structure, besides being a powerful force behind the business machinery of the country.

Ever since the expiration of the charter of the second Bank of the United States in 1836 there has been general recognition of the need for a bank of issue which would supply extraordinary demands for currency and credit. Several years stand out as memorable times when the old banking system as a whole failed to serve the legitimate needs of business, when inadequate supplies of currency and scarcity of credit resulted in wide-spread losses.

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After the trying experience in 1907 a number of the States revised their banking laws, and the Federal Government appointed a monetary commission to investigate banking systems at home and abroad and submit a plan for the improvement of conditions here. The report of that commission is the most comprehensive work on world banking ever compiled. It described the operations of the great central banks of all the leading nations, and recommended a system of banking which formed the groundwork for a thorough dis

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cussion of the whole subject throughout the country and in Congress.

The Government rejected the idea of one central bank, and finally decided to establish twelve regional reserve banks in the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco. These banks were chartered for a term

of twenty years by the Federal Reserve Act, the most constructive and far-reaching financial legislation in the history of the United States. Each bank serves its own district primarily. Six of its nine directors are elected to represent the stockholding member banks and the agricultural, commercial, and industrial interests in that district. As the need arises, these banks may open branches in other cities within their districts or in foreign countries. A branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has already been opened in New Orleans.

The whole system is under the guidance and control of the Federal Reserve Board, which is appointed by the President of the United States and sits in Washington.

The law requires all national banks to be members of the Federal Reserve System, and permits state banks and trust companies to join the system under certain restrictions. A number of important state institutions have already taken advantage of this privilege.

To provide the capital of the reserve banks member banks must subscribe for shares of its stock a sum equal to six per cent. of their capital and surplus. Payment of only one half the subscription, or three per cent., is called for. The stock certificates provide for cumulative dividends thereon at the rate of six per cent. per annum. Net earnings of a federal reserve bank in excess of the dividend

(Continued on page 56 following)

THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK

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