fore, that the amendment to the amendment would not cure the evil.

Senator Pomeroy: The effect of it would be that if the Senate did not approve of the reasons given by the President they could refuse to confirm the successor appointed to the previous Comptroller.

Senator Fessenden: That would only make confusion. It is necessary that the office should be filled.

Senator Howard: I hope the Senate will concur in the amendment of the committee conditionally, for I regard it as a well settled law that under the Constitution of the United States the President has the absolute power of appointment and the equally absolute power of removal. I am not able to see what authority we have to annex any conditions or limitations to the President's power of removal from office. If he has the power of appointment, and if the power of removal is an incident to the power of appointment, then we have nothing to do with it, and we can only leave the responsibility to the President himself. Suppose we should adopt the amendment suggested by the Senator from Pennsylvania, and the President should see fit to remove this officer without giving to Congress any reasons whatever, what would be the result in law? Would he, or would he not be actually removed? Would he remain in office because the President had not given reasons for his removal, or what would be his condition? I should really like to understand from the honorable Senator from Pennsylvania what would be the logical consequences. think that the reasons given by the honorable Chairman of the Committee on Finance for the amendment which that Committee has suggested, are perfectly satisfactory and perfectly conclusive. Let us leave to the President his full responsibility for exercising the laws and hold him to that responsibility before the people.

I

The bill passed the Senate and was referred to a conference committee of the two Houses, and finally became a law with the provision in regard to the tenure of office of the Comptroller, reading as follows:

Shall hold his office for the term of five years, unless sooner removed by the President, upon reasons to be communicated by him to the Senate.

This provision of law has remained the same to the present time, and although the Comptroller is appointed for a term of five years, he virtually holds his office at the pleasure of the President, and may be removed at any time, for reasons which the President may deem sufficient.

Composition of the Currency Bureau

The Currency Bureau is composed of seven divisions, each of which has a chief and a corps of clerks with distinct and well defined duties. The regular working force of the office, January 1, 1922, including chiefs of divisions, numbered two hundred and twenty-seven.

In addition to this office force, on January 1, 1922, there were employed in the field, one hundred and ninety-seven national bank examiners and two hundred and ninety assistant examiners engaged in the examination of banks, who make full and detailed reports to the Comptroller of the condition of the banks examined, on specially prepared blanks. There were also employed in the Chief Examiners' offices, one hundred and ten clerks engaged in clerical work in connection with the examination of the banks.

The Federal Reserve Act requires each bank to be examined not less than twice in each calendar year, but many banks are examined more frequently according to the condition shown by the previous report. Examiners' reports are treated as confidential communications, are carefully guarded, and copies are never furnished except to the bank itself and to the Federal Reserve Bank of the district in which the bank is located.

In addition to the reports of examination received from each bank examiner, every bank is required by law to make five reports of condition each year, for a past date fixed by the Comptroller, without previous notice, sworn to by the cashier of the bank, or

the president, and attested by at least three directors, on forms prescribed and furnished by the Comptroller.

These reports are carefully examined by the clerks of the office, and systematically tabulated, first by States, and reserve cities, and finally totaled for the United States. These abstracts contain a vast amount of valuable statistical information of great interest to bankers, statisticians and writers on financial subjects generally, both in this and other countries. The bureau is well organized, the personnel is efficient, and the systematic manner in which the work is handled, with the use of labor-saving devices, enables the force to dispose of the vast and constantly increasing volume of business with promptness and despatch, so that the current work of the bureau may be said to be always up to date.

National Bank Circulation First Printed Under Contract

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in which all national bank notes and other securities of the Government are now printed, was organized in 1862, under authority of an Act of Congress, approved July 11, 1862, entitled "An Act to authorize an additional issue of United States notes, and for other purposes."

This Act authorized the Secretary of the Treasury, if he deemed it expedient to have the United States notes engraved and printed by contract, to cause them, or any part of them, to be engraved, printed and executed in such form as he should prescribe at the Treasury Department in Washington under his direction, and to purchase and provide all the machinery and materials and to employ such persons and appoint such officers as may be necessary for that purpose.

The printing of national bank currency was commenced in 1863. The first notes were printed in that year. At that time all Government securities were printed in New York City by the Continental, American and National Bank Note Companies. The notes printed by these companies were delivered to the Treasury Department in an unfinished condition. After being entered on the books in the office of the Comptroller of the Currency they were sent to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where the

seal of the Treasury Department was placed on each note. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing was at that time located on the upper floor of the Treasury Building.

The Act of June 20, 1874, required that all notes printed after the approval of that act should bear the charter number of the bank issuing the notes. All notes on hand in the Comptroller's vault at that time were sent to the Bureau to have the charter number of the banks placed thereon before issues were made.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing was removed to the building adjoining the one it now occupies in 1875. All engraving and printing connected with Government securities was then transferred to that bureau from New York City and since that time has been executed under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, commencing at the beginning of the fiscal year July 1, 1875.

A new series of national bank notes was then adopted, known as the Series of 1875. The seal upon these notes was changed from the original saw-tooth seal to the round seal with scalloped edges, and the legend "Series of 1875" was printed across their face in red ink. This series of notes continued to be issued until the passage of the Act of July 12, 1882, providing for the extension of charters of national banks, when the Series of 1882 was adopted, and this series was issued to all new banks organized after that date as well as to the banks extending their charters.

The Act of April 12, 1902, provided for a further extension of the corporate existence of the banks, when the present series of notes, known as the Series of 1902, was adopted and were issued to all banks re-extending their charters as well as to all new banks organized since that date.

When the Series of 1882 notes was adopted the only entirely new design was that of the notes of the five dollar denomination, containing the vignette of President Garfield. The other notes, of the denominations of ten, twenty, fifty and one hundred dollars, were made from the original plates of the old series, amended by inserting on the margin of the note the charter number of the bank in six places and changing the seal of the Treasury Depart

ment from the small scalloped seal to the larger one of practically the same design.

As the notes authorized by the original act, of a higher denomination than one hundred dollars, had been practically discarded by the banks, on account of the cost of maintenance, notes of these denominations have not been printed since 1882.

The Act of May 30, 1908, authorized the issue of notes of the denomination of ten thousand dollars, but none of this amount ever has been ordered by the banks and no designs for this denomination ever have been prepared.

Previous to the passage of the Act of June 20, 1874, national banknote plates were engraved and the circulation printed therefrom at the expense of the Government, but a provision in that Act required each association thereafter organized to reimburse the Treasury Department the cost of engraving the plates, since which time the banks have paid for their plates.

The National Currency Bureau has been the source of considerable revenue to the Government since its establishment, and has been more than self-sustaining. The receipts from tax on circulation and other sources from 1863 to June 30, 1921, amounted to over $155,188,318.23. The operating expenses of the bureau during the same period amounted to over $20,965,820, leaving a net balance or profit to the Government of over $134,222,498, or an annual average profit of over $231,418, during the fifty-eight years of the bureau's existence.

First Bank Organized

It is generally conceded, and the fact is borne out by the records of the Comptroller's office, that the first bank to open for business under a national bank charter was the First National Bank of Davenport, Iowa.

The charter number of this bank was fifteen. The earliest paper on file in the Comptroller's office pertaining to this bank bears date of May 29, 1863. The bank was chartered on June 24, 1863, and opened for business June 29, 1863.

In the history of this bank, prepared by Hon. A. F. Dawson, a former member of Congress, and later president of the bank,