THE CURRENCY.

The following is the Dawes Compromise Bank Note Redemption, Inflation, Redistribution Bill, in full:

AN ACT fixing the amount of United States notes, providing for a redistribution of the national bank currency, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act entitled "An act to provide a national currency secured by a pledge of the United States bonds, and to provide for the circulation and redemption thereof," approved June 3, 1864, shall hereafter be known as the national bank act."

RELEASE OF RESERVES ON CIRCULATION.

TAINED.

RESERVES ON DEPOSIT RE

SEC. 2. That section thirty-one of "the national bank act" be so amended that the several associations therein provided for shall not hereafter be required to keep on hand any amount of money whatever, by reason of the amount of their respective circulations; but the monies required by said section to be kept at all times on hand shall be determined by the amount of deposits in all respects, as provided for in the said section.

PROVISIONS FOR REDEMPTION OF BANK NOTES.

SEC. 3. That every association organized, or to be organized, under the provisions of the said act, and of the several acts amendatory thereof, shall at all times keep and have on deposit in the Treasury of the United States, in lawful money of the United States, a sum equal to five percentum of its circulation, to be held and used for the redemption of such circulation; which sum shall be counted as a part of its lawful reserve, as provided in section two of this act; and when the circulating notes of any such associations, assorted or unassorted, shall be

presented for redemption, in sums of $1,000, or any multiple thereof, to the Treasurer of the United States, the same shall be redeemed in United States notes. All notes so redeemed shall be charged by the Treasurer of the United States to the respective associations issuing the same, and he shall notify them severally, on the first day of each month, or oftener, at his discretion, of the amount of such redemptions; and whenever such redemptions for any association shall amount to the sum of $500, such association so notified shall forthwith deposit with the Treasurer of the United States a sum in United States notes equal to the amount of its circulating notes so redeemed. And all notes of national banks worn, defaced, mutilated, or otherwise unfit for circulation, shall, when received by any assistant treasurer, or at any designated depository of the United States, be forwarded to the Treasurer of the United States for redemption, as provided herein. And when such redemptions have been so reimbursed, the circulating notes so redeemed shall be forwarded to the respective associations by which they were issued; but if any of such notes are worn, mutilated, defaced, or rendered otherwise unfit for use, they shall be forwarded to the Comptroller of the Currency, and destroyed and replaced, as now provided by law: Provided, That each of said associations shall reimburse to the Treasury the charges for transportation, and the costs for assorting such notes; and the associations hereafter organized shall also severally reimburse to the Treasury the cost of engraving such plates as shall be ordered by each association respectively; and the amount assessed upon each association shall be in proportion to the circulation redeemed, and be charged to the fund on deposit with the Treasurer: And provided further, That so much of section thirty-two of said national bank act requiring or permitting the redemption of its circulating notes elsewhere than at its own counter, except as provided for in this section, is hereby repealed.

WITHDRAWAL OF CIRCULATION.

SEC. 4. That any association organized under this act, or any of the acts of which this is an amendment, desiring to withdraw its circulating notes, in whole or in part, may, upon the deposit of lawful money with the Treasurer of the United States in sums of not less than $9,000, take up the bonds which said association has on deposit with the Treasurer for the security of such circulating notes; which bonds shall be assigned to the bank in the manner specified in the nineteenth section of the national bank act; and the outstanding notes of said associa tion, to an amount equal to the legal tender notes deposited,

shall be redeemed at the Treasury of the United States, and destroyed, as now provided by law: Provided, That the amount of the bonds on deposit for circulation shall not be reduced below $50,000.

CHARTER NUMBERS OF ASSOCIATIONS TO BE PRINTED ON NATIONAL BANK NOTES.

SEC. 5. That the Comptroller of the Currency shall, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, cause the charter numbers of the association to be printed upon all national bank notes which may be hereaf ter issued by him.

INCREASE OF THE LAWFUL LEGAL TENDER CIRCULATION.

SEC. 6. That the amount of United States notes outstanding and to be used as a part of the circulating medium, shall not exceed the sum of $382,000,000, which said sum shall appear in each monthly statement of the public debt, and no part thereof shall be held or used as a reserve.

WITHDRAWAL OF CURRENCY TO SECURE EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION.

SEC. 7. That so much of the act entitled "An act to provide for the redemption of the three per centum temporary loan certificates, and for an increase of national bank notes," as provides that no circulation shall be withdrawn under the provisions of section six of said act, until after the $54,000,000 granted in section one of said act shall have been taken up, is hereby repealed; and it shall be the duty of the Comptroller of the Currency, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to proceed forthwith, and he is hereby authorized and required, from time to time, as applications shall be duly made therefor, and until the full amount of $55,000,000 shall be withdrawn, to make requisitions upon each of the national banks described in said section, and in the manner therein provided, organized in States having an excess of circulation, to withdraw and return so much of their circulation as by said act may be apportioned to be withdrawn from them, or, in lieu thereof, to deposit in the Treasury of the United States in lawful money sufficient to redeem such circulation; and upon the return of the circulation required, or the deposit of lawful money, as herein provided, a proportionate amount of the bonds held to secure the circulation of such association as shall make such return or deposit shall be surrendered to it.

DELINQUENT BANKS, HOW DEALT WITH.

SEC. 8. That upon the failure of national banks upon which requisition for circulation shall be made, or of any of them, to return the amount required, or to deposit in the Treasury lawful money to redeem the circulation required, within thirty days, the Comptroller of the Currency shall at once sell, as provided in section forty-nine of the national currency act, approved June 3, 1864, bonds held to secure the redemption of the circulation of the association or associations which shall so fail, to an amount sufficient to redeem the circulation required of such association or associations, and with the proceeds, which shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States, so much of the circulation of such association or associations shall be redeemed as will equal the amount required and not returned; and if there be any excess of proceeds over the amount required for such redemption, it shall be returned to the association or associations whose bonds shall have been sold. And it shall be the duty of the Treasurer, assistant treasurers, designated depositaries, and national bank depositaries of the United States, who shall be kept informed by the Comptroller of the Currency of such associations as shall fail to return circulation as required, to assort and return to the Treasury for redemption the notes of such associations as shall come into their hands until the amount required shall be redeemed, and in like manner to assort and return to the Treasury for redemption the notes of such national banks as have failed, or gone into voluntary liquidation for the purpose of winding up their affairs, and of such as shall hereafter so fail or go into liquidation.

REDISTRIBUTION OF BANK NOTE CIRCULATION.

SEC. 9. That from and after the passage of this act it shall be lawful for the Comptroller of the Currency, and he is hereby required, to issue circulating notes without delay, as applica tions therefor are made, not to exceed the sum of $55,000,000, to associations organized, or to be organized, in those States and Territories having less than their proportion of circulation, under an apportionment made on the basis of population and of wealth, as shown by the returns of the census of 1870; and every association hereafter organized shall be subject to, and be governed by, the rules, restrictions, and limitations, and possess the rights, privileges, and franchises now or hereafter to be prescribed by law as to national banking associations, with the same power to amend, alter, and repeal provided by

"the national bank act:" Provided, That the whole amount of circulation withdrawn and redeemed from banks transacting business shall not exceed $55,000,000, and that such circulation shall be withdrawn and redeemed as it shall be necessary to supply the circulation previously issued to the banks in those States having less than their apportionment: And provided further, That not more than $30,000,000 shall be withdrawn and redeemed, as herein contemplated, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875.

Approved June 20, 1874.