Section 150. That if any governor of any State shall fail to make a report within nine months after the passage of this Act that at least twenty local associations have been organized as in this Act provided, then and in that event the allotment of the six thousand dollars to pay the expenses for the organization of at least twenty local associations in his State may be used proportionately to pay the expenses, if any, of organizing local associations in any other State or States in excess of the required number necessary to establish a State association—that is, the amount remaining unearned by any of the States shall be apportioned to the several States reporting more than twenty local associations directly in proportion to the number in excess thereof, preference, however, always being given to the States whose average expenses are lowest for the organization of their several associations.
Mr. Lawyer: Gentlemen, this concludes the results of our labor and I want to express the solicitude of your committee in proposing this bill and the hope that it may in a large measure meet your expectations.
Uncle Sam: Well, boys, speaking for the crowd, I want to say that I did not believe that the committee would be able to make its report for a month. Upon my soul, I did not expect that they would ever make so satisfactory a report. They seem to have thoroughly comprehended all the subjects we have discussed and to have produced a Financial and Banking Bill that will meet every question that can possibly arise; one that will protect every individual bank in its independence; one that will protect every commercial zone in its independence; and one that will protect my reserves against the demands of all the rest of the world.
Mr. Lawyer: Those are precisely the things we have striven to accomplish, Uncle Sam.
Mr. Merchant: During the past week I ran into a friend of mine who is in the banking business and considering that we were practically through with our work, I told him what I had been doing the past four months without giving him your names. "Well," he said, "I want to give you a pointer. If you are following along the trail of the Aldrich scheme you had better drop it; you had better save your time, because the people are on to that deal and they won't stand for it. You will have to make it clear that you are working from an entirely different point of view."
This remark of his opened my eyes and I am going to suggest that we spend one night demonstrating the striking, the fundamental points of difference between our bill and that Aldrich scheme.
Mr. Merchant: I am convinced that we should do that very thing and I propose and move that we meet next Wednesday night for that purpose.
Mr. Banker: To make a clean job of our work, I believe that is essential; because hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been expended in promoting that scheme, therefore, I second that motion.
Uncle Sam: The motion is carried and now good night, all.