Making Use of a Bank

1. Allies of business.-"Success in your business," says a bank advertisement, "will be materially aided by an account with us." Banking connections are a necessity to the modern business man. He cannot conveniently get along without a bank account, but the better the bank the greater the aid. A firm may owe its lead over its rivals to advantages in assembling its materials, in manufacturing, or in selling facilities; or it may owe its progress to superior banking and credit accommodations. The credit

of a business house is often worth more to it than its capital. Banking institutions are the channels through which flow the streams of money and credit. Railways and waterways facilitate the transfer of the materials of commerce from place to place. Banking institutions facilitate the transfer of goods from seller to buyer. In either case the concern with the best service and the lowest rates possesses no mean advantages. Every business individual, firm, or corporation uses a bank. The problems lie in (1) learning what services a bank renders, (2) choosing the bank, or banks, best adapted to one's needs, (3) deserving and winning the confidence and friendship of that or those institutions, (4) using the facilities as occasions demand, and (5) coöperating with the banks and other interests in the further development of a banking system adjusted to the needs of the business world and the whole people.

The purpose of this book is to enable one to get acquainted with banking from the point of view of him who is to use the bank. At the beginning an outline of the services of banking institutions will show how banks have made themselves so useful as to be deemed not only a convenience, but a necessity.

2. Safe deposits. A bank is a place of safe deposit. Valuable articles or papers are in danger of misplacement, loss, theft, or destruction by fire. Great safes and vaults as near fireproof and burglar-proof as can be made are used by banks for the care of money, valuables, or evidences of value. A safe deposit box may be rented for the safety of notes, bonds, contracts, jewels, and similar valuable things; or money and credit instruments may be surrendered into the hands of the bank and a book credit or certificate of deposit received in exchange. In either case the money is returnable upon demand or after the lapse of a certain time depending on the agreement with the bank at the time of deposit. (See 32-41, 49, 55, and 57.)

3. Income from deposits. Under certain conditions agreed upon in advance a bank pays interest upon deposits of money. Funds which for the time being are not being used, which are being saved for an emergency, or which are being saved for the accumulation of a larger sum, may thus be made to yield a larger income. This service encourages thrift and is a boon to the small saver who must save small amounts at a time. (See 38, 39, 42, and 69.)

4. Loans of money and credit. A bank is a lender of money and credit. The borrower may secure funds for temporary use or long-time needs. The borrower who wants money for a short time to discount a bill, take advantage of a low price, or tide over a season, usually offers satisfactory security for payment when due and

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