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The SECRETARY: The next proposition is XV, from the Chicago Board of Trade, relating to Foreign discrimination against American pork," and is as follows:

Whereas, The Official Provision Inspector of the Chicago Board of Trade has, since his appointment in April, 1878, to the 31st of December, 1884, inspected 514,975,160 pounds of cured meats; and

Whereas, The official inspectors at other pork-packing points, as well as the private inspectors of the numerous packing-houses in the United States, that make a specialty of curing the meats shipped to and consumed in the English markets, have inspected hundreds of millions of meat in the same time; and

Whereas, During these years there never has been found by said inspectors a single piece of cured hog meat affected with trichinæ, and there is not on record a single authenticated case of sickness arising from the eating of meat inspected by them; and

Whereas, Certain foreign countries, by legislation and edicts, have prohibited unconditionally the importation of American hog meat, on the misrepresentation that the same are diseased, yet allow the importation of meats made from hogs raised in other countries, as unquestionably wholesome and sound; and

Whereas, It has been proved that such prohibitory acts and edicts have cast an unwarrantable stigma on, and dealt a serious blow to the international reputation of our hog-meats, that is hurtful alike to the farming, manufacturing, commercial, and financial prosperity of our country; therefore

Resolved, That the National Board of Trade, now assembled, respectfully requests Congress to take such vigorous action, with a view to the removal of this unjust stigma and discrimination as it, in its wisdom, may devise.

Mr. SIDWELL, of Chicago: Mr. President, the delegation from Cincinnati are nearly as much interested in this question as that from Chicago. The majority of that delegation, I think, have an engagement with the Commissioner of Patents, and at their request, and on behalf of the Chicago delegation, I move that the question be temporarily passed.

The PRESIDENT: If there be no objection, the proposition will be temporarily passed over.

On motion of Mr. THURBER, it was ordered that the Board take a recess, today, from 12.30 to 2 o'clock, P. M.

The SECRETARY read proposition XVI, from the Philadelphia Board of Trade, as follows:

That the National Board of Trade be requested to consider what amendments, if any, should be made to the National Bank Act.

THE NATIONAL BANK ACT.

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Mr. WETHERILL, of Philadelphia: This question, the Board will recollect, was, at its last session, referred to the Executive Council. The Executive Council took up the matter in Indianapolis, in May last, and their action will be found in their report, read yesterday, as follows:

At the meeting of 1884, the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce brought to the attention of the Board, the desirableness of proposing certain amendments to the National Banking Law, for the purpose of making the punitive features of the law mandatory, instead of leaving the enforcement of such features to the discretion of the Comptroller of the Currency. This subject was referred to the Executive Council, and at the meeting in Indianapolis, the following was adopted:

Resolved, That the Executive Council of the National Board of Trade respectfully memorialize the Banking and Currency Committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, to carefully consider the propriety of so revising or amending the National Bank Act as to make the punitive features of the law more efficient, especially the limit therein expressed, of loaning money not in excess of one-tenth of the capital of a bank to any one corporation or individual."

Our Board of Trade took the matter up, and thought that the action of the Executive Council at the time, although proper and right, was hardly in sufficient detail in regard to the limitation upon the loaning of money by National Banks. Their idea was, that probably that should be explained more in detail, and for that purpose, they have charged the delegation with that duty. In the National Banking Act will be found the following section:

"The total liabilities to any association of any person, or of any company, corporation or firm, for money borrowed, including in the liabilities of a company or firm, the liabilities of the several members thereof, shall at no time exceed one-tenth part of the amount of the capital stock of such association actually paid in." [Sec. 5200, R. S. U. S.]

There is a clear and distinct provision prohibiting any National Bank from loaning more than one-tenth of its capital to any one individual or to any corporation. I think that that is a perfectly proper restriction, and that a bank should not have the power to lend to any one man more than one-tenth of its capital, except that probably that limit should be extended not only to the capital of the bank, but also to its surplus. If you take the Chemical National Bank, of New York, as an illustration, with its capital of three hundred thousand dollars, I believe, and with a surplus of three million dollars, it would hardly do to make the limitation of ten per cent. upon its capital without including also its surplus, so as to make the limit of its discount to any one individual or corporation, ten per cent. of its total surplus and capital.

But the latter part of the section seems to do away entirely with the limitation which is placed upon the first part. The latter part of the section reads as follows:

“But the discount of bills of exchange, drawn in good faith against actually existing values, and the discount of commercial or business paper actually owned by the person negotiating the same, shall not be considered as money borrowed."

Now, although there is a limitation of ten per cent. of the capital of any National Banking Association, yet a broker may negotiate with an individual or a corporation, and, without owning that paper himself, can bring it to any National Bank, and under the latter part of the section, the bank may discount that paper without limit.

It does seem to me that this act should be amended, and that that feature of the section should be stricken out. The law limits the amount to be loaned, in one instance, to ten per cent. of the capital, and that, we think, ought to be extended so as to include the surplus; then that limitation is violated by another part of the section, which allows the President of the bank to take any amount of paper from a broker upon his simple statement that he bought it and owns it. It is easy for us to see, where money is abundant, and the rate of discount low, and where bank capital is employed, the great danger to the banking interest of the country by permitting these officers to extend the limitation upon the discount to a corporation or to an individual to any amount. Corporations are very large borrowers of money, and it is extremely tempting for a bank to take paper from a broker in that way, in violation of the spirit, and perhaps, it may be considered also, the letter, of the law, and when shrinkage comes, as it has been going on since the 6th of May, the consequences may be very serious, not only to the bank but also to the business community.

No merchant is affected by this thing, because a merchant, whose wants are more moderate than those of a corporation, can always keep within the limitation of ten per cent. of the capital of a bank, and get what money he wants. But corporations, when times are tight, expenses large, and receipts inadequate thereto, are great borrowers of money, and in that way they monopolize, to a certain extent, the capital of a bank, to the injury, I think, of the commercial and manufacturing interests of the country. For that reason, very plainly stated, I offer the following resolution:

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Resolved, That the Executive Council be requested to memorialize Congress to amend section 5200 of the National Bank Act, by striking out the latter part of the section, giving banks power to discount commercial or business paper actually owned by persons negotiating the same, and it shall not be considered as borrowed money, and in lieu thereof to extend the limit of ten per cent. of the capital of any bank so as to include the surplus of any bank as well as its capital.

Mr. THURBER, of New York: I think this proposition is very reasonable, and I hope it may pass.

Mr. WETHERILL'S resolution was adopted.

Mr. WETHERILL: Now, Mr. President, I will ask that I may offer another resolution. This provision will be found on page 76 of the copy of the National Bank Act that I hold in my hand :

“That any officer, clerk or agent, of any national banking association, who shall willfully violate the provisions of an Act entitled 'An Act in reference to certifying checks by National Banks,' approved March 3, 1869, being Section 5208 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, or who shall resort to any device, or receive any fictitious obligation, direct or collateral, in order to evade the provisions thereof, or who shall certify checks before the amount thereof shall have been regularly entered to the credit of the depositor upon the books of the banking association, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof in a Circuit or District Court of the United States, be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or shall be imprisoned not more than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court."

I need not say to a commercial body like this that this law is violated by the banks of the country-shall I say?-almost every day. I need not say that by the failure of the Marine National Bank, on the 6th of May last, great distrust has been created through the length and breadth of the land. I do not know that that bank violated law, but I do know that the banks in the commercial cities of this Union, do constantly violate law by certifying checks when there are no deposits to meet them. Is it too much to say that by the violation of that law, and, as in the case of the Marine National Bank, not being able to meet its liabilities, and thereby creating on that day such a panic as we have witnessed, and the effects of which in a measure still continue is it too much to say that, by the violation of this law, a great deal of the distrust which has prevailed since that time has come? We all know very well that confidence is very necessary to the success of our commercial and our manufacturing interests.

We also know very well that confidence is a very delicate thing, and when once impaired we cannot tell what results may follow. When we come to trace the condition of things since the 6th day of May, we find the failure of one bank followed by the failure of others, leading to a want of confidence, that want of confidence leading to shrinkages to an enormous extent,― according to the calculation of one very large capitalist in New York, amounting to $36,000,000— need I say that when confidence is thus shaken, and that shrinkage has thus taken place, many good, sound men suffered who would not have been hurt if that confidence had not been impaired, would not have been hurt if the banks of the country had taken a little care not to violate the law, and had not started a ball which, when it rolled, rolled with accumulating force and increasing energy, until it prostrated a very large portion of the business and mercantile interests of this country?

I may be going a little too far in that, but we all know very well that the law has been violated. It has not been violated in the interest of commerce or of the industrial pursuits of this country. . No merchant, no business man who is at all conservative and careful, wants his checks certified when he has no money in bank to meet them. It would not hurt that class of individuals. But whom would it hurt? It would hurt the speculator; it would hurt Wall street; it would hurt the gamblers in stocks; it would hurt men who produce nothing; it would hurt men who, when they make money, take it from somebody else, and when they get rich somebody else gets poorer.

With this plain expression of opinion, I beg to offer the following resolution :

Resolved, That the Executive Council be requested to memorialize Congress to so amend the National Bank Act as to render the section, prohibiting the certification of checks where no funds are on deposit to meet them, more effective in the method of enforcing a penalty for the violation of the same, so that the penalty will be rigidly and strictly enforced.

The resolution was adopted unanimously.

Mr. MULLAN, of Portland, Oregon: Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to be allowed to refer to an omission on my part. I find, from a memorandum left me by Mr. Low, representing California, and now absent, who requested me during his absence to say for him, what he would say if here, that the improvement of