UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

S

INTRODUCTION

OME years ago at a banquet given by the Bankers' Association of the District of Columbia, I sat next to an eminent jurist of the District Bar. During the course of the evening our conversation drifted to the subject of the Currency Bureau. and its management, and after relating to him some of the difficulties and situations which frequently confront the Comptroller of the Currency in his supervision of the national banks, he remarked that there must have come to my knowledge during my long connection with the service many incidents similar to those related which would make a very interesting narrative if assembled in book form.

This suggestion, therefore, is responsible for the publication of this volume, and is my apology for writing it. It is not an essay on banking and currency, nor a discussion of financial or economic theories. It is simply a narrative of events of more or less importance and interest in the history of the National Currency Bureau with some original deductions and comments. It contains many unvarnished truths, plainly told, with no attempt at literary excellence. It deals with men and measures, methods and motives in connection with the administration of the bureau, with no intention of contrasting one administration with another or of drawing invidious distinctions between them. It endeavors to right some wrongs where injustice has been done and to correct some erroneous impressions as to the powers and duties of the Comptroller of the Currency.

In May, 1886, I was tendered and accepted the position of Secretary to the Comptroller of the Currency, by William L. Trenholm, of South Carolina, who a month previously had been appointed Comptroller. I was sworn in and entered upon the discharge of my duties May 16, 1886.

Thus began a period of service in the Bureau of the Currency, which continued uninterruptedly for more than thirty-six years, undisturbed by political or other changes in Federal, departmental or bureau administration.