congratulate the Federal Reserve Board and the bankers of America on having succeeded in creating and building up a banking system which "surpasses in strength and in excellence any other banking system in the world." He showed that before the Reserve System was established national banks in New York, Chicago and St. Louis were required to maintain a minimum ratio of cash to liabilities of 25 per cent. "Under the new system the minimum was reduced to 18 per cent., and in June 1917 by an amendment to the Federal Reserve Act the required ratio was further reduced to 13 per cent. It was also provided that this minimum legal reserve of 13 per cent. should be held as a deposit in the Federal Reserve Bank, as against 7 per cent. formerly, and that cash in the hands of national banks in these cities should no longer rank as legal reserve for the purpose of calculating the ratio." These measures, as Sir Edward observed, very greatly increased the deposits and gold reserves of the Reserve Banks; and he added that, just as the Germans foresaw the alterations that were necessary in their banking law, and proceeded to make them without hesitation when war broke out, so the Americans have not hesitated to make alterations in their banking law since they joined the Allies in the war.
