NATIONAL BANKING UNDER THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 
tion, passed a bill permitting the extension of charters of existing 
national banks for 20 more years. 
Thus closed what may be described as the formative period of the 
National Banking System. During the first 20 years of its existence, 
the system had been subject to attacks first from one side, then from 
another; one Secretary of the Treasury would be its warm defender; 
another would view it with apathy. Not infrequently, the issues 
which brought various phases of the National Banking System up for 
Congressional action, were not issues of a fundamental banking na- 
ture, but were of a strictly political character, and were dealt with 
accordingly. 
But, in the period covered by the first charters of the earliest 
national banks, the system established itself on a thoroughly firm 
basis. It proved its great usefulness to the financial organization of 
the country, and laid a firm foundation for the growth and strength 
which came to the national banks with each succeeding year. Since 
the passage of the recharter act in 1882, no effort has been made from 
any responsible source either to legislate the national banks out of 
existence, or to restrict the scope of their banking practices. In fact, 
the more recent tendency of Federal legislation has been to further 
broaden the national banks’ field of operation. 
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NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
Fis 
Tue period 1883-1899 was one of natural development in the history 
of the National Banking System in that those national banks already 
in existence were developing normally along the lines of scientific 
and modern banking principles, and that the new sections of the 
country were from year to year getting much needed banking facili- 
ties through the organization of additional national banks. 
National banks during the period were neither disturbed nor 
aided to any considerable extent by Federal legislation. The cur- 
rency phase of the nation’s financial problem occupied the major 
share of attention. Those who wished the country to go on a silver 
basis were pressing their case with unremitting vigor, and were 
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