ty, he will find capital ready
to back him. It is difficult to explain in words to those accustomed to
the traditions of English business how this principle underlies and
permeates American business in all its modes.

One example of it--trivial enough, but it will serve for
illustration--which visiting Englishmen are likely to be confronted
with, perhaps to their great inconvenience, is in the bank practice in
the matter of cheques. There is, as is well known, no "crossing" of
cheques in America, but all cheques are "open"; and many an Englishman
has gone confidently to the bank on which it was drawn with a cheque,
the signature to which he knew to be good, and has expected to have the
money paid over the counter to him without a word. All that the English
paying teller needs to be satisfied of is that the signature of the
drawer is genuine and that there is money enough to the credit of the
account to meet the cheque. But the Englishman in the strange American
bank finds that the document in his hands is practically useless, no
matter how good the signature or how large the account on which it is
drawn, unless he himself--the person who presents the cheque--is known
to the bank officials. "Can you identify yourself, sir?" The Englishman
usually feels inclined to take the question as an impertinence; but he
produces cards and envelopes from his pocket--the name on his
handkerchief--anything to show that he is the person in whose favour the
cheque is drawn. Perhaps in this way he can satisfy the bank official.
Perhaps he will have to go away and bring back somebody who will
identify him. It is the _personality of the individual with whom the
business is done_ that the American system takes into account.[384:1]

It is, as I have said, a trivial point, but it suffices. Vastly more
important is the whole banking practice in America. This is no place to
go into the details at the controversy which has raged around the merits
and demerits of the American banking system. In the financial panic of
1893 something over 700 banks suspended payment in the United States. At
such seasons, especially, but more or less at all times, a great
proportion of the best authorities in the United States believe that it
would be better for the country if the Scotch--or the Canadian
adaptation of the Scotch--system were to take the place of that now in
vogue. Possibly they are right. The gain of having the small local banks
in out-of-the-way pl