accept any note, check, draft, or bill of exchange, with not more than
four months to run, for any one of its regular customers: _Provided,
however_, That the instrument of credit so accepted shall be for goods
or merchandise sold and actually delivered or in transit to the buyer:
_And provided also_, That the instrument of credit states this fact
upon its face: _And provided further_, That the bank so accepting
any such instrument of credit shall keep and maintain against such
acceptance identically the same reserve as it is required to keep and
maintain against a deposit subject to check, and it shall be subject to
the same penalty as provided in section forty-six of this Act.
COMMENT:--Let us not fool ourselves by supposing that by creating
liabilities we are actually creating new capital. By acceptances a
class of paper will undoubtedly be created that will in turn create a
market for itself. The object therefore of acceptances should be to
facilitate the handling of commodities in transit.