some cases, often includes drafts which are drawn by merchants upon their customers in ordinary course and put through bank for collection. The term in this sense, however, is less commonly employed than "draft." A" draft" may be described as an order drawn by one party on another, for the payment of money to a third. It is for the most part limited to an order payable at, or collectable through, a bank or other financial agency. A draft made payable at some time other than at sight, and which has been accepted by the party upon whom it is drawn, is known as an "acceptance," and is treated by banks and clearing-houses the same as a note. A "check" is an order in writing upon a bank or banker for the payment of a designated amount of money to some designated person or order. Checks vary in form. Those which are current between banks and bankers, as, for example, the checks that would be used by a country bank in drawing against the balance lodged with its New York correspondent, frequently take the form that commonly obtains with drafts. Hence the term "bank-draft" or "banker's-draft," often employed by those who purchase New York or other exchange of their local banks, to designate the character of their remittance. A "centre" is described as, in the dictionaries, the place about which things cluster, or to which they converge. It is also described as the point of emanation or radiation. With this definition before us, it is easy to perceive what is meant by a "money centre" or a "financial centre." The term "balance" has two distinct meanings, and the word is used among bankers and business men in a way to indicate two things entirely different from each other. In its simplest form a balance may be declared to be an equality between the credit and debit totals of an account. But it is also used to refer to the difference between such totals, or, in other words, the excess on one side or the other. Thus in the first sense we declare that an account is balanced when it has been closed by securing an equality of the two sides. In the second sense, when we speak of the balance in an account, we mean either the debit or credit amount, as the case may be, that is required to produce an equality of the two sides, or, in other words, to close the account. The balances. in a clearing-house statement are the respective differences between the debit and credit sides of the several accounts included in the statement. A bank's balance in a clearing-house settlement would mean either the amount that it has to pay, or the amount that it is to receive, according to the excess of debits or credits shown by the statement. The dictionaries define the verb "to collect " as follows: "To gather money from many people." A collection is defined as "that which has been gathered or taken up; " but among the banks and in clearing-house circles the term "collection" is somewhat expanded beyond these limitations, and is used for designating that which is to be collected. For example, the drafts or bills of exchange which a bank holds at a given date are frequently designated as its "collections," particularly at the time that they are being arranged in proper order for transmission to its correspondents or for delivery to the clearing-house. Sometimes the term employed in such cases is "collection items," which, of course, means the items for collection. An "item," as the term is generally understood, means a separate article or entry in an account or schedule, or a sum so entered. The term among banks and in clearing-houses is used in the latter sense almost literally. An item is that of which an entry has been made, whether it is a draft, bill of exchange, check, or note. The word is frequently employed in combination with a qualifying term, as, for example, " collection items," "out-of-town items," "city items," etc. 66 A term which is as nearly original with, and peculiar to, clearing-houses as any that might be cited, is " clearingmatter." "Matter," in this phrase, is a collective term, and designates any and all of the items that go into a clearing-house. Clearing-matter then means that collection of items, however assorted, which may be cleared. Acceptable clearing-matter" would designate that which is acceptable, according to the rules of the clearing-house. There would, of course, be the opposite or negative term, for example, "unacceptable matter," meaning that which, while having somewhat of the character of clearing-matter, is not of a kind that is handled by the clearing-house in question, under the rules governing its operation. A settlement, in ordinary commercial affairs, is an adjustment of accounts. "To settle" means to liquidate, or to pay, or to adjust differences. A "settlement " may mean either the act of settling, or that which is accomplished by settling. A bank's clearing-house settlement therefore means an adjustment or payment of the difference between the debit and credit side of the account, and further designates either a receipt or a disbursement, as the case may be. Each member-bank has a settlement with its clearing-house daily. In the designation of checks, with respect to the location of the banks upon which they are drawn, considerable confusion exists at times in the term employed for the purpose. "Personal check" and "local check" are terms occasionally used to indicate out-of-town checks or checks on country banks. An out-of-town check is one drawn upon any bank outside of the city in which a given clearing-house is located, or outside of the city in which member-banks of the given clearing-house are situated. In other words, it is one that must be sent away for collection. The term "country check" has the same general meaning, but is applied more particularly to checks drawn upon banks located at a considerable distance from a given clearing-house centre. Referring again to the terms "personal check" and "local check," above referred to, it must be evident to everyone who gives the matter the least thought, that a check drawn by a depositor on a bank in New York would be a local check, and that it also would be a personal check, and yet such a check, issued in the regular course of business, is not objectionable from any point of view. On the other hand, a check drawn by a merchant in an interior town upon a bank in that town, irrespective of the responsi |