Washington, February 8.

More than thirty days have passed without a bank failure in the United States.

Ninety-seven cent of the people who have money in the bank now are insured against loss by the government itself.

These facts are the result of the insurance deposit plan which has been put into effect by the Roosevelt administration, whereby all deposits up to $2,500 now are guaranteed.

As a consequence of this important step and the need for slowly digesting the many problems involved in the new system, the administration probably will ask Congress for the postponement for a year or so of the provision of the law which next July would increase the protection to include all deposits up to $7,500.

Many state laws and state constitutions would have to be amended to make possible the second step, so it is being deemed wise to postpone the $7,500 provision for all banks for at least a year.

Officials here are gratified over the remarkable response given the insurance plan by all the banks. The latter are not now opposed to the insurance of deposits up to $2,500, but doubt whether any larger sum should be covered.

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Unquestionably with are greater confidence that exists in the banks of this country today it is possible to consider ways and means of improving credit conditions. There is a demand for one or two-year capital which the banks, in cooperation with the government, may be able to furnish. It all depends on what supervision of lending is to be exercised and whether the insurance plan succeeds, but at the same time the government recognizes that idle money in the banks is not going to make it possible for the banks to earn on their stock.

So for the next few months there will be much discussion here of methods of improving banking practices and making it possible for the banks to serve business and their communities much better in the future than in the last three years of the depression.

Incidentally, the Comptroller of the Currency is doing a remarkable cleanup job on the closed banks. He has been aggressively pushing ahead to reopen as many banks as possible. To date there are only 345 of the unlicensed banks left, aside from those which went into voluntary or involuntary liquidation. These 345 banks have deposits of about $340,000,000.