J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor                      343

not less than one hundred thousand dollars in towns or cities having
more than fifty thousand and less than one hundred and fifty thousand
inhabitants; and not less than five hundred thousand dollars in cities
having more than one hundred and fifty thousand; the number of
inhabitants in each case to be ascertained or determined by the last
federal or State enumerations; unless the surplus and paid-in capital
of such trust company is already sufficient under the present condi-
tions of the law to provide the surplus and capital required by a
trust company hereunder doing business in the city, town or village
in which it may be located, and for branches in cities, towns or
villages in which it proposes to establish branches; provided, how-
ever, that no branch shall hereafter be established by any trust com-
pany in the city, town or village where said trust company is now
located and engaged in business, until said trust company conforms to
the requirements herein provided as to the minimum amount of sur-
plus and capital stock for a trust company in said city, town or
village.

54.

The articles of incorporation shall be executed in triplicate by the
persons joining therein, before any officer authorized to take
acknowledgments, and then filed with the [Bank] Commissioner
for examination. The [Bank] Commissioner shall thereupon ascer-
tain from the best sources of information at his command, and by
such investigation as he may deem necessary, whether the said
articles are framed in accordance with existing laws, whether the
character, responsibility and general fitness of the person or persons
named in such certificate, are such as to command confidence and
warrant belief that the business of the proposed corporation will be
honestly and efficiently conducted in accordance with the intent and
purpose of this article, and whether the public convenience and ad-
vantage will be promoted by allowing such proposed corporation to
engage or continue in business. After the [Bank] Commissioner
shall have satisfied himself by such investigation whether it is ex-
pedient and desirable to permit such proposed corporation to engage
or continue in business, he shall have power to require such changes
in said certificate as he may deem necessary. He shall within [sixty
days] six (6) months after the date of the filing of such certificate for
examination, endorse upon each of the triplicates thereof, over his
official signature, the word "approved" or the word "refused" with
the date of such endorsement. In case of refusal he shall return one
of the triplicates so endorsed to the proposed incorporators. In case
of approval, the triplicates shall be returned to the proposed incor-
porators. One copy shall then be filed for record in the office of the
clerk of the circuit court in the county in which the trust company is to
be located, or in the office of the clerk of the Superior Court of Balti-
more City, when to be located in said city, and one copy shall be filed
with the [Bank] Commissioner, who shall issue his certificate there-
for, and one copy shall be filed with the State Tax Commission. The
corporation so formed shall have no legal existence until all the copies
of the articles of incorporation have been filed for record as herein
directed. The fee for filing such articles of incorporation with the
[Bank] Commissioner shall be twenty dollars ($20.00), and for
filing amendments to the articles of incorporation, ten dollars
($10.00), all such fees to be collected by the [Bank] Commissioner.