The Mena weekly star., 1907-11-28
MANY PLANS SUGGESTED.
pr.s;dent and Secretary cortelyou Receiving Pointers on Cure for
 Present Financial Ills.
. CENTRAL BANK THE MOST POPULAR
,.nkers and incoming Members os Congress 6usiIy Engaged in Die sussino Financial Relief Measures -comptroIIer Ridgely Favors Gov .rnment Bank.

wosh,ngton, Nov. 26.--Details of .nopv new projects for improving the "nrrency are being submitted to the sros,dent and Secretary Cortelyou rnd a,e receiving such attention as .hs other exigencies of the financial .,,uation permit Secretary Cortel- sou ia a good listener and usually s,sests quickly essential points of the various plans which are submitted to s,m Measures relating directly to .he currency, which are being dis cussed among bankers and incoming members of congress may be roughly grouped under four heads-a central Sonk of issue; a central organization ~ inc existing national banks; the is- sue of additional circulation against var,ous classes of bonds other than ,rnited States bonds; and the issue of circulation upon general assets with the security of guaranty fund. The project of a central bank based uncn the general outlines of the bank <, France or the Imperial Bank of Germany, has apparently been attract ing more attention of late than at any nreyious time in recent years. Sen ator Hansbrough, of North Dakota, who is a member of the finance com mtttee, has announced that he will in- ,roduce bill for such an institution. Mir. Wexler, vice president of the Whitney Central National bank of New Orleans, is openly in favor of a central bank and says that the New orleans press, taught by the strain of the cotton situation, is generally with him.
 Those who favor a central bank point to the recent crisis as the best evidence of the aid which 1t could have afforded had it been in opera tion Their view is that the national banks would have been able to redis- count their paper at such an institu- ton and obtain its notes to any amount necessary to relieve the strain. It is considered somewhat significant in some quarters that NIT. Ridgely, the comptroller of the cur rency, has just declared for a central bank of issue after having in previous reports recommended only a general credit currency for the existing banks.
 The utterances of MT. Ridgely are not however. considered to commit the administration since Treasurer Treat has a sufficient plan which he is advocating whenever he is invited to deliver public address on the subject.
 It is so long since a central bank existed or was even seriously dis cussed in the United States that there is much difference of opinion as to the details of the organization. Those who advocate general insist, how. ever. that the secretary of the treas ury and the comptroller of currency should be ex-officio members of the board of directors and that the presi dent should appoint or approve the selected of the head of the bank. The provision of the German bank charter in regard to circulation finds a good deal Of favor. that after certain fixed limit of circulation additional is sues which are not covered dollar for dollar by gold, should be taxed at the rate Of 5 per cent. Others, however prefer the greater freedom of thr French system, where the volume of note issues is practically under the control of the bank, and where the accumulation of large reserve per mits the bank to serenely maintain rate Of discount much lower than that oi the Bank of England or the Bank or Germany, while other countries are In the throes of financial convulsion.
 The project of combination among 'ne national banks through their clearing house commissions or oth- erwise to guarantee a specssa circu- lallon In case of emergency. 's em- oodied in several plans whieg have been submitted to the secretary of tne treasury. While these plans are declared by experts to have some de- gree Of merit 1t Is feared that they are too complicated to receive serious attention in congress. So far as the plans require voluntary action by the oanks, this might be difficult to ob- ain so far as they compel action by nw' 1t is felt by some that such a pOhcy would be drastic. if not uncon- su'utional, in compelling the banks make use of their assets which Aey might not desire to make.