The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-04
THE AGE-HEBALD, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER A. 1907

well to study the history not only of the national banking act but of the pure food law, and notably the meat inspection law recently enacted Tn pure food law was opposed so violently that it's passage was delayed for a de- cade; yet it has worked unmixed and immediate good. The meat Inspection law was even more violently assailee :: and the same men who now denounce | the attitude of the national govern ment in seeking to oversee and control the workings of interstate common car 1 riers and business concerns, then as | serted that we were "discrediting and ruining a great American industry" Two years have not elapsed, and al ready it has become evident that the great benefit the law confers upon the public is accompanied by an equal benefit to the reputable packing estab- lishments. The latter are betetr off under the law than they were without it. The benefit to interstate common | carriers and business concerns from the Legislation 1 advocate would be | equally marked.
 Pure Food Law.
 Incidentally, in the passage of the | pure food law the action of the various state food and dairy commissioners showed in striking fashion how much good for the whole people results from , the hearty cooperation of the federal and state officials in securing a given l reform. It is primarily to the action of these state commissioners that we owe the enactment of this law; for they aroused the people, first to demand the enactment and enforcement of state | laws on the ubject, and then the en- 1 actment of the federal law, without I which the state laws were largely in- i effective. There must be the closest CO., operation between the national and state governments in administering | these laws.
 In my message to the Congress a year ago l spoke as follows of the cur rency:
 Currency.
 1 q especially call your attention to the condition of our currency laws. ] The national bank act has ably served | a great purpose in aiding the enormous 1 business development of the country and within 10 years there has been an 1 increase in circulation per capita from $21.41 to s33.0S. For several years evidence has been Accommodating tha- additional legislation is needed The recurrence of each crop season em- phasizes the defects of the present 1 laws. There must soon be revision | of them, because to leave them as they are means to incur liability of busi- ness disaster. Since your body ad- | iourned there has been f1uctuation in the interest on call money from per cent to 30 per cent. and the fluctuation was even greater during the preceding six months. The Secretary of the | Treasury had to step in and by wise action put a stop to the most violent ! period of oscillation. Even worse than 1 such fiuctuation Is the advance in com 1 mercial rates and the uncertainty felt ] in the sufficiency of credit even at hlgh rates. All commercial interests SUI fer during each crop period. Excessive rates for call money in New York at | tract money from the interior banks into the speculative field. This de- pletes the fund that would otherwise 1 be available for commercial uses anu | commercial borrowers are forced 10 abnormal rates so that each fall tax, in the shape of increased interest charges, Is placed on the whole coih- | merce of the country.
 "The mere statement of these tacts shows that our present system is serl- l ously defective. There is need Of | change. Unfortunately, however, many l of the proposed changes must be ruled from consideration because they are complicated, are not easy or conpre- hension. and tend to disturb existing rights and interests. We must aiso rule out any plan which would ma, terially impair the value Of the Onitea States 2 per cent bonds now pledged ! to secure circulation, the issue or Whlch was made under conditions peculiarly | creditable to the treasury. do Hot nress any especial plan. Various plans have recently been proposed py eA- pert committees of bankers. Aihohe the plans which are possibly Ieasipio ana which certainly should receive your annsidaration is that repeatedly brought to vour attention by the present Secre- tarv of the Treasury, the essential req | tures of which have been approVeu pS | many prominent bankers and business men According to this plan national hanks should be permitted 10 issue | snecified proportionaof their capitai .n notes of a given kind, the issue to oo taxed at so high a rate as tad ~ in tne notes back when not Wah.eu i lag;tImate trade This plan would noe i narm,t the issue of currency to siFe hanks additional pgofits, but 10 lnees 1 tba emergency presented by tiihes oh | stingency. .,. T., tho right
 "I do not say that this is tne risns ,.a system. I only advance it 10 enipiianlne sa1'7 my belief that there IS neeo TOT au , he a,,- | tion of some system which snail pe %a | tonatie and open to all sound oanhs' so as to avaid all possibility Of olscriini, . | nation and favoritism. Such plan wouiu tend to prevent the spasms or hlgh ihoiiey y | ord sneculation which now optaln III .iic New York market for at present tneIe | is too much currency at certarh sea | sons of the year, and its accumuiatioii, | at New York tempts bankers 10 ieno if at low rates for speculative purposes whereas at other times when the crops are being moved there is urgent need TOT n large but temporary increase Ill .Ao currency supply. It must never ,,,es DO gotten that this question concerns pusihess men yenerally quite as much as bankers; | asneciallv is this true of stockmen, farm | ers and business men in the west; TOT | at present at certain seasons or the l wear the difference in interest rates oe | tween the east and the west is rom | to 10 per cent, whereas in Canada the corresponding difference is but per cent Any plan must, of course. guard the lnter- | ests of western and southern bankers as carefully as 1t guards the interests or New York or Chicago bankers. ana must | be drawn from the standpoints or the farmer and the merchant no less than from the standpoint of the city banker and the country banker.
 again urge on the Congress the need of immediate attention to this matter. We need a greater elasticity in our cur rency: provided, of course, that we recog. nize the even greater need of safe and secure currency. There must always be the most rigid examination by the na- | tional authorities. Provision should De made for an emergency currency. Tne | emergency issue should, of course, be l made with an effective guaranty, and upon conditions carefully prescribed by