The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-30
CONGRESS MAY
NOT HURRY MUCH
viii Take a Long Look at the
Proposed Cures for
Hard Times.
(Mail Special to the Advertiser.)

(Mail Special to the Advertiser.)
/ WASHINGTON. D. c., Nov. 10.-The
great hullabaloo for a financial pana-
cea, for some up-to-date, panic-proof
law from Congress while the frighten-
ed bankers and money magnates wait
ed at the main doors of Senate and
| House, has quieted down. There was
! never anything more silly. 1t started
when the convening of Congress in
regular session was but four weeks
away and without any apparent reali-
cation that Congress could not be
brought together and organized at the
| beginning of a biennial period in less
| than four weeks. All the more re-
| markable was it that such a frenzied
demand should come from such a prac-
| tical set of men as bankers and finan-
ciers are supposed to be.
/ Something more has developed in the
| last week or ten days as the result Of
| this hullabaloo. 1t is that Congress is
not likely to tumble over itself to pass
financial legislation when it does come
together and, in fact, that there is a
very large contingent of Senators and
members who doubt the expediency of
any currency legislation at ALL The
big men of Congress have hardly ar
rived in town yet but many men Of
legislative influence are here or have
been here. They discuss financial leg
islation in very calm mood. Some Re-
publicans are squarely opposed to any
such action. In that category can be
mentioned Senator Cullom, of Illinois,
and Senator Hepburn, of idaho. Sena-
tors like Mr.. Long of Kansas think
there is need of some action, but that
it must be enacted cautiously and only
after careful consideration as to what
the effect viii be upon the country.
Some Democrats oppose 1.-THE fam
boyant and always picturesque and
emphatic Champ Clark, of Missouri, |
and exc the scholarly John Sharp Will
liams, of Mississippi, Senator-elect and
minority leader of the House of Rep
resentatives. Other Republicans and |
other Democrats, who have been here, |
favor Congressional consideration of |
the subject in the hope that a step
can be taken beyond the Aldrich law
of the last session of Congress.
That law kept the country from go
ing to the bowwows when Secretary |
Cortelyou was in New York handing
the governments millions over to the /
as very simple law. because it pro- /
vided only for the issue of gold cer-
tificates in the denominations of $40, I
authorized an increase from So, 900, 900 |
month to something like 10000, 900
month of the amount of National |
bank notes that could be retired and
permitted the Secretary of the Treas
ury in his discretion to deposit the re-
ceipts from customs in National banks.
The lay mind would not readily rec
ognize the Importance of those items,
for the statement that the provisions
of the law were of inestimabe value
to him in his efforts to stave off the
panic.
One thing has been brought out
pretty strongly as the result of the Il
discussions which have been
going on, ever since the sensation
about an extra session of Congress
was sprung. That is a desire for some
legislation, if it can be found prac-
ticable, to give depositors more con-
idence in banks. The bank run is a
of panics. 1t is also an .
aggravator. A great number of de-
positors become weak kneed as soon {
as money becomes tight. They want !
to have theirs in hand or where they
,an put their hands upon it, whether l
1t be in old stove pipes or in the old
mans stocking. 1t has been suggested I
many times that the government, by I
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