The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1907-12-06
Our Washington Letter.

) financial situation. But he profess
J es to be in no hurry for currency
action. He intimates that he will
be pleased to allow such action when
the House decides on it, but says
that the panic is already passing
. and that it will be better to wait
! till the pinch is entirely over and
then legislate at leisure instead OF
! attempting to hustle through some
: sort of legislation without due con-
sideration.
This suggestion is we'll enough in
theory, but the country has passed
through a good many periods of
panic and depression before, and
there has been ample time between
whites for currency legislation, but
it has always been talked to death
and no action taken.
It seems rather the case of the
man with the leaky roof: when it
was raining, he couldn't fix it, and
when it was not raining, he did not
need to.
One of the other suggestions that
has been made is by Senator Hans
borough of North Dakota. He
says that he intends to introduce
bill as soon as Congress assemblies
providing for a central bank OF
issue, located somewhere in the
middle west, in St. Louis Of Chicago.
This bank would be allowed to issue
note circulation on the security of
proportion to the needs OF the
various sections of the country.
The circulation would be withdrawn
when not actually needed.
Of course there have been any
number of suggestions made for re-
forming the currency system when
Congress meets. Few of the sug-
gestions have come from men whose
positions entitle them to much con-
sideration. 1t is interesting to note
that one of these is William J Bryan
who is now in Washington. Mr..
Bryan said that he had been in
favor of currency reform for years,
and that when in Congress had pre-
sented bill for that purpose, his
suggestion now was along the same
lines. It was that the government
, should absolutely guarantee the de-
posts of all national Tanks, and
should have the failure of any one
of them made good by the other
banks under similar government
guarantee. This looks on the face
of it like rather cool offer for the
government to make to the banks,
namely that they make good the
losses through the failure of any one
of their associates in return merely
for a government guarantee of their
deposits. In reality, however, it is
not half bad suggestion. The
losses through national bank failures
annually amounts to only one tenth
of their capital stock. The banks
of the country could well afford this
slight tax for the sake of the govern
ment guarantee, as the depositors
would be absolutely protected, and
would feel just as much confidence
in such bank as they would in the
Treasury Department itself. The
confidence is the only thing lack
ing to make the panic absolutely
thing of the past. Mr. Bryan
points out in his suggestion that one
advantage of this remedy is that the
machinery for it's operation is al
ready in existence. All that would
be necessary would be to pass law
putting it into effect. 1t is assumed
| that the banks would readily sub
| scribe to such an arrangement.
There would of course be the
objection raised that it would pro-
! tect the national banks at the ex-
pense of the state banks, but there
is nothing to prVent the individual
states from putting similar laws in
to operation governing their own
banks.
Soft drinks of all kids at the Ken
neWick Club.