The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-29
CONGRESS WORKS
On THE ALDRICH
CURRENCY BILL
mail Special to the Advertiser1

| WASHINGTON January 12.-Just
now it seems to be matter of cur
rency That is, Congress seems to be
thinking more about currency reform
than about anything else, unless it be
| politics. If it were not for the fact
that Senator Nelson W. Aldrieh of
| Rhode Island has introduced a bill to
! give the country more currency in
/ times of stress and strain, there would
not be very much for Congress in
| about 1t would be a sure enough do
nothing Congress for the time being
But Senator Aldrieh, aided by SEN
ators Hale and Allison, who are the
big three of the North end of the Cap
itol, has brought forth his bill, and
without being irreverent or f1ippant
one can with truthfuIness say that a
great ''rag-chewing' time has ensued
all around the Capitol. Still adhering
to the descriptive term from the Bow
cry, it can also be said with entire
truthfulness that there is rag chew
ing" all over the country with refer
ence to that bill. The editors in many
cities have been making filings at the
measure. The bankers in many cities,
especially outside of New York, have
been doing likewise. Many other peo-
pie, who think they know something
about finance and currency, have been
throwing bricks Senator Aldrich's
way, and apparently the end is not.
yet.
The bill was brought out, after much
labor, some days ago. This week, be-
ginning with Tuesday, a coterie of
very influential Senators will go into
little room about ten by sixteen
with that much-criticized measure to
see what they can do to it. The room
is that of the Senate Committee on
Finance, just off the southeast corner
of the Senate chamber. There are
double mahogany doors, which open
directly into this committeeman, with
and an ancient-looking man, with a
face of the cast of the Revolutionary
patriots. will be sitting on the out
side, and no one but a member of the
committee will be allowed to push the
double doors open for much of the
day
Within, Senator AIdrich sits at the
head of the long table. He is the pic
ture of sturdy manhood and of robust
health, Notwithstanding his sixty years
and more. There is no man around
the Senate or around the Capitol with
a keener mind or shrewder ideas, or
possessed of more magnetic power in
bringing Senators around to acquies-
cence, if not to his own way of think
ing. There are other very interesting
men around the table with him, sit
ting at the rectangular board as stu
diously as boys at school, Hale, ALI
son, Platt, Hopkins, Hansbrough and
Burrows are some of the Republicans; |
Bailey and Daniel some of the Demo-
Gratis.
The bill is expected to be a panacea
for panics, although it is very doubt |
full indeed whether it viii ever prove |
to be a panacea. However, the people
have been led to believe that Congress
must provide some panacea, and the |
politicians-the Republican politicians
in this instance-see there may be a |
chance to tell the people about it once
more-tin after the Presidential cleo
ton The bill has some powerful sup
port outside of Congress. President
Roosevelt approves of it-as perhaps
the best measure that Congress can
be persuaded to pass. He would have
a central bank of issue-something |
like the old United States Bank, per-
haps, if he could have his way-but
the Aldrich bill provides for nothing
whatever on that line. The New York
bankers like the bill. It is limited,
probably with truth, that the first idea
for the measure came from j. Pier
pont Morgan and that he saw the
draft of the bill and approves of it.
The New York bankers generally ap-
prove of it. That fact alone, if there
were no other grounds, would suffice
to make many other people, both plain
people and bankers and financiers,
disapprove of it.
Furthermore it might be said that
it is in the cards for the bill to pass,
in substantially it's present form. and
become a law. however much grum-
bling there may be on the side lines.
The Senators who are doing things to
the bill this week in that little ten
by sixteen mahogany-furn room,
where the last touches were put upon
the Dingley tariff law-with Senator
sitting at the head of the long
rectangular table-and also upon a lot
of other very important fiscal and