The San Francisco call., 1908-05-16
SUBSTITUTES THE
ALDRICH BILL
Senate Prefers Original Cur
rency Measure to One
Passed by House

! WASHINGTON, May 15.-The Aid
rich currency bill was substituted for
the Vreeland bill in the senate today,
and the transfer took but little longer
than was required in the calling of the
roll. The effect is to throw both the
senate and the house bills into confer
ence. The managers on the part of
the senate are Aldrich. Allison, Hale,
Daniel and Teller.
! The dispatch with which the agree
ment was reached is a striking exam
pie of what can be done in the closing
! days of session of congress. A meet
ing of the senate committee on finance
was held in the forenoon and a de-
cision to amend the house bill by sub
/ stituting the measure passed by the
! senate several weeks ago was reached
without difficulty.
Changes were made in the senate bill
/ by the committee, and it was necessary
/ to have a new print of it prepared be-
fore it could be called up for considera-
/ tion. These amendments were confined
! to the elimination of matter incorpo-
rated in the original Aldrich bill after
| it was reported from the committee.
! The provisions taken out were as fol-
! lows:
1 The use Of bonds of the nsular government
Of Porto Rico, bonds of the government of the
/ Philippine islands. and bonds of the city of
! Manila AS securities for the issuance OF emer-
gency circulation.
! The requirement that national bank associ-
/ ations located outside of the central reserve
cities shall hold i'm their own vaults four -hfths
! of tho reserves required by law. either in law
/ full money or securities named in the bill, hut
/ that two-thirds of the amount shall be in cash.
J The prohibition against national banks loan
! ing money 10 investing in the stock of n
corporation the officers or directors Of which are
officers or directors of the bank making the
| loan investment.
! The committee also added sections providing
! l,Dnfcc Of min aafr1fOl nT oh
house, to be appointed sby the presiding officers,
/ to be called the national monetary commission,
whose duty IL shall be to inquire into and re-
! port TO congress what changes necessary
or desirable in the monetary system of the
United States or in the laws relating to bank
] ing"
DEMOCRATS FOR ALDRICH BILL
All of the democratic members of
1 the committee voted to support the
Aldrich bill in preference to the Vree-
land measure. but on the floor of the
senate all but four members of the
| minority voted against the passage of
the bill as amended. The democrats
who voted for the bill were Daniel,
/ Johnston, Owen and Teller. An equal
number of republicans voted against
passage. being Borah, Bourne, Brown
| and Hepburn. The final vote was AZ
ayes and 90 nays.
! Aldrich called up the house bill for
passage at 2 p. m. and offered the
amendments agreed upon in commit
! tee. They were adopted without de-
bate or discussion.
Newlands called up resolution
which he had offered earlier in the day,
instructing the financial committee to
make several amendments requiring
/ the banks to keep three-fourths of
1 their reserve in their own vaults, pre-
serving the loans of deposits in excess
of five times the capital and surplus
] = l,r.
amount Of legal tender notes.
The proposed amendments were
given scant consideration. and when
Newlands had concluded the bill was
! put on its passage. Several senators
inquired whether time was to be given
for discussion of the bill. Aldrich re-
piled that discussion could be had
when the conference report was
brought in for adoption. Any debate
at that time, however, will be on the
adoption or rejection of the report
When the bill goes to conference the
house members undoubtedly will con-
tend strongly for retention of the pro-
vision of the Vreeland measure Great
| ing clearing house districts and
through them issuing national bank
notes on guaranteed commercial paper
SENDS BILL TO CONFERENCE
The VreeIand currency bill, as amend
ed by the senate, went to the house at
b.15 o'clock this afternoon and imme-
diately was called up by Burton of
Ohio, who moved to suspend the rules,
disagree to the amendments and ask
conference.
! In the opinion of Williams, the mi
nority leader, the bill as amended by
the senate was Infinitely worse than
the Vreeland bill. He urged his col
! leagues to vote against the motion to
| ~ 4 fc.
saying that if the motion was lost the
bill would have to go to the banking
committee.
The democrats applauded Fowler of
! New Jersey when he read letter con-
/ tradicting a statement by Vreeland
Yesterday that the First national bank
/ of Atlanta, bank with Sl,O00,00O cap
| itaI. supported the Vreeland bill. The
letter was from A. McCord of Atlanta,
who denied that there was any First
national bank in that city. nor was
there any bank in the state with a
greater capital than 100000.
Again getting the floor, Burton
grilIed the democrats for their action
| yesterday in "sidestepping' a vote on
| the Williams bill.
/ Williams inquired if it was not true
that a minority bill was specifically
| designated by number in the rules and
also if Burton did not know that the
williams bill contained a clerical error
to correct for which no opportunity
was afforded.
The vote resulted, ayes So noes 103
present 6, and the bill was sent to
conference.
The speaker announced the names of
Vreeland, Burton, Weeks, republicans,
and Glass and Pujo, democrats, as the
members on the part of the house
/ -o----