The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-26
DENOUNCED THE
ALDRICH BILL
Republican Congressman of
r California Will Vote in
~ the Negative.
TO RELIEVE WALL STREET
BUNcLINc, UNNATURAL DAN
GERoUS AND UNDESIRABLE.


Hayes of California today addressed
the house on the financial question. He
held up the currency system of the
III ed States as the worst used today
by any country" denounced the AL
drich bill and ridiculed the proposition
for a central bank
The trouble with the currency of the
United States, he declared, was its in
elasticity.
The so-called currency system he
characterized as patchwork" He fur
Their said that under the present sys-
tenn 1--WE can but wonder that we have
been able to accomplish such wonders
with so few financial upheavals." Only
the ability and ingenuity of American
bankers and business men, he said, had
made that possible.
Andrew Jackson Right.
' Coming to the question OF a central
bank of issue. Mr.. Hayes declared that
''the proverbial SNOWFALL has just as
~much chance TO live in hades as cen
trail bank has to be established at this
time in the United States. Andrew
Jackson, he said, did great and glo-
rious thing when he destroyed the
United States bank"
Mr.. Hayes characterized as "a falla-
cious public conception the idea that
it was the United States bond behind
the national bank note that made il as
good as gold the world over. Those
notes, he said, would be as good as
gold anywhere as long as the govern
ment and the banks expressed a will
ingness and the ability to redeem them,
on demand, in gold or its equivalent,
'and you cannot change this" ne said,
hot Of
bonds you put behind them"
Bond-Secured Currency No Good.
The bonds. he said. may help protect
the government from loss, but they
have no influence in keeping the notes
at par. He considered any bOnd-se-
cured currency "as not only inelastic,
but unscientific. bungling, unnatural,
dangerous and undesirable from every
point of view"
Congress, he declared ought to leg
isfate to change the bOne-secured notes
into more desirable currency. I'm
stead OF planning to perpetuate them
indefinitely and possibly greatly en-
large their volume"
AS regards the Aldrich bill. Mr.
Hayes said It has all the evils and
Weaknesses of a bond-secured curren-
cy, and many others that our present
In the face of this well known fact. "
he inquired, 'shall we. while in the
possession of our senses and with eyes
wide open. vote to tie up the currency
of the country still closed to Wall
street,"
Wall Street Measure.
The Aldrich bill. ne declared. should
be entitled. "A bill for the relief of
Wall street" and the people, particu-
larly of the west and south, would be
no better off than they would be with
out the proposed law. The Aldrich bill.
he said. further. would make the peo-
pie more dependent than ever upon
Wall street. and he never would vote
for such a. proposition. He said there
was a vague suspicion in the minds of
some that one of the large motives be-
hind the proposition to allow banks to
issue circulation on state, municipal
and railroad bonds. "is to End a market
for these bonds at a fictitious price
with the %. K. of Uncle Sam upon
them"
The bill. he declared, if it should be-
come lawful, would make certain the
use of the United States treasury to
further the schemes of the stock gam
biers of Wall street He predicted that
the proposed Aldrich plan, instead of
preventing panics or mitigating their
severity, would have a tendency TO
bring them on, "and continue them
when they had once come upon u.s.
The plan, he said. unless violently
amended, was vicious, dangerous and
Intellectual.
Clearing House Certificates.
While favOring in many particulars
the issuance of clearing house certifi-
Gates in times of emergency, Mr..
Hayes said that if it only was an
emergency currency that at this time
was In demand, then congress could go
further and embody the principles IN
derlying the clearing house certificates
in a measure that would give to til.
country an asset currency with many
additional safeguards and securities,
which he said, would be very much
more satisfactory 10 the people than
clearing house certificates, because they
N4ild feel that it was safer"
One of the greatest objections TO the
Aldrich bill, said Mr.. Hayes. was that
ii provided no reserve, nothing any
where. in the banks or in the treasury,
for the redemption of the notes for the
issuance of which il provided, and