The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-29
TO REPORT HIS BILL
HOUSE coMMrrrEE rAssEs ON
 FOWLER MEASURE.
Several secfions of Thf. Cnrrency nili Wi1E me Akfacked on the
 Ffeor Of the
 HauHe

I1lsto 5. three members being present and not voting. the House committee on Banking and Currency today au- thorIzed the chairman Representative Fowler of New Jersey to report to the House the Fowler currency bill with the accommodation that 1t pass. The vote was as follows;
 Ayes--Fowfer tN. J.S Prince tIll.l. Weems (o). McCiesry tPa.). Waldo ] tN. ID. Hayes teal }. Weeks fArass.1. Duryey (N. Y.). Gillespie tTexas.) 1 Nays-Burton (O.). James (Ky.). Me- Kinney tIll.l. Lewis tGa.). Crawford l (N CD
 Present ana not voting: McIIenry | tPa.). Pulo Ua.l. Glass tva.)
 Mir. Weeks in voting for the favor able report of the bili. rescfvei the 1 right to oppose on the floor the clause providing for q Federal guaranty of l national bank deposits.
 Though the decision to report the bill favorably was reached as the result lof weeks of hearing and exhaustive dis cussion of it's various provisions in ex- ecutive session. the decision does not comnit the Banking and Currency Com- mission to it's support on the floor of | the House.
 Ten of the eleven members who voted for the favorabie report reserved the l individual fi9hf to oppose any section of 1t and to offer and urge any amend naent when the bill Is called up.
 The committee amended the bill in six of it's salient features. The clause permitting national banks to do a trust and savings bank business was amend. ed by striking out the savings bank section.
 The clause making all of the national banks within each of the proposed re- | serve districts specifically liable for 10 | per cent of the check and note ilabili- | ties of failed national banks within that district was revised to read 25 per cent.
 The bill originally framed allowed each national bank to take out na-
 tional credit notes to the extent of 100 per cent. of it's capital stock with the approval of the Comptroller of the ! Treasury and an unlimited additional amount with the approval of the Board of Managers of the reserve dis triet to which the bank belonged I The bill originally provided that of 1 the deposit guaranty fund to be crc> ated by q tax of 2 per cent. on the credit notes issued. so per cent, should be inve5ted In U. s. 2 per cent bonds and 20 per cent. should be held in re- serve. This Is 6 gold fund. The bill as revised stipuiates the investment of the entire fund in United States 2s and fixes their first purchase price at 104 which was the average price for
 the month of February last.
 The revised bill in order to carry out
 the bond security retirement clause, has reached the sum of &25,00o.0 900, the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue gold certificates in amounts corres-
 bonding with the annual two per cent
 payments on the total outstanding
 credit notes Issued. these gold certifi.
 eates to take the place of an equal
 amount of outstanding greenbacks.
 As the estimated annual tax on credit
 notes would be S14,000.000 about four-
 taen years would be required for the
 total retirement of the country's
 present bond currency after the guar
 anty fund reached the amount of s25.-
 one of the most interesting pro-
 visions of the bill as revised requires
 the government to collect its claims and pay it's current expenses through the banks That is the government would continue to hold in the treasury the greenback redemption fund : amounting to sI50,O00.00O and the gold
 certificates redemption fund amount ing to about $s20.000.0O0 but its gem , eral fund be kept on deposit : in various national banks sub Ject to cheek; and instead of paying . out general monies by vouchers and treasury checks. payments would be by bank checks.
 At the minority conference some , weeks ago which resulted in the intro-
 duction by John sharp Williams of the
 minority currency bill. the plan was
 practically agreed to that the Demo-
 cratic members of the banking and eur
 rency committee should at the proper
 time make minority report offering
 the Williams bill as a substitute for
 the Fowler bill. This was tentative to
 joint conference to be held by the
 ininorities of the finance committee in
 the Senate and banking and currency
 In the House. That conference has
 not been held. The reason reported
 is that the minority in the Senate has bound itself to the Bailey bill as a SUD-
 stitute for the Aldrich bill and there
 fore is unwilling to confer with the
 House minority on the Williams bill. Ten days was granted by the com
 mittee to the Democratic members in which to agree on substitute meas. ure for the Fowler bill and to submit minority report.
 Chairman Fowler tonight made pub- lie a synopsis of the committee report which he will submit to the House. The synopsis contains among others the following paragraph:
 Your committee is of the opinion
 that there should be no further patch
 work. no temporary device. no political
 expedient, but that there is to be a genuine and complete reform of our
 financial and currency practices. The , business interests Of the country and ! the danger to our national credit unite < in demanding that we now adopt a sci ] entifio. sound and wise financial cur rency system. The bill which your
 committee now has the honor to re.
 port to the House is comprehensive in character. scientific in principle, practt- cal in its application"
 r The synopsis claims for the bill that \ 1t will unify the banking system oi { the United States: will secure a uni form and adequate reserve in gold coin { protect the interests of all depositors \ will establish a scientific and simple 2 monetary system; will give the country [ true credit currency system by which {: current credits will always increase and h decrease in strict accordance with the
 demands of business; will give to Ia. z borers. farmers. producers. manufac z turers and merchants. and to all others : having bank accounts the right to have ' their credits in that form which will
 best serve their needs; will give to the l masses of the people just as economical
 and cheap credits CT the rich and pow,
 erful have; will establish a currency |. based upon the products of labor and redeemabie in gold coin: will give tt } the producers and merchants the op'