The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-03

there began such a struggle as has been rarely witnessed between the forces of progress and reaction. The progressive republicans did not get all they wanted, nor all they ought to have had, but they succeeded in converting measure which in its or iginal form would have been a long step backward, into a measure that
 Is a gratifying step forward.
 We earnestly contended that no in-
 into effect until approved by the
 commission. This seems fair and
 just, ipasmuch as the carriers made
 the rates that are now in force, and it may, therefore, be assumed that they are remunerative.
 We failed in that effort, but as 6 substitute for 1t, it was provided that the commission can suspend new rates for a period of ten months, and that in all hearings as to the reason ableness of rates, the burden of proof shall rest upon the railway companies
 We insisted that no injunction re- Straining an order of the commission should be issued without notice, and that there should be the right of ap- peal from any such injunction. The bill was so amended.
 We contended that the shipper who had complained to the interstate commerce commission, and had won his case, should have the right to ap- pear in any suit that was brought by the railway companies to annul his victory. It is now in the law.
 We urged that no greater 5urisdic- diction over the interstate commerce commission should be conferred upon the commerce court thAn is now ex- ercised by the circuit courts, and the bill was so amended.
 We kept the antitrust law intact We remembered that 1t had dissolved two vicious traffic associations; that it had annihilated the Northern Se- curities company; that 1t had 'decreed company; and, finally. had sent the terror of disintegration into the ranks of the Standard Oil company and we did not intend to see its vigor impair ed Or it's scope narrowed until some thing better could be enacted in it's stead.
 We attempted, with all the strength and effectual provision which would have prevented the issuance of stocks and bonds without full compensation, and that would have rendered impos- sible hereafter the exhibitions of dis honesty and extravaganza that have so startled the world in the last few years in railway capitalization.
 SOIIduA ISPQOIlCduS WUO dlS SAo11. ored with the manipulations of Wall street joining themselves with cer- tain democrats who found no author ity in the constitution for such leg islation, defeated our amendment.
 I trust I will not be accused of any desire to stir up factional feeling for saying as I am bound to say, that had it not been for the progressive republicans in the senate, men who daridnd fhrnrchn1If fhA country as insurgents, the bill would have passed the senate as it came from the pen of the attorney gener- al, and the republican party would have staggered along in this campaign under a burden too heavy for any party to successfully carry.
 Our platform of 1908 committed the party to the establishment of postal savings institutions. The law passed by congress has, in my opinion, two serious defects which ought to be re- moved at the earliest practicable mo- ment.
 First, we have given to the board of trustees, which is to manage the postal Repositories, the discretion to designate such post offices as it sees fit. This discretion will be a nev- CT ending irritation. It goes without saying that the banks in any com will not favor the designation of the post office in that community as a depository. It will be natural for the banks to resist, because the are, in a sense. compe- board will be from the beginning the focal point of all the political inf1u- ence that the banks can arouse and direct.
 The law should be amended so that are selected by some standard, either of population or of business, which could be inf1exible to the whole country.
 Second, the most serious objection to the law will be found in the dis position of the money after it is gathered at the postoffices. Until a few weeks before the bill passed it had never been suggested that the so taken in at the post office was, under any circumstances, to be which it was gathered, except as it went out under the ordinary laws of commerce and trade.
 The subject has been considered by more than one postmaster general, bills had been introduced, and reports made by committees, but it had nev- CT been intimated that it would be the locality of the postoffice and in- vest them in government bonds. Our platform was bottomed upon the fun damental idea that the money put in the postofficeS should not be with drawn by the government from that 
 The power of the east over the west in controlling the supply of money is already too great, and what we have done will add immeasurably to the eastern influence.
 In my judgment, if we want to popularize postal savings depositor- ies, and allow them to fulfill the pur- pose we have had in view, we must speedily amend the law so that the banks will not be injured, and so that money will be permitted to perform it's full functions in the localities to which it naturally flows.
 In this connection I must be per mitted to dwell upon the proposition for a central bank. It will soon be live question in American politics.
 The proposal has not yet taken de- finite form, but it is in the air that a central bank shall be established, with the sole power of issuing paper money and of determining therefore, now much money at any given time we shall have, and how it shall be 
 I do not say that I will oppose a central bank, but I do say that I will oppose any bank with the powers that [ have described, for if that misfor- tune should befall us we would suffer ] financial slavery more complete even than the industrial servitude which now afflicts us.
 In the consolidation of the great ,aaru in xarooracs tha