Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-05-13
ABSURD SYSTEM
Of CURRENCY IN
NEED OF REFORM
Most Vital Question Facing
Country, Says Vreeland at
Bankers Dinner.

of u absurd currency
system is the most vital question fac
ing this country today declared Rep
preventative Edward B. Vreeland Of
New York, vice-president of the Ma
tional Monetary Commission, before
1.-THE 200 delegates to the New Jersey
Bankers Association at their annual
dinner last night.
"Panics, the nightmare of American
business life, are absolutely unneces-
sary,' ne continued, banks which
hoard big reserves, and Their feel the
approach of a money stringency, bring
about the very they are
trying to avert. Periodical panics can
be traced to this SYSTEM
Vivian NJ. Lewis, Commissioner of
Banking and insurance, another speak
err, asserted that the bankers had
evidently observed the ratio of de-
crease in deposits during the past
three years. This should be important
to o and serve as a warning that
you should trim your sails to meet the
| wind
He aroused applause when he de-
clared I'VE want no insurgent banks
in New Jersey"
bergen Scores Utilities Act. NJ
Frank Bergen, general counsel for
the Public Service Corporation, in his
speech. on THE Sherman Act" incl
dentally scored the public utilities act
passed at the last Legislature. He aid
in part:
"As, an illustration of the way in
which important economic subjects are
sometimes dealt with / will call atten-
ton to d recent act of the Legislature
of this State protesting to regulate
public utilities corporations. The act,
in large part, Is aimed at evils that
are no longer practised and at condi-
lions that no longer exist. Like the
ordinance of old Wouter' Won Twiller
1t frowns defiance on an absent enemy.
I have said repeatedly. and l repeat It
nov, hat there Is not. and there never
was in this State, any genuine public
sentiment in favor of the enactment of
such a law. But last uinmer and fall
those who were casting about for politi-
cal issues seized upon this subject, as
1t seemed to them at the time TO furn-
ish the only material that promised
any measure of political success. The
act, as finally passed, is made UP Of
scraps of statutes enacted years ago
by legislative bodies of other States,
some of which have been declared to
be unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court of the United states. and by the
Supreme Court of this State. This fact
was pointed out repeatedly while the
bill was pending. Other parts of the
act exhibit a remarkable ignorance of
conditions that existed and with which
tho nt1htto r-orn Cattofrd (.antietrna,
representing hundreds of millions of
money invested In public utilities en-
terprises were refused a hearing while
the bill was taking on Its final shape
or what they said was utterly disre-
garded. The result Is a statute that
has already vexed and exasperated
multitudes of people and that will ex-
ert a depressing and injurious influence
upon the Sta-e until its cru e and I'M
wise features shall be eliminated either
by litigation or legislation. Already
some of those who rushed the bill
through the Legislature are attempting,
with almost charming adroitness. to
u themselves by charging the cor
porations againGt which the LII was
levelled with responsibility for the in
furious and vici us provisions of the
act. although their objections and pro-
tests cg inst such provisions were
either unheard of disregarded; and
even some of the editors of the State,
who are so quick generally to pierce
through falsehood and humbug. seem
to have been temporarily deceived by
the excuses that have been put forth
by the advocates Of this reckless legis-
lation.
Injury to One Injuries All.
"Those who think that the legisla-
tive power of a modern State can be
used to infict injury on the wealthy
only do not look or cannot see be-
meath the surface Of society. No poll
tician has ever discovered how to smite
the prosperity of a State without in
juring most severely those who are
least able to stand the blow. The
financial institutions over which you
preside hold in trust not merely the
profits of the wealthy, but the savings
of the poor, and the knights of Labor
taught us a generation ago that an
injury to one Is the concern of all.
After studying intently the first
generation of our republic de Tocque-
VILE remarked that a multitude does
not see clearly, but II mean well, and
by-and-by the scales fall from its
eyes; and In my travels through what
Bunyan called the wilderness Of this
world | have learned that In every
persistent public demand there Is a
strain of permanent Justice. 1t Is the
office of the statesman to turn such
an aspiration into shape, but the poll
tlcian often seizes upon 1t for selfish
or temporary use without realizing or
caring for its scope or purpose. For
this reason wise movements are often
beset with disappointment. have
also learned that those who are sim
cerely interested in the welfare of the
State should endeavor to separate the