The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-23
ALDR|CH MONETARY PLAN IS |NDORSED Currency Legislation Is
 Most Important TAFT MAKES ADDRESS President Declares Scheme a We'll Drawn Plan to Avoid Concentra-
 tion of Controlling Influ-
 ence in Wall Street
TAFT MAKES ADDRESS

l New York, June 22.-"There Is no legislation-T care not what it is-tar | if. railroad. corporation or of a gen eral political character, that at all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the national monetary commission plan"
 So declared President Taft tonight to a big gathering of bankers and men of prominence in the financial and bus mess world at the banquet of the New York State Bankers association, which 1 Is in session a Manhattan Beach. His address was mainly devoted 10 a care fu1 and coherent elucldation of the Aldrich plan, which he warmly con- mended as providing for the establish ment of the 1000 national banks of this country on a representative republican basis" ! uo declared # "t'f" -ns well Ira VII plan devised by non partisan commit tee to avoid the concentration of con i trolling influence either In Wall street or in Washington" and expressed his belief that the plan in it's general fea- lures ought to commend itself to the whole business community of the coun- | try," the farmers and wage earners. as we'll as to the banking. railroad, com mercial and manufacturing interests.
 The President first reviewed the dis turbances to which the country has been subjected owing to the frequent agitation over the currency system and | outlined the defects of the present banking plan at length. The need of dra stic reform was emphasized and the | speaker continued:
 Tn all we'll regulated banking and currency systems of the Old World the | power to control cash reserves and the ] issues of bank notes to be used as cur rency, is placed under the control of d central bank, recognized by the gov ernment and given the necessary au- | thority. In this way the monetary eX- igencies presented by domestic and for eign trade in the rising and falling demand for currency and in the facil- | itating of the exchange and liquidation of commercial credit are promptly met. | "Aftor our last money panic in 1907 l legislation was adopted, known as the | Aldrich- Vreeland bill, which offers an instrument for temporary relief against cash stringency. due to hoarding and ! to panic but of a very clumsy and unsa tisfactory character. It was adopt | ed as the best thing that could be de- vised under the circumstances which | would have any chance of passing the | House and Senate, but no one who was responsible for it considered it a broad or satisfactory solution of the difficult ties presented by our present system
 Non-Partisan Commission
 | "A monetary commission was ap- l pointed, of which the then Senator Al
 drich was made chairman It was { ] non pa rtisan commission. I dwell witl great emphasis on the fact that |
 was non partisan, because if we are t'
 work out this problem scientifically the hope lies In our securing support for il from both political parties.
 | "Sonetimes measures are of so com plicated a character, involve the con | sideration of so many perpleXing ele- ments and are so free from the ap-
 parently direct relation to the 1ndi vidual citizen and are so lacking In
 use for selfish political purposes Tn the promotion of individual or party repu-
 ia ton, that they can be disposed of on
 their merits after full and impartial | discussion without party heat or party advantage and be carried to a success fuk conclusion from the purest motives of high statesmanship and patriotism
 "It will inure. greatly to the benefit of the people of this country if the reins of the national monetary com mission--a non-partisan body--can bc treated in this wise and l am very hopeful that it may be, ,s
 | Senator Aldrich,. chairman of the | commission, has correctly stated that 6 1 central bank in this country would be | impossible for political and economic ] reasons. The people of the country l would be unwilling to trust to any pri- vate banking organization such enor- nous control as must be vested In al l agency which is to decide as to tho ! concentration of cash reserves ant
 which is to decide upon and provide | for the necessary increase and decrease of bank note currency as well as to
 regulate the liquidation of commercial
 paper by fixing a uniform discount throughout the country. He has saiC that such an agency must be made by | such constituents that it shall be i'm possible for money kings in Wall stree | to control it, on the one hand, or tht Ipolitcal influences by governmental ap- pointment to direct It's operations iron Washington, and in order to evolve ar agency free from the control of eithel of these influences. he proposes an, devises in his tentative suggestions tt the commission. which seem to hay, been received with favor. what he call a national reserve asroclation
 "I may roughly describe what thi association is, to say that 1t is the es tablishment Of a government of tn
 700o national banks of this country on | Es ck