The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-11-21
American Bankers Association 10
Now In Session In New Or
leans With r. o. Watts
Presiding
WALL STREET BUGABoo
Paul Wahrins Says Wall Street Is
Ruler on kes Of Dynamite.
Liable to Ex-
pIodo.

NEW ORLEANS, La, Nov. 21.-F.
o. Watts. of Nashville, Tenn. presi.
dent OF the American Bankers Asso-
citation urged upon the bankers con-
ventlon here today the necessity of
keeping banking and currency reform
legislation out of politics.
If the bankers and business men,"
he said, who must be the leaders in
the reform movement. succeed In
keeping the question non-partisan, and
In convincing the public beyond
reasonable doubt of the integrity Of
the control, then it's enactment into
law will be an easy accomplishment
To keep the control Of the National
Reserve Association out of specula-
tive Wall Street and out of the hands
of politicians, said Mr.. Watts, were
two most important considerations in
the drafting of banking reform legisla
ton.
| Mr.. Watts said he wasn't scared by
the Wall Street bugaboo. He said:
| Undoubtedly those interests which
according to passing speech and hur-
ried composition are designated as
| Wall Street favor of the National Re-
serve Association or any plan Of mon.
etary reform making for stability and
prosperity and reviewing the best
bankers of New York from the great
strain Of crop movements, trade ex.
pansion and panics. Passing the rela.
lively small number OF stock gamblers
around New York's Stock Exchange.
we find there banks, business houses,
industrial and railway corporations
vitality interested in every section OF
the country and who have learned
what one aptly expressed during the
year in saying that his institution and
allied interests makes dollars out OF
the general prosperity of the country
} where they could make only pennies
out of special privilege
"Those interests would subscribe to
that truth expounded at our Denver
| convention by one now leader in
t one of the great political parties,
. when he said: 1t is the part, even OF
/ selfish calculation to know that no in
r terest can hurt the country as whole
Il and serve itself The real Wall Street
r prefers prosperity to special privilege
# and knows that they serve themselves
l. most when building up the CONNER
"a cial, manufacturing, agricultural,
q transportation and banking interests
e of the whole country.
e. Even limiting the prompting force
n to selfish interest there should be no
d divergence of effort In this country on
n any business, and certainly none on
e. the question of banking power and
credit. So common has become the
e assumption by those persons most
it heard by the public that Wall Street
v is inimical to every other spot In the
II country, and SO far have such theories
" found judgment that an unfortunate
prejudice exists that can only be re
e moved through greater concern BY
IT New York's busy men such concern
IT as will cause them to remedy any
it wrongs that exist and then to have II
the future greater respect for the i'm
Is portance of holding democratic at
titude towards the things otuside o.
their immediate surroundings
Wall Street is a ruler on key O
dynamite" said Paul Wahburg, thu
A New York banker, member of one o
the great international financial firms
today, in pleading for banking re
Sc form and panic insurance.
Mr., Wahrburg said that the grea
weakness of American banking a
compared with European banking, la
in the dangerously large use of Stoc
ne Exchange collateral as the basis TO
II bank loans instead of the use, as i
ns Europe, OF commercial paper arisin
tt, out of the normal dayto-day move
'ly ment of goods from producers to col
u sumers.
CHI ------