The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-11
ALDR|CH MONETARY BODY IS ATTACKED Cummins Demands Final
 Report Be Made EXPENSES TOO HIGH Senator Burton Admits Commission Has Been Extravagant and Sug-
 gests Remedy-Compared To Fairy Tales

Washington, August 1e-Vigorous att tack on the national monetary com mission of which former Senator Al drich of Rhode Island is chairman, was made in the Senate today during the discussion of a bill introduced by Sem ator Cummins of Iowa, calling on the monetary commission to make it's final report to Congress by December 4, next after which 1t would be dissolved. Senator Cummins charged the com mission with unnecessary extravaganza and with delaying report on the re- suit of its Investigations, and Senator
 Hepburn of Idaho asserted that from
 both a partisan and national stand point the original appointment of the commission was a mistake
 1 Senator Burton, member of the
 commission, acknowledged that the
 body probably had been extravagant.
 To remedy this, he said he would offer
 an amendment discontinuing at once
 the salaries of those members of the | commission who are not now in Con-
 gress.
 This would reduce the expenses of the
 commission by $S2,500 a year, as 1 of the IS members of the commission are former members of Congress. Ac- tive members of Congress who are on | the commission receive no extra com | pensation.
 | Senator Burton expressed the opin | ion, however, that the commission should be continued, because, he said, | it would not be able to make a com hxr cctn nd hp cause of future financial questions upon which it will be able to give valuable advice. He said he would offer an amendment to have report made Jan uary 10, next.
 Newlands Speaks | Senator Newlands of Nevada said there were number of special finan- cial questions upon which he wanted
 the commission to report. He said
 there were matters concerning the ad-
 visibility of organizing associations of | na tional banks in each state for the mutual protection of bank depositors agains. panies and of bringing the as-
 sociations into a national federation
 through national banking commis-
 sion with the Secretary of the Treas
 ury as chairman.
 l He said he would give this commission powers of examination, correction of evil
 practices and recommendation to the President and Congress and expect it to perfect cooperation with banking com missions of the various states. MT New l lands wanted a report on the advisability | of preventing national banks from de-
 posting any portion of their reserves re- quired by law in other banks.
 Other senators participated in the dis l cussion. MT. Cummins spoke on bill to require the commission to report finally to Congress by December 4. He declar- | ed that after more than three years of | existence and after having spent nearly | s2o0. .OOOO the commission should be able | to report. Senator Cummins said that
 some of the employees of the commission
 were on the government payroll in other
 capacities. He pointed out also that the
 commission had gathered a large library
 of financial information, had paid for the writing of numerous monographs on | various phases of the financial question
 and that with all this information in it's hands, Congress ought to be able to act.
 '"rhe commission travelled in Europe
 and spent s2O,O0O studying foreign bank ing systems" said Mir. Cummins. Tt
 spent some time at Narragansett Pier, a place where it ought to have been able to concentrate it's thoughts on financial matters"
 Senator Hepburn of Idaho criticised the
 commission.
 Some of the literature they have pre-
 pared,'' he charged, contains no more information that will be useful in the Senate for the passage of financial legis- | lation than the Arabian knights |, Senator Burton spoke against the pas 1 sage of the bill on the ground that the commission could not complete its work | hv Decen,her ath next