The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-11-21
NO PLACE IN POLITICS
FOR BANKING REFORM
President of American Bankers As
ISOLATION Says Reserve Associa-
ton Not Partisan.
Associated Press Special.

New orleans, NOV. Zi.-I tns
proposed plan for the reform of the
| currency and banking system Of the
United States be kept non-partisan,
| its enactment into law will be al
easy accomplishment. And it could
be kept q non-partisan issue, If the
1000 bankers here would work zeal
ousy to that end upon their return
home
So declared F. o. Watts, president
of the American Bankers Assocfa-
ton, in addressing the convention OIL
its members here today. Mr. Watts
strayed, he said, from the beaten
path of precedent, to discuss thel
theme which has been made the |
keynote of the convention proceed-i
ings.
Surely there Is no good reason
why the question should become al
partisan one," he said There is mol
party principle involved in such al
cooperative agency and nothing but
pEesSainA or the extremity for an Is
ap1I1R2aS ertainly does not exist IN
X. sould causs- eAher of the
two great political parties to treat
the subject differently from what
they should proposals for good
health or pure food, or river i'm
provements, or the building of .
great canl If by any chance it drifts
unavoidably by the bankers andl
business men into a partisan alien-l
ment. the only hope of making it AM
effective issue to the party opposing
the plan would lie in its ability tol
appeal to prejudice through talk of
Capitalization and control by special
interest. Neither proposition could
be maintained before the thoughtful
citizenship OF this country, and
when the light of reason entered, the
party making such an appeal would
suffer as such parties have always
suffered In the past.
I'VE can show that instead OF be-
ing Capitalization the proposal is
decentralization, the Dowsf colctl1s
| to the central agency for all banks
| in just such way as the power is
placed in the chief executive of the
nation. The president becomes the
| composite OF American Ideas, and
v hen not so there occurs shifting
| OF authority. SO the Central Reserve
Association would always be the
| composite of the shareholding banks
and, therefore, standing for the best
in our business life.
The currency commission and Of
| ficers of your association have been
| liz a number OF conferences with the
| chairman and members of the Ma
! tional Monetary Commission, and
| those having the responsibility Of
| forming the responsibility of form
| ing plan shower remarkable Will
| irggess to hear and adopt any sug-
| gestions tending to keep the contro
away from speculative marts, keer
| 1t apart from political control OIL
prevent its being at any time pc
| lltical issue, keep the investment Of
e charatte that would max" any
control of little value compared te
| such an outlay as necessary to &C
quire 1t.
! Those expressing fear on the
| question of control seem to deal only
In generalities instead OF giving
some good reasons for the belief that
any selfish interest would seek cor
troll or that II sought it could be
attained The plan expressly prohib
its the holding of shares by any In
dividual or other than banking cor
porations, so that direct stock con
! troll is forever impossible, and
therefore, to get even indirect con
troll it would be necessary for sucf
| interests to purchase control OF the
majority of the shares of more thar
half in number and amount of the
twenty thousand Independent banks
of the country. The use of such
| stupendous sum as necessary II
highly impractical The suggestioI
appears foolish TO those analySinf
the situation and TO be a serious re
Election on the good sense Of those