The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1912-12-12
Government and paRiCs.

an improved banking system. Ihefe
can be no denial Of the necessity OF
improvement in the present system,
and the secretary can not even be
charged with exageration in saying
that the federal government, so long
as the present faulty system is retained,
will be responsible for the commercial
financial and industrial disasters which
flow from panics. But the desirability
Of having better system being gem
orally admitted, it will be generally
disappointing for the business world
to find that the secretary sees only the
end but not the means. The present
system promotes and develops panics,
he declares, but he seems TO offer
nothing more than glittering generali'
ties by way Of providing better one.
The revision OF the law, he says, should,
aside from afording flexible and elastic
currency and reserves, bring the banks
into an organized cooperation and pro-
vide fora central agency through which
they can work free OF political or trust
control.
In so far as he ventures into details
the secretary apparently follows, in the
main, the lines Of the Aldrich plan Of
currency and bank reform, This plan
has been much discussed and has
much 10 commend it. The secretary
might safely have committed himself
openly to its support. Nothing has
been urged against it which may not,
with equal facility, be urged against
any other measure that can be intro
duced. Opposition to the AldIich
plan has been confined, practically, to
the charge that the machinery it pro-
vides for the organization Of the cen
tral agency would fall under trust con
troll and political manipulation. Ii will
be found impossible 10 formulate any
reform measure containing this ihdis
pensble feature Of centralized func-
tion which will not be charged with
the same thing. The charge grows
out CT the public fear Of private con.
troll Of such an agency, Il had best
be admitted that such a danger will
exist, while denying the existence oi
any reason why it should become
threatening. 1t is purely question oI
administration, and administration can
become neither lax nor corrupt so long
as public vigilance continues. Since
no PRACTICAL measure can be drawn
which du,s not include the central
body in the proposed sys.em, and since
the creation OF such body always has
tempted and always will tempt mer-
cenary and unscrupulous men 10 seek
its control, the question is one Of
whether we will defeat most vital re.
form through fear Of a danger which
intelligent vigilance can easily prevent,
to retain loose, dlsjointed and wholly
ineffective system which is filed with
even more dangers than the secretary
Ct the treasury points out.
One of these dangers is present now.
In spite Of the material wealth and
prosperity Of the country, expeditions
ness in moving the heaviest crops on
record, increasing railway receipts. net
and gross. and great developments in
the iron and st-el industry, makers Of
call loans in New York have been de-
manding interest rates running as high
as Is per cent. There is nothing in
the business situation justifying such
usuries, but there must be something
in the financial, or banking, situation
10 make them possible. When the
secretary Of the treasury reports TAX
ing large sums Of actual money out ol
the ordinary financial use, and locking
it up as a dead mass in the vaults oi
the treasury, is a proceeding as unset
enufc and unreasontd as any other
part Of our unreasoned and unscientifc
banking and currency SYSTEM" he ex-
plains why call money is bringing al
most panic prices in New York now.