Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-19
Washington
' ' LETTER
BY RI. = WALKER
CURRENCY WHEELS cREAK
Star Star Correspondent.
Star Bureau,
Metropolitan National Bank Bldg,
WARRINGTON. Aug, 10.

hAShlNUIONs aug H.
While Congress has acceded to the
Presidents demand and is going to
stay on the job and pass a currency
bill, it Is not at all certain at this
writing that it will be just the kind
of a bill that has been sent from the
White House to be passed Having
patched up the administration bill to
suit the bankers and conservatives,
the trouble the President is now like
1y to have is with the progressives
in his own party.
On the surface everything iss ia
vorable for putting through the cur
rency bill by harmonious Democratic
action. The administration bill has
received the approval of William
Jennings Bryan, among others, and
1t was supposed that it would go
through Congress in the same way
that the tariff went through.
Wheels Not Quite Smooth.
But. the wheels are not turning
quite as easily for the currency
measure as they turned for tariff re-
vision. For weeks the administration
bill was In committee without a COM
mittee meeting being called. Progress
sives and Republicans on the COM
mittee were then barred out and the
Democratic members began to con-
slider it. The first day they started
they divided so widely that the COM
m,ttee majority never made any
Roadway towards getting together.
! At the end of a month fhe committee
! consideration had developed into
| hopeless squabble, and to save the
situation the bill was ordered to be
made the subject of a Democratic
caucus.
For more than a week now the
Democrats have been threshing it out
in caucus, and they are still divided,
There isn't any question about the
| bill passing, but there are such big
differences about what ought to be
mt into the measure that some of
the majority members are threaten
ing to bolt the caucus and carry their
fight to the House if they can't have
their way.
Docs Nothing for Wage-earner."
That the bill takes care only of the
small bankers and business interests
in the cities. and doesn't do anything
for the farmer and wage-worker.
Mr.. BRYAN once talked this way on
the money and currency question. In
a notable speech few years ago he
declared that he would never agree
to change the currency unless proyi-
sion was made for helping the credits
of the farmers in the West and
South. Also. he was for years in
! sistent that the government itself
should do the banking and control
directly the credits of the country.
An asset currency. which enabled
| bankers to get money from the treas
TRY on railroad and industrial bonds
was to him a thing of horror and
aversion.
But since he became secretary of
state Mr.. Bryan doesn't talk this
way. In fact so far as currency and
tariff and trusts and other important
questions are concerned, he doesn't
talk at all.
There are lot of members in Con-
gress, though, who were for Bryan
for years because he talked this way
about currency, tariff, etc. and
whether Mr.. Bryan has changed his
views or not, they haven't. And
Henry is among these men. While
Bryan is announced TO have agreed
to the administration bill which
doesn't do any of the important things
he once declared q good currency
system should do, the men who were
once his followers are going right on
with the fight he seems to have
dropped.
For Cooperative Farms.
A commission has recently returned
from Europe and made recommended
tions as to a plan for cooperative
farms In which farmers can borrow
money at low rates of interest and
on long terms, on their land. The
President is for this plan. He has
said that he agrees entirely with
Henry and the others who are fight
ing him as to the necessity for farm
credits. But the others want this
reform put into the present bill
The President wants the farmers
taken care of in bill of their own.
all by themselves. next winter.
Very frankly, the President has
made it known that in the pending
bill he is not trying to work any great
fundamental reform in the money,
banking and currency system of the
country. He regards the measure as
a necessary companion bill to the tar
iff revision bill. The tariff is going to
ests in the country, he knows. and he
wants to make it easier for them by
providing easier money and credit to
tide over the crisis.
He Believes There Is Money Trust,
Then, too, the President believes
there Is money trust with head
quarters in Wall street, and that this
trust Is closely allied with all the big
trusts and other big business inter
ests of the country. This trust. he
believes, Is able now to control the
money and credits of the country, and
he fears that this control will be used
to force business depression and panic
for the purpose of soaring the country
back into the control of the reaction
airy Republican party, unless some
thing is done at once to head II off.
II the bill he Is urging is passed, he
believes Ii will make money and
credits so much more elastic that the
money trust won't be able to force a
panic.
Henry and those who are with him
in the caucus tight for extending the
bill wanted to put into il some recon
mendations of the Pujo committee
striking at the Gripping of the money
trust by forbidding interlocking bank
rectorates, etc. They want to put
into 1t provision for farm credits and
other things.
Not the Psychological Moment.
I'm for these things" the President
has said. in effect. but this isn't Q
good time TO try to do too much
Let's get this bill through now, ane
do the other things later"
In reply to this, Henry insists thai
this is as good n time as any to do al
these things, that the Democrat,
, | ie, IN IN
ready to keep it's pledge, that it won
| take any longer or be any harden Il