The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1913-01-21
CURRENCY REFORM
INTERESTS WILSON
Extra Session to Take Up Finan-
Cial Measures Along With
Tariff Revision.
By Ernest q. wa.ker.

(mall special to The Advertised
WASHINGTON, January 5-In re.
cent days discussion has been diverted
much TO the revision of the banking
and currency laws in a Democratic con
nection. President. elect Wilson favors
such action, along with tariff revision.
lie has been sounding out New York
bankers on the subject and only re-
Gently sent Senator Gore. of Oklahoma,
TO New York TO talk with prominent
financial men there about the subject
And if there is to be banking and cur.
rency reform at the extra session of
congress, the work. as,far as the SEN 81
ate is concerned, will center also upon
this same finance &C umittee and upon !,
the i've Democratic meml ers just men
toned.
That legislation would be largely out
of Representative Underwood s iuris.
diction and he would have little to do
with it. The house end of that is in
the banking and currency committee,
which, under Democrats and Republi.
cans, has long been turbulent commit
tee given to wrangling. Last summer
he house, rather reluctantly, gave the
committee AUTHORIZE ton, through a sub.
committee, to conduct an investigation
of the money trust. Representative
Arsene P. Pujo, of Louis ana, chairman
of banking and currency, was put at
the head of this subcommittee and an
exhaustive investigation, including
many hearings, was conducted.
But this investigation has gradually
been going to seed The subcommittee
NHrou iGfn h., a. II i
ed out ambitiously but was halted by
the laws which deny access to the books
of national banks. The senate refused
to enact law giving the special sub
committee visatorial powers .and it
looks as though in the course of few
weeks this Pujo subcommittee would
wind up its labors with report which
NAV yield considerable information but
will nevertheless fall short of what was
expected.
Another subcommittee, headed by
Representative Carter Glass, of vir-
ginia, was authorized at the same time
to take up the legislative questions af-
fecting banking and currency reform.
Little notice was given that subcom-
mittee till of late, when it has become
quite active. This is credited in some
part to the desire of President elect
| Wilson for currency legislation. Chair
man Glass was in consulta ton with
William J. Bryan, when the latter Wis
, tied Washington recently, and expects
to conduct hearings and endeavor to
frame banking and currency bill that
will meet with the approval of the com
mittee and of congress. AS Puio was
not reelected to congress, Glass will
probably succeed him after March next
as chairman of banking and currency
and accordingly should be in a position
to press banking and currency BILL
Presumably the house at the extra
session will not be long getting through
with its tariff revision. 1t may happen
that the tariff bill will be informally
framed in the ways and means commit
tee during the winter and be ready for
report not long after the extra session
assemblies. The long wait will natural
ly be in the senate, where it takes time
to handle such weighty matters as tar
if revision. But in the meantime the
house will have opportunity for other
legislation and banking and currency
bills can have consideration.
The prospect is that banking and
currency bill will have second place on
the house calendar. But everything de-
ponds upon the ability of the Democrats
to frame such bill that will meet
with anything like general approval
They are emphatically opposed to the
Aldrich plan of banking and currency
reform, which the monetary commission
worked out after several years of care
full investigation. The centralized or
ganization, such as Senator Aldrich
and his colleagues proposed, will never
be accepted by the Democrats They
are, however, adopting many features
that the Aldrieh plan proposed and are
irving to hit upon an arrangement that
will get the sanction of the banking
world.
These are but two matters likely to
be undertaken at the extra session of
congress. There is sentiment in favor
of more. All the signs point to n long
session, extending into August or Sep
TENDER. 1t will be tull of ginger. There
should be much for the edifcation of
the country as Democrats attempt to
demonstrate whether they really have
} the capacity to run the government and
to do the job well. s