Evening star., 1913-10-11
Murmurs Heard Against
CHASING of Bankers as
Enemies of Public. j
PRACTICAL VIEW GIVEN
OF THE CURRENCY BILL
Belief Expressed That Measure
May Pass if Consideration Is
Made Non-P Partisan.
BY N. o. MESSENGER.

Well Informed senators say there is fa,r
prospect of favorable and reasonably
early action upon a currency BILL II con-
siderauon of the measure In committee
is made non-partisan. Otherwise pro-
tracted discussion is certain when the
bill is taken up in the Senate Some
prominent democratic senator's entertain
doubt of the outcome of efforts to bind.
by caucus resolution, all the democratic
senators to support of the House bill
From senators of both parties are heard
murmurs of protest against continu-
ance of policy of arraignment OF the
bankers of the country as enemies of the
public-which. IL is said, has already gone
too far There is also frequent EXPIRES
sion of the opinion that the pending leg.s-
lation is being made too much of a po-
lstcal measure; the game is being over
played in this respect. ii is protested
In the debates i'm the House, by state
nents and views attributed to high
sources in and out of Congress- the in
sinuadon has been persistently fostered
that the bankers are arrayed against the
bill merely out of sinister motives and
for sordid and selfish reasons. Senator'S
declare that insidiously and skilifully the
public is being taught to believe that
the common welfare is on one side of
dividing lire and mercenary banking in
ing acceptance OF or opposition to the
pending bill. Line upon lire and precept
upon precept this is being ground into
the mind of the people. the suggestion
being that banks and bankers are wicked
and designing and that only the politi-
clans can save the country from disaster.
Directorate Numerically Strong.
There are some one hundred thousand
directors of national banks in the coun-
try. men picked from the business ele-
ments of their communities by the share
holders in the respective banks. to man.
age the capital and deposits of the banks.
These are the bankers against whom full
limitations are directed.
The bank directors of the country are
responsible for the deposits intrusted to
them TO be preserved from pecuiation
and from unwise disposition by loans.
The pepdinga currency bill proposes new
and novel methods of handling the b.i-
| lions of deposits in the banks of the
country 1t lessons the control over the
deposits by the directors of the banks
and shares that control with politicians.
| Il is charged.
The bankers of the country have ex-
pressed their views upon features of the
bill. Because these views have not CO.
inclded with those of the authors of the
measure ii has pleased politicians in Con-
gress to denounce the bankers as enemies
of the people and seekers after Interior
ends.
Strong Protest Anticipated.
There are signs that in the Senate a
vigorous protest will be made against
continuance, either openly or covertly. OF
this policy of denunciation. Bankers,
bank directors and the shareholders of
national banks are protestin4 against
being eibbeted malig influences in
the nation They are protesting to sena-
tors and in vigorous terms.
For after ALL II is not alone the hank
ers themselves who are being pilloried.
for they are but representatives, Of those
who create them, the shareholders, men
and women who contribute the capital
with which the banks operate. These
shareholders comprise seven m lions of
American citizens, who are as much in
teyested in the welfare of the nation and
its business as are the theoretical states
men and politicians.
There is no question in the minds OF
many senators that a less hostile and
truculent attitude toward banking inter-
ests will have to be manifested from now
on If the currency bin is to become a
law, and that the bill will fare better
If less stress is made upon its being a
purely political measure.
Refutatlon or the conception sought
to be fostered by politicians in Congress
that big banking is trying to defeat the
bill was conveyed in the testimony of
Frank A. Vanderlip before the Senate
committee this week. He is unquestion-
ably affiliated prominently with big bank
ing in it's broadest sense. as head OF ono
of the largest banks of the land
Criticism From Practical Viewpoint.
Mr.. Vanderlip not only refrained from
rejecting the bill, as was expected, but
actually indorsed many of its salient
features But he took the liberty Of
criticising it from the viewpoint of the
practical banker against that of the
politician: in behalf of the shareholders
and depositors in his bank, whose mill
lions are in his keeping. as against the
theories of statesmen, some of whom
have neither technical knowledge of the
subject nor probably very large stake
in the game
Ii is stated with authority that the net
result of Mr.. Nanderlip's testimony-this
re,uted representative of big banking =
was actually 10 make the bill more ac-
cepta bic to several members of the COM
mittee who were in doubt about some OF
its provisions.