The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-22
OWEN-CLASS 7 BILL OUTLINED
 IN CONFERENCE
Regarded As Views of
 Wilson on Reform In Currency
Chairman Gwen Summons Cur renCy Committee --TeIIS of
 Talks With Officials

Washington, April 22-ChaIrnla.n Owen, of the Senate Banking and Currency committed, called its mem bers together today. and advised them of results of informal conferences with President Wilson. Secretary NcAdoo and Chairman Glass, of the House Banking committed, on the subject of currency reform. Hearings are to be arranged to be followed by joint ses- sions of the Currency committees of both House and Senate preparatory to currency. legislation at the extra ses- sion off Congress, provided. that the tariff fss disposed of without uufore- seen delay.
 Working informally obtaining. the views of the President and his advis- CTS, Senator Owen and Representative Glass have been looked upon as the men who will frame a, measure to be known as the Owen-Glass bill to be introduced at the same time in both houses and carrying with it the ad- ministration's approval While there has been no final agreement yet as to the main features of currency rel form, certain prevalent ideas, some of which eventually may be found in the bill, became known today. These in clude:
 1-Fffteen regional reserve banks which would act as fiscal agents for the government, receiving deposits of public moneys, acting as banks of dis count for the banks in their respec- tive regions, and receiving, a. part of the reserves of the banksc of the coun- try. Currency would % be issued through the regional reserve banks Practically all the capital stock of these institutions as well as any ac- cruing profits would be the property of the banks of each region.
 "A governing board to supervise FI,o reserve hanks would be established to consist of the Secretary Of the Treasury, the Secretary of Az rfcuIture. and the Controller of the Currency as exzofficIo members; four directors chosen by the banks of tho country end two directors appointed , by the President of the United States, The details of this feature have not been worked out but it is planned to have seven to nine members, the ten- Jre of the directors selected by the banks to be longer than that of the other directors.
 3-The elasticity of the new currency would be provided for by conditions calculated to prevent Imitation. Any notes issued would be redeemable in gold by providing Q, reserve for actual some question as to whether these notes should be United States notes advanced to the banks upon- an inter est charge high enough to prevent m fIation or the national bank notes un- der like conditions. State. banks wou1d he required to increase their re- serves
 LThe extent to which the reserves could be used has not been determined but one plan would permit their use under a reasonable tax. With respect to the rate of discount it has been variously suggested that the govern ing board might require the rate to be made progressive when there was an increasing demand for currency so as to stiffen the open market rate ana attract gold, somewhat safter the syS- tenn used by banks.
 @One of the plans suggested, and which Representative Glass advocateo in a recent speech, was to retire the present bond secured currency not at once but over a period of 10 or l5 years which might involve a reIunolns l,l of the two per cent bonds with the circulation privilege into three per cent bonds without the circulation r,rfyiIege. As the bond secured cuFren- cy would be retired substitute cur rency based onf cofnmeEcial paper of a quaIiffed class would automatically take it's place.
 Those Democratic leaders working on currency reform declare the conten- plated changes were neither radical nor abrupt but will merely perfect the nresent machinery and facilities of the country 6 pdnhlHS SSSN0iH 0 plan that will be finally evolved, they also assert, will be substantially diff ferent from the so-caIIed AIdrfch plan
 There is talk of establishing branch banks abroad to obtain for American bankers a share of the foreign trade and commercial transaction. With re- spect to the subject of guaranteeing bank deposits, however, the currency advocates are practically upapimous that this should be kept separate from any currency bill and that if attempted at all it should be taken up after the monetary reform is in actual operation when bankers themselves. might deter mine whether they wished to establish an insura nee fund possibly out of the earnings of the regional reserve institutions.