Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-07-26
In Business Circles--News and Review
SENATOR OWENS GIVESREVIEW
THANKING ANDCURRENCYBILL

The view OF Senator Owen, chair
man of the senate committee ON bank
ing and currency, on the currency
bill now pending before the two
houses has been made known in a
statement issued by him in which he
reviews some of the principal features
of the measure, particularly those
which have excited the greatest oppo-
sition among the bankers. He attri-
butes the discomfort of the latter
largely to the fact that some of the
larger interests of the country have
set their hearts upon the passage Of
the Aldrich bill and have expended
large effort in endeavoring to edu-
cate the country in favor of it. That
bin, he says, gave control of the pro-
posed system to the banks of the
country and authorized the banks of
the country to issue bank notes as
currency. The trainers of the pres
ent bill, he continues, have been I'M
able to approve these two features of
the Aldrich plan. They believe that
the federal reserve banks, being es-
tablished purely for the purpose of
stabilizing the commercial and finan-
cial operations of the people of the
United States, should be governed ex-
clusively by the people of the country,
and that the Federal Reserve Board
being created to exercise this gov
erning function, it would not be pro-
per to permit private persons to have
representation thereon. In Senator
Owens view it would be no more rea-
sonable to grant the demand of the
bankers in this particular than it
would be to authorize the railroads to
part of the governing power of the
Interstate Commerce Commission,
which is charged with the duty of reg
ulating the railroads.
AS regards the issuance of the cur
rency, Senator Owen contends that If
this vital public function were to be
placed in the hands of private parties
so that the notes issued and redeemed
were their notes and not the notes of
the United States, the banks could
with great force argue that since the
notes we're theirs they would have
right to issue them in whatever vol
umc they desired and could contract
the currency whenever they pleased.
The results of such policy would.
the senator urges, be ruinous il used
in an. ill-advised way, and it would,
therefore, not be wise to establish
a policy under which it would be diff
ficult for the government of the peo-
pie to control the currency by which
their contracts arc so largely meas
ured. In these two respects the franz
ers of the bin are in accord in in
sisting upon governmental control.
In the course of the preliminary dis
cussion of the bill it has been sugs
gested th1t some of the largest ma
tienal banks might retire from the.
national system and become state
banks because of the objections on
the grounds already mentioned and
Others having to do with the location
of the reserves. Senator Owen de-
clares that the trainers of the pending
measure have taken great pains to in
form themselves in reference to this
suggestion.a that they feel justified
in saying that there is no reason to
apprehend that any national bank will
go out of the system because of the
provisions criticised
Against the objections cited the
senator sets forth the great advan-
tages which would accrue to the
&