Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-08-23


 Barton Hepburn ill hlS speech as chairman was an evidence of the atti- tude that the bankers are 10 maintain in their consideration of the pending currency measure. MT. Hepburn gave high praise" to the administration for it's carncstness in taking up the subject He commended many feat ures of the bill but indicated there were others which needed revision.
 The failure to fully develop the ccn- tral bank idea. which, he said. was received in principle was the criti- cism of greater emphasis Said he:
 The establishment of 12 banks in- stead of one for the purpose of bring ing together the money reserves of the country had made it necessary. in order to make these reserves effec- tive, to provide a central board with powers greater than would be neces- sary for one central bank to possess
 "Why, then. should not the prin- ciple, one recognized, be correctly ap- piled? Why should not the law create one central bank which should have branches wherever there is conner cial need for them? Such plan would be simple. less cumbersome and more certain in operation and far more cf- ticiont There would then be no need to give the federal reserve board au- thorlty to direct one section of the country to loan money to another. for the central authority would then con- trol all the deposits and all the loans and they would make loans to those sections of tho country where most needed
 How He Sees It.
 To-day, whenever stringcncy in the money market exists, our 25,000 banks begin competing with each otl,- CT to strengthen their individual in stitutions so they intensity the string ency. The disposition of bank man. institutions is natural and inevitable. In view of the proposed legislation, one of the most natural questions is then, whether the establishment of these regional reserve banks will remedy or aggravate that condition. Will there not naturally and inevit ably be competition between the reg ional reserve banks, competition be- tween the 12 sections of the country and may we not in the end have com petition of section against section, re- serve bank against reserve bank?"
 The speaker said the framers of the measure evidently recognized the dan ger and seek to palliate it by giving to the federal reserve board the auth ority to force one reserve bank to loan to another.
 The banks, he said, should be made | solely responsible for the notes. He pOluJcu OuI lIIdt tlc IlHllto pIuCCO oH the resources and business of the re- serve banks would lead to curtail- ment of credit. It was difficult, he said, to see the advantages of the pro- posed system or the inducements to banks to go into it. Banks should not be compelled to go into it against their judgment, he said. MT. Hepburn doubted the wisdom of providing for land loans and savings departments in the system.
 In reviewing the commendable provisions of the bill, he said:
 "It creates central bank, it estab- fishes branch banking, 1t recognizes bank assets in the form of commercial paper as the normal and proper basis for bank currency and 1t provides for keeping the currency funds of the United States in current use, instead of locking up the surplus in the whenever the income from taxation exceeds government expendi- tures."