The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1913-06-27
wilson ASKS new
CURRENCY SYSTEM
President Wilson Reads Mes
SAGE to Joint Session Of
Congress.
NEW SYSTEM IS DEMANDED
Revision Of the Banking and Currency
Laws Must Go Hand in Hand
With Revision Of the
Tariff.

Washington, June 23.-Presidert
Wilson today read his special message
on the subject Of banking and currency
reform to the joint session Of con
gress. The message follows:
Mr.. Speaker, Mr.. President, Gentle
men of the Congress: 1t is under the
compulsion of what seems to me a
clear and imperative duty that | have
a second time this session sought the
privilege of addressing you in person.
l know, of course, that the heated
season of the year is upon US, that
work in these chambers and in the
committee rooms is likely to become a
burden as the season lengthens, and
hat every consideration OF personal
comfort, perhaps, in the cases Of some
Of US, considerations Of personal
health even, dictate an early conclu-
sion of the deliberations of the SEES
sion; but there are occasions Of public
duty When these things which touch
us privately seem very small; when
the work to be done is SO pressing and
SO fraught with big consequence that
we know that we are lot at liberty to
weigh against 1t any point of personal
sacrifice. 1t is absolutely imperative
that we should give the business men
Of this country a banking and curren-
cy system by means of which they
can make use of the freedom of enter
prise and of individual initiative
which we are about to bestcw upon
them.
We are about to set them free; we
must not leave them without the tools
of action when they are free. We are
about to set them free by removing
the trammels of the protective tariff.
Eyer since the Civil war they have
waited for this emancipation and for
the free opportunities it will bring
with it. 1t has been reserved for us
to give it to them. Some fell in love,
indeed with the slothful security of
their dependence upon the govern
ment; some took advantage of the
shelter of the nursery to set up a
mimic mastery of their own within
its walls. Now both the tonic and
the discipline of liberty and maturity
are to ensue.
1t is not enough to strike the
shackles from business. The duty of
craftsmanship is not negative merely.
1t is constructive also. We must show
that we understand what business
needs and that we know how to sup
ply it. No a however casual and
superficial his observation of the con
ditions 10Y prevailing in the country,
car fail to see that one Of the chief
things business needs now, and Will
need increasingly as it gains in scope
and vigor in the year Immediately
ahead Of us, is the proper means by
which readily to ~vitalize its credit.
corporate Inc individual, and it's orig
NATIVE brains. What will it profit us
to be free if We are not to have the
best and most accessible instrument
~talities of mer and enterprise?
The principles upon which we should
act are also clear. The country has
sought and seen its path in this mat
ter within the last few years-See it
more clearly now than it ever saw 1t
before-much more clearly than when
lAC Aaot lC6lSldllNC plOpOSdlS OU tQG
subject were made We must have a
currency. not rigid as now. but readily,
elastically responsive to sound credit,
the expanding and contracting credits
Of everyday transactions, the normal
ebb and flow Of personal and corporate
dealings. Our banking laws must mo-
bilize reserves; must not permit the
concentration anywhere In a few hands
Of the monetary esources of the coun-
try or their use for speculative pur-
poses in such volume as to hinder or
impede or stand In the way of other
more legitimate, more fruitful uses.
And the control of the system OF bank
Ing and Of issue which our new laws
are to set up must be public, not pri-
vate. must be vested in the govern
ment itself, so that the banks may be
the instruments, not the masters, of
business and Of individual enterprise
and initiative.
The committees Of the congress to
referred have devoted careful and dis
passionate study to the means OF ac-
complishing these objects. They have
honored me by consulting me. They
are ready to suggest action. l have
come to you. as the head OF the gov
eminent and the responsible leader OF
the party in power. to urge action now.
while there IL time to serve the coun-
try deliberately and as we should. in q
clear air OF common counsel.