The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-10-02
2SG TO 81.

The Republic felicitates President
Wilson, Chairman Glass and the
American people upon the passing of
the currency bill by an overwhelm-
inb majority in the house.
We have been told many times
that the passing of a currency bill at
the present session OF congress was
impossible. We have been warned
that the people did not desire 1t and
that they were disposed to resent the
attempt as ill-advised and precipi-
tate. We have been informed that
the only hope of the bill was the re-
morseless power of the house leaders
who had formed themselves into a
machine that "out-Cannoned Can
nom
The event is an interesting COM
mentary on these statements. The
measure has passed. Twenty-four
republicans and fourteen progressive
members Joined with the majority
party in support of the bill. But
three democrats voted against 1t.
The Republic desires to inquire how
if the country does not want finan-
cial legislation and is particularly
displeased with the proposed bill, the
house machine" not only managed
to command the vote of every demo-
crat present except three but also
chained to it's chariot wheels some
forty members of the opposition?
The plain truth of the matter is
that the country has long sighed for
improvement of it's inadequate cur
rency laws. The republican party
heard the cry but was not in position
to heed it. The reason why is worth
considering.
The party which collapsed last
year could not deal with the need of
financial legislation because 1t lack
ed the fundamental requisite for
success in such a task. That was
the confidence of the people in the
essential good faith of it's leadership.
The real determining factors in
political history are moral ones.
There is no possible way of divid-
ing in half the people of a great ma
ton that would not include ability
enough on either side to conduct the
affairs of government. Political
parties which go bankrupt do not do
so because of lack of brains; they die
of cowardice, or of bad faith.
The democracy has made an i'm
posing start on a task pronounced by
experts simply because the party
leaders and the army that followed
them have worked with an eye single
TO the faithful discharge of an i'm
portant trust.
We do "Iiot pause to discuss the
provisions of the Glass-OWen bill.
They have already been fully con-
sidered in these columns. The Re-
public, in fact, takes peculiar pleas
ure in the probability that it's dis
custom of the fundamentals of the
currency questions has had definite
value in the clarifying of thought
and the crystalizing of opinion in
the middle west.
A word to those who are fearful
of the effect of the bills defects and
omissions: Probably the two most
far-reaching laws of the past half
century have been the national bank
ing act and the interstate commerce
law. Neither came from the hands
of congress in it's final form. Both
were necessarily subjected to thor
oughgoing revision. There is no rea-
son either to suppose, on the one
hand, that the present measure will
prove an exception to the rule that
an important act in new field has
to pass through a certain process of
development, or to anticipate, on the
other, that that process will be either
longer or more disastrous in this in
stance than it has been to others.
The Glass-Owen bill is bottomed
upon the banking experience of the
greatest nations in the financial
world. 1t represents an intelligent
attempt to adapt methods Of proven
worth to the finances of nation
greater in wealth and extent of terri
tory than any other that ever came
under a single currency and banking
system. 1t has passed that lower
house of congress because it COM
mended itself to the sober sense of
the American peopie.-St. Louis Ee-
public.