The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-08-29
THE BANKERS PROPOSITIONS.


When the National administration
asked the cooperation Of the National
and solicited them eandidly to
give their opinions OF the currency
bill pending in the House, the response
| was so completely knockout for that
bill that the President incontinontly
decrecd that no attention should be
paid to tho criticisms that had been
received in pursuance of the invita-
tion.
The bankers suggested large num-
Der Of amendments that related TO the
methods Of banking, and that would
touch the general proposition only as
means of carrying out the princi-
Piles determined on. But vital changes
wero also proposed by the bankers in
their conference in Chicago.
One of these was to substitute the
Federal Reserve banks for the National
Treasury In the issuing Of emergency
currency, and TO displace the treasury
note for the bank note, TO be redeema-
bic explicitly in gold instead Of in
gold or lawful money, as the partisan
measure now provides
The bankers also suggested that there
should be but one central Federal Re-
serve bank, or, Mt the most, FIVE, with
branches wherever needed, instead Of
the twelve called for in the bill
They also urged that the compulsory
provision in the present bill under
which all National banks in order to
retain their charters must enter the
new system, be stricken out and their
participation in it be voluntary.
They urged also that in establish
ing the Federal Reserve Board the
President should have power to APP
point not more than three Of the seven
members, the banks should select an
other three, and the Secretary of the
Treasury be the seventh; eliminating the
Secretary Of Agriculture and the Comp
troller of the Currency from member
ship on the Board. This would clearly
be in the interest Of efficiency and
Of good banking 1T would also rec
ognize the principle that those who
own the money which is to be con-
trolled by this Federal Reserve Board
shall have something to say about how
it should be handled.
The bankers also suggested that the
Federal Reserve Board should have
no power to make the Federal reserve
agent IN selections for service at any
Federal Reserve bank the chairman
of the board Of directors, and that any
such board Of directors shall have power
to choose It's own officers, with whom
the Federal Reserve agent can coop,
crate IN the banks management.
Further, that it shall be made dis
cretionary and not mandatory for
bank to rediscount other banks pa
per, if 1t saw fit to do 80. This latter
would preserve an independence to each
Of the several banks that Is essential
to good management and the depriva.
tion Of which might compel a bank
that is perfectly solvent to make at
some time statement that would
prove II to be apparently otherwise;
when In fact the only fault to be
found with 1t would be It's obedience
to the Federal Reserve Board s com
mands, which it's resources could not
properly meet.
The propositions submitted by this
Chicago bankers conference seemed so
reasonable to the bankers that they
were confident Of their acceptance by
the administration; but they were not
even considered. AS soon as Presi-
dent Wilson knew the tenor of these
suggestions, be at once thrust them
aside, and in the most discourteous
manner possible, without even making
any answer to the bankers, decreed
that no attention should be paid to
their recommendations, and that the
bill must stand as drawn,
His action in this is the most inde-
fensible of anything that he has de-
creed SO far on the currency situation.
It shows that he is determined to have
political control of the banks and of
the currency system of the country,
so as to force these banks to mini.
mize the evil effects on business and
industry generally Of the partisan tariff
revision, on pain Of being afflicted by
an irresponsible Federal Reserve
Board, composed chiefly Of Democratic
politicians.