Yellowstone monitor. [volume] (Glendive, Mont.) 1905-1928, 1913-11-06
TOM >STOUT'S WEEKLY LETTER
Interesting sidelights on men and things political


De completed by the senate and at thi
session has had the desired effect
someway, cannot help thinking
that Woodrow Wilson is different
from great many men who hav,
held the exalted position which h,
now occupies. l believe that he i:
less subject to the influences of pres
sure OF all sorts, excepting only the
compulsion of public opinion, thar
most Of his predecessors in office
that he has clearer vision thar
many and a more sublime faith in the
sanity and justice of the American
people and the destiny of their coun.
try. He. is an idealist, who has shown
remarkable facility for keeping his
! feet on the ground it matters not how
| high his head may tower among the
clouds. He has been called academic
and Impractical simply because he has
| chosen to make use of methods widely
different from those which other men
have used or would use under the same
circumstances. He has been called
stubborn but subsequent events have
shown that the people have been
behind him and it is perhaps his mar
velous faculty for sensing public sen
timent which has been of the greatest
use to him in several critical situa-
tions which he has been called upon
to face since the fourth of last March.
He may not be practical but he has
been more than a match for men who
make profession of being practical.
He may not be a politician but in
every battle of wits with trained and
grizzled politicians, he has emerged
victorious. The most recent attempt
to "put one over on the President
occurred last week in the senate com.
mittee on banking and currency where
the currency hill is being considered.
This measure has been most viciously
al hc h,1
really inspired those attacks, the big
bankers and financiers of New York,
have chosen to remain somewhat in
the back ground, being content to
permit the smaller bankers and husi-
ness men make the fight. This bank
ing bill proposes to do two or
three things which the big bankers in
New York and Chicago and St. Louis
naturally do not want to have done.
1t takes the control of our banking
and currency system out Of the hands
of a small coterie of powerful men in
the cities mentioned, and especially
New York, and places it in the hands
of the government 1t distributes
the hundreds of millions of dollars
which the country banks have con
stantly on deposit in New York City
and which the country banks cannot
always get when they need it most,
among a number of government-con
trolled regional banks located IN dill
ferent sections of the country. The
big bankers played their game smooth
| ly. They knew that the senate com
mittee was not altogether in accord
| with the bill passed by the house and
at the psychological moment Mr.
| Frank Vanderlip, one Of the leading
| New York bankers came down here ito
Washington and produced very
plausible scheme for a central bank
which should take the place OF the
3, proposed twelve regional banks. More
over, he made deep impression upon
the senate committee. 1t was the
elimination Of the big bankers plan
to defeat the efforts of the President
and congress to enact banking law
in the interest of the people rather
than in the interest of the bankers.
Had the President wavered Tor
=, moment, the plan would probably have
succeeded. Such law as WANDER
lip proposed would never pass the
house and it is doubtful even II II
would pass the senate, but IL "ouio
have brought about postponement OF
currency legislation. But the ffesi'
dent very promptly put down ms ioo'
on the Vanderlip plan: which, ~
L. n IT.