Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-10-14
ilize conditions.

pend upon central banks to maintain
the stability of conditions, which in
their experience has prevented those
panics to which we have been sub
jected, we find those central banks
maintaining a discount rate always
higher than the commercial rate in the
same country.
"The benefits of the new system
will become more apparent with the
lapse of time. The change will be
gradual and should be regarded as an
evolution in the banking business, dur
ing which the bankers themselves must
rely upon their own resources and con-
servation should be the watchword.
Any effort to utilize the re-discounting
privilege primarily for profit should
be discouraged.
st must always be kept in mind that
to realize the chief object which con-
gress had in view the federal reserve
banks must always be ready to ex-
tend help; they cannot maintain this
position if the member banks keep
them drained of their resources in or
binary times"
He saw a great. advantage from the
new act in the maintenance of a for
eign exchange market, and thought the
federal reserve banks should invest in
foreign bills, instead of solely in re-
discounts to domestic banks. 1t was
this class of business, he said, that was
sought by the bankers of Great Brit
ain and its ramifcations extending all
over the world, had made London its
financial center.
He said it was popular misconcep-
ton that with the opening of the fed
eral reserve banks, government funds
would be deposited in those banks and
the Independent treasury system OF
the United States, and its consequent
expense to the government and to the
business of the country, would become
a thing of the past. "a careful readia 2
of the law" he said, "discloses the fact
that its authors had no such intention,
and that if the government funds are
deposited in those banks it will be at
the discretion of the secretary of the
treasury alone.
cit is a just criticism of the meas
ure," he continued, "to say that it
does not take the government out of
the banking business, and that it con-
fers upon one of our government Off
Gals an extraordinary power and dis
erection, unwarranted by the spirit of
our institutions and repugnant to re-
publican principles.
"The power conferred upon the Sec
rotary of the treasury to control money
and credit, if attempted by the men,
bers of this association, would proba-
bly, call for a special act of congress
to curtail their activities"
He referred to the car.ure of the
bankers to have their say in the
modification of the federal reserve act.
1t was a representation to which their
interests clearly entitled them, he ar
gued, but he believed the advisory
council of bankers, which had r>-n
authorized, similar to the one now in
vogue in Germany, should yield an in
fluence upon the administration of the
system that was denied them in. its
management.
"The experience in Germany" he
said, has been that the advice of it's
council in the conduct of the Reicts
bank is rarely refused and generally
followed. The fundamental features
of the bill organizing the federal re-
serve banks are in the main sound and
the establishment of the advisory coun-
Gil may furnish the balance without
which the system might be deficient.
"None more than the bankers have
for years been earnestly demanding
some change in our former system, and
it may be confidently predicted that
their efforts to make it successful will
be at the command of those in charge