Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-01-01
o o o Q O o o o

doesn't watch out Ir will surely die disgraccd.
0 o o O o O O Professor Laughing, Of the
y A Modern O Chicago University. AYERS that
O me-. NOT ten men who voted for the
0 ~ Glass Owen currency bill, re
o in O Gently passed by congress,
0 ~ ,. 0 knew what they were voting
O ohticS O for. In other words, the pro-
o o O o O O o fe,,or conton1s thot NOT ton Of
them understood the biII or the principles UNDER
lying it, and that, therefore, the enactment Of
~uch a wise piece Of legislation should be regard
ed as a modern miracle in politics.
Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska. democrat
though he be, has not always agreed with Mr..
Bryan concerning the wisdom of certain political
propositions, and Mr.. Hitchcock took special pains
to impress upon the country his views of the cur
rcncy bill as its passage progressed in the senate.
He assailed it quite bitterly, and yet his name is
recorded among those who favored it on final
passage. His only excuse for voting for it at all,
after his attacks upon it, must be that he con
sidered it's provisions an Improvement upon ex-
listing laws.
1t had been heralded throughout the land that
the great bankers of the country were radically
opposed to the terms of the bill. One of the lead
ing bankers of New York had offered a substitute
and vainly sought to induce congressional lead
ers to accept it in lieu of the Glass-Owen measure.
But on final passage Representative Lind
bergh of Minnesota "uncorked a few sizzling re-
marks, as the st. Paul Dispatch puts it, about
the bill, characterizing it as the secret work Of
the ''money trust" and the offspring of that 'in-
visible government which is supposed to en-
anate from the private offices of the great fnan-
ciers in Wall Street.
In the senate, Senator Bristow Of Kansas re
ferred to certain 'great banking interests that
have had a hand throughout in framing this bill,'
concluding with this observation:
"With the power the attorney general has I'M
der the laws which he assumed to control, and the
power the secretary of the treasury will have I'M
der this new banking system, we will have a cen
trallZation Of power under democratic adminis-
tration that Alexander Hamilton would have
blushed to assume.
On the other hand, we find many republicans
and a majority of the democratic leaders arrayed
behind the administration in support Of the prin-
ciples of the measure and uniting in the decIar-
alton that it will prove to be a wise and whole
some piece of legislation. The st. Paul Dispatch,
for instance, among the republican supporters of
the bill, expresses itself as follows:
''Running over the list of men having a voice
and a vote in the highest representative body in
the United States, it is indeed, as Prof. Laughlin
declared, a political miracle that 50 many sound
principles were embodied in the currency act. It
is only another illustration Of the old adage that
God takes care Of drunken men, little children and
tie United States
Now, what is tile average political layman to
do about it, It appears to be a case of disagree
ment among the political doctors. We must
simply wait for developments-wait to see wheth-
ed the patient survives the ordeal, the patient in
tIiS .,ctanca hninp the hnSinaSS nublie @
Verify, as one reads the comments, pro and
con, he is inclined to agree with Professor Laugh
I'm to the extent, at least, of conceding that the
passage of the bill must be regarded as a modern
miracle in politics, although it is not necessary in
this connection to accept the professors judg-
ment concerning the soundness of the principles
upon which the bill is supposed to rest.
!, ooo ooo oooooooooooo