Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-07-10
Why The SENATE DEMOCRATS ARE Baking

mlttce on banking ana currency 10 recommend
confirmation Of presidential appOintrr, Thorn
as ID. Jones, as a member Of the Federal Reserve
Board
As reported yesterday by cable. the attitude
of the committee is due to the fact that Jones is
a member Of the international Harvester trust.
Well-infarmed observers of Washington affairs
also know that this is only part Of the story.
The rest Of it affords good evidence that Presi-
dent Wilson is losing some Of his strong sup
port i'm the senate and that certain Democratic
congressman are giving vent to the feelings of
irritation that have been growing ever since
Wilson's Mexican policy failed to produce i'm
mediately beneficial results.
The fight on Jones has been embittcred by a
controversy i'm which President Wilson has had
an unfortunate part. Jones is a retired lawyer
and became best known to the president as a
trustee of Princeton University, in which capa-
city he won the esteem and confidence of Mr.
Wilson. His dictatorship in the harvester trust
aroused considerable criticism of his appoint
nlent, it being pointed out that he is code
PENDANT in the civil suit brought by the depart
ment Of justice to dissolve the trust.
President Wilson's reply To this criticism was
a letter which preciptated the unfortunate sit
nation referred to- In his letter the president
said that Jones owned but one share of Harves-
ter trust stock, which he had purchased so that
he might qualify as a director, and the presi-
dent emphasized that he might assist in with
drawing the company 'from the control which
had led it into the acts and practices which have
brought ii under the criticism of the law officers
of the government"
The president also said that in this plan of
reform Jones 'has been very effective"
George w. Perkins, one of the big men of the
Harvester Company, Immediately replied with
a letter which in effect accuses the president of
misstating the facts. He declares that Jones
was suggested as director by President Nc
Cormick of the trust, With the assent of the
other directors, and that his entry as a direc
tor was not at all for reform purposes par
ticularly as he became director by the votes of
the ''rery men responsible for the companys or
ganization and management" He declared fur
Their that there has been no revolution i'm the
management or methods since Jones became a
director and that all the directors stood together
IN upholding the company's methods as fair.
honorable, abovesboard and legal Jones fol.
lowed this with a published statement that he
had become a member Of the directorate at the
invitation of a number of friends.
Perkins letter at once raised recognized is
sue with President Wilson. The Outlook, which
certainly has the appearance of treating the
matter fairly, thus states the case:
The difference between President Wilson and
Mr. Perkins in this matter is not difference of
racity. Mr. Perkins speaks from frst-hand knowI
edge the president only from information and belief
Mr.. Perkins has appealed to Mr. Mccormick to the
board, and to Mr. Jones himself II has misstated
the facts 1t is easy to prove the misstatement The
president has either been misled or is acquainted
with the facts which may not have been made
IN lie dnfv fhorto
edge the error or to give his authority.
The man who occupies the presidency has the
trust and respect of the people by virtue of their
veneraton for the office he holds. The very fact
that the country nstinctively to the
who is president makes ii all the more incumbent
upon him to exercise scrupuous care in every
statement he makes The president cannot be called
account private citizen There is, there
fore, the greater obligation upon the president
whoever he may be, not to accept gossip rumor
in place of fact and when he makes an accusation
not do it ithout investigation and without sub
Stimulating il unansweraby
When the president of the United States is
subjected to such acute criticism as that voiced
above it is hardly to be wondered at that the
situation by yesterday had progressed so far
that the Democratic majority on the senate
banking committee declined to stand by the
Jones appointment.
AS a whole, President Wilson's selections for
members of the important Federal Reserve
Board have been admirable, in the opinion of
both friendly and unfriendly newspapers The
other amendments are as follows
Paul NJ Warburg, of New York, recognized
as an able scientific banker; a. c. Miller of
California, specialist and publieist in the realm
of finance and economies; w. p. G. Harding of
looaor-s, bonLinp and huSinnSS