Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-01-02
sFacinq a Great ChQnQe
Nsoss sSS-sS


Tracing a Great Change aa2ys3,5s
Banking and currency legislation as long consid.
dred and thoroughly discussed as this now finally
enacted into law, offers hope of meeting the expecta.
tons Of those who have felt that such a pronounced
experiment. was necessary. While the rev law il
revolutionary in its departure from old and we'll SCI.
tied systems of banking and OF currency issues, it
may not fairly be condemned in advance, as being
revolutionary in the sense Of destructiveness. 1t was
a Democrat, Senator Reed of Missouri, who during
the progress of the debate. said, in defending his
demand for further and fuller discussion: "1he bill
that is before rs contemplatcs what must be consid.
cred If not a revolution at least a radical change in
our financial system. believe that plan can
be worked out safely, to the great advantage Of our
country; but it must be agreed that so important a
departure from the present system demands the eXer-
else Of the highest degree of care, prudence and
forethonght."
The efforts to prevent precipitate action were sue
cessfnl, at least in the Senate, where nearly all OF
the material amendments to the bill as it came from
the House, and which are now Incorporated in the
law, were made. Something in the line of banking
and currency legislation has been demanded Of this
Congress. This demand was not voiced in the Ralti-
more platform any more clearly than in The national
Republicans platform, and the Progressive Republican
platform adopted at Chicago. The question has been
one Of method, or OF degree, and opposition to the
bill conferred for long around the enormous powers
for conrtOl of banking and currency with which it
clothes the central federal reserve board. 1t has been
found impossible to make any amendment of that
part of TIE measure, or any other part upon which
the President has insisted is vital. But during the
discussion the system, as originally proposed, has
been fortified at many points, in dealing with the
accumuiation, the depletion, and the counting of re-
serve funds, all tending toward a partial limitation
Of any possible abuse of the great powers lodged in
the controlling body at Washington. One of the
amendments latest to be adopted is partly in line
with thaAafered by Senator Root late in the discus.
sion, proposing a graduated tax against depletion Of
reserves. below a designated limit. The limit named
by Senator Root was so per cent. As fixed in the
law it is. 40 per cent, at which figure. under tho
taxing clause, the safeguard is much stronger than
it would have been if the limit had been left at SO Is
per cent with out the depletion tax.
This cooperation among Senators of all parties
has served to make a vastly better and stronger bill
than first left the House, where such cooperation
was made impossible through caucus control of the
committee and the House itself. Again, in the con-
ference committee Of the two houses, additional
changes, all in the line of erecting new safeguards
against manipulation through absolute control, were
agreed upon and are now incorporated in the law.
While it's true that nothing upon which the Presi.
dent most strenuously insisted has been left out, it
is equally. true that during the long and earnest dis
cussion, while the problem was being viewed from
every angle and efforts made to foresee every contin-
gency and provide against every emergency, many
salutary amendments and saving clauses were put
in. We congratulate the country upon the passage
of the law without the delay recently threatened and
against which we have protested. We congratulate
it more upon the fact that there was a disappearance
of party lines, thirty-seven Republicans and a number
Of Progressives having voted with the Democrats for
final passage. The country will await with interest
and anxiety the announcement Of the presidents Sc
lection OF men who are to exercise the vast powers of
the federal reserve board. With full faith in his in.
togrity, and a hope that his judgment will not fail in
such a crisis, il turns to the new year resolved on
making t;e best Of an experiment which, if it sue
ceeds, Will give the Wilson administration a high
llacc in our hstory.-St. Louis Globe: Democrat.