The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-17
EFFECT OF WAR ON NATIONS FINANCES BANKERS SUBJECT Meeting in Richmond Also Draws Attention to the Growth of the South MARVELLOUS CHANGE
 IN TWENTY YEARS Special Attention Attracted By the Great Extent of Water Power
 Development in This
 Section
By HOI.t.aND

New York, October 16.-tSpecial. )-Ir
 lsos the American Bankers association
 met In annual convention on the eve ot
 the currency panic of that year A,
 mat time the bankers regarded fho
 situation as portentous. They realized
 that our old national banking system
 was breaking down and that it had
 served Its day. They authorized a com
 mlttee to work out, if possible. a plan
 whereby our currency system could be
 mooined and in that way perfected. The committee was occupied for some weeks
 in formulating plan and hoped to be able to present it to Congress at the
 winter session and so present 1t that Congress would realize that the Ameri- can bankers looked upon the situation as perious, believing that unless ou. currency system was changed there would be danger of a repetition of such financial distress as was occasioned by the October panic, imperilling, as it then did, the entire fabric of American business and industry.
 The action of the American bankers at that time stimulated Congress and '''N0 os tii iiP1AhctiC Nll1l tlt OfEan1Za ton of the national monetary commission whose recommendations were in part embodied in the banking and currency plll which was submitted to Congress at Its special session which was called by President Wilson immediately after his inauguration.
 This week the American Bankers as sociation has been in annual session at hlchmond, Va. A new national banking and currency system is speedily to be put into operation. The statute which this contains many features which were recommended by the Amer lcan bankers in 1907 and in the early winter of 1908. One measure adopted by Congress soon after the panic of 1907. widely known as the emergency currency measure, was brought under the favorable consideration of the American bankers this week. That measure, soon after it was enacted into law. smothered the panic of 1907 and d condition represented by scarcity of currency to another repre- sented by plethora of money. Ameri- can business men then realized that as 1t was within the power of the Secre- tary of the Treasury to issue so-called emergency currency, as much as S500,- 0o0,000 If necessary, the fact that this could be done restored confidence so tHdt HOt unlil W1tn1n lew weeks Of the meeting of the American bankers at Richmond this week was the power possed by the secretary utilized.
 If the bankers who met in Richmond this week discussed among themselves the prominent features associated with the utilization by Secretary McAdoo of a discretion whereby somewhat in ex- cess of s400.000.000 of additional cur rency was made available, they have spoken with enthusiasm of the benef- cial effect of this emergency law. It was the first of the important steps which have been taken to relieve the financial situation. The American bank CTS who in 1907-S recommended action similar in many of its features to that which is represented by the emergency currency law could not have dreamed that seven years later that statute would serve immediately to aid the most desperate situation this country has known.
 The Chief Subject
 Of course. the chief subject. at least for informal and private discussion. at this annual meeting of American bankers was the effect of the European war upon American finance and business and the