The daily sentinel., 1914-01-05
(By EDWARD KEATING.)
Congressman-at-Ia t-Iarge from Colorad

ICongressman-at-large from Colorado.
Washington, ID. C., Jan. s.
What will the new currency bill do
ior me?" That's the acid test ap-
piled to democracy's latest piece of
constructive legislation by the mil
lions OF men and women who do the
vcting in this country and who are
coming to believe that their interests
should be kept in mind by those who
are entrusted with the task of shan
ing the nations laws.
Wall Street knows what the bill
VIII do for it and Wall Street fought
the bill until 1t saw that further
fighting would be futile and, may
be, dangerous.
The reasons which prompted Wall
street to oppose the measure are the
very reasons which will enable the
bill to Withstand the peoples acid
test and win popular applause and
support for the party which placed
1t on the statute books. The big is
sue which overshadowed everything
else in the currency discussion was:
Shall the great bankers of Wall
Street control the banking and cur
rency system of this country, or shall
the people control it. through their
chosen representatives?
President Wilson and the demo-
cratic majority in both houses of
congress never wavered on that
| point. They insisted at all times
that the federal reserve board must
be made up of public officials ans
werable to the people, and that the
bankers-as a class-were not en-
i titled to and should not be given rep
lresentation.
i Federal Reserve Board.
Il The Importance of this point be-
comes apparent when we consider
the power vested in the federal re-
serve board. II consists of the sec
retary of the treasury, comptroller of
the currency, and five other men to
be named by the president 1t is n
sort of board of directors or board of
control OF the nations banking sys-
TEN. 1t is authorized to examine
banks and scrutinize their business
methods. 1t will name the govern
ment's representatives ON the boards
Of directors of the great reserve
banks located in various sections of
the country and through its veto
power is in a position to shape the
policy of these gigantic money res
crvoirs. 1t is the custodian of hun
dreds of millions of emergency cur
nancial panic in any section of the
Never before have the representa-
tives of the American people vested
so much power for good or for evil in
any one board or commission.
Our republican friends, when they
were in office, sought to place this
power in the hands of the big bank
ers through the organization of a
central bank. The democrats de-
nounced that scheme which was
fathered by former Senator Aldrich,
and insisted that the right to issue
money belonged to the sovereign
the people of the United States-and
could not with safety be delegated to
any group of citizens. AS a neces-
sary corollary, We held that the bus
iness of banking was so intimately
related to the power of issuing money
that the two could not be separated
and must, therefore, be controlled by
the same sovereign authority.
The democratic position on this
point was so strong that during the
recent debates in the house and the
senate our republican opponents new
er dared make an open and direct at
tack upon 1t.
When the final test came, the
'standpatters'' endeavored to save
their faces by voting for a substi-
tute bill drafted by democrat
Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska-and
which contained many of the most
acceptable features of the Wilson,
Bryan measure.
| Thus the country was treated to
the extraordinary. spectacle of a