Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-01-17
This Is the Cry Heard All
Over the Nation
Now.
SYSTEM FAILS
Reserve Banks Are Not
Living Up to Their Ad-
vance Reputation.
CBy OMAR X. BENEDICT)

CBy OMAR X. BENEDlGT)
whats the matter with the coun-
try?" we hear nowadays quite ire
quently.
Here we are in times of peace
paying a war tax also Is voiced down
the highways OF commerce. .
There are two hundred thousand
more men out Of employment in the
city of New York alone at this timc
than there were Just a year ago
reads the press dispatches of Thurs
day.
Seems that, in the face Of war
stricken Europe, our factories would
be reaping a harvest" is another eX>
preston wherever men meet and
talk.
Cotton is off and wheat continually
going up; seems to be a strange COM
mentary.
Demands in Europe for every kind
of American.made goods and more
workingmen idle since 1893 seems
still stranger.
What does it all mean?
Lack of Confidence.
Three words will answer-Lack Of
confidence.
The factories, while there are
heavy demands for their goods, the
experimental tariff laws, lately put
into force, have created a timidity In
the factory men that has caused them
to go slow. They are waiting until
the experimental stages have been
past-they may be waiting for a
change In the tariff laws.
The federal reserve bank PROPOSE
ton, while experimental, is proving
to be one Of the most expensive ex'
noVfV,apfg this pn1rntrU az "a nation
has ever engaged In.
Reserve System Facts.
From reports the Federal Reserve
Bank Of Kansas City, Mo-, is losing
on an average of $4,000 a month;
and it is reasonable to suppose that
the other eleven banks scattered
throughout the United States are
meeting with a like fate. To be mild,
the federal bank reserve banks are
q failure, pure and simple, and eX-
pensive failures at that. The only
redeeming feature Of them H. that
IL ey insure against panics, but the
insurance is not worth the toll paid.
Take, for instance, any ordinary ma
tional bank Of 100000 capital
stock of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska,
Missouri or any other state, and each
and every one Of them is compelled
by law to buy $4,000 worth of stock
in the federal reserve bank of its dis
trict and pay 20 per cent down.
In addition to that, these banks are
compelled to deposit with the reserve
bank IL per cent of its reserve, which
WI average about $4,000 or $4,000
pro rated throughout three years at
approximately Z per centum. That
takes away from the individual ma
tional bank with 100000 capital
stock $4,000. He canno loan the
money. The money is practically
taken out Of the country. The banker
receives no interest on It; neither can
he loan It and earn interest. 1t is
gone from the community, and there
are more than five hundred millions
of just such money tied up in these
federal reserve banks throughout the
country. The lender and the bor-
rover do not lose only the 100000
600. but they also lose a like sum by
the non-existence Of the money by
it's natural elimination.
Bankers Pay the Loss.
These federal reserve banks must
stand on their own bottom.
II they lose, the stockholders must
stand the loss, the same as any indiv-
idual bank. And that they are los
ing money is a notorious fact. And