Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-03
CHAPTER XXI Continued
In a Trying Debate

y
| It was in q conference with mem
| bers of the banking and currency
committee that first saw the pres
ident in action with the gentlemen
Of the senate and house. He had
! invited the Democratic members of
the banking and currency committee
| to confer with him in the cabinet
room in the White House offices.
| From my place at my desk in an
anteroom heard all the discussions
of the bill. There was full, frank,
open discussion of the bill in all it's
| phases at this conference in which
were collected the conservatives of
| the east, the radicalists of the west,
and those who came to be known as
| the corn taSSep' representatives of
| the south, all holding widely diver
gent views and representing every
| shade of opinion, some of it sharp
| ly antagonistic to the presidents
views. Some of the members were
| openly hostile to the president, even
| in personal way, particularly one
representative from the 4th, and
some of the questions addressed to
him were ungracious to the verge
| of open insult. It was an eXasperat-
| ing experience, but Mr.. Wilson stood
the test with patience, betraying no
resentment to impairment questions,
| replying to every query with CheS-
| terfieldian grace and affability, par
rying every blow with courtesy and
| gentleness, CALAMITY ignoring the
unfriendly tone and manifest unfair
ness of some of the questions. keep.
ing himself strictly to the merits of
| the discussion, subordinating his per-
sonal feelings to the important pub
| lie business under consideration, I'M
til all his interrogators were con-
| WINGED of his sincerity and fairm1nd-
edness and some were ashamed of
| their own ungracious bearing.
| It was clear to me as / watched
| this great man in action on this try
ing occasion, that in the cause he
was defending he saw, with vision
unirnpaired and judgment uncloud.
| ed by prejudice or prepossessions of
any kind, far beyond the little room
| in which he was comforting. He
saw the varied and pressing needs
of a great nation, laboring now I'M
der a currency system that held
it's resources as if in a strait
Jacket. He saw in the old money
| system which had prevailed in the
1 y SNN-AO
breeder of panic and financial dis"
| tress. He saw the farmer Of the
west and south plaything OF east
ern financial interests. And thus,
under the leadership Of Woodrow
Wilson, was begun the first skirmish
in the great battle to free the credit
of the country from selfish control,
a movement which led to the es'
Establishment of a financial system
that ended for all time the danger or
possibility of financial panic.
Opposition From Bryan
There was an interesting incident
in connection with the handling OF
the currency legislation that brought
about what threatened to be the flrs'
rift in the presidents cabinet. l
concerned Mr.. Bryan's attitude o.
opposition to certain features of the
bill as drafted by the banking ant
currency committee of the mouse
My connection with this particular
affair arose in this way: In the early
stages Of the discussion Of the fed
eral reserve act, and while Mr.
Glass committee was considering
the matter, a messenger from the
White House informed me that thu
president wished to confer with m'