Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-19
.CR|SSENGER SEEN
AS NEXT GOVERNOR
OF RESERVE BOARD
Eugene Meyer Jru Also
Spoken Of for Place and
McCumber as His Sue
CeSSOr
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Neased Wire Service to The Journal.l
fF'oDyripht 1922

Copyright, 1927
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1S.-Presi-
dent Harding is in a maelstrom Of
problems, each scrowding upon his
attention so intensely that he is
striving in vain to do one thing at a
time.
Appointments to the all-important
federal reserve board, the ever
threatening question of the soldier
bonus bill, the last-minute changes
in the tariff bill which will make the
Observation-Disclosures act even harder
for the executive signature, the reg
ulation of coal prices and a half
dozen other problems which Awill
come as an aftermath to the settle
ment of the rail and coal strikes are
competing with each other for presi-
dental consideration.
Mr.. Harding wants his appoint
ments to the federal reserve board to
please the farmers. He wants at
the head of the board also a mar
closely in sympathy with his own
ideas of what should be done by the
government in the banking world
Those ideas are largely the inspira'
ton OF his lifelong friend and bank
ing adviser, d. r. Crissinger, Of
Marion, O., who at present is comp.
trcllcr of the currency.
If President Harding had intended
to reappoint w. p. G. Harding, the
chief executive would not have allow
ed the term of the federal reserve
boards governor to expire. The gen
eral impression is that the president
intends to have Governor Harding
stay on until successor is az
pointed.
Besides Mr.. Crissinger there is Eu
gene Meyer, Jr., who as head of the
war finance corporation. has per-
formed a service which President
Harding considers to have been re-
markably useful to the nation as a
whole and the farmers and cattle
growers and live stock men in par.
ticular.
West for Meyer
Many western and southwestern
BUSINESS men favor the appointment
of Mr.. Meyer to the federal reserve
board on the ground that if the per
sonnet of the board had been alive
to it's opportunities it would have
made the revival of the war finance
corporation after the war unneces'
sary.
Should Mr.. Meyer be moved up
to the federal reese board, or be
made comptroller of the currency,
of the same board by reason of the
that Senator McCumber, of North
Dakota, chairman of the senate f.
nance committee, might be given
the place.
Mr.. McCumber was defeated for
denomination in the Republican pri
maries in North Dakota recently
and his term expires next March
The president is said to be anxious
the job of managing director Of the
war finance corporation pays $4,000
a year, which is more than sena-
tor gets.
Vacancies like this do not occur
every day, and if Mr.. McCumber
were to become managing directo.
of the war finance corporation in
order to make THE shift complete,
l. IN n1ir
senate at once. This, in turn, would
make Senator SmoOt, of Utah, chair
man of the finance committee of the
senate a few months sooner than
otherwise would have been the case,
and would ,sive Mr.. Harding the
benefit Of Mr. Shoots extraordinary
familiarity with Republican fiscal
and tariff policies in the short SEES.
sion of congress in December If not
in the all-important closing days OF
the present special session, which
may last until mid-September.
Both Are Democrats
Politically speaking, there would
be no particular significance in the
appointment of Comptroller Crissin-
ger tc take the place Of Governor
Harding, a Democrat from Alabama.
but the appointment is more Of a
personal one than political, as the
intimacy of the two men dates back
to Marion, Ohio, the president S
home 1t is being recalled today that
President Wilson's first choice for
governor of the Federal Reserve
board was also a personal friend,
Thomas D. Jones, of Chicago, whose
n tiny1 Spnf RI tho cnnaf
but defeated because of the latter's
connection with the International
Harvester company.
Mr.. Crissinger was regarded as
"small town banker" when he first
came to Washington, but he has
grown in the esteem of official
Washington as he has handled the
job of comptroller of the currency
believes international exchange can
be stabilized by the right kind of
international cooperation.
accidentally it is not apparent that
Governor Harding is looked upon
with disfavor by the president. There
is every reason to believe that the
president in the ordinary course of
events would have nominated Gov
SIuOl aIIIlOuSI1 l11Sy llo VIC
the same surname they are not kins-
men. The president probably has
been influenced to choose new men
for the Federal Reserve board be-
cause of the controversies with the
farming interests which have devel
oped under Governor Harding's rule.
1t was inevitable that the boards
personnel would suffer because of
no 1oair1fl11 bI1t
of deflation undertaken two years
ago. Whether the deflation could
have been handled in better fashion
is a subject upon which many speech
es. have been made in congress. The
president dislikes controversy and
likes a new deal. The selection of
nil h