The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-01
BY THOMAS l.. STOKES
Tfv,es GnpcfaI Writer

ASf14NG 4OANs APAA UtA-
Charles Z. Coughlin champions a
central bank as a means Of lodging
the power over money in the hands
Of the people. The youthful Mar
riner S. Eccles, governor Of the Fed
eral Reserve Board, argues for a
series of reforms in the Federal
system to make it operate like a
central bank. Senator Carter Glass
ID, Va resistS the central bank
ideas of each and would preserve
the Federal Reserve System.
About these three viewpoints-the
left-Wing program of the Detroit
priest. the middle of-the-road pro-
gram of Governor Eccles and the
Roosevelt Administration, and the
right-wing program espouSed by the
Virginia Senator, %revolves an
issue which soon will absorb Con-
gresS.
Father Coughlin and Gov. Eccles
would attain, by different methods,
virtually the same end. The Fed
eral Reserve Board governor, gradu-
ally, and the radio priest, suddenly
and radically. would place in the
hands Of the government almost ab-
solute power v e currency, credit
and the banking institutions which
r both repositories and investors
Of the peoples money.
Money Control Widens
President Roosevelt came into Of
flee pledged to drive the money
changers from the temple" Through
a series of acts, both executive and
legislative, the Administration has
drawn to itself more and more con-
troll of banking and finance.
The 1885 banking bill, now pend
ing in Congress, carries this several
steps further.
The issue, as it is drawn today, is
between those who would create a
central banking system IN fact,
which includes both the Admins
tration and the force Of Father
Coughlin, and those who would
maintain the cooperative Federal
and private banking system, with
large powers still left to private
bankers, which is the object Of
Senator Glass.
The Federal Reserve System was
intended as a long step toward a
central banking system. 1t was al
most a radical venture back in 1913.
The big Wall Street bankers fought
it. Senator Glass, then in the an
guard, finds himself today in the
rear guard.
One result of the reform move
ment initiated by Governor Eccles
would be an end of the crazy-quilt
banking system, with its multifar"
ious forms of currency, which this
country has had since its founda-
ton, and which has been one source
of many of its panics.
The United States has been NOV
ing toward a unified banking system
since the panic Of 1907 awakened
the country to its Intellectual decen-
tralized system which always flew
to pieces under a strain.
The National Banking System,
created so years earlier, had proved
wholly inadequate.
The panic provoked a congress
sional tudy, directed by Senator
Nelson T. Aldrich CR., R. -, which
was the germ of the Federal Re-
serve Act of 1913 engineered through
Congress largely by Mr.. Glass, then
a member Of the House. For its
time it was a monumental reform,
though representing a series of
compromises with those who hest
tated still to delegate too much
power to a f~ederally supervised sys-
TEN.
Slow Reaching Point
Looking back across the country's
banking history, it may appear
strange that the United States was
so slow to come to a central bank
ing system, that it was so long-suf-
fering under a loose banking con-
federation which was powerless to
move effectively in a crisis. Eng
lands private central bank was
established in 1694-the famous
Bank of England. France and Ger
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