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Show I GHL DEBATE II I LOWER HOUSE EiS II I Currency Bill Will Be Taken g Up in Detail for Amend-II Amend-II j ment Monday. II CAUCUS IS CONDEMNED I Democrats Join With the Minority Mi-nority in Denouncing Framing of Measure. WASHINGTON, Sept. 13. The house tonight -wound up four days of general dcbato on the nd ministration currency hill. Republicans ana Progressives criticised the measure on various points and Democrats lauded it as tho means of evolving a. safe Unanciul system. Altogether some .three score members talked on the bill. The Republicans condemned the secret coinnuttoo meetings meet-ings and the secrot Democratic caucus -which handled tho measure. Progress ives nUo found this au inspiring theme. Tho scheme of making the banks of the country subscribe capital and deposits for the conduct of tho proposed federal fed-eral rcsorvo banks was condemned and it waa charged that the board would become a political asset. .Several Democrats .-joined with the minority iu their attacks on the methods meth-ods under which the bill was framed but all announced that they would vote for tho bill. Tho measure will be takon up m detail de-tail for amendment Monday and it is expected tho detailed discussion will bo extensive. But under the caucus action . of the Democrats tho possibility' of I any oh an go being written into tho ineas- j uro in the house is romote. Chairman Glass of tho banking and currency committeo, who opened the debate, made the closing speech tonight. Uses Wooden Tombstone. A. wooden tombstone, seven feet tall and four feet square, was raised on, tho Hoor of the house today to illus- trato an argument by Representative 1 Smith or' Minnesota, that the adminis tration currency bill would put the iu-J iu-J dustr3, labor, agriculture and commerce j of the United States under control of four men appointed by the party in power. On the base of tho monument j were painted seven circles, represent- ing the seven members of the federal reserve board proposd by the bill. Of ShWS these, four, according to Mr. Smith, Hja the secretary of agriculture," secretary nSla of the treasury and the comptroller of Sjro If tho currency, with a fourth member so- lected by them would control the board, lill'llf They would change, ho said, with each MlB administration and make the board a lUffild partisan political institution. JJjjW On the shaft of the monument were n painted sixty-nine different functions 1111 described by Mr. Smith as the powers Ifl of the federal reserve board. jn While indorsing the principles of the f(ml "bill ho objected to the placing of such ; large powers in tho hands of the board. HI Prize of Election. jj.jwj "VThafc T contend for is the substi-tution substi-tution of non-partisan, non-political con-3js con-3js trol for control by banks," said ho. pjj. ji "Tho great political power which Pres-1 Pres-1 1 IS ident Jackson saw in the first and sec-m sec-m II ond national banks of his day, were Lftj! mere pygmies when compared to the Hj II gigantic power imposed on federal res' re-s' If serve board and whiclr, by the proposed 1 1 J bill, is made the prize of each, national ail election. fl'mj "If a method or means can be II; u I evolved by which the government can ! maintain control and regulation of the g:JI "banking and currency system and at .feiiD I! the same time prevent it from becom- ing a tool and instrument of political. tlU pressure and party expediency, it would '81, be a decided improvement over the &Sr measure now before the house." a . IS A general attack on tho method of ylp putting the bill through the house was SSilJ made bv Representative Calloway of gfll j Texas, Democrat, who protested vigor- ES l nusly against "following Wilsou and Ml 8 Bryau blindl.y." |
