Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart national press building washington D C washington it begins to appear that the roosevelt administration has returned from its ex es home affairs cursione into foreign to the fore ports porta and la Is now ready to engage in of domestic affairs to the exclusion of international problems except the matter of reciprocal treat treaties Jes it Is true that secretary hull of the department of state secretary roper of the department of 0 commerce and senator borah in the senate have talked about foreign affairs in one way or another but none of them occasioned any observation or suggestions from the white house by their asset assertions among the occurrences in the recent period that tend to show how the administration again Is putting home affairs to the forefront are the new banking bill the plans for recovery revival under the five billion dollar public works bill and the determination of house and senate lately under a white house spur to clip the wings of if not wholly eradicate the so called holding companies attention might be called also to the uprising in the department part ment of agriculture where secretary wallace and agricultural adjustment administrator chester davis combined a few lays days ago to eliminate left wing members of their respective staffs they did it summarily but the end Is not yet either as respects plans of 0 wallace and davis or the yelps that may be expected from the radicals who were ousted the general information Is that in shelving foreign matters mr roosevelt has determined to lay aside the st lawrence waterway controversy until I 1 pressing domestic matters are disposed of almost in the same breath it can be said that new activity has been disclosed on the part of the new dealers to spread their doctrine into the states and establish if possible uniform laws everywhere concerning privately waned utilities such as electricity and gas while no one will say so go it Is the understanding that considerable pressure Is being placed behind the effort to get state legislatures to pass uniform public utilities bills measures which have been drafted in the public works administration here probably as important as any legislation s that has gone to congress in recent cc t months Is the new banking new banking bill it bill was transmitted to congress in a most unspectacular manner there was no out and out endorsement by the white house nor was the sponsoring of the draft made clear the legislation was dropped into the house hopper the day after representative chairman of the house committee on banking and currency had given out his own su chairman fletcher of the senate committee on banking and currency received the bill the sams same day as mr and immediately went into a huddle with himself behind closed doors to study the draft later he announced with apparent pleasure that it was a great piece of legislation now that the bill has been printed and is available for public inspection a perfect furore has been aroused the conservative critics began to squawk immediately that the measure proposes to destroy the federal reserve system and concentrate on power of credit and currency expansion or contraction in the hands bands of a small group in the treasury they contend that this amounts to establishment of a central bank and that under our political system a central bank would mean an unstable currency what more could there be then they ask to destroy confidence in the currency which we use new dealers in defense of this new banking legislation have bare been given to making wise cracks about the old dealers who they assert desire to see conditions of 1923 1928 and 1920 9 repeated they cite with some justification it seems to me that central banks exist in most of the major countries of the world orld and that their service has not been a bad thing at all further the new dealers argue that the political capital of the United states Is it in washington and the financial capital has been in new york why they ask should there be such a division in between those these two schools of thought are sound money advocates and courageous conservatives who take the position that the bill has many good qualities and that it likewise has many provisions definitely to be avoided bouha ve heard very little expression of opinion from this type because it Is apparent they are giving the measure close study they will be heard from later when the legislation Is taken up by the respective committees 0 of f the house bouse and senate and it Is made to appear that some changes surely aurely will result to summarize the banking le legislation isla and I 1 think it Is of paramount interest to eiery one centralized because it touches tou clies the control currency and credit so directly the real e end d likely to result from the legislation Is a c control in washington of the very nerve center of business money the bill proposes to establish what Is called an open market too tee in a washington and to include as members of this committee three members of 0 the federal reserve board the two remaining members would come from federal reserve banks from this it Is seen that the reserve board becomes the dominant body it takes no stretch of the imagination to recognize the possibilities members of the reserve board while they are appointed for a term of 0 ten years sometimes resign or die oft off it immediately becomes possible therefore to make the federal reserve board a purely political body dominated by tile president of the united states the function of the open market committee as proposed in the bill Is to order the purchase or sale of government securities in the open market if these securities are bought the reserve banks eosue currency tor for them and they increase the amount of money in circulation thereby leasing easing credit if the banks sell bonds which they have in their portfolios the currency paid bald for those bonds obviously Is taken out of circulation and that action results in a contraction or reduction of the tha amount of credit available if for example the occupant of the tha white house at any time thine happens to be an out and out it la Is easy to see how government bonds can be absorbed by the reserve banks and new currency put in circulation in whatever volume the administration policies require another phase of the bill would allow national banks and state banks that are members of the federal reserve system to make loans on real estate tor for a twenty year term five years Is the present limitation one has only to go back for an examination of causes of hundreds of bank failures in recent years to discover that the five year limitation probably ably increased the mortality among otherwise sound banks to a greater extent than any other factor in other words to grant a n bank the privilege of making a loan for twenty years means that such a bank ties up an equal amount of depositors money in a place from which it cannot be suddenly recalled if the depositors po take a sudden notion to withdraw substantial sums from that bank there is another section of the measure which I 1 think Is worthy of close federal reserve worthy of examination it Exam mation poses to combine the jobs of governor and agent and that the bank policies should be executed by the governor who la Is selected by the bank board of directors this provided something of a dual control a check and balance on the exercise of power now however the effort Is to be made to combine the jobs and make the head of the bank a strictly government representative that course naturally is in line with the roosevelt program of extending and expanding federal authority the president has constantly increased the scope of power and influence exercised from washington the current offering Is accepted everywhere as bringing under federal domination completely the banking system of this nation it does so because none can deny that the federal reserve banks hold a club over the heads of private bankers wherever they may be so I 1 believe it Is a fair statement to say that mr roosevelt or those who are responsible to him is reaching out to amplify the control of credit from washington which was initiated through the reconstruction finance corporation the home owners loan corporation and other leading agencies cies the federal reserve system was set up according to the debate on the measure la in congress at that time to decentralize credit control and break the grip which new york exercised over the volume of credit now apparently it Is all coming back to washington probably to he be exercised by politicians itic iti ians claris instead of men with banking training in connection with the administrations attention to domestic affairs and the consequent legislative changes attention might well be centered on the meaning of some som e of the moves one ona washington observer wrote in his newspaper the other day that the administration was renewing its notes at the tha bank what he referred to was the extension of life of the reconstruction finance corporation and the pumping of more blood into the veins of uis thi nome come owners loan corporation something similar has occurred with respect to the reconstruction finance corporation which has been given new life and about in new money by an act of congress then president roosevelt has asked for renewal of the life of the national recovery administration and tor for re eu elt of the national industrial recovery act both of which expire next june 16 As a result of these maneuvers a good many observers are of the opinion that the recovery efforts have not been as successful as their optimistic sponsors spon sora had predicted a year ago renewal of these stopgap stop gap agencies extension of power liere here aud there and the he initiation of new dew experiments are given alven as reasons for the belief that uncertainty exists and satisfactory progress toward recovery Is still more than real Q newspaper News ve |