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Show I NEWLANDS MAKES I AHACK ON PARTY I Nevada Senator Criticizes Wil- son Administration, the I Tariff and Banking ' Reforms. I PARTY FACES DEFEAT I ' I : United Republican Party Pre- senting Formidable Oppo-I Oppo-I sition to Continuance of I i Wilson Regime. Washington, Jan. 11. Senator New- lands of Nevada, Democrat, attacked r ' his party's record in the senate today, I; f delivering a long prepared speech in ! which he criticized the tariff and ', hcuking reforms the chief legislative achievements of the Wilson adminis-J adminis-J ; tration. He declared that because K there had been industrial and com-mercial com-mercial depression co-terminus with I . T)lmnp.rnHo rrmtrnl nf lotrialof Inn flio party would be in danger of defeat at I , the next presidential election unless I W the European war continued and made I : the president "sagacious and firm" in I handling of foreign affairs, the over- I ; Bhadowing issue. Although he characterized the gen-; gen-; eral trend of Democratic legislation as i : commendable, the senator asserted that the party was too radical, and ex- presed the conviction "that no politi- cal parly can hope to remain in power : i which adopts radical Instead of evolu tionary methods or reform." Watchful Waiting Policy. ; ; Danger of a Democratic defeat in f the congressional elections of 1914, he said, was averted only by the Europ- ; can war which brought into sudden ( contrast the president's policy of J- watchful waiting regarding Mexico ; I with the mad haste of the European nations as they rushed into war and fi which made that policy as popular as ' it had theretofore been unpopular." i "The realization that similar prud- ence would keep us out of European complications," he added, "saved the party at the last election from the de- ; feat which would have surely come as the result of the general prostra- . lion of business, popularly attributed I to our economic legislation. "It would not do to charge this to European war, first, because that war, though injurious to our production and trade in its inception, has since be-. be-. come a stimulant to production and export, and second, because the com-i com-i menceinent of this depression -ante- dates the European war and was con-F con-F temporaneous with our legislation re-i re-i garding the tariff, banking and trade. Now Facing United Republicans. "We are about to face a united Re-; Re-; publican party, chastened by advers ity and eager to persuade, and the question is whether the Democratic party, having done much under this administration in the interest of genu-I genu-I ine reform, is again to be thrown out ;. of power and deprived of the oppor tunity of continued usefulness, simply because an intervening period of de-r de-r prc-Esion subjects us again to the i charge of 'Democratic hard times' ; ir with its accompanying loss of votes. I "It is safe to say that the manufac- r turlng, the banking and the large cor- I porate Interests are hostile to the t Democratic party and that their em ployes are also preparing to throw their weight against it simply because its administration has not brought good times, but on the contrary has, in their judgment, brought bad times. Tariff Should Be Practical. "Regarding the tariff my view was that our undertaking was not to Immediately Im-mediately adopt a theoretically correct tariff system, but simply to climb gradually down from the protective heights upon which the Republican party had placed the manufacturing interests of the country; not to jump down at the risk of destruction, but to climb down slowly and laboriously with a view to preserving, as far as practicable, every American industry and injuring none. "When we came to n practical realization real-ization of what we had promised by legislation, we were inclined, I thought, to go too fast and too far. "The effect of the tariff legislation was what I feared it would be. The tieing up of production in this country coun-try was the result not of a malicious effort of the manufacturers to teach the country a lesson, but of the caution cau-tion and timidity which in many cases proved to bo without reason, but which, nevertheless, always exist under un-der like conditions. "So also with banking legislation; instead of providing some simple method me-thod for mobilizing the banking reserves re-serves of state and national banks un der the control of a non-partisan board or commission resembling the interstate inter-state commerce commission which would gradually, through powers of investigation, in-vestigation, publicity, correction and recommendation to congress, work out further reforms, we were Intent upon legislation which alarmed the banks by the largeness of our proposals. Reeerve Board Not Non-Partlsan. "We failed to make the federal re-servo re-servo board non-partisan, tied it to an executive department through the membership of the secretary of the treasury and the comptroller, subjects sub-jects the member banks to the investigating in-vestigating and correctional powers of a single partisan comptroller instead of the composite judgment of a quasi judicial non-partisan board, and exacted ex-acted additional and unnecessary capital capi-tal from member banks, thus organizing organiz-ing the reserve associations into profit pro-fit making organizations. The result Is that the union of banks is incomplete, in-complete, the state half being outside and the national half inside the reserve re-serve organization with the prospect that those outside will remain so unless un-less the law is modified. "I think it would be wise to shape the way for legislation during the next session by making the reserve board non-partisan, merging the comptroller's office with all the powers pow-ers and duties in the reserve board, and doing away with all capital requirements re-quirements beyond the percentage of reserves of member banks now required." re-quired." Senator Newlands said that while there was no need for hysteria upon the subject of national defense, he favored a rational scheme of preparedness. prepared-ness. nn |
