[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
14
Editorial Comment
any statement made by Fowler that there was any sort of an agreement by which the house tariff conferees were named. It is below my notice.”
This ended the Cannon interview, the speaker closing with the statement that he would not further dignify the Fowler letter by discussing it, publicly or privately.
Mr. Cannon is surrounded by his closest advisers at Mackinac and Mr. Fowler is an indefatigable fighter, as able as any in congress. We hope it will keep up until the very truth is known about the extent of the Aldrich influence in bringing conditions where they are. The ablest papers of the country doubt the quality of his leadership and predict any new Aldrich monetary bill, personally conducted, will fail as the Ald-rich-Vreeland bill failed. But the more Mr. Fowler can let in the light the better for all honest men.
Luxury and Utility
Automobile manufacture at present is tending in two directions—toward increased luxury and toward commercialism. The six cylinder must be a self starter to be ideal. The delivery truck must be light, fast and reliable. As yet few automobile concerns have put their 1910 product on the market, but next year’s tendency in the development of the motor car can be readily foreseen. Few American cars sell above $5,000, but the range of prices downward from that figure ends only with the $500 runabout. Every year better value has been offered for the money; the cheapening of prices has been effected this way as much as in the actual reduction of retail rates. This is particularly true of the higher grade cars which are built for the patronage of the wealthy to whom price is not a factor in the purchase.
In the medium-priced cars, those selling from $2,000 to $3,000, improvement seems to lie in the increasing of power by enlarging the cylinder bore, in enlarging and bettering the bodies and in adding miscellaneous equipment. A reduction of actual prices, however, has taken place at the same time as an improvement of the mechanical features of the low-priced cars. A type which has come to be the most popular in America is the light four-cylinder roadster, or demi-tonneau, a car of from 20 to 30 horse-power and built on a smaller scale, but along the same lines as the $4,000 and $5,000 models. These cars are generally capable of a speed up to 50 miles an hour. Their average selling price is somewhat less than a thousand dollars; one car of this type, produced by a good company, is selling at $750.
It is prophesied by some manufacturers that the price of the light cars will become smaller still, and that in time they will be as commonly used as bicycles were. However, it is not reasonable to think that even under the best factory methods and advantageous conditions of the raw material market, good cars can be produced much under the present minimum rates. A further lessening of prices will necessarily in-
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the Italian methods. The government foots the bills and there is no increase in the number of examiners employed for economical reasons. Is everything to be secondary to the adoption of the central bank ?
The Fowler-Cannon Episode
Reports from Mackinac, where Speaker Cannon and some of his house cronies are passing the hay fever end of the season indicate that Congressman C. N. Fowler laid his mine in pretty nearly the right place to bring off a good explosion. When “Uncle Joe” lays down his big black cigar and gives an “unprintable” interview on any subject the cause of it came near to being a center shot. Mr. Fowler’s letter (in part) is printed elsewhere and can stand upon its merits or fail accordingly. He presents many facts from the record which are pleasing or displeasing as the reader’s prejudices may run.
“Why in ------ should I answer Fowler?” said
the speaker and straightway answered him but even the Tribune was short of the number of dashes necessary to use the reply. Finally, by the aid of McKinley, Hemmenway and Hurt, who are with him Mr. Cannon dictated a retort to the New Jersey congressman as follows:
“I have glanced at Representative Fowler’s letter. To those who have the patience to read his letter, if any such there be, it will appear that when, in the exercise of the duties thrown upon me as speaker of the house of representatives, T failed to make him chairman of the committee on banking and currency, to his mind I became thoroughly selfish and generally a bad citizen and representative.
“Mr. Fowler and myself both are members of the national house of representatives, and I am perfectly willing that my action in not appointing him chairman of the committee on banking and currency shall be indorsed or condemned by our colleagues of the house of representatives.
“This is all I desire to say touching his letter.”
“Will you speak specifically of any of the items in the Fowler arraignments?” Uncle Joe was asked.
“Why in the h—• should I answer h'im?” said Speaker Cannon. “He is a d—d joke. All of congress knows he is a joke.”
“Well, what about his specific charges as regards the alleged packing of the conference committee on the tariff bill ?” the speaker was asked.
“It is beneath my contempt or dignity to notice
Is Bank Control Neglected ?
It does not appear that Comptroller Murray has yet come to the attention of Mr. Aldrich and his commission. So far as is known that gentleman believes the recommendations of the smallest of Italian officials to be of more importance than the sugestions of our own national banking bureau. A theoretically deaf ear has been turned upon the home product in more ways than one. Fowler, the fearless, has been dethroned and probably silenced. There is every reason to think that the big, central bank idea, European as it is, is held to be of more importance by the commission than the improvement of our own bank control and supervision.
Notwithstanding this difference in high places the need for legislation designed to correct the administrative conditions of banking control is considered very genuine and has again been emphasized during the past year. The status of affairs which has been developed through inquiries into the condition of the banks and the analyses that have been made of their reports of condition indicate that there is far more violation of the national banking law than has been supposed and that some means of getting at the facts about banks that are in a dangerous condition, or, better still, of preventing them from drifting into such a condition, are absolutely essential. The efforts of Comptroller Murray during the past year have probably effected something in that direction, but, of course, whatever has been done has been accomplished entirely without the aid of legislation and solely upon the general power of the comptroller. With the return of prosperity and active business the old evils are beginning to reassert themselves, particularly among the smaller banks. Excessive loans to individuals and the use of means of evading the regulation of the law on this point through a different way of counting bills of exchange drawn against actually existing values have vitiated a good deal of the improvement that had been made during the period of slacker business. This information is undoubtedly trustworthy and the inference that is being drawn from it by those who are best qualified to judge is that congress must positively, in the near future, pass some legislation for the better control of the present widely expanded banking system. There has been some effort on the part of the authorities to restrain the granting of bank charters, especially when these were being sought by promoters and those who wanted them for speculative purposes largely, but the growth of the banks in the system is continuous, and the addition of the small banks of $25,000 capital is still rapid. This makes a situation that is increasingly difficult to cope with in an effective manner.
So far as is known the commission is not yet ready to take up such commonplace matters. Part of that body has gone to Canada to again re-study the Dominion system, while Mr. Aid-rich and a few friends are in Italy to look into