Carter Glass to Benjamin Strong Jr.
Title
Carter Glass to Benjamin Strong Jr.
Creator
Glass, Carter, 1858-1946
Identifier
WWP18810
Date
1925 March 6
Description
Carter Glass writes Benjamin Strong Jr. regarding proposed Federal Reserve legislation.
Source
Benjamin Strong Jr. Papers, New York Federal Reserve Bank
Language
English
Text
My dear Governor Strong:
Acknowledging yours of March 5th, it gave me pleasure to show your son and his friend, Mr. Hamilton, the utmost courtesy. I wish I might have been of greater service.
The McFadden bank bill was utterly bad as it came from the House. It constituted the most shameless attempt by federal statute to control the banking establishments of the States that was ever initiated in Congress. The pretended purpose was to put national banks on a parity of competition with State banks with respect to branch banking. Its concealed purpose was to destroy branch banking of every description. The whole scheme was initiated by Mr. Henry Dawes, of Chicago, who appears to have gone into the Comptroller’s office for no other purpose than to destroy branch banking. Assuming that he had done this when he constructed the McFadden bill, he abandoned the Comptroller’s office.
When the McFadden bill came to the Banking and Currency Committee of the Senate I took occasion to point out in some detail the objectionable features of the measure and, in this process, introduced in the record your letter to the Federal Reserve Board, along with letters from John Perrin and other Federal Reserve Governors and agents. These are all printed in the record of hearings; and, together with the analysis of the bill made by the counsel of the Federal Reserve Board, they constituted such a conclusive case as to induce the Senate committee radically to alter the bill, omitting Section 9 altogether and revising other provisions.
I would be glad to have your views more in detail before the re-assembling of Congress next December, because I have no doubt another effort will be made in behalf of the so-called McFadden bill. I am thoroughly in favor of giving national banks every possible privilege, based on sound banking, that is enjoyed by State institutions. I am also in favor of restricted branch banking severely safeguarded; but I am not willing to vest the Federal Reserve Board with legislative authority nor am I willing to do anything that will exclude desirable State banks from the Federal Reserve system and cause those that are now members to abandon the system. This the McFadden bill would have accomplished.
With cordial regards,
Acknowledging yours of March 5th, it gave me pleasure to show your son and his friend, Mr. Hamilton, the utmost courtesy. I wish I might have been of greater service.
The McFadden bank bill was utterly bad as it came from the House. It constituted the most shameless attempt by federal statute to control the banking establishments of the States that was ever initiated in Congress. The pretended purpose was to put national banks on a parity of competition with State banks with respect to branch banking. Its concealed purpose was to destroy branch banking of every description. The whole scheme was initiated by Mr. Henry Dawes, of Chicago, who appears to have gone into the Comptroller’s office for no other purpose than to destroy branch banking. Assuming that he had done this when he constructed the McFadden bill, he abandoned the Comptroller’s office.
When the McFadden bill came to the Banking and Currency Committee of the Senate I took occasion to point out in some detail the objectionable features of the measure and, in this process, introduced in the record your letter to the Federal Reserve Board, along with letters from John Perrin and other Federal Reserve Governors and agents. These are all printed in the record of hearings; and, together with the analysis of the bill made by the counsel of the Federal Reserve Board, they constituted such a conclusive case as to induce the Senate committee radically to alter the bill, omitting Section 9 altogether and revising other provisions.
I would be glad to have your views more in detail before the re-assembling of Congress next December, because I have no doubt another effort will be made in behalf of the so-called McFadden bill. I am thoroughly in favor of giving national banks every possible privilege, based on sound banking, that is enjoyed by State institutions. I am also in favor of restricted branch banking severely safeguarded; but I am not willing to vest the Federal Reserve Board with legislative authority nor am I willing to do anything that will exclude desirable State banks from the Federal Reserve system and cause those that are now members to abandon the system. This the McFadden bill would have accomplished.
With cordial regards,
Original Format
Letter
To
Strong, Benjamin, 1872-1928
Files
Collection
Citation
Glass, Carter, 1858-1946 , “Carter Glass to Benjamin Strong Jr.,” 1925 March 6, WWP18810, Benjamin Strong Jr. Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.