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INTRODUCTION
With the possible exception of the tariff, no one question has so repeatedly confronted the American people as has the problem of establishing a satisfactory system of currency and banking. It has seemed unusually difficult to devise a plan that contains the fundamental requisites of safety, uniformity, and practicability.
The proposal to regulate our finances through the agency of a central banking institution is not new. Alexander Hamilton, doubtless the best financier in American history, was a thorough believer in such a concentration of banking functions. One of his initial acts as the first secretary of the treasury was to recommend to Congress the establishment of what is now known as the First Bank of the United States. Again in 1816, in the midst of chaotic financial conditions following the War of 1812, Congress created a second United States bank, and ever since the charter of that corporation expired in 1836 there have been those who have insisted that our banking and currency will never be put on a satisfactory basis unless it be through the agency of a central institution. Especially during the past two years has the plan found favor in the eyes of many who are considered competent to speak upon financial questions.
It should be constantly borne in mind that in the United States there are two distinct phases to the central bank problem. There is the economic aspect; the bank must be adjusted to the stress and strain of our economic forces, in order that it may not be hopelessly cut of harmony with its surroundings. The other aspect, the political, is of equal importance. Is the form of our government adapted to the establishment of a central bank? Would such a bank be made a political football as was the Second United States bank in the days of Clay, Calhoun, and Jackson? Both the economic and political aspects deserve serious consideration.
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