Read Ebook: The Federal Reserve Monster by Campbell Wallace Editor Clark Sam H Editor

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Ebook has 236 lines and 24938 words, and 5 pages

ed to sleep. For month after month this cone of chloroform was held over American citizens until the anesthetic took effect. Then came forth what was known as the Glass-Owen bill. The smoothness of its head sponsors' name was symbolic. The ground had been prepared for its reception. Propaganda seed had been diligently sown. Years of the most astute scheming and plotting of the brainiest schemers who ever schemed bore its fruit in the Glass-Owen bill. On rails greased by years of propaganda it slid into the legislative hopper, came through in an oil bath and went to President Wilson. Whether he was the deceived or the deceiver none but himself knows. But he painted the Federal Reserve System with his most magnificent verbal rainbow colors, prated of it as "the emancipator of credit," signed it in the midst of a coterie of sycophantic Pecksniffs and the pen whose strokes made it a law was religiously preserved!

Its real authors--who had spent years in weaving its phrases and scores of thousands of dollars in propagandizing for its passage--winked, smiled in their sleeves and prepared for pillage. The Federal Reserve System was born with a caul--concealing its grin of greed--and was brought into being by the most astute coterie of legislative accoucheurs who ever delivered a babe of legislation.

Here and now read just two of the sample promises made by the Money Masters at the birth of their monster. They told you that the Federal Reserve System would "prevent unfair and undue constriction of credits with its consequent paralyzing effect on business and on the productive energies of the nation." They told you that "men will not be thrown out of employment wholesale throughout the country by the fright of financial and commercial panic, but finance and commerce will be steady. Hundreds and thousands of men will not suddenly be thrown out of employment during these national waves of depression nor undue feverish buoyancy." Peg these specious promises in your brainery and compare them later on with the actual performances of this monster of depression with the Federal Reserve Board at Washington really functioning as a Central Bank.

THE FRAMEWORK OF THE MONSTER

HERE'S the idea. Were you one of a coterie of multi-millionaires lusting for the control of American industry and finance--exclusively for pillage--you would, if necessary, join in providing any amount of capital necessary to obtain the result. You could afford to provide it for it would make you one of a coterie enabled to loot the richest prizes on this planet. Any system which could at will open or shut the valves of American credit, stage an orgy of "inflation" or stage a debacle of "deflation," increase or decrease the money supply, make the tide of employment flow to prosperity's height or ebb to despair's depths, create a "bull" or a "bear" market at will--would justify the investment of hundreds of millions or even billions of capital! Its power would be practically boundless, its profits be fabulous and from its coign of vantage it could coin the sweat of scores of millions of toilers into its coffers of greed.

But if you could do this very same thing and obtain precisely the same results and reap exactly the same harvest in power and pelf without investing one thin dime or one plugged nickel you wouldn't put up the money, would you? That is just exactly what these Federal Reserve highbinders did and this is just exactly how they did it. There lay fair to their hands the most successful banking system in the world's annals--the National Banks.

Here was the core and center of their pillage. Here was the capital ready to their hands. They proceeded to levy upon, to appropriate and to commandeer their capital from the National Banks of the United States. They divided the U.S.A. into twelve financial satrapies or dependencies or loot areas with centers of pillage thusly: New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Dallas. Upon every National Bank in the U.S.A. there was levied a capital tribute of six per cent of their capital and surplus account for subscribed capital to the Federal Reserve Bank set over them. Of this amount one-half or three per cent was required to be immediately paid in and the other half was held subject to call if required.

Take a look at this first step on the stairway of pillage. Without the investment of one copper cent, of one plugged nickel or of one thin dime and by one stroke of the pen when this infamous law was passed practically one hundred millions of capital was commandeered into the coffers of Federal Reserve banditry. Without the risk of one penny of their own money the Federal Reserve plunderbund seized in its talons of greed the hugest banking capital in the U.S.A.--practically two hundred millions of dollars with one-half of it immediately payable and the other half subject to call! It was the most daring financial high-bindery ever enacted on earth.

Right here don't hock your brains--do your own thinking. Without any option, without any vote of stockholders, without any action by its officers every National Bank in the U.S.A. was compelled to buy stock in the Federal Reserve Bank in its fiscal dependency or loot area in which it was located. Protest was useless--just as useless as if they stood under the guns of a Jesse James' or Younger Brothers' gang. It was just "stand and deliver" and they delivered!

At this time, in 1914, the banking business in the U.S.A., and particularly National Banks, was functioning soundly and safely. It was serving--not dominating--industry. It was making reasonable--not Shylock--profits.

What price did Federal Reserve lootage pay for this commandeered capital? It limited the dividends to be paid to these sandbagged stockholders to six per cent per annum. No matter how fabulous might be--and really have been--the profits of Federal Reserve pillage the people who provided its life blood of capital must be content with a paltry six per cent dividend! Over a long term of years the net profits of the National Banks of the U.S.A. have averaged slightly over 12 per cent per annum. But Federal Reserve lootage says: "We will pay you but one half what your capital has been earning." Some gall? It was the absolute acme of refrigerated nerve! No matter what Federal Reserve Shylockery might make on this commandeered capital the people who provided it--whose money it really was--could get but a paltry six per cent.

But one fact or series of facts is worth more than pages of language. So right here and now look at the actual results for the year 1920. Here is a list of Federal Reserve profits and pillage for that year:

Per cent Net Sandbaggery Location Capital on Capital Per Cent New York ,618,000 217 211 Chicago 13,213,000 195 189 Atlanta 3,759,000 162 156 San Francisco 6,412,000 159 153 Boston 7,454,000 137 131 Minneapolis 3,265,000 131 125 Kansas City 4,295,000 129 123 St. Louis 4,229,000 124 118 Cleveland 10,070,000 119 113 Philadelphia 8,278,000 116 110 Richmond 4,884,000 110 104 Dallas 3,757,000 89 83

Take all of your reading, take all of the history of banking or of finance since banks were first founded and see if you can approximate any such leviathan Shylockery. The stockholders in National Banks who provided the capital for this orgy of profiteering were gyped out of all the way from 211 per cent in the New York satrapy to 83 per cent in the Dallas satrapy. For the year 1920 all over the U.S.A. on the average Federal Reserve lootage took away from the real providers of its capital--the stockholders in National Banks--better than 154 per cent on the money they provided!

These records are taken from the accounts of its own pillage rendered by the Federal Reserve System itself.

You could be quite some banker yourself, you could orate and strut and preen and propagandize, you could swell out your pouter pigeon breast at stage-managed banquets and be a prince of high finance with a limitless expense account and with an altitudinous salary--if you could commandeer your neighbor's money at 6 per cent and then sandbag out from 211 to 83 per cent profit on it, couldn't you?

Legal? Of course it's quasi-legal and that's the infamy of it. A coterie of the most astute lobbyists who ever enchained a people's industry log-rolled through a piece of legislation whereby they commandeered for their capital the people's money at a petty 6 per cent and in the year 1920 alone pouched on it a profit varying from 211 to 83 per cent! That's the record and those are the facts--hidden and concealed from you and draped in a mantle of silence. Federal Reserve lootage, Federal Reserve propaganda, Federal Reserve publicity--all paid for from your money--is too astute to "toot" anent this legalized sandbaggery. Do you, the stockholders in the eight thousand and odd National Banks in the U.S.A., know of any reason why you should provide at 6 per cent the capital for Federal Reserve lootage on which it made in one year alone from 217 to 89 per cent? That is, do you know of any reason except your legal helplessness and the bottomless greed of Federal Reserve sandbaggery? If the law--cleverly lobbied through your Congress--didn't compel you to do it, would you do it? Would you of your own free will provide capital at 6 per cent and be gypped out of 154 per cent? You know you wouldn't! Here is the core and center and solar plexus of the whole Federal Reserve System--commandeer capital at a petty six per cent and realize out of it profits that make Shylock look like a philanthropist. Peg this in your brainery and look further.

FOOTNOTES:

THE STUFFING OF THE LEVIATHAN

But did they stop there--after commandeering over 0,000,000 of capital and after conscripting over ,800,000,000 of deposits? Little you know those birds if you think it. After they had got their beaks into that capital and their claws firmly fixed on those deposits they spread their wings and took a financial flight hitherto absolutely untried--even by the boldest buzzardry of finance. Here it is, scan it, take a look at it. For generations of banking the reserve deposits of banks have always drawn a minimum rate of at least 2 per cent per annum. Why? Because of their size and because of their stability. Experience of generations had demonstrated the fairness and the wisdom of that usage. Reserve deposits rarely fluctuate--except upwards.

Here they are: the Federal Reserve Board at Washington, really a Central Bank, dominating and domineering over the whole Federal Reserve System; the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, each one dominating and domineering over its own zone or regional satrapy; the commandeered and conscripted National Banks in each satrapy and finally their stockholders and depositors--working and toiling--at the base of the pyramid!

You have seen the birth of the Federal Reserve monster, you have seen the skeleton or framework of the monster and you have seen the stuffing of the monster. The Invisible Empire were the accomplished accoucheurs at its Congressional birth; they conscripted the capital, the framework of the monster; they commandeered the stuffing, the leviathan deposits, for the monster; it is in their keeping and now what do they do with it, whom do they "do" and how do they do it? Keep right on reading and you will find out.

CHECK COLLECTION BANDITRY

YOU have seen the birth of the monster; you have seen how it conscripted its capital at a petty six per cent interest rate; you have seen how it commandeered--at no interest rate--the mightiest mass of deposits ever gathered together on earth and you have seen how it did these things by its absolute control over the money and over the destinies of the National Banks in the United States. It could and it did and it does practically control their affairs.

But it could not--except by intimidation, by oppression or by practical banditry--control the State Banks of the United States. It could not legislate them into its sheep pen for shearing, but it could attempt to intimidate, bulldoze and banditize them. This it attempted to do in this wise:

One of the chief specialties of this Federal Reserve System of applied banditry is to attempt to force every bank in the United States--whether a member of its Shylockery or not--to collect checks for its benefit and advantage for nothing. In other words, where it couldn't conscript nor commandeer--purely for its own sordid profit--it proceeded to bulldoze.

There are just two ways to collect money on checks, one by presenting them at the counter of the bank on which they are drawn and getting the cash and the other by sending them through the mail for remittance by draft drawn on some large city depository. The latter method obtains in 99 per cent of the hundreds of millions of checks drawn. The bank upon which the check is drawn makes a small charge of one tenth of one per cent to compensate for clerk hire, postage, stationery and the like. It is a perfectly legitimate charge in vogue and practiced for generations in banking circles. But the Federal Reserve System, with its customary greed, insists upon sandbagging this service for nothing. This arrogant rule--purely for its own sordid profit--it could and did and does enforce against its conscripted and commandeered National Banks. But State Banks--not wearing the Federal Reserve yoke of bondage--were at liberty to make the usual collection charge of one tenth of one per cent. Thereupon the Federal Reserve System had a series of fits and fell into them. From an enormous number of its banditries three typical ones are selected for your observation--merely straws showing whence blow the most arrogant winds of oppression.

First take a look at the Cones State Bank of Pierce, Nebraska. "I don't want a smug lot of experts to sit down behind closed doors in Washington and play Providence to me." That is what President Wilson said--on page 60 of his book, "The New Freedom"--before he, himself, was sitting tight "behind closed doors in Washington."

That is just exactly how Wood Cones, president of the Cones State Bank of Pierce, Nebraska, feels about a smug coterie of banking oligarchs known as the Federal Reserve Board at Washington and the Federal Reserve Bank at Omaha, Nebraska. First, read the subjoined affidavit about "hard boiled and armed" Federal Reserve Bank agents and then our comments on the whole proposition.

"In the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia.

AMERICAN BANK & TRUST CO., et al. vs. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK, et al.

THE STATE OF NEBRASKA } SS. PIERCE COUNTY }

"Personally appeared before the undersigned attesting officer, Wood Cones, who makes this affidavit to be used as evidence in the above stated case and who being first duly sworn deposes and says:

"That I am, and for many years have been, the president of the Cones State Bank of Pierce, Nebraska, and as such officer of said bank, I was interviewed some time last September by a Mr. Jones, claiming to represent the Omaha branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Missouri. I was urged by him to join the system. I refused and was then asked to sign a card agreeing that my bank would remit all items at par sent us by mail by the Federal Reserve Bank. I refused to sign and was told that I would be compelled to at an early date, as there was no limit to the power of the Federal Reserve Bank.

"Early in October of the same year, the local express agent presented quite a number of checks on our bank from the Federal Reserve Bank and we gave him a draft for the full amount payable to the Federal Reserve Bank. A short time after, another bunch of checks of the same kind came in the same way but the express agent was instructed to collect in cash. I offered him silver dollars for the checks and he said he did not have time to count it and accepted an Omaha draft for the face of the checks.

"Following this, W.S. Lower, claiming to represent the Omaha branch, came with some checks and demanded legal tender in payment. We offered him a draft payable to the Federal Reserve Bank but refused to pay him the currency without better identification than was produced by him. After considerable loud talk and threat to protest the checks he accepted a draft. Shortly after this Mr. Lower came again, properly identified, and demanded cash on checks he had and we refused payment on account of improper and insufficient endorsement. He stormed around for a day and finally accepted a draft payable to the Federal Reserve Bank.

"November 14, 1919, a high powered auto containing four people, drove into Pierce and stopped in front of the Bank, but the engine kept running. Two men, W. S. Lower and M.L. Bishop, got out of the car, armed with revolvers and entered our bank. As agents of the Federal Reserve Bank, they demanded the currency on checks drawn against the Cones State Bank of Pierce, Nebraska, of the aggregate face value of ,900, some of which had been held for over three weeks. While one of our Bank force was counting out the money to Mr. Bishop, Mr. Lower told us that Bishop was a United States marshal, hard boiled and armed, and that he had cleaned up the State of Kansas and would get us anyway, so we had better sign up the agreement and keep our money.

"Bishop said that a banker in Kansas who had the only bank in the town, held out against parring, and that he told him they would start a National Bank and drive him out of business, and that he personally was instrumental in starting the National Bank and said he would stick to it until he drove the Kansas bank out entirely.

"Subsequently checks were sent through the Express Company and returned by the express agent for the reason as I said that he didn't have time to count the money.

"Along about the 27th day of December, 1919, a Mr. Farley came to Pierce from Kansas City and asked us to sign the paper relative to parring checks or join the Federal Reserve System. We refused. He then stated that he was instructed to stay in Pierce until he had accomplished something. From that date until the day of making this affidavit Mr. Farley has been here continuously and collects cash every day on checks sent him by the Federal Reserve Bank.

"On January 5, 1920, a Mr. J.G. Bryan came in from Kansas City and he and Mr. Farley have been instrumental in trying to start a National Bank at Pierce, devoting practically their entire time collecting cash on checks sent by the Federal Reserve Bank upon banks in Pierce and promoting a National Bank that they will compel the banks of Pierce to join the system. Our customers report to us that these men have told them that we are robbing them out of ten cents on every hundred dollars of their money.

"On or before the 14th day of January, 1920, Mr. Jones joined Mr. Farley and Mr. Bryan and has acted as Notary Public, protesting checks presented by the aforesaid agents of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, notwithstanding such checks were endorsed on the face 'not payable through the Federal Reserve Bank, their branches or agents, nor Express Company nor Postoffice' and are continuing to protest such checks when we refuse payment of them in their hands and in one case have presented a check a second time and protested it each time.

"Every agent of the Federal Reserve Bank that has been here has advised us in substance that they were spending the Government's money like drunken sailors and will not stop at any expense to force us to join the system.

"One of my competitors told me that Mr. Davis told him in substance that the Federal Reserve Board had a steam roller on the way from Washington to crush me personally and ruin my bank if I persisted in refusal to comply with their demands. I subsequently called Mr. Davis' attention to this report and he personally acknowledged to me that he had made such a statement in substance.

"Wood Cones.

"Sworn to and subscribed before me this 10th day of February, 1920.

"Douglas Cones.

"Notary Public in and for Pierce County, Nebraska.

"My commission expires September 25, 1925."

The Cones State Bank couldn't be bulldozed, banditized by gun play nor coerced into the Federal Reserve slaughter pen. When the Federal Reserve System grabbed Wood Cones it grabbed a hot wire which it finally dropped, nursing its badly burnt paws!

Now take a look at the Brookings State Bank of Brookings, Oregon. It wouldn't wear the Federal Reserve yoke of bondage and made the customary collection charge of one tenth of one per cent for remitting check collections. It couldn't be bluffed, bulldozed, sandbagged nor coerced and the Federal Reserve System had its usual fit.

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