Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

“ Their specialized experience gives them an advantage judges cannot possibly have, not only in dealing with the problems raised for their discretion by the system's working, but also in ascertaining the meaning Congress had in mind in prescribing the standards by which they should administer it. ”

“ On the facts in this record we would find it hard to say that underwriting was not one primary activity of the firm and brokerage another. If 'primarily' is not used in the sense we suggest then the firm is not 'primarily engaged' in any line of business though it specializes in at least two and does a substantial amount of each. One might as well say that a professional man is not 'primarily engaged' in his profession though he holds himself out to serve all comers and devotes substantial time to the practice but makes the greater share of his income on the stock market. ”

“ You know that when you hand over the financial government of a Nation to a parasitical coterie of men you hand over to them the real Government of a nation and, knowing that, do you want this autocratic Federal Reserve System continued as it is? In other words, do you want this parasitical Federal Reserve System—remote from the producers of real wealth—purely a child of astutely lobbied law in the interests of a few paltry "kings of finance" to really govern the United States by governing its money? ”

“ In order to vote its stock in controlled banks a bank holding company must show that it does not own, control, or have any interest in, and is not participating in the management or direction of any organization 'engaged principally' in the underwriting business. On the other hand, when Congress came to deal with the practice of underwriters taking checking deposits, it used language different from what it used either in §§ 19 and 20 on the one hand or in § 32 on the other. ”

“ Firms which do underwriting also engage in numerous other activities. The Board indeed observed that if one was not 'primarily engaged' in underwriting unless by some quantitative test it was his principal activity, they § 32 would apply to no one. Moreover, the evil at which the section was aimed is not one likely to emerge only when the firm with which a bank director is connected has an underwriting business which exceeds 50 per cent of its total business. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They fought with particular desperation and infinite resourcefulness the reform of the banking and currency system, knowing that to be the citadel of their control; and most anxiously are they hoping and planning for the amendment of the Federal Reserve Act by the concentration of control in a single bank which the old familiar group of bankers can keep under their eye and direction. ”

“ I know that many people are worrying about State banks not members of the Federal Reserve System. These banks can and will receive assistance from member banks and from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. ”

“ It would be rash in present circumstances to surrender our freedom of action to the Federal Reserve Board of the United States. We do not yet possess sufficient experience of its capacity to act in times of stress with courage and independence. ”

“ A new committee on Banking and Currency was created with Senator Owens as chairman and composed of men holding progressive views on currency legislation. This committee, instantly recognized as significant in view of the president’s campaign advocacy of currency reform, was to stand sponsor for the Federal Reserve system, conceded to be the greatest piece of constructive legislation in half a century. ”

“ Past differences in policy between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board have helped to encourage inflation. Henceforth, I expect that their single purpose shall be to serve the whole Nation by policies designed to stabilize the economy and encourage the free play of our people's genius for individual initiative. ”

“ All other banks in large American cities not only compete with each other for the deposits of country banks, but pay interest on them at a minimum of 2 per cent per annum. Federal Reserve bankers pay no interest—not even to the Government. If a National Bank wants Government deposits it must put up the unquestioned security to get them and then must pay interest on them, but Federal Reserve bankers do neither! ”

“ The Federal Reserve Act had already proved its value so well that it was being taken as a matter of course, and people were forgetting that they had ever had to depend on a currency which ran for cover in every crisis and on a banking system where each bank was a source of weakness to its neighbors instead of strength. ”

“ HE Federal Reserve System is the visible hand of the Invisible Empire picking the pockets of the producers of real wealth. It is the most leviathan parasite engrafted upon—and grafting on—production in the world's history. It is an industrial vampire sucking industry's life blood down its bottomless maw. Its greed is fathomless, its rule is ruthless and its lust for power is insatiate. ”

“ Whereas, the Secretary of the Treasury, pursuant to authority granted by other provisions of the said Executive Order of March 10, 1933, has acted upon all requests for licensing of banks members of the Federal Reserve System ”

“ They wager their own money that they are good bankers. They have initiative and confidence in their own ability and they prove that they have by putting up their own money before they ask you to entrust yours to their keeping. The officers of the Federal Reserve Banks don't put up a copper cent, a plugged nickel, or a thin dime of capital. The capital which they manipulate is commandeered by law for their use at a petty six per cent rate. ”

“ Sound monetary policy is key to long-running economic strength and stability. We will continue to cooperate with the Federal Reserve Board, seeking a steady policy that ensures price stability without keeping interest rates artificially high or needlessly holding down growth. ”