Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-08-04
Crisis of 1907 "M0St Disastrous and Acute
In History of Country" Said Nelson
". AIdrlCh In Senate
COST THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Federal Reserve Bank Act, Enacted Within
Year After Wilson Took Office Gudrdn-
tees Business Against Repetition

place. 1t is impossible to estimate
the losses which were inflicted by this
suspension OF payments by the banks
and the resultant interruption of ex-
changes. There was financial elm.
tarrassment on every hand, and au
impossibility of securing the proper
funds to move crops or carry on the
important business of the country.
The suspension and discouragement
of business operations threw thous-
ands of men out of employment and
reduced the wages of the employed"
Mark you, this occurred after ten
continuous years of Republican rule.
with a Republican president in the
white house.
Senator Aldrich has painted the pict-
ure completely and accurately. A
mass of corroborative testimony is
available, however.
Leslie M. Shaw, former governor Of
Iowa, who then had recently retired
as secretary of the treasury, in a pb-
lie speech declared that the panic Of
1907 was generally conceded to have
been the worst that the world has
ever witnessed"
The severity and causes of the panic
were told in an editorial published in
the Philadelphia North American
Ond.), December 9, 1907;
Fear has subsided sufficiently to
make straight talk SAFE For many
weeks the newspapers of the country
uniformly maintained an optimistic at
titude and refrained from printing
facts or comment likely to increase
the prevailing commercial dread and
thereby hurt the public *** {
prosperity was keeping currency in
the sections where it was owned, and
Wall street wanted the money back
again to gamble with The money
changers stood from under the stock
market and let it crash upon the
small fry II y Il 1
Eight months ago John D. Rookie
feller started cry of calamity.
Othersof the chief money changers
took up the chorus. And for eight
months the gamblers and Wall street
prophesied disaster, preached panic
and did their utmost to create calam-
ity. 1t was not easy sailing for a
time The country was rich, busy
snd contented. The panic breeders
were facing unprecedented conditions.
Consumption was larger than pro-
duction. There was neither dread
nor discomfort; no scarcity of any
thing except labor. :
"The country refused to be frighten-
ed. Brute force must be used. The
money changers then used their most
murderous weapon. BY their control
of the currency they could lock up
the money Of the country and make it
so scarce that business could not pro.
ceed. BY Gripping industry and cre-
ating distrust they could cut down
consumption, make goods cheap and
cause the money glut they wanted.
They used that weapon" ;,
AS late as December IA, 1907, q
London cable to the Washington Post
said:
Americas financial difficulties con-
tinue to be the dominant topic of the
business world throughout Europe. A
representative utterance is this in to-
days Economist:
"'How and when the American
coach will be pulled out Of the mire
in which it has been sticking for the
last eight weeks, is a problem that
becomes more pressing every day. The
present situation is q peril to finan.
cial and commercial interests the
world over.'"
Republican, Refuse tho Remedy.
The remedy needed was we'll under.
stood even then. Legislation was de-
manded which would revise the cur.
rency system SO as to take away Wall
streets control Of the currency. The
Progressive Republicans and the DEM
ocrats fought hard for such legisla-
ton through the winter and spring Of
1908. But the Cannon machine in the
House and the Aldrich machine in the
Senate stood in the way.
The sole result was the unwieldy
and practically useless Aldrich-vree-