Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-11-03


pious hand of partisan politics shall
not be laid upon delicate international
problems and that partisan warfare
shall be silenced in the face of inter-
national controversy. This sacred
principle of elemental patriotism has
been grossly offended against by parti-
san politicians, and the American
sternest retribution. We must always
put love of God and country first, and
party allegiance last.
If the calamity of war befalIs us in
the near future, deliberately charge
that it will result more from the par
tisan attempts now being made to get
control of the American government,
at the sacrifice of peace, than from all
other causes combined. The rights
and honor of the American people are
safe in the hands of Woodrow Wilson
and will be upheld unflinchingIy in the
face of the entire world.
THE FEDEDAL RESERVE SYSTEM.
The wonderful prosperity of this
country, aside from the preservation
of peace, is due more to the creation
of our new financial system than to all
other causes combined. Without the
federal reserve banks it would be i'm
possible to finance our phenomenal do
nestle business and foreign trade.
Who gave the country this new finan-
cial system? President Wilson and
the Democratic party, by the enact
ment of the federal reserve law on the
23rd of December, 1913. This law was
forced through congress by the presi-
dent and the Democratic party in the
face of the combined opposition of the
Republican leaders and their allies,
that small but powerful group Of Wall
street financiers who did not want
their control over the credit resources
of the country to be destroyed.
Our great business expansion, both
domestic and foreign, could not have
occurred without the enlarged finan-
cial resources provided by the Demo-
cratic federal reserve system. Bust
ness cannot grow and prosper without
adequate credit facilities and efficient
credit machinery. The federal reserve
act has supplied both. For the first
time in our history business men
know that they can get ample credit
whenever they need it for wholesome
and legitimate business; they know
that these credits are now elastic and
automatically responsive to the bust
ness needs of the country; they know
that they can now engage in business
enterprises and undertakings with the
certainty that essential credit is avail
able at all times and at lower rates of
than ever before known; they
know that they can go forward in the
development of the business and re-
sources of this country with conf
dence; they know that they no longer
have to fear the annual fall stringency
in money. the widely f1uctuating and
extortionate rates of interest and the
deadly and paralyzing uncertainty as
to whether credit could be had at any
price and on any terms which charac-
terized our financial system prior to
the passage of the federal reserve act.
More than all. they know that the
credit resources of the country are no
longer under the control of a small
but powerful group in Wall street who,
prior to the passage of the federal re-
serve act, controlled and dispensed
credit as they saw fit, favoring those
whom fhnv nroforrad MN iCI,i,, ., .%I,ce1
who had incurred their displeasure.
The old system produced disastrous
money stringencies every year at
crop-moving time, with ruinous rates
of interest, and precipitated upon
American business men and farmers
incalculable and irretrievable losses.
Worse than all, the old system, with
its inelastic currency and rigid limita-
lions, caused appalling panics with
periodical regularity that Slapped the
very business life of the nation.
Under the old Republican currency
and financial system the reserve
money of the banks of the country
was concentrated in a few great CEN
tiers, principally New York City. The
law expressly provided for such con-
centration. It was a. pernicious sys-
tenn, because the small banks through
out the country were unable to get
their money out of New York for the
use of their own customers when
trouble threatened or panics occurred.
There is no small banker or business
man in the land VINO has not suffered
because of these panics, the most no.
torious and disastrous of which was
the Roosevelt panic of 107. It was nee.
essary to break up this system, to or
ganize and consolidate the credit re-
sources of the country in such way
that disastrous panics could not recur
and that manipulation and control of
money by small and powerful group
of men should be forever destroyed.
The old Republican financial system
provided an inelastic currency Of fixed
amount based upon government bonds,