Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-02-25
REAL .zKEY 0F.:...GOVERNMENT
Federal Reserve Board Governing
Power of the World,
THE SYSTEM IS ONE OF ABSOLUTISR

Congress Can Make Laws iand Judges
May File DEGREES. But the Little
Secret Body that Controls Money
is Greater than Parliament Halls,
Judges or Generals.
The prosperity. OF the nation is in
the hands Of the Federal Reserve
Board. 1t can, it has proved, destroy
prosperity no matter how hard men
may work. or how propitious general
circumstances are.
This Board is composed Of seven
men whose training has been in the
thought and precepts of the" money
lending or salary earning class. They
are men whose interest tits to keep
commodity prices low so that their
own incomes, which do not come from
production, shall have maximum,
purchasing power They are men
,versed in the aXioms Of textbooks.
They are dealers in money. Just as
any man seeks to get MAXIMUM
price for the product in which he
deals, so they like to get the fullest
possible return for their product
money.
These men meet in secret. 1t is
their set policy to prevent the public
from knowing what they intend to do.
They breathe the atmosphere of con-
cealmcnt They take no counsel with
those whose fortunes they command.
They have been said to hold in their
hands the migftiest power ever before
committed in all human history to any
body of men. So they do. The effect
of their edicts travels with the sun
around the earth. They arbitrarily
can determine whether Iman shall pay
back exactly what he owes, or twice
what he owes. or half what he owes.
They fix. the prices, not in the United
States, only, but, in general sense,
everywhere. They hold the master
key to the dark chambers of disaster.
They can fill q land with suicides or
brides. They can determine the birth
rate and the death rate. No Caesar
ever paralleled them in autocratic use
of power.
Such power and such use Of power
cannot be countenanced in republic.
We have suggested that the Federal
Reserve Board and the Interstate
Commerce commission be compelled
to hold open hearings. We have sug-
gested that the public is entitled to
notice OF intent if the Federal Reserve
Board is contemplating some radical
and basic change in financial condi-
tions: that the public must have the
right to appear and present its side
of the case. Of what value is it to he
allowed to elect a congress, which
must debate and argue for months be-
fore enactinG even n revenue or a tar
iff BILL when the most both combined
can do is TO tax the nation, say $5,000,-
100000 or SG.100.000,000 in year
whereas the Federal Reserve board,
answerablc to nobody, without notice
Of any sort, can, as it did, tax the ag-
ricuitural industry alone more than
00,000.000 in the space of few
short months? Must the public have
the husks of authority only? The
right of petition is guaranteed them
by the constitution and is never de-
MED by congress. But this auto
cratic body of seven men is empower
cd to work its will without Interior
encc by petition, or hearing, or ;:rgu-
ment or protest. 1t does as it pleages
arrogating to itself such power as the
Supreme Court has never dared 70
exercise.
Every reader who thinks as We ID
that the Federal Reserve Board and
the Interstate Commerce Commission
should be compelled by law to give no.
tice in advance Of contemplated
changes in policy. affording an op-
portunity for open hearings, and that
a record should bc kept and made
public Of the position taken by each
and every member Of either the board
Or the commission in voting on the is-
ouSo iHch' ioi paw AOtiS
well as selfish reasons, urge on his
representative in congress, and on his
senators, and on his neighbors, the eX-
treme Importance Of having such
law enacted at the earliest possible
moment.
Otherwise the dread Of panic hangs
always over the heads Of the people.
This is one revision Of the fundam"n-
tai law that cries so loudly for 2n-
actment that not Il dozen congressman
in Washington can be found openly 10
oppose it.