The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-08-03
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1921
SOME FACTS STATED.

Elsewhere in this issue will be
found the testimony of John Shelton
Williams given in hearing before a
committee of congress on the opera
tions of the Federal Reserve System
the past year, in which Mr.. Williams
sharply criticises, that pet institution
for, some Of it's acts, whereby it is
charged the South and West were
sufferers, while certain banks, or a
certain bank in New York, was re-
ceiving friendly consideration while
engaged in speculation.
C9incident with the testimony of
Mr.. Williams, who is banker of
more than ordinary ability, and be-
lieved to be a man of more than or
dinary business judgment, comes a
letter to President Harding from
Richard H. Edmonds, editor of the
Manufacturers Record, of Baltimore,
a paper devoted above all things else
to proper development of the re-
sources of the South. Mr.. Edmonds
is a Republican, but he never loses
an opportunity to speak for the peo-
pie of the South. He is a man of
wide information and he is generally
regarded as one of the best advisers
of the peopleNof this section. l.
We are reproducing his letter be-
cause it will in our judgment furnish
the people with some real informa-
ton about the men who are at the
head of the Federal Reserve System
and about the way they manipulate
the affairs entrusted to their care.
He says: ...
"I am in receipt of letter from a
Southern banker who tells me that
former Secretary of the Treasury
Houston wrote him that he was op-
posed to the expectation Of farm pro-
ducts because this would maintain the
price of these products, while his
aim and ambition was to break down
the prices. Whether this statement
be entirely correct or not is inmate
rial, though it comes to me from a
thoroughly responsible man; it is,
nevertheless, in exact accordance
with the methods adopted by the Fed
eral Reserve System in breaking down
prices through the drastic curtailment
of the food supply or credit, just as
essential to the life of business as
food is to the human body.
Moreover, the people responsible
for starving into the present condi-
tion the business interests of the
United States have, as shown by the
sworn testimony before a Congress
sional committee and by the proofs
submitted before the United States
Supreme Court, been guilty of def
nitely trying to. wreck State banks
which did not follow their demands
as to the par collection of checks. You
have doubtless read the statement
made by former Comptroller of the
Currency, the Hon. Shelton Williams,
whose word no man can question, that
it was definitely said in a meeting of
the Federal Reserve Board, while he
was member thereof, that if some
desired plan could not be carried out
in any other way than by the failure
of State banks it would be better to
let them fail.
"The spirit of men who engage in
such a campaign for breaking down
the established financial institutions
chartered by the States merely be-
cause they would not become men,
bers of the Federal Reserve System,
or yield to it's dictates to the destruc-
tion of their own business, is a spirit
of business immortality which has
shocked the country; and this coun-
try cannot have faith in the Federal
Reserve System until the men re-
sponsible for that condition have been
removed from. power. Their instant
removal by you, for which there is
abundant reason, would be the rem
edy which you could promptly ap-
ply to create that confidence which is
now lacking, and to furnish proof to
country that while the policies of