The Cordova daily times., 1922-05-18

| EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo-, May 18
 The United States was saved from a panic by the Federal Reserve Sys- tenn not only once, but several times since the outbreak of the war, Thom- as B. McAdams, president of the
 American Bankers Association, de- clared here today, speaking in an ad- dress before the convention of the Mis- souri State Bankers Association. Me Adams charged part of present criti- cism aimed at the Federal Reserve System to "demagogues who are at tempting to popularize themselves by who suffered financial losses during the period of business reaction largely on account of their own lack of busi- ness foresight"
 we would have had a panic at the sinking of the Lusitania but for | the Federal Reserve System" as- serted McAdams. 'We would have had panic when President Wilson | | told Congress that the time had come ] for us to enter the war had it not been | | for the system. We would have had | panic in 1920 when the great business | pansion and credit imitation that had been created despite the warning, ad- | vice and foresight of the Federal Re- serve Board.
 | "We did not take the warning when | they gave it. The merchant filled up his shelves and continued his policy of reckless buying at high prices, and the result was that in 1920 he had dumped on him three times the volume of goods he could normally use and found himself in the fall with his shelves loaded to the breaking point and confronted with collapsing prices and demoralized markets. RESERVE BANKS NOT TO BLAME i
 "The consequent losses that many suffered were despite, and not because of, the Federal Reserve System, and they would have been greater had itl not ben for the System. We could with equal propriety blame the doc tor for hurting us in amputating a ! leg which had been mangled as a re- | suit of our failure to read the signs and of our persistence in travelling around a dangerous curve at sixty miles an hour. The doctor was not to blame for the accident. We must as- sume responsibility for that ourselves and thank the doctor for saving our life
 "There have been many eXaggerat- ed statements as to the expenses, ana misrepresentatiOns as to the policies of the Federal Reserve System. It | is also an unfortunate fact that dur ing the reaction many bankers them selves, when they found it necessary to deny credit to some customers in the interest of the safety of their own banks, avoided getting themselves in wrong with their customers by sug- gesting that the Federal Reserve Bank would not permit such a. loan. These and similar statements have done in finite harm, creating in the minds ot the general business public the bell II that the Federal Reserve System was exercising autocratic control over in- dividual affairs and forcing many to liquidate their unsound positions at a loss. As a matter of fact, no Federal Resere Bank in the country, and no officer of any Federal Reserve Bank or any part of the System, has any t authority to direct what loans bank shall or shall not make to his GUS tombers any more than the banker himself dictates to a merchant what people he shall or shall not sel! gNods to.
 "THERE IS GRAVE DANGER"
 "Unless bankers give careful con- sideration to the present situation
 confronting the Federal Reserve Sys- T. |, will