The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-04-20

and industry of the community And
control its fiscal operasions.
III discussing II present deplorabIt
financial condition, ii is well to keep Ii
mind that z men have almost unlimit.
ed power in the Federal Reserve Sys.
tenn. If this power was used for til
best interests Of all our people i,
would bring prosperity but this powel
has not been SO used; in fact, it seems
to have been used for the very 90.
posite purpose and its maladministra.
ton has brought ruin to- a large grour
OF u people. Says a writer in the
manufacturers Record for. March 80
1922:
AT no time in our history not only
from the time of Lincoln but from the
time of George Washington, since the
formation of this great Republic, have
we been presented with a greater
wave of prosperity, a greater opport-
unity for securing permanent bene-
fits to agriculture, commerce and civil
ization nationwide and worldwide,
than was almose forced upon us prior
to the enforcement of this policy of
sWreck and ruin. And had the Federal
Reserve System functioned for the
purpose for which it was intended, to-
day we would be in the midst of pros
perity,, intense commercial activity, land
the people of America and the world
would have received great benefits. OF
course, we would have eventually had
deflation in prices. However, it would
have come upon the law of supply and
demand, and never to pre-war levels
as a perpendicular drop. Had the
Federal Reserve System functioned
for the purpose for which it was Great
ed, it would have been recorded in the
permanent records of history as one of
the greatest benefactors of civiliza-
ton"
When Drastic Deflation Came
With all these debts outstanding, it
is easy to say how a crash could be
precipitated. When Drastic Della
ton" was ordered, paying time had
come. Debtors were called upon to
pay and they must pay with money.
The most of these debts were short
term bank obligations and immediate-
ly due. Bank credit was shut off. Deb
tors could borrow neither money or
bank credit. It was only a matter of
time until the comparatively small
amount of money that was in circula-
ton had gone the rounds and had been
drawn in. But the debt due had not
been paid. Shylock was demanding his
pound of flesh. Money became dear,
because money became scare. After
the money that was in circulation had
passed it's round of debts paying and
had gradually found its way to the
vaults of the big banks, the only way
to get it out again was by the sale of
commodities, of property, and of la
Dor. This gave the money the wea-
pom they needed with which to force
down the price of commodities and of
labor. Since, through payment on
debts, they had gathered in the money,
and now payment on debts was to be
made by labor and commodities, it
made their debts immensely more
valuable to obtain as much of labor
and commodities for their debts as
possible . AS a result, we have wit
messed the inevitable collapse of basic
industry in this country and the real
producers reduced almost to a state
of ~vassalage.
Many reasons were assigned. The
people needed to be led to believe that
such a painful operation was neces-
sary for their w salvation. They
were asked to be good sports and take
their part of the medicine. They took
their medicine all right while these
legalized money barons were bundling
in their booty.
When u markets collapsed we
were told that the European purchas-
ing power had dwindled and that there
was ~noEuropean market for our goods
The farmer was asked to be patient
until Europe could be restored. We
were told that the difference in ex-
change rates made it impossible for
Europe to buy. Our financial guard
ian if they had the interests of the