The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-13
Senator HefIin said, in part:

credits play In the economic llfe or the
 masses of the people.
 Money is the measure of value and
 is given in exchange for the things that the people have to buy and sell.
 Hence the necessity of having enough
 money in circulation to meet the bus mess needs of the people. t Money is the life-blood of business
 and in order that the body of business
 may be kept healthy and strong, it is necessary that money in sufficient quantity be kept constantly circulating in the body of business.
 They who toll and produce and they who use their sense and strength in legitimate activities of any kind are entitled as a matter of right to demand
 that the circulating medium, or money supply, be sufficient to meet business needs in such a way as to enable them
 to make their business a success. In
 other words, if losses or failures should come, they should be from other causes
 and not because the money supply was insufficient to fully meet the business needs of the community. The govern
 ment, and rightly so, reserves to itself the right to print bills and coin money. Then it Is clear that 1t is the duty of
 the government to eee to it that the circulating medium, or the money sup ply, is large enough to meet the busi- needs of all the people all the time. No right thinking person can deny the soundness of that proposition.
 The failure to have in circulation money sufficient to meet the business needs of the people places their busi- ness at a disadvantage and leaves them helpless in the hands of those who con trol the insufficient measure of value that they must accept in exchange Tor that which represents their toil' sKiii and investments.
 It is easy to understand that if 1t requires million dollars to handle the business of a certain community and YOU withdraw from that community a half million dollars, you have reduced l the measure of value for the goods and products of that community to Just l half of what it was before and you have reduced the purchasing power ana
 debt-paying power of the products o1 that community to just half of what l they were before. So it is serious thing with the business of the masses of the people when the money wnlch measures the value of their products IS | teduced in quantity and the instrument of exchange made too small to enable l .hem to obtain profit and make sue ! cess of their business.
 THE PANIC OF 1920
 I Tn the early fall of 1918 certain con- scienceless Wall Street financlers, who under Republican rule used to own and manipulate the old panic breeding banking system in New York, | realizing that the end of the war was rear, commenced to do everything III l heir power to elect Republican Con .ress. They saw in Republican success, 1 in the election of Republican Con gress, an opportunity to so change anu ripple the Federal Reserve Banking l system as to enatle them to use 1t Tn such a way as to produce panic. 1 They who used to produce a panic avery few years and threaten to bring She on under the old banking system whenever they wanted to beat down he price of cotton, grain or stocks on he exchange, had been deprived of hat power for nearly six years under 1. he Federal Reserve Banking system. The Democratic party had been m bower during that time and Wall Street vas keen and hungry for financial :east such as they used to enjoy in he old panic days when the Republi- ans were in power. To that gruesome rang the field was an inviting one. ,anic would enable them to make mll- ions on the falling prices Of cotton, rrain and Liberty Bonds. The first step to that end was to elect Republ1- can Congress. They. succeeded in doing that. Then they commenced to set the trap for panic.
 The first thing they did after elect ing a Republican Congress was to throw the Federal Farm Loan Banking System into the supreme court and shut off loans from that source:
 The farmers of the South and West had borrowed from the Farm Loan Banks more than three hundred mil lion dollars. They had lifted old mort oapes. hoary with age, from the family roof tree and bought homes and farms for hundreds of thousands of young farmers. But the doors of the Farm Loan Banks were now closed and we could not get dollar from that source. The next step in the program to pro- duce a panic was to shut the doors of inc War Finance Corporation. It was advancing millions of dollars and
 greatly aiding the South and West in exporting cotton and grain. But that great financial agency is now put out of commission and the south and west cannot get a dollar from that source. Strange to say, Governor Harding of the Federal Reserve Bank urged that the War Finance Corporation be closed.
 The plot thickens and the panic-pro- ducing machinery is being rapidly ar ranged for the deadly work that was
 done later on.
 The next move in the deep laid plan to produce panic was to fasten on to | the Federal Reserve Banking System, bv amendment, progressive interest or rediscount rate, under which usu-
 -ious interest could be charged, ranging from 10 to 100 per cent. Governor Harding is now openly aiding Republi- can leaders. We see him, at the capi- tol hobnobbing with Republican leaders and enthusiastically working with them to put through Republican Congress | that progressive interest rate amend ment. President Wilson, his stricken chief, ;s now prone upon his bed and near ldeath's door, and Governor Harding, inc man whom he appointed to admin | ister the Federal Reserve Banking Sys- ] tenn so as to serve the business needs of the people and prevent panic, has 1 Jeff his office and gone to the capitol tto aid Republicans in amending and criupling that great banking system so as to enable him to manipulate it for the purpose of producing the panic that they desire. That was in April, 1920. was here in Alabama engaged in my campaign for the Senate. Later. when the manic machinery was doing it's
 deadly work and had returned to
 Washington, talked to several Dem- ocratic senators about the various ~ +,Lor in the eonspiracy to pro-