The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-06-06
THE PENALTY

(AMUEL UNTERMEYER, who as counsel
Tor the Pujo committee on banking and
currency, examined the elder Morgan in 1912.
acqultS the present firm of Morgan of anv
criminal act. He also asserts that there is
nothing unethical in its procedure according
to current American standards of business
and finance.
AS he implies. the trouble is with these
standards. They are what have broken down
our economic system and must be rooted ont
before there will be any hope of revived and
purged capitalism
Mr.. Untermeyer puts the blame for the
present defects and evils in American finance
and banking upon the federal government
because of its failure to adopt curative legis-
lation, such as suggested in the report he pre-
pared for the Pujo committee
If adequate regulations and restrictions
then had been imposed, many of the major
economic evils from which We since have
suffered would have been eliminated or re-
duced greatly. Indeed we even might have
been spared the depression, for it was caused
primarily by the insidious ramif1cations and
practices of speculative finance
Certainly. with the exception of the income
tax revelations, there are no essential facts
with respect to the money trust" and the
dominion of finance over American industry,
transportation and utilities which Mr.. Pc
cora is unearthing that were not exposed by
Mr. Untermeyer. And they were heading the
country for major depression when the
shot at Sarajevo plunged Europe into war,
created great market for American goods
and loans and saved us from a serious and
prolonged slump in business.
The war made billions for the speculative
financiers who became bankers for the allies
as well as Americans. Then came the plant
administrations of Harding and Coolidge and
with them the utopia of the money trust.
Banking became an adjunct of the broker
age business and the great speculative era
was upon us. Then came the dawn in Oc-
tober, 1929.
Once more there had been ample warning
Drawing to a considerable degree upon the
findings of the Pujo committee, Senator Rob
ert M. La Toilette made one of his greatest
speeches in the senate at the very close of
the Wilson administration. On Feb. 81 and
o. 1921, the Wisconsin statesman fully re-
vealed the Capitalization of American f1nan-
cial control in the House of Morgan and
showed the dominion of finance over indus
try, transportation, mining and the utilities.
But the philippines of La Toilette fell on
deaf ears in a generation which was yearn-
ing for normally" We have paid the pen
atty since 1929 for this delinquency of Presi-
dents and congress.
Hardly had the depression settled down
when there appeared another revelation of
the power and methods of the House of Nor
gan. This time it was not lawyer who
played the leading role but an economist
and publicist, Lewis Corey His complete and
mastery book 1.-THE House of Morgan" APP
peared in 1890.
This is the most complete and authorita-
tive work in print on the Morgan firm and
its grip on American economic life. 1t brought
Unterneyer and La Toilette down to date.
But it did not cause a ripple.
If congress again fails to act along the
line of the regulative policy suggested by Mr.
Untermeyer away back in 1912, we shall de-
serve another thorough licking at the hands
of the autocratS of speculative finance, and
there is little doubt that We shall get it.
When all is said and done, the servants OF
the people have been more at fault here than
the servants of mammon.