The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-31

nNE OF the things most likely to reassure lis
- with respect to the financial program of
the administration is the character of those
VINO lead the opposition
one can hardly fail to be amused by the
! personnel OF the shock troops who stand in on
position to the Roosevelt monetary policies rrbev
are CHIEFLY the money-changers whom he prom
lSed to drive from the temple though he has
thus lar notably failed to make good his
promise
Those great bankers and brokers are not dis
IlngulShed Tor SOundneSS or caution outside of
technical monetary philosophy Indeed. thew
are the greatest of inf1ationists The common
stock OF the great billion dollar steel trust. for
example, was at the outset mainly the product
OF the printing press
+ AS the questioning of Ferdinand A. Pecora
Drought out in many cases, an investment of
a few millions by many an investment banker
between 1925 and 1929 was expanded into paper
claims OF hundreds of millions. One man prva-
mided s253 into $35O0O0OO in securities.
STOCK dividends, SO common before 1929. rep
resent almost pure imitation of it's kind So. too.
does the watered stock which oozes from most
corporate manipulation
In the decade before 1929 there was an in
fatlon OF stock values on the New York Stock
exchange alone which amounted to over S75-
0O0,000000. The bankers helped to ruin orr
banks by pumping into Wall Street nearly
s70OO,O0OOOO in loans for speculative and gam
bling purposes
And yet these same men have the audactv
TO view Mr. Roosevelts timd imitation policy
which has raised prices a scant 20 per cent and
to accuse him of reckless imitation If he were
to print So, OO0O0oOoO of paper money. these per-
sons who shot up stock values by a figure
twenty-five times this amount would utter a
reSouding howl of protest
II anybody is to run printing presses the
money changers wish to be in charge This
group of men are really addicts to the printing
| 70
any one running off treasury notes. they dearly
love to keep the printing presses busy on stock
certificates.
7 EFT us not forget, moreover, that the most
vocal opponents of President Roosevelts
imitation policies are the bankers. They had
| their own way with our banking policies down
to the present year.
Their follies and chicanery have brought
about the failure of more than 10000 banks since
1920, losses of more than $4,000 100000 in de-
posts, and more of blow to confidence in our
financial system than resulted to the French
financial system from the French imitation of
| 1922-27
These are the men who are now raising their
voices for SoundnesS, stability, caution conserv-
atism, the welfare of widows and orphans and
the like. President Roosevelt has only taken us
temporarily off the gold standard. The bankers
had driven us of all standards by March 8, 1888.
Back in the period following the Civil war,
when it had been decided that the country
would resume specie payment, a leading fnan-
cial statesman Of that time frequently reiterated
that the only way to resume is to resume"
| 1t would be cogent today to observe that the
same line of reasoning applies to either relation
or imitation. The only way to initiate is to initiate
The enemies of the President have shown no
appreciation of his concessions to their feelings
as embodied in his slow and roundabout meas
ures up to his message of Jan. Is.
1t is high time that the President should at
tain his detectives in the monetary field by the
measures best adapted to securing the results
which he desires He should not sacrifice effec-
tiveness TO any effort to soothe the feelings of
money changers who will do their best to wreck
his administration in any event. His message of
/ last week on the gold policy was a step in the
right direction.