The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-11
LET'S NOT MISS THE POINT

ATE believe msconception has grown up as to
" what the Senate Munitions Committee investi-
CATION of j. P. Morgan & Co. is all about. 1t is
looked upon too much a head hunting expedition;
another of those public displays in which high
finance is put on the pan, with proof of wrongdoing
as the objective and sensation as the result
Actually the real purpose is, should be, to show
what part any trade and finance played in getting
us eventually into the World War; to review the ex-
periences of 1914 1917, and if possible to benefit
from those experiences in writing legislation that will
keep out of the next one.
The fact that j. P. Morgan & Co. happens to be
the subject of the investigation is after ALL incidental
1t might be any other company The good or the bad
account of the company's affairs is likewise Incl
dental Nothing yet has been developed to show that
Morgan & Co. did anything more than act the part
of sfrewd and capable fnanciers who, according to
the code of those days, egtimately entitled to
drum up all the trade they could get.
DY 1914 to 1917 standards their activities were
- "gcod business" If they hadn't got the business
somebody else would have. And let us in hind
sight not delude ourselves now; the nation whole
wanted the business. 1t was somebody elses war.
Times were hard here Export and import trade had
been paralyzed America was fiat. Buy bale of
cotton" and all the kindred symptoms of economic
distress had appeared.
Then the orders started coming from abroad First
few; growing rapidly to avalanche; billions of
them! Mars wore the clothes of Santa Claus.
boom was on, thanks to conflict way across the
into which we would never permit ourselves to
be drawn.
And SO on to the time when those who were fight
ing into the problem of What do we use for
money! Cash was getting low. Credit came next.
If going to keep customers and prevent
a collapse. we had to make loans to them Hence
such language this from secretary of state, writ
ing to the President of a nation that had solennly
declared neutrality and placed ban on loans:
"We face to face with what appears to be
critical situation which only be relieved
apparently by the investment of American capital
in foreign loans to be used in liqudating the enor-
balance of trade in favor of the United States.
Can we afford to let a declaration as to our con-
cepton of the true spirit of neutrality made in the
first days of the war stand in the way of our ma
ationa interests which seem to be seriously threat
ened?'
America wanted to have her cake and eat it,
THUS the structure was built up. Thus we got
Il into the game. And thus the force of trade
contributed to the sudden changing of slogans
from He kept out of war" to lover there; from
81 didn't raise my boy to be soldier" to "Shps and
more ships"
1t isn't necessary to tell the rest of the tale
the story of death and disease, of the arless and
the legless and the gassed and the blinded the
human side, and the billions in unpaid war debts
and bonuses the economic side. Never in all his
tory was there such CHASTITY self-decepton that
thing which we thought was prosperity
In the financial part of that tragic drama j. P.
Morgan & Co. played important role. But to view
this investigation merely as an inquiry into the
methods of Morgan is to miss the larger lesson.
And if that lesson is not learned and is not
applied, now, in this Congress which is meeting
while another world conflict is again in the making
nation will have only ourselves to blame if
again. and soon, find ourselves on that same
old road to war;