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one who will take the trouble to write to the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C., and
request Document No. 310 of the 67th Congress, 4th Session. Those who attended were warned to hold
the proceedings in sacred secrecy.
Those who have the Congressional Record are referred to Page 4858, Proceedings of February 28,
1923. An account of the secret meeting will be found in Volume 64, Part 5 of the 67th Congress,
Fourth Session. Hon. Finly H. Gray described the meeting :
“The manipulating financiers and bankers, the master minds of frenzied finance, engineering this
gigantic secret movement, were not there, present and in person, but were pulling the wires,
directing and prompting their tools, puppets and catspaws from afar. Maybe these catspaws were
not fully aware of the destruction they were bringing down upon their unsuspecting fellow men. The
Chairman of the meeting said :
“‘We all know that if the bankers in any community, large or small, were to clasp the screws on
tight, they could bring disaster upon the community which might spread to other communities.’
“A Mr. Smith was there and said, ‘Of course, contraction of money and credits would result in low
prices and an easing up of business.’ These bankers knew the effect of the contraction of money and
credit upon farm values and price levels. Another Mr. Smith was there, claiming to have secured the
farmers’ consent to reduce farm values and the price level, and, assuming to speak from personal
conversation directly with farmers said : ‘The farmers with whom I have talked are in thorough
accord with it.’
“Now this Mr. Smith had probably met these farmers standing around on the streets of New York,
wearing overalls and cowhide boots, carrying their forks and scoop shovels, and there he secured
their consent to reduce farm values and the price level.
“Mr. John Skelton Williams, Comptroller of the Currency, when this contraction of money was
proposed, explained his efforts to stop the resolution being drawn. In relating his efforts to the late
John A. Simpson, he said : ‘I told the other members of the board, Do you know that this will break
lots of little country banks ? They cold bloodedly answered me, They ought to break—there are too
many of them. I then told them, Don’t you know it’s going to ruin lots of farmers, and they cold
bloodedly replied to me, They ought to be ruined—they are getting so prosperous they will not
work.’” Congressional Record, May 2, 1933.
I wonder if these members of the Federal Reserve Board had in mind the farmers’ “failure to work” to
produce the food supplies necessary in carrying on the War by which the world money creators were
enriched ?
Thus, the Federal Reserve Banks, under orders of the Federal Reserve Board, pursuant to the secret
resolution of May 18, 1920, without notice or warning, began to raise the rediscount rates from 2% to
5% , to 7%, to 8% , to 9% and until, for some farm banks, the rates were much higher.
Simultaneously with this drastic increase in the rates, the Central Reserve Banks began selling
Government bonds. This selling continued until the price of “Liberty” bonds dropped to 80. The
people who remember their own efforts to get anything like the price they paid for Liberty Bonds,
which they had to sell to live, will recall the type of purchasers who opened over-the-counter places in
which these bonds were bought at bargain levels. Had these bond buyers been particularly noted for
their patriotism during the War ?
http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/coogan_g/coogan_06.html (4 of 27)5.4.2006 9:08:30
Gertrude Coogan, Money Creators, ch 6, 7, 8
Falling bond prices decreased the “reserves” of the community banks. Decreasing reserves made it
imperative that the community banks call in their local loans and force all borrowers to pay. This
brought a terrific liquidation of all agricultural products. Almost in the twinkling of an eye, agricultural
prices tumbled to ruinously low levels.
Within seven months farm prices dropped to ruinous levels. In May 1920, the United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics showed farm products at 244 contrasted with 100, the average price in 1913. From 244
the farm products index dropped to 136 by January 1, 1921. In eight months wheat fell from $3.00 to
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