148

banks is a patriotic  duty at this time, and that membership in the 

Federal Reserve System is a distinct and significant evidence of 

patriotism."

__________________________

70 Cordell Hull, Memoirs, Macmillan, New York, 1948, v. 1, page 76

84

E.W. Kemmerer writes that "As fiscal agents of the Government, the 

federal reserve banks rendered the nations services of incalculable 

value after our entrance into the war. They aided greatly in the 

conservation of our gold resources, in the regulation of our foreign 

exchanges, and in the centralization of our financial energies. One 

shudders when he thinks what might have happened if the war had 

found us with our former decentralized and antiquated banking 

system."

Mr.  Kemmerer’s  shudders  ignore  the  fact  that  if  we  had  kept  "our 

antiquated banking system" we would not have been able to finance 

the World War or to enter as a participant ourselves.

Woodrow Wilson himself did not believe in his crusade to save the 

world for democracy. He later wrote that "The World War was a matter 

of economic rivalry."

On being questioned by Senator McCumber about the circumstances 

of our entry into the war, Wilson was asked, "Do you think if Germany 

had committed no act of war or no act of injustice against our citizens 

that we would have gotten into this war?"

"I do think so," Wilson replied.