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DUNBAR: "In other words, Russia is sending a great deal of gold to the 

European countries, which in turn send it to us?"

HARDING: "This is done to pay for the stuff bought in this country and to 

create dollar exchange."

DUNBAR: "At the same time, that gold came from Russia through 

Europe?"

HARDING: "Some of it is thought to be Kolchak gold, coming through 

Siberia, but it is none of the Federal Reserve Banks’ business. The 

Secretary of the Treasury has issued instructions to the assay office not 

to take any gold which does not bear the mint mark of a friendly 

nation."

Just what Governor Harding meant by "a friendly nation" is not clear. In 

1921, we were not at war with any country, but Congress was already 

beginning to question the international gold dealings of the Federal 

Reserve System. Governor Harding could very well shrug his shoulders 

and say that it was none of the Federal Reserve Banks’ business where 

the gold came from. Gold knows no nationality or race. The United 

States by law had ceased to be interested in where its gold came from 

in 1906, when Secretary of the Treasury Shaw made arrangements with 

several of the larger New York banks (ones in which he had interests) to 

purchase gold with advances of cash from the United States Treasury, 

which would then purchase the gold from these banks. The Treasury 

could claim that it did not know where its gold came from since their 

office only registers the bank from which it made the purchase. Since 

1906, the Treasury has not known from which of the international gold 

merchants it was buying its gold.