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"In March, 1928, Roy A. Young, Governor of the Board, was called 

before a Senate committee.

‘Do you think the brokers’ loans are too high?", he was asked.

"‘I am not prepared to say whether brokers’ loans are too high or too 

low,’ he replied, ‘but I am  sure they are safely and conservatively 

made.’

"Secretary of the Treasury Mellon in a formal statement assured the 

country that they were not too high, and Coolidge, using material 

supplied him by the Federal Reserve Board, made a plain statement to 

the country that they were not too high. The Federal Reserve Board, 

charged with the duty of protecting the interests of the average man, 

thus did its utmost to assure the average man that he should feel no 

alarm about his savings. Yet the Federal Reserve Board issued on 

February 2, 1929, a letter addressed to the Reserve Bank Directors 

cautioning them against grave danger of further speculation.

"What could be expected from a group of men such as composed the 

Board, a set of men who 

 

 

were solely interested in standing from under 

when there was any danger of friction, displaying a bovine and canine 

appetite for credit and praise, while eager only to ‘stand in’ with the 

‘big men’ whom they know as the masters of American finance and 

banking?"

H. Parker Willis omitted any reference to Lord Montague Norman and 

the machinations of the Bank of England which were about to result in 

the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

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