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admirer of "the Chief". Eccles was a Utah banker, President of the First 

Securities Corporation, a family investment trust consisting of a number 

of banks which Eccles had picked up cheap during the Agricultural 

Depression of 1920-21. Eccles also was a director of such corporations 

as Pet Milk Company, Mountain States Implement Company, and 

Amalgamated Sugar. As a big banker, Eccles fitted in well with the 

group of powerful men who were operating Roosevelt.

There was some discussion in Congress as to whether Eccles ought to 

be on the Federal Reserve Board at the same time he had all of these 

banks in Utah, but he testified that he had very little to do with the First 

Securities Corporation besides being President of it, and so he was 

confirmed as Chairman of the Board.

Eugene Meyer, Jr. now resigned from the Board to spend more of his 

time lending the two billion dollar capital of the Reconstruction 

Finance Corporation, and determining the value of collateral by his 

own methods.

The Banking Act of 1935, which greatly increased Roosevelt’s power 

over the nation’s finances, was an integral part of the legislation by 

which he proposed to extend his reign in the United States. It was not 

opposed by the people as was the National Recovery Act, because it 

was not so naked an infringement of their liberties. It was, however, an 

important measure. First of all, it extended the terms of office of the 

Federal Reserve Board of Governors to fourteen years, or, three and a 

half times the length of a Presidential term. This meant that a President 

assuming office who might be hostile to the Board could not appoint a 

majority to it who would be favorable to him. Thus, a monetary policy