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Senator Robert L. Owen has told us how it was taken out of the original 

legislation against his will, and that the Board of Governors has 

opposed such legislation. Apparently Mr. Martin does not know this.

Steady average prices, indeed, are impossible so long as we have the 

speculators on the stock exchange driving prices up and down in 

order to reap profits for themselves. Despite Governor Eccles’ 

insistence that steady average prices would not insure lasting 

prosperity, they could do much to bring about this condition. A man 

on a yearly wage of $2,500 is not more prosperous if the price of bread 

increases five cents a loaf during the year.

In 1935, Eccles said before the House Committee on Banking and 

Currency:

"The Government controls the gold reserve, that is, the power to issue 

money and credit, thus largely regulating the price structure."

This is an almost direct contradiction of Eccles’ statement in 1939 that 

prices do not depend, primarily, on the price or cost of money.

In 1935, Governor Eccles stated before the House Committee:

"The Federal Reserve Board has the power of open market operations. 

Open-market operations are the most important single instrument of

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control over the volume and cost of credit in this country. When I say 

"credit" in this connection, 

 

 

I mean money, because by far the largest 

part of money in use by the people of this country is in the form of 

bank credit or bank deposits. When the Federal Reserve Banks buy bills 

or securities in the open market, they increase the volume of the