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work done at such cost cannot be ignored, but, having examined
the extensive literature published by the Commission, the Banking
and Currency Committee finds little that bears upon the present
state of the credit market of the United States. We object to the
Aldrich Bill on the following points:
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Its entire lack of adequate government or public control of the
banking mechanism it sets up.
Its tendency to throw voting control into the hands of the large
banks of the system.
The extreme danger of inflation of currency inherent in the system.
The insincerity of the bond-funding plan provided for by the
measure, there being a barefaced pretense that this system was to
cost the government nothing.
The dangerous monopolistic aspects of the bill.
Our Committee at the outset of its work was met by a well-defined
sentiment in favor of a central bank which was the manifest
outgrowth of the work that had been done by the National
Monetary Commission."
Glass’s denunciation of the Aldrich Bill as a central bank plan
ignored the fact that his own Federal Reserve Act would fulfill all the
functions of a central bank. Its stock would be owned by private
stockholders who could use the credit of the Government for their
own profit; it would have control of the nation’s money and credit
resources; and it would be a bank of issue which would finance the
government by "mobilizing" credit in time of war. In "The Rationale of
Central Banking," Vera C. Smith (Committee for Monetary Research
and Education, June, 1981) writes, "The primary definition of a
central bank is a banking system in which a single bank has either a
complete or residuary monopoly in the note issue. A central bank is
not a natural product of banking development. It is imposed from
outside or comes into being as the result of Government favors."
Thus a central bank attains its commanding position from its
government granted monopoly of the note issue. This is the key to its
power. Also, the act of establishing a central bank has a direct
inflationary impact because of the fractional reserve system, which
allows the creation of book-entry loans and thereby, money, a