America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve by Roger Lowenstein Read Free Book Online Page A

the saddle”: William G. McAdoo to House, June 18, 1913, House Papers, Box 73.
    an “injustice” to deny bankers: Owen,
The Federal Reserve Act,
74; and Willis,
The Federal Reserve System,
250. See also “Find Many Flaws in Bill: Democrats Divided on Currency Measure,”
The New York Times,
June 21, 1913. For Wilson’s choosing a fullypolitical board, see Broesamle,
William Gibbs McAdoo,
110–11. Owen’s description of the meeting appears in his
The Federal Reserve Act,
74–76
.
    Still unable to sleep, Glass: Glass to Willis, June 17, 1913; and Glass to Woodrow Wilson, June 18, 1913, Glass Collection, Box 8.
    “a yielding of the classical doctrine”: Willis,
The Federal Reserve System,
256, 258.
    “If we can hold to the substance”: Glass,
An Adventure in Constructive Finance,
123–25.
    Bryan didn’t realize that the notes: James Neal Primm,
A Foregone Conclusion
(St. Louis: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 1989), chapter 2, “Banking Reform, 1907–1913”; available at www.stlouisfed.org/foregone/chapter_two.cfm. For Bryan’s reaction to Wilson’s compromise solution, see Coletta,
William Jennings Bryan
,
2:132.
    “covered all over with the slime”:
New York
Sun
quoted in Link,
The New Freedom,
216. For the
New York Times
’s reaction, see “The President’s Views on Banking,”
The New York Times,
June 24, 1913, and “A Radical Banking Measure,” ibid., June 21, 1913.
    “greater in some respects”: “Vast Scope of the New Currency Bill,”
Washington Post,
June 22, 1913.
    “Those things don’t count”: Press conference, June 26, 1913, in
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson,
28:8.
    Wilson, at Glass’s urging, invited: Glass,
An Adventure in Constructive Finance,
127–28, 130; William McAdoo to Wilson, June 18, 1913, in
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson,
27:536; and Coletta,
William Jennings Bryan
,
2:133. See also Broesamle,
William Gibbs McAdoo,
108–10.
    “Not an hour can I let”: Wilson’s letter to Peck of June 22, 1913, is quoted in both Link,
The New Freedom,
213–14, and Cooper,
Woodrow Wilson,
220.
    the President returned to the Capitol: Link,
The New Freedom,
214; and “Money Reform Now, Is Wilson’s Demand,”
The New York Times,
June 24, 1913. Wilson’s speech appears in
Cong. Rec.
S2132–33 (June 23, 1913).
    Bankers had urged reform: “Forgan Denounces Bill,”
The New York Times,
June 24, 1913; and “Bankers Clear Up the Currency Plan,” ibid.
    the Glass bill authorized Washington: Willis,
The Federal Reserve System,
256–67. In deference to the banks, Willis scotched proposals to let individuals either do business with the Reserve Banks or own stock in them.
    The goal was to establish collective: Willis to Carter Glass, May 26, 1913, Willis Papers, Box 1; “Financial Markets,”
The New York Times
,
June 20, 1913; “Bankers Clear Up the Currency Plan”; Willis,
The Federal Reserve System,
273–74, 394–95; and James L. Laughlin,
The Federal Reserve Act: Its Origin and Problems
(New York: Macmillan, 1933)
,
141–42, 146–48 (quote on 148).
    Wade spoke forcefully against: Glass,
An Adventure in Constructive Finance,
112–16. See also Primm,
A Foregone Conclusion,
chapter 2; and “Money Bill Goes In; No Voice for Banks,”
The New York Times,
June 27, 1913.
    they won important concessions: Amended provisions to the bill reprinted in Willis,
The Federal Reserve System,
1605, 1608, and 1609. See also ibid., 394–95; Laughlin,
The Federal Reserve Act,
149; “Money Bill Goes In; No Voice for Banks”; and Link,
Wilson: The New Freedom,
217.
    struck a sensible middle ground: Wiebe,
Businessmen and Reform,
130. It is my interpretation that the bill was essentially faithful to what Warburg’s camp wished. Furthermore, in
The Federal Reserve System
(1:101), Warburg describes the bill, aside from the“harmful changes” made to accommodate Bryan, as, “in the main, sound and highly commendable.” Similarly, Vanderlip’s first reaction to the published bill, even more