CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD – HOUSE
FEBRUARY
12, 1917
Pages
3126 to 3130
QUESTION
OF PRIVILEGE.
MR. LINDBERGH. Mr.
Speaker, before I use the high privilege that I have here, to prefer
these articles of impeachment, I ask the unanimous consent of the
House to proceed for four minutes.
The SPEAKER. The
gentleman from Minnesota asks unanimous consent to proceed for four
minutes, prefatory to his motion of impeachment. Is there objection?
There was no
objection.
Mr. LINDBERGH. Mr.
Speaker an fellow colleagues, in preferring these articles of
impeachment, which I am about to begin to read, I realize that I am
taking a serious and important step. But I have given much thought
and consideration to the step which I am about to take. I shall make
no motion after I have read these articles of impeachment, but shall
leave it to the House to act upon that question. I realize that often
a motion to lay upon the table is what follows the reading of
important articles, and I think these are of that character; and if
they are disposed of in this way I wish to say to the membership of
this House that that is not the way to dispose of these articles
which I shall read. It would not be doing justice to the country if
it is done in that way. Either I am right in presenting these
articles of impeachment or I am wrong. If I do injustice to the
House, if I do injustice to the country in preferring articles of
impeachment which ought not to be preferred, then it is the duty of
the House to discredit me for doing that thing. I do not, however,
expect to be discredited, though undoubtedly powerful influence will
be used to prevent favorable action on the articles of impeachment.
Therefore, I shall
proceed with the reading of the articles, and at the close I shall
ask unanimous consent for the privilege of extending my remarks upon
this question and the incidental questions that are involved in it.
The SPEAKER. The
gentleman asks unanimous consent to extend his remarks. Is there
objection?
Mr. MANN. Reserving
the right to object, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman can ask that at the
conclusion of his remarks.
The SPEAKER. I
thought he was asking it now.
Mr LINDBERGH. No. I
wish the House to know what is in the articles of impeachment before
I ask that privilege.
The SPEAKER. All
right.
Mr. LINDBERGH. Mr
Speaker and the House of Representatives, I, Charles A: Lindbergh,
the undersigned, upon my responsibility as a Member of the House of
Representatives, do hereby impeach W. P. G. Harding, governor; Paul
M. Warburg, vice governor; and Frederick A. Delano, Adolph C. Miller,
and Charles S. Hamlin, members, each individually as a member of the
Federal Reserve Board, and also all of them collectively as the five
active working members of said board, of high crimes and
misdemeanors.
I, upon my
responsibility as a Member of the House of Representatives, do hereby
impeach the said W. P. G. Harding, governor; Paul M. Warburg, vice
governor; and Frederick A. Delano, Adolph C. Miller, and Charles S.
Hamlin, members, and each of them as members of the Federal Reserve
Board, and also impeach all of them collectively as the five active
working members of the Federal Reserve Board, of high crimes and
misdemeanors in aiding, abetting, and conspiring with certain persons
and firms hereinafter named, and with other persons and firms, known
and unknown, in a conspiracy to violate the Constitution and the laws
of the United States and the just and equitable policies of the
Government, which said conspiracy developed and grew out of and was
consummated from the following facts and acts, to wit:
Fist. On or about
the month of July, 1906, the exact date being unknown to the relator,
the late J. P. Morgan, of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., and the
said firm, private bankers and brokers, with their main office in New
York City and doing business all over the world; Paul M. Warburg, of
the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and the firm of Kuhn, Loeb &
Co., also private bankers and brokers, doing business all over the
world, with their main office in New York City; Lee, Higinson &
Co., also private bankers and brokers, doing business all over the
world, with their main offices in Boston and New York; Kidder,
Peabody & Co., also private bankers and brokers, doing business
all over the world, with their main offices in Boston and New York;
the National City Bank of New York, with its office in the city of
New York and doing a general banking business, domestic and foreign;
and various others persons and firms, known and unknown to the
relator, did conspire with each other to devise a means through
social, political, and other ways of strategy and by general
chicanery, to deceive the people of the United States, the Congress,
and the President of the United States for the purpose and with the
object to secure an act of Congress providing for a new monetary and
banking system, to have in it a provision for a managing board vested
with unusual and extraordinary powers, and to secure the appointment
upon the board of management that should be provided for in the act
persons for membership on the board who would, by subterfuge,
manipulation, and false administration, so manage as to avoid the
spirit and the purpose of the people of the United States, the
Congress, and the President aimed at in the passage of such an act,
and instead of administering the act to meet with the spirit and
comply with its terms, to induce and secure such board to enter into
the conspiracy aforesaid, to administer the act for the special
benefit and advantage of all of the said conspirators hereinbefore
named, and their associates, and contrary to the letter, intent, and
purpose of the act itself and in contravention of the Constitution
and law; that in order to start the campaign with a plan well matured
to succeed in said conspiracy, Paul M: Warburg, now vice governor of
the Federal Reserve Board, but then a member of the firm of Kuhn,
Loeb & Co., was a most active participant in drafting the main
features and principles which should be embodied into whatever bill
might be put through Congress, and did also assist in a plan for a
secret campaign, to be kept from the knowledge of the President, with
the appointing power, and from the Senate, with the confirming power
in the selection and confirmation of all high Federal appointive
officials, in order that a board of administration should, when the
time came for its selection, be appointed that would carry out the
designs of the conspirators aforesaid; that there were many secret
meetings held by the conspirators for this purpose, which under the
very circumstances would be screened and kept from the public and
made practically impossible to discover, but nevertheless made
certain of the fact because of the acts which point back to their
creation; that one of such meetings – which your relator does not
undertake to verify the truth of its holding, but is reliably
informed that it was held- is described in Leslie’s Illustrated
Weekly Magazine in the October19, 1916, number thereof, which is
hereby referred to as showing the method most likely to have been
followed for planning the then contemplated act of Congress, which is
now the act known as the Federal reserve act.
Second. That in
pursuance of said conspiracy to promote the object of the
conspirators aforesaid and as a part of their general scheme to
induce Congress to legislate upon the monetary and banking system as
stated hereinbefore, said conspirators caused to be organized the
so-called Citizens League, with headquarters in the city of Chicago,
to act as a mother organization and promoter to induce organization
in the several States of auxiliary and affiliated leagues, and by
misrepresentation to the public as to the origin of the said mother
league and its purpose to induce citizens who should have no
knowledge of the said conspiracy and would be innocent of any wrong
intention, and whose motives and intent would be to act in the common
interests of their country, to join in the formation of auxiliary
leagues throughout the several States in order to give the outward
and surface appearance of respectability and honor, and that in
pursuance of that plan the conspirators succeeded in organizing
affiliated leagues in 45 of the States; that when organized the
conspirators hereinbefore named, themselves directed who should be
sent to these organizations as speakers and instructors, and also the
kind of literature that should be distributed to the members and to
the general public, the design of which was to have only such
speakers, instructors, and literature as would discredit the then
existing banking and currency system and prejudice the people in
every way possible against it: but notwithstanding the then existing
banking and currency system was bad and unfitted to the demands of
the Nation and the needs of commerce and trade, such campaign was by
its conspirators aforesaid directed not to designate to the public
what sort of a banking and currency system would be adopted in its
stead, but the promoters of the conspiracy should pretend that the
object of the campaign was to aid in every way to create a new
monetary banking and currency system to take the place of the then
existing bad one, and, as far as it could be done, the conspirators
should prevent the people getting together to prepare a plan of their
own to be presented to Congress; that the purpose of the conspirators
was simply to make the public believe that a new banking and currency
system was absolutely necessary and at the same time keep the public
from finding out what would be its form and details, all this for the
reason that the conspirators aforesaid had their own preconceived
plan prepared as a part of their conspiracy, which they would
secretly manage in their own way to have presented to Congress as the
plan in response to all this public sentiment which the conspirators
themselves had ingeniously worked out through the campaign aforesaid,
and with the intent that Congress and the President would legislate
the conspirators’ said plan into effect; that it was a part of said
plan to create many offices and positions with lucrative salaries,
which offices and positions would be equivalent to a bid for the
ambitious to support it, because these offices and positions would be
filled by the leaders and most active persons who would join in the
campaign to put the conspiracy into effect and influence Congress and
the President for the purpose of securing the legislation.
Third. That in
further pursuance of said conspiracy and to be in control of the
information and literature that should be distributed throughout the
Nation, the said conspirators then having control of a large number
of magazine, newspapers, and publishing companies, used all of these,
and proceeded to procure control of as many more as could be
purchased or subsidized to publish articles prepared by subsidized
writers who would criticize the then existing banking and currency
system so as to create public sentiment against it; that of the
thousands of country newspapers, a majority of them use so-called
“patent” articles not edited or even practically controlled by
the owners of the papers, which patent articles are commonly called
“boiler-plate” stuff, and no responsibility as to the influence
such articles have upon the public attaches to anybody; that those
writing this “boiler-plate” stuff so published, many of them were
also subsidized and controlled by the said conspirators, so that the
small newspapers were practically forced to carry on a campaign
against the then existing banking and currency system along the same
lines of the others referred to hereinbefore; that readers generally
do not have the opportunity to distinguish between “boiler-plate”
articles and the articles which the editors of the smaller papers
write themselves; that the news-distributing agencies through the
telegraph and telephone were then and still are largely controlled by
said conspirators, and the operators of the news agencies have been
allowed to report only such news relating to a new banking and
currency system as would promote said conspiracy, and required to
suppress any and everything in the way of information or news that
would tend to encourage the people to prepare for themselves a
concrete plan for banking an currency in the interest of all the
people; that the general plan of the conspiracy was to suppress
every article, statement, and thing, so far as possible, which would
give any information as to the existence of said conspiracy, all of
which was for the purpose of enabling the conspirators aforesaid to
deceive the people as well as Congress and the President, in order
that said conspirators might finally consummate their aforesaid
conspiracy.
Fourth. That in
consequence of the campaign carried on by said conspirators stated
and recited in paragraphs named “First,”, “Second”, and
“Third”, in these impeachment articles, and numerous secret,
clandestine, and underground methods employed by said conspirators,
the people of the United States, the Congress, and the President were
deceived, and as the first official act in the consummation of the
objects sought by said conspirators Congress did legislate and pass
an act of Congress which was signed by the President, and is known
as the Federal reserve act, which act is substantially the plan
prepared by the said conspirators as aforesaid.
Fifth. That
immediately upon the passage of said Federal reserve act the said
conspirators disorganized the so-called “Citizens League” and all
the affiliated leagues in the 45 States referred to in the paragraph
named “Second “ herein; that prior to such disorganization the
said conspirators had by secret and underground methods, and for the
purpose of using the same in completing and perpetuating their
conspiracy, organized another “association” and called it the
“United States Chamber of Commerce”, giving it that name in order
to deceive the public by making it appear that it is a department of
the Government, which organization is administered with more
intricate machinery for management than the so-called “Citizens
League” was, and with a purpose of taking up the work of
coordinating everything social, political, business, and other, to
work for the benefit of the said conspirators in carrying out their
plan to force the masses of all mankind into absolute and abject
industrial slavery; that the methods and the design of the “United
States Chamber of Commerce” are set forth in remarks which your
relator placed in the Congressional Record March 10, 1916, and are
hereby referred to for more specific detail; that the influence of
the “United States Chamber of Commerce” is one of the agencies
being used as an aid to further consummate the conspiracy charged in
these articles of impeachment.
Sixth. That the said
Federal reserve act is so framed that it has the possibility and
contains the provisions which, under proper and impartial
administration, would furnish a remedy to some of the faults that
existed in the banking and currency system which it superseded, but
also contains provisions which, under a bad and improper
administration, makes it more dangerous to the public welfare, than
even the old banking and currency system was; that the main feature
of the said Federal reserve act is giving effect to it is the
authority vested in the Federal Reserve Board and the discretion
entrusted to the members thereof in its “administration”; that
the “administration” of said Federal reserve act is vested in the
Federal Reserve Board, advised by the Federal reserve advisory
council made up of 12 persons, 1 selected by each of the 12 Federal
reserve banks; that the 3 active working members of the Federal
Reserve Board are the said W. P. G. Harding, governor; Paul M.
Warburg, vice governor; and Frederick A. Delano, Adolph C. Miller,
and Charles S. Hamlin, members; and that the Federal reserve advisory
council is formed by the following persons, to wit: Daniel G. Wing,
of Boston; J.P. Morgan, of New York; Levi L. Rue, of Philadelphia; W.
S. Rose, of Cleveland; J. N. Norwood of Richmond; Charles A. Lyerly,
of Atlanta; J. B. Forgan, of Chicago; Frank O. Watts, of St. Louis;
J. R. Mitchell, of Minneapolis; E. F. Swinney, of Kansas City; T. J.
Record, of Dallas; and Herbert Fleishhacker, of San Francisco; that
the said Federal Reserve Board and the said Federal reserve advisory
council held many meetings and are now and have been ever since the
Federal reserve act was passed, fully advised as to the financial and
business conditions, domestic and foreign; that the members of the
Federal Reserve Board and the members of the Federal reserve advisory
council are men with enormous business interests, and each of them
have been for more than 15 years last past, and are now extensive
operators and speculators for individual profit and gain in the
markets, and control several of the largest banks in the country;
that J.P. Morgan jr is the leading member of the firm J. P. Morgan &
Co., one of the firm hereinbefore charged with being a party to the
conspiracy aforesaid; that several of the members of the Federal
reserve advisory council own stock in the National City Bank of New
York and the First National Bank of New York, they being the two
banks charged hereinbefore with being parties to the said conspiracy,
and said members also own stock and are interested in business
managed and controlled by the parties specifically named as the
conspirators in the paragraph hereinbefore designated as “First”;
that Paul M. Warburg, a member and vice governor of the Federal
Reserve Board, was at the time of the original formation of the
conspiracy aforesaid a party to the said conspiracy, and a partner
and member of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., one of the
conspirators; that each of the members of the Federal Reserve Board
and of the Federal reserve advisory council are associated with and
form a part of a group of promoters and speculators, the individual
members of which reside in various parts of the United States,
principally in the large cities, and a few of them live in Europe,
which said group individually and collectively deal in credits,
stocks, bonds, securities, and various promoting enterprises from
which they have made billions of dollars in profits, and still
operate and propose to continue their operations for the purpose of
making still greater profits upon their future dealings; that in
further pursuance of their said purpose, they joined in the original
conspiracy aforesaid and it was planned as a part of the said
original conspiracy to create several great business and financial
centers in different parts of the United States in order to
facilitate and celerify a coordination of all big business and all
financial control, for the benefit of the said conspirators in
carrying out their plan of personal gain in contravention to the
public welfare; that said group instigated the campaign which finally
resulted in the passage of the Federal reserve act; that in the
administration of said act by the said five active working members of
the Federal Reserve Board, and through the influence exercised over
them by the members of the Federal reserve advisory council, and
collectively all of the members and membership of both the Federal
Reserve Board and of the Federal reserve advisory council, a part of
and influenced by said larger “group” in this paragraph
designated as having joined in the conspiracy aforesaid, the said
five active working members of the Federal Reserve Board, each
individually and all collectively, at all times since they became
members of the said Federal Reserve Board, knowingly and
intentionally have been improperly influenced by the said “group,”
and because of such influence have failed to administer the Federal
reserve act in accordance with the spirit, letter, and intent of
Congress and the President when the act was passed; but, on the
contrary, the said five active working members of the Federal Reserve
Board hereinbefore specifically named as such, with intent to evade
and set aside by “administration” all the purposes of Congress
and of the President in the passage and approval of the act, and of
the act itself, have administered, and are now administering, the
Federal reserve act with the intent to coordinate “big business”
and “speculation” for the benefit of the said “group” of
operators and speculators hereinbefore designated as having taken
part in the original conspiracy; that said National City Bank
hereinbefore named, in which many of the other conspirators own
stock, acts as the “official mouthpiece” for them all, to give
technical information to enable them all to act in concert; that to
facilitate its distribution said bank issues a monthly bulletin; that
in its February, 1917, bulletin, in an article dealing with the
present plethora of money and credit available, among other “tips”
intended for the conspirators to act upon, is the following - and I
would like the House to hear it - this is what is contained in the
bulletin which the National City Bank issued:
Under the
circumstances money promises to be in abundant supply, but if bankers
have a proper regard for their responsibilities it will not be
correspondingly cheap. Compensatory rates for money and ample
reserves should be consistently maintained.
That said bulletin
was sent to the Federal Reserve Board, to all the Federal reserve
banks, to all the larger National and State banks and trust
companies, in order to “tip” off to the conspirators and those
acting in concert to tighten the rates of interest; that such “tips”
are a common practice and do prevent the reduction of interest rates
to borrowers for legitimate business, contrary to the intent and
purpose of Congress an the President and in contravention of the act
itself and to the enormous loss of the people and injury to the
general welfare.
Seventh. That there
are approximately 20,000 State banks and trust companies in the
United States, incorporated and organized under the State laws of the
respective States in which their offices and places of business are
located, and doing a general banking business, State and interstate,
many of which are eligible to became members of the Federal Reserve
System, and many not now eligible could become so without an increase
of their capitalization; that of those now eligible and that could
quality for
membership in the Federal Reserve system without an increase of their
capital, they have more than half of the capitalization of all the
banks not now included in the Federal Reserve System; that the
capitalization of State banks and trust companies which are not
members of the Federal Reserve System exceeds the capital of the
banks which are members of the Federal Reserve System; that the
governors and other high and administrative officials of the 12
Federal reserve banks, through their influence with member banks,
wittingly or unwittingly, but most of them wittingly, became
accessories to the said conspiracy of the said persons and parties
named in these articles of impeachment in the paragraph herein
designated as “First” and have caused a boycott of all banks not
members of the Federal Reserve System by influencing the member banks
to hamper, inconvenience, and annoy the patrons of the nonmember
banks by discrimination against them in the clearing of checks drawn
upon them and otherwise; that they threaten and seek to cajole the
nonmember banks in an attempt to force them to become members of the
Federal Reserve System; that the said five active working members of
the Federal Reserve Board are cognizant of the same; that the intent,
purpose, and aim of each and all of the said conspirators aforesaid
is to compel the State banks to join the Federal Reserve System for
the purpose of bringing the said banks under the jurisdiction of the
Federal Reserve Board in order that all of the banks, National and
State, may become one gigantic combination with an absolute and
complete monopoly and have the power of exploiting the people for
the benefit of the conspirators aforesaid.
Eighth. That
Congress in creating the Federal Reserve Board had in mind, and it is
the spirit of the Federal reserve act, that the said board should
keep a guardian watch over the operations of the banking and currency
system and report to Congress and the country from time to time such
facts and occurrences relating to banking and currency as affect the
business of the people in trade and commerce exchanges, domestic and
foreign, so that Congress should receive information that would give
to Congress the facts upon which to base any necessary amendments to
the act in order to make it responsive to the general welfare; that,
contrary to the spirit of the Federal Reserve act,
the aforesaid five
active working members of the Federal Reserve Board have willfully
failed to keep the public and Congress informed of the inflation of
bank credits and the effect of it that has taken place under the
“administration” of the said act, and in violation of the spirit
thereof said members have conspired with the members of the Federal
reserve advisory council and their business associates hereinbefore
named and have aided and abetted in a conspiracy to a systematic
inflation of bank credits for the benefit of the said conspirators
and against the public welfare; that in consequence of said unlawful
acts and misfeasance in office of the said members of the Federal
Reserve Board the banks have, for private gain, increased the bank
credits of the country since the passage of said act approximately
seven thousand millions of dollars and without effecting a
corresponding reduction in the interest rate, thus increasing the
aggregate amount of interest paid by the people to the said banks
equal to that charged upon said sum; that the effect of the inflation
of bank credits has been and is to also increase speculative credits
enormously more than equal to the inflation of bank credits, and that
such increase since the Federal reserve act took effect has been
billions of dollars; that the increase in the aggregate sum of
interest paid to the banks upon the said inflated bank credits and
the increase caused by the said inflation in the speculative values
upon commodities required to supply the necessities of life for the
people has been many billions of dollars, which have been added to
the cost of living for the people to pay; that said increase in the
cost of living is mainly the profits that the conspirators have added
to their individual fortunes to the equivalent loss of the people
generally and to the Government as well.
Ninth. That as part
of the said conspiracy and in furtherance of the same the said
aforesaid conspirators, in violation of the Nation’s heretofore
established economic policy of conservation of material and natural
resources, conspired with European speculators to draw upon the
material resources of this Nation for export with no correlation
between the value of the materials exported and the value of the
materials imported; that in consequence of the conspiracy to affect
said export of material resources belonging to this Nation and to
the people of it approximately eight thousand millions of dollars in
value of the material resources have been exported since the war in
Europe began; that as a result thereof the said conspirators acted
with the said five members of the Federal Reserve Board in
manipulating bank credits, and through credits the markets increased
the cost to American consumers in the same period approximately
sixteen thousand millions of dollars in excess of the real values,
which extra cost has mainly been the profits that have been added to
the fortunes of the aforesaid conspirators; that as an additional and
future loss to the people of this Nation in consequence of the facts
aforesaid, the natural material resources of the Nation are forever
less, and the costs made forever higher that they would be if trade
and commerce were not manipulated through a false administration of
finances.
Tenth. That to
further carry out the said conspiracy the aforesaid conspirators
have, ever since the Federal reserve act took effect, sought to
influence, and in fact have influenced, said five members of the
Federal Reserve Board in an attempt to further deceive Congress to
secure legislation granting to the said board enlarged powers of
“administration”; that in the Sixty-third Congress the said
board, concealing the real purpose to aid said conspirators, deceived
the Senate Banking and Currency Committee to get it to report for
passage the then Senate bill 6505, and it passed the Senate and
subsequently came before the House Banking and Currency Committee and
was favorably reported, your relator, however, filing a minority
report in opposition. Later, on the floor of the House, the chairman
of the Banking and Currency Committee withdrew action on the bill;
that the aim of said bill was to give the Federal Reserve Board
greater “administrative” power over the gold supply, so that it
could, whenever the conspirators aforesaid wished it, inflate still
further the banking credit by an issue of the Federal reserve notes
for the benefit of said conspirators; that again in this Sixty-
fourth Congress said five active working members of the Federal
Reserve Board alleged, repeatedly sought the House Banking and
Currency Committee to report a bill giving greater “administrative”
powers to said board than is authorized by the original act; in fact,
to give said board power to force from banks all over the country the
gold in their vaults and into the 12 Federal reserve banks, there to
form a basis upon which to issue still more Federal reserve notes and
further inflate credit without causing a reduction of interests that
in the aggregate would equal the charge made on the inflated
currency, but serving mainly as a guaranty to reenforce the
conspirators hereinbefore named in exploiting of the people for
private gain.
Eleventh. That the
Federal reserve act obligates the United States to redeem in gold at
the United States Treasury all Federal reserve notes, and as a part
of the said conspiracy and in furtherance of the same, and to extend
the speculation of the operators and perpetrators of the said
conspiracy to include Europe and other foreign territory, they, most
of them being international as well as domestic bankers, seek to
dominate the relations of the United States with foreign countries
and to selfishly influence the same by means of the control of
finances, and in furtherance of said branch of their speculations
have conspired with the said five active working members of the
Federal Reserve Board to secure aid from the Federal Reserve System
for said selfish purposes and not in the interest of the public, the
conspirators in connivance with the said five active working members
of the Federal Reserve Board had the said board select and appoint,
through the Federal reserve bank of New York, the so-called Bank of
England as its agent, thus putting the credit of the Government of
the United States back of this foreign corporation, organized for
private gain, which is no longer able to make payments in gold and
fails to give a statement of its true conditions; that said Federal
Reserve Board is threatening to permit and also to render aid to the
international bankers in America who dominate the banking system, to
enter into further entangling alliances with bankrupt countries of
Europe at the very time this Government contemplates issuing hundreds
of millions of dollars of interest-bearing bonds upon the credit of
the people of the Nations to meet the Government expenses.
Twelfth. That during
the Civil War the Government of the United States issued money
commonly called “greenbacks”; the same being issued upon the
credit of the people of the Nation; that of said “greenbacks” so
issued there have been ever since their issue and now are outstanding
and in general circulation based upon the credit of the people of the
United States $ 346,681,016, for which a reserve of $ 150,000,000 in
gold is held by the Government to guarantee their redemption if
demanded; that said circulating “greenbacks” have already saved
the Government from paying approximately $ 1,000,000,000 interest
during the time they have been in circulation and are now saving the
Government approximately $ 6,000,000 annually; that in furtherance of
said conspiracy in these articles of impeachment alleged and as a
part thereof, the conspirators have sought and by secret connivance
now seek to have the said “greenbacks” retired and the $
150,000,000 of gold guarantee placed in the Federal reserve banks on
which to base the loaning of “bank credits” as a substitute for
the money owned by the people; that if the Federal reserve banks are
allowed to secure possession of said gold, when the time comes that
the conspirators aforesaid shall be able to use additional bank
credits to their advantages in exploiting the people, the same would
become the basis for additional bank inflation, directly and
indirectly, to the extent of over a billion dollars upon which the
banks would collect a great sum of interest, and the speculators
would scalp even greater profits from additional manipulation of the
markets, all of which would be added to the cost of living for the
people to pay.
Thirteenth. That in
furtherance of the said aforesaid conspiracy and as a part of the
same the said five active working members of the Federal Reserve
Board, in their capacity as members, have arbitrarily all times and
with intent to prevent the legitimate business interests of the
country securing the advantages that Congress sought to give by the
passage of the Federal reserve act, and in connivance with the big
reserve and central reserve banks controlled by the conspirators
aforesaid, established rediscount rates for member banks desiring to
borrow from Federal reserve banks above the rates charged by the
reserve and central reserve banks, which creates an excuse
for the member
banks in the country to charge higher rates of interest to legitimate
borrowers than they otherwise would; that the interest rates charged
by the reserve and central reserve banks, on the one hand, and the
higher rates charged by the Federal reserve banks on the other hand,
is maintained at certain times when the conspirators aforesaid desire
to draw the reserves of the country banks to the reserve and central
reserve cities for the interest that these reserve banks pay on
deposit balances and in anticipation of times when the country banks
may wish to rediscount paper with said banks; that by following the
arbitrary practice of rediscounts aforesaid the said conspirators are
enabled to and do go on with their speculations, manipulate the
markets, and exploit the people, and whenever they find themselves in
financial stress they can raise the rates of interest in the reserve
and central reserve banks, which they control, above the Federal
reserve bank discount rates, thus forcing the country banks, which
may have rediscounted with reserve banks in order to give
accommodations to their borrowers, to rediscount with the Federal
reserve banks to enable them to repay the reserve and central reserve
banks, in order to create free money and credit for said conspirators
to carry on their speculations; that the Federal reserve act contains
several provisions which when applied under the “administrative”
power of the Federal Reserve Board serve as a means of taking or
imposing a toll in the nature of discriminatory interest rates in
order to force a shift of money and credits from one section of the
country to another, or out of the country and to foreign countries;
that this discriminatory power vested in the Federal Reserve Board
is willfully abused by the said five active working members of the
said board for the benefit, and in the interest of the said aforesaid
conspirators; that the people of the United States have been injured
to the extent for several billions of dollars by reason thereof.
Fourteenth. That in
furtherance of said aforesaid conspiracy and to give the said
aforesaid conspirators complete practical power to carry out and put
into effect their purpose of making the masses of mankind absolutely
dependent upon “big business,” and in order to create industrial
slaves of the masses, the said aforesaid conspirators did conspire
and now conspire to have the Federal reserve act “administered”
so as to enable the conspirators to coordinate all kinds of “big
business,” and to keep themselves in control of “big business,”
in order to amalgamate all of the “trusts” into one great trust
in restraint and control of trade and commerce, and thus be able to
exploit the masses and take from them their earnings, except what
they would require for bare subsistence; that to that end and to give
them power to accomplish the same said conspirators have marshaled
all of the different kinds of “big business” and induced those in
control to use their means and whatever kind of patronage and favors
they have to give in such way as to promote the objects and purposes
of said conspirators and to enslave the masses of humanity; that at
the same time that the said conspirators marshal their own “big
business” supporters by a coordination of all their interests they
have used every trick an subterfuge possible to create friction among
the masses and divide them into hostile contending factions, thus
keeping the masses from coordinating their affairs to promote the
general welfare; that the said aforesaid five active working members
of the Federal Reserve Board have all the time, by a willful and
wrongful “administration” of the Federal reserve act, aided and
abetted the said aforesaid conspirators in promoting and carrying out
the objects of their said conspiracy and have refused, and failed to
so administer the Federal reserve act as to have the same promote and
operate in favor of the general welfare.
Fifteenth. That the
Federal reserve act is void and unconstitutional, but that,
notwithstanding, the conspirators aforesaid have so manipulated
things as to prevent the question of constitutionality of the act
from being brought before the courts.
CHARLES
A. LINDBERGH
Mr.
SHERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the gentleman a question.
Mr.
LINDBERGH. I suppose my privilege stops now, does it?
The
SPEAKER. It does.
Mr.
LINDBERGH. I ask for five minutes in which to answer the question of
the gentleman.
The
SPEAKER. The gentleman asks five minutes. Is there objections ?
Mr.
SHERWOOD. I understand the gentleman to say the National City Bank
now controls the official action of the Federal Reserve Board.
Mr.
LINDBERGH. I said they have that effect, along with the other parties
associated with them.
Mr.
SHERWOOD. In case the Senate should sit as an impeachment court, you
have evidence to establish that charge?
Mr
LINDBERGH. I want to say this; I have spent enough time and made
enough investigation of this case to know that I can demonstrate -
not accurately, I may say, but to a mathematical certainty - that the
charges in this impeachment are substantially true. I may not be
able to establish by direct proof that some of these meetings to
which the impeachment refers were held, but that the charges are
substantially true, I will certainly show.
Mr.
SHERWOOD. That is, by substantial evidence?
Mr.
LINDBERGH. By substantial evidence, and by effects which the business
of this country demonstrates beyond question.
Now,
Mr. Speaker, I ask leave to insert, following the reading of these
articles, my remarks upon them and the questions that are
incidentally involved in the impeachment articles.
The
SPEAKER. The gentleman form Minnesota asks unanimous consent to
extend his remaks in the Record. Is there objection?
Mr.
SIEGEL. I object.
The
SPEAKER. The gentleman from New York objects.
Mr.
KITCHIN. Mr. Chairman, I move that the impeachment articles be
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and on that I demand the
previous question.
The
SPEAKER. The gentleman from North Carolina moves that the impeachment
articles be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and on that
he demands the previous question.
The
previous question was ordered.
The
SPEAKER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to refer.
The
question was taken, and the motion was agreed to.
