They think solely
in terms of money. They think of a factory as making money, not goods.
They want to watch the money, not the efficiency of production. They
cannot comprehend that a business never stands still, it must go forward
or go back. They regard a reduction in prices as a throwing away of
profit instead of as a building of business.
Bankers play far too great a part in the conduct of industry. Most
business men will privately admit that fact. They will seldom publicly
admit it because they are afraid of their bankers. It required less
skill to make a fortune dealing in money than dealing in production. The
average successful banker is by no means so intelligent and resourceful
a man as is the average successful business man. Yet the banker through
his control of credit practically controls the average business man.
There has been a great reaching out by bankers in the last fifteen or
twenty years--and especially since the war--and the Federal Reserve
System for a time put into their hands an almost limitless supply of
credit.
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