First: that within the
nation itself the tendency of financial control is toward its largest
centralized banking institutions--either a government bank or a closely
allied group of private financiers. There is always in every nation a
definite control of credit by private or semi-public interests. Second:
in the world as a whole the same centralizing tendency is operative. An
American credit is under control of New York interests, as before the
war world credit was controlled in London--the British pound sterling
was the standard of exchange for the world's trade.
Two methods of reform are open to us, one beginning at the bottom and
one beginning at the top. The latter is the more orderly way, the former
is being tried in Russia. If our reform should begin at the top it will
require a social vision and an altruistic fervour of a sincerity and
intensity which is wholly inconsistent with selfish shrewdness.
The wealth of the world neither consists in nor is adequately
represented by the money of the world. Gold itself is not a valuable
commodity.
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