The R.F.C. Should Reconstruct; But That's What It's Not Doing
Cohen, Joseph E.
By Joseph E. Cohen The R.F.C. Should Reconstruct; But That's What It's Not Doing General Dawes Admits Bankers Aren't Playing Fair— Workert Should Be Set to Work at Reel Wages —Where to...
...Where that is to begin is with ths providing of just incomes to ths great bulk of the people...
...Leading the march of the ex" ports before the Senate committee, Bernard M. Baruch dared to say: "We have not yet taken one really constructive step...
...Decent standards would be maintained...
...But the entire industrial system is cracked...
...What do you say...
...He puffed hi* cigar, mad* a ring of smoke and added, "Doesn't that prove that surgery waa th* first...
...If you fail, you're out th* fifty and your chance to be accommodated here...
...1981 A. D. holds a nasty promise...
...Mr, Smith was taken aback at the proposition at first...
...Such testimony as that of General Charles G. Dawe* wipes out any pretense of some banker* to play a fair gam* with the government for its money...
...Started Wrong Small wonder there is talk .of finishing it forthwith...
...Of course, he expressed his sorrow and ignorance regarding the banker's glass eye, and all that, and then accepted the proposal by putting up his money against that, of th* viee-president...
...The crestfallen doctor and the elated engineer, both turned on the banker, who, to their mind, certainly had no show in this game...
...Railroads, insurance companies and th* hanks would be reconstructed by government aid...
...There will be no reconstruction until everyone Is allowed to work snd every family entitled to buying power to consume the tremendous wealth created...
...Wages are still tumbling...
...The petty cash thus far returned by the railroads for the many millions they borrowed i* another part of the same'answer...
...What could it be V-Everything...
...Tell me then, who came first, the engineer or the rib-scraper...
...queried the banker...
...Prevailing union rates would be adhered to...
...By sticking to ths rigid nil* of conservative, old-line investments, snd methods of rigid protection of it* depositor* money enabled th* Amalgamated Bank of New York to pull through these years of stress and storm, end to remain as almost th* solitary example of what a small hank tan snd must do to live and carry on safely in thi* Jungle ef unscrupulous, greedy finance,«•, . . i ».!/ We might proudly ssy here that it has carried en so wtH because a Socialist is its president, end s number ef honest and abl* union official* are directing Ite destinies...
...So money was poured down the old well...
...What a blow that wast Applied to the R. F. C, it hsd th* full force of truth back of it...
...I netd ten thousand dollars for sixty days to finance my spring buying," Mr...
...Oh, eerily enough, old boy, easily enough," Mr...
...Existing assets were frozen...
...Smith stated calmly...
...In every section there is the tramp of idle thousands begging lor food and impoverished farmers claiming legislative relief...
...But a romance with a very sad end...
...If only it would reconstruct...
...That fond offspring of a Hoover fancy is well named "The Romance Corporation...
...But That's What It's Not Doing General Dawes Admits Bankers Aren't Playing Fair— Workert Should Be Set to Work at Reel Wages —Where to Begin...
...Whether through this corporation or any other governmental agency, Federal funds must start with bettering the condition of the masses...
...The few that can appear here are not half bad...
...Th* masonry will hove to be new, solid and permanent...
...Instead of business being any better off, only the bankers have been getting their money back after the government borrowed it at a high rate of interest in its bond issue to get funds for the R. F. C. As for labor: If any numb-r have been put to work through the open-handed generosity of .the corporation, th* proof is sadly missing...
...Prices are sinking...
...a r*freshlng antidote for the poison of the Master tie) press...
...And misery is deepening and growing more widespread and terrifying...
...It will have to begin at the bottom...
...I hate td turn you down with just a 'no' for an answer, however...
...Some of th* terrible heresies committed by salesmen, buyer*, agents, and white-collar lad* by the tales they toll can-.not be re-told here because of postal laws and general statute* regulating th* limits that a publication must observe as to ordinary decent language...
...The thought was that all the industrial pump needed was priming with ready cash...
...What th* broken down wall of wealth-production needs I* reconstruction...
...Before production raeches the top where it can hire men and yield earnings, it is seeping out on all sides through channels in the subsoil...
...The patient would not die, but It would never again be the same...
...Strang* enough, you're the first man In twenty that has guessed right...
...Said the surgeon, "Why we fellows pursue the oldest profession known to mankind...
...The R. F. C. will have to reconstruct...
...Does not the good book tell of how the Lord came down and took a rib out of Adam, and faahloned him a mat* thereof...
...1798 A. D. brought • bloody upheaval...
...The vice-president greeted him with the usual good fellowship, asked him to sit down and handed out a cigar with generous abandon...
...Well, Mr...
...But the banker, hooied his thumbs under his vest arm-holes, took a deep draw at his cigar, and blandly remarked, "Before Adam and his rib, before th* creation of the cosmos, the same Good Book says there was Chaos, and wherever there is Chaos there are bankers...
...By S. A. DeWitt TTHERB I* a veritable flood of jokes shout hankers over * the land...
...It will have to be firm In requiring that money it advances goes for industrial improvement...
...The vice-president jerked, fumbled and then stiffened In his seat...
...What public works th* government seta out to do would be backed by th* resources and confidence of th* richest nation on earth...
...Must Pay Resl Wage* Real reconstruction would p*ay reconstruction wages on all work don* through government money...
...Smith did gtt th* loan...
...Smith...
...That means, building up hte buying power of the public by putting out more spending money...
...And so that in the larger sens* they really ere not Unset*, aa we understand them, at alL • e e...
...With just ons or two brilliant exceptions, labor banks failed to reach anywhere near the purposes upon which they first set forth...
...Th* story ends there, and one wonder* whether Mr...
...If you guess right I'll lend you the ten thousand...
...They required thawing out...
...And th* skating of insurance companies, close to ths danger signal helps make th* picture one of distress without relief...
...Th* government would take hold where the industrial and financial lords fell down...
...I know you to he a pretty good sport, and I'll give you a sporting chance...
...Of cours* that wa* due to th* fact, perhaps, that labor unions and party affiliates were entering this sacred field...
...There would b* no starvation rations cruelly labeled "Relief...
...Smith quietly replied...
...I looked and I looked end when 1 discovered the eye that showed the faintest gleam of human kindness, I knew I had th* right on...
...Well, well, that is a strange request In these dsyt, Mr...
...TO turn a famous saying of history to good use: What is the Reconstruction Finance Corporation ?—Nothing, for the people...
...That wa* soma engineering feat, I'll say, and that was long before the surgical operation on Adam...
...THE CHATTERBOX Its Smart to Kid the bankers Now That th* World Has Fallmn On Evil Days -But Once on a Time...
...For all time to come, it would be a public servant...
...I'll bet you fifty dollar* you cannot toll which one of my eyes is the glass one...
...Then there is one about the good bank customer who came in to borrow 610,000 from bis bank...
...He then proceeded to peer intently into the banker's unwinking eyes, and after a few moment* he exclaimed, "It is your left eye that's the glass one...
...Smith, what can we do for you today...
...Figure* of unemployment keep on shooting upward...
...One story, for example, has surgeon, an engineer and a banker in a hotel smoking room, discussing which of theirs was the most ancient profession...
...You win of course, but pray tell m* how did you arrive at your conclusion...
...If the old well can be rebuilt the same soft clay cannot be used to plaster the walls...
...He showed real surprise...
...That scheme never started right...
...The system did for ;them what It to disastrously accomplished for , th* out-and-out capitalist banks...
...V i, When on* considers that th* worst d*fam*r* of these honorable folk arc th* very ones who used to fawn before their deik* and hover worshipplngly over every utterance and gesture they ¦ mad* in th* glad day* before th* big smash-up...
...Why even among our own Socialists, I can remember six or seven years back how any mention I mad* In my column in jest or ironic slapstick about them, eyebrows lifted in slanted disagreement, and made silent warning to go easy...
...And that sort of happening bodes little good to the sacred institution* of America, A scant seven score years separates the advent of Voltaire's quips and jibes at kings and priestcraft, snd ths present public jeering at the [OswowhU* h see si of the average man...
...The gold of the R. F. C. has turned to moonshine, so far as the people go...
...Does Not Reconstruct The Reconstruction Finance Corporation Is not reconstructing...
...Especially since an up-to-the-minute business man like you should know that we have been out of the lending market for the past twelve months...
...That Is where to begin.,, > ¦i •f ..-T-*.-»-t Oi villa Hatawy, Chicago, writ**: "I have long read The New Leader end have found It...
...Her* the engineer interrupted, "Aw shucks, thst same Good Book tells how in ths beginning the Lord took six daya to create heaven and earth...
Vol. 15 • February 1933 • No. 8
