CHAPTER VII 



"iVE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 



Carlyle wrote : "America is where they un- 

 dertake to amend fate and avert doomsday by 

 act of Congress," and an American authority has 

 written : 



"The history of our national economic and 

 financial policy since the Civil War is an almost 

 unbroken record of fatuous ignorance, empirical 

 experimentation, and insolent disregard of the 

 best established inductions of science." 



We have made all the mistakes that are hinted 

 at. The issue of National Bank notes was so 

 great an economic mistake that it doubled the 

 cost of the Civil War and the end is not yet. 

 Salmon P. Chase, the father of the National 

 Bank Act, declared that procuring its passage 

 was the greatest mistake of his life, that it had 

 built up a monopoly that affected every interest 

 in the country. 



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