Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Part 2

From our nation's very beginnings, powerful people with money and influence have striven for more power, influence and the infinite wealth that control over banking and government brings. Honest public servants, and some not so honest, have been warning us every inch of the way.

"I hope that we shall crush in its infancy the aristocracy of the monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson.

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent government from wasting the labor of the people under pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. " Thomas Jefferson.

James Madison was known as the 'father of the Constitution'. He was the lead actor in getting the Constitution formulated and accepted by the Continental Congress. He also warned of powerful influences which constantly seek more power, influence, control and near infinite wealth.

"There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses."

President Andrew Jackson nearly lost his re-election because of his fight to prevent the re-chartering of the Second National Bank. The banking interests tried their best to outmaneuver, degrade and smear the President, and nearly succeeded. But Jackson won, and the nation did quite well without an official central bank for the next nearly 80 years.

President Jackson, commenting on the Second National Bank in 1832 said, "You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God I will rout you out."

Jackson considered the ending of the Second National Bank, and its control of the money supply, to be his greatest achievement as President.

President Lincoln, when trying to figure how to finance the War Between the States, had the Congress create Federal Notes, known as "greenbacks' because of the green ink used on the reverse side of the Notes. All of these Notes were redeemed at full value after the war.

President Lincoln said, in 1865, "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for for the safety of my country. As a result of the war (the 'Civil War' he started), corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed."(emphasis added)

Thomas Edison, inventor of many things, was also a student of power and politics. He said this concerning money and the power over money creation.

“If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good also. The difference between the bond and the bill is the bond lets the money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way. It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 millions in bonds and not $30 millions in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the users and the other helps the people.”

Mr. Edison was assuming that the 'dollar bill' or 'currency' that would be created would be as it was under Lincoln, by the Congress, and not by 'borrowing' from a national (or any other) bank.

Theodore Roosevelt, though a 'progressive' in many areas, saw the increasing power of the money, manufacturing and corporate entities, and watched the growth of their power, especially over government, with extreme caution.

He noted, "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task if the statesman of the day." (Theodore Roosevelt, April 19, 1906)

President Roosevelt also said of the corporations, "There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done." (Theodore Roosevelt, Address, Washington, D. C., 1909)

"In no other country was such power held by the men who had gained these fortunes, the mighty industrial overlords... The Government was practically impotent... Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth." (Theodore Roosevelt in the Saturday Evening Post)

"These International Bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which comprise the invisible government." (Theodore Roosevelt, The New York Times, March 27, 1922)

On the subject of the news operations being controlled by the corporations and banking elite, John Swinton, former Chief of Staff for the New York Times, and considered the 'Dean of his profession' by his peers, had this to say at the New York Press Club.

"There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly to keep my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, you know it and I know it so what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks - they pull the strings - we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men...we are intellectual prostitutes."

I have long contended that the major media are the lap dogs of corporate America and the federal government.

John Hylan, Mayor of New York City, made this statement to the New York Times, March 6, 1922.

"The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation... It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.

"To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller - Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes."

We need to take more than a casual glance at the federal bank business, because it is business. The Federal Reserve Bank is neither federal nor does it contain much in the way of 'reserves'. It is a privately owned bank that creates 'money' out of thin air, and then loans it to the government at interest. That is where the 'national debt' came from that is so huge now it can never be paid off.

It has been claimed that Mayer Amschel Rothschild was the author of the following statement, "Let me issue and control a nation's currency and I care not who writes the laws." (www.azquotes.com) The banking interests took this up as their motto.

The original bill which would have created a privately owned and controlled central bank was called the Aldrich Act after its main author, Sen. Aldrich. He was one of the 'insiders' who participated in the secret meeting on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia, where the plans for the currency controlling central bank were finalized. But enough Congressmen caught wind of the real intent of that bill, and killed it. The full story of that conspiracy can be found in G. Edward Griffin's well documented book, 'The Creature from Jekyll Island'.

Not to be deterred from their goal of controlling the currency, the men behind the scenes created another bill, the Glass-Owen bill. Although it was offered as a completely different bill than the Aldrich bill, it was almost exactly the same. One banking insider, Paul Warburg, had this to say about the differences between the two bills. This statement was only sent to certain people.

"Brushing aside the external differences affecting the 'shells', we find the 'kernels' of the two systems very closely resembling and related to one another."

In other words, if we can't fool the Congressmen and the public with the first try, we'll offer something that appears different, but is not.

Alfred Crozier, an Ohio attorney who was called upon for his expert opinion on the Federal Reserve bill, had the following professional comments. And remember, these comments were made during the commentary period, before 'passage' of the Glass-Owen bill.

"The (Glass-Owen) bill... grants just what Wall Street and the big banks for twenty-five years have been striving for - private instead of public control of currency.

"It (the Glass-Owen Act which created the FED) does this as completely as the Aldrich Bill (which had been soundly defeated). Both measures rob the government and the people of all effective control over the public's money, and vest in the banks exclusively the dangerous power to make money among the people scarce or plenty (plentiful)."

As an example of the subterfuge involved from the very top of the political establishment, consider the following from a Congressman who fought this and other legal atrocities. He made this statement before the 'passage' of the Glass-Owen bill. And note that this Congressman was a Democrat!

"The Aldrich bill was condemned in the platform... (Wilson's first Presidential campaign platform)... The men who ruled the Democratic Party promised the people that if they were returned to power there would be no central bank established here while they held the reins of government.

"Thirteen months later that promise was broken, and the Wilson administration, under the tutelage of those sinister Wall Street figures who stood behind Colonel House (Edward Mandell House), established here in our free country the worm-eaten monarchical institution of the king's bank to control us from the top downward, and to shackle us from the cradle to the grave." Congressman Louis McFadden, D-Pa., Chair of the House Banking and Currency Committee from 1920 to 1933.

Congressman McFadden also said of the bank created by the Act, “A superstate controlled by bankers and international industrialists acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure.”

Congressman Charles A. Lindberg, R-Minn., made this statement on the very day the Glass-Owen bill was 'passed' under fraudulent conditions, December 22, 1913.

"This Act establishes the most gigantic trust in earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill."

Congressman Lindberg also said at the time, “The new law will create inflation whenever the trusts want inflation. From now on depressions will be scientifically created.”

This last statement proved all too true in 1929.

Congressman Lindberg and others never gave up on trying to inform the public on the dangers of the Federal Reserve Bank.

"This is the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any government that ever existed." (Congressman Charles Lindbergh, R-Minn)

There is good reason to believe that the "Act" (the Glass-Owens Act) was not legitimately passed by the Congress. The 'Act' was 'passed' by a select group of Senators who had been warned to remain in the Capital building after the Congressional session had been gaveled to a close. Most Congressmen and Senators had left town for the 'Christmas break'.

It was then, by prearrangement that the Glass-Owen Act was 'passed'. This was clearly a fraud. And the mere act of setting up this fake vote on the Bill is proof of a massive conspiracy.

Why the 'honest' Congressmen and Senators who had been hoodwinked and deprived of their right to vote on such an important issue did not loudly demand a removal or a simple cancellation of the Act continues to amaze honest men.

The plotters had to resort to outright conspiracy and fraud to get their bill 'passed', and their private bank created.

As one proof that this kind of lying and fraud has been repeatedly accomplished at the federal level, consider the "income tax" Amendment.

The book, The Law That Never Was, by Bill Benson and Martin "Red" Beckman is a research that proves that the Sixteenth Amendment was never ratified by the required number of States. The book carries complete documentation of all State ratifying votes and much more.

Federal Secretary of State at the time, Philander Knox, declared the Amendment had been legally passed, when he knew full well it had not been. He later admitted in a note that he had known all along that the Act had not gathered the required number of ratifying votes in the States.

Apparently you can fool most of the people much of the time.

General Smedley Butler was and remains the most decorated officer in U. S. Marine Corps history. He had to lie about his age to get into the Marines during the Spanish-American War. He fought in World War I. He fought in many ‘insurrections’ which were often in support of major corporations and against local governments and indigenous peoples. He later came to see that he, the military, the government and the people were being used by powerful non-governmental forces. His best known book is 'War Is A Racket', wherein he uncovers the evil intentions behind most wars.

General Butler had this to say about the 'power behind the scenes'; the invisible government warned about by Theodore Roosevelt.

“There has developed, through the past few years, a new Tory class, a group that believes that the nation, its resources and its man-power, was provided by the Almighty for its own special use and profit... On the other side is the great mass of the American people who still believe in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States.

"This Tory group, through its wealth, its power and its influence, has obtained a firm grip on the government to the detriment of our people and the well-being of our nation. We will prove to the world that we meant what we said, a century and a half ago - that this government, was instituted not only to secure our people the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but the right to eat and to all our willing millions the right to work.” (Smedley D. Butler in ;The Plot to Seize the White House;, Jules Archer, Skyhorse Publications, New York, p. 125)

Speaking on the issue of the mass media, “He warned veterans not to believe the propaganda capital circulates in the press, which he condemned as largely capitalist-controlled.” (ibid, p. 130)

President Wilson had repeatedly stated his fear of 'outsider' control of both the money supply and the government itself. Considering the following statements, thinking people must ask how Wilson was duped into signing that Bill into Law.

"The great monopoly in this country is the money monopoly. So long as it exists, our old variety of freedom and individual energy of development are out of the question." (Woodrow Wilson, 1911; quoted by Justice Brandeis, in 'Other People's Money')

"Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance.... When we resist...concentrations of power, we resist the powers of death, because concentration of power always precedes the destruction of human liberties." (Woodrow Wilson in an address at the New York Press Club, May 19, 1912)

"The masters of the government if the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States." (Woodrow Wilson, 1912-1913, Speeches, 'The New Federalist', Doubleday, 1913)

"There has come over the land that un-American set of conditions which enables a small number of men who control the government to get favors from the government; by those favors to exclude their fellows from equal business opportunity; by those favors to extend a network of control that will presently dominate every industry in the country, and so make men forget the ancient time when America lay in every hamlet, when America was to be seen in every fair valley." (Woodrow WIlson, 1912-1913 speeches, 'The New Freedom', Doubleday and Co. 1913)

"We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled governments in the civilized world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by a vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of men.

"Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." (Woodrow WIlson)

"...the growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men..." (Woodrow Wilson)

Later in his life, Wilson bitterly regretted having signed the Federal Reserve bill into "law", "I have unwittingly ruined my government." (Woodrow WIlson, 1924, commenting on his signing of the Federal Reserve into 'law')

Part 2