Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/215

 finds that when he does condescend to give a few facts they look remarkably like figments. "It is," he says (pages 18, 19), "on record that a group of American financiers on one occasion, having sold British and bought American securities in advance, removed £11,000,000 from the Bank of England and put it into circulation in America, with the result that the prices of the securities they had sold fell greatly in value and those they had bought rose correspondingly." Surely when a distinguished Professor is lecturing to groups of young students he should not make statements of this kind without some attempt at corroborative evidence. Where is this amazing fairy tale "on record"? The Professor admits that this instance is an extreme one, but goes on to say that "when one inquires further as to who is in charge of the calibration arrangements that fix the purchasing power of money much that has hitherto seemed inexplicable about our time becomes clear. These powers are wielded, by private banks, like the Bank of England, in the steadfast interests not of the community but of the creditors of the community. Whereas no changes of revenue, so long as the currency remains constant, affect the relative proportion of the whole revenue secured by creditors, any increase of currency diminishes