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February 26, 1941
Mr. Ransom

Minutes of January 22, 1941,

Mr. Eccles

In connection with the revision of the minutes of the meeting of January 22, I would like to suggest to you a modification of
your revision which I hope will be consistent with your position as
well as with my recollection of the long distance telephone conversation you had with me respecting the meetings at the Treasury and th©
RFC subsequent to the morning session of March 10, 1958. Will you see
whether the following would serve as a basis for satisfying us both?
After the word "Congress." at the @n& of the 9th line from
the bottom of your memorandum to Mr, Carpenter, strike out the balance
of your Biemorandu® and substitute the following!
In connection with the President*s monopoly message, it had
been indicated to Mr, Hansom and the other maabsrs of the subcommittee that the President contemplated at all events a
statement on bank holding companies which would include a
death sentence and that %b» committee was not asked to express views as to whether the President should include a death
sentence in his message but only to recoEKaend language in which
the bank holding company problem, including the death sentence,
should be stated. Mr. Ransoe said further that, so far as he
was personally concerned, he could not take any position regarding the problems involved that was in conflict with the report
of the subcommittee including the recommended text for the
President's monopoly message. He pointed out that there were
substantial differences between the then pending legislation on
the subject and the nwi bill; also that the subcocimittee's report
did not cover all of the matters in the legislation in question
and showed disagreement on the part of the committee respecting
some important phases of the problem.
You w i U not® that the last two sentences of the above contain
slight modifications from the last sentence in your memorandiaa to Mr.
Carpenter. These changes are for the purpose of relating your comltoent
to the subcommittee's entire report rather than to the recommended text
for the President alone. In the light of the reference to branch banking in Jesse Jones1 report for the subcommittee and considering that
reference in connection with these words used by the President, Htiae
enough for it to be done in an orderly manner &nd without causing inconvenience to cotssunities served t$r holding company banks", I take it
that your conaaitcaent is conditioned on some modifications in Federal
branch banking statutes. It is pertinent to point out al^o that the




Kr. Ransom - 2

February 26, 1941

Secretary's letter to the President transmitted Wr, Jones1 report
for thn subcoEEiittee so that the President himself was put on
notice that the members of the suheoraaittee all agreed that any
death sentence for bank holding companies, when imposed, would
require a consideration of branch banking. I feel that this
aspect of the situation is important inasmuch as you have included
in your suggested amendment of the minutes the statement that you
had at the time informed the other aeabors of the Interdepartmental
Caoasittee that you had "no reason to anticipate U&at the 3oard, as
a whole, would have any reason to take issue with the views that he
(meaning yourself) had expressed•**

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