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(,J mm mu Going: off the gold standard & blunder. Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on itemising and Currency of the Unitca States Senate, 1935. pages 683-684. ^Senator Giac, > Vastly more fear ana more wide-spread fear occurred by talcing us off the statutory gold standard than would have prevailed had we remained on the statutory gold standard* "Mr. Millsr. I have no ...asitation in saying th-1 I agree -with you 100 percent. "•••iifr. Miiler, I thina: the inobt uerious blunaer that any country can make in the monetary field is voluntarily, by its ovjn action, to suspend the gol& standard. I think we would have been pushed off of the gold ataadard ' y the pressure of events, p but there V M no occasion for us voluntariL^ doing it. Events would have done it, ana M would have been off the gola standard «ith, I tiiink, a vastly better national prestige today than we have, I thimj: wisdom, foresight, would have seen that ana would have let the natur&i course of evento take place. In other vordij play the gold •tanitiirt to a finish, oven tiiou^i it takes the Xaat dollai1 of gold you h£ive» it tauni that va ?/ere in a creditor position ami that the ^oic would coiae back here after th^ frantic fear liad playua itself tc a finish.n Mature« not raan-mde oj.ans. the cuu-e for the depression. Hearings before the Go.imittee on Banking ana Currency of the United Statea Senate, 1932, pi:,gss 225 and 239 • W I say tot the tiae being1 keep haudl off of the sick patientfcoidotay out of the oick room except to feed, and bathe and keep the patient varm. n iien£~tor Brooidia^'t. i^et him aie? B Mr. Miller. He ?.ill not die. i 8attator Blaine. iho is the doctor that you vill leave in charge of the aick patient? "Mr. iuiilur. Nature is doing her woi*k. She i u , be our main ait reliance. Let us not ttadaraatlBata our recuperative po% ers. You can interfere and medaie, but in my judgjaftSt v.itn very j.ittie good result. Wa ara biiapj-y repeating our (MB history over again. V e have nevor Lad a breakdown that haa not surprised us, and ; our resort inevitably la to A a t I call baby poychoxogy. le -2take resort particularly to cheap money devices in the hope ane: even in the belief that they wtXX somehow or other wipe out mistakes, forgive aebtt>, end t«t us all in ^oocl shape for a forward movement.* "•••I hope you ao notftlMQAftrotand- y position there. a it are trying to Mtltt nature but X dc not t i i c th&t this assisthri ance aione will accomplish results any more than I think it is possible to make the weather change by manipulating the barometer,11 Board shoulc select its ox,n ciiaiman• The Banking B i U Considered in the Light of 1927-1929," June 2A. 1935. ptgos 37-3o. tiien can the m banking legisle^tion do to improve the situation of the Federal iteserve iioard and insui^e • more competent perfonimnce by the Federal Reserve System in the field of open-market poliqy should the Federal Reserve Board be investou v.ith ultimate txuthority and respont3ibii.ity? n yfy i M w r is to make the Board mast..r in its own house by giving it an assured position of complete inuepanaence both in lav/ anc. in fact. So far as can be aone by statute !a.v;t it should be iiaaunised against any form of interference, pressure or influence, be its source financial or political. "In oraer to give the Federal reserve Boari a position ay nearly lttMBM from such influences ac possible, I have proposed that meiabera of the Board should, if not Iliwiiltoiji then in due coui'se, be •jppoiated for longer !)>!•• of service, that they should not be removable except by impeachment, that nembers reaching the age of seventy shouiu DQ given en aliovan .e on volunttay retireiaont, that tho title of the Feaerd Bifirfl Board should be changed to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve ^system, and finally that the executive \uttA of the 3oard shoula be a chairmen elected by the Board instead of a Governor appointeu bj the P
