Private Control Quotes
The founder was Charles E. Coughlin, 1891-1979, a demagogic Catholic Priest who drafted the principles and invited others to join him. Hundreds of thousands did in this organization which began in idealism, and ended in scandal and hate mongering, so much so that Father Coughlin was ordered off the radio and out of politics by the Catholic Church. The National Union in 1936 had morphed into the Union Party which ran Presidential candidates in the 1936 election. The Coughlin and the Union were a mixture of Fascist and Socialist principles. The prohibition of private ownership of banks and utilities was one of the radical socialist notions.
Hamilton, then the Treasury Secretary, had proposed the creation of a national bank with the seemingly incredible notion of having it run by private individuals and not responsive to Congress. The experience of Europe and the individual states convinced Hamilton and some others that no government, monarchy or republic, could resist the temptation to print money rather than deal with basic economic problems. If in private hands, and least to protect their wealth, the bankers would not debase the national currency. Hamilton’s view actually prevailed with some Jacksonian adjustments and interruptions along the way. Today, the Federal Reserve Banks are to a great extent private. But neither Congress nor the President can control the money supply. There are some who object for just the reason that they feel that in a democracy all the levers of government should be under the control of the representatives of the people.
