-Caveat Lector-
Thank you, Howard, for the informative post on Harding. It was a sincere
question... and your response is well-stated and to the point.
His pardon of Debs must have been a controversial one... Having the
courage to pardon someone whose political philosophy one finds repugnant
required courage. So, in this respect, I find myself agreeing with you..
he must have had some measure of personal greatness.
I would agree with you that the creation of the Federal Reserve was a
mistake. You might find Lindbergh's speeches (the father of the aviator)
to be interesting reading.... He predicted the future economic history of
the country..and warned his fellow citizens what would happen if the Fed
was created. President Wilson did fall under the influence of Wall Street
influence.. I've read a great deal on the creation of the Federal Reserve
(Jekyll Island, the Aldrich Committee, the role of Col. House, Morgan and
Rockefeller). Of course, much of this material plays a crucial role in
conspiracy lore.
If you're interested in the period, I would recommend that you read the
testimony of a Philadelphia banker named Barker...who gave evidence before
a
Congressional hearing, claiming that the Panic of 1907 was orchestrated by
the Morgan interests (in other words, a conspiracy). His testimony was
denounced by then President Theodore Roosevelt... Strangely, the Barker
testimony has never surfaced in many books dealing with the creation of
the Fed.
In preparing a senior college paper on the Fed, I went back into the
Congressional Record...primary sources..... the debates on the creation of
a central bank for the country make for interesting reading.
Regards,
William
On Sun, 10 Jan 1999, Howard R. Davis III wrote:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> I was the one who mentioned my belief that Harding was the best US
> president of the 20th century. I should have answered the question of
> why I thought he was the best president of the 20th century sooner, but
> with the hundreds of e-mails I am getting each day, it fell through the
> cracks. First, I should explain that my ranking of Harding as the best
> is partly because I consider all the others to have been pretty poor.
> Several accomplishments of other president were mentioned such as
> leading the country out of the depression, building the interstate, and
> pushing civil rights legisilation. I believe that the first refers to
> FDR. My studies have lead me to believe that his policies extended the
> depression (1937 was the year of the highest unemployment) and did great
> harm to our form of government. He put the country into bankruptcy and
> instituted emergeny rule which has never been ended. His war record was
> not much better. He may have purposely allowed the attack of Pearl
> Harbor (at the minimum he did not sufficiently warn the commanders of
> the diplomatic situation). Though the enemy was eventually defeated, his
> negotiations with Stalin left more people enslaved then were previous to
> the war. By your referral to the Interstate, I believe you are writing
> about Eisenhower. He was certainly a fine president in many ways.
> However, the growth of the CIA and the military complex were troubling
> even to him. While the Interstate was a great accomplishment in many
> ways, it would have been preferable to me if these had been built by
> private interests. Especially troubling about this system is the way it
> is used to force states to follow federal dictates through threat of
> loss of road money. This was all piggy backed upon the Interstates. As
> far as civil rights legislation. You must be referring to Johnson. While
> I also have trouble with this legislation because of its federalizing
> influence, its relative merits are not necessary for me to disqualify in
> my own mind Johnson as a better president. I only have to remind myself
> that it was Johnson who expanded the Viet Nam War.
> So why do I think so highly of Harding? Primarily it is because of
> two aspects of his presidency (and the extension of these under his
> successor at his death). First, he reversed the expansion of state
> power that had been so great under the Wilson administration. Though he
> did not rid the country of the Federal Reserve or the income taxes
> introduced by Wilson, he was able to return to their owners many
> industries that the federal government had taken over during the war.
> This enabled a great recovery of the economy and a return to “normalcy”
> at a crucial time. The second, and very much related to the first, was
> his ending of a strike which threatened to destroy the US economy. You
> need to remember that this was just after the Communist takeover of
> Russia and many throughout the world believed that communism was the
> wave of the future. Many intellectuals in this country were avowed
> communists and there were at the time even several US senators
> (primarily out west) who were sympathetic (if not card carrying members)
> to the communist economic theories. The strike took place near the
> beginning of his brief presidency and caused the deaths of almost a
> hundred people, hundreds of injuries, and the loss of much property. It
> started as a railroad strike, but spread to other industries. It was
> designed to force the government to nationalize the railroads and would
> probably have succeeded if it had not been for Harding. His
> attorney-general Daugherty filed an injunction with a federal judge in
> Chicago which forced the union heads to take responsability for the
> violence that was occurring under their auspices. The threat of the
> injunction caused a quick end to the strike and soon the country
> returned to increasing productivity which lasted until the depression.
> It was because of the defeat of their plan that the communists have
> turned their hatred towards Harding and why his chief claim to fame is
> his supposed sexual philandering and the irregularities of his
> administration. (Much of these charges are based upon rumors and several
> of those who testified against his administration later reversed
> themselves or were proven to have been lying (the author of one of the
> popular anti-Harding books of the time even later renounced her own book
> when she came to believe that her primary source had been lying).
> One other thing that impressed me about Harding was his pardonning of
> the head of the Socialist Party (Eugene Debs) who had been put in prison
> by Wilson. He had been put in prison for a ten year term for obstructing
> the war effort by encouraging draft dodging. Wilson, of course, could
> have pardoned him ealier, soon after the war had ended. However, it was
> Harding who took an interest in his case and Daugherty who handled it
> and recommended his release.
>
> best wishes, Howard Davis
>
> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
> ==========
> CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
> screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
> and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
> frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
> spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
> gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
> be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
> nazi's need not apply.
>
> Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
> ========================================================================
> Archives Available at:
> http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
>
> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
> ========================================================================
> To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
> SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
> SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Om
>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
