The first draft of the Jekyll Island plan was submitted to theSenate by Nelson Aldrich but, due to the Senator's unexpectedillness when he returned to Washington, it was actually written byFrank Vanderlip and Benjamin Strong.2 Although it was co-authored by Congressman Vreeland, it immediately becameknown as the Aldrich Bill. Vreeland, by his own admission, hadlittle to do with it either, but his willingness to be a team player inthe game of national deception was of great value. Writing in theAugust 25, 1910, issue of The Independent, which incidentally wasowned by Aldrich himself and was anything but independent,Vreeland said: "The bank I propose.... is an ideal method offighting monopoly. It could not possibly itself become a monopolyand it would prevent other banks combining into monopolies. Withearnings limited to four and one-half per cent, there could not be amonopoly."
What an amazing statement. It is brilliantly insidious because ofthe half truths it contains. It is true that monopolies cannot-or atleast do not—operate at four and one-half per cent interest. But it isuntrue that the Federal Reserve banks were to be held to that lowlyrate. It is true that four per cent was the stated amount they wouldearn on the stock purchased in the System, but it is also true thatthe real profits were to be made, not from stock dividends, butfrom the harvesting of interest payments on fiat money. To this wasto be added the profits made possible from operating on smallersafety margins yet still being protected from bankruptcy. Furthermore, being on the inside of the nation's central bank would makethem privy to the important money-making data and decisionslong before their competitors. The profits that could be derivedfrom such an advantage would be equal to or even greater thanthose from the Mandrake Mechanism. It is true that the FederalReserve was to be a private institution, but it is certainly not true 1- Edwin Seligman, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol IV No 4
(New York: 1914), pp. 3-6. '
2- Vanderlip, "From Farm Boy to Financier," p. 72.
t / A B e t t e r S y s t e m of Banking and Currency," by Edward B. Vreeland, The
'"dependent, August 25,1910, p. 394.
442 THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND
that this was to mark the disappearance of the government fromthe hanking business. In fact, it was just the opposite, because itmarked the appearance of the government as a partner with privatebankers and as the enforcer of their cartel agreement. Governmentwould now become more deeply involved than ever before in ourhistory.
