It was precisely at this time that the study of "economics" wasbecoming a new and acceptable field, and it was not difficult to findtalented but slightly hungry professors who, in return for a grant ora prestigious appointment, were eager to expound the virtues ofthe Jekyll Island plan. Not only was such academic pursuitfinancially rewarding, it also provided national recognition forthem as pioneers in the new field of economics. Galbraith says: Under Aldrich's direction a score or more of studies of monetary institutions in the United States and, more particularly, in other c o u n t r i e s w e r e c o m m i s s i o n e d f r o m the e m e r g e n t e c o n o m i c s profession. It is at least possible that the reverence in which the Federal Reserve System has since been held by economists owes something to the circumstance that so many who pioneered in the profession participated also in its [the System's] birth.1
The principal accomplishment of the bank's educational fundwas to create an organization called the National Citizens' League.
Although it was entirely financed and controlled by the banksunder the personal guidance of Paul Warburg, it presented itselfmerely as a group of concerned citizens seeking banking reform.
The function of the organization was to disseminate hundreds of 1- Galbraith, p. 121.
446 THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND
thousands of "educational" pamphlets, to organize letter-writingcampaigns to Congressmen, to supply quotable material to thenews media, and in other ways to create the illusion of grass-rootssupport for the Jekyll Island plan.
Nathaniel Stephenson, in his biography of Nelson Aldrich,says: "The league was non-partisan. It was careful to abstain fromemphasizing Senator Aldrich.... First and last, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by the league in popularizing financialscience."1
The man chosen to head up that effort was an economicsprofessor by the name of J. Laurence Laughlin. Kolko says that
"Laughlin, nominally very orthodox in his commitment to laissezfaire theory, was nevertheless a leading academic advocate ofbanking regulation ... and was sensitive to the needs of banking aswell as the realities of politics."2 Did his appointment bringintellectual objectivity to the new organization? Stephenson answers: "Professor Laughlin of the University of Chicago was givencharge of the League's propaganda."3 To which CongressmanLindbergh adds this reminder: "The reader knows that the University of Chicago is an institution endowed by John D. Rockefellerwith nearly fifty million dollars. It may truly be said to be theRockefeller University."4
