monopoly. All of which was correct. What the country needed,Glass said, was an entirely fresh approach, a genuine reform billwhich was not written by agents of the Money Trust and whichwould truly meet the needs of the common man. That, too, wasquite correct. Then he brought forth his own bill, drafted by Willisand inspired by Laughlin, which in every important detail wasmerely the old corpse of the Aldrich Bill pulled from its casket,freshly perfumed, and dressed in a new suit.
The Glass Bill was soon reconciled with a similar measuresponsored by Senator Robert L. Owen and it emerged as theGlass-Owen Bill. Although there were initially some minor differences between Glass and Owen on the proper degree of government control over banking, Owen was basically of identical mind toWillis and Laughlin. While serving in the Senate, he also was thepresident of a bank in Oklahoma. Like Aldrich, he had madeseveral trips to Europe to study the central banks of England andGermany, and these were the models for his legislation.
The less technically minded members of the cartel becamenervous over the anti-Wall Street rhetoric of the Bill's sponsors.
Warburg, in an attempt to quell their fears and, at the same time,strengthen his private boast that he had been the real author,published a side-by-side comparison of the Aldrich and Glassproposals. The analysis showed that, not only were the two bills inagreement on all essential provisions, but they even containedentire sections that were identical in their wording.1 He wrote:
"Brushing aside, then, the external differences affecting the 'shells,'
we find the 'kernels' of the two systems very closely resemblingand related to one another."2
It was important for the success of the Glass Bill to create theimpression it was in response to the views of a broad cross sectionof the financial community. To this end, Glass and his committeestaged public hearings for the announced purpose of givingeveryone a chance for input to the process. It was, of course, asham. The first draft of the Bill had already been completed insecret several months before the hearings were held. And, as wascustomary in such matters, Congressman Lindbergh and otherwitnesses opposing the Jekyll Island plan were not allowed to 1. Warburg, Vol. I, p. 98.
2.
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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND
