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From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 29, 3 June 1933, pp. 1 & 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The puppets of Wall Street on Capitol Hill are “investigating” the House of Morgan. A sop to the petty bourgeoisie and a sham in its aims, the Senate Banking Committee has disclosed damning evidence on the tentacles of control of J.P. Morgan and Co., which reach out into every pore of the financial, industrial and political life of American capitalism.
The revelations of the investigation are vindication of the contention of the Marxians propounded decades ago. Finance capital wields its control over the banking institutions of the nation thru a meshwork of interlocking directorates which cunningly evade all laws aimed at them by the trust-busting middle class. The trustified industries, with few exceptions, are either indebted to or outrightly owned, thru stock control by the Morgan trust. The Morgan institution dominates thru its financial affluence a huge section of the American industrial life.
But J.P. Morgan does not trust to his outright or partial control to assure his dominating influence. Nor does he depend upon abstract for indirect methods to keep the government, both major political parties, subservient to his interests and needs. Practically half of the national committee of the Republican party, including Edward T. Rickard, financial adviser to Herbert Hoover for more than ten years, and the chairman of this committee, John R. Nutt, are personal beneficiaries of Morgan’s benevolence. The same goes equally for the Democratic party, whose ex-national chairman, Raskob, and the present Roosevelt administration, through the medium of the secretary of the treasury, Woodin, have received “gifts” from the House of Morgan which discriminates against no one in the major party set-ups.
Letters from the above-named individuals, disclosed at the investigation, show that they were quite ready to “reciprocate.” And they have! A mere glance at the banking holiday proclaimed by Woodin and the “diplomacy” of Norman H. Davis, ambassador at large for the U.S. is proof sufficient that J.P. does not scatter his money idly. Every dollar given to a government official brings results!
The inquiry in Washington, despite the facts brought to light, is a circus of such dimensions as would make the great showman, Barnum, look like a miserable piker. The avowed purpose of the investigation is to reform the banking laws so that the “little fellow” will have a chance. In this connection it is interesting to note that the banking bill which is to do that has been proposed and drafted by the most ardent proponent of Morgan in the investigation, Senator Carter Glass, Virginia millionaire newspaper publisher.
Like the Pujo investigation under the “New Freedom” of Wilson the Pecora inquiry of the “New Deal” is a grand stage to divert the attention of the discontented away from struggle, give them confidence in the “anti-big business” attitude of the administration, only in reality to fasten the strangle .hold of finance capital upon the millions of masses.
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Last updated: 4 September 2015