Carter Glass to Benjamin Strong Jr.
Title
Carter Glass to Benjamin Strong Jr.
Creator
Glass, Carter, 1858-1946
Identifier
WWP18817
Date
1927 January 13
Description
Carter Glass wishes Benjamin Strong Jr. good health, and to discuss Glass's upcoming book on the Federal Reserve.
Source
Benjamin Strong Jr. Papers, New York Federal Reserve Bank
Language
English
Text
My dear Governor Strong:
I cannot tell you how much gratified I was to get your letter to-day telling me of your whereabouts and, better still, of the good progress in your fight for recovery. I was sorely disappointed not to have seen you at the dinner to Jay and even more distressed to learn that you had been compelled to grapple again with your old enemy. God grant that you may trip him this time and put him completely out of business.
It was exceedingly good, but I fear somewhat indiscreet, of you to write me such a long letter in the circumstances. I may say that I frequently have hoped that somebody would undertake to write such a work on the federal reserve system as you seem to have in mind. Doctor Willis’ book was rather too voluminous and documentary to engage the interest even of those who understand the philosophy and technique of banking and currency. Then, as you say, it is too replete with bias and personal animosity. Against this offense I very earnestly warned him and succeeded in having him eliminate a great many of the things originally written. I understood he was to expunge many of those that appear in his work; but, for reasons which apparently appealed to his judgment, he let them remain.
In the constructive part of my narrative of federal reserve legislation, to be issued soon in book form by Doubleday, Page and Company, I devote one chapter to a summary of the accomplishments of the federal reserve system, notably its great service in the war period, its gold settlement agency, its exchange and par collections system, the relation of its open market transactions to rates, its part in helping to restore foreign exchanges and quite a few other outstanding things. I also devote a chapter to the widespread misrepresentations of politicians with respect to an alleged “deflation conspiracy” in the post-war period and show that no such thing was ever contemplated or ever happened.
Of course these topics could not, in a book like that I have written, be treated completely. I could well wish that you had the health, and I the time and capability to help you to produce a notable work on the subject of the federal reserve system which would be accepted as a text book and an authoritative compendium. But such a thing would tax you beyond human endurance and, from a literary point of view, I could never convince muself that I am adequately furnished. As to the history of the legislation, its origin, the philosophy of it, with the many dramatic episodes which attended its consideration and enactment, these are fairly well traversed in the book I have written. Very likely you and other competent critics will think that I have sacrificed some detail in my ever present purpose to make the work intelligible to persons of average sense. The story itself is engaging enough, but whether I have told it in an engaging way is a verdict that I shall have to await.
Wishing you a prompt and permanent restoration to health, believe me always
I cannot tell you how much gratified I was to get your letter to-day telling me of your whereabouts and, better still, of the good progress in your fight for recovery. I was sorely disappointed not to have seen you at the dinner to Jay and even more distressed to learn that you had been compelled to grapple again with your old enemy. God grant that you may trip him this time and put him completely out of business.
It was exceedingly good, but I fear somewhat indiscreet, of you to write me such a long letter in the circumstances. I may say that I frequently have hoped that somebody would undertake to write such a work on the federal reserve system as you seem to have in mind. Doctor Willis’ book was rather too voluminous and documentary to engage the interest even of those who understand the philosophy and technique of banking and currency. Then, as you say, it is too replete with bias and personal animosity. Against this offense I very earnestly warned him and succeeded in having him eliminate a great many of the things originally written. I understood he was to expunge many of those that appear in his work; but, for reasons which apparently appealed to his judgment, he let them remain.
In the constructive part of my narrative of federal reserve legislation, to be issued soon in book form by Doubleday, Page and Company, I devote one chapter to a summary of the accomplishments of the federal reserve system, notably its great service in the war period, its gold settlement agency, its exchange and par collections system, the relation of its open market transactions to rates, its part in helping to restore foreign exchanges and quite a few other outstanding things. I also devote a chapter to the widespread misrepresentations of politicians with respect to an alleged “deflation conspiracy” in the post-war period and show that no such thing was ever contemplated or ever happened.
Of course these topics could not, in a book like that I have written, be treated completely. I could well wish that you had the health, and I the time and capability to help you to produce a notable work on the subject of the federal reserve system which would be accepted as a text book and an authoritative compendium. But such a thing would tax you beyond human endurance and, from a literary point of view, I could never convince muself that I am adequately furnished. As to the history of the legislation, its origin, the philosophy of it, with the many dramatic episodes which attended its consideration and enactment, these are fairly well traversed in the book I have written. Very likely you and other competent critics will think that I have sacrificed some detail in my ever present purpose to make the work intelligible to persons of average sense. The story itself is engaging enough, but whether I have told it in an engaging way is a verdict that I shall have to await.
Wishing you a prompt and permanent restoration to health, believe me always
Original Format
Letter
To
Strong, Benjamin, 1872-1928
Files
Collection
Citation
Glass, Carter, 1858-1946 , “Carter Glass to Benjamin Strong Jr.,” 1927 January 13, WWP18817, Benjamin Strong Jr. Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.