Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume IX, Number 28, 22 October 1936 — Knox, Hamilton Tread Dangerous Ground In Attacks Upon Bankers [ARTICLE]

Knox, Hamilton Tread Dangerous Ground In Attacks Upon Bankers

CoI. Frank Knox, Repub'lican vice-presidentia] candidate, who with Chairm-an John Hamilton of the GhOP Naiional Committee is going about the country to create a panie by reckless assertions as to the safety of bank deposits and security of life insurance policies, was appointed by President Hoover in February, 1932, as the head of a na-tion-wide movement to stop hoarding and- restore public eonfidence in the very assets of the p*ublic he is now attempting to destroy. At that time Col. Knox was not inveighing against large government- expenditures but demandkig theia. He was not ranting- about the danger of inflation but advocating it. In May ; 1932, he demanded that $300,000,000 be raised by a national sales tax, then being violently supported by William Randolph Hearst, the very kind of indirect tax now denounced by the head of the Republican ticket. Both For Inflation Xn<3~Gov. Luiidon ! s appeal for inilalion in a big way, nameiy the redemplion of the entire Fourth Liberty Loan bond issue in greenbacks, as expressed in his telegram to President Roosevelt in September, 1933, was preceded by Col. Knox's insistence upon inflation in April of that year, as a "safer method of raising farm prices" than the AAA. While Knox and Hoover with their "Citizens Reconstruction Organi7.atioii" were trying to charm the country out of the depression with voodoo mcantations and the eolonel was almost as voluhie on the r'adio as he is today, he ridiculed eeon»my unmercifuliy. He pointed out that George Washington had warned afainst it in times of stress in ; an historle Letler to Robert Morris The record of Col. Knox as a sound economist, like that of his ximning mate this year, is interesting during the period that tried men's souls, In 1932 from coast to coast he urged the people to take their money out of hiding and "put it in some form of security whieh has all the strength of the Federal government behind it." But press reports of fche period show that when asked lf he would recommend putting money in banks, wiiieh ihen vvere bLirsting like rocket3 on the Fourth of July, he replied: "I am not prepared at this time answer that question." ' Yet in upholding Col. Knox's present attack upon the solvency &£ bank depcttitii and life insuranee policies, Chairinun Hamilīon actually said at a press conferenee in Wailiingi;on and New York that such deposits and policies were safer in 1932 ilian tiiey are today. Aad now liiual more ihan 98 per ccnt ol booik Jcposits iu llio. eo\nitry of $5,000 anel \nider are insnred under a law enacted bv the Roosevelt, Admlnistration, Coi. Knox ssid in a prepared speech at Allentown, Pa., on Sepi. 5: "TU§ administration has been fQr years giviiis lip service to securlty aud v,elfare, and today no life insuranee policy ls secure; no savings aecount is CoL Knox was immediately challenged by Dr. Luther Hart s Secretary of Banking for Pennsylvania. to specify "a single bank in Pennsylvania" whieh was unsound. He invited tlje eolonel'S attenūon to a law carries heavy penalties» including imprisonment, for eu\?ulating deiogatQrj' rumors. mueh less open charges, against eustbdians of puhlie funds. The Stiate Comptroller of New Yprk promptli' called upon Col. Mfiox to prove Uie truth of lus "s|nauii\g statements." "N<j|er in lūstory of Uie

! c<Suntry," that official anōuneeā, ! "have our banking !nstitutlons !and thrift institutions of a!l ! types rested more firmly upon a t foundation of sound credits than !right now!" Officials of the ! bar.ks in the Pennsylvānia eoun!ty where ICnox's wild char'ge had ;been utered felt it essentlal to issue statements as to their sol,vency. . . i FihaUy in a radīo speech at iieiena, Mont„ the GOP eandidate reiterated his statement and said he "meant that bank deposits and insurance po!ieies were not safe be*jause of the of ftif!ation"—the moni et'ary policy he loudly clamored for three years ago. What Col. Knox is frightened by is the roaring in his own head. The only thing that frighi- = ens the American people in th'ā eonneeUon ls the thought that, in the miraculous event of the success of the Republican ticket, 001. Knox might conceivably beeome President.