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"When I joined the conference, I was quite at sea as to what its outcome would be and frankly skeptical as to its prospects of success. During the first days sessions, Senator Aldrich was much inclined to discuss the possibilities of a full-fledged central bank on the European order-a model he seemed loath to abandon. But when the conference closed, after a week of earnest deliberation, the rough draft of what later became the Aldrich Bill had been agreed upon, and a plan had been outlined which provided for a "National Reserve Association", meaning a central reserve organization with an elastic note issue based on gold and commercial paper. This was not a central bank in the European sense. It was strictly a bankers' bank with branches under the control of separate directorates having superversion over the rediscount operations with member banks."

''"In its main principles and in many important details the Aldrich Bill was closely akin to the plan proposed in the "United Reserve Bank of the United States," but there were quite a number of differences, with some of which I was in complete disagreement. For example, in regard to the question of control, I thought that somewhat large concessions should have been made to government influence and representation. Neither was I in full accord with the provisions regarding taxation, note issue, the uniform discount rate, the plan proposed for dealing with the 2 per cent government bonds, or the conditions attaching to the membership of state banks and trust companies. Moreover, the Senator had not yet agreed to a provision, which seemed to me of fundamental importance, that of giving the notes of the National Reserve Association the status of lawful reserve money when in the tills of member banks. The bill frankly followed the Republican doctrine of "keeping the government out of business;" but, as a starter, it was encouraging beyond all expectation. Indeed, the highest hopes seemed warranted that a most satisfactory piece of legislation could eventually be developed from it.''

''The results of the conference were entirely confidential. Even the fact that there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public."''


 * &mdash;Paul M. Warburg, The Federal Reserve System, 1930

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