The Banking Crisis (RLE Banking & Finance)

CHAPTER III.—EFFORTS AT REFORM—THE GLASS BILL

APATHY OF CONGRESS

A NATION, faced with major disaster, usually seeks to ward off the threatened evil by governmental action. When Democracy becomes so inefficient that it cannot protect itself against catastrophe, it often gives way to dictatorship of one kind or another.

The bank failure epidemic was a significant test of the efficacy of Democracy in the United States. It raged with special force for the greater part of three years, however, before a change in Administration and a nation-wide bank holiday brought home to legislature and people at least the realization of the need for basic reform.

This should not be taken to imply that no efforts at reform were made earlier. Banking has long been ...