For
For
My Beloved Louise
with especial appreciation for her editorial assistance
and illuminating insights
that gave substance to this
work
Preface
Part I: The Roots of Reform
1. The Quality of the Times
2. The First Shock Wave
THE SIGNIFICANCE of the Harriman-Fish rupture lies first in the shock it gave to the financial markets, and to public confidence in the integrity of the national financial leadership. More importantly however, it served as the fuel that heated to the boiling point the Rooseveltian antagonism to Big Business.
3. The Lapping at the Dikes
4. The Rich Man’s Panic
THE STOCK MARKET now entered a period of apathy, but not of recovery. The Administration renewed its anti-monopoly campaign and filed suit against the Reading Company and others, alleging monopoly in the anthracite industry.
5. A Measure of Expediency
6. The Aldrich-Vreeland Bill
THE ALDRICH-VREELAND BILL, as the Emergency Currency Act of May 30, 1908, was known, embraced the principles of an “asset currency” which represented a revolutionary innovation in U. S. currency practice, and prepared the way for the theories and practices later embodied in the Federal Reserve System.
7. An Interlude for Debate
