1913

At his inauguration on March 4th, Woodrow Wilson notices that a wide space had been cleared in front of the speaker’s platform. He motions to the police holding back the crowd and orders: “Let the people come forward.” His supporters will later say the phrase expresses the spirit of his administration. The Wilson administration offers Franklin Roosevelt several posts. He chooses assistant secretary of the Navy, a post Theodore Roosevelt had held on his way to the presidency. President Wilson gives a Fourth of July battle reunion speech at Gettysburg.

Canada, Toronto. Several office workers in watched what they concluded to be a fleet of airships passing west to east in groups. They then returned later in a scattered formation. No airships or airplanes were ever identified with this report.

England. Two years before Germany officially launched its Zeppelin raids on Britain and phantom airships were once again crisscrossing the night skies. A few reports gave details of multi-colored, multiple lights being seen but as in earlier years the craft usually came equipped with one powerful light. See Mystery Airships of Britain for further details.

The psychologist Harry Goddard applied the Binet intelligence test to immigrants at Ellis Island for the first time. On that occasion 80% of those tested scored so low as to be considered ‘feeble-minded’(considering that the test – in English – was administered to many who spoke very little English, this absurd figure was later revised down, but not much). Laughlin later appeared as expert witness before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalisation and recommended that quotas be introduced restricting the numbers of immigrants from particular, undesirable racial groups. Stringent entry requirements were applied to the fortunate few. Jews were perceived as being just as unfit as any group and thus many Jews, fleeing racial persecution in Europe, were denied entry to the US by essentially racist regulations.

The New York State Legislature passes an act on April 24 incorporating the Rockefeller Foundation. The statement of purpose reads: “To promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.” New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter on May 14. With the Foundation incorporated, John D. Rockefeller makes gifts to RF totaling $35 million, following a year later with $65 million.

Influenced by Abraham Flexner’s landmark study Medical Education in the United States and Canada, RF makes a grant to Johns Hopkins University to extend its model “full-time” system of basic medical education to clinical departments of medicine, surgery, and pediatrics. Other specialties are added later. Health becomes an RF priority at the first meeting of the board when Frederick Gates, long-time adviser to John D. Rockefeller, argues that “disease is the supreme ill in human life.”

Congress passes the Federal Reserve Act. The New York Times reported on the front page, Monday, December 22, 1913 in headlines: MONEY BILL MAY BE LAW TODAY–CONFEREES HAD ADJUSTED NEARLY ALL DIFFERENCES AT 1:30 THIS MORNING–NO DEPOSIT GUARANTEES–SENATE YIELDS ON THIS POINT BUT PUTS THROUGH MANY OTHER CHANGES “With almost unprecedented speed, the conference to adjust the House and Senate differences on the Currency Bill practically completed its labours early this morning. On Saturday the Conferees did little more than dispose of the preliminaries, leaving forty essential differences to be thrashed out Sunday. . . . No other legislation of importance will be taken up in either House of Congress this week. Members of both houses are already preparing to leave Washington.” […]

“Unprecedented speed”, says The New York Times. One sees the fine hand of Paul Warburg in this final strategy. Some of the bill’s most vocal critics had already left Washington. It was a long-standing political courtesy that important legislation would not be acted upon during the week before Christmas, but this tradition was rudely shattered in order to perpetrate the Federal Reserve Act on the American people.

The Times buried a brief quote from Congressman Lindbergh that “the bill would establish the most gigantic trust on earth,” and quoted Representative Guernsey of Maine, a Republican on the House Banking and Currency Committee, that “This is an inflation bill, the only question being the extent of the inflation.”

Congressman Lindbergh said on that historic day, to the House:

“This Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed. The trusts will soon realize that they have gone too far even for their own good. The people must make a declaration of independence to relieve themselves from the Monetary Power. This they will be able to do by taking control of Congress. Wall Streeters could not cheat us if you Senators and Representatives did not make a humbug of Congress. . . . If we had a people’s Congress, there would be stability. The greatest crime of Congress is its currency system. The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill. The caucus and the party bosses have again operated and prevented the people from getting the benefit of their own government.”

The December 23, 1913 New York Times editorially commented, in contrast to Congressman Lindbergh’s criticism of the bill, “The Banking and Currency Bill became better and sounder every time it was sent from one end of the Capitol to the other. Congress worked under public supervision in making the bill.” By “public supervision”, The Times apparently meant Paul Warburg, who for several days had maintained a small office in the Capitol building, where he directed the successful pre-Christmas campaign to pass the bill, and where Senators and Congressmen came hourly at his bidding to carry out his strategy. […]

Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913. History proved that on that day, the Constitution ceased to be the governing covenant of the American people, and our liberties were handed over to a small group of international bankers. (Secrets of the Federal Reserve, Griffin, 1952)

Congress passes the Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution permitting an Income Tax.