On Banks and Prosperity

March 20, 2013March 20, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

While the “Occupy Wall Street” mobs have subsided, having served their political purpose last year, the notion that banks are a device of the “excessively wealthy” is not new to our time. The image of fat, out-of-touch, greedy capitalists forming banks to “exploit” workers, the poor and the needy, robbing them of their hard-earned money was just as familiar in the early years of the twentieth century as it is now. Despite the verifiable fact that Secretary Mellon paid millions more in income taxes under his own plan, it did nothing to assuage the attempts throughout the twenties and thirties to finally “pin down” this “excessively wealthy tycoon” as guilty of something. If one keeps looking, they seemed to say, it can be found somewhere. Even F.D.R.’s tax “show trial” of Mellon yielded nothing but an unfairly demolished reputation. On the contrary, Vice President Coolidge addressed this very attitude about banks, a prejudice against capitalism and the myth that forceful redistribution of prosperity is both possible and virtuous. In a speech given on June 27, 1921, he said:

“There can be no permanent prosperity of any class or part. Such a condition can only be secured through a general and public prosperity. This means that to secure this end there must be a general distribution of the rewards of industry. Wherever this condition is maintained there you have the foundation for an increasing production and a sound financial and economic situation.

“One of the strongest reasons for supporting American institutions is that under them this condition is more nearly attained than under any other form of government that has ever met with any permanent success…

“…Too often the uninformed think of a bank as the possession of a few rich people, and as the creditor of the people at large. You who have had any experience with banking know that it is the opposite of this which is true. The resources of banks are not the resources of a few rich, but the resources of the people themselves, small perhaps in any individual instance, but, in the aggregate, very large. Nor are banks exclusively a creditor class. It is usually true that they owe to their depositors more than their borrowers owe to them. Every banker knows that to depend on the business and patronage of the rich would be in vain, that if any success attends his efforts it must be by serving and doing the business of the people. The stock is generally owned by the people, the deposits are always made by the people. This is the reason that banks partake of the nature of a public institution and perform real public service. They are the sole means by which modern commercial activities can be carried on. They afford the method by which the people combine their individual resources, providing a collection of capital sufficient to extend the necessary credit for financing the whole people of the nation…A bank is not a private institution, responsible to itself alone, or to a few. It is a public institution, under a moral obligation to be administered for the public welfare…Any power which is not used for the general welfare will in the end destroy itself…Such an institution is doing the work of the people.”

This simple explanation lays bare the ignorance of those who vilify banking and American capitalism as the instigators of what is wrong with the country. To go to war against these concepts is to war against the “common man,” the very person protestors claim to be helping. By calling for redistribution and the boycott of banks, the true perpetrators of class conflict, economic stagnation and human suffering are sought out as “saviors.” People like us, ultimately, are held responsible for this “unfairness” while those who create the climate are rewarded with more authority to solve problems they have no inclination or ability to resolve. While certain government officials are usually first and foremost this kind of “savior” sought, it is conveniently ignored that the capital on which banks are made possible belongs to “normal” people engaged in the daily use of what is theirs — buying, selling, saving, earning, investing, exchanging, lending, and borrowing. The complaint is with Washington not with regular folks.

On “Father” Coolidge

March 18, 2013March 19, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

It was on this day in the cold of March eighty-seven years ago that “Colonel” John Coolidge, the father of the President, died. His oldest grandson and namesake, would recall the words of Calvin Coolidge spoken in an interview six months after “Grandfather Coolidge” passed. The thirtieth president had this to say about the man popularly known around the nation as “Colonel” Coolidge, the notary who had sworn in his son three years before:

“My father had qualities that were greater than any I possess. He was a man of untiring industry and great tenacity of purpose…He always stuck to the truth. It always seemed possible for him to form an unerring judgment of men and things. I can not recall that I ever knew of his doing a wrong thing. He would classed as decidedly a man of character. I have no doubt he is representative of a great mass of Americans who are known only to their local neighbors; nevertheless, they are really great. It would be difficult to say that he had a happy life. He never seemed to be seeking happiness. He was a firm believer in hard work. Death visited the family often. But I have no doubt he took a satisfaction in accomplishment and always stood ready to meet any duty that came to him. He did not fear the end of life, but looked forward to it as a reunion with all he had loved and lost.”

Such regard for the qualities of men like Calvin’s father deserve both mention and honor. They are no less imperative if a proper perspective of the family and society is to be preserved. In the haste to jettison all that is masculine in culture, an irreplaceable and detrimental cavity has been opened. Devoid of the particular kind of strength supplied by fathers, like John, homes are compromised and civilization, without these crucial pillars, collapses underneath the weight of its own weakness.

On Ireland and The Spirit

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Looking back upon the writings of history one is frequently found to be opening a time capsule of sorts. Carefully crafted writing is a fascinating chest of treasures containing what those who came before us regarded valuable, held worth remembering and provided insight for the future. The writings of Calvin Coolidge are no exception. All too often derided as worthless platitudes, the words he wrote do not merely point backward in time but they serve as markers forward, as signs along the way future generations will travel in order to successfully arrive at a place of fulfillment, proper perspective and real reward.

Looking to March 17th in 1931, he would concentrate on more substantial concepts than the day’s drinking parties, parades and other festivities. Instead, he would reflect upon the spiritual growth of Ireland that made possible the material success which followed. For Mr. Coolidge, the material trappings of happiness, contentment and prosperity were hollow if shorn from the intangibles. It is indisputably true of any nation, that the moral and metaphysical power of its people build its wealth and physical affluence. The spirit always precedes the material. In fact, as he reminded a crowd including several of Irish ancestry at Holy Cross on June 25, 1919, the “mental and spiritual” (as opposed to material things) defend our institutions. Coolidge would elaborate on this priority of the immaterial as the reason behind Ireland’s incredible success around the world, saying,

“The seventeenth day of March will be celebrated all over the world by those who cherish the Emerald Isle as the place of their ancestral origin. Millions of devoted men and women will wear some green emblem in honor of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. If his life is shrouded somewhat in mystery that only makes him the more fascinating. He is the personification of the Christian influence that came into the life of the Irish people. Considering the large contributions that the Irish race has made to the freedom and progress of so many foreign lands it must be a great satisfaction to see Ireland, after a long struggle, at last peaceful and self-governing. The effort and energy that had been expended in generations of political agitation and strife have been turned into constructive purposes. The country is being restored. Education is fostered, industries are coming into existence. The River Shannon has been harnessed to furnish light and power for the whole Irish Free State. The railroad system has been unified. While there still remain economic problems and domestic differences Ireland, no longer a prey to despair, is a land of hope and progress.”

Such is not merely a snapshot of what once was, but it is a pattern that will always work, for nations as for individuals. The power resides in what Coolidge would call “the unseen” not what is “seen.” The spiritual things must come first.