and then only for a strictly limited period, the system might afford dangerous possibilities of excessive speculation and lend itself to the development of crises which more stringent safeguards might have averted altogether.
Criticism on these lines had often before been applied to the German plan and also to the arrangements recently adopted by the United States. The Committee pointed out that the latter had not yet been tested by experience, and that it was impossible to say how they would actually operate. Certainly most people will agree that the argument from the experience of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States is not yet one which could be admitted as a practical one for English purposes. Since the Federal Reserve Board came into existence America's financial position has been quite abnormal, owing to the huge profits that were poured into the country by the clamouring demand of the warring powers for goods and services that America was able to produce at an enormous profit to herself. In payment for these goods and services a mountain of gold has been piled up by the United States, and the chief pre-occupation of the Federal Reserve Board now appears to be to prevent the expansion of credit which this great addition to the country's gold store makes possible and would
