of checking, at least as effectively, the real producer. If we take the heart out of him, it means a lessening in the effort which increases the real wealth of the world, and he with the strict attention to business details which means so much for his success, seems much more likely to be put off his stroke by an item like the cost of money, than the free and easy speculator who is used to making big guesses on broad lines, and then backing his opinion in glorious self-confidence.
Interesting as is Governor Strong's evidence on the course of events and the purposes aimed at by the Federal Reserve Board, he does not quite convince one that in the exceptional circumstances that prevailed at the end of 1919 and the beginning of 1920, the rise in money rates that was actually brought about was a serious factor in the calculations of business men, or even that at any time "the fundamental basis of restraint upon speculation rests upon the cost of credit." Surely if a man thinks that by buying a security or a commodity or a currency he gets a good chance of being able to sell it in a few months at double its present value, he will be quite ready to pay 20 per cent. or even 50 per cent. for any money that he wants to finance his gamble; and such a movement as a rise in Bank Rate from 5 per cent.
