President Hoover, Representative Luce, second ranking member of the House banking and currency committee, and Representative Tilson, majority leader, all came to the defense of Eugene Meyer, newly appointed governor of the Federal Reserve, who was yesterday assailed as an “international banker” and the rejection of his nomination by the Senate demanded by Representative McFadden, chairman of the House banking and currency committee.
Voicing deep concern over Mr. Mc-Fadden’s attack and deploring the attack on the Federal Reserve System, President Hoover conferred with majority leader Tilson who assured him that the House did not share Mr. Mc-Fadden’s sentiments. In demanding that the Senate should reject Mr. Meyer, Mr. McFadden said “if you want to turn the Federal Reserve System over to international financiers, place Eugene Meyer in that particular post at this time.”
Saying that Mr. Meyer had been closely connected during his whole financial career with banking houses of international reputation, Mr. McFadden stated that “he had a very close connection with J. P. Morgan and Company, and as head of the War Finance Corporation, and in carrying on its activities, those close relationships were actively disclosed. He is a Wall Street man.”
In the course of his criticism of Mr. Meyer, Mr. McFadden also said that he is a brother-in-law of George Blumenthal, and, he understood, represents the Rothschild interests and is a liason officer between the French government and the Morgan Company.
Commenting on Mr. McFadden’s objections to the appointment of Mr. Meyer on the ground that he would “turn the Federal Reserve System over to international financiers,” Arthur Brisbane, in his daily column, “Today,” says, “that is upside down. If Mr. Meyer did any turning, he’d turn international financiers over to the Federal Reserve System. Mr. Meyer is a first class American, an extremely able financier, and, as head of the Federal Reserve Board, he may give to finance, and some other things in this country, a leadership that they now lack.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.