Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2306

Letter to E.C. Riegel, 226 East 26^th Street, New York City, from a person unidentified because of illegible signature, at 35-16 82^nd Street, Jackson Heights, L.I., New York

February 22, 1946

 

Dear Mr. Riegel:

Thanks for the opportunity you afforded me to meet your friend Mr. Heath for lunch. I enjoyed the time with you and him. He is a very interesting gentlemen and gave me some new ideas – and very few people do that. You are familiar yourself with how far and wide you must search for a person whose intellect sparks with the light of an original concept.

                                                                       

    In regard to the Supreme Court decision on the green backs you will find it in great detail in Rhodes History of the United States Vol. 111 p. 568-569, Vol. 4 p. 261. /The name “James Ford” is penned in here./ Or when you are here you may consult my “The Philosophy of American History” by Morris Zucker, and there you will find enough on pages 528-529.

    I see, however, that this ruling was reversed by Chief Justice Holmes, who said Congress has the power to issue money and establish the value thereof. Yet it does not issue money but delegates the authority to the Federal Reserve Bank which is empowered to issue its notes against the securities of the United States or of business men – that is against commercial notes. In practice the United States cannot issue money because in the hands of the government it would be employed as a political tool or more correctly as a political club – which is the method it is now employed to the full extent that it is possible for the bureaucrats and political gouge-masters to so employ it.

    The Constitution says the government shall have the right “to coin money and regulate the value thereof” but this phrase has been widely interpreted to mean metallic coins and not paper money. In fact all paper money issued by the government (green backs and Continental currency) has resulted in disaster in so far as the coining itself was concerned. Each of these events were products of necessity and so there can be no questioning of their validity, but as strictly economic transactions they were both a dead loss – though that loss was justified by the political gain.

    Could I induce you and Mr. Heath to come over and spend an evening with me? You name the date and call me by phone to let me know when.

Kindest regards

  Sincerely your