Portal:Business/Selected quote/106
"Jacob H. Schiff, one of New York's greatest financiers, and one of the witnesses who testified before the committee, is an example of a man with the kind of mind and over-selfish viewpoint which prevails among the men who had a personal financial interest in the result of the Committee's investigation, such as the banker members of the Banking and Currency Committee may be expected to have. Mr. Schiff, under oath, told the committee in substance that:
If individuals can accomplish a monopoly he believes they should not be hampered by law! The laws of nature, he told the committee, are best for preventing too gigantic projects; and he cited the fall of the Tower of Babel as in example of the futility of human effort extended too far. Among the articles expounded by Schiff in his creed of business and finance was the assertion that the minority in all corporations should not be allowed representation among the officers and directors by law. ‘The majority should always rule.’ he said, 'and the minority should protect their rights as best they can.’
Is it not easy to see by this statement of Mr. Schiff's that it is preposterous for Congress to appoint mostly bankers, their agents and attorneys on its Banking and Currency Committee? Mr. Schiff is not cut from a different cloth, nor by a different pattern than the rest of humanity. Acting in our individual capacity, we look after our own interests, but in a collective sense we have not carried this interest far enough, and, consequently, we have such financial wizards as Mr. Schiff."
- —Charles August Lindbergh, Banking and Currency and the Money Trust, 1913