Blood Bonds Of 1917

(Conspiracy Nation, 2/24/05) – It was on Good Friday of 1917 that the U.S. Congress permitted this nation to enter the European war known as World War I. Why did they do it? Was it “to make the world safe for democracy?” Was it “to end all wars?” Or was it to pressure Europe not to default on massive loans made?

The Reverend Charles Coughlin, a controversial figure, asserted that we entered the Great War because otherwise Germany would have been victorious and then England and France would have been forced to repudiate debts owed to the United States.

Days before war was declared, Mr. E.P.C. Harding, president of the Bank Board of the United States, is quoted as having stated, “As a banker and creditor, the United States would have a place at the Peace Conference table [if it entered the war], and be in a much better position to resist any proposed repudiation of debts, for it might as well be remembered that we will be forced to take up the cudgels for any of our citizens owning bonds that might be repudiated.”

From 1914 through 1917, “American corporations [and their stockholders] had been waxing fat on the war materials which they were shipping chiefly to England and to France.” Both European nations owed a lot of money. In 1917, a potential disaster loomed: it appeared certain that Germany would be victorious. Were that to occur, both nations would have had to repudiate their debts. By backing loans to England and France, investors had been betting on victory. Now, it looked like the dice were going to roll “snake eyes.”

Because the United States entered the Great War in 1917, it was officially participating and could claim a place at the peace table. The complexion of the loans to the Allies underwent a change. Payment was being secured by the lives of American soldiers.

After the U.S. entered the war, the U.S. taxpayer also shouldered a burden: $14 billion worth of wheat, cotton, meat, coal, and munitions sent to Europe were paid for by U.S. government bonds, loans bearing interest. The producers of these supplies were immediately paid; but the bond holders got screwed: according to Father Coughlin, the U.S. government summarily canceled this debt at the end of the conflict, leaving ordinary investors holding the (empty) bag. “Our Government without consulting you or me canceled it and placed the burden of that debt on your shoulders.”

But why would the U.S. first “take up the cudgels for its citizens owning bonds” only to later quietly cancel other bonds? The answer could be that, in the first case, the producers had not yet been paid. (See Eight Lectures on Labor, Capital, and Justice. Rev. Charles Coughlin. 1934)

Tricky Maneuvers

Politicians, in their rhetoric, are constantly stating that “history will record” their present whatever machinations in some awesome enlightened perspective. And it’s true that what passes for history has mostly been dry-cleaned and calcified, so in a way they are correct. Then too, tomorrow is snoring about today: who reads history, or even reads much of anything for that matter? And if they do read history, they’re likely to read the dry-cleaned kind.

Because our past has been obscured by anemic-souled recorders, it is that much more difficult to peer into the haze and glimpse what actually happened. There were some tricky financial maneuvers going on subsequent to the First World War, but just glimpses are available. From those glimpses, one can try to connect the dots: but then one risks being called a “conspiracy theorist.” Nonetheless, remnants of virtue incline one to still seek out the truer past.

In “Hall Of Mirrors, 1919” (http://www.shout.net/~bigred/HallOfMirrors.html), Conspiracy Nation showed how responsibility for WWI war debts were apparently foisted off onto Germany. Later, around 1925, the security of “reparation bonds” based on Germany’s presumed willingness to pay began to be questioned. This led to a bond market collapse and was a cause of the Great Depression.

In “1920s Gold Migrations” (http://www.shout.net/~bigred/GoldMigs.html), Conspiracy Nation showed one way in which Europe had paid down its war debts: gold migrations into then out of the United States. “Great” Britain at first broke the connection between her currency and gold. In this way she could print more paper money and pay down her debt. Then, when the coast was clear, “Great” Britain suddenly resumed the gold standard. That was in 1925, a key year in that the private “Orange Blossom” meeting between France and Germany also occurred in 1925. (See “Hall Of Mirrors, 1919”, op. cit.) The tremendous flow of gold into the United States vivified the “Roaring ‘20s”; but when “Great” Britain resumed the gold standard, the gold flowed back to her shores, causing great financial hardship for many Americans. This situation is tangentially covered in The Greatest Story Never Told by Pat Riott – but good luck finding that book on the “history” book shelves!

The thread in all this is that subtle complex and secretive financial hocus pocus was happening right under our very noses, but we were distracted from noticing it by constant, sensational but non-nutritious “hot news” about such things as Leopold & Loeb, the Lindbergh kidnapping, and babies trapped in wells.

Conspiracy Nation

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