But did they stop there--after commandeering over $100,000,000 of capital and after conscripting over $1,800,000,000 of deposits? Little you know those birds if you think it. After they had got their beaks into that capital and their claws firmly fixed on those deposits they spread their wings and took a financial flight hitherto absolutely untried--even by the boldest buzzardry of finance. Here it is, scan it, take a look at it. For generations of banking the reserve deposits of banks have always drawn a minimum rate of at least 2 per cent per annum. Why? Because of their size and because of their stability. Experience of generations had demonstrated the fairness and the wisdom of that usage. Reserve deposits rarely fluctuate--except upwards. But at a few strokes of a pen Federal Reserve oligarchs reversed the custom of generations and _conscripted this mass of deposits--the largest on earth--into their coffers without interest_! Tie a towel about your throbbing brow so that you won't get dizzy, seize your trusty pencil and "figger" a moment. You will find that on this one item alone at 2 per cent interest on $1,800,000,000 Federal Reserve satrapists and oligarchs and legalized tyrants sweep just $36,000,000 a year into their profit pouch. It's $36,000,000 a year that National Banks and their stockholders and their depositors used to get that they don't get and that Federal Reserve predacity does get! If you and a few hundred of your friends could, by astute lobbying ability, get the titanic sum of $1,800,000,000 placed in your hands, practically in perpetuity, without interest, you could do quite a bit with it, couldn't you? You could, as do those Federal Reserve oligarchs, wield the mightiest scepter of power which ever ruled man. And you could do it with "other people's money"--every penny of it--just as they do and you could do it without the investment of a penny of your own--just as they do it! Here they are: the Federal Reserve Board at Washington, really a Central Bank, dominating and domineering over the whole Federal Reserve System; the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, each one dominating and domineering over its own zone or regional satrapy; the commandeered and conscripted National Banks in each satrapy and finally their stockholders and depositors--working and toiling--at the base of the pyramid! You have seen the birth of the Federal Reserve monster, you have seen the skeleton or framework of the monster and you have seen the stuffing of the monster. The Invisible Empire were the accomplished accoucheurs at its Congressional birth; they conscripted the capital, the framework of the monster; they commandeered the stuffing, the leviathan deposits, for the monster; it is in their keeping and now what do they do with it, whom do they "do" and how do they do it? Keep right on reading and you will find out. CHAPTER V CHECK COLLECTION BANDITRY