For the calendar year 1920 the gross "earnings"--more properly called filcheries--of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks reached the stupendous sum of $181,297,338, as against $102,380,583 for the calendar year of 1919! Quite some money to suck from the teat of industry, isn't it? The expenses for the calendar year of 1920 were $29,889,307, as against $20,341,798 for the calendar year of 1919! Over nine million dollars more in expense account but over seventy-eight million dollars more in net "takings!" The net filcheries for the calendar year 1920 was the leviathan sum of $151,408,031, as against $82,038,785 for the calendar year 1919. Almost a two-for-one shot and every dollar of it peeled from industry's roll! And incidentally meditate on the titanic expense accounts of these twelve tentacles--$29,889,307, or more than an average of $2,490,000 apiece for the year 1920! Some luscious salaries nesting and nestling there--to which reference will hereafter be made--aren't there? Here is a list of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks in the precise order of their pillage with the percentage of their takings to their paid in capital for the year 1920! Per cent Location Capital on Capital New York $24,618,000 217.4 Chicago 13,213,000 195.6 Atlanta 3,759,000 162 San Francisco 6,412,000 159.1 Boston 7,454,000 137.3 Minneapolis 3,265,000 131.5 Kansas City 4,295,000 129.3 St. Louis 4,229,000 124.3 Cleveland 10,070,000 119 Philadelphia 8,278,000 116.8 Richmond 4,884,000 110.3 Dallas 3,757,000 89.3 The total capital employed was $94,234,000, the total net earnings $151,408,031, and the average percentage of profit taken on this capital--after charging most exorbitant expenses--was 160.7 per cent! Is this a system of banking of, for and by the people, is this the "emancipation of credit," or is it the hugest parasite ever engrafted and wrapped about a nation's industry? Compare this with a savings bank rate of 4 per cent or compare it with a high bank stock dividend rate of 10 per cent! It's 40 times a savings bank rate, it's 16 times a high bank stock dividend rate! It's unconscionable, excessive, unfair, unjust, and a gigantic burden on industry's overloaded back. You're satisfied--and tickled pink too--to get a safe 8 per cent return on your investments, but your "emancipator of credit" wolfs down 20 times as much! Is this "credit emancipation" or is it the sandbagging of industry? Is this twenty-to-one shot "conserving the nation's resources" or is it practicing the arts of thuggery upon the real production of real wealth? Is this "binding up the nation's wounds" of finance or is it blood-letting to the point of exhaustion?