Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

Would we not shatter it to bits, and then

Remould it nearer to the heart's desire!

1. Keynes often is portrayed as having been merely a liberal. But, for his lifelong volvement with Fabians and their work, see Rose Martin, Fabian Freeway; High

°ad 10 Socialism in the U.S.A. (Boston: Western Islands, 1966).

88 THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

Beneath the line Remould it nearer to the heart's desire, the mural depicts Shaw and Webb striking the earth with hammers. Across the bottom, the masses kneel in worship of a stack of books advocating the theories of socialism. Thumbing his nose at the docile masses is H.G. Wells who, after quitting the Fabians, denounced them as 'the new machiavellians.' The most revealing component, however, is the Fabian crest which appears Between Shaw and Webb. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing!1

COMMUNIST MOLES

Harry Dexter White was America's chief technical expert and the dominant force at the conference. He eventually became the first Executive Director for the United States at the IMF. An interesting footnote to this story is that White was simultaneously a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a memljer of a Communist espionage ring in Washington while he served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. And even more interesting is that the White House was informed of that fact when President Truman appointed him to his post. The FBI had transmitted to the White House detailed proof of White's activities on at least two separate occasions.2 Serving as the technical secretary at the Bretton Woods conference was Virginius Frank Coe, a member of the same espionage ring to which White belonged. Coe later became the first Secretary of the IMF.

Thus, completely hidden from public view, there was a complex drama taking place in which the intellectual guiding lights at the Bretton Woods conference were Fabian Socialists and Communists. Although they were in disagreement over method, they were in perfect harmony on goal: international socialism.

There were undoubtedly other reasons for Communists to be enthusiastic about the IMF and the World Bank, despite the fact 1. See Zygmund Dobbs, The Great Deceit: Social Pseudo-Sciences (West Sayville, New York: Veritas Foundation, 1964), opposite p. 1. Also Rose L. Martin, Fabian Freeway: High Road to Socialism in the U.S.A. (Boston: Western Islands, 1966), pp. 30, 31.

2. See: David Rees, Harry Dexter White: A Study in Paradox (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973); Whittaker Chambers, Witness (New York: Random House, 1952); Allen Weinstein, Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case (New York: Vintage Books, 1978); James Burnham, The Web of Subversion: Underground Networks in the U.S. Government (New York: The John Day Co., 1954); Elizabeth Bentley, Out of Bondage (New York: Devin-Adair, 1951)

NEARER TO THE HEART'S DESIRE

89

that the Soviet Union elected at the time not to become a member.

The goal the organizations was to create a world currency, a world central bank, and a mechanism to control the economies of all nations. In order for these things to happen, the United States would of necessity have to surrender its dominant position. In fact, it would have to be reduced to just one part of the collective whole.

That fit in quite nicely with the Soviet plan. Furthermore, the World Bank was seen as a vehicle for moving capital from the United States and other industrialized nations to the underdeveloped nations, the very ones over which Marxists have always had the greatest control. They looked forward to the day when we would pay their bills. It has all come to pass.

IMF STRUCTURE AND FUNDING

The International Monetary Fund appears to be a part of the United Nations, much as the Federal Reserve System appears to be a part of the United States government, but it is entirely independent. It is funded on a quota basis by its member nations, almost two hundred in number. The greatest share of capital, however, comes from the more highly industrialized nations such as Great Britain, Japan, France, and Germany. The United States contributes the most, at about twenty per cent of the total. In reality, that twenty per cent represents about twice as much as the number indicates, because most of the other nations contribute worthless currencies which no one wants. The world prefers dollars.

One of the routine operations at the IMF is to exchange

worthless currencies for dollars so the weaker countries can pay their international bills. This is supposed to cover temporary cash-flow' problems. It is a kind of international FDIC which rushes money to a country that has gone bankrupt so it can avoid devaluing its currency. The transactions are seldom paid back.

Although escape from the gold-exchange standard was the

long-range goal of the IMF, the only way to convince nations to Participate at the outset was to use gold itself as a backing for its

°wn money supply—at least as a temporary expedient. As Keynes explained it:

I felt that the leading central banks would never voluntarily relinquish the then existing forms of the gold standard; and I did not desire a catastrophe sufficiently violent to shake them off 90 THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

involuntarily. The only practical hope lay, therefore, in a gradual evolution in the forms of a managed world currency, taking the existing gold standard as a starting point.1

It was illegal for American citizens to own gold at that time, but everyone else in the world could exchange their paper dollars for gold at a fixed price of $35 per ounce. That made it the de facto international currency because, unlike any other at the time, its value was guaranteed. So, at the outset, the IMF adopted the dollar as its own international monetary unit.