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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING THE LEGACY OF MARRINER S. ECCLES
______
HON. BEN McADAMS
of utah
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Mr. McADAMS. Madam Speaker, Utah native Marriner S. Eccles is one of
the giants in the history of America's free enterprise banking system
and the father of the modern Federal Reserve.
He was born in Logan, Utah in 1890 and as a child, worked in several
of his father's businesses. He created a family holding company, the
Eccles Investment Company, in 1916 to manage various enterprises. By
the mid-1920s, he, his brother George and others had organized the
First Security Corporation, believed to be the first multibank holding
company. Before entering public service, he successfully prevented the
collapse of the family bank in 1931. In 1933, Congress invited him to
give his analysis of the Great Depression. He delivered a five-point
program to fix the economy that formed the basis of the New Deal.
When Marriner Eccles was named Chair of the Federal Reserve in 1934,
he was just 44 years old. Time magazine wrote at the time, ``Many
believe Marriner S. Eccles is the only thing standing between the U.S.
and disaster.''
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich has stated that any list of
the most influential individuals on America's thinking in the post-war
era must include Marriner S. Eccles. Historians note that one reason
America was able to win World War II, which took a great deal of money,
is the advice President Franklin D. Roosevelt received from Marriner
Eccles.
Eccles was known as someone who thought deeply about problems and
then acted without concern for the political consequences. When
Congress passed the Banking Act of 1935, which sought to clarify the
powers and responsibilities of the Reserve Board in matters of national
monetary policy, and to increase the autonomy of regional Reserve
Banks, he said, ``The function of banking and money is perhaps the most
important of all in our entire economy.'' He then congratulated the
Congress for working ``tirelessly and conscientiously to reconcile
different points of view in accordance with what they believed to be in
the public interest.''
After his Fed service, Eccles returned to the banking business in
Utah. He died in 1977. In 1982, the Federal Reserve Building in
Washington, D.C. was renamed in his honor. His descendants continued to
carry out his legacy of public service. The Marriner S. Eccles
Foundation has given generously to higher education, hospitals and
medical research, arts and culture and family and social services,
including programs supporting the elderly, the disabled and the
homeless. As a community, as a state and as a country, we continue to
reap the benefits of Marriner Eccles' intellect, dedication, compassion
and commitment to American values and ideals.
____________________