During four days of insistent questioning in Washington last week, Texas Congressman Wright Patman, chairman of the House Small Business Committee, tried his hardest to discover what every U.S. businessman would dearly like to know: What will the Federal Reserve Board do next to ease credit and implement its reduction in rediscount rates?
Easy-money Patman prodded FRB Chairman William McChesney Martin Jr.: "I'm sure you will follow through on an easy-money policy." But Martin, as carefully noncommittal as ever, answered: "We are going to look at business conditions at all times and...