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Before the committee came burly Jackson Eli Reynolds, president of First National Bank of New York, and Myron Charles Taylor, handsome board chairman of U. S. Steel. Their harping on the benefits of a balanced budget vexed the committee, but when Senators badgered them with pointed questions as to how & where income and outgo could be evened up, neither witness had an answer. Times & Sense. Declared Banker Reynolds: "I don't believe in the omniscient power of any man to point the way out of this situation. . . . Ninety-nine out of 100 persons haven't good sense. In good times they are willing to take big risks. A seeming prosperity gives them a sort of dementia. Anybody would borrow then. We can't get anybody but the feeble-minded to borrow now. .'. . I think I can pay my debts but I know a great many people who will never be able to pay theirs. . . . There'll be a considerable revision of debts."
Steelman Taylor was nonplussed at the point-blank manner in which Senators questioned him. He retreated behind generalities: "I think the surplus of raw materials is our greatest menace. . . . Industrialists are a confident people, a hopeful people. They believe in the future of this country. We're trying to find the remedy."
Other Ideas from other witnesses: Publisher Paul Block—"I would suggest a coalition Cabinet ... a small manufacturers' sales tax ... a $4,000,000,000 bond issue for public works."
Economist Herman Arendtz of Boston— "Immediate relief is necessary to prevent banks, railroads and insurance companies from collapsing. . . . The capital structure has got to be reduced. ... I favor a 'token dollar' by which silver would be remonetized within the bounds of the gold standard."
Edward Dickinson Duffield (Prudential Life Insurance Co.)—"It's difficult for Congress alone to cure things. . . . Modification of debtor-creditor contracts often are needed and justified but to destroy the obligations attaching to such contracts will weaken the entire basis of our system. A 70¢ dollar wouldn't be so bad if businessmen were sure that it would be maintained as a 70¢ dollar."
John Francis ("Red Mike") Hylan, one-time Mayor of New York—"The greatest sham of the age which has made all mankind its victims has been the plan of inducing foreign governments to adopt the gold standard under the pretense of stabilizing their currencies and then making them large loans at high rates of interest."
John William Davis—"I have nothing to offer, either of fact or theory. As the Depression is not due to any single cause, unless it be human folly, I am sure it cannot be cured by any single remedy."
Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr.—"I find that my thinking is so entirely out of harmony with that of the leaders of Congress that I feel I would only be wasting the time of your committee."
George Horace Larimer—"All my views have been published in The Saturday Evening Post."
David Franklin Houston—"I see no other solution than a unified banking system."
John Llewellyn Lewis (A. F. of L.)— "A horde of small-time leaders in industry and finance looted the purse of the population."