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Businessmen flinched at the prospect of seeing the Government step into railroads as it has into Power. But soon Wall Street learned that any investment houses which wanted to hurry and outbid the Government, float equipment trusts of their own at low interest rates, would receive the New Deal's blessing and perhaps insurance for their money.
Isolationists snorted at the proposal that good money be sent abroad after bad. But the President explained that the borrowers were to be good South American neighbors, not wicked European defaulters. The money would all be spent in or for the U. S., opening and reconstructing export markets. Moreover, Jesse Jones would be the watchdog on duty.
*Perhaps hasty, perhaps piercing, was the conclusion leaped to by some commentators that Mr. Jones was elevated so that RFC's loan rate, which Mr. Jones has kept as near 4% as possible, might be lowered to 2½ % or even 2 %. Heir-apparent to the RFC chairmanship was Emil Schram, a member of Mr. Jones's board of directors since 1936.