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From the Foreword. Origin and Passage of the Federal Reserve Act. THE first draft of the Federal Reserve Act was made by Mr. Fowler who introduced the bill on March 29,1910, and made an extended speech on the measure and upon bank reform in general. The Federal Reserve Act was drawn by Mr. Fowler for the express purpose of planting the United States irrevocably upon the gold standard, and of providing a currency as responsive to the demands of trade as bank credit itself, and currently redeemed in gold through our Clearing Houses precisely as checks and drafts are. It was one of those strange freaks of fortune; it was the very irony of fate itself that under the dictation of the leading money fiatist of this half-century, the Federal Reserve Act was to become the vehicle of a practically unlimited issue of "Government Paper Money." In 1913 the Democratic party came into power and took possession of every department of the Government. It was greatly to its credit that, in a patriotic and courageous way, it immediately set about the passage of a general financial and banking law. Unfortunately, however, for true bank reform, Hon. William J. Bryan was then Secretary of State, and completely controlled the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. It is a matter of well-known history, that Mr. Bryan inspired, directed and dictated the fundamental or underlying principles of the Federal Reserve Act. Through his following he literally compelled Congress, in utter defiance of the objections and vigorous protests of the Gold Democrats, to make The Federal Reserve Notes primarily United States Notes, or Greenbacks, each note bearing these words: "The United States of America will pay to the bearer on demand _________ dollars." This is one of the fatal features or defects of The Federal Reserve Act.....