“Sure, what about it?”
“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but on our Do You Know card we say that a secret treaty made by the Pope started the war. Now one of those statements must be wrong. One must be a lie.”
“No,” said Freeman. “Don’t you see, that Do You Know card is gotten out by the Tribe? That’s something we say. That article on the German-Jewish bankers starting the war is simply a re-write of a statement made by Howard Brooks. The Beacon simply picked it up. They’re not responsible for Brooks’ views and the Tribe isn’t responsible for everything The Beacon prints.”
Robert was growing exasperated, but he tried to keep his temper. He puffed at his cigar in silence for a moment.
“Well, what do you think of that charge by Brooks yourself?” he finally asked.
Freeman smiled.
“He makes good tires. But, seriously, I’ll tell you. Of course, that sort of stuff is all right for the yokels. I studied money and banking at college. I’m not a financial authority or anything like that, but I know, of course, that the present economic world could not exist without banks and credit. We deposit our dues in a bank, and I suppose that Griffith must be financing the Tribe through some bank, although,” he grinned, “very probably not Kuhn, Loeb and Company.” He threw his head back and blew a smoke ring into the air.
“Brooks simply says something to the effect that the big international bankers saw an opportunity to make money by fomenting a war, and stirred things up. Of course, if Germany could win, any banker who lent the German government a large sum would naturally make a large profit. As a matter of fact, though, I think Germany had some scheme of labor banks, in which the working people themselves deposited.”
“Yes,” said Hamilton. “I think the Germans even used to brag about the people financing their own war.”
“Of course, there’s no proof that any certain banker did stir up the war. If there were, I don’t think that the allies would have been bashful about demanding his surrender. If any German-Jewish or German anything else clique of bankers had been the cause of the war, they would have been handed over to some tribunal, because the Versailles treaty insists on punishment for those guilty of starting the war. So that’s probably hot air. Of course, bankers backing their country after it is in the war, is a different matter. It would be first a matter of loyalty and second of compulsion. The German-Jewish bankers would naturally support the German government; but that’s a different thing from starting a war, just as the French-Jewish bankers supported the French government, the English, the English and the American, the American. And you could say the same thing about Protestant bankers.”