The hon. Gentleman's propositions are— "That the American Crisis being an exceptional occurrence, and no statesman having given warning, the masters are not liable, and that it is the duty of the Government and the House of Commons to grapple with the difficulty; that no trade has furnished such regular, healthy, and moral employment, and therefore the House of Commons ought to vote a large sum of money to keep half a million of people for one, two, or three years in idleness, and until the cotton trade revived; and that had there been no American outbreak, there would only have been a temporary glut of the markets; and he ventured to predict that after a year or two, when fresh supplies of cotton had been found, our exports would be forced into districts of India yet untravelled, for the benefit of the English manufacturer and the operative, provided India was tolerably well governed and kept quiet".

As to the practical side of the matter, he pointed out that some two or three years ago there was a dispute in Nottingham affecting 6,000 lace operatives, when a board very similar to the one suggested in the Bill was formed, and Mr. As with was sent down by the Board of Trade as umpire, Many witnesses went before that board and many intricate questions were considered, yet the result was so satisfactory that work had gone on harmoniously as between employers and employees, and until the American Crisis the Nottingham lace trade had never been so good.

Since the American Crisis of 1907, this principle of central control has been more widely accepted, and the American Federal Reserve Act, 1913, was based upon that principle.

Many of us who were in business in 1907–8 can remember the American Crisis, and the effect it had on money rates.

In the words of Thomas Paine in his "American Crisis".

Recently the Transnational Institute, which is based in Amsterdam, published a European response to the American Crisis.