Will one of you gentlemen tell me in what civilized country of the earth there are important government boards of control on which private interests are represented? Which of you gentlemen thinks the railroads should select members of the Interstate Commerce Commission?

at a meeting of bankers and the president shortly before he asked Congress to enact legislation creating a Federal Reserve System; reported in Carter Glass, An Adventure in Constructive Finance (1927, reprinted 1975), chapter 7, p. 116. This appears to be the origin of what is frequently quoted as: "You don't put robbers to work in a bank".