** "Secrets of the Federal Reserve" ** ** Begin excerpt ** THE SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE ================================== by Eustace Mullins CHAPTER ONE Jekyll Island "The matter of a uniform discount rate was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island." - Paul M. Warburg (1) On the night of November 22,1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken,New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation's leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken. The delegation had left in a sealed railway car, with blinds drawn, for an undisclosed destination. They were led by Senator Nelson Aldrich,head of the National Monetary Commission. President Theodore Roosevelt had signed into law the bill creating the National Monetary Commission in 1908,after the tragic Panic of 1907 had resulted in a public outcry that the nation's monetary system be stabilized. Aldrich had led the members of the Commission on a two-year tour of Europe,spending some three hundred thousand dollars of public money. He had not yet made a report on the results of this trip, nor had he offered any plan for banking reform. Accompanying Senator Aldrich at the Hoboken station were his private secretary,Sheldon; A. Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Special Assistant to the National Monetary Commission; Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York,Henry P. Davison,senior partner of J.P. Morgan Company, and generally regarded as Morgan's personal emissary; and Charles D. Norton,president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York. Joining the group just before the train left the station were Benjamin Strong, also known as a lieutenant of J.P. Morgan; and Paul Warburg, a recent immigrant from Germany who had joined the banking house of Kuhn,Loeb and Company, New York as a partner earning five hundred thousand dollars a year. Six years later, a financial writer named Bertie Charles Forbes (who later founded the Forbes Magazine; the present Malcolm Forbes is his son), wrote: "Picture a party of the nation's greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness,stealthily hieing hundreds of miles South,embarking on a mysterious launch,sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants,living there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them once mentioned lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance. I am not romancing; I am giving to the world, for the first time, the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation of our new currency system, was written....The utmost secrecy was enjoined upon all. The public must not glean a hint of what was to be done. Senator Aldrich notified each one to go quietly into a private car of which the railroad had received orders to draw up on an unfrequented platform. Off the party set. New York's ubiquitous reporters had been foiled....Nelson (Aldrich) had confided to Henry,Frank,Paul and Piatt that he was to keep them locked up at Jekyll Island, out of the rest of the world, until they evolved and compiled a scientific currency system for the United States, the real birth of the Federal Reserve System, the plan done on Jekyll Island in the conference with Paul,Frank and Henry...Warburg is the link that binds the Aldrich system and the present system together. He more than any other man has made the system possible as a working reality." (2) The official biography of Senator Nelson Aldrich states: "In the autumn of 1910,six men went out to shoot ducks,Aldrich, his secretary Shelton,Andrews,Davison,Vanderlip and Warburg. Reporters were waiting at the Brunswick (Georgia) station. Mr Davison went out and talked to them.The reporters dispersed and the secret of the strange journey was not divulged. Mr Aldrich asked him how he had managed it and he did not volunteer the information." (3) Davison had an excellent reputation as the person who could concilliate warring factions, a role he had performed for J.P. Morgan during the settling of the Money Panic of 1907. Another Morgan partner, T.W. Lamont, says: "Henry P. Davison served as arbitrator of the Jekyll Island expedition." (4) From these references, it is possible to piece together the story. Aldrich's private car, which had left Hoboken station with it's shades drawn, had taken the financiers to Jekyll Island,Georgia. Some years later the Jekyll Island Hunt Club, and, at first, the island was used only for hunting expeditions, until the millionaires realized that its pleasant climate offered a warm retreat from the rigors of winters in New York, and began to build splendid mansions, which they called "cottages", for their families' winter vacations. The club building itself,being quite isolated, was sometimes in demand for stag parties and other pursuits unrelated to hunting. On such occasions, the club members who were not invited to these specific outings were asked not to appear there for a certain number of days. Before Nelson Aldrich's party had left New York, the club's members had been notified that the club would be occupied for the next two weeks. The Jekyll Island Club, was chosen as the place to draft the plan and control of the money and credit of the people of the United States, not only because of its isolation, but also because it was the private preserve of the people who were drafting the plan. The New York Times later noted on May 3,1931, in commenting on the death of George F. Baker, one of J.P. Morgan's closest associates, that "Jekyll Island Club has lost one of its most distinguished members. One-sixth of the total wealth of the world was represented by the members of the Jekyll Island Club." Membership was by inheritance only. The Aldrich group had no interest in hunting. Jekyll Island was chosen for the site of the preparation of the central bank because it offered complete privacy, and because there was not a journalist within fifty miles. Such was the need for secrecy that the members of the party agreed, before arriving at Jekyll Island, that no last names would be used at any time during their two week stay. The group referred to themselves as the First Name Club, as the last names of Warburg,Strong,Vanderlip and the others were prohibited during their stay. The customary attendants had been given two week vacations from the club, and new servants brought in from the mainland for this occasion who did not know the names of any of those present. This arrangement proved to be so satisfactory that the members limited to those who had actually been present at Jekyll Island,later had a number of informal get-togethers in New York. Why all this secrecy? Why this thousand mile trip in a closed railway car to a remote hunting club? Ostensibly, it was to carry out a program of public service, to prepare banking reform which would be a boon to the people of the United States, which had been ordered by the National Monetary Commission. The participants were no strangers to public benefactions. Usually their names were inscribed on brass plaques, or on the exteriors of buildings which they had donated. This was not the procedure which they followed at Jekyll Island. No brass plaque was ever erected to mark the selfless actions of those who met at their private hunt club in 1910 to improve the lot of every citizen of the United States. In fact, no benefaction took place at Jekyll Island. The Aldrich group journeyed there in private to write the banking and currency legislation which the National Monetary Commission had been ordered to prepare in public.At stake was the future control of the money and credit of the United States. If any genuine monetary reform had been prepared and presented to Congress, it would have ended the power of the elitist one world money creators. Jekyll Island ensured that a central bank would be established in the United States which would give these bankers everything they had always wanted. As the most technically proficient of those present, Paul Warburg was charged with doing most of the drafting of the plan. His work would then be discussed and gone over by the rest of the group. Senator Nelson Aldrich was there to see that the completed plan would come out in a form which he could get passed by Congress, and the other bankers were there to include whatever details would be needed to be certain that they got everything they wanted, in a finished draft composed during a one-time stay. After they returned to New York, there could be no second get together to rework their plan. They could not hope to obtain such secrecy for their work on a second journey. The Jekyll Island group remained at the club for nine days, working furiously to complete their task. Despite the common interests of those present, the work did not proceed without friction. Senator Aldrich,always a domineering person, considered himself the chosen leader of the group, and could not help ordering everyone else about. Aldrich also felt somewhat out of place as the only member who was not a professional banker. He had substantial banking interests throughout his career, but only as a person who profited from his ownership of bank stock. His opposite number, Paul Warburg, believed that every question raised by the group demanded, not merely an answer, but a lecture. He rarely lost an opportunity to give members a long discourse designed to impress them with the extent of his knowledge of banking. This was resented by the others, and often drew barbed remarks from Aldrich. The natural diplomacy of Henry P. Davison proved to be the catalyst which kept them at their work. Warburg's thick alien accent grated on them, and constantly reminded them they had to accept his presence if a central bank plan was to be devised which would guarantee them their future profits. Warburg made little effort to smooth over their prejudices, and contested them on every possible occasion on technical banking questions, which he considered his private reserve. "In all conspiracies there must be great secrecy." (5) The "monetary reform" plan prepared at Jekyll Island was to be presented to Congress as the completed work of the National Monetary Commission. It was imperative that the real authors of the bill remain hidden. So great was popular resentment against bankers since the Panic of 1907 that no Congressman would dare vote for a bill bearing the Wall Street taint, no matter who had contributed to his campaign expenses. The Jekyll Island plan was a central bank plan, and in this country there was a long tradition of struggle against inflicting a central bank on the American People. It had begun with Thomas Jefferson's fight against Alexander Hamilton's scheme for the First Bank of the United States, backed by James Rothschild. It had continued with President Andrew Jackson's successful war against Alexander Hamilton's scheme for the Second Bank of the United States, in which Nicholas Biddle was acting as the agent of James Rothschild of Paris. The result of that struggle was the creation of the Independent Sub-Treasury System,which supposedly had served to keep the funds of the United States out of the hands of the financiers. A study of the panics of 1873,1893, and 1907 indicates these panics were the result of the international bankers' operations in London. The public was demanding in 1908 that Congress enact legislation to prevent the recurrence of artificially induced money panics. Such monetary reform seemed inevitable. It was to head off and control such reform that the National Monetary Commission had been set up with Nelson Aldrich at its head,since he was majority leader of the Senate. The main problem, as Paul Warburg informed his colleagues, was to avoid the name "Central Bank". For that reason, he had decided upon the designation of "Federal Reserve System". This would deceive the people into thinking it was not a central bank,fulfilling the main functions of a central bank; it would be owned by private individuals who would profit from owneship of shares. As a bank of issue, it would control the nation's money and credit. In the chapter on Jekyll Island in his biography of Aldrich,Stephenson writes of the conference: "How was the Reserve Bank to be controlled? It must be controlled by Congress. The government was to be represented in the board of directors, it was to have full knowledge of all the bank's affairs, but a majority of the directors were to be chosen, directly or indirectly, by the banks of the association." (6) Thus the proposed Federal Reserve Bank was to be "controlled by Congress" and answerable to the government, but the majority of the directors were to be chosen, "directly or indirectly" by the banks of the association. In the final refinement of Warburg's plan, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors would be appointed by the President of the United States, but the real work of the Board would be controlled by a Federal Advisory Council,meeting with the Governors. The Council would be chosen by the directors of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, and would remain unknown to the public. The next consideration was to conceal the fact that the proposed "Federal Reserve System" would be dominated by the masters of the New York money market. The Congressmen from the South and the West could not survive if they voted for a Wall Street plan. Farmers and small businessmen in those areas had suffered most from the money panics. There had been great popular resentment against the Eastern bankers, which during the neneteenth century became a political movement known as "populism." The private papers of Nicholas Biddle, not released until more than a century after his death, show that quite early on the Eastern bankers were fully aware of the widespread public opposition to them. Paul Warburg advanced at Jeykll Island the primary deception which would prevent the citizens from recognizing that his plan set up a central bank. This was the regional reserve system. He proposed a system of four (later twelve) branch reserve banks located in different sections of the country. Few people outside the banking world would realize that the existing concentration of the nation's money and credit structure in New York made the proposal of a regional reserve system a delusion. Another proposal advanced by Paul Warburg at Jekyll Island was the manner of selection of administrators for the proposed regional reserve system. Senator Nelson Aldrich had insisted that the officials should be appointive, not elected, and that Congress should have no role in their selection. His Capitol Hill experience had taught him that congressional opinion would often be inimical to the Wall Street interests, as Congressmen from the West and South might wish to demonstrate to their constituents that they were protecting them against the Eastern bankers. Warburg responded that the administrators of the proposed central banks should be subject to executive approval by the President. This patent removal of the system from Congressional control meant that the Federal Reserve proposal was unconstitutional from its inception, because the Federal Reserve System was to be a bank of issue. Article 1, Sec.8, Part 5 of the Constitution, expressly charges CONGRESS with "the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof." Warburg"s plan would deprive Congress of its sovereignty, and the systems of checks and balances of power set up by Thomas Jefferson in the Constitution would now be destroyed. Administrators of the proposed system would control the nation's money and credit, and would themselves be approved by the executive department of the government. The judicial department (the Supreme Court, etc.) was already virtually controlled by the executive department through presidential appointment to the bench. Paul Warburg later wrote a massive exposition of his plan, "The Federal Reserve System, Its Origin and Growth" (7) of some 1750 pages, but the name "Jekyll Island" appears nowhere in the text. He does state (Vol 1, page 58): "In November,1910,I was invited to join a small group of men who, at Senator Aldrich's request, were to take part in a several days' conference with him, to discuss the form that the new banking bill should take. During this conference, I had my first opportunity of studying the Senator carefully, and I was deeply impressed by the earnest devotion with which he approached the subject and the untiring patience with which he applied himself to it." It is noteworthy that Warburg does not disclose who attended this conference, or where it took place, even though it was a momentous gathering which would decide the future control of the money and credit of the people of the United States. He continues (page 59): "But then the conference closed, after a week of earnest deliberation, the rough draft of what later became the Aldrich Bill had been agreed upon, and a plan had been outlined which provided for a "National Reserve Association," meaning a central reserve organization with an elastic note issue based on gold and commercial paper." On page 60, Warburg writes "The results of the conference were entirely confidential.Even the fact there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public." He adds in a footnote, "Though eighteen (sic) years have since gone by,I do not feel free to give a description of this most interesting conference concerning which Senator Aldrich pledged all participants to secrecy". B.C. Forbes revelation (8) of the secret expedition to Jekyll Island, had had surprisingly little impact. It did not appear in print until two years after the Federal Reserve Act had been passed by Congress, hence it was never read during the period when it could have had an effect, that is, during the Congressional debate on the bill. Forbes' story was also dismissed, by those "in the know," as preposterous, and a mere invention. Stephenson mentions this on page 484 of his book about Aldrich: (9) "This curious episode of Jekyll Island has been generally regarded as a myth. B.C. Forbes got some information from one of the reporters. It told in vague outline the Jekyll Island story, but made no impression and was generally regarded as a mere yarn." The coverup of the Jekyll Island conference proceeded along two lines, both of which were successful. The first, as Stephenson mentions, was to dismiss the entire story as a romantic concoction which never actually took place. Although there were brief references to Jekyll Island in later books concerning the Federal Reserve System, these also attracted little public attention. As we have noted, Warburg's massive and supposedly definitive work on the Federal Reserve System does not mention Jekyll Island at all, although he does admit that a conference took place. In none of his voluminous speeches or writings do the words "Jekyll Island" appear, with a single notable exception. He agreed to Professor Stephenson's request that he prepare a brief statement for the Aldrich biography. This appears on page 85 as part of "The Warburg Memorandum." In this excerpt,Warburg writes, "The matter of a uniform discount rate was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island." Another member of the "First Name Club" was less reticent. Frank Vanderlip later published a few brief references to the conference. In the Saturday Evening Post, February 9, 1935, p.25, Vanderlip wrote: "Despite my views about the value to society of greater publicity for the affairs of corporations, there was an occasion near the close of 1910,when I was as secretive, indeed, as furtive, as any conspirator....Since it would have been fatal to Senator Aldrich's plan to have it known that he was calling on anybody from Wall Street to help him in preparing his bill, precautions were taken that would have delighted the heart of James Stillman (a colorful and secretive banker who was President of the National City Bank during the Spanish-American War, and who was thought to have been involved in getting us into that war)...I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System." In a Travel feature in The Washington Post,March 27,1983, "Follow the Rich to Jekyll Island," Roy Hoopes writes: "In 1910, when Aldrich and four financial experts wanted a place to meet in secret to reform the country's banking system, they faked a hunting trip to Jekyll and for 10 days holed up in the Clubhouse, where they made plans for what eventually would become the Federal Reserve Bank." Vanderlip later wrote in his autobiography, "From Farmboy to Financier" : (10) "Our secret expedition to Jekyll Island was the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System. The essential points of the Aldrich Plan were all contained in the Federal Reserve Act as it was passed." Professor E.R.A. Seligman, a member of the international banking family of J.& W. Seligman, and head of the Department of Economics at Columbia University, wrote in an essay published by the Academy of Political Science, Proceedings, v.4, p.387-90: "It is known to a very few how great is the indebtedness of the United States to Mr. Warburg. For it may be said without fear of contradiction that in its fundamental features the Federal Reserve Act is the work of Mr. Warburg more than any other man in the country. The existence of a Federal Reserve Board creates,in everything but name, a real central bank. In these two fundamentals of command of reserves and of a discount policy, the Federal Reserve Act has frankly accepted the principle of the Aldrich Bill, and these principals, as has been stated, were the creation of Mr. Warburg and Mr. Warburg alone. It must not be forgotten that Mr. Warburg had a practical object in view. In formulating his plans and in advancing in them slighly varying suggestions from time to time, it was incumbent on him to remember that the education of the country must be gradual and that a large part of the task was to break down prejudices and remove suspicion. His plans therefore contained all sorts of elaborate suggestions designed to guard the public against fancied dangers and to persuade the country that the general scheme was at all practicable. It was the hope of Mr. Warburg that with the lapse of time it might be possible to eliminate from the law a few clauses which were inserted largely at his suggestion for educational purposes." Now that the public debt of the United States has passed a trillion dollars, we may indeed admit "how great is the indebtedness of the United States to Mr. Warburg." At the time he wrote the Federal Reserve Act, the public debt was almost nonexistent. Professor Seligman points out Warburg's remarkable prescience that the real task of the members of the Jekyll Island conference was to prepare a banking plan which would gradually "educate the country" and "break down prejudices and remove suspicion." The campaign to end the plan into law succeeded in doing just that. ** End Chapter One ** CHAPTER 3 The Federal Reserve Act "Our financial system is a false one and a huge burden on the people..This act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth" - Congressman Charles Augustus Lindbergh,Sr. The speeches of Senator LaFollette and Congressman Lindbergh became rallying points of opposition to the Aldrich Plan in 1912. They also aroused popular feeling against the Money Trust. Congressman Lindbergh said, on December 15, 1911, "The government prosecutes other trusts, but supports the money trust. I have been waiting patiently for several years for an opportunity to expose the false money standard, and to show that the greatest of all favoritism is that extended by the government to the money trust." Senator LaFollette publicly charged that a money trust of fifty men controlled the United States. George F. Baker, partner of J. P. Morgan, on being queried by reporters as to the truth of the charge, replied that it was absolutely in error. He said that he knew from personal knowledge that not more than eight men ran this country. The National Magazine replied editorially to Senator LaFollette that "If there is a Money Trust it will not be practical to establish that it exercises its influence either for good or for bad." Senator LaFollette remarks in his memoirs that his speech against the Money Trust later cost him the Presidency of the United States, just as Woodrow Wilson's early support of the Aldrich Plan had brought him into consideration for that office. Congress finally made a gesture to appease feeling by appointing a committee to investigate the control of money and credit in the United States. This was the Pujo Committee, a subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency Committee, which conducted the famous "Money Trust" hearings in 1912,under the leadership of Congressman Arsene Pujo of Louisiana, who was regarded as a spokesman for the oil interests. These hearings were deliberately dragged on for five months, and resulted in six-thousand pages of printed testimony in four volumes. Month after month, the bankers made the train trip from New York to Washington,testified before the Committee and returned to New York. The hearings were extremely dull, and no startling information turned up at these sessions. The bankers solemnly admitted that they were indeed bankers,insisted that they always operated in the public interest, and claimed that they were animated only by the highest ideals of public service, like the Congressman before whom they were testifying. The paradoxical nature of the Pujo Money Trust Hearings may be better understood if we examine the man who single-handedly carried on these hearings, Samuel Untermyer. He was one of the principle contributors to Woodrow Wilson's Presidential campaign fund, and was one of the wealthiest corporation lawyers in New York. He states in his autobiography in "Who's Who" of 1926 that he once received a $775,000 fee for a single legal transaction, the successful merger of the Utah Copper Company and the Boston Consolidated and Nevada Company, a firm with a market value of one hundred million dollars. He refused to ask either Senator LaFollette or Congressman Lindbergh to testify in the investigation which they alone had forced Congress to hold. As Special Counsel for the Pujo Committee, Untermyer ran the hearings as a one-man operation. The Congressional members, including its chairman, Congressman Arsene Pujo, seemed to have been struck dumb from the commencement of the hearings to their conclusion. One of these silent servants of the public was Congressman James Byrnes, of South Carolina, representing Bernard Baruch's home district, who later achieved fame as "Baruch's man," and was placed by Baruch in charge of the Office of War Mobilization during the Second World War. Although he was a specialist in such matters, Untermyer did not ask any of the bankers about the system of interlocking directorates through which they controlled industry. He did not go into international gold movements,which were known as a factor in money panics, or the international relationships between American bankers and European bankers. The International banking houses of Eugene Meyer,Lazard Freres, J. & W. Seligman, Ladenburg Thalmann, Speyer Brothers, M. M. Warburg, and the Rothschild Brothers did not arouse Samuel Untermyer's curiosity, although it was well known in the New York financial world that all of these family banking houses either had branches or controlled subsidiary houses in Wall Street. When Jacob Schiff appeared before the Pujo Committee, Mr. Untermyer's adroit questioning allowed Mr. Schiff to talk for many minutes without revealing any information about the operations of the banking house of Kuhn Loeb Company, of which he was senior partner, and which Senator Robert L. Owen had identified as the representative of the European Rothschilds in the United States. The aging J. P. Morgan, who had only a few more months to live, appeared before the Committee to justify his decades of international financial deals. He stated for Mr. Untermyer's edification that "Money is a commodity." This was a favorite ploy of the money creators, as they wished to make the public believe that the creation of money was a natural occurence akin to the growing of a field of corn, although it was actually a bounty conferred upon the bankers by governments over which they had gained control. J. P. Morgan also told the Pujo Committee that in making a loan, he seriously considered only one factor, a man's character; even the man's ability to repay the loan, or his collateral, were of little importance. This astonishing observation startled even the blase' members of the Committee. The farce of the Pujo Committee ended without a single well-known opponent of the money creators being allowed to appear or testify.As far as Samuel Untermyer was concerned, Senator LaFollette and Congressman Charles Augustus Lindbergh had never existed. Nevertheless, these Congressman had managed to convince the people of the United States that the New York bankers did have a monopoly on the nation's money and credit. At the close of the hearings, the bankers and their subsidized newspapers claimed that the only way to break this monopoly was to enact the banking and currency legislation now being proposed to Congress, a bill which would be passed a year later as the Federal Reserve Act. The press seriously demanded that the New York banking monopoly be broken by turning over the administration of the new banking system to the most knowledgeable banker of them all, Paul Warburg. The Presidential campaign of 1912 records one of the more interesting political upsets in American History. The incumbent, William Howard Taft, was a popular president, and the Republicans, in a period of general prosperity, were firmly in control of the government through a Republican majority in both houses. The Democratic challenger, Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey, had no national recognition, and was a stiff, austere man who excited little public support. Both parties included a monetary reform bill in their platforms: The Republicans were committed to the Aldrich Plan, which had been denounced as a Wall Street plan, and the Democrats had the Federal Reserve Act. Neither party bothered to inform the public that the bills were almost identical except for the names. In retrospect, it seems obvious that the money creators decided to dump Taft and go with Wilson. How do we know this? Taft seemed certain of reelection, and Wilson would return to obscurity. Suddenly, Theodore Roosevelt "threw his hat into the ring". He announced that he was running as a third party candidate, the "Bull Moose". His candidacy would have been ludicrous had it not been for the fact that he was exceptionally well-financed. Moreover, he was given unlimited press coverage, more than Taft and Wilson combined. As a Republican ex-president, it was obvious that Roosevelt would cut deeply into Taft's vote. This proved the case, and Wilson won the election. To this day, no one can say what Theodore Roosevelt's program was, or why he would sabotage his own party. Since the bankers were financing all three candidates, they would win regardless of the outcome. Later Congressional testimony showed that in the firm of Kuhn Loeb Company, Felix Warburg was supporting Taft, Paul Warburg and Jacob Schiff were supporting Wilson, and Otto Kahn was supporting Roosevelt. The result was that a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President were elected in 1912 to get the central bank legislation passed. It seems probable that the identification of the Aldrich Plan as a Wall Street operation predicted that it would have a difficult passage through Congress, as the Democrats would solidly oppose it, whereas a successful Democratic candidate, supported by a Democratic Congress, would be able to pass the central bank plan. Taft was thrown overboard because the bankers doubted he could deliver on the Aldrich Plan, and Roosevelt was the instrument of his demise. To further confuse the American people and blind them to the real purpose of the proposed Federal Reserve Act, the architects of the Aldrich Plan, powerful Nelson Aldrich, although no longer a senator, and Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank, set up a hue and cry against the bill. They gave interviews wherever they could find an audience denouncing the proposed Federal Reserve Act as inimical to banking and good government. The bugaboo of inflation was raised because of the Act's provisions for printing Federal Reserve notes. THE NATION, on October 23, 1913, pointed out "Mr Aldrich himself raised a hue and cry over the issue of government "fiat money", that is, money issued without gold or bullion back of it, although a bill to do precisely that had been passed in 1908 with his own name as author, and he knew besides, that the 'government' had nothing to do with it, that the Federal Reserve Board would have full charge of the issuing of such moneys." Frank Vanderlip's claims were so bizarre that Senator Robert L. Owen, chairman of the newly formed Senate Banking and Currency Committee, which had been formed on March 18,1913, accused him of openly carrying on a campaign of misrepresentation about the bill. The interests of the public, so Carter Glass claimed in a speech on September 10,1913 to Congress, would be protected by an advisory council of bankers. "There can be nothing sinister about its transactions. Meeting with it at least four times a year will be a banker's advisory council representing every regional reserve district in the system. How could we have we have exercised greater caution in safeguarding the public interests?" Glass claimed that the proposed Federal Advisory Council would force the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to act in the best interest of the people. Senator Root raised the problem of inflation, claiming that under the Federal Reserve Act, note circulation would always expand indefinately, causing great inflation. However, the later history of the Federal Reserve System showed that it not only caused inflation, but that the issue of notes could also be restricted, causing deflation, as occurred from 1929 to 1939. One of the critics of the proposed "decentralized" system was a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio, Alfred Crozier: Crozier was called to testify for the Senate Committee because he had written a provocative book in 1912, U.S MONEY VS. CORPORATION CURRENCY * . He attacked the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908 as a Wall Street instrument, and he pointed out that when our government had to issue money based on privately owned securities, we were no longer a free nation. (* Crozier's book exposed the financiers plan to substitute "corporation currency" for the lawful money of the U.S. as guaranteed by Article I, Sec. 8 Para. 5, of the Constitution) Crozier testified before the Senate Committee that, "It should prohibit the granting or calling in of loans for the purpose of influencing quotation prices of securities and the contracting of loans or increasing interest rates in concert by the banks to influence public opinion or the action of any legislative body. Within recent months, William McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was reported in the open press as charging specifically that there was a conspiracy among certain of the large banking interests to put a contraction upon the currency and to raise interest rates for the sake of making the public force Congress into passing legislation desired by those interests. The so-called administration currency bill grants just what Wall Street and the big banks for twenty-five years have been striving for, that is, PRIVATE INSTEAD OF PUBLIC CONTROL OF CURRENCY. It does this as completely as the Aldrich Bill. Both measures rob the government and the people of all effective control over the public's money, and vest in the banks exclusively the dangerous power to make money among the people scarce or plenty. The Aldrich Bill puts this power in one central bank. The Administration Bill puts it in twelve regional central banks, all owned exclusively by the identical private interests that would have owned and operated the Aldrich Bank. President Garfield shortly before his assassination declared that whoever controls the supply of currency would control the business and activities of all people. Thomas Jefferson warned us a hundred years ago that a private central bank issuing the public currency was a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army." It is interesting to note how many assassinations of Presidents of the United States follow their concern with the issuing of public currency; Lincoln with his Greensback, non-interest-bearing notes, and Garfield making a pronouncement on currency problems just before he was assassinated. We now begin to understand why such a lengthy campaign of planned deception was necessary, from the secret conference at Jekyll Island to the identical "reform" plans proposed by the Democratic and Republican parties under different names. The bankers could not wrest control of the issuance of money from the citizens of the United States, to whom it had been designated through its Congress by the Constitution, until the Congress granted them their monopoly for a central bank. Therefore, much of the influence exerted to get the Federal Reserve Act passed was done behind the scenes, principally by two shadowy, non-elected persons: The German immigrant, Paul Warburg, and Colonel Edward Mandel House of Texas. Paul Warburg made an appearance before the House Banking and Currency Committee in 1913, in which he briefly stated his background: "I am a member of the banking house of Kuhn,Loeb Company. I came over to this country in 1902, having been born and educated in the banking business in Hamburg, Germany, and studied banking in London and Paris and have gone all around the world. In the Panic of 1907, the first suggestion I made was 'Let us get a national clearing house'. The Aldrich Plan contains some things which are simply fundamental rules of banking. Your aim in this plan (the Owens-Glass bill) must be the same - centralizing of reserves, mobilizing commercial credit, and getting an elastic note issue." Warburg's phrase "mobilization of credit" was an important one, because the First World War was due to begin shortly, and the first task of the Federal Reserve System would be to finance the World War. The European nations were already bankrupt, because they had maintained large standing armies for almost fifty years, a situation created by their own central banks, and therefore they could not finance a war. A central bank always imposes a tremendous burden on the nation for "rearmament" and "defense", in order to create inextinguishable debt, simultaneously creating a military dictatorship and enslaving the people to pay the "interest" on the debt which the bankers have artificially created. In the Senate debate on the Federal Reserve Act, Senator Stone said on December 12, 1913, "The great banks for years have sought to have and control agents in the Treasury to serve their purposes. Let me quote from this World article, 'Just as soon as Mr. McAdoo came to Washington, a woman whom the National City Bank had installed in the Treasury Department to get advance information on the condition of banks, and other matters of interest to the big Wall Street group, was removed. Immediately the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary, John Skelton Williams, were criticized severely by the agents of the Wall Street group.'" "I myself have known more than one occasion when bankers refused credit to men who opposed their political views and purposes. When Senator Aldrich and others were going around the country exploiting this scheme, the big banks of New York and Chicago were engaged in raising a munificent fund to bolster up the Aldrich propaganda. I have been told by bankers of my own state that contributions to this exploitive fund had been demanded of them and that they had contributed because they were afraid of being blacklisted or boycotted. There are bankers of this country who are enemies of the public welfare. In the past, a few great banks have followed policies and projects that have paralyzed the industrial energies of the country to perpetuate their tremendous power over the financial and business industries of America. " Carter Glass states in autobiography that he was summoned by Woodrow Wilson to the White House, and that Wilson told him he intended to make the reserve notes obligations to the United States. Glass says, "I was for an instant speechless. I remonstrated. There is not any government obligation here, Mr. President. Wilson said he had had to compromise on this point in order to save the bill." The term "compromise" on this point came directly from Paul Warburg. Col Elisha Ely Garrison, in ROOSEVELT, WILSON AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE LAW * wrote, "In 1911, Lawrence Abbot, Mr. Roosevelt's private office at 'The Outlook' handed me a copy of the so-called Aldrich Plan for currency reform. I said, I could not believe that Mr. Warburg was the author. This plan is nothing more that the Aldrich-Vreeland legislation which provided for currency issue against securities. Warburg knows that as well as I do. I am going to see him at once and ask him about it. All right, good luck, laughed Roosevelt. I went to Warburg and demanded to know the truth. Yes, I wrote it, he said. Why? I asked. It was a compromise, answered Warburg." (13) ( * Theodore Roosevelt) Garrison says that Warburg wrote him on February 8, 1912. "I have no doubt that at the end of a thorough discussion, either you will see it my way or I will see it yours - but I hope you will see it mine." This was another famous Warburg saying when he secretly lobbied Congressmen to support his interest, the veiled threat that they should "see it his way". Those who did not found large sums contributed to their opponents at the next elections, and usually went down in defeat. Col. Garrison, an agent of Brown Brothers bankers, later Brown Brothers Harriman, had entree everywhere in the financial community. He writes of Col. House, "Col. House agreed entirely with the early writing of Mr. Warburg." Page 337, he quotes Col. House: "I am also suggesting that the Central Board be increased from four members to five and their terms lengthened from eight to ten years. This would give stability and would take away the power of a President to change the personnel of the board during a single term of office." House's phrase, "take away the power of a President" is significant, because later Presidents found themselves helpless to change the direction of the government because they did not have the power to change the composition of the Federal Reserve Board to attain a majority on it during that President's term of office. Garrison also wrote in his book, "Paul Warburg is the man who got the Federal Reserve Act together after the Aldrich Plan aroused such nationwide resentment and opposition. The mastermind of both plans was Baron Alfred Rothschild of London." Colonel Edward Mandel House * was referred to by Rabbi Stephen Wise in his autobiography, CHALLENGING YEARS as the "unofficial Secretary of State". House noted that he and Wilson knew that in passing the Federal Reserve Act, they had created an instrument more powerful than the Supreme Court. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors actually comprised a Supreme Court of Finance, and there was no appeal from any of their rulings. (* See House note in "Biographies") In 1911, prior to Wilson's taking office as President, House had returned to his home in Texas and completed a book called PHILLIP DRU, ADMINISTRATOR. Ostensibly a novel, it was actually a detailed plan for the future government of the United States, "which would establish Socialism as dreamed by Karl Marx", according to House. This "novel" predicted the enactment of the graduated income tax, excess profits tax, unemployment insurance,social security, and a flexible currency system. In short, it was the blueprint which was later followed by the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations. It was published "anonymously" by B.W. Huebsch of New York, and was widely circulated among government officials, who left in no doubt as to its authorship. George Sylvester Viereck ** , who knew House for years, later wrote an account in the Wilson-House relationship, THE STRANGEST FRIENDSHIP IN HISTORY (14). In 1955, Westbrook Pegler, the Hearst columnist from 1932 to 1956, heard of the Phillip Dru book and called Viereck to ask if he had a copy. Viereck sent Pegler his copy of the book, and Pegler wrote a column about it, stating: "One of the institutions outlined in Phillip Dru is the Federal Reserve System. The Schiffs, the Warburgs, the Kahns, the Rockefellers and Morgans put their faith in House. The Schiff,Warburg, Rockefeller and Morgan interests were personally represented in the mysterious conference at Jekyll Island. Frankfurter landed on the Harvard law faculty, thanks to a financial contribution to Harvard by Felix Warburg and Paul Warburg, and so we got Alger and Donald Hiss, Lee Pressman, Harry Dexter White and many other proteges of Little Weenie." * (** See Viereck note in "Biographies" ) (* The present writer was with Viereck in his suite at the Hotel Belleclaire when Pegler called and asked for the book. Viereck sent it over by his secretary. He grinned and said Pegler seemed very excited. "He ought to get a good column out of that", Viereck told me. Indeed Pegler did get a good column out of it. Unfortunately for him, he had gone too far in mentioning the Warburgs. As long as he confined his attacks to La Grande Bouche (Eleanor Roosevelt), and her spouse, he had been permitted to continue, but now that he had exposed the Warburg connection with the Communist spy ring in Washington, his column was immediately dropped by the big city dailies, and Pegler's long run was over.) House's openly Socialistic views were forthrightly expressed in PHILLIP DRU, ADMINISTRATOR; on pages 57-58, House wrote: "In a direct and forceful manner, he pointed out that our civilization was fundamentally wrong, inasmuch, among other things, as it restricted efficiency; that if society were properly organized, there would be none who were not sufficiently clothed and fed. The result, that the laws, habits and ethical training in vogue were alike responsible for the inequalities in opportunity and the consequent wide difference between the few and the many; that the results of such conditions was to render inefficient a large part of the population, the percentage differing in each country in the ratio that education and enlightenment and unselfish laws bore to ignorance,bigotry and selfish laws." (15) In his book, House (Dru) envisions himself becoming a dictator and forcing on the people his radical views, page 148: "They recognized the fact that Dru dominated the situation and that a master mind had at last risen in the Republic." He now assumes the title of General. "General Dru announced his purpose of assuming the powers of a dictator...they were assured that he was free from any personal ambition...he proclaimed himself 'Administrator of the Republic'." * (* This quotation from PHILLIP DRU,ADMINISTRATOR, written by Col. House in 1912, is included here to show his totalitarian Marxist philosophy. House was to become for 8 years with Wilson, the President's closest advisor. Later he continued his influence in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. From his home in Magnolia, Miss., House advised FDR through frequent trips of Felix Frankfurter to the White House. Frankfurter was later appointed to the Supreme Court by FDR.) This pensive dreamer who imagined himself a dictator actually managed to place himself in the position of the confidential advisor to the President of the United States, and then to have many of his desires enacted into law! On page 227, he lists some of the laws he wishes to enact as dictator. Among them are an old age pension law, laborers insurance compensation, cooperative markets, a federal reserve banking system, cooperative loans, national employment bureaus, and other "social legislation," some of which was enacted during Wilson's administration, amd others during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. The latter was actually a continuation of the Wilson Administration, with many of the same personnel, and with House guiding the administration from behind the scenes. Like most of the behind-the-scenes operators in this book, Col. Edward Mandell House had the obligatory "London Connection." Originally a Dutch family, "Huis", his ancestors had lived in England for three hundred years, after which his father settled in Texas, where he made a fortune in blockade-running during the Civil War, shipping cotton and other contraband to his British connections, including the Rothschilds, and bringing back supplies for his beleaguered Texans. The senior House, not trusting the volatile Texas situation, prudently deposited all his profits from his blockade-running in gold, with Baring banking house in London * . At the close of the Civil War, he was one of the wealthiest men in Texas. He named his son "Mandell" after one his merchant associates. According to Arthur Howden Smith, when House's father died in 1880, his estate was distributed among his sons as follows: Thomas William got the banking business; John, the sugar plantation; and Edward M. the cotton plantations, which brought him an income of $20,000 a year. (16) (* DOPE,INC., identifies Barings as follows: "Baring Brothers, the premier merchant bank of the opium trade from 1783 to the present day, also maintained close contact with the Boston families...The group's leading banker became, at the close of the 19th century, the House of Morgan - which also took its cut in the Eastern opium traffic...Morgan's Far Eastern operations were the officially conducted British opium traffic...Morgan's case deserves special scrutiny from the American police and regulatory agencies, for the intimate associations of Morgan Guaranty Trust with the identical leadership of the British dope banks.") At the age of twelve, the young Edward Mandell House had brain fever, and was later further crippled by sunstroke. He was a semi-invalid, and his ailments gave him an odd Oriental appearance. He never entered any profession, but used his father's money to become the kingmaker of Texas politics, sucessively electing five governors from 1893 to 1911. In 1911 he began to support Wilson for president, and threw the crucial Texas to him which ensured his nomination. House met Wilson for the first time at the Hotel Gotham, May 31 1912. In THE STRANGEST FRIENDSHIP IN HISTORY, WOODROW WILSON AND COL. HOUSE, by George Sylvester Viereck, Viereck writes: "What," I asked House, "cemented your friendship?" "The identity of our temperaments and our public policies," answered House. "What was your purpose and his?" "To translate into legislation certain liberal and progressive ideas." (17) House told Viereck that when he went to House at the White House, he handed him $35,000. This was exceeded only by the $50,000 which Bernard Baruch had given to Wilson. The sucessful enactment of House's programs did not escape the notice of other Wilson associates. In vol. 1, page 157 of THE INTIMATE PAPERS OF COL. HOUSE, House notes, "Cabinet members like Mr. Lane and Mr. Bryan commented upon the influence of Dru with the President. 'All that the book has said should be', wrote Lane, 'comes about. The President comes to 'Phillip Dru' in the end.' " (18) House recorded some of his efforts on behalf of the Federal Reserve Act in THE INTIMATE PAPERS OF COL. HOUSE, "December 19,1912 . I talked with Paul Warburg over the phone concerning currency reform. I told of my trip to Washington and what I had done there to get it in working order. I told him that the Senate and the Congressmen seemed anxious to do what he desired, and that President-elect Wilson thought straight concerning the issue." (19) Thus we have Warburg's agent in Washington, Col. House, assuring him that the Senate and Congressmen will do what he desires, and that the President-elect "thought straight concerning the issue." In this context, representative government seems to have ceased to exist. House continues in his "Papers": "March 13,1913 . Warburg and I had an intimate discussion concerning currency reform. March 27, 1913 . Mr. J.P. Morgan, Jr. and Mr. Denny of his firm came promptly at five. Mr Mcadoo came about ten minutes afterward. Morgan had a currency plan already printed. I suggested he have it typewritten, so it would not seem too pre-arranged, and send it to Wilson and myself today. July 23, 1913 . I tried to show Mayor Quincy (of Boston) the folly of the Eastern bankers taking an antagonistic attitude towards the Currency Bill. I explained to Mayor Henry Higginson * with what care the bill had been framed. Just before he arrived, I had finished a review by Professor Sprague of Harvard of Paul Warburg's criticism of the Glass-Owen Bill, and will transmit it to Washington tomorrow. Every banker known to Warburg, who knows the subject practically, has been called up about the making of the bill. (* The most prominent banker in Boston) October 13, 1913 . Paul Warburg was my first caller today. He came to discuss the currency measure. There are many features of the Owen-Glass Bill that he does not approve. I promised to put him in touch with McAdoo and Senator Owen so that he might discuss it with them. November 17, 1913 . Paul Warburg telephoned about his trip to Washington. Later, he and Mr. Jacob Schiff came over for a few minutes. Warburg did most of the talking. He had a new suggestion in regard to grouping the regular reserve banks so as to get the units welded together and in easier touch with the Federal Reserve Board." George Sylvester Viereck in THE STRANGEST FRIENDSHIP IN HISTORY, WOODROW WILSON AND COL. HOUSE wrote: "The Schiffs, the Warburgs, the Kahns, the Rockefellers, the Morgans put their faith in House. When the Federal Reserve legislation at last assumed definite shape, House was the intermediary between the White House and the financiers. " (20) On page , Viereck notes "Col. House looks upon the reform of the monetary system as the crowning internal achievement of the Wilson Administration." (21) The Glass Bill (the House version of the final Federal Reserve Act) had passed the House on September 18, 1913 by 287 to 85. On December 19, 1913, the Senate passed their version by a vote of 54-34. More than forty important differences in the House and Senate versions remained to be settled, and the opponents of the bill in both houses of Congress were led to believe that many weeks would yet elapse before the Conference bill would be ready for consideration. The Congressmen prepared to leave Washington for the annual Christmas recess, assured that the Conference bill would not be brought up until the following year. Now the money creators prepared and executed the most brilliant stroke of their plan. In a single day, they ironed out all forty of the disputed passages in the bill and quickly brought it to a vote. On Monday, December 22, 1913, the bill was passed by the House 282-60 and the Senate 43-23. On December 21, 1913, THE NEW YORK TIMES commented editorially on the act, "New York will be on a firmer basis of financial growth, and we shall soon see her the money centre of the world." THE NEW YORK TIMES reported on the front page, Monday, December 22, 1913 in headlines: MONEY BILL MAY BE LAW TODAY - CONFEREES HAD ADJUSTED NEARLY ALL DIFFERENCES AT 1:30 THIS MORNING - NO DEPOSIT GUARANTEES - SENATE YIELDS ON THIS POINT BUT PUTS THROUGH MANY OTHER CHANGES "With almost unprecedented speed, the conference to adjust the House and Senate differences on the Currency Bill practically completed its labours early this morning. On Saturday the Conferees did little more than dispose of the preliminaries, leaving forty essential differences to be thrashed out Sunday...No other legislation of importance will be taken up in either House of Congress this week. Members of both houses are already preparing to leave Washington." "Unprecedented speed", says THE NEW YORK TIMES. One sees the fine hand of Paul Warburg in this final stategy. Some of the bill's most vocal critics had already left Washington. It was a longstanding political courtesy that important legislation would not be acted upon during the week before Christmas, but this tradition was rudely shattered in order to perpetrate the Federal Reserve Act on the American people. THE TIMES buried a brief quote from Congressman Lindbergh that "the bill would establish the most gigantic trust on earth," and quoted Representative Guersey of Maine, a Republican on the House Banking and Currency Committee, that "This is an inflation bill, the only question being the extent of the inflation." Congressman Lindbergh said on that historic day, to the House: "This act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized. The people may not know it immediately, but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed. The trusts will soon realize that they have gone too far even for their own good. The people must make a declaration of independence to relieve themselves from the Monetary Power. This they will be able to do by taking control of Congress. Wall Streeters could not cheat us if you Senators and Representatives did not make a humbug of Congress...if we had a people's Congress, there would be stability. The greatest crime of Congress is its currency system. The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetuated by this banking bill. The caucus and the party bosses have again operated and prevented the people from getting the benefit of their own government." The December 23, 1913 NEW YORK TIMES editorially commented, in contrast to Congressman Lindbergh's criticism of the bill, "The Banking and Currency Bill became better and sounder every time it was sent from one end of the Capitol to the other. Congress worked under public supervision in making the bill." By "public supervision," THE TIMES apparently meant Paul Warburg, who for several days had maintained a small office in the Capitol building, where he directed the successful pre-Christmas campaign to pass the bill, and where Senators and Congressmen came hourly at his bidding to carry out his strategy. The "unprecedented speed" with which the Federal Reserve Act had been passed by Congress during what became known as "the Christmas massacre" had one unforeseen aspect. Woodrow Wilson was taken unaware, as he, like many others, had been assured the bill would not come up for a vote until after Christmas. Now he refused to sign it, because he objected to the provisions for the selection of Class B. Directors. William L. White relates in his biography of Bernard Baruch that Baruch, a principal contributor to Wilson's campaign fund, was stunned when he was informed that Wilson refused to sign the bill. He hurried to the White house and assured Wilson that this was a minor matter, which could be fixed up later through "administrative processes." The important thing was to get the Federal Reserve Act signed into law at once. With this reassurance, Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913 . History proved that on that day, the Constitution ceased to be the governing covenant of the American people, and our liberties were handed over to a small group of international bankers. The December 24, 1913 NEW YORK TIMES carried a front page headline, "WILSON SIGNS THE CURRENCY BILL!" Below it, also in capital letters, were two further headlines, "PROSPERITY TO BE FREE" and "WILL HELP EVERY CLASS". Who could object to any law which provided benefits to everyone? THE TIMES described the festive atmosphere while Wilson's family and government officals watched him sign the bill. "The Christmas spirit pervaded the gathering," exulted THE TIMES. In his biography of Carter Glass, Rixey Smith states that those present at the signing of the bill included Vice-President Marshall,Secretary Bryan, Carter Glass,Senator Owen,Secretary McAdoo,Speaker Champ Clark amd other Treasury officials. None of the real writers of the bill, the draftees of Jekyll Island were present. They had prudently absented themselves from the scene of their victory. Rixey Smith also wrote, "It was as though Christmas had come two days early." On December 24, 1913, Jacob Schif wrote to Col. House, "My dear Col. House. I want to say a word to you for the silent, but no doubt effective work you have done in the interest of currency legislation and to congratulate you that the measure that has finally been enacted into law. I am with good wishes, faithfully yours, JACOB SCHIFF." ** End Excerpt ** References ---------- 1. Prof Nathaniel Wright Stephenson, Paul Warburg's Memorandum, "Nelson Aldrich A leader in American Politics", Scribners, N.Y. 1930 2. "CURENT OPINION," December 1916, p.382 3. Nathaniel Wright Stephenson, "Nelson Aldrich A leader in American Politics," Scribners, N.Y. 1930, Chap XXIV "Jekyll Island" 4. T.W. Lamont,Henry P. Davison, Harper, 1933 5. Clarendon,Hist. Reb. 1647 6. Nathaniel Wright Stephenson,"Nelson Aldrich A leader in American Politics," Scribners, N.Y. 1930, Chap XXIV "Jekyll Island" p.379 7. Paul Warburg, "The Federal Reserve System, Its Origin and Growth", Volume I, p.58, Macmillan,New York, 1930 8. "CURENT OPINION," December 1916, p.382 9. Nathaniel Wright Stephenson,"Nelson Aldrich A leader in American Politics," Scribners, N.Y. 1930 10. Frank Vanderlip, "From Farmboy to Financier" 13. Elisha Ely Garrison, "Roosevelt,Wilson and the Federal Reserve Law," Christopher Publications, Boston 1931 14. George Sylvester Viereck, "The Strangest Friendship in History, Woodrow Wilson and Col. House," Liveright, New York, 1932 15. Col. Edward M. House, "Phillip Dru,Administrator," B.W. Heubsch, New York, 1912 16. Arthur Howden Smith, "The Real Col. House," Doran Company, New York, 1918 17. George Sylvester Viereck, "The Strangest Friendship in History, Woodrow Wilson and Col. House," Liveright, New York, 1932 18. Col. Edward Mandell House, The Intimate Papers of Col. House," edited by Charles Seymour,Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926-28, Vol I., p.157 19. Ibid. Vol I. p. 163 20. George Sylvester Viereck, "The Strangest Friendship in History, Woodrow Wilson and Col. House," Liveright, New York, 1932 21. Ibid ====================================================================== Published by: ------------- Bankers Research Institute P.O. Box 1105 - P Staunton, VA. 24401 $9.95 per copy Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 83-072665 Copyright 1983