Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

Savannah and, finally, to the small town of Brunswick, Georgia. At first, it would seem that Brunswick was an unlikely destination. Located on the Atlantic seaboard, it was primarily a fishing village with a small but lively port for cotton and lumber. It had a population of only a few thousand people. But, by that time, the Sea Islands that sheltered 1- Herman E. Krooss, ed.. Documentary History of Currency and Banking in the United States (New York: Chelsea House, 1983), Vol. Ill, 'Final Report from the Pujo Committee, February 28,1913,' pp. 222-24.

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

the coast from South Carolina to Florida already had become popular as winter resorts for the very wealthy. One such island, just off the coast of Brunswick, had recently been purchased by J.P.

Morgan and several of his business associates, and it was here that they came in the fall and winter to hunt ducks or deer and to escape the rigors of cold weather in the North. It was called Jekyll Island.

When the Aldrich car was uncoupled onto a siding at the small Brunswick station, it was, indeed, conspicuous. Word travelled quickly to the office of the town's weekly newspaper. While the group was waiting to be transferred to the dock, several people from the paper approached and began asking questions. Who were Mr. Aldrich's guests? Why were they here? Was there anything special happening? Mr. Davison, who was one of the oWners of Jekyll Island and who was well known to the local paper, told them that these were merely personal friends and that they had come for the simple amusement of duck hunting. Satisfied that there was no real news in the event, the reporters returned to their office.

Even after arrival at the remote island lodge, the secrecy continued. For nine days the rule for first-names-only remained in effect. Full-time caretakers and servants had been given vacation, and an entirely new, carefully screened staff was brought in for the occasion. This was done to make absolutely sure that none of the servants might recognize by sight the identities of these guests. It is difficult to imagine any event in history—including preparation for war—that was shielded from public view with greater mystery and secrecy.

The purpose of this meeting on Jekyll Island was not to hunt ducks. Simply stated, it was to come to an agreement on the structure and operation of a banking cartel. The goal of the cartel, as is true with all of them, was to maximize profits by minimizing competition between members, to make it difficult for new competitors to enter the field, and to utilize the police power of government to enforce the cartel agreement. In more specific terms, the purpose and, indeed, the actual outcome of this meeting was to create the blueprint for the Federal Reserve System.

THE STORY IS CONFIRMED

For many years after the event, educators, commentators, and historians denied that the Jekyll Island meeting ever took place.

Even now, the accepted view is that the meeting was relatively THE JOURNEY TO JEKYLL ISLAND

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unimportant, and only paranoid unsophisticates would try to make anything out of it. Ron Chernow writes: 'The Jekyll Island meeting would be the fountain of a thousand conspiracy theories.' Little by little, however, the story has been pieced together in amazing detail, and it has come directly or indirectly from those who actually were there. Furthermore, if what they say about their own purposes and actions does not constitute a classic conspiracy, then there is little meaning to that word.

The first leak regarding this meeting found its way into print in 1916. It appeared in Leslie's Weekly and was written by a young financial reporter by the name of B.C. Forbes, who later founded Forbes Magazine. The article was primarily in praise of Paul Warburg, and it is likely that Warburg let the story out during conversations with the writer. At any rate, the opening paragraph contained a dramatic but highly accurate summary of both the nature and purpose of the meeting:

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 on to 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 was 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.

In 1930, Paul Warburg wrote a massive book—1750 pages in

all—entitled The Federal Reserve System, Its Origin and Growth. In this tome, he described the meeting and its purpose but did not mention either location or the names of those who attended. But he did say: 'The results of the conference were entirely confidential. Even the fact there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public.' Then, in a footnote he added: 'Though eighteen years have since gone by, I do not feel free to give a description of 1. Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modem Finance (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990), p. 129.

2. 'Men Who Are Making America/' by B.C. Forbes, Leslie's Weekly, October 19, 1916, p. 423.

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THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

this most interesting conference concerning which Senator Aldrich pledged all participants to secrecy.'1

An interesting insight to Paul Warburg's attendance at the Jekyll Island meeting came thirty-four years later, in a book written by his son, James. James had been appointed by F.D.R. as Director of the Budget and, during World War II, as head of the Office of War Information. In his book he described how his father, who didn't know one end of a gun from the other, borrowed a shotgun from a friend and carried it with him to the train to disguise himself as a duck hunter.2