Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward

probably because he didn't understand it. Furthermore, in the unlikely event the blustery 'trust buster' would actually win the election, the financiers still had little to fear. In spite of his well-publicized stance of opposing big business, his true convictions were quite acceptable to Wall Street. As Chernow observed: Although the Roosevelt-Morgan relationship is sometimes

caricatured as that of trust buster versus trust king, it was far more complex than that. The public wrangling obscured deeper ideological affinities.... Roosevelt saw trusts as natural, organic outgrowths of economic development. Stopping them, he said, was like trying to dam the Mississippi River. Both TR and Morgan disliked the rugged, individualistic economy of the nineteenth century and favored big business.... In the sparring between Roosevelt and Morgan there was always a certain amount of shadow play, a pretense of greater animosity than actually existed.... Roosevelt and Morgan were secret blood brothers.2

It is not surprising, therefore, as Warburg noted in January, 1912—ten months before the election—that Teddy had been 'fairly won over to a favorable consideration of the Aldrich Plan.'3

Inner convictions on these issues notwithstanding, both Wilson and Roosevelt played their roles to the hilt. Privately financed by Wall Street's most powerful bankers, they publicly carried a flaming crusade against the 'Money Trust' from one end of the country to the other. Roosevelt bellowed that the 'issue of currency 1- McAdoo, pp. 165- 66.

2. Chernow, pp. 106-12.

3. Warburg, Vol. I, p. 78.

456

THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND

should be lodged with the government and be protected from domination and manipulation by Wall Street.'1 And he quoted over and over again the Bull Moose (Progressive Party) platform which said: 'We are opposed to the so-called Aldrich Currency Bill because its provisions would place our currency and credit system in private hands.' Meanwhile, at the other end of town, Wilson declared:

There has come about an extraordinary and very sinister

concentration in the control of business in the country.... The growth of our nation, therefore, and all our activities, are in the hands of a few men.... This money trust, or as it should be more properly called, this credit trust... is no myth.2

Throughout the campaign, Taft was portrayed as the champion of big business and Wall Street banks—which, of course, he was.

But so were Roosevelt and Wilson. The primary difference was that Taft, judged by his actual performance in office, was known to be such, whereas his opponents could only be judged by their words.

The outcome of the election was exactly as the strategists had anticipated. Wilson won with only forty-two per cent of the popular vote, which means, of course, that fifty-eight per cent had been cast against him. Had Roosevelt not entered the race, most of his votes undoubtedly would have gone to Taft, and Wilson would have become a footnote. As Colonel House confided to author George Viereck years later, 'Wilson was elected by Teddy Roosevelt.'3

Now that the Creature had moved into the White House,

passage of the Jekyll Island plan went into its final phase. The last bastion of opposition in Congress consisted of the Populist wing of the Democratic Party under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan. The problem with this group was that they had taken their campaign platform seriously. They really were opposed to the Money Trust. While it may have been a simple matter to pull the wool over the eyes of voters, it would not be so easy to fool this group of experienced politicians. What was needed now was an 1. Henry S. Commager, ed., Documents of American History (New York: F.S. Cofts

& Co., 1940), pp. 77-79.

2. Quoted by Carter Glass, Adventures in Constructive Finance (New York: Doubleday, 1927; rpt. Arno Press, a New York Times Co., 1975), p. 78-79.

3. Viereck, p. 34.

THE CREATURE SWALLOWS CONGRESS 457

entirely new bill that, on the surface, would appear to contain changes of sufficient magnitude to allow the Bryan wing to change its position. The essential features of the plan, however, must not be abandoned. And, to coordinate this final strategy, the services of someone with great political skill would be essential. Fortunately for the planners, there was exactly such a man residing at the White House. It was not the President of the United States. It was Edward Mandell House.

THE ROLE OF COLONEL HOUSE

Colonel House, who had been educated in England and whose father represented England's merchant interests in the American South, had come into public life through the London Connection. It