The real Colonel House

Front matter

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I A Man More Misunderstood than

Mysterious 13

Chapter I A Man More Misunderstood Than Mysterious

COLONEL E. M. House— or plain Mr. House, as he prefers to be called — of Texas, is one of the most remarkable characters in American history. He stands forth commandingly, in a period of political turmoil and evolution, which has produced such contrasting figures as Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilhelm H. of Germany, David Lloyd George, Raymond Poincare, and General Ludendorfif. Five years ago he was unknown to the public of this country. To-day his name has become a household word throughout the world. After President Wilson himself, no man in public life exerts so dominant an influence upon international affairs as this slim, quiet gentleman, who holds no office, who represents no special interest, who has no selfish ends to serve.

This may sound like eulogy. But it is not. A great deal may be said or written about Colonel House, but summed up in a simple phrase, his power for good or ill is based simply upon his disinterestedness. He holds a power never wielded before in this country by any man out of office, a power greater than that of any political boss or Cabinet member. He occupies a place in connection with the Administration which is anomalous, because no such place ever existed before Woodrow Wilson became President of the United States. He holds this power, and he occupies this place because the President knows that he can absolutely rely upon his unselfish service.

If you don't believe this, consider the proposition strictly from a utilitarian point of view. President Wilson is a very definite-minded individual, and two things he does not tolerate are inefficiency and disloyalty. Is it likely that Colonel House would have lasted so long if he had not satisfied the President on these two points? There is no use arguing that the President might have been deceived. A man in Colonel House's position has plenty of enemies, who dislike him or are jealous of his influence, and these would be quick to inform against him, if the opportunity occurred. The Republican National Committee has had every episode of House's life ransacked

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for evidence which would justify an attack upon him, and, through him, upon the President. But the cleverest detective has been unable to discover anything worth using.

Why ? Because Colonel House is not in politics for himself, never has been in politics for himself, and has no personal ambitions to satisfy. He plays politics because he loves politics, because he cannot resist the pleasure of directing men and policies, any more than the born artist can keep his hands off paint-tubes and brushes. He is that rare individual in American life, the man who is provided with a comfortable Income, who craves no addition to his worldly Wealth, and takes advantage of being relieved of the necessity of toil to devote himself to the welfare of his party and his country.

The real Ctdonel House is not a man of mystery, neither is he a "Texas Sphinx" — whatever that may be! — or an errand-boy for the President, a sort of fetch-and-carry Man Friday, with a phonograph attachment. All of these roles and many more have been assigned to him. The plain truth is that there is nothing mysterious about Colonel House. He is one of the frankest, openest men in the world, and to those who know him one of the two or three greatest Americans of this political generation. Until President Wilson writes his autobiography we shall not know the extent of the influence House has had upon the President's pohcies. Colonel House will never breathe a word to indicate it; but there is ample excuse for assigning him credit as chief adviser in the formation of all of the President's important decisions.

Of his perspicuity in counsel, his sagacity and political foresight there has been ample testimony from Mr. Wilson and other Democratic leaders. It is safe to say that nobody appreciates Colonel House's value so highly as does the President. The President was fifty-five years old when they first met — an age when men, and especially men of Mr. Wilson's character, do not make close friendships readily — yet they became comrades at once, and their friendship has ripened and strengthened in the stormy years since past, until it has grown to be one of the most beautiful of which history has record. For it is a friendship based upon service. Colonel House's sole object is to help Mr. Wilson in his difhcult task, and in helping him to help all Americans and all mankind, and to the President the advice of this man of crystal-clear vision and rigid fairness means acceleration of his gigantic projects for humanizing modern civilization. The net gainers by the cooperation are the Republic and the world.

Americans as a whole have not understood i6

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Colonel House, and perhaps they may be forgiven for this. For one thing, Colonel House stepped into semi-public life with a fixed aversion to publicity, and to understand the man it is necessary to recognize that this aversion, which is wholly without aflfectation, is the keystone of his character. He detests public attention of a personal nature. For instance, he is always willing to talk to any one who has a right to know about the public questions of the day, yet he will shy like a wild colt from the prospect of a character sketch. For a long time it was difficult to get a photograph of him, but finally he was broken to the camera, and he is now willing to pose on any legitimate occasion.

He prefers to work quietly toward his determined goal. This does not mean that he works mysteriously. He is quite open and above-board. But he has a theory that you do not need to call in the town brass band, enlist spellbinders, and hire a press agent to accomplish any worth-while purpose. This is not an American theory, but adapted to American ways and problems it has worked with surprising success. Indeed, whatever House puts his hand to has a way of working out satisfactorily. In business he would be called, not a man of mystery, but a wizard, for his gift is precisely that gift of the leaders of the world of capital and industry — the gift of conception and foresight, combined with ability in organization.

Another reason for popular misunderstanding of House's character is the fact that no political leader ever before in this country occupied the place he created for himself. If you doubt this, cast your eye over the Administrations from Washington's on. There have been Presidential favorites, confidants, private advisers, boon-companions, cupmates. But never was there a man the President relied upon, who had no finger in the political pie. Mark Hanna, for example, cut nearly as important a figure in McKinley's time as does Colonel House to-day. But Hanna was the political boss incarnate. Colonel House has no axes, business or political, to grind. He has no worthy henchmen to land jobs for. He is not trying to build up political machines in this or that State. Patronage means nothing to him.

"Yes, I know he must be a great man," said a corporation head. "He's shown that. Wish we could get him on our board. But what I want to know is: What's his game? What's he getting out of this? There never lived a man who worked for nothing."

Cynical as it may seem, this man's argument has the germ of truth in it. He was quite correct in saying that "there never lived a man who worked for nothing." Colonel House works for

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the pleasure of doing things, big things, important things — and, therefore, interesting things. He has all the money he needs, and he enjoys devoting his talents to promoting the efficiency of American government, increasing the prestige of the Republic abroad, and furthering the winning of peace for a war-weary world. In his own words :

"People ask what I get out of it. My answer is that the only work that is worth while, the' only work that brings satisfaction, is the work that is unselfish. I say this without desiring to be ostentatious. Examine yourself, and you will find it to be true. Consider men like Gen. Goethals or Charles W. Eliot. Imagine the wonderful pleasure, the heart-warming satisfaction, Goethals gained from building the Panama Canal on his meager salary of an engineer officer of the regular army. Or the satisfaction Dr. Eliot must have derived during the years he devoted to Harvard University. Take a man like Harriman. I have always thought that he was not guided solely by personal ambition in his career. Underneath all his achievements was the desire to do things, and his gratification in accomplishment would have been much greater if he had not had to acquire a fortune along with it.

"Some people who do not care for pecuniary rewards, on the other hand, do like the purely honorary badges of success. I happen not to care for the badges, either. Honors are all very well in their way, but I get more pleasure out of something I have done without reward, other than the appreciation of my friends, than I could from all the money and decorations in this country and Europe."

That is House.

Barring payment of his traveling expenses when he went abroad on official missions, he has never received a cent from the United States or any other Government. His modest personal fortune, as will be shown later on, has suffered, rather than increased, in consequence of his preoccupation with public affairs. The sum total of his reward so far for services of inestimable worth, has been the gratitude of the President and of the few persons who were cognizant of the debt the country owed him.

An extraordinary man, who was once described in Figaro of Paris, as "circulating imperturbable amidst the noisy circles, which, weighed down by intrigues, combinations, shameless bluff, and impossible deals, form the American electoral world!"

This description is not altogether pleasing to Americans or even to Colonel House, himself, but it shows that Europeans have grasped more definitely than Colonel House's countrymen, the nov-

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elty of his position in our public life. Men of this type have been known abroad for over a century, particularly in England, where the concentration of heritable wealth has developed the political dilettante, who could afford to mingle in politics without price or sordid aim. But it is questionable whether any country has produced a man, who has divorced himself so completely from practical politics, who has played the game so steadily with impersonal motive.

And it is flatly unjust to describe the man who nominated and elected four Governors of Texas, who picked Woodrow Wilson as the logical Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1912, who helped materially to secure Wilson's nomination at the Baltimore Convention and to direct his two campaigns, who foresaw the world war a year before it happened, as a political dilettante. He is a political genius, this gray, quiet-voiced man, with the shrewd, unwinking eyes and the level voice. In Europe already they are speaking of him as the foremost expert on international politics among the statesmen of the Entente Allies. They believe in him because in 1914 and 191 5 he prophesied events which occurred in 1916 and 1917.

Chapter II From A Western Boyhood To An Eastern College

EDWARD MANDELL HOUSE was born in Houston, Texas, July 26, 1858. His father was Thomas William House, and his mother before her marriage was Mary Elizabeth Shearn, daughter of Judge Shearn, one of the well-known early jurists of the State. He was the youngest of seven children. The Houses were of Dutch extraction, but the family had been domiciled in England for many generations before coming to this country. The elder House was one of that indomitable army of pioneers who created the famous tag of the '30s and '40s, of the last century— ''G. T. T.," gone to Texas— which was pasted on office-doors in every city of the Eastern States, and all over the British Isles. He arrived in Texas when it was still a section of the Mexican Republic, then plunged in a bloody welter of civil strife after the brieflived empire of Iturbide.

He fought under Sam Houston's lieutenant, General Burleson, grand-uncle of the present iWESTERN BOYHOOD TO EASTERN COLLEGE

Postmaster-General, in the victorious revolution of 1836, which ended in the foundation of the Lone Star Republic. Thomas William House lived under four flags in Texas in the course of his long life — the Mexican, the banner of the Texan Republic, the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy, and the Stars and Stripes of the Union. In his way, he must have been as distinctive a character as his son. He prospered exceedingly, acquiring large holdings of sugar-cane and cotton lands, and many slaves, besides developing a flourishing business as a private banker. He is still remembered by old Texans as a man of strong will and great business capacity.

Young House — "Ed" House to his boyhood friends — was born at a time when Texas was still, in the fullest sense of the word, a frontier State, although the actual frontier districts had been pushed westward of the seaboard counties. He grew up with a generation of men who had known "Davie" Crockett, James Bowie, Kit Carson, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Stephen Austin, Henry Smith, James W. Robinson, J. W. Fannin. The Alamo and San Jacinto were more than memories. Sam Houston himself was still alive ■ — indeed, was elected Governor of Texas in 1859, the year after House was born, and strove without avail in 1861 to hold the State for the Union.

When the Civil War ended in 1865 House was 23 almost seven years old, and he was passing through the most observant period of youth during the tumultuous reconstruction days which followed, when Texas, like the other Southern States, was ruled by carpet-baggers and negroes, and for a short while tasted some of the miseries of a conquered people. He can remember when shooting frays were common occurrences in the streets of Houston; when the law of the pistol held sway all over the State, and a man who made enemies had to rely for safety on the quickness of his draw and the accuracy of his aim. Those were the days when Texas was still raw and crude, untamed and turbulent. The Comanches, Cheyennes, and Apaches ravaged the western counties; the bison roved in the Northwest, and the cowpuncher was in his glory. They were days which passed many years ago, and are reflected now only in the gaudy reproductions of the cinema.

"I think it is my memory of early times in Texas which keeps me from being as shocked as some people are at the dreadful slaughter of this war," he once remarked. "To a man who can remember when bad men killed for sport in open daylight in city streets and desperadoes, swarmed in bands and ruled whole tracts of country, the destruction of European lands is not so startling, after all."

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Young House grew up a Hardy, sturdy child, as was natural in that frontier environment. He learned to shoot and ride a broncho, as boys nowadays learn to skate or ride a bicycle. Slightly built and quiet-mannered as he is to-day, it is difficult to believe that he is a dead-shot with the six-shooter or rifle. This is not an exaggeration. He has all the celerity of the old frontier in drawing and aiming the pistol. There are few Texas rangers who can beat him at it. He was a close second in this respect to his friend and instructor, the late Capt. ''Bill" McDonald, one of the last of the gunmen of the "Shooting Times."

''Strangely enough, I have never done well with the shotgun," Colonel House admits. "I think this is because I have never cared about shooting things, and killing birds with small shot always has been repugnant to me. I have hunted larger game with the rifle, but hunting is not a sport that appeals to me. I learned to shoot because everybody in our country knew how to shoot. It was something worth knowing, too, and I have never regretted the time spent on it. There is always the chance it may be useful."

While he was still very young, Colonel House suffered a fall from a swing which caused brain fever and left him rather delicate. That was before drainage theories had been developed to any extent, and the eastern portion of Texas was inclined to be malarial. A few years later, he sustained something like a heat-stroke, which weakened his resistance to climatic conditions to a point which made it imperative that he should be absent from the State for the greater part of the year. His father, of course, was a wealthy man, and it was decided that young House should be educated in the North, not only in consideration of his health, but because he showed a marked bookish tendency.

Given his pick of educational institutions. House determined to go to the Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven and prepare for Yale. This is one of the most ancient preparatory schools in New England, and among the students House found boys from many well-known families of the East and West, boys whose fathers were doing things in business and politics. He enjoyed himself to the full in the pleasant atmosphere of the school and of New Haven, which had not then become a blustering factory city, and still slumbered peacefully under its towering elms.

He was not a good scholar: he admits that himself, as do his schoolmates, quick though they are to pay tribute to his lovable qualities, his store of general knowledge, and his insatiable pursuit of everything which interested him. Ac-

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cording to some of those former school friends, Colonel House in his 'teens was already demonstrating his ability as a pacifier in smoothing out student rows. But he, himself, scouts the idea.

"I was a quarrelsome boy, if the truth were known," he declares. ''Well, perhaps, I was not so quarrelsome when I got to college. But I can remember, when I was younger, I used to like to set boys at each other to see what they would do and then try to bring them around again. I have been called a great student, too. As a matter of fact, I didn't give a hang for my studies in school or college. I got through them as best I could. I wasn't interested in them. There were just two subjects that did interest me from my childhood — politics and history — and I read everything on those subjects that I could get my hands on. But I cared about nothing else."

His old friends do not altogether bear him out in his first assertion, as has been said.

"My recollection of Ed House as a college chum," said one man who makes his home now in New York city, "is that he always played the part of a quiet peacemaker in college rows, and established with us a high reputation for kindly diplomacy of a high order. He was Alpha Delta Phi, I remember, and a valued member of our chapter. Whenever there was a disturbance Ed would silently appear, and in a few minutes — you wouldn't know exactly how it happened — the trouble would be all over. He had an exceptionally sweet disposition, and got on with everybody. As I recall, he was not the friend merely of a certain set of men, but of many fellows of a wide range of tastes and habits And he was everlastingly exploring some book. One of my earliest remembrances of him is that of a quiet youth reading a ponderous volume of de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America' as he walked along the street. That picture has stuck in my mind for forty years, I suppose. He liked especially to start discussions on current topics in the news, political matters in this country or abroad, analyze what had been done, and then start out to develop a plan which would have worked better.

** 'They ought not to have done that,' he would say. 'Now, this would be much better. Listen to me, now.'

"And then he would launch into his own views, and he made us listen and debate them with him. He always liked to hear what other people thought."

As matters worked out. House did not go to Yale. Several of the boys who were with him at the Hopkins School switched at the last moment to Cornell, which was just beginning to loom important on the educational horizon, and House

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switched with them. He entered college in 1877, with the class of 1881, but his father's death in 1880 compelled him to leave after he had completed less than three years of the course. He was not sorry to go, for he felt that he had gained everything that he desired from college, and he had the curiosity of youth to sample the world's portion for him.

One aspect of his school and college life, however, deserves more consideration. That was the friendships he made. Even at that early age House demonstrated his rare capacity for picking the right kind of men to know, which is one of the secrets of his amazing success. It was not that he was in any way snobbish. Personally he is, and was, the reverse of this. But he is interested in men who count and in measures that matter, and some uncanny intuition in his character enables him to identify the men who can work on his level.

Among his young friends were several whose families held prominent positions in Washington society. One, in particular^ was a son of Senator Oliver Morton, of Indiana, who had been War Governor of his State. Senator Morton was an unusually interesting man. A cripple from paralysis during the last decade of his life, he managed to maintain his place in the political arena and exert a potent influence in national affairs. House was especially favored in the friendship of such families as this one. Through them he gained an insight into the life of the national capital and the inner history of contemporary politics which was invaluable in assisting the development of his favorite hobby.

He had the entree during his vacations and holidays into the most exclusive circles of the capital during the Grant and Hayes Administrations, and was frequently at the White House with other young people. He knew members of both the Hayes and Grant families, and occupied what might be called a stage-box seat to witness the celebrated Hayes-Tilden contest. At an age when most boys were interested mainly in sport or the petty incidents of their own lives, he was turning an attentive gaze upon the momentous events of a crucial period in the nation's evolution.

When he returned to Texas, summoned to his father's bedside, he was obliged to put aside the pursuit of his hobby for a time. There was a large estate to be settled, and he had to make up his mind seriously on the question of his future. As the youngest son, he was guided more or less by his brothers, who were from twelve to fifteen years older than himself, the children who had come in between having died before this. In the final settlement of the family business^ three of

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the sons, Thomas WilHam, jr., John, and E. M., bought out the other heirs, Thomas WilHam receiving the banking interests, John the sugar lands, and E. M. the cotton plantations.

It may be interesting for the people who are given to referring to Colonel House as ''the Austin banker" to know that he is not and never has been a banker, in the accepted sense of the word, since he disposed of his shares in his father's bank. Neither was he a ranchman. If he was anything of that sort, he was an agriculturist, but he is very frank to admit that he was no more of an agriculturist than he could help being. In conducting his own affairs he employed the same method he used in national politics — he secured the best man available to take care of the details under his general supervision. You see, that left him plenty of leisure to play with poUtics.

Chapter III Truth And Fiction About His Business Affairs

AFTER the settlement of his father's estate, Colonel House moved from Houston to Austin, partly for the sake of his health and partly to be closer to the Public Land Office of the State, in order that he might have better facilities for developing his holdings. His father left him about $20,000 a year, and his income to-day is practically the same. He never craved wealth, as it is understood in the East. His principal concern was not to extend his property, but to conserve it. The active pursuit of cotton culture did not attract him, and he spent very little time on his land, especially after his marriage to Miss Loulie Hunter, of Austin, on August 4, 1881.

The statement will bear repetition that details have never interested him; he prefers to deal in the wider aspects of life, business, or politics.

Of his financial affairs he says:

"As a matter of fact, I have no more money to-day than my father left me. They say I am a banker. That is not true, and it never was.

I got out of my father's bank as soon as I could. At this moment I have about $3,000 of stock in a bank in Austin and several thousands more in a bank in Houston. My bank stock holdings may aggregate $15,000 to $20,000. I doubt if they ever exceeded $7,000 after I disposed of the interests my father left me, until quite recently, when I sold my home in Austin and took in payment for it $12,500 of bank stock. Formerly all my money was invested in Texas cotton lands, but several years ago, when I found my time was becoming more and more occupied with the work of the Administration, I sold off most of my property, and the major portion of my income now comes from the interest on the notes I took in payment for my land.

"I know that men ask what I am getting out of my work. How foolish they are! They talk about my connection with Wall Street and the big banking houses. They seem to think I must get some sort of a shady rake-off for my services. It is as pitiful as it is despicable. Why, I can show you without fear the source of every penny of my income ! The only bonds I buy are those of public-service corporations over which municipalities have control. The only Government bonds I own are a small block of Liberties, purchased for the same patriotic reason which animated millions of other Americans.

"If I wished to make money out of my position, I could do it easily, and without going to Wall Street. With my knowledge of what is happening and what is going to happen, I am in a far better position than the powers of Wall Street, themselves, to take advantage of market conditions. But I will have nothing to do with that sort of thing. If I wished to make money dishonestly, I could make plenty of it without Wall Street's assistance. It is difficult for some people to understand that I have enough money for my wants. I have never accepted any salary or retainer from any Government, except that when I have gone abroad for the President on official missions my expenses have been paid."

So much for the vexed question of the secret sources of the mysterious Colonel House's millions !

There has been a great deal of tommy-rot written about Colonel House and his personal business, and this is as good a place as any to point the absurdity of the conventional write-up to which he has been subjected. The offenders have been legion — offenders because if they had gone to him frankly for information he would have given it to them. His aversion to publicity, previously mentioned, is not so pronounced that he fails to recognize the right of the public to know the main facts about him. At first, perhaps, Colonel House did sidestep the publicity which was showered upon him. It was very novel and highly disagreeable. But he soon saw that his position was such as to require acceptance of the evil, and those who know him will testify that he stood to it like a man. In the meantime, however, scores of nimble writers had begun to turn the wheels of the rumor factory, and legends, myths, fairy-tales, improvisations, corruptions of true anecdotes, and plain lies were showered forth by the column. Colonel House has not caught up with them yet. He gave up, discouraged, several years ago.

' It would be impossible to deal with all of these tootings of the journalistic trumpet, but we may select one ''horrible example" in the most recent which has come to notice, an article entitled "Colonel House— The Man of Mystery" in December, 19 1 7. From this we glean the following quotations, cited because they are typical of the mass of misstatements or exaggerations about Colonel House: