All the Presidents' Bankers (83 page)

54
. “Final Report of the Pujo Committee,” 89.

55
. Brandeis,
Other People’s Money,
21.

56
. Ibid., 91.

57
. “Praise for Morgan at Finance Forum,”
New York Times,
December 19, 1912.

58
. “Mr. Morgan’s Sermon,”
New York Times,
December 22, 1912. See also “Preaching to the Preachers,”
New York Times,
February 28, 1913.

59
. Ron Chernow,
The House of Morgan
(New York, NY: Grove Press, 1990), 158.

60
. Letter from Carter Glass, January 27, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 27.

61
. McAdoo married President Wilson’s daughter, Eleanor Randolph Wilson, on May 7, 1914, at the White House.

62
. Diary entry of Colonel House, April 11, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 27.

63
. Letter from Louis Dembitz Brandeis, June 14, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 27.

64
. Wilson had conferred with Glass, McAdoo, and Senator Owen at the White House during the evening of June 17. About this meeting, see
The New Freedom,
120–121; Glass,
An Adventure in Constructive Finance,
112–113; and Willis,
The Federal Reserve System,
250–251.

65
. Letter from Carter Glass, June 18, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 27.

66
. Thomas Edward Powell,
The Democratic Party of the State of Ohio: A Comprehensive History, Vol. 2
(The Ohio Publishing Company, 1913), 23.

67
. Letter from Carter Glass, June 18, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 27.

68
. Address on Banking and Currency Reform to a Joint Session of Congress, June 23, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 27.

69
. Wilson signed the measure at 6:02
P.M.
in the Oval Office before an audience including members of his family and the cabinet, Democratic leaders, and newspapermen.

70
. The establishment and naming of
The Nation
magazine in July 1865 reflected this nationalist tide. See Eric Foner,
A Short History of Reconstruction
(New York, NY: Harper Perennial 1990), 10.

71
. Remarks upon Signing the Federal Reserve Bill, December 23, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 29, with minor corrections from the complete text in the
New York Times,
December 24, 1913.

72
. Letter to Carter Glass, December 23, 1913, Wilson Papers, Vol. 29.

73
. “Strong Is Chosen by Reserve Bank,”
New York Times,
October 6, 1914. Strong served from October 5, 1914, until he died on October 16, 1928.

74
. Chernow,
The House of Morgan,
182.

75
. “State Banks Seek Changes in the Law,”
New York Times,
December 31, 1913.

76
. William Greider,
Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country
(New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1989), 270.

77
. Telegram to Joseph Patrick Tumulty, January 6, 1914, Wilson Papers, Vol. 29. On January 2, J. P. Morgan & Company announced that John Pierpont Morgan Jr. and four other members of the firm were resigning from their directorships in banks, railroads, and industrial companies. The announcement said further that there would be numerous other resignations from directorships by members of the firm in coming months. For detailed reports on the action and a complete list of the directorships, see the January 3 and January 4, 1914, editions of the
New York Times.

78
. Telegram from Joseph Patrick Tumulty, January 6, 1914, Wilson Papers, Vol. 29.

79
. Letter to Paul Moritz Warburg, April 30, 1914, Wilson Papers, Vol. 29.

Chapter 2. The Mid-1910s: Bankers Go to War

1
. “Wilson and Morgan Have Friendly Chat,”
New York Times,
July 3, 1914.

2
. Remarks at a press conference, July 2, 1914, Wilson Papers, Vol. 30.

3
. “Austria Formally Declares War on Serbia,”
New York Times,
July 28, 1914.

4
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 30.

5
. Letter from William Jennings Bryan, August 10, 1914, Wilson Papers, Vol. 30.

6
. Ibid.

7
. Woodrow Wilson, “Message to Congress,” 63rd Congress, Second Session, Senate Document No. 566 (Washington, 1914), 3–4.

8
. Edward M. Lamont,
The Ambassador from Wall Street: The Story of Thomas W. Lamont, J.P. Morgan’s Chief Executive
(Madison Books, 1994), 68.

9
. Personal letter from John Pierpont Morgan Jr., September 4, 1914, Wilson Papers, Vol. 30.

10
. Ibid.

11
. Ibid.

12
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 31.

13
. Wilson Papers, Vol. 31. Printed in the
New York World,
October 16, 1914.

14
. Priscilla Roberts, “Frank A. Vanderlip and the National City Bank During the First World War,”
Essays in Economic and Business History
(2002), 145.

15
. Letter from Vanderlip to Stillman, December 31, 1915, Vanderlip papers, box 6, series B-1.

16
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 33.

17
. Letter from John Pierpont Morgan Jr., May 14, 1915, Wilson Papers, Vol. 33.

18
. Lamont,
The Ambassador from Wall Street,
62.

19
. Chernow,
House of Morgan,
194.

20
. Lamont,
The Ambassador from Wall Street,
74.

21
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 35.

22
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 36.

23
. Wilson Reappoints Warburg to Federal Reserve Board, Wilson Papers, Vol. 39. See also Letter from Warburg, August 10, 1916, Wilson Papers, Vol. 39.

24
. The men had come from New York in two special trains. They brought a band with them, and their march onto the lawn, stepped in time to a refrain of “Four more years for Wilson,” made the event a rousing political rally. Time and again the crowd interrupted Wilson with shouts of “We want peace!” See “Wilson Thrills Crowds, Bitterly Flays Opponents,”
New York Times,
October 1, 1916. See also
New York World,
October 1, 1916.

25
. Wilson Papers, Vol. 39, with additions from the text in the
New York Times,
September 30, 1916.

26
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 38.

27
. Letter from John Skelton Williams, December 6, 1916, including press release, December 4, 1916, Wilson Papers, Vol. 40.

28
. President Woodrow Wilson, Thirty-third Inaugural Address, March 5, 1917.

29
. Letter from Edward Mandell House, March 25, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 41.

30
. Rodney Carlisle, “The Attacks on U.S. Shipping that Precipitated American Entry into World War I,”
The Northern Mariner
XVII, no. 3 (July 2007): 41–66.

31
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 41.

32
. From the Diary of Thomas W. Brahany, April 5, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 41.

33
. Letter from J. P. Morgan Jr., April 4, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 41.

34
. Brahany Diary, April 5, 1917.

35
. Letter to John Pierpont Morgan Jr., April 7, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 42.

36
. Letter from William Gibbs McAdoo, April 10, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 42.

37
. Enclosure to letter from William Gibbs McAdoo, April, 10, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 42.

38
. Sun Wong Kang and Hugh Rocknoff, “Capitalising Patriotism: The Liberty Bonds of World War I,” National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2006, at
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11919
.

39
. Chernow,
House of Morgan,
203.

40
. Letter from Edward House with enclosure, July 17, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 43. Other top lenders included US Steel Corporation with $30 million and the National Bank of Commerce with $17 million.

41
. “C.E. Mitchell, 78, Banker, Is Dead,”
New York Times,
December 15, 1955.

42
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 45.

43
. Letter from Lamont, January 9, 1918, Wilson Papers, Vol. 45.

44
. Lamont,
The Ambassador from Wall Street,
94.

45
. Confidential letter from William Gibbs McAdoo with enclosure, December 14, 1917, Wilson Papers, Vol. 45.

46
. “Frank A. Vanderlip Is Back: National City President Called Here by James Stillman’s Death,”
New York Times,
March 22, 1918.

47
. Priscilla Roberts, “Frank A. Vanderlip and the National City Bank During the First World War,”
Essays in Economic and Business History
(2002): 157–159.

48
. “Vanderlip Quit Bank to Get Time to Think,”
New York Times,
June 21, 1919.

49
. “Germans on the Run, Time to Hit Hard, March Declares,”
New York Times,
August 11, 1918.

50
. Memorandum of a conversation between Lamont and Wilson, October 4, 1918, Wilson Papers, Vol. 51. The memo was based on notes Lamont wrote during or immediately after the interview.

51
. Lamont appointed Sedgwick, editor of
The Atlantic Monthly
and president of the Atlantic Monthly Company, as one of the three trustees of the
Evening Post.

52
. Memorandum of a conversation, October 4, 1918.

53
. Letter from Herbert Clark Hoover, November 2, 1918, Wilson Papers, Vol. 51.

54
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 53.

Chapter 3. The Late 1910s: Peace Treaties and Domestic Politics

1
. Woodrow Wilson, William Bayard Hale, ed.,
The New Freedom
(New York and Garden City: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1913).

2
. Office of the Historian, State Department, Travels of President Woodrow Wilson, at
http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/president/wilson-woodrow
.

3
. Woodrow Wilson, Address on the League of Nations, September 25, 1919, in J. Michael Hogan, ed., “Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project,” 2006, at
http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wilson-the-pueblo-speech-speech-text/
.

4
. Letter from Thomas Lamont, March 19, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 56.

5
. From the Diary of Colonel House, March 24, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 56.

6
. From the Diary of Vance Criswell McCormick, March 31, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 56.

7
. Dulles believed it was dangerous to hold Germany responsible for high war reparations. Later, given Wilson’s failure to gain US support for the League of Nations, he realized the necessity of obtaining strong domestic support for foreign policy.

8
. Introduction, Wilson Papers, Vol. 59.

9
. Letter from Thomas William Lamont, with enclosure, Financial Conditions in Europe, Paris, May 15, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 59.

10
. Ibid.

11
. From the Diary of Dr. Grayson, May 24, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 59.

12
. The subject of Vanderlip’s address was the economic problems Western Europe faced in the aftermath of the war. He declared that only the United States could provide the financial credits necessary to enable the European nations to restart their industries and transportation systems. The full text of his speech was printed in the
New York Times
on May 27, 1919.

13
. Joseph Patrick, Tumulty memo, June 4, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 60.

14
. Ibid.

15
. “Trade World Issue,”
New York Times,
January 16, 1921.

16
. Letter from Thomas William Lamont, June 5, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 60. Lamont’s letter included an enclosure, based on information he requested from Morrow, marked “For Auchincloss only from Polk: Please deliver the following to Lamont from Morrow.” The publication of the official summary of the terms of the preliminary peace treaty with Germany came as a great shock to Herbert David Croly, the editor of
The New Republic,
and to his editorial associate Walter Lippmann. They both believed that it represented a betrayal of the principles of the Fourteen Points and that its harsh terms could only add to future conflict. At a conference held sometime between May 10 and May 13, they and the other members of the editorial staff decided that the magazine had to oppose the treaty, regardless of the cost in terms of influence and circulation.

17
. “Davison Takes Charge,”
New York Times,
May 16, 1917.

18
. From the Diary of Dr. Grayson, June 11, 1919, Wilson Papers, Vol. 60.