1912
The psychologist Henry Goddard had introduced the Binet
intelligence test to the US at the start of the century.
This gave the eugenicists a way to quantify intelligence, and,
more particularly, measure and define ’idiots’, ’imbeciles’
and ’morons’. Goddard’s famous study of the
inheritance of feeble-mindedness in the pseudonymous ’Kallikak’ family was
published in 1912.
Senator LaFollette and Congressman Lindbergh spoke regularly in
opposition to the Aldrich Plan in 1912. They also aroused
popular feeling against 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
Nation 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 appointed 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 Congressmen before whom they were
testifying.
The man who single-handedly carried on these hearings, Samuel Untermyer. He was one of the principal contributors to
Woodrow
Wilson’s Presidential campaign fund, and was one of the
wealthiest corporation lawyers in New York. He refused to ask
either Senator LaFollette or Congressman Lindbergh to testify in
the investigation which they alone had forced Congress to hold.
[...]
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 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. [...] At the close of the hearings, the
bankers and their subsidized newspapers claimed that the only
way to break the "Money Trust 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. [...]
Since the bankers were financing both 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. 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. [...]
Col. Garrison, an agent of Brown Brothers bankers, later
Brown
Brothers Harriman, wrote in this 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 Mandell 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. [...]
In 1911, prior to Wilson’s taking office as President, Colonel
House had returned to his home in Texas and completed a book
called Philip 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 widely
circulated among government officials, who were left in no doubt
as to its authorship. [...] Westbrook Pegler, the Hearst
columnist from 1932 to 1956, heard of the Philip Dru book and
wrote a column about it, stating:
"One of the institutions
outlined in Philip 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
protëgës
of Little Weenie." [...]
House’s openly Socialistic views were forthrightly expressed in
Philip 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. [...] 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." [...]
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 the 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. [...] 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, successively electing five
governors from 1893 to 1911. In 1911 he began to support Wilson
for president, and threw the crucial Texas delegation to him
which ensured his nomination. House met Wilson for the first
time at the Hotel Gotham, May 31, 1912. [...]
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."
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. (Secrets of the
Federal Reserve, Griffin, 1952)
Woodrow Wilson wins by only 42% of the popular vote.
United States, Lockport, Illinois. Witnesses watched, as an
object appeared to traverse the moon’s face for about three
minutes. It was rectangular with absolutely flat ends, about
two-thirds the diameter of the full moon in length.
Go
Back
1913
At his inauguration on March 4th, Woodrow Wilson notices that a
wide space had been cleared in front of the speaker’s platform.
He motions to the police holding back the crowd and orders: "Let
the people come forward." His supporters will later say the
phrase expresses the spirit of his administration. The Wilson
administration offers Franklin Roosevelt several posts. He
chooses assistant secretary of the Navy, a post Theodore
Roosevelt had held on his way to the presidency. President
Wilson gives a Fourth of July battle reunion speech at
Gettysburg.
Canada, Toronto. Several office workers in watched what they
concluded to be a fleet of airships passing west to east in
groups. They then returned later in a scattered formation. No
airships or airplanes were ever identified with this report.
England. Two years before Germany officially launched its
Zeppelin raids on Britain and phantom airships were once again
crisscrossing the night skies. A few reports gave details of
multi-colored, multiple lights being seen but as in earlier
years the craft usually came equipped with one powerful light.
See Mystery Airships of Britain for further details.
The psychologist Harry Goddard applied the Binet intelligence
test to immigrants at Ellis Island for the first time. On that
occasion 80% of those tested scored so low as to be considered ’feeble-minded’ (considering that the test - in English - was
administered to many who spoke very little English, this
absurd
figure was later revised down, but not much). Laughlin later
appeared as expert witness before the House Committee on
Immigration and Naturalization and recommended that quotas be
introduced restricting the numbers of immigrants from
particular, undesirable racial groups. Stringent entry
requirements were applied to the fortunate few. Jews were
perceived as being just as unfit as any group and thus many
Jews, fleeing racial persecution in Europe, were denied entry to
the US by essentially racist regulations.
The New York State Legislature passes an act on April 24
incorporating the
Rockefeller Foundation. The statement of
purpose reads: "To promote the well-being of mankind throughout
the world." New York Governor William Sulzer approves the
charter on May 14. With the Foundation incorporated, John D.
Rockefeller makes gifts to RF totaling $35 million, following a
year later with $65 million.
Influenced by Abraham Flexner’s landmark study Medical Education
in the United States and Canada, RF makes a grant to
Johns
Hopkins University to extend its model "full-time" system of
basic medical education to clinical departments of medicine,
surgery, and pediatrics. Other specialties are added later.
Health becomes an RF priority at the first meeting of the board
when Frederick Gates, long-time adviser to John D. Rockefeller,
argues that "disease is the supreme ill in human life."
Congress passes the Federal Reserve Act. 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 strategy. Some of the
bill’s most vocal critics had already left Washington. It was a
long-standing 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 Guernsey 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 perpetrated 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. [...]
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.
(Secrets of the Federal Reserve, Griffin, 1952)
Congress passes the Sixteenth Amendment to the US Constitution
permitting an Income Tax.
Go
Back
1914
The Federal Reserve System began its operations in 1914 with the
activity of the Organization Committee, appointed by Woodrow
Wilson, and composed of Secretary of the Treasury William
McAdoo, who was his son-in-law, Secretary of Agriculture Houston
and Comptroller of the Currency John Skelton Williams. [...]
The certification of incorporation of the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York was filed May 18, 1914. It provided for three Class
A directors representing member banks in the district, three
Class B directors representing commerce, agriculture, and
industry, and three Class C directors representing the Federal
Reserve Board. The original directors were elected in 1914; they
proceeded to generate an energetic program. In the first year of
organization the Federal Reserve Bank of New York held no fewer
than 50 meetings.
For many years, there has been considerable mystery about
who
actually owns the stock of the Federal Reserve Banks.
Congressman Wright Patman, leading critic of the System, tried
to find out who the stockholders were. The stock in the original
twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks was purchased by national
banks in those twelve regions. Because the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York was to set the interest rates and direct open market
operations, thus controlling the daily supply and price of money
throughout the United States, it is the stockholders of that
bank who are the real directors of the entire system.
The original organization certificates of the twelve Federal
Reserve Banks, giving the ownership of shares by the national
banks in each district provide the details: The Federal Reserve
Bank of New York issued 203,053 shares, and, as filed with the
Comptroller of the Currency May 19, 1914, the large New York
City banks took more than half of the outstanding shares. The
Rockefeller Kuhn, Loeb-controlled National City Bank
took the
largest number of shares of any bank, 30,000 shares. J.P.
Morgan’s First National Bank took 15,000 shares. When these two
banks merged in 1955, they owned in one block almost one fourth
of the shares in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
which
controlled the entire system, and thus they could name
Paul Volcker or anyone else they chose to be Chairman of the
Federal
Reserve Board of Governors.
Chase National Bank took 6,000 shares. The Marine Nation Bank of
Buffalo, later known as Marine Midland, took 6,000 shares. This
bank was owned by the Schoellkopf family, which controlled
Niagara Power Company and other large interests. National Bank
of Commerce of New York City took 21,000 shares.
These interests have merged and consolidated in recent years, so
that the control is much more concentrated. National Bank of
Commerce is now Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. Lehman Brothers
has merged with Kuhn, Loeb Company, First National Bank has
merged with the National City Bank, and in the other eleven
Federal Reserve Districts, these same shareholders indirectly
own or control shares in those banks, with the other shares
owned by the leading families in those areas who own or control
the principal industries in these regions. The "local" families
set up regional councils, on orders from New York, of such
groups as the
Council on Foreign Relations,
The Trilateral
Commission, and other instruments of control devised by their
masters. They finance and control political developments in
their area, name candidates, and are seldom successfully opposed
in their plans. [...]
These developments following the passing of the Federal Reserve
Act proved every one of the allegations Thomas Jefferson had
made against a central bank in 1791: that the subscribers to the
Federal Reserve Bank stock had formed a corporation, whose stock
could be and was held by aliens; that this stock would be
transmitted to a certain line of successors; that it would be
placed beyond forfeiture and escheat; that they would receive a
monopoly of banking, which was against the laws of monopoly; and
that they now had the power to make laws, paramount to the laws
of the states. No state legislature can countermand any of the
laws laid down by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for the
benefit of their private stockholders. This board issues laws as
to what the interest rate shall be, what the quantity of money
shall be and what the price of money shall be. All of these
powers abrogate the powers of the state legislatures and their
responsibility to the citizens of those states. [...]
The ten largest bank holding companies in the United States are
firmly in the hands of certain banking houses, all of which have
branches in London. They are J.P. Morgan Company, Brown Brothers
Harriman, Warburg, Kuhn Loeb and J. Henry Schroder. All of them
maintain close relationships with the
House of Rothschild,
principally through the Rothschild control of international
money markets through its manipulation of the price of gold.
Each day, the world price of gold is set in the London office of
N.M. Rothschild and Company. (Secrets of the Federal Reserve,
Griffin, 1952)
Congress passes the Clayton Anti-trust Act.
Congress passed the Federal Trade Commission Act.
Arch Duke Ferdinand is assassinated. World War I Begins. US
President, Woodrow Wilson proclaims US neutrality.
J. Henry Schroder Banking Company played an important role
behind the scenes of WW I. No historian has a reasonable
explanation of how World War I started. Archduke Ferdinand was
assassinated at Sarajevo by Gavril Princeps, Austria demanded an
apology from Serbia, and Serbia sent the note of apology.
Despite this, Austria declared war, and soon the other nations
of Europe joined the fray. Once the war had gotten started, it
was found that it wasn’t easy to keep it going. The principal
problem was that Germany was desperately short of food and coal,
and without Germany, the war could not go on.
John Hamill in The Strange Career of Mr. Hoover explains how the
problem was solved. He tells us that the initiative came from
the German authorities in Belgium through their continuous
relations with the American Relief Committee. Hamill points out
"That is what the Belgian Relief Committee was organized for--to
keep Germany in food." The Belgian Relief Commission was
organized by Emile Francqui, director of a large Belgian bank,
Societe Generale, and a London mining promoter, an American
named Herbert Hoover, who had been associated with Francqui in a
number of scandals which had become celebrated court cases,
notably the Kaiping Coal Company scandal in China, said to have
set off the Boxer Rebellion, which had as its goal the expulsion
of all foreign businessmen from China. Hoover had also carried
out a number of mining promotions in various parts of the world
as a secret agent for the Rothschilds, and had been rewarded
with a directorship in one of the principal Rothschild
enterprises, the Rio Tinto Mines in Spain and Bolivia.
Hoover had been barred from dealing on the London Stock Exchange
because of one judgment against him, and his associate, Stanley
Rowe, had been sent to prison for ten years. With this
background, Hoover was called an ideal choice for a career in
humanitarian work. ( John Hamill, The Strange Career of Mr.
Hoover, William Faro, New York, 1931 - Copies of Hamill’s book
were systematically located and destroyed by government agents,
because it was published on the eve of President Hoover’s
re-election campaign).
Although his name is unknown in the United States, Emile Francqui was the guiding spirit behind
Herbert Hoover’s rise to
fortune. Hamill (on page 156) identifies Francqui as the
director of many atrocities committed against natives in the
Congo. "For every cartridge they spent, they had to bring in a
man’s hand". Hamill also says that Francqui "tricked" the
Americans out of the Hankow-Canton railroad concession in China
in 1901, and at the same time had "stood by" in case Hoover
needed any further help in the "taking" of the Kaiping coal
mines.
This is the humanitarian who had sole charge of the distribution
of the Belgian "relief" during the World War, for which
Hoover
did the buying and shipping. Francqui was a director with
Hoover, in the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company (the
Kaiping mines), through which Hoover transported 200,000 Chinese
slave workers to the Congo to work Francqui’s copper mines."
Hamill says on page 311 that,
"Francqui opened the offices of the
Belgian Relief in his bank, Societe Generale, as a one-man show,
with a letter of permission from the German Governor General von der Goltz dated October 16, 1914.
Francqui and Hoover threw
themselves into the seemingly impossible task of provisioning
Germany during the First World War."
President Wilson gives an address at
Independence Hall in
Philadelphia on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence.
He utters the famous words, "Our country, right or wrong."
Ellen
Wilson’s health begins to fail early in the year from Bright’s
Disease. Informed that she is dying, Congress hastily passes a
bill for slum clearance in Washington that she had very much to
heart so that she can be told of it before she dies. She dies on
August 6th. The president will become lonely and depressed.
Canada, Ontario. Eight witnesses saw a
UFO floating on the water
of Georgian Bay. Entities were manipulating a hose dipped into
the water. On seeing the witnesses they returned inside, all
except one who was still outside when the craft took off.
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Back
1915
The success of Francqui and Hoover at provisioning Germany
during the First World War was noted in Nordeutsche Allgemeine
Zeitung, March 13, 1915, which noted that large quantities of
food were now arriving from Belgium by rail. Schmoller’s
Yearbook for Legislation, Administration and Political Economy
for 1916, shows that one billion pounds of meat, one and a half
billion pounds of potatoes, one and a half billion pounds of
bread, and one hundred twenty-one millions pounds of butter had
been shipped from Belgium to Germany in that year. A patriotic
British woman who had operated a small hospital in Belgium for
several years, Edith Cavell, wrote to the Nursing Mirror in
London, April 15, 1915, complaining that the "Belgian Relief"
supplies were being shipped to Germany to feed the German army.
The Germans considered Miss Cavell to be of no importance, and
paid no attention to her, but the British Intelligence Service
in London was appalled by Miss Cavell’s discovery, and demanded
that the Germans arrest her as a spy. Sir William Wiseman, head
of British Intelligence, and partner of Kuhn Loeb Company,
feared that the continuance of the war was at stake, and
secretly notified the Germans that Miss Cavell must be executed.
The Germans reluctantly arrested her and charged her with aiding
prisoners of war to escape. The usual penalty for this offense
was three months imprisonment, but the Germans bowed to Sir
William Wiseman’s demands, and shot Edith Cavell, thus creating
one of the principal martyrs of the First World War.
28 American states had invalidated marriages between ’Negroes
and white persons’.
Canada. It was billed in newspapers of the time as the
Phantom
Invasion of Canada. Mystery aircraft invaded the skies and
capital of this nation
The American International Corporation (AIC) was organized in
New York on November 22, 1915, by the J.P. Morgan interests,
with major participation by Stillman’s National City Bank and
the Rockefeller interests. The general office of AIC was at 120
Broadway. The company’s charter authorized it to engage in any
kind of business, except banking and public utilities, in any
country in the world. The stated purpose of the corporation was
to develop domestic and foreign enterprises, to extend American
activities abroad, and to promote the interests of American and
foreign bankers, business and engineering. The original capital
authorization was $50 million and the board of directors
represented the leading lights of the New York financial world.
The company established representation in London, Paris, Buenos
Aires, and Peking as well as in Petrograd, Russia. Less than two
years after its formation AIC was operating on a substantial
scale in Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia,
Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Italy, Switzerland,
France, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other countries in Central
America.
American International owned several subsidiary companies
outright, had substantial interests in yet other companies, and
operated still other firms in the United States and abroad.
AIC
also invested in United Fruit Company, which was involved in
Central American revolutions in the 1920s.
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1916
With Edith Cavell out of the way, the "Belgian Relief" operation
continued, although in 1916, German emissaries again approached
London officials with the information that they did not believe
Germany could continue military operations, not only because of
food shortages, but because of financial problems. More
"emergency relief" was sent, and Germany continued in the war
until November, 1918. Two of Hoover’s principal assistants were
a former lumber shipping clerk from the West Coast, Prentiss
Gray, and Julius H. Barnes, a grain salesman from Duluth. Both
men became partners in J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation in
New York after the war, and amassed large fortunes, principally
in grain and sugar.
Congress passes the Shipping Act.
President Wilson orders General John J. Pershing to pursue
Mexican rebel Pancho Villa deep into Mexico. They don’t catch
him. Only a series of dramatic events will avert open war
between Mexico and the U.S.
The Allied Machinery Company of America was founded in February
1916 and the entire share capital taken up by American
International Corporation. The vice president of American
International Corporation was Frederick Holbrook, an engineer
and formerly head of the Holbrook Cabot & Rollins Corporation.
Ireland, Ballinasloe. A bright object was seen hovering in the
sky. It was visible for fifteen minutes before traveling to the
northwest. It was then observed to hover for a further
forty-five minutes. It eventually vanished for good after Venus
rose on the horizon.
Leon Trotsky was expelled from France, officially because of his
participation in the Zimmerwald conference but also no doubt
because of inflammatory articles written for Nashe Slovo, a
Russian-language newspaper printed in Paris. In September 1916
Trotsky was politely escorted across the Spanish border by
French police. A few days later Madrid police arrested him and
lodged him in a "first-class cell" at a charge of
one-and-one-half pesetas per day. Subsequently Trotsky was taken
to Cadiz, then to Barcelona finally to be placed on board the
Spanish Transatlantic Company steamer Monserrat. Trotsky and
family crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in New York on
January 13, 1917.
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1917
In January the Grace Russian Company was formed, the joint
owners being W. R. Grace & Co. and the San Galli Trading Company
of Petrograd. American International Corporation had a
substantial investment in the Grace Russian Company and through
Holbrook an interlocking directorship.
Trotsky wrote in his autobiography, My Life, "My only profession
in New York was that of a revolutionary socialist." Yet the
Trotsky family apartment in New York had a refrigerator and a
telephone, and, according to Trotsky, that the family
occasionally traveled in a chauffeured limousine. The stylish
living standard is also at odds with Trotsky’s reported income.
The only funds that Trotsky admits receiving in 1916 and 1917
are $310, and, said Trotsky, "I distributed the $310 among five
emigrants who were returning to Russia." Yet Trotsky had paid
for a first-class cell in Spain, the Trotsky family had traveled
across Europe to the United States, they had acquired an
excellent apartment in New York - paying rent three months in
advance - and they had use of a chauffeured limousine. All this
on the earnings of an impoverished revolutionary for a few
articles for the low-circulation Russian-language newspaper Nashe Slovo in Paris and
Novy Mir in New York! Trotsky claimed
that those who said he had other sources of income are
"slanderers" spreading "stupid calumnies" and "lies," but
obviously Trotsky had an unreported source of income.
Portugal, Fatima. Such phenomena including disks, like an
"aircraft of light," described exactly in these terms by the
witnesses of the fifth apparition. Also observed were double
supersonic detonations, light protuberances, electro-static
charges, and moving "stars," mysterious white flowers or snow
that dropped down from the "aircraft of light," but disappeared
when it made contact with the ground. These descriptions of
"snow" or mysterious white "flowers" are quite similar to the
descriptions of "angel hair" that are well known from some
famous UFO cases. This was accompanied by additional unexplained
aerial phenomena, in the form of glowing spheres and disc-shaped
objects. The story given was that a silver disc appeared just as
"the rain stopped and the clouds rolled back, the sun dimmed out
and everything took on a gray, opaque appearance". The disc then
dove in an erratic, zigzag pattern at the crowd, stopped just
above their heads and then slowly maneuvered back into the sky.
As it faded from view, the sun brightened and began to shine
again normally. A local reporter took a photo of the disc.
Germany Bonn. The flamboyant fighter pilot Baron Manfred von Richtofen, known as the
Red Baron not only shot down 80 enemy
planes for the Germans during World War I, it is claimed that he
also was the first human in history to gun down an alien
spaceship! Former German Air Force ace Peter Waitzrik says he
watched in astonishment as the deadeye fighter pilot shot a
UFO
with undulating orange lights out of the sky over Belgium in
1917. Then, Waitzrik says, he stared in disbelief as two bruised
and battered occupants of the downed craft climbed from their
spaceship and scampered off into the woods -- apparently never
to be seen again.
"The Baron and I gave a full report on the incident back at
headquarters and they told us not to ever mention it again," the
feisty, 105-year-old retired airline pilot recently told a
reporter. "And except for my wife and grandkids, I never told a
soul. But it’s been over 80 years, so what difference could it
possibly make now?"
The aging Waitzrik said he and
Baron Manfred von Richtofen --
the renowned Red Baron -- were flying an early morning mission
over western Belgium in the spring of 1917 when the UFO suddenly
appeared in a clear, blue sky directly ahead of their Fokker triplanes.
"We were terrified because we’d never seen anything
like it before," recalled the easygoing great-great grandfather
of five. "The U.S. had just entered the war, so we assumed it
was something they’d sent up."
The Baron immediately opened fire
and the thing went down like a rock, shearing off tree limbs as
it crashed in the woods. Then the two little baldheaded guys
climbed out and ran away. Waitzrik said he assumed the
glittering silver spaceship was some sort of enemy invention
until the flying saucer scare that began in the late 1940s
convinced him that his buddy had shot down a UFO.
"The thing was
maybe 40 meters (136 feet) in diameter and looked just like
those saucer- shaped spaceships that everybody’s been seeing for
the last 50 years," the awed oldster said. "So there’s no doubt
in my mind now that that was no U.S. reconnaissance plane the
Baron shot down, that was some kind of spacecraft from another
planet and those little guys who ran off into the woods weren’t
Americans, they were space aliens of some kind."
The Soviet Union is formed after
Tsar Nicholas II is overthrown.
It is often said that Jacob Schiff of Kuhn and Loeb
financed the
Russian Revolution, however, documents in the State Department
files confirm Jacob Schiff was in fact against support of the
Bolshevik regime. This position, as we shall see, was in direct
contrast to the Morgan-Rockefeller promotion of the Bolsheviks.
Wilson, who ran for office again on the slogan, ÒHe kept us out
of the war,Ó begins his second term. In December, the US enters
World War I.
G. Amsinck & Co., Inc. of New York; control of the company was
acquired by American International Corporation in November 1917.
Amsinck was the source of financing for German espionage in the
United States.
American International Corporation (AIC) formed, in November, and
wholly owned the Symington Forge Corporation, a major government
contractor for shell forgings. Consequently, American
International Corporation had significant interest in war
contracts within the United States and overseas. It had a vested
interest in the continuance of World War I.
American International Shipbuilding Corporation was wholly owned
by AIC and signed substantial contracts for war vessels with the
Emergency Fleet Corporation: one contract called for fifty
vessels, followed by another contract for forty vessels,
followed by yet another contract for sixty cargo vessels.
American International Shipbuilding was the largest single
recipient of contracts awarded by the U.S. government Emergency
Fleet Corporation.
The directors of American International and some of their
associations in 1917:
-
J. OGDEN ARMOUR Meatpacker, of Armour & Company, Chicago;
director of the National City Bank of New York; and mentioned by
A. A. Heller in connection with the Soviet Bureau
-
GEORGE JOHNSON BALDWIN Of Stone & Webster, 120 Broadway. During
World War I Baldwin was chairman of the board of American
International Shipbuilding, senior vice president of American
International Corporation, director of G. Amsinck (Von
Pavenstedt of Amsinck was a German espionage paymaster in the
U.S.), and a trustee of the Carnegie Foundation, which financed
the Marburg Plan for international socialism to be controlled
behind the scenes by world finance.
-
C. A. COFFIN Chairman of General Electric (executive office: 120
Broadway), chairman of cooperation committee of the American Red
Cross.
-
W. E. COREY (14 Wall Street) Director of American Bank Note
Company, Mechanics and Metals Bank, Midvale Steel and Ordnance,
and International Nickel Company; later director of National
City Bank.
-
ROBERT DOLLAR San Francisco shipping magnate, who attempted in
behalf of the Soviets to import tsarist gold rubles into U.S. in
1920, in contravention of U.S. regulations.
-
PIERRE S. DU PONT Of the du Pont family.
-
PHILIP A. S. FRANKLIN Director of National City Bank.
-
J.P. GRACE Director of National City Bank.
R. F. HERRICK Director, New York Life Insurance; former
president of the American Bankers Association; trustee of
Carnegie Foundation.
-
OTTO H. KAHN Partner in Kuhn, Loeb. Kahn’s father came to
America in 1948, "having taken part in the unsuccessful German
revolution of that year." According to J. H. Thomas (British
socialist, financed by the Soviets), "Otto Kahn’s face is
towards the light."???
-
H. W. PRITCHETT Trustee of Carnegie Foundation.
-
PERCY A. ROCKEFELLER Son of John D. Rockefeller; married to
Isabel, daughter of J. A. Stillman of National City Bank.
-
JOHN D. RYAN Director of copper-mining companies, National City
Bank, and Mechanics and Metals Bank.
-
W. L. SAUNDERS Director the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
120 Broadway, and chairman of Ingersoll-Rand. According to the
National Cyclopaedia (26:81): "Throughout the war he was one of
the President’s most trusted advisers."
-
J. A. STILLMAN President of National City Bank, after his father
(J. Stillman, chairman of NCB) died in March 1918.
-
C. A. STONE Director (1920-22) of Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, 120 Broadway; chairman of Stone & Webster, 120 Broadway;
president (1916-23) of American International Corporation, 120
Broadway.
-
T. N. VAIL President of National City Bank of Troy, New York
-
F. A. VANDERLIP President of National City Bank.
-
E. S. WEBSTER Of Stone & Webster, 120 Broadway.
-
A. H. WIGGIN Director of Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the
early 1930s.
-
BECKMAN WINTHROPE Director of National City Bank.
-
WILLIAM WOODWARD Director of Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
120 Broadway, and Hanover National Bank.
The positions of the twenty-two directors of
American
International Corporation with other institutions is
significant. The National City Bank had no fewer than ten
directors on the board of AIC; Stillman of NCB was at that time
an intermediary between the Rockefeller and Morgan interests,
and both the Morgan and the Rockefeller interests were
represented directly on AIC. Kuhn, Loeb and the du Ponts each
had one director. Stone & Webster had three directors. No fewer
than four directors of AIC (Saunders, Stone, Wiggin, Woodward)
either were directors of or were later to join the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York. William Boyce Thompson, who
contributed funds and his considerable prestige to the Bolshevik
Revolution, was also a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York - the directorate of the FRB of New York comprised only
nine members.
In 1917 the three Class A directors of the FRB were
Franklin D.
Locke, William Woodward, and Robert H. Treman. William Woodward
was a director of American International Corporation (120
Broadway) and of the Rockefeller-controlled Hanover National
Bank.
The three Class B directors were William Boyce Thompson,
Henry
R. Towne, and Leslie R. Palmer. We have already noted
William B.
Thompson’s substantial cash contribution to the Bolshevik cause.
Henry R. Towne was chairman of the board of directors of the
Morris Plan of New York, located at 120 Broadway; his seat was
later taken by Charles A. Stone of American International
Corporation (120 Broadway) and of Stone & Webster (120
Broadway).
The three Class C directors were Pierre Jay, W. L. Saunders, and
George Foster Peabody. Nothing is known about Pierre Jay, except
that his office was at 120 Broadway and he appeared to be
significant only as the owner of Brearley School, Ltd. William
Lawrence Saunders was also a director of American International
Corporation; he openly avowed pro-Bolshevik sympathies,
disclosing them in a letter to President Woodrow Wilson. George
Foster Peabody was an active socialist. In brief, of the nine
directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, four were
physically located at 120 Broadway and two were then connected
with American International Corporation. And at least four
members of AIC’s board were at one time or another directors of
the FRB of New York.
Woodrow Wilson was the fairy godmother who provided Trotsky with
a passport to return to Russia to "carry forward" the
revolution. This American passport was accompanied by a Russian
entry permit and a British transit visa. Jennings C. Wise, in
Woodrow Wilson: Disciple of Revolution, makes the pertinent
comment,
"Historians must never forget that
Woodrow Wilson,
despite the efforts of the British police, made it possible for
Leon Trotsky to enter Russia with an American passport."
Consequently, by virtue of preferential treatment for
Trotsky,
when the S.S. Kristianiafjord left New York on March 26, 1917,
Trotsky was aboard and holding a U.S. passport - and in company
with other Trotskyire revolutionaries, Wall Street financiers,
American Communists, and other interesting persons, few of whom
had embarked for legitimate business. This mixed bag of
passengers has been described by Lincoln Steffens, the American
Communist:
The passenger list was long and mysterious.
Trotsky was in the
steerage with a group of revolutionaries; there was a Japanese
revolutionist in my cabin. There were a lot of Dutch hurrying
home from Java, the only innocent people aboard. The rest were
war messengers, two from Wall Street to Germany....
Notably, Lincoln Steffens was on board en route to Russia at the
specific invitation of Charles Richard Crane, a backer and a
former chairman of the Democratic Party’s finance committee.
Charles Crane, vice president of the Crane Company, had
organized the Westinghouse Company in Russia, was a member of
the Root mission to Russia, and had made no fewer than
twenty-three visits to Russia between 1890 and 1930. Richard
Crane, his son, was confidential assistant to then Secretary of
State Robert Lansing. According to the former ambassador to
Germany William Dodd, Crane "did much to bring on the
Kerensky
revolution which gave way to Communism."
And so Steffens’ comments in his diary about conversations
aboard the S.S. Kristianiafjord are highly pertinent:
" . . . all agree that the revolution is in its first phase
only, that it must grow. Crane and Russian radicals on the ship
think we shall be in Petrograd for the re-revolution."
Crane returned to the United States when the
Bolshevik
Revolution (that is, "the re-revolution") had been completed
and, although a private citizen, was given firsthand reports of
the progress of the Bolshevik Revolution as cables were received
at the State Department. For example, one memorandum, dated
December 11, 1917, is entitled "Copy of report on Maximalist
uprising for Mr Crane." It originated with Maddin Summers, U.S.
consul general in Moscow.
The unlikely and puzzling picture that emerges is that Charles
Crane, a friend and backer of Woodrow Wilson and a prominent
financier and politician, had a known role in the "first"
revolution and traveled to Russia in mid-1917 in company with
the American Communist Lincoln Steffens, who was in touch with
both Woodrow Wilson and Trotsky. The latter in turn was carrying
a passport issued at the orders of Wilson and $10,000 from
supposed German sources. On his return to the U.S. after the
"re-revolution," Crane was granted access to official documents
concerning consolidation of the Bolshevik regime: This is a
pattern of interlocking - if puzzling - events that warrants
further investigation and suggests, though without at this point
providing evidence, some link between the financier Crane and
the revolutionary Trotsky.
Documents on Trotsky’s brief stay in Canadian custody are now
de-classified and available from the Canadian government
archives. According to these archives, Trotsky was removed by
Canadian and British naval personnel from the S.S. Kristianiafjord at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 3, 1917,
listed as a German prisoner of war, and interned at the Amherst,
Nova Scotia, internment station for German prisoners. Mrs.
Trotsky, the two Trotsky boys, and five other men described as
"Russian Socialists" were also taken off and interned. Their
names are recorded by the Canadian files as:
The Trotsky party was removed from the S.S. Kristianiafjord
under official instructions received by cablegram of March 29,
1917, London, presumably originating in the Admiralty with the
naval control officer, Halifax. The cablegram reported that the
Trotsky party was on the "Christianiafjord" (sic) and should be
"taken off and retained pending instructions." The reason given
to the naval control officer at Halifax was that "these are
Russian Socialists leaving for purposes of starting revolution
against present Russian government for which Trotsky is reported
to have 10,000 dollars subscribed by Socialists and Germans."
On April 1, 1917, the naval control officer, Captain O. M. Makins, sent a confidential memorandum to the general officer
commanding at Halifax, to the effect that he had "examined all
Russian passengers" aboard the S.S. Kristianiafjord and found
six men in the second-class section:
"They are all avowed Socialists, and though professing a desire
to help the new Russian Govt., might well be in league with
German Socialists in America, and quite likely to be a great
hindrance to the Govt. in Russia just at present."
The next document in the Canadian files is dated April 7, from
the chief of the General Staff, Ottawa, to the director of
internment operations, and acknowledges a previous letter (not
in the files) about the internment of Russian socialists at
Amherst, Nova Scotia:
". . . in this connection, have to inform you of the receipt of
a long telegram yesterday from the Russian Consul General,
MONTREAL, protesting against the arrest of these men as they
were in possession of passports issued by the Russian Consul
General, NEW YORK, U.S.A."
The reply to this Montreal telegram was to the effect that the
men were interned "on suspicion of being German," and would be
released only upon definite proof of their nationality and
loyalty to the Allies.
No telegrams from the Russian consul general in New York are in
the Canadian files, and it is known that this office was
reluctant to issue Russian passports to Russian political
exiles. However, there is a telegram in the files from a New
York attorney, N. Aleinikoff, to R. M. Coulter, then deputy
postmaster general of Canada. The postmaster general’s office in
Canada had no connection with either internment of prisoners of
war or military activities. Accordingly, this telegram was in
the nature of a personal, nonofficial intervention. It reads:
DR. R. M. COULTER, Postmaster Genl. OTTAWA
Russian political exiles returning to Russia detained Halifax
interned Amherst camp. Kindly investigate and advise cause of
the detention and names of all detained. Trust as champion of
freedom you will intercede on their behalf. Please wire collect.
NICHOLAS ALEINIKOFF
On April 11, Coulter wired Aleinikoff,
"Telegram received. Writing you this afternoon. You should
receive it tomorrow evening.
R. M. Coulter."
This telegram was sent by the Canadian Pacific Railway Telegraph
but charged to the Canadian Post Office Department. Normally a
private business telegram would be charged to the recipient and
this was not official business.
The follow-up Coulter letter to Aleinikoff is interesting
because, after confirming that the Trotsky party was held at
Amherst, it states that they were suspected of propaganda
against the present Russian government and "are supposed to be
agents of Germany." Coulter then adds," . . . they are not what
they represent themselves to be"; the Trotsky group is "...not
detained by Canada, but by the Imperial authorities." After
assuring Aleinikoff that the detainees would be made
comfortable, Coulter adds that any information "in their favour"
would be transmitted to the military authorities.
On April 11 Arthur Wolf of 134 East Broadway, New York, sent a
telegram to Coulter. Though sent from New York, this telegram,
after being acknowledged, was also charged to the Canadian Post
Office Department.
Pay close attention to this: In the Trotsky affair, here we have
two American residents corresponding with a Canadian deputy
postmaster general in order to intervene in behalf of an
interned Russian revolutionary, a Canadian or Imperial military
matter of international importance. Coulter’s subsequent action
suggests something more than casual intervention.
After Coulter acknowledged the Aleinikoff and Wolf telegrams, he
wrote to Major General Willoughby Gwatkin of the Department of
Militia and Defense in Ottawa - a man of significant influence
in the Canadian military - and attached copies of the Aleinikoff
and Wolf telegrams. He wrote:
These men have been hostile to Russia because of the way the
Jews have been treated, and are now strongly in favor of the
present Administration, so far as I know. Both are responsible
men. Both are reputable men, and I am sending their telegrams to
you for what they may be worth, and so that you may represent
them to the English authorities if you deem it wise.
Coulter intimates that he knows a great deal about
Aleinikoff
and Wolf. His letter was in effect a character reference, and
aimed at the obvious source of the internment problem - London.
Gwatkin was well known in London, and in fact was on loan to
Canada from the War Office in London.
Aleinikoff then sent a letter to Coulter to thank him,
"most heartily for the interest you have taken in the fate of
the Russian Political Exiles .... You know me, esteemed Dr.
Coulter, and you also know my devotion to the cause of Russian
freedom .... Happily I know Mr. Trotsky, Mr. Melnichahnsky, and
Mr. Chudnowsky . . . intimately."
It might be noted as an aside that if
Aleinikoff knew Trotsky
"intimately," then he would also probably be aware that
Trotsky
had declared his intention to return to Russia to overthrow the
Provisional Government and institute the "re-revolution."
On receipt of Aleinikoff’s letter, Coulter immediately (April
16) forwarded it to Major General Gwatkin, adding that he became
acquainted with Aleinikoff,
"in connection with Departmental action on United States papers
in the Russian language" and that Aleinikoff was working "on the
same lines as Mr. Wolf . . . who was an escaped prisoner from
Siberia."
Previously, on April 14, Gwatkin sent a memorandum to his naval
counterpart on the Canadian Military Interdepartmental Committee
repeating that the internees were Russian socialists with
"10,000 dollars subscribed by socialists and Germans." The
concluding paragraph stated: "On the other hand there are those
who declare that an act of high-handed injustice has been done."
Then on April 16, Vice Admiral C. E. Kingsmill, director of the
Naval Service, took Gwatkin’s intervention at face value. In a
letter to Captain Makins, the naval control officer at Halifax,
he stated, "The Militia authorities request that a decision as
to their (that is, the six Russians) disposal may be hastened."
A copy of this instruction was relayed to Gwatkin who in turn
informed Deputy Postmaster General Coulter.
Three days later Gwatkin applied pressure. In a memorandum of
April 20 to the naval secretary, he wrote, "Can you say, please,
whether or not the Naval Control Office has given a decision?"
On the same day (April 20) Captain Makins wrote Admiral Kingsmill explaining his reasons for removing Trotsky; he
refused to be pressured into making a decision, stating, "I will
cable to the Admiralty informing them that the Militia
authorities are requesting an early decision as to their
disposal."
However, the next day, April 21, Gwatkin wrote Coulter:
"Our friends the Russian socialists are to be released; and
arrangements are being made for their passage to Europe."
The order to Makins for Trotsky’s release originated in the
Admiralty, London. Coulter acknowledged the information, "which
will please our New York correspondents immensely."
We can conclude that Coulter and Gwatkin were intensely
interested in the release of Trotsky, but we do not know why.
There was little in the career of either Deputy Postmaster
General Coulter or Major General Gwatkin that would explain an
urge to release Leon Trotsky.
Dr. Robert Miller Coulter was a medical doctor of Scottish and
Irish parents, a liberal, a Freemason, and an Odd Fellow. He was
appointed deputy postmaster general of Canada in 1897. His sole
claim to fame derived from being a delegate to the Universal
Postal Union Convention in 1906 and a delegate to New Zealand
and Australia in 1908 for the "All Red" project. All Red had
nothing to do with Red revolutionaries; it was only a plan for
all-red or all-British fast steamships between Great Britain,
Canada, and Australia.
Major General Willoughby Gwatkin stemmed from a long British
military tradition (Cambridge and then Staff College). A
specialist in mobilization, he served in Canada from 1905 to
1918.
Given only the documents in the Canadian files, we can but
conclude that their intervention in behalf of Trotsky is a
mystery.
Lieutenant Colonel John Bayne MacLean, a prominent Canadian
publisher and businessman, founder and president of MacLean
Publishing Company, Toronto, with a long-time association with
Canadian Army Intelligence, wrote for his own MacLean’s
magazine, in 1918, an article entitled "Why Did We Let Trotsky
Go? How Canada Lost an Opportunity to Shorten the War." The
article contained detailed and unusual information about Leon
Trotsky which provides two clues. Government records since
released by Canada, Great Britain, and the United States confirm
MacLean’s clues to a significant degree. MacLean’s opening
argument is that
"some Canadian politicians or officials were chiefly responsible
for the prolongation of the war [World War I], for the great
loss of life, the wounds and sufferings of the winter of 1917
and the great drives of 1918." Further, "the man chiefly
responsible for the defection of Russia was Trotsky... acting
under German instructions."
Who was Trotsky? According to
MacLean, Trotsky was not Russian,
but German
Odd as this may seem it does coincide with other scraps of
intelligence information: to wit, that Trotsky spoke better
German than Russian, and that he was the Russian executive of
the German "Black Bond."
According to MacLean, Trotsky in August 1914 had been
"ostentatiously" expelled from Berlin; he finally arrived in the
United States where he organized Russian revolutionaries, as
well as revolutionaries in Western Canada, who "were largely
Germans and Austrians traveling as Russians." MacLean continues:
Originally the British found through Russian associates that Kerensky,
Lenin and some lesser leaders were practically in
German pay as early as 1915 and they uncovered in 1916 the
connections with Trotsky then living in New York.
In the early part of 1916 a German official sailed for New York.
British Intelligence officials accompanied him. He was held up
at Halifax; but on their instruction he was passed on with
profuse apologies for the necessary delay. After much manoeuvering he arrived in a dirty little newspaper office in
the slums and there found Trotsky, to whom he bore important
instructions. From June 1916, until they passed him on [to] the
British, the N.Y. Bomb Squad never lost touch with Trotsky.
They
discovered that his real name was Braunstein and that
he was a
German, not a Russian.
Such German activity in neutral countries is confirmed in a
State Department report (316-9-764-9) describing organization of
Russian refugees for revolutionary purposes.
Continuing, MacLean states that Trotsky and four associates
sailed on the "S.S. Christiania" (sic), and on April 3 reported
to "Captain Making" (sic) and were taken off the ship at Halifax
under the direction of Lieutenant Jones. (Actually a party of
nine, including six men, were taken off the S.S. Kristianiafjord.
The name of the naval control officer at Halifax was Captain O.
M. Makins, R.N. The name of the officer who removed the Trotsky
party from the ship is not in the Canadian government documents;
Trotsky said it was "Machen.") Again, according to
MacLean,
Trotsky’s money came "from German sources in New York."
MacLean states further that Trotsky was released "at the request
of the British Embassy at Washington . . . [which] acted on the
request of the U.S. State Department, who were acting for
someone else."
The theme of MacLean’s report is that Trotsky had intimate
relations with, and probably worked for, the German General
Staff. While such relations have been established regarding
Lenin - to the extent that Lenin was subsidized and his return
to Russia facilitated by the Germans - it appears certain that
Trotsky was similarly aided. The $10,000 Trotsky fund in New
York was from German sources, and a recently declassified
document in the U.S. State Department files reads as follows:
March 9, 1918 to: American Consul, Vladivostok from Polk, Acting
Secretary of State, Washington D.C. For your confidential
information and prompt attention: Following is substance of
message of January twelfth from Von Schanz of German Imperial
Bank to Trotsky, quote Consent imperial bank to appropriation
from credit general staff of five million roubles for sending
assistant chief naval commissioner Kudrisheff to Far East.
This message suggests some liaison between
Trotsky and the
Germans in January 1918, a time when Trotsky was proposing an
alliance with the West. The State Department does not give the
provenance of the telegram, only that it originated with the War
College Staff. The State Department did treat the message as
authentic and acted on the basis of assumed authenticity. It is
consistent with the general theme of Colonel MacLean’s article.
Official documentation clearly demonstrates two faces to
Trotsky: one for the public, and one in private. For example,
the Division of Far Eastern Affairs in the U.S. State Department
received on March 23, 1918, two reports stemming from Trotsky;
one is inconsistent with the other. One report, dated March 20
and from Moscow, originated in the Russian newspaper Russkoe
Slovo. The report cited an interview with Trotsky in which he
stated:
"...any alliance with the United States was impossible: The
Russia of the Soviet cannot align itself... with capitalistic
America for this would be a betrayal It is possible that
Americans seek such an rapprochement with us, driven by its
antagonism towards Japan, but in any case there can be no
question of an alliance by us of any nature with a bourgeoisie
nation."
The other report, also originating in Moscow, is a message dated
March 17, 1918, three days earlier, and from Ambassador Francis:
"Trotsky requests five American officers as inspectors of army
being organized for defense also requests railroad operating men
and equipment."
This private request to the U.S. is of course inconsistent with
the public rejection of an "alliance."
So long as we see all international revolutionaries and all
international capitalists as implacable enemies of one another,
then we miss a crucial point - that there has indeed been some
operational cooperation between international capitalists,
including fascists. And there is no a priori reason why we
should reject Trotsky as a part of this alliance.
First there’s Trotsky, a Russian internationalist revolutionary
with German connections who sparks assistance from two supposed
supporters of Prince Lvov’s government in Russia (Aleinikoff and
Wolf, Russians resident in New York). These two ignite the
action of a liberal Canadian deputy postmaster general, who in
turn intercedes with a prominent British Army major general on
the Canadian military staff. These are all verifiable links.
In short, allegiances may not always be what they are called, or
appear. We can, however, surmise that Trotsky, Aleinikoff,
Wolf,
Coulter, and Gwatkin in acting for a common limited objective
also had some common higher goal than national allegiance or
political label. This is the only a logical supposition from the
facts. (WALL STREET AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION By
Antony C.
Sutton. 2001, HTML version created in the United States of
America by
Studies in Reformed Theology)
Olof Aschberg and Nya Banken in Stockholm were central to
Bolshevik funding.
With the entry of the United States into the war, Barnes and
Gray, Hoover’s helpers in the Belgian Relief Operation, were
given important posts in the newly created U.S. Food
Administration, which also was placed under Herbert Hoover’s
direction. Barnes became President of the Grain Corporation of
the U.S. Food Administration from 1917 to 1918, and Gray was
chief of Marine Transportation. Another J. Henry Schroder
partner, G. A. Zabriskie, was named head of the U.S. Sugar
Equalization Board.
Hoover chose Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss as his principal
assistant in the U.S. Food Administration. Strauss was soon to
become a partner in Kuhn Loeb Company, marrying the daughter of
Jerome Hanauer of Kuhn Loeb. Throughout his service with the
Belgian Relief Commission, the U.S. Food Administration, and,
after the war, the American Relief Administration, Hoover’s
closest associate was one Edgar Rickard, born in Pontgibaud,
France. After Hoover became Secretary of Commerce under
Coolidge, Hamill tells us that Hoover awarded his friend the
Hazeltine Radio patents, which paid him one million dollars a
year in royalties.
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