PART 3:THE WAR PLOTTERS OF WALL ST.:SHAM PEACE SOCIETIES,RED LIGHTS AHEAD,"AMERICANS" PILGRIMS

THE WAR PLOTTERS OF WALL ST.
BY CHARLES A COLLMAN

VII. 

THE SHAM PEACE SOCIETIES 

I was walking on Seventh Ave., New York, one "Winter's night, some four short years ago it was in December, 1911, if memory serves me right when my attention was called to the movement of great numbers of people. I saw them pouring into an auditorium. 

I am always interested in the guiding spirit of a throng, so I made myself a part of this concourse. I entered the auditorium. It was filled to the galleries. I seated myself, and, turning to my neighbor, asked for the purpose of the gathering. 

"It's a peace meeting'' he replied. 

I turned my attention to the stage. I saw there the conventional semi-circle of three rows of chairs. Seven men were seated in the foremost row.- I can see their faces as plainly today as on that Winter's night, four years ago: 

Andrew Carnegie

Henry Clews 

J. Pierpont Morgan 

Thomas W. Lamont

 

George F. Baker 

Frederic R. Coudert  

Dr. Lyman Abbott 

Now I knew the origin and histories of these men, and I wondered what had brought them together there. I listened to some of the speakers, and gathered that they were making an appeal to the audience to give their support to some arbitration treaties which these seven men wished to make between our country, England and France. Then I understood. 

Suddenly, at the conclusion of one of the addresses, a man arose from a chair in the semi-circle on the stage, and advanced to the footlights. He was a mild appearing man, slender of figure, and wearing long mustaches. He began to speak. All in that large audience listened breathlessly, for it was evident that this speech was not on the prepared program. 

The man at the footlights spoke : ''I wish to offer as a substitute that this meeting approve the resolution already adopted by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in opposition to the treaties between Great Britain and France, such treaties being breeders of war. This arbitration movement is aimed not in the interest of peace, but in that of war with another power, Germany." 

The audience sat stunned for a moment. Then came a burst of cheers from the galleries, followed by others from the orchestra chairs: "How about Germany? This is all aimed at Germany!'' 

A great uproar ensued. The chairman was compelled to dismiss the gathering. The audience had not given its approval to the plan cherished by the seven men seated there on the public stage. 

Now this meeting became historic in the annals of the peace agitations of that day. I remember my surprise at the upshot of the morrow. For certain newspapers controlled by Wall Street bankers tried, for some secret reason, to heap obloquy on the heads of the men who had objected to the proposed treaties. They called them "ruffians" and "hoodlums." 

Why was that done ? 

Here was an American citizen who had spoken in support of the wishes of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, of the Congress of the. United States. That was certainly a patriotic duty. And free speech is not prohibited in America, nor is liberty of thought. 

The man who had so spoken was a New York lawyer. Yet Adolph S. Ochs, in his newspaper, assailed him in these words: "He is a bad American. In fact, he is not an American at all. We mean that he is not an American citizen. For all we know, he may have been born here, but he must be reborn." 

There seemed a sinister purpose in all three attacks, and dreadful doubts succeeded in the public mind concerning these "peace" negotiations. It was felt instinctively that foreign influences were at work to compromise the future of our country. 

Time passed. But the foreign agitation kept secretly at work. 

THOSE SEVEN MEN 

In the meantime, keep in mind, indelibly, the names of those seven men whom I noted on the stage front of Carnegie Hall, that troubled Winter's night. 

Men who nurse shameful ends know neither haste nor rest. The schemes of these seven men had been frustrated at the Carnegie Hall meeting. But the result of that meeting was the formation of two "peace" societies, the American Peace and Arbitration League and the New York Peace Society. How strange to note that the presidents of both were Englishmen, Henry Clews and Andrew Carnegie. 

Wall Street's English bankers are far-sighted men. They have resources and cunning. They had made a shade of differentiation between these two organizations, in the hope that they might meet the objections of suspicious or unsuspecting Americans.

It was on January 25th, 1913, that we find the "peace" friends meeting again. And it is again in Carnegie Hall. There we find two members of this Group of Seven, the two Englishmen, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clews. By this time they had enlisted the services of Dr. Charles W. Eliot, once of Harvard. They expressed their extreme disappointment at the failure of the peace treaties they had planned to make between England, France and the United States. Mr. Carnegie, however, asserted his conviction that the end of all war was in sight, and said that he believed that the doctrine of the exemption of private property on the seas was soon to be a reality, since it had been approved by eight of the nations and needed only the sanction of Great Britain.* 

* Who has confiscated $15,000,000 worth of American meat cargoes, and hundreds of millions of American cotton cargoes?

Six days later, Mr. Carnegie gathered a meeting of his (American) New York Peace Society, and appealed to the American people to force the repeal by Congress of its legislation governing the Panama Canal tolls, which was detrimental to England's interests. Not like the "hoodlum" who had supported the cause of the American Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Mr. Carnegie appealed to the American people to destroy an act of Congress. But the Wall Street newspapers did not call Mr. Carnegie a "hoodlum" or a "ruffian." Mr. Adolph S. Ochs treated him most tenderly. 

At this meeting, Robert Underwood Johnson, vice-president of the "Peace" Society, declared: "For the first time in their lives, as they have confessed to me, Americans ( ?) could not look Englishmen fair in the face because of the interpretation put by our Congress upon our treaty obligations."

Twenty-three days later (still in 1913, remember) Henry Clews, the English President of the American (?) Peace and Arbitration League, called a gathering of his people, among the members of the committee being Andrew Carnegie, Dr. Lyman Abbott, Dr. Charles W. Eliot and FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON. Mr. Carnegie predicted that the day of universal peace was not far distant, and expressed the hope that the differences with England might be arbitrated. 

Then came the great war in Europe. When had the English plotters expected it? Before this, at Agadir? "Who can sound the secrets of human thought ? 

Now it was found necessary to bring about an alteration in this English plot. There was no longer a question of " peace." Now the secret agitation of Wall Street's English bankers was to be on behalf of the "patriotic" duty of national defense. Patriotism, they say, is the last refuge of scoundrels. The world's history always shows how plutocrats play upon the sincere patriotic instincts of their countrymen, that they may make money out of the intoxication of the heedless rabble. 

We shall see Roman history now repeat itself. 

THE PATRIOTS MEET 

One hundred and fifty "American patriots" assembled at the Hotel Belmont in December, 1914, and organized the National Security League. It is necessary, of course, that somebody must advance the funds for any public movement. Among the committee chosen were Mr. Frederic R. Coudert, counsel for the French government, and Mr. Herbert L. Satterlee, the brother in-law of J. Pierpont Morgan. The committee demanded that the government at once spend $100,000,000 on armament. 

At this meeting, Mr. George Haven Putnam, an Englishman, London born, spoke as follows: 

"Suppose England is crushingly defeated in this war, and her enemies wish to invade Canada. A big fleet and expeditionary force appears off New York and asks permission to march an invading army up the Hudson Valley. We refuse. You can see all the towns along the Hudson River in ruins. 

"A military authority in Berlin recently said that when Germany had obtained a coaling station on the American coast, there would be no difficulty in smashing the American coast cities and crushing the Republic."

Of course we all know that no Berlin authority ever made such a statement, and that no army intending to invade Canada would be so idiotic as to wish to march up the Hudson Valley. But this statement was made by this English agitator simply in the interest of the English propaganda in order to create fear in the minds of the ignorant and feeble-minded. 

The English, you see, feared the thirty millions of American citizens of German blood, whose fathers had fought in all our country's wars. It was necessary for their plot to cow and discredit all Americans of German descent. 

For this, the National Security League was not enough, as the American (?) Peace and Arbitration League and the New York Peace Society had not been sufficient. There must be a monopoly on the part of the English bankers of Wall Street, of all " patriotic " and "defense" movements, so that real Americans should not have liberty of action in such organizations. 

Now we reach the culminating step in the plans of the Group of Seven men, whom we recall as having been seated on the front of the stage at that meeting in Carnegie Hall four years before. 

J. Pierpont Morgan had appointed himself the official war agent of England in this country. He had made contracts with all the munitions factories, so that all their output would 'be assured to the country that he loves better than his own. He had organized other great munitions factories, for the manufacture of shells and shrapnel while England 's war should last. But he is a far-sighted man. When the war ends, he intends that these factories shall be sold to the United States government. To accomplish this purpose, the American public must be educated to the fact that "national defense" is a great and patriotic duty. 

The National Security League had asked an immediate appropriation of $100,000,000 for the national defense. That was only a feeler to "educate the public." The sum must be made much higher. 

Colonel Robert M. Thompson, chairman of the board of directors of one of the war munitions companies, was selected as the stalking horse in this development. As a one-time graduate of Annapolis, he had organized a Navy League. This moribund society was now to be used in the furtherance of the Morgan plan. Colonel Thompson inaugurated a "defense" luncheon, and invited to it the members of the Group of Seven. Invitations were extended by him to the heads of all the war munitions companies and the Wall Street bankers who do business with them. 

Among the gathering invited we note : J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas W. Lament, George F. Baker, Frederic R. Coudert, Dr. Lyman Abbott, as also most of the other partners of Morgan, and his brother-in-law, Herbert L. Satterlee. 

At this meeting, Colonel Thompson proposed that the government immediately expend not $100,000,000, but $500,000,000 on armament. The method in educating the public was the same later adopted in the'machinations of this same group for a billion- dollar loan to the Allies. 

This $500,000,000 was to flow, of course, right back into the pockets of the men invited to Colonel Thompson 's luncheon. 

STIFLING THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE 

But these people had something else to fear, and that was that the conscience of the American people would be awakened, and they might have an embargo placed on the exportation of war material. That, of course, would be fatal to the Morgan group of munitions makers, who were expecting to make their millions out of a world catastrophe. But they cleverly executed their campaign for the stifling of the public conscience. College professors were hired to write articles, informing us that it would be "unneutral" to place an embargo on arms shipments. That weak nations would be unable to protect themselves against strong nations if we did so. That German militarism must be crushed. 

And they did not call attention, of course, to the fact that the "weak nations" to whom Morgan was supplying arms were the great empires of Russia and Great Britain, and that so far from suppressing militarism, the Morgans were trying to impose militarism upon the country by the expenditure of a half billion on armament. 

In the meantime a movement was begun in Carnegie's New York Peace Society for an embargo on the shipment of arms. Morgan had provided means to oppose that. His men, Lyman Abbott and his counsel, the corporation lawyer, Francis Lynde Stetson, of the Steel Trust, and the Englishman, George Haven Putnam, hastily formed a committee and issued a statement September 6th, protesting against any interruption to the shipment of arms, since that might curtail the profits of Morgan and the Steel Trust. Similarly, when John Wanamaker, in Philadelphia, advocated an embargo on arms, Morgan's men in the National Security League made him resign at once as chairman. 

When some women in Baltimore issued posters, calling on Americans to protest against the arms shipments, Ochs, the Money Trust tool in New York, did not spare American womanhood to serve his Wall Street masters. Absolutely, this man Ochs attacked American women, assailing them as doing a shameful thing in protesting against arms shipments, since that might curtail Morgan's profits. 

Corporation lawyers all flew to the rescue of Morgan profits, in which most of them always share. A Baltimore corporation lawyer, Charles Jerome Bonaparte, once an attorney general, in agitating for the National Security League, said at Carnegie Hall: "If I am asked what I mean by a reasonably possible enemy, I reply any power except Great Britain. " And more recently he wrote to the American Defense Society: "I am in cordial sympathy with prompt provision for the national defense. We have become involved in controversies with powerful nations. When the war shall end, those whom we have offended may be victorious." 

I think a child could detect a false ring to these words. They brought something to my mind, and impelled me to look up Mr. Bonaparte in "Who's Who in America," where I found that he had .given his lineage as follows: "Charles Jerome Bonaparte, grandson of Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia." That's enough! 

I think that if we revert to that stormy Winter night in 1911, when our countrymen experienced misgivings that all was not well with the sham peace propaganda, and that it was in reality a movement to ally this country on the side of England in her coming war, we have found THAT THEIR FEARS WERE JUSTIFIED. 

WHO THEY ARE 

Let us analyze the affiliations of the seven men who sat on the stage in Carnegie Hall that memorable night. There was Andrew. Carnegie, born in Great Britain, with a home on Fifth Avenue, and one in Scotland; casting his vote in both countries ; holder of $300,000,000 odd Steel Sinkers, five per cent, bonds of the Steel Trust, which now earns its income from the manufacture and sale of shells and bayonets, used to arm Russian Cossack's and Senegal Negroes for the destruction of a white race. 

Should an Englishman, so conscienceless as this, head an American peace society? 

There was Henry Clews, born in England ; for years a pro British agitator; who derives his income from a score of little branch brokerage offices, where men speculate in war stocks on margin. One of the leading brokers in Wall Street told me one day that, at the end of the year, when he balanced his books, there was rarely a customer who had not lost his all in the stock market gamble. 

Is an Englishman such as this qualified to head an American peace society ? 

There was J. Pierpont Morgan, war agent of England, whose record in ' ' Who 's Who ' ' is given thus : 

J. Pierpont Morgan Homes :             Offices : 

  231 Madison Ave., N. Y.           23 Wall St., N. Y. 

12 Grosvenor Sq., London, W. 22 Old Broad St., London. 

Clubs: White's, St. James Club and the City of London Club. 

Is this English banker qualified to lead an American peace or defense movement ? 

There was Thomas W. Lamont, the partner of Morgan, England 's war agent. 

There was George F. Baker, one of Wall Street's Big Four, and a leader of the Money Trust, investigated and censured by the Pujo Committee. 

There was Frederic R. Coudert, son of a French father and counsel for the French government, director of a company doing a business of billions with the war munitions concerns, and a bitter anti-German agitator. 

There was Dr. Lyman Abbott, of the Outlook, whose venomous pen has worn itself dull in the last shameful year in pro British agitations. 

And now it is these men, the in-flamers of public sentiment, who laughed at us when we opposed an arms embargo, who now tell us that ''we have offended'' powerful nations by the shipment of arms to their enemies. They instruct us we must arm in our own defense, and that the government must buy Morgan's war plants, and slip $500,000,000 into the pockets of this multimillionaire. 

Why not let us ape England, and tax the munitions makers for the national defense? They are the only ones who have made money in this country during the year that is dead and gone. 

But these Englishmen new evidently fear the 120 millions of Germans in Central Europe, whom they "have offended" by their sale of arms to England. I would call to their attention that there are others nearer home whom they have cause to fear, that is, the thirty millions of Americans of German blood, upon whom they have tried to heap infamy during the last twelve months. How do they purpose to defend themselves against these enemies? These thirty millions are now welded together as one, they think as one, and they are strong enough to bring to a stern accounting the English crew who, for the last year, have singled them out of the social body for attack. 

MORGANS "PEACE TRUST"

Is it not clearly proved that Morgan, years ago, .took care to monopolize the sham "peace'' movements and the "fake" defense movements? His father and his partners organized the "arbitration treaties" in favor of England. Morgan and his lawyers and creatures were instrumental in founding and controlling the New York Peace Society and the American Peace and Arbitration League, the Navy League and the National Security League. Morgan's hand has been in all this. He is the evil genius of his race. 

Is this disloyalty, or treason ? 

Morgan is restless and untiring to swing this country into England's maw. He is dogged and determined in his actions. Congress has a stern duty to perform. It must check this dangerous man. If Congress does not act, then the people will. It is dangerous to goad the people into action. 

Morgan's wrath is bitter in this hour of the miscarriage of his plans. He has been unable to force this country into war on England's side. His loan to the Allies was cut in half. What is he plotting now? When the people objected to Morgan's billion-dollar loan, his organ, the Sun, came out and said: 

"Should the loan be withheld, and the war thus cut short, to whose advantage would it be ? How much of Russia would Germany annex? What would become of Morocco? What would become of Egypt ? What would Germany do to British commerce? What would Germany do to Britain's natural defense, her navy?" 

In this, Morgan at last unmasked himself. He has not been working for America. What do Americans care how much of Russia Germany annexes ? What do they care what becomes of British commerce, or whether she remains in Egypt, which she has stolen from the Turk ? What care have we to maintain the French in the filched country of Morocco ? 

But that is Morgan's will. He would have us fight for England and France: he would have us lend our billions to them for the purposes of their war, regardless of the consequences to our welfare. 

Is Morgan now seeking to precipitate a panic in this country? 

The thing is by no means improbable. 

Morgan's father is said to have doubled the family fortune in the panic days of 1907. He was enabled then to get the Tennessee Coal & Iron Co. for his Steel Trust without the expenditure of a dollar, and merely by the printing of a few bond certificates. 

When a Morgan railroad goes into receivership, Morgan makes a million dollars commission in reorganization. 

Wall Street does not fear panics. It thrives on the misfortunes of the people.

VIII. 

RED LIGHTS AHEAD! 

"Red lights ahead!" In this picturesque railroad phrase, grown famous in financial annals, James J. Hill, then chairman of the Great Northern Railroad, predicted the oncoming panic of 1907. 

I was reminded of this prediction, made by Mr. Hill, a man whom I greatly admire, as I walked through Wall Street a few days ago. These panics, which the public fears so justly, come for some strange reason upon us every seven or eight years. Panics are not wholly man-made. They are often made unwittingly, through the madness of men. 

I remember the panic of '93, when I had just "struck" New York City from Ohio, a poor lad. And another one came later, in 1901, made solely by Wall Street gamblers. Six years later came the ''rich man's panic.'' 

What reminded me of "Jim'' Hill's fine phrase as I strolled through Wall Street this late September day ? There was much to contemplate. To the left hand, at the corner of Broad and Wall Streets, topping the new white structure of the House of English Morgan, a great steel screen had been placed above the court that opens on the glass roof covering the ground floor of his banking house. A cordon of armed detectives was stationed about his office doors. 

From the right hand there came to me the subdued uproar of shouting, shrieking voices voices of maddened brokers on the guarded floor of the New York Stock Exchange, also still topped with a steel wire screen. And at the entrance of the Exchange, the greatest money 'market of our country, there still hung the sign "Gallery Closed for Repairs." Wall Street brokers still refuse the public admittance to the scene of their operations. 

And I felt downcast and depressed as I thought back on those long-gone years when I had come to this city, a poor boy from Ohio. How the days had changed ! Then there was public spirit and free thought. Newspapers like the World and Sun would have had electrifying stories of the fear in which Morgan and his creatures dwelt, of the -manner in wr hich they had screened themselves from public vengeance. And our country would not have been unwarned. 

But today the word of a powerful English banker is sufficient to still the columns of newspapers, which in the past thought it their best endeavor to strive for the public good. 

"Red lights ahead!" Races become decadent through corruption yes, those races that we love the best. When we were boys we all read Plutarch, and loved him for the knowledge of human nature he displayed. You remember old Timon of Athens, and the words he spoke to Alcibiades, when he saw him driving his countrymen to madness? "Go on, my brave boy, and prosper, for your prosperity will bring ruin on all this crowd!'' 

And I thought of Young Morgan and his English banking friends of Wall Street. Here are bankers, mad with race hatred, throwing all conservatism and caution to the winds. They try to fling away the public's billion, as though it were so much chaff. It is hard to earn a billion dollars. No man has ever done so. The slender savings of the people, always hard earned, are a mere bauble in the hands of thoughtless bankers. 

Read the columns of Ochs, the tool of the Money Trust, and he will blabbingly tell you of the "millionaires made by war stocks." Yes, there are men in Wall Street who have made millions in war stocks. 

They are making them by juggling the money of the people, which blind confidence and honest faith had entrusted to their care. Then comes the great Day of Reckoning as it came in '93, in 1901, in 1907. And then who has won out? The men who do not care for panic days the men of Wall Street. They will lean back and laugh at you then, glutted with their millions, and you and I shall have to pay their bills. 

WARNING VOICES IGNORED 

"Red lights ahead !" Back in those days the voices of warning were ignored. They were spoken by Hill and Jacob Schiff. But in 1906-07 there were the same conditions that prevail today.The mad market, the million-share days. The inflation, the banks loaning the people's money on mushroom stocks, while happy brokers laughed and made their coin. The same conditions prevail today the clerks working overtime in the gambling houses of Wall Street, sleeping on improvised cots, working day and night, in the fever and furor, trying to keep track of the accounts of the poor dupes who are misled by the intoxicating' songs of corrupt newspapers of "fortunes made in stocks." 

The Day of Reckoning is as sure as the tides and the floods and the setting of the moon. It is the world old story of human credulity, of human faith in the lying tongues of scheming men. 

"Red lights ahead!" It is now October, in the year 1915. Clip out this story and file it away for the future day the great Day of Reckoning, when men must pay for the sins of others, when factories will close their gates, and the store and the warehouse will ring to empty footfalls. And far away, in Europe, perhaps, you may see the faces of mocking English bankers, the expatriates of the Money Trust, who have coined their swag and made their homes abroad, and who now laugh at their foolish dupes, whom they hoodwinked with false tales and lying profits, living lives of ease on stolen money. 

The Wall Street-owned newspapers, with their powerful and unscrupulous news syndicates, which ferret out the ignorant and unsuspecting in every hamlet in the land, are regaling the public today with their stories, "Wall Street is a street of gold," "millionaires are being made daily," "there are fortunes to be made in war stocks." 

Poor, foolish human frailty ! Will that day ever come when men will listen to those who wish them well? When the honest and unsuspecting will no longer heed the voices of plutocratic tempters ? 

"Wall Street is paved with gold!" And the poor fellow, work less and worrying, who walks the streets, is tempted to take his money from the savings bank and put it in war stocks. 

If there are those who are willing to listen, let them pay heed to this. Do you know that only a week ago the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad went into a receiver's hands ? The Missouri Pacific is bankrupt. What has become of the Rock Island? Have you seen the dreadful loss in the earnings of the Union Pacific?

Those are our great properties on which our fortunes and our wealth depend. In those roads, the arteries of the business life of the country, the money of the savings banks is invested. Are they prospering? No. 

Who prospers ? ' The munitions makers ? Perhaps. But from what source do their profits come ? From France, from England, from Russia ? From countries devastated by the greatest war in history? No, England, Russia, France are not sending gold to our country to enrich the munitions makers. Those English bankers of Wall Street have paid themselves for the debts the bankrupt countries of Europe owe by taking the millions of savings of the American people, which are deposited in savings banks, in life and fire insurance companies, and these men, who love foreigners better than their own countrymen, have placed in these companies the notes of their bankrupt friends, whom they toasted and flattered in New York at their Pilgrim dinners and their bankers feasts, at which they drank the health's of King George of England, the Russian Czar, the King of Italy and the assassin rulers of Serbia. 

But business is bad in the United States. We all know that. The Money Trust newspapers of Wall Street, drunk with the advertising profits that now fill their columns, do not tell you such facts as these. The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, of September 25th, says : ''England has huge resources to draw upon, no matter what may happen, and she has never in her entire history undertaken to place one of her Government loans in a foreign country. Even if we take an extreme view of the case and contemplate the possibility of partial insolvency as the result of the putting out of huge additional masses of debt with the continuation of the war, it is inconceivable that this $500,- 000,000 or $600,000,000 foreign loan will ever be in danger." 

THE BANKRUPT'S TOLL 

This is the still and silent voice of a financial organ, which few will read. It does not say that England has had to pay the bankrupt's toll of six per cent, for her money by placing a first mortgage on the Empire. It does not call attention to the fact that her premier security, Consols, is selling at a "minimum ' price of 65. This minimum means that the British Government dares not let a free market prevail in her chief security, that if the minimum price were removed, it would drop to a panic figure. The figure is easily calculated. Consols bear interest at 2 1/2 per cent. The British loan forced upon the American people by the publicity campaign of the Morgan group pays 5 per cent., but sells at 96%. Then a security paying one-half that interest is worth only one-half the price or 48 1/8. That figure is the price of British Consols today no, it is not the price, for the loan imposed upon America is a first mortgage upon the taxing power of the British Empire, and Consols take the rank of a second mortgage, and can be worth only 40 or thereabouts. 

I shall quote a warning issued at the Investment Bankers' Association of America, at Denver last week, which your Money Trust newspaper did not dare to print and which was uttered by Mr. A. B. Leach, the President of the Association, who said : "Gentlemen, I have presented three pictures, which perhaps have a somewhat gloomy atmosphere, three pictures which be- speak possible disaster even. 

"As investment bankers we face the problem that the capital, which has been expended for the development of this country, derived in the past from Europe, will not be available. 

"I have heard it prophesied by the very wise that at the end of the war we would face a financial catastrophe, that wreckage and repudiation would be worldwide."  

The capital which has been expended for the development of this country, derived in the past from Europe, will not be available." And at the siren voice of Morgan, the credulous American people have been tempted to give of their own capital $500,000,000 to France, England and Russia, to the accompaniment of the enthusiastic cheers of English bankers. 

And thus, while Wall Street bankers throw away one-half billion of the people's money, what is being done with the reserves of Wall Street banks ? 

Let us see. 

In the chart that is given below, we can clearly see what game the conscienceless houses of Wall Street are perpetrating. In the last seven weeks, ended with October 2nd, in only twenty of the war stocks, and there are perhaps as many more, thirteen million five hundred and eleven thousand shares were traded in, and in this gamble, solely in these twenty stocks, remember, the brokers, their victims and the bankers manipulated the immense sum of one billion three hundred and sixty-six million eight hundred and thirty-five thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars. 

What a dreadful situation here presents itself. On the one hand, the Morgan group helps itself to a half billion of the people's money, to repay itself for the munitions sold to the bankrupt Allies. On the other hand, great railroad systems go thundering down into bankruptcy, imperiling the resources of the country, while not a hand is raised to help them. And now the Wall Street bankers further use the funds of the public to lend one billion one hundred millions to the war stock gamblers on twenty inflated war stocks in seven weeks. 

These are termed "call" loans. They must be met and paid on demand. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN WALL STREET WHEN THE CALL LOANS ARE CALLED ? 

Two months ago THE FATHERLAND called attention to the fact that the members of the Stock Exchange were working in guilty fear, hidden from the public eye. At that time the officials of the Exchange explained in the Wall Street organ, the Times, that the gallery was being "repaired,'' and that the steel screen had been placed above the building because of the fear of falling bricks. Must not Mr. Noble feel very silly today at his attempted deception of the public? Now, after the lapse of months, the gallery is still closed to the public, and the steel wire covering has been adopted across the way, on the roof of Morgan 's building. 

Mr. Noble and his friends, hiding and working in guilty fear, are too drunk with the war stock gamble to heed the kindly meant warning. They have since even added to their list other war stocks, and added to the financial danger. 

It is essential then that the public take heed of its savings and see that they are not secretly invested in guilty stocks and the blood-stained war bonds of the Money Trust. 

THE AACHEN & MUNICH 

FIRE INSURANCE CO. 

We have received the following letter from the Aachen & Munich Fire Insurance Company: 

"In the issue of THE FATHERLAND, dated the 29th  an article appears in which the name of our company is quoted in a manner which might suggest to some readers that the Aachen & Munich Fire Insurance Company would buy the bonds of some of the countries involved in the European war. 

"In order that there may be no misunderstanding on this point we would greatly appreciate your mentioning the fact in your paper that the securities owned by this company in the United States consist exclusively of United States Government, State, Municipal and Railroad bonds, and any further investment which may be made in the interest of the Aachen & Munich Fire Insurance Company will be limited to bonds of the same character. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) J. A. KELSEY, Manager.'' 

THE PENN MUTUAL, LIFE 

INSURANCE COMPANY 

Similarly THE FATHERLAND receives the following communication from the Peiin Mutual Life Insurance Company : 

"I notice in the issue of your paper of September 29th that you publish, on page 128, an inference that the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company is connected with or will invest in the war loan securities about to be issued. I beg to state that this company carries no money in foreign securities. It is prohibited from owning them. Its life insurance business and its investment field (all its operations) are confined to a territory within the borders of the United States. I think this will assure you and your readers that the funds of our company are carefully guarded. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) GEO: K. JOHN President." 

It is a pleasure to THE FATHERLAND to publish these frank letters. Undoubtedly the public will also appreciate the fact that the investments of the Aachen & Munich and the Penn Mutual Life are not to be risked in foreign loans. In the same article the names of other fire and life insurance companies were mentioned, whose directors or officials had attended the conference at the Morgan Library in the interest of the Anglo-French war loan. And still even more significant was the fact that this private conference was attended by officers of great public savings banks, such as the Union Dime, the Greenwich Savings Bank and the Bowery Savings Bank. Such institutions are restricted by law as to their investments, but many of them keep surplus funds on deposit in other banking institutions, which use them as they wish. The German Savings Bank came out the other day and announced that it would withdraw such deposits from other institutions unless it received assurances that such funds would not be used in the hazards of the Anglo-French loan of Morgan's. 

This announcement was highly appreciated by the bank's depositors. Is it not of deep moment to the depositors in the Greenwich, the Bowery and the Union Dime to receive similar assurances that their money will not be employed contrary to law in hazardous loans? Failing to receive such assurances, it is to the interest of such depositors to place their savings in institutions like the German Savings Bank, which give promise of safety for their funds. Similarly, policy-holders of fire and life insurance companies should be heedful to deal only with companies such as the Aachen & Munich and the Penn Mutual Life that give similar assurance. 

BANKERS OF GERMAN BLOOD 

It has been a matter of extreme regret to persons who opposed the hazardous Morgan loan to the Allies, that in the announcement made by the Morgans, there should have been included as underwriters, certain banking houses, the members of which are of German origin, such as Heidelbach, Ickelheimer & Co., Hallgarten & Co., Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., and J. & W. Seligman. Such bankers should have recalled the statement issued by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, explaining why Kuhn, Loeb & Co. could not participate in the loan, namely, that assurances would not be given by the Morgans that the funds thus used would not be in part handed over to the Russians. Certainly, patriotic Americans would not share in such a loan in the interest of a race that perpetrated the pogroms of Kishinef and Gomel, and so outraged the feelings of this country that it ended its commercial treaty with the Romanov brutes. How far more bitterly, then, must men of German blood feel toward the Russian race responsible for the foul crimes committed by barbarous Cossack's in East Prussia. 

But it was thought that there was still another reason why bankers of German origin would not share in the loan. Such bankers must remember that, about six short months ago, the English government announced officially that any Englishman would be found guilty of treason if he traded with a foreign banking house that had a German partner. This was done to ruin German bankers. But the effect was opposite. England found herself ruined, and had to come to the German bankers, hat in hand, begging them to lend her money at six per cent., giving as security a first mortgage on the British Empire. Bankers of German origin, who shared in the Morgan loan, must have shorter memories than other men of German blood.

IX 

THE "AMERICAN" PILGRIMS 

On the night of September 30th, 1915, I saw, in a hotel on Fifth Avenue, a Memorial * that will yet thrill the world. I heard the story of the titled leaders of a race who had provoked a war, but found that their own people would not fight for them. So these men brought mercenary savages into a white man's country to wage a barbarous warfare. 

* Foreign Office, Berlin, July 30. 1915. Suppressed by newspapers in New York at request of Wall Street bankers, since it might awaken sympathy for the Germans, and thus frustrate the billion-dollar loan to the Allies.

But these titled men feared the condemnation of the world, so in order to forestall all censure, they selected from among them a man who bore a once honored name, and whose words might carry weight abroad. Upon him they urged an infamous task. He shuddered but obeyed. He made charges ⦽ against the enemies of his race, so as to alienate from them the sympathy of the world. But when proofs of his infamy were produced, he concocted other charges,⧭ that the Memorial might not be believed. 

⦽ Bryce Belgian atrocity charges.

⧭  Bryce Armenian atrocity charges.

The Memorial that I saw that night showed photographs of men staring into vacancy, with surgeons ' stitches over sightless orbs. They were wounded men, whose eyes had been cut out by black savages, with special daggers with which their masters had provided them for this purpose, fastened in the sheath of their sidearms. 

There are some thoughts that cannot be uttered in words. I confess, I staggered from the room in that hotel, with a groan in my heart at the thought that a race of white men could be so vile. 

I descended the stairway, and as I passed along the carpeted hall, there was a faint burst of cheering as one of the side doors opened. The sound affected me unpleasantly. I wondered that men could laugh 

At my questioning glance, an attendant who was passing, said: "It's a banquet, sir. One of the finest we've ever given. Would you like to see it?" 

He opened the door through which the cheering had penetrated, and mechanically I followed him. A cloud of hot, smoke laden air met my face as I entered upon a mezzanine balcony. Below me 'four hundred men were seated at tables in a great apartment. 

The last course had been served. Pale-faced waiters were removing from stained table cloths the wax lights, sparkling beneath their pink silk shades. Wine men, with service chains about their necks, were filling the glasses. 

At the guests' table an aged man arose, with a wine glass in his upraised hand. I recognized him as a corporation lawyer, whom I have met in Wall Street for many years. His lips opened, and he spoke. At his words I started back as though I had felt the crack of a whip in my face. 

For this Wall Street lawyer said :"I propose three cheers for the King of England." 

An outburst of cheering succeeded. Men grew mad. They pounded on the tables. Bottles and chairs were overthrown. 

The Wall Street lawyer motioned for silence. Again he began to speak : " I am an old bencher of the Middle Temple, London. You all know Lord Bryce, for no man ever lived in America who made himself more honored. Some of us would have preferred to have something more said in this war, something more done, a protest when the invasion of Belgium occurred. You have read his reports of the acts against those men, and you have read his recent appeal. Putting these two reports of his together, with the two nations whom he indicted, they are exactly alike. If you scratch one of them, you find the blood of the other underneath. There is no possibility of distinguishing them in character or conduct. Constantly, daily and nightly, I am sympathizing with the Allies.'' 

Another wild outburst of applause ensued. 

These words affected me strangely. I marveled that they had been uttered on American soil. For you see, on the floor above, I had just seen the dreadful indictment of the English race that they had filled a lire in Europe, from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier, with Gurkhas, Sikhs, Sepoys, Turcos,Goums, Moroccans and Senegalese, who, under the eyes of the highest commanders of England, had committed atrocities which set at defiance all the usages of civilization and humanity. 

Leaning over the balcony railing, I eyed the speaker intently. I noticed that he had grown very old. There was a touch of senility about the lips of this bencher of the Middle Temple. 

Silence again ensued. Again the corporation lawyer spoke. This time his subject was the $500,000,000 loan that had just been made to the Allies by Morgan, in forcing the use of the public's money in the banks and insurance companies of the country, which are all under his control. 

The lawyer said: "Fourteen months the war has been waged, and I now hope that every man, woman and child of the United States who has got a hundred dollars will invest it in this loan, and, what's more, I hope that this is only the first installment. It's a great thing for us to have the opportunity to keep, and I think that the people here are grateful for it. 

"Lord Reading is going back with $500,000,000 in his pocket, lie has dealt splendidly with the American people." 

An uproar of mad enthusiasm succeeded, with wild cheers for England's King. 

But the words just uttered made me ponder. For this bencher of London's Middle Temple had once been, I knew, a man of high intelligence. I felt assured that he knew at least as many facts as I about the loan. That Russia had lost sixteen of her governments to the Germans, the most productive and profitable sections of her Empire, thus destroying the chief re- sources of her revenue. That she had defaulted on her vast obligations to France and England, threatening impending bankruptcy to both countries. That, since the end of August, the Bank of England's gold had shrunk $35,900,000, while there was a rapidly increasing expansion of paper war currency issued through her joint stock banks.* 

* New York Evening Post, October 7.

Was it possible that a man of repute should urge the men, women and children of this country to imperil their hard-earned savings in a loan to bankrupt foreign nations ? Morgan and his private banking friends, of course, did not wish to hold the bag for the $500,000,000 credit they had advanced to foreigners, and they were working to unload upon the public the bonds whose flotation so far had been a failure. But could even a corporation lawyer of Wall Street thus urge ruin upon the people of the country in which he had made his fortune? 

Involuntarily there occurred to my mind the words of President Wilson, when he issued his neutrality proclamation on August 6, 1914: "And I do further declare and proclaim that the statutes and treaties of the United States and the law of nations alike require 'that no person within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States, shall take part, directly or indirectly, in the said war, but shall remain at peace with all the said belligerents'' 

And I asked myself, "Who are these men, so strong that they may with impunity defy the power of the President of our country, and the wishes of its people? I turned to the attendant on the mezzanine balcony and asked him : "Who are these men?" 

Owing to the din below, his lips came close to my ear. He whispered : "It 's a society they call the American Pilgrims.'' 

Who are these Pilgrims ? I have since made a study of them. Their organization is one of immense power, and just now they seem to hold our country in the hollow of their hands. 

In the "Rules" of the handbook of the Society, which I obtained, I found the following given as the purposes of the organization: "The object of the Society shall be the promotion of the sentiment, of brotherhood among the nations." 

I shall now enumerate the members of this great Society. But before I do so, I wish to utter an appeal to my fellow- countrymen in the South, in the Middle West and in the West, where American principles and the belief in democracy still live. I wish to tell them that here in the East a powerful and unscrupulous aristocratic plutocracy has seized upon the strength and resources of our nation. Great English bankers nave been plotting here for years to seize the reins of government. So far, these men have succeeded. They control the banks of the country, all the institutions in which the people have placed their savings; they at last control the press, and can sway public sentiment by means of their corrupt news services, from one end of the country to the other. They are determined to throw the financial resources of the United States into England's lap and to force this country into war on the side of that land they love better than the country of their professed adoption.

Whoso doubts my words, let him look upon this list. It is taken from the official handbook of the Society. 

THE SOCIETY OF PILGRIMS 

SIR CECIL SPRING-RICE Britain's Ambassador. 

J. PIERPONT MORGAN Britain's war agent. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE British born ; making his income from the Steel Trust's war contracts. 

COL. ROBERT M. THOMPSON President of the Navy League; indicted and fined for violating the Federal laws. 

LORD MURRAY, MASTER OP ELIBANK English Whip, who lost his party's funds by speculating in stocks. 

HENRY P. DAVISON Partner of Morgan, Britain's war agent. 

THOMAS W. LAMONT Partner of Morgan, Britain's war agent. 

JOHN REVELSTOKE RATHOM British born; editor of the Providence Journal, mouthpiece of the British Ambassador. 

ADOLPH S. OCHS Owner of New York Times; conducting English propaganda. 

OGDEN MILLS REID President Tribune Association; conducting English propaganda. 

GEORGE GRAY WARD Born in Hertfordshire, England. 

BRADLEY MARTIN Educated at Oxford, England. 

JAMES M. BECK 

JOHN W. GRIGGS 

JOSEPH H. CHOATE             Wall Street Corporation Lawyers 

ALTON B. PARKER 

FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON 

FREDERIC R. COUDERT 

GEORGE T. WILSON Vice-President Equitable Life Assurance Society. 

PLINY FISK 

FRANCIS L. HINE 

ALBERT H WIGGIN Underwriters of the $500,000,000 loan. 

FRANK A. VANDERLIP 

ALVIN W. KRECH 

A. BARTON HEPBURN 

Let us now analyze the acts of these sham Americans, and see how they have made sport during the last year of the American people.

Sir Cecil Spring-Rice certainly is a typical American Pilgrim. He has been plotting for the last fourteen months with his English secret service men to discredit his fellow Ambassadors from belligerent countries. And in this he has used Lansing as his little woolly lamb. 

We see that J. Pierpont Morgan, the English banker, founder and controller of the New York Peace Society, the American Peace and Arbitration League, the Navy League and the National Security League, now also, with his partners, has full swing in the Society of the Pilgrims of the United States. Just as his two peace societies are shams, since they do not work for peace, and as his defense societies are shams, since they are working only to put $500,000,000 in his capacious pockets, so the Society of Pilgrims, ostensibly founded to "promote brotherhood among the nations," is, as is plainly evident from the aged Choate's address, operating to promote hatred, if not war, between this country and the Central Powers of Europe. 

And what are we to think of the patriotism of Colonel Robert M. Thompson, President of the Navy League ? He demands that the Federal Government expend $500,000,000 on armament, so that the munitions plants of himself and his friends in Wall Street may prosper. Yet this man violated the laws of the Federal Government when he cornered cotton, in the endeavor to make this necessary commodity more expensive to every man, woman and child in this country. Will the Federal Government listen to this lawbreaker now? Do the members of the Navy League believe that he is a patriotic leader for them to follow? 

Then we come to English propagandists. It is an interesting subject. Here we find three American Pilgrims, one of whom is John Revelstoke Rathom, born in Britain, but who, like so many of his countrymen today, finds it safer to fight Germans on this side of the water than to go to the front. This man Rathom is the mouthpiece of the British Ambassador. What spies learned in their campaign of persecution against the British Ambassador's colleagues in Washington was featured as "news" by this editor of the Providence Journal. In turn, Rathom delivered his "news" to his two fellow Pilgrims, Adolph S. Ochs, of the New York Times', and Ogden Mills Reid, of the New York Tribune. And how these three "American" Pilgrims have had the laugh on the American public for the last fourteen months.While they were prosecuting their English propaganda under the direction of Rathom, the English editor, their columns were filled with animadversions against the dreadful "German propaganda'' They well might say, as I have heard they said: "Englishmen are so clever, you know, while the Americans are so very dull." 

We see among these Pilgrims, who cheered so frantically for the King of England and the $500,000,000 war loan, an alarming number of Wall Street corporation lawyers. Most of them have taken an active part in the English propaganda. Many of them are directly interested in the war munitions companies, and corporations associated with them. But what is still more alarming is that a great number cf them are trustees of the great life insurance companies of the country. There is Mr. Choate, who, as we have seen, says that the $500,000,000 loan is only the "first installment,'' and who gloats over the fact that Lord Reading is going back with $500,000,000 in his pocket. Yet this aged lawyer, who was educated at Oxford, is trustee of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. There is' James M. Beck, who has made himself the apologist, if not the press agent, for England, trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. There is Alton B. Parker, also trustee of the Equitable. And among those Pilgrims on that shameful night was even the vice-president of the Equitable Life, Mr. George T. Wilson. 

It is certainly a matter of great moment to Americans that men who avowedly would sacrifice the best interests of their country for a foreign land, should have control of those great corporations in which are invested the savings of the American people. There is no assurance or guaranty that the funds of those institutions are not being surreptitiously used in the hazardous loan to warring countries, whose credit has waned and who may repudiate their obligations. 

We find also among these Pilgrims a long list of bankers, the heads of financial institutions that are the underwriters of the loan. Since they applauded Choate, we must be led to believe that they also regard this loan as a "first installment" and that they will try to force further use of the money of their depositors in advancing another billion to the Allies. 

A serious feature of the situation is the truculent attitude these bankers have suddenly assumed, under the tutelage of Morgan, to those who are opposed to the loan. They bitterly term such persons who disagree with their views, "hyphens," " German-Americans, " "Teutons." In their blind worship of England, they do not hesitate to strike at their own countrymen. I shall instance some of the recent actions of these bankers in New York City. One bank president, when questioned by his depositors whether he was using their funds for the purposes of the loan, angrily instructed them to remove their accounts from his bank. Another incident I shall quote bodily from the Times of October 7th: 

"One instance was reported in which the committee of 100 called on a large savings bank to serve notice that if that bank deposited any part of its funds in institutions helping in the flotation of the loan, all German-American depositors would be asked to close out their accounts. The President of the savings bank said that it was true that he had funds in some of the State and national banks known to be in sympathy with the loan. ' Also, ' he is reported to have told the committee, 'we hold mortgages on about 5,000 homes of German-Americans, and if you want to make a test of the matter, we shall begin insisting on the payment of all of these mortgages as they come due.' " 

Here we see an English banker deliberately coercing his depositors into the commission of an non neutral act, and threatening them, if they disobey him, with foreclosing the mortgages on their homes. This is undeniably the most scandalous story ever recorded in the banking history of New York State. This man says to his depositors: "I shall use your money as I see fit. If you dare to object I shall drive you from your homes." And this he said in spite of the warning of the Pujo Committee, that bankers and financiers must not use the money of public institutions in their operations as though it were their own. 

Further comment is needless. Does not this prove clearly how we have become subjects of a pro-British group of plutocrats, who sneer at the wishes of the public, and force it to do their will ? 

The end is not yet to the shameful history of the Allies ' loan. To date the immense flotation has been a failure, in spite of heavy advertising, the puffing of Wall Street newspapers and the great campaign of publicity inaugurated by Morgan, who is desperately anxious to unload upon the people the bonds which he and his private bankers underwrote. False stories of "victories'' for the Allies were brazenly published in order to hurry the completion of the loan. But consternation struck the banking group when the news came that Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers. The collapse of Russia has evidently swung the Balkan states into line with Germany. Is it the beginning of the end? 

This episode, however, was fatal for Morgan. He betrayed the frightened state of his feelings on October 8th, when he hastily summoned eight hundred bond salesmen from Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. He gathered these men in the Waldorf-Astoria, and in a personal appeal, he besought them to make a determined campaign in hawking the bonds among their acquaintances, to unload them as quickly as possible. And Morgan even told them what arguments to use, in convincing the American people that England and France would not dare to repudiate the obligations, since, to use his own words: "They may need to come to us again." 

I think that enough has been shown here to demonstrate the great peril to our country of this sinister organization, the Pilgrims of the United States. And again I address myself to my fellow-countrymen in the South, the Middle West and the West to caution them and to warn them of the dreadful consequences that will undoubtedly ensue if this English banking group of Wall Street, under the guidance of its unscrupulous corporation lawyers, is permitted to continue in power. Their coordinated operations are of so menacing a character, their combined power is so vast, their control of public funds so immeasurable, that if we do not combine against this association of foreigners, a catastrophe will certainly come upon our country that has no parallel in history.

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THE MEN WHO TOASTED THE CZAR.