Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 261, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1917 — COLONEL HOUSE, WILSON’S [FRIEND NOT A MYSTERY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COLONEL HOUSE, WILSON’S [FRIEND NOT A MYSTERY

Unofficial Counsellor of the President Is a Modest But Well Posted Man. STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 1 Now Gathering Data on Economic and Other? Problems Which Must Be Solved at the Peace Table—Has Qualifications That Go to Make a Sound Diplomat. ~~ AUTHOR’S NOTE—Men have made a mystery of the life and the doings of Col. Edward M. House, the friend and adviser of Woodrow Wilson. If there has been mystery, it is none of the Colonel s making. I venture the hope that whatever may have seemed to be hidden Is disclosed in this article, the material for which was obtained. In the only way in which such material can be obtained, by direct personal contact, inquiry and study.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.

(Copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union. 1 Washington—Who is Col. Edward Mandell House who is to gather war data for the United States government for service on a future day of peace? This Is a question that Is being asked by a very large proportion of the people of the United States and In fact of all the allied nations.. Colonel House does not wear the record of his deeds on his sleeve. It is probable that if this unofficial counsellor to the president of the United States were to be elected to congress the autobiography which he would prepare for the congressional directory would read like this: Edward Mandell House. Democrat of Austin. Texas; born 1858: elected to the congress. November. In this brief, ultra-modest, if you will, way would this Texan be prompted to write an autobiography, justified doubtless from the viewpoint of other men in being extended into many chapters.

Who is Col. Edward Xfnndell House, who, until the day when the final order “Cease Firing” comes, is to study In behalf of the government of the United States the economic; the geographic, the democratic and the humanitarian problems which the American counsel’ors at the peace table must seek to solve after a manner which the people , of a great democracy can approve? Consulted by President. In the Washington dispatches something like this is read several times a year: “Colonel House has been in the city for twenty-four hours as the guest of the president. He will leave for New York tomorrow morning.” Beyond this the reader gets nothing from the dispatches except the word that the president and his visitor discussed Xlexican matters, or European matters,For it may be, but in this latter case rarely, political matters. The public has known little more about Colonel House than that he Is a man frequently consulted by Woodrow Wilson and a man in whose judgment on political, economic and legis~Jatl ve .matters..the. .president pu t scorn fidence. There is a sort of a glamour about men and things which are mysterious. It would seem that because of the attraction which mystery has for the people, as shown if you will in their gluttonous reading of detective stories and the like, that writers Of The news of~ the day in part have chosen to treat the goings and com- - 4ngs-of the eolonel and his-eonferences with men of affairs as if they were a deliberate attempt to hedge them (n and hide them from public knowledge. It is just as possible to got at the truth in The case of Colonel House as It is in the ease of any other man whose doings are of public interest. It Is modesty not mystery which has been the basic difficulty. - AB • Colonel House will not tell you that he Is a modest man. as I know from personal contact with him. To claim modesty for one’s self is to be immodest. He does go from his present abode tn New York city to Washington occasionally or frequently as the requests may come, to give what he can of “the counsel of his views” to the president of the United States. Why should he any more thrin any other man send a —trumpeting herald ahead oi—u-baad-ot-eymbal dashers? He goes to tfile White House, stays his while and leaves, and because no great noises fill the streets at approach or departure, exclusiveness, seclusiveness and secrecy have been the order of the day’s \vords concerning each visit. Gives No Word of Work. It perhaps is nbt too much to say that if the full record- of the results

of the conferences which House of Texas has had with Wilson of the United States is to be read it must be sought in some of the accomplished deeds of the present administration. That Woodrow Wilson has been moved to certain courses or strengthened in his purpose to pursue them, by the counsel ofEdwardM. Honse is notto be doubted. The impossible task would be to get from the latter a definite word concerning the public work in which his counsel has played a part. Those who have built up a wall of mystery about the man who is studying matters against the day of peace apparently have not wished to pull down th el r b andl work. Th e wall can be demolished by anyone who tries to — 4 „ 4.3 - I*l rr|<? T'VUii’Jtii.lOii u* ill" iit-tityii. Edward M. House lives is open a life as that of any American whose profession or business does not call

him daily into the places where men throng. If one wants to know about him through motives other than those of the idleness of curiosity he can see him and talk with him, and the chances are that he will be told everything concerning the subject of his inquiring curiosity that any man of modest mien and inclination naturally would be willing to tell. Colonel House is a genial wiun who st'eminglj’ never has sought To“define for personal use the meaning .of either of the words, coldness or austerity. He has a sense of humor well “developed, and a temperamental warmth. Secret of His Power. In Houston, Texas, in the year 1858, Edward M. House-was born. He was educated at the Hopkins grammar school, New Haven, Conn., and at Cornell university. He has been active all his adult life in Democratic politics, but never has been a candidate for office. Add to these admittedly meager details one fact and unquestionably you will have the secret of this man’s power to attract other men to him for the purpose of consultation on really high public matters. From the day that he was old enough to undertake serious study, Edward M. House has been deep in the books of politics, economics and legislation. He has marshaled in his mind all the greater events which havehappened in these three wbrds. Moreover, he has the men, the things and the motives connected with each case constantly in procession before him. i He is quick to trace a cause to an effect, or to go the reverse route. He has been a student of human nature as It has shown itself in many of the great problems of human life. This means that he has in him, oiraf~any~ rate men believe that he has In him. the qualifications which go to make I up a sound diplomat. Through successive administrations | in Texas the governors of the state, | one after another, consulted Colonel <

House on public matters. How deep an impression he has made on Texas legislative history never may be known definitely, but there is enough salient to "make Texans know that they are u-ight in attributing to him many of their public welfare acts. Though pot accounted wealthy in these days of huge fortunes. Colonel House 'is quite well fixed financially and is not engaged in business of any kind. Has Studied Hard. I have talked to Colonel House and have learned things which make me feel that I shall not go wrong when I trv to put an interpretation upon some of his methods of things.-Jl£_ls_ free enough to say that he has studied hard at economic, political and legislative subjects. He probably even would be willing to admit that he thinks the results of these studies continued and their results retained, have enabled him to be of some service when men were seeking information concernffig Events in the past which have relation to events in the present or events expected in the future.

Therefore, there is here a man who has held what he has studied, who has collated and correlated the happenings of history, who has drawn lessons from them, who takes an Interest as deep In the lining present as he does in the dead past, and who men believe is able to make his knowledge serviceable, foFold as it is let us sayit, i. history repeats itself. Woodrow Wilson did not meet his f/lend Colonel House until the days when he was holding office is goybrnor of Nqw Jersey. It Is said by friends of Mr. Wilson that almost Instantly he came to understand why the Texan had been of service along constructive linos to some of the govemors of the state in which he has lived most of his life. For six or seven ■ years Mr. House has been the confidant and the counsellor of the president of the United States, and seem-

ingly time enough has gone by and things enough haVe been proved or disproved to give certainty to the word that Woodrow Wilson has found Edward M. House an advisory assetThere hardly can be much of real mystery about a man who twice since this great war began has been sent abroad as a special commissioner for the president of the United States. Cob opel House has been twice in Berlin, five times in Paris, and frequently in of the great European capitals. Some day it may be that Woodrow Wilson will write what may be called an autobiographical review of his administration. If he does it is entirely likely that the part taken by Colonel House in the shaping of some of the policies of the president may be given the page place which many men believe that it deserves. No Mystery There.— While living In New York Colonel House resides in an apartment not very far place where good books are found and where good friends may come. It is a genial place and no curtain of mystery hangs over the door of any one of ito rooms. Men go there and are welcome. They go and they talk. Man learns as much from man as he learns from books and more perhaps If we believe the ancient saying about the proper study of mankind. I asked Colonel House what his recreations are. He said, “Friends, reading and walking.” His library shelve* show the kind of books that he has read, still is reading and will continue to-read, for those in the book cases are made the companions day by day of the others as they come from th« hands of writers worth while. No man probably can read politics, legislation, economics and history constantly without getting some of Dr. Dry-as-Dust’s characteristics. So it is that Colonel House does not read the four formidables constantly. He turns to fiction and here one finds something of possibly more than passing human interest. George Frisble Hoar of Massachusetts was one of the scholars in politics. It was said of him that he had read everything from Aristophanes 1 “Frogs”

to Locke’s “Human Understanding” and from this latter book of “dismalaties” to the lighter minded reader, down to everything heavy and semiheavy which was published to the week qf his death. Senator Hoar kept his mental condition balanced by turning not merely from the heavy to the light on occasion, but,to the actual featherweights of fiction. He read “Nick Carter.” Woodrow Wilson, it is said, turns away from the studies of states, past and present and in prospective to the reading of what the English call penny dreadfuls, and what the Americans 10 the old days cal led, vol low bicks. lt is said that the speaker of the house of representatives, Champ Clark, stops frequently his mental digging into all kinds of history to take up for relief purposes books of the kind which make a boy happy. Reads Good Fiction. In the library of Colonel House there is plenty ( of good fiction. He does not turn to Nick Carter, nor to “The Hidden Hand” of Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, nor yet to “Owl Face, The Pawnee” of Beadle dime novel fame, but he manages to keep the mental balance evenly an evening lamp 'hour or two wltn the writers of fiction who can lay claim to what the book reviewers call literary merit. Today Colonel House is entering upon the work of preparing material, which one day, perhaiis Tar in the future, will be serviceable to the American commissioners at the great peace conference. Another has writtchthis concerning the choice by the 7»f Colonel House for this work: “He is peculiarly qualified for It by his diplomatic experience of recent years, by his study of political problems which the aa r has raised and by his integrity of mind and character.” “Sherlock, will you take on th* House Mystery Case?” “Mystery? my dear Watson, thefr l isn’t any.” ■

Col. Edward M. House.