House had written Philip Dru in an utopian style reminiscent of other, more well known utopian works like Plato’s Republic or Jonathan Swift’s Gullivers Travels; however, in no way should Philip Dru be considered on the same literary level – House even admitting that it was hastily arranged and rushed to publication. But, when considering who the author was, when it was published, and the serendipitous political reform that immediately followed both Wilson’s ascendancy to the Oval Office and the publication of the book,, Philip Dru proves far more deserving of our contemplation as a political confessional and probably the primary reason why it has remained in relative obscurity for over one hundred years. Like in my previous article, Brave New World Order, where it is proven that Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World served as an obvious ‘blueprint’ for a significant societal shift towards a new order, we see parallels between Colonel Edward Mandell House’s fictional tale and the policies he personally initiated into reality shortly after it’s publication.

As opposed to Huxley’s tale that was set in the far distant future, Philip Dru is set in the very near future and is an amazing expression of the duality of House’s character portrayed through the two main characters of the story. On one path we have the progressive protagonist, Philip Dru, a man of principle and discipline who, after having a life altering experience with a poor family living in the run down tenements of New York City begins a personal mission to rectify social inequality. Just as Colonel House “came to share the concern of many Americans over the corruption of the political process, the excesses of giant corporation, and the strains appearing in the nations social fabric”,(16) Dru vows to introduce arrogant wealthy privilege to the plight of the poor. Dru strives to shine a light on the destructive nature of materialistic vanity and to invigorate within the more fortunate set a spark of social consciousness not temporarily placated by their occasional charity but instead fueled by a true desire to seek out and eliminate inequality. Similarities between the author and his main character go beyond ideology and are evidenced throughout the book’s nearly two hundred pages. Two more obvious examples being that Dru, like House, was denied a military career due to a physical ailment, and both happened to be the youngest of seven boys.

The well meaning character of Dru is juxtaposed against the path of the story’s anti hero – an egocentric, well-to-do Senator named Selywn who manipulates the minds of powerful men to serve his own self-interests as if it were a game. Through Senator Selwyn, House unveils the darker side of his personality and shows a keen willingness to participate in the more disreputable aspects of politics as if the book was a confessional exercise in the cleansing of House’s tortured Texas soul. Through Selwyn, House shows the perspective that could only come from someone on the inside as he reveals a deep understanding of the true political environment, enacting scenarios that even the most casual political observer has long since suspected but could never confirm. And this overtly corrupt political atmosphere further underlined today as a managerie of lobbyists, sycophants, and demogogue’s permeate the memberships of the most powerful special interest groups, NGO’s and ‘think tanks’. House leaves hints as to the true identity of the author through the senator as like House, Selwyn only ‘tastes’ wine and never drinks to excess; and like House, Selwyn’s youngest daughter’s name was Janet. House even leaving a more obvious clue in that where Selwyn met his potential presidential candidate, Senator Rockland, was a place penned Mandell House. In the first excerpt, taken from page 41, we see House admitting to how the two party system is compromised similar to what we see in the 1912 presidential campaign in which all three candidates were from the same university fraternal order, Phi Beta Kappa, and two were confirmed Freemasons(!)

“Masterful and arrogant wealth, created largely by Government protection of its profits, not content with its domination and influence within a single party, had sought to corrupt them both, and to that end had insinuated itself into the primaries, in order that no candidates might be nominated whose views were not in accord with theirs.” Philip Dru: Administrator, page 41.

Dru, once in a position of influence, understood quickly that helping the less fortunate within his own immediate influence did little to alleviate the overall issue – often times even acting as a deterrent – and real lasting change could only be secured through aristocratic political circles. But, just as quickly, Dru recognizes the halls of public office as a tawdry system of self preservation in control of both parties and in doing so, House brings the reader face to face with the invalidity of the corrupt two party system. Here, House unveils for all the world to see, an abhorrent atmosphere of narcissists who care little for issues beyond the white granite walls of Congress. House reveals, in a very matter-of-fact way, the sordid truths that machinate beyond public purview – cloaked behind the closed doors of the people’s most hallowed institutions. And more contemporaneously, we have evidence that this corruption still exists a hundred years later when we consider the police enforced refusal of Green Party leader Ralph Nader to speak at the primaries in 2000(17). And this two party infiltration by a backdoor brotherhood most famously highlighted when in 2004 both party candidates, George W. Bush, a Republican, and John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, happened to be members of Skull and Bones, the same secret Yale Fraternity as Taft. George H. W. Bush and his father Prescott, were also a members.(18)(19)(20)(21)

In the following example from Chapter 34, Selwyn’s Story, Senator Selwyn – like a gangster suddenly turned informant – proudly confesses to his sins of success. Those at the helm of the political machinery are interestingly referred to as ‘bosses’ and is simply fascinating in that, while officially written as fiction, sounds more like an honest account of what life must have been like for young Edward growing up within the cutthroat environment of Texas state politics. It also imparts for the reader incredible insight into the absolute power that House truly sought and why he himself would avoid the bright lights of fame and recognition his entire career – instead preferring the far less public, shadowy existence of an unelected advisor:

“He was my father’s best friend, and there were no secrets between them. They seldom paid attention to me, and I was rarely dismissed even when they had their most confidential talks. In this way, I early learned how our great American cities are looted, not so much by those actually in power, for they are of less consequence than the more powerful men behind them.”pg 109.

In the second example taken from the same chapter, we see Selwyn admit to how the ‘bosses’ are able to milk the system to their advantage by tactfully exploiting the largely naive, trusting, and “selfish attitude” of the citizenry without soliciting any unnecessary public blowback:

“Any measure they desired passed by the legislature was first submitted to him, and he would prune it until he felt he could put it through without doing too great violence to public sentiment. The citizens at large do not scrutinize measures closely; they are too busy in their own vineyards to bother greatly about things which only remotely or indirectly concern them.

This selfish attitude and indifference of our people has made the boss and his methods possible. The “big interests” reciprocate in many and devious ways, ways subtle enough to seem not dishonest even if exposed to public view.” page 110.

As we near the end of the novel, Selwyn divulges to Dru exactly how he built his empire of wealth and influence from a system of loyalty, patronage and the manipulation of others that sounds eerily reminiscent of House’s days back in Texas mingling within the prestige of ‘Our Crowd’ and confirms the dangers of what we more familiarly refer today as quid pro quo, pay-to-play, or insider trading relationships. All of these confidence schemes are openly admitted as self-evident by those in power today and rarely do we witness those guilty of such crimes face anything resembling real consequence or punishment as the corruption continues on unabated today through lobbyists and superpacs. And the repeated failure of our justice system to act also serves as further evidence of a much higher level of corrupted vested interest that ferments beyond the veil of party politics holding no regard for the needs of the public that most of us either fail to see or choose to ignore.

Without doubt, these same schemes and allegiances saturate today’s political landscape and indicate why we see an egregious increase in the personal wealth of politicians in the years in which they hold public office – smashing any previously held belief that their role is considered a sacrosant position of servitude not intended to be used for the acquisition of great personal wealth. And, as the author earlier alluded to and will later illuminate, there exists beyond this veil of political partisanship an even deeper loyal brotherhood of thieves forged from a dark underworld network of loyal fraternal friendships first formed on the academic campuses that presently thrives within the most prestigious universities in America that this author, in later articles will contend, is the true insidious nature of the university system. A secret, second-tier, plutocratic web of peerage and nepotism.

As evidenced even further in the following Selwyn confessional:

“I also demanded and received information in advance of any extension of railroads, standard or interurban, of contemplated improvements of whatsoever character, and I doled out this information to those of my followers in whose jurisdiction lay such territory. My own fortune I augmented by advance information regarding the appreciation of stocks. If an amalgamation of two important institutions was to occur, or if they were to be put upon a dividend basis, or if the dividend rate was to be increased, I was told, not only in advance of the public, but in advance of the stockholders themselves. All such information I held in confidence even from my own followers, for it was given me with such understanding.”

In the next excerpt, House, er, Senator Selwyn discloses how he and his coterie of wealthy millionaires managed to prolong their status quo by assigning men sympathetic to their financial interests to the highest positions of influence within county, state, and federal government. Whether it be the country’s natural resources, public utilities, or finance, Selwyn and his cohorts would control profits through a cohesive trust that proved very lucrative to those same loyal government officials who served to protect them. This patronage scheme reminiscent of how the early industrialists – concomitant with Wilson’s presidency – were able to take control of the mass communication industry by first purchasing the most influential newspapers in America, and then, by placing one of their own as editor-in-chief, were able to distract the public from their corrupt practices while also controlling public opinion. This being the genesis of the profoundly radical, progressive, liberal media that exists today, consisting of six giant corporate conglomerates responsible for all the nations news, television entertainment, and Hollywood movies.

“By the use of all the money that could be spent, by a complete and compact organization and by the most infamous sort of deception regarding his real opinions and intentions, plutocracy had succeeded in electing its creature to the Presidency. There had been formed a league, the membership of which was composed of one thousand multi-million-aires, each one contributing ten thousand dollars. This gave a fund of ten million dollars with which to mislead those that could be misled, and to debauch the weak and uncertain.”

In the chapter entitled, The Making of a President, the similarities between House and Senator Selwyn become so interwoven that it becomes hard to discern whether you are reading a fictional utopian novel or the intimate letters of Colonel House.

“It was a fascinating game to Selwyn. It appealed to his intellectual side far more than it did to his avarice. He wanted to govern the Nation with an absolute hand, and yet not be known as the directing power. He arranged to have his name appear less frequently in the press and he never submitted to interviews, laughingly ridding himself of reporters by asserting that he knew nothing of importance.”pg. 52.

Following a violent Civil War initiated by Dru that successfully overthrows the Selwyn controlled monolithic government, Dru formulates a new “Code of Laws” and a new Constitution, of which he would be the sole Administrator in order to curb any further exploitation of the American people by a corrupt corporatocracy. Dru appoints himself – to the roaring applause of the masses – as Dictator who is given the responsibility of guiding America through a temporary time of turmoil that will ultimately lead to a unified utopia. Here, Dru invokes the same kind of atavism that would allow Lenin to create his Communist Soviet regime just a mere five years after Philip Dru’s publication. An event in which House and his close confidente’s had intimate involvement. Ultimately, Dru, fueled by his belief in ‘equality of opportunity’, and through an appeal to the plight of the poor, imposes a socialist system of government to be laid over top of the original Constitutional concept of the American Republic to be ruled by an absolute dictator – or, as is repeated several times both throughout the novel and during Wilson’s presidency, a new order.

“The president [Woodrow Wilson] did not in those brief months achieve the “new world,” the “new order,” he so nobly phrased, so ardently desired, and so continuously fought for, but he chose the battleground and set forth the issues which will engage the thought of the world for many years to come.” New York Times, January 21, 1922.

As evidenced by the above passage, Wilson himself would use the terms “new order” and “new world” repeatedly throughout his two terms – especially when hammering out the future of international order while at the Paris Peace conference in 1919. This phrase implies a replacement of the old, rapacious capitalist system of Western society with a more homogenous socially conscious global community. And, as one reads the book, one is struck by the many allusions to Communism. From the basic socialist tenet of wealth inequality to the concept of class struggle; from the character named Marx, to the real life authors that are cited in the novel ( Sir Oliver Lodge), we see a penchant for socialism. Lodge was an active member of the socialist organization, the Fabian Society and frequent lecturer at the London School of Economics, co-authoring two publications with none other than it’s two co-founders, Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw. Lodge was also one of Colonel House’s favourite writers.

Amazingly, what Dru institutes is in many ways mirrored in both the progressive platform policies of Roosevelt during the 1912 election campaign and the actual policies put in place by Wilson in the immediate years following it. It should also be noted that the changes initiated by Wilson were the largest progressive reform measures up until that point in American history and Philip Dru seemed to be nothing less than an internal memorandum issued to the president by his advisers that laid out the future of American domestic and foreign policy. Little wonder then, that some one hundred years later, the measures imposed by Wilson have done little to curb the corporate corruption perpetrated by the very same men who not only funded Wilson’s campaign but the campaign of both Taft and Roosevelt. Wilson, like Roosevelt and Taft before him, participated in a sort of Kubuki theatre ritual of special investigative committees (Pujo) that resulted in an even more oppressive centralized governance of the people while conveniently doing very little to restrict the corrupt activities of those actually responsible. The striking similarities between Dru’s dictatorial proposals and those actually imposed by Wilson in real life were so similar in fact to prompt fellow ‘Inquiry’ member Walter Lippmann to write in The New York Times:

“…if the author is really a man of affairs, this is an extraordinarily interesting book”.(22)

The list of similarities is extensive and those I offer below, while the most considerable and most worthy of the reader’s contemplation, is not exhaustive. Where Dru proposes Federal oversight of business practices, Wilson creates the Federal Trade Commission; where Dru recommends a crackdown on monopolies, Wilson passes the Clayton Antitrust Act; where Dru advances the idea of government sponsored financial reform, Wilson creates the Federal Reserve; where Dru tables government ownership of telegraph and telephone companies, Wilson hires one of House’s “Our Crowd”, Albert Sidney Burleson to Post Master General to acquire, “at a fair valuation”, the early telecommunications industry (23); where Dru proposes a graduated income tax scheme, Wilson passes it into law; where Dru suggests an eight hour work week and a farm relief program, Wilson makes both a reality. From worker’s compensation to old age pension to social insurance, wherever Dru makes a suggestion, Wilson implements it into reality as if under hypnotic control. And while the reader may or may not agree to some or all of these policies on the surface, the author’s main point herein is not to dispute their validity or efficacy, it is only to have the reader regard the repugnancy of a secret underworld of unelected officials and ministers without portfolio who operate within an allegedly free and open, transparent democratic society.

“Certain of the public service corporations, Dru insisted, should be taken over bodily by the National Government and accordingly the Postmaster General was instructed to negotiate with the telegraph and telephone companies for their properties at a fair valuation. They were to be under the absolute control of the Postoffice Department…” Philip Dru, pg 107.

In Chapter 48, An International Coalition, Dru turns his attention from domestic issues to U.S. foreign policy. Acting in his official role as dictator, Dru proposes an international plan based on an anglophile solidarity to end all wars that sounds identical to what Cecil Rhodes had set out in his Last Will and Testament decades earlier and echoed by the very Anglo-centric Pilgrims Society that was largely accomplished through the concerted efforts of both the Milner Group and the Inquiry – two key organizations of which House had intimate knowledge and influence(!) It was, in fact – as proven with primary citations in my previous article, How Secret Societies Rule The World – during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, that House directed the Inquiry to work with British delegates headed by key Milner Round Table insider, Lionel Curtis, to create both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute of International Affairs.

These two think tanks, the former to be located in New York and funded by J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford; the latter, to be centered in London and funded by the Lazar’s, Warburg’s and Rothschild’s would form the key institution and information nucleus of what Georgetown history professor Carroll Quigley would later coin, an Anglo-American Establishment. In fact, as I will discuss at length in following articles, many of the members of the Inquiry were also tapped Phi Beta Kappa and, along with the Milner Round Table members, were all members of the very influential Pilgrims Society. Interesting to say the least when it is discovered that from this nucleus of not-for-profit organizations emerged our present day system of both public diplomacy and foreign policy as well as the intelligence communities of both the United States and Britain.

History shows that The Inquiry and The Milner Group were the primaries responsible for reparations in Paris, carving up European, Near East, Far East, and Southeast Asian borders into a more occidentally palatable configuration. Members of The Inquiry were unelected members of Wilson’s entourage and almost exclusively graduates of Ivy League universities – mostly Harvard. While the Milner Group made up a considerable portion of Prime Minister Lloyd George’s War administration, his British delegation to Paris, and were mainly Oxford and Cambridge graduates. Both groups of men operated beyond public scrutiny and were free of both political constraints and public considerations. They consisted of world renowned economists, political scientists, and high ranking military intelligence assets who were all members of one or several commonly shared fraternal organizations. They were free to divide global territories into ‘spheres of influence’ as if it were a game of Risk – and the spoils of victory were to be shared mainly by Britain and the United States.

The names of these men are rarely if ever publicized and exist in the annals of history today only as rumour and any search for the minutes of their meetings is futile as they were conveniently never recorded. Their presence would be far less compelling and perhaps more easily explained as a group of ineffectual advisers except for the fact that from their behind-closed-door, top-secret meetings originated some of our world’s most historical events. From the declaration of the First World War to the armistace of 1918; from Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points Speech to the Covenant of the League of Nations; from the creation of the secretive Council on Foreign Relations, the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Institute of Pacific Relations to the founding of the United Nations, UNESCO and NATO, this clandestine group of mystery men were at the forefront of international policy while remaining obscured within the secret back pages of history and far from the spotlight of public notoriety.

With the addition of this new information it becomes easier to see why our elected officials traditionally say one thing and do another. And when one finally defers to the painful truth of a defunct two party system and a world ran by an unelected advisory group of secret society members we begin to question the real catalyst behind not only World War I, but the actions of our government throughout history. We start to see why Wilson’s Fourteen Point Speech is largely built upon economic concessions of trade rather than the ideological, conventionally fed beliefs of ‘liberation of an oppressed people’, ‘self governance’, or ‘democracy for all’. We begin to see why, after being promised further freedom, it is instead taken from us, and when demanding more consciousness we are deprived of it. And why, after more than one hundred years after Wilson first ran on a platform of individualism and pacifism, we see an increase in global conflict, an increase in monopolization and an even further advancement towards an Anglo-American led One World Government.

“In the meantime, Dru negotiated with them to the end that England and America were to join hands in a world wide policy of peace and commercial freedom. According to Dru’s plan, disarmaments were to be made to an appreciable degree, custom barriers were to be torn down, zones of influence clearly defined, and an era of friendly commercial rivalry established.”

All of the measures Dru and House imposed did little to stop the money and credit trusts from relinquishing any of their power, in fact, with the introduction of centralized system it has progressively gotten worse in the years since and one could argue that instead of ridding the world of trusts they have created one giant global one. But, make no mistake, for what Philip Dru lacks in literary value it more than makes up for in it’s blatant transparency and is worth a read to anyone interested in the history of U.S. foreign policy as House stands as a clear protege to future political advisers like Henry Kissinger, or Zbigniew Brzezinski. And it is in fact – as Houston said when evaluating House’s manuscript in the winter of 1912 – because “the fiction is so thin” that makes the book so incredibly interesting. The same lack of elaborate story telling that detracts from it’s literary value and is the main complaint of critics also leaves it relatively free of distraction to the point that it barely qualifies as fiction – to be more accurately fitted onto the same book shelves as Brzezinski’s The Grand Chessboard, or Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations.

So, what is Philip Dru?

It is a bare bones look into the mind of Colonel Edward House and an undeniable blueprint for the administrative changes he himself would have a hand in creating as the least known but most influential member of the Wilson advisory group. What is Philip Dru? It is an admission of how the political loyalty game is really played through the use of patronage and vanity. What is Philip Dru? It is, when all literary critique and political evaluation is complete, a profoundly authoritarian proposal that is nearer a political manifesto than a fictional love story. What Philip Dru is, is an emblematic portrayal of the powers that exist in our present day struggle to survive Western Civilization’s Third Age of Conflict. The final question that remains to be answered is whether Philip Dru will be a blueprint of a turbulent future or an obscure, literary remnant of a naive past. Will we find a way to embrace new technology to pull ourselves from the wreckage and survive one more time, or do we succumb to the power of the hidden hand to be ruled forever by an iron fist?

Footnotes and Citations:

1. https://books.google.ca/books?id=P1QgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=major+edward+sammons&source=bl&ots=gMVVRL5h2l&sig=bCoy9T1fwFiH2FFJVwLNrjJlAKM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipuJfM4vLfAhVJxFQKHdEoA-gQ6AEwAnoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=major%20edward%20sammons&f=false pg 29.

2. “Our Crowd” was a young, energetic group of influential lawyers: Frank Andrews, Thomas Watt Gregory was an attorney who would serve Woodrow Wilson as U.S. Attorney General 1914-1919; James B. Wells Jr. lawyer South Texas; Albert Sidney Burleson, attorney, assigned Post Master General by Woodrow Wilson; Joe Lee Jameson, Freemason, Colonel Houses’ “right hand man”.

3. Colonel House: A Biography of Wilson’s Silent Partner https://books.google.ca/books?id=g1IgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=true pg. 68.

4. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/The_Intimate_Papers_of_Colonel_House-Vol1-1912to1915-518pgs-POL.sml.pdf pg 43.

5. Woodrow Wilson Phi Beta Kappa https://www.pbk.org/About-PBK/Presidents

6. Paris 1919, Margaret MacMillan, page 18.

7. Theodor Roosevelt freemason https://www.mn-masons.org/masonic-history/famous-masons/masonic-american-presidents

8. Theodore Roosevelt Phi Beta Kappa https://www.pbk.org/About-PBK/Presidents

9. William Howard Taft freemason https://www.mn-masons.org/masonic-history/famous-masons/masonic-american-presidents

10. William Howard Taft Phi Beta Kappa https://www.pbk.org/About-PBK/Presidents

11. William Howard Taft was the son of Alphonso Taft, co-founder of the Skull and Bones society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Skull_and_Bones_members

12. Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson’s Silent Partner Carle E Neu. page 66.

13. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson – Volume 25

14. Woodrow Wilson’s Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

15. Colonel House: A Biography of Wilsons Silent Partner https://books.google.ca/books?id=g1IgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=philip%20dru&f=false

16. Colonel House: A Biography of Wilsons Silent Partner. https://books.google.ca/books?id=g1IgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=true pg. 69.

17. Ralph Nader graduated magna cum laude and was initiated as Phi Beta Kappa after receiving his Bachelor of Arts Degree from, of all places, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Furthermore, when considering that Nader was supported by a large contingent of high profile entertainers including Micheal Moore and his refusal of entry at the primaries was made into a Netflix documentary movie, An Unreasonable Man; and with his lengthy career in opposing the establishment, one has to ask whether he was a legitimate candidate for change; or simply an asset meant to divide votes; or were his the actions of a lifetime actor, or controlled opposition. Ultimately, this author leans towards Nader actually being a legitimate candidate and, whether orchestrated or not, the events at the 2000 primaries still serve as an indicator of a corrupted two party system.

18. George W. Bush, Skull and Bones, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Skull_and_Bones_members. See also, Robbins, Alexandra (2002). Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-72091-7.

19. John Kerry, Skull and Bones, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Skull_and_Bones_members. See also, Robbins, Alexandra (2002). Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-72091-7.

20. George H.W. Bush, Skull and Bones, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Skull_and_Bones_members. See also, Robbins, Alexandra (2002). Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-72091-7. See also, Counterpunch, May 22–29, 2009

21. Prescott Bush, Skull and Bones, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Skull_and_Bones_members. See also, Robbins, Alexandra (2002). Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-72091-7.

22. Wikipedia, Philip Dru: Administrator. See also https://www.nytimes.com/1912/12/08/archives/americas-future-pictured-in-a-decidedly-quaint-modern-novel.html

23. Burleson’s term as Post Master General was highly controversial. He ruled the communications industry as a dictator: segregating the work force, forbidding the union to strike, and instituting the Espionage Act during the war, banning any and all antiwar material. Burleson’s tenure as Post Master is often cited as the worst and most reactionary in history.

“The Peace Treaty was not to be a return to the old diplomacy, but the establishment of a new world order.” James T. Shotwell, Inquiry/CFR founding member.

In early August of 1917 while the war raged in Europe, Third Assistant Secretary Breckinridge Long sends a memorandum to Secretary of State Robert Lansing in Washington, calling for a “bureau to be established for the study and preparation of those questions which appear likely to be proposed at the Peace Conference”.  The memo came on the recommendation of Frank Lyon Polk and Felix Frankfurter -in France since early July – and inspired by similar British and French foreign diplomatic efforts already underway. The memo was a call for America to begin preparations for peace talks – some 15 months prior to the signing of the Armistice.

By October an ad hoc organization was discreetly working parallel to the Wilson Administration in upper Manhattan – a group known as the Inquiry – directed by Wilson’s key advisor, Colonel Edward Mandell House while leading progressives Louis Brandeis, and the founders of the New Republic magazine: Walter Weyl, Herbert Croly, Felix Frankfurter and Walter Lippmann, all had significant influence. Wilson, who’s reelection less than a year earlier was largely built on the campaign slogan “He Kept Us Out of War”, was now planning for peace.

“The cooperation with the British and French Governments was, of course, on a different level, and we had cordial and intimate relations with some of their diplomatic and technical staffs in Washington and New York. … Lord Eustace Percy, an intimate friend of some of the Inquiry members, was especially helpful in securing documents and information from the British side, a service we were later to return in kind.” AAPC pg 11

“It was in a quiet part of New York where one would hardly expect to find the staff of the personal adviser of the President preparing materials for world policy” James T. Shotwell

The Inquiry’s inner circle consisted of five founding members: personal aide to Wilson, Colonel Edward Mandell House; New Republic co-founder Walter Lippmann; Columbia history professor James T. Shotwell; international law expert David Hunter Miller, and House’s brother-in-law Sidney Mezes.  It quickly became apparent that with the “vast field that would be covered by the Peace Conference”, the small rooms reserved for their work in the New York Public Library would be insufficient. It was the first task of Shotwell’s to gain the “co-operation of university men … drawn from the highest academic capacity in the country.” And it was agreed upon by the early founders to “enlarge the organization by adding colleagues in the various political and social sciences.” The personnel for this “strange experiment” came almost exclusively from three Ivy League Universities: Yale, Columbia and Harvard.

Early Inquiry recruits were Archibald Cary Coolidge; Charles Homer Haskins; George Louis Beer; Charles Seymour, and in November the Inquiry found their Chief Territorial Specialist and Executive Officer, in Isaiah Bowman. Bowman, as the Director of the American Geographical Society, had at his disposal, some of the best cartographic equipment for the preparation of maps in the entire United States. A graduate of Harvard in 1905 and Yale in 1909, Bowman had already led three South American reconnaissance Expeditions for the Yale Corporation, making world-wide headlines in 1911 rediscovering Machu Picchu with Hiram Bingham. Bowman created the Geographical Review in 1915 and remains today as one of the three pioneers of American geography. He was a founding member of the Council on Foreign Relations and board of director until his death in 1950.

With Bowman aboard, the Inquiry had found their leader and the American Geographical Society building at 3755 Broadway, for the next thirteen months, would be the Inquiry’s headquarters. This chosen location convenient in that Shotwell at CU, Mezes at CCNY, and Bowman at the AGS were all within four subway stops of each other on the Broadway line in upper Manhattan. The Inquiry, as it was officially known, was purposely ambiguous in title, helping to ensure their work “would be perfectly blind to the general public, but, which nevertheless, would serve to identify it among the initiated.” The name was “adopted at first only provisionally” at Shotwell’s suggestion, but “later retained by the paradox that its very inadequacy was its best recommendation”.   The Inquiry’s membership would eventually grow to include over one hundred and fifty academics. And by early December of 1918, their thirteen-month long intelligence gathering project culminated when all of the Inquiry’s Division Chiefs accompanied the President aboard the USS George Washington, as his personal advisors, a front row seat on Wilson’s historic trip to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

The reports created in the year long period prior to the peace talks, along with the hundreds of carefully hand-drawn maps, diagrams and graphs, proved invaluable at the meetings in Paris. This marks a historically significant moment in American history, “for never before had universities been mobilized for such a service”. Never before had a private group of scholars been appointed as direct advisors to a US president and never before had a sitting American president relied so heavily upon such a group. And this would cause friction within the State Department, especially with the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing. The DoS feeling that this new approach violated already established foreign policy protocol. Shotwell implying later that it may have even been illegal:

“Even before the Armistice there had been some indications, although none of them serious, that there were those in the State Department who were by no means happy at the way in which the preparations for the Peace Conference were being made. This was not only natural under the circumstances but, from a standpoint of public law, had apparent justification … In their eyes it was one thing for the President to have a personal adviser in Colonel House, but quite a different thing for the Colonel’s staff to develop to the point of displacing the established governmental organ for foreign affairs. … “

“Technically it was connected with the State Department but really it was to be the President’s personal staff under Colonel House’s direction.”

James T. Shotwell, At The Paris Peace Conference.

 “There was a hint of this broader conception [social justice] of the purpose and scope of the International Labor Organization in the preamble to its constitution, in the statement that universal peace ‘can be established only if it is based upon social justice.’ It must be confessed, however, that when we wrote those words into the text, we were not thinking of their far reach, but of a formula which would enable us to tie our institution into the structure of that new world order which the League of Nations symbolized.”

James T. Shotwell, founder member of both the ILO and Inquiry At the Paris Peace Conference pg. 54

Of the fourteen Inquiry members in the photo all of them had an extensive background in the social or political sciences, ten had either a Bachelor’s or Masters in the Arts, or both. All attended Ivy League and many rounded out their scholastic career by studying abroad at European universities. The Inquiry membership was made up of economists, historians, statisticians, and lawyers all with a liberally progressive common interest. Many of these men graduated top of class, their early fraternal allegiances helping make for a graceful transition into elite high society later in life. This network of gentleman clubs hidden within the undercurrent of American life, however their immense influence self-evident and remains even today as the main determining factor to the quality of a man’s career.  In this system, the best and brightest are earmarked early in their education and coveted specifically for their intelligence. They are then moulded and their careers shaped to the benefit of their handlers. The Western education system, borrowed from the Prussian reformation, acting as a filter creating the inevitable caste system we live in. 

Today, this blind reliance on the expert seems to be the norm. The majority of people believing the world’s complexities exist beyond their comprehension, commonly concede their opinions to the expert.  Few see how this dependency has led to a largely apathetic and vulnerable public.  Even fewer still, see how this vulnerability can lead to the catastrophic fragmentation of Western democratic society. The think-tank lies at the center of this movement to shape and engineer society through manipulation. And Walter Lippmann, heavily influenced by what he experienced in Paris, wrote his most famous book on the “manufacturing of consent” And in Paris, we see the birth of two of today’s most influential and powerful persuaders of public consent in the Council on Foreign Relations and her British sister, the Royal Institute of International Affairs born conjoined forever bound in the backroom suites of the Hotel Majestic during the Conference. The expert opinion so prominently used today, we see being implemented for the first time, by executive orders, the rise of a “rival staff” of unelected experts guiding the president “at the most critical, and even revolutionary, turning point in the history of American diplomacy”.

James T Shotwell, APPC.

The truth is that this reliance on the expert has evolved for generations outside public consciousness, the public largely unaware to its dangers. And under this anonymity, the many and varied offices within the United States Intelligence Community (IC) have now grown to include all aspects of society: the military establishment, Silicon Valley and social media, Hollywood entertainment, American academia, and the mainstream media. All working together to create narratives that fragment our collective perspectives on reality. Leaving us in large part as if paralyzed on narcotics and unable to act. A suspended land of confusion. This technique of persuasion, so obvious today, first realized in Paris by the very men that would found propaganda, public relations and modern journalism directly inspiring the likes of Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.

The 20^th Century Ideal society they were attempting to engineer in Paris through experimentation has in reality, turned into a 21^st Century science fiction nightmare. We see, through the advice of these internationally minded movements, the merging of traditionally separate aspects of Western society. Public private partnerships, non-governmental organizations, think-tanks, not-for-profit foundations, lobbyists, despite being thought of by the general public as benevolent, all hold zero appreciation for Western traditions and values. Internationalism by its very definition repugnant to the spirit of closely held Western traditions of liberty and individual sovereignty. These corrupted institutions then are left to run roughshod for generations under the guise of humanitarianism and our nation states, long subservient to these false, fragmented narratives, are left to participate in their own downfall. And we, as the children of the future – those very generations the Paris Peace Conference was so concerned with, stand as the ultimate final judge of their social science experiment.

“Some day the Inquiry will find its historian, and this strange experiment in the mobilization of the political and social sciences to help in shaping the outlines of the new world structure which had to be built out of the ruins of the war will offer a subject with unique possibilities.”

James T. Shotwell 

Bowman taught at St. Clair County, Michigan as early as 1896 and would graduate Harvard with a Bachelor of Science in 1905. After graduation he was offered an instructor position in Yale’s department of geology. It is during this time he would gain a PhD, writing his doctoral dissertation ‘The Physiography of the Central Andes’, a brief of his 1907 South American reconnaissance expedition on behalf of the Yale Corporation. Bowman led a team in 1907, landing in Antofagasta, that followed ancient trails through La Paz, Lake Titicaca, and Cuzco.  Documenting along the way, geographical topology and local infrastructure as well as observing local customs, religions, and tradition. Bowman noting throughout his work the significant role geography plays in the evolution of the human being. How, at the heart of geography, is the study of man in relation to the earth. These some of the first formulated thoughts of Bowman, on the importance of geography on politics and a glimpse into his future involvement in American foreign policy.

Here, in Bowmans own rude scribblings we see indicated the three South American expeditions. During their first trek, in 1907, they stayed in the northern area of Cuzco. The second trip more central, included the area around La Paz and the third while comprehensive, was generally focused to the south and the desert plateau of Atacama. The first trip, under the auspices of Yale and the American Geographical Society, and with the approval of the Chilean and Bolivian governments, the first Yale South American Expedition with Bowman at the lead, makes their way to South America. Bowman goes off grid for a total of five months, his communication with Yale during these trips documented by way of personal letters and Bowmans well preserved diary, now held in his archives. Making their way through Chile and Bolivia, Bowman and his team leave behind a large catalogue of photographs that indicate a particular interest in the local infrastructure, the railway lines, hydroelectric dams, power stations, and agriculture, while  witnessing and noting the innovative local modes of transportation as well as getting a good  feel for the locals and their way of life as it relates to the their geographical location in the world.

He would later meet up with Hiram Bingham, and together, inspired by what they thought was local myth, and driven by the curiosity of the Yale Corp, both Bowman and Bingham would be the first Westerners ever to set sight on this incredible part of the world. Two highly educated Yale professors, Bowman soon to be a founding member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a real life Indian Jones. And the news of such an incredible discovery was sure to travel fast, making world-wide headlines, Bingham was heralded as the discoverer of Machu Pichu, National Geographic, as a sponsor of the trip, dedicated an entire edition. Bingham taking much of the photographs himself show amazing ancient stone structures, monuments, and the famous Hitching Post of the Sun. Their expedition more than settling a local myth, it brought the story of the Sacred Inca Valley and its final stand, into the collective lexicon.  And despite much of the world having been discovered by the turn of the century, both Isaiah Bowman and Hiram Bingham helped unveil never before known history of mankind and together authored one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century.

By 1912, Bowman was assisting William Morris Davis, in organizing the Trans Continental Excursion. Columbia University provided accommodations as nearly all the worlds leading geographers attended. The trip spanned the late summer and early fall months and would carry them by train, trolley, boat, wagon, and automobile on a nearly 13 thousand mile circuit around the Continental United States, leaving Grand Central Station in New York, on the morning of August 12. Travelling north they made a stop in Buffalo to see the Niagara Falls. Heading west they followed the track through Chicago and the northern states of Minnesota, Montana and Washington, where they visited Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Coulee Dam. After travelling south, through the Great Redwood Forest, they visited San Francisco and then the Great Salt Lake before making a pitstop at the Grand Canyon. They documented the Mississippi River at Memphis and travelled north through the Appalachians, finally arriving back in New York in October. This moment significant in that it brought all of the worlds most influential geographers to one place, with Bowman playing host. The relationships made during this trip having lasting effects, by helping to facilitate the International Map of the World project – the mapping of the entire world in a one to one million scale.

In 1913, Bowman’s sponsors, wanting one final exploration of South America sent Bowman to the Central Andes, beginning the most comprehensive of the Bowman missions. Their work centering first on Tiahuanacu and then south – through the Atacama Plateau.  Bowmans team travelling aboard the White Star Line’s Oceanic, setting sail from New York on April 26 bound for Buenos Aires by way of Southampton.  Photos of the Oceanic show it to be a beautifully ordained cruise liner, and Bowman and his team would have had full access to its amenities in the coordinating and communicating of their mission with the mainland. Once landed, the men disappeared into the jungle and contact with home at this point would have been rare. Images reveal the extreme type of terrain and weather, here seen traversing rivers on muleback in the rainforest while later, a large part of the trip was to take place in the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert.

Bowman returns to America and writes of his experiences in, South America in 1915 and, The Andes of Southern Peru in 1916. Bowman was named the second vice president of, the International Geographical Congress, and by 1915 his work so notable, that Bowman was named director of the American Geographical Society. A year later, founding the Geographical Review. And, its because of his early experiences in South America, Bowman was chosen to head the Hispanic Millionth Map Project, fitting nicely within the larger, International Map of the World project. Bowman would then in 1917, be hired by the United States Government, called to head the Inquiry, his official title, the Executive Officer and Chief Territorial Specialist. Thus starting Bowmans career as a political geographer being a direct advisor to the presidencies of both Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt.

It is through this introduction to statecraft that Bowman would soon become an initial founding member, and early director of the newly formed think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations. Bowman would go on to be a lifetime board of director and would author many articles for the council’s periodical, Foreign Affairs. And, the CFR today continues to play a vital part on the world stage. He would continue to work with the State Department throughout his entire life earning him much international acclaim, Bowman personifying the very traits that still embody the CFR mission today, as it continues to be a gathering place for the intelligence community, Ivy League social science, mainstream press media, Fortune 500 corporations and our elected State officials, and now after a century, an argument can be heard, a well-formed argument calling into question the CFR and think tanks like them, wondering aloud as to the role of not-for-profits in our governments and in our society as a whole. This voice wonders what Isaiah Bowman would say some one hundred years later when confronted with the long-term results of what he helped create.  In part two, we follow the rise of Isaiah Bowmans international career, his introduction to the Inquiry and the completion of the Hispanic Millionth Map Project. Join us then as Bowman finally trades his leathers and canvas for a briefcase and a tie, and we continue to ask the viewer to make up their own mind, are think-tanks, not-for-profit 501c, non-governmental organizations and their omnipotent political lobbying altruistic in nature or parasitic by design?