Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-12-05
COLONEL HOUSE:
MYSTERY OR NOT?.
Presidents Choice of Envoy for
Inter-Allied Conference Clear
to All but Senator Penrose

CENATOR PENRoSE has re-creatcd the
~ mystery OF Colonel House. Drawing his
ample toga about his portly form, the senior
representative OF Pennsylvania rose in the
United states Senate this week and said:
The action of the President in sending
Colonel House as the head Of the American
delegation to the Inter-Aled Conference
j look upon as scandalous. Every other
nation participating in that conference sent
its Prime Minister, while we send a private
citizen of whom the country knows virtu-
ally nothing and who could not be regarded
as anything but the Presidents private
representative.
who is Colonel House" ?" is the laundering
Interrogation OF Senator Penrosc. Why is
Colonel House? is the corollary People
rather got over asking these questions in
the earlier years of President Wilson's ad-
minstration.
He was private citizen. n mild.mannersd
man, small but sInewy, with countenanco
strong in It's assurance of Intellectual capac-
ity but softened by manifest idealism. This
private citizen appeared at the White House,
was given long private audiences, quietly
left TO pop into the front-page news in con-
nectlon with some important investigation,
agitation, movement research. Ills reap
pearance at the White House was followed
by Executive proclamation or action in the
important matter in hand
Warwick or Mark Hanna
Rumor made him the Warwick and the
Mark Hanna of the Administration. The
President is a man of his own meditation
and counsel. Colonel House is a tacturn
man, with 100 per cent belief In the old
saw that silence is golden and much loquac.
ity is culpable neglect of 1Ioovcrizng the
dictionary. These quiet, selfcontaincd men
did not make n mystery of their closcnesa
and harmony of relations. But a mystery
made for them. Presidents had often
largely consulted political chieftains. But 1t
was something new for a President to have
an advisor from private Efe. What did
Colonel House want? What would the Presi.
dent give him? Was he the president
maker" and was he the man behind" the
President?
All the occult paraphernala OF a kcller's
magic chamber carefully erected by puzzled
politicians. Washington correspondents aud
magazine interviewers vanished in the cool
air Of common Colonel George
Harvey's futile grasp at the distinction OF
Warwicking Mr.. Wilson into the White
House dispolled forever the idea of
President maker" The Presidents inde-
pendcnce soon showed that the only man
behind" was his own intellectual and spirit
ual alter ego. Colonel House came and went,
made his reports and gave his advice-as a
private citizen always. His name was not
sent to tho Senate for confirmation to any
thing.
The Heart of the Mystery
This, after all. was the real mystery OF
Colonel House--a man who worked hard and
wanted nothing-and It was mystery
merely to the seasoned politicians, The aver
age person can very well understand dis
interestedness. but not the politician Colonel
House must be playing some deep game for
big stakes, 1t was argued So the first term
turned into the second and still he remained
high private.
The righteousness of his personality and
his relations to the President were long ago
dispelled in the popular mind. 1t was obvious
that the President wanted man who could
hold his tongue and his counsel who had
acumer, background and sympathy, to In
vestigate unohicially and contdentialiy mat
sired Colonel House was the man that was
his function. The President sent him to
Europe In 1915 and 1916 for a closeup view
of matters Of moment which affected Ameri-
can statecraft and which might gravely in
tiuence and even shape American policies.
He saw Lloyd George, Asquith, Kitchener.
Poincare. Bethmann-iIoilwes. Viv!ani. Won
Jagow, Delcasse and Zimmermann lie saw
others not so looming but important Most
of all. he studied popular attitudes and re-
actions. That was the kind of information
the President wanted and which he could
.ot get except from sane, patriotic, trusted,
personal envoy.
And that was the heart of the whole made
up mystery: Colonel House The personal
envoy of the President, liberal in tendency,
but conservative in action, reliable. thorough
ly American. That's all there was TO It,
Colonel House is, Of course. partly % blame
for the veil Of the myster .oui euv,.op e hlm
at first. He was as mum as a clam. It
was believed by some students of mythology
that he paid homage at the shrine Of Harpoc-
rates, the god Of reticence lie thought
lot, said little and wrought wisely. He had
no press agent. lie ceased TO be a mystery
when he became a parsonage.
Why Colonel House Is
All these things have graveled Senator
Penrose So he revived the mystery" Of
Colonel House He did not understand what
many persons had already taken into their
intelligences. Colonel Houses growth in
knowledge of fundamental affairs IN relation
10 the war. his initiation into the high coun.
ellis Of statesmanshp, his complete sympathy
with the President, his high prestige accru-
ing from successful accomplishment of do
nestle and foreign missions made him logical
ly the head of the United States mission to
the great Inter-Allied War Conference.
Prestige, patriotism, power to think and
do-these were the grounds on which he was
chosen. These the reasons that answer
Senator Penroses queries, who and why
Is Colonel HouseT Despite the Senator,
Colonel House could be and was regarded
as something more than the Presidents pri-