The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-11-17
Bv EDWARD 9, CLARK.

BY EDWARD 8. CLARK.
tCopyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union
MISUNDERSTANDING 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 peo-
pie 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. 1t
Is probable that If this unofficial coun-
sellor to the president of the United
States we're to be elected to congress
the autobiography which he would pre-
pare for the congressional directory
would rasd 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 Mandell 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
lors 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 some
thing 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 dis
cussed Mexican matters, or European
matters, or it may be, but in this lat
ter case rarely, political matters.
The public has known little more
about Colonel House than that he is
"a man frequently consulted by Wood
row Wilson and a man in whose judg-
7ment on political, economic and legis-
sative matters the president puts con-
4idence. There is a sort of a glamour
about men and things which are mys-
FERROUS. It would seem that because
of the attraction which mystery has
for the people, as shown if you will
in their gluttonous reading of detec-
tive stories and the like, that writer's
chosen to treat the goings and com
ings of the colonel and his conferences
with men of affairs as if they were
"a deliberate attempt to hedge them
in and hide them from public knowl-
edge.
Tt is just as possible to get at the
truth in the case of Colonel House as
it is in the case of any other man
whose doings are of public interest. 1t
lis modesty not mystery which has been
the basic difficulty.
Colonel House will not tell you that
he is a modest man, as | know from
personal contact with him. To claim
modesty for ones self is to be immod-
est. He does go from his present abode
in New York city to Washington occa-
sionally or frequently as the requests
NAV come, to give what he car of "the
counsel of his views to the president
of the United States. Why should he
any more than any other man send a
trumpeting herald ahead or a band of
cymbal clashers?
He goes to the White House, stays
his while and leaves, and because no
great noises fill the streets at APP
proach or departure, exclusiveness, Sc
c%lusiveness and secrecy have been the
order of the days words concerning
each visit.
Gives No Word of Work.
It perhaps is not 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 ir
his purpose to pursue them, by the
counsel of Edward M. House is not tt
be doubted. The impossible task woult
be to get from the latter a definite
word concerning the public work il
which his counsel has played a part.
Those who have built up a wall O.
mystery about the man who is study
ing matters against the day of peac'
apparentty have not wished to pull