Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-11-09
Bv EDWARD 3. CLARK.

BY EDWARD 3. CLARK.
Copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union.
Washington.-Who is Col. Edward
Mandell House who is to gather wal
data for the United States government
for service on a future day of peace
This is a question that is being asked
by 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. II
is probable that If this unofficial coun-
sellor to the president Of the United
States were to be elected to congress
the autobiography which he would pre-
pare 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 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
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
man frequently consulted by Wood
row Wilson and man in whose judg-
ment on political, economic and legis-
lative matters the president puts con-
fdence. There is a sort of a glamour
about men and things which are mys-
FERROUS. 1t 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 writers
of the news of the day in part have
chosen to treat the goings and COM
lngs 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
1t 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
Is modesty not mystery which has been
the basic difficulty. -
Colonel House will not tell you that |
ne is a modest man, as 1 know from |
coptact with him. To claim
nodesty fsl ones self is to be immod- |
EST He Toes go from his present abode |
n New York city to Washington occa-
;ionally or frequently as the requests |
nay come, to give what he can Of ''the
counsel of his views" to the president |
If the United States. Why should he |
my more than any other man send a
herald ahead or band of
ymbal clashers?
He goes to the White House, stays
lis while and leaves, and because no
.reat noises fill the streets at APP
roach or departure, eXclusiyeness, Sc
and secrecy have been the
rider of the days words concerning
ach visit.
Gives No Word of Work
1t perhaps is not too much to say
hat if the full record Of the results
f the conferences which House of
'exas has had with Wilson of the
Tnited States is TO be read it must be
ought in some of the accomplished
eeds of the present administration.
nat NDOuIOW NnSph uelS bSfh AoNtb !
} certain courses or strengthened in
is purpose to pursue them, by the
Dunsel of Edward NJ. House is not to s
g doubted. The impossible task would /
c to get from the latter a definite
ord concerning the public work in
hich his counsel has played part '
Those who have built up wall of I
ystery about the man who is study f
g matters against the day Of peace S
Dparently have not wished to pull t
OWN their hsndiwork. The wall can c
: demolished by anyone who tries TO e
Il at the foundation of the fiction. 1
Edward NJ. House lives as open a y
Re as that of any American whose
-ofessicn or business does not call