The Benson signal., 1917-11-03
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.
Copyright, 1917, Western Newspaper Union.)
WashingtOn.-WhO is Col. Edward
Mandell House who is to gather war
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
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:
Austin, Texas; born 1853; 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
a man frequently consulted by Wood
row Wilson and a man in whose judg-
ment on political, economic and legiS-
lative matters the president puts con-
fidence. There is q sort of a glamour
about men and things which are mys-
terious. 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 writer's
of the news of the day in part have
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.
It 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
he is a modest man, as I 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
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 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 ap-
proach or departure, exclusiveness, Sc
clusiveness and secrecy have been the
order OF the days words concerning
each visit.
Gives No Word of Work.
1t 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 in
his purpose to pursue them, by the
counsel Of Edward M. House is not to
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
oh ho WI
ing matters against the day of peace
apparently have not wished to pull
down their handiWOrk. The wall can
be demolished by anyone who tries to
get at the foundation Of the fiction.
Edward NJ House lives as open
& e A .iLl.lIn HIZhA