The Green Forest tribune., 1917-11-02
Ru -EnMARn R- cIARK-

By EDWARD B. CLARK.
 (Copyright 1917 Western Newspaper union)
 Washington.-NEh is Col. Edward NandeH House vho is ta gather war data for the United States government for service on 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. It is probable that if this unofficial eouR- selIor 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 1S3S; elected to the -- congress, November. -
 In this brief. ultra-modest if you will. way would this Texan be prompted to write an autobiography. justified douhtIess 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 Iors at the peace table must seek to solve after a manner which the people of great democracy can approve?
 Consulted by President.
 Tn the Washington dispatches some thing like this is read several times q 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 hut 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 iudg- mrnt on political, economic and legis- Iatlre matters the president puts con hdence. There is a sort of glamour about men and things which are mys- tpriouS. II would seem that because of the attraction which mystery has for tEe people. IS shown if you will fin thpir giuttenous reading of detec- tive stories and the like, that writers of the news of the day in part have chosen to trear the gein@s and com ings of the colonel and his conferences with men of affairs as # they were a deliberate attempt to hedge thcm 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 # is in the case of any other man whose doiugs are af public interest. It Is modesry not mystery which has been the basic difficulty.
 Colonel House will not tell you that he is q modest man, as l know from personal contact with him. To claim Ill'h4t'~tN lbI bltt S NclI iN tt Jt lilllllpNi- est. He does go from his present abode in New York city to Washington 0eca- sioHdily 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 my rnore than any other man send q trumpeting herald ahead or q 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, se- clusiveness 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 in his purpose to pursue them by the counsel of Edward NJ. House is not to be doubted. The Impossible task would be to get from the latter q definite word concerning the public work in which his counsel has played a part.
 Those who have built up wall of mystery about the man who is study ing matters against the day of peace apparently have not wished to pull down their handiwork. The wall can hs demolished by anyone who tries to get at the foundation of the fiction.
 Edward NJ. House lives as open a life as that of any American whose profession or business does not cal FLIES JOHN PAUL JONES FLAG