Show COLONEL HOUSE WILSONS FRIEND NOT A MYSTERY unofficial counsellor of the president Is a modest but well posted man STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS now gathering data on economic and other problems which must be solved at the peace table has qualifications that go to make a sound diplomat AUTHORS men hate made a mystery of the life and the doings edward M house the friend and advisor ot woodrow allson it there has been mystery it la none ot the colonel a making I 1 venture the hope that whatever vr may haie seemed to be hidden Is dla closed in this article the material lor which was obtained in the only way in which such material can be obtained by direct personal contact inquiry and study by EDWARD B CLARK copyright 1917 newspaper Newa paper union washington who Is col edward mandell house who la to rather 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 ery large proportion of the people of the united states and in fact of nil the allied nations colonel house does not wear the record of his deeds on his sleeve it Is probable pro bible that if this unofficial coun i bellor to the president of the united states were to be elected to congress the autobiography which he would prepare for the congressional directory would bcd 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 geography the democratic and the humanitarian problems which the american counsel lors at the peace table must seek to solve after a manner which the of a great democracy can approve consulted by president in the washington dispatches some hang like this Is read several times a year colonel house has been in the city far 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 als cussed mexican matters or european matters or it may be but in this lat cr case rarely political matters the public has known little more about colonel house than that he Is ft man frequently consulted by wood row allson and a man in whose judg ment on political economic and matters the president puts confidence there Is a sort of a glamour about men and things which are mys gerlous it would seem that because of the attraction which mystery has for the people as shown it you will in their gluttonous reading of detective stories and the like that writers of the news of the day in part have chosen to treat the goings and corn of the colonel and his conferences men of as it they were a deliberate attempt to hedge them in and hide them from public edge it Is just as possible to get at the ruth in the case of colonel house as t Is in the case of any other man whose doings are of public interest it s modesty not mystery which hag been the basic difficulty colonel house will not tell you that he Is a modest man as I 1 know from personal with him to claim modesty fw ones self Is to be immon est he joes go from his present abode in new york dry to washington occa Blo nally 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 ho any more than any other man send a trumpeting herald ahead or a band of cymbal dashers he goes to the white house stays his while and leaves and because no great noises fill the streets at approach or departure exclusiveness se and secrecy awe been the order of the days words concerning each visit gives no word of work it perhaps Is not too much to siy that it the full record of the results of the conferences which house of texas has had allson of the united states Is to be read it must be sought in some of he accomplished 1 deeds of the present administration that woodrow wilson has been moved to certain clursea 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 n definite word concerning the public work in his counsel has played n part those who have built up a wall of mystery about the man who Is studying matters against the da of peace apparently have not wished to pull down lu the wall can be demolished by anyone who tries to get at the of the fiction M house lives as open a life as that of any american whose profession or business docs not call him dally into the places where men throng if one wants to know about him through motives other than those of the idleness of curiosity he can sea him and talk with turn and the chances are that he will be told everything concerning the subject of his in pairing curiosity that any man of mien and inclination naturally would be willing to tell colonel house s a genial man who never has sought to deflor for personal use alip meaning of either of the words coldness or austerity he has a sense of humor well de eloped and a tern pe warmth secret of his power in houston texas in the 5 ear 1858 rdward M house was born he was educated at the hopkins grammar chool new haven conn and at cornell ersley he has been active all his adult life in democratic politics but never has been a candidate for office add to these admittedly meager details one fact and unquestionably you will have the secret of this man s power to attract other men to him for the purpose of consultation on really high public matters I 1 rom the day that he was old enough to undertake serious study edward M house has been deep in the books of politics economics and legislation he has marshaled in his mind all the greater events which have happened in these three words moreover he has the men the things and the mothes connected with each case constantly in procession before him he Is quick to trace a cause to an ef feet or to go the reverse route he has been a student of human nature as it has shown itself in many of the great problems of human life this means that he has in him or at any rate men believe that he has in him the qualifications which go to make up a sound diplomat through successive administrations in texas the governors of the one after another consulted colonel bagly time enough has gone by and things enough have been proved or disproved to give certainty to ane word that woodrow allson has found edward M house an advisory asset there hardly can be much of real mystery about a man who twice since athla great war began las been sent abroad as a special commissioner the president of the united states colonel house lias been twice in berlin five times in paris and frequently in other of the great european capitals some day it may be that woodrow allon Vl lon will write what may be called an autobiographical review of his nd ministration if he docs it Is likely that the part taken by colonel house in the shaping of borne of the policies of the president may be given the page place which many men believe that it deserves no mystery there alle living in york colonel house resides in an apartment not very far uptown it Is a homelike place where good books are found and where good friends may come it Is a genial place and no curtain of mystery hangs over the door of any one of its rooms men go there and are wel come they go and they talk man learns as much from roan ns he learns from books and more perhaps it we believe the ancient saying about the proper study of mankind I 1 asked colonel house what his recreations reat ions are he said friends read ing and walking his library shelves show the kind of books that he has read still Is reading and will continue to read for those in alie book cases are made the companions day by day of the others as they come from the hands of writers worth while no man probably can read politics legislation economics aarl history con scantly without getting some of dr dry as dusts characteristics so it Is that colonel house does not read the four constantly he turns to fiction and here one finds something of possibly more than passing hunan interest george hoar of Mass achus etts was one of the scholars in politics it avas said of him that he had read everything from Aristo phanes frogs house on public matters how deep an impression he has made on texis legislative hestoy never may be known definitely but there Is enough salient to make texans know that they are right in attributing to him many of their public welfare acts not accounted wealthy in these days of huge fortunes colonel house Is quite well fixed financially and Is not engaged la business ot any kind has studied hard I 1 have talked to colonel bouso and have learned things which make roe feel that I 1 shall not go wrong when I 1 try to put an interpretation some of his methods of doing thing he Is free enough to say that he has hard nt economic political and subjects lie probably even would be to admit that he thinks the results of these studies continued and their results retained have enabled him to be of some service when men were seeking information concerning events in the past which have relation to events in the present or events expected in the future therefore there Is here a man who has held whit he has studied who has collated and correlated the happenings of history who has drawn lessons from them who takes an interest as deep in the lining present as he doe in the dead past and who men believe Is able to make his knowledge serviceable for old as it Is let us say it history repeats itself woodrow allson did not meet hla friend colonel house until the days when he was holding office as gocr nor of new jersey it Is said by friends of mr that almost n scantly he came to understand why the texan had been of along constructive lines to orne of the governors of the state in which lie has lived most of his life for bl or sc en ears mr house has been the conal dant and the counsellor of the presa dent 0 the united states and seem to lockes human understanding and from this latter book of dismaya ties to the lighter minded reader down to heavy and semi heavy which was published to the week of his death senator hoar kept his mental condition balanced by turn ing not merely from the heavy to the light on occasion but to the actual featherweights feather weights of fiction lie read nick carter woodrow allson Ul lson it Is said turns away from the studies of states an d present and in prospective to the reading of what the english call penny dread fuls and what the americans in the old days called yellow backs it lg said that the speaker of the house of representatives champ clark stops frequently his mental digging into all kinds of history to take up for relief purposes books of the kind which make a boy happy reads good fiction in the library of colonel house there Is plenty of good fiction he does not turn to nick carter cor to the hidden hand of mrs 13 D E N nor yet to owl race the pawnee of beadle dime novel fame but he manages to keep the men tal balance even by an hour or two with alie writers of fiction who can lay claim to what the book re levers call literary merit today colonel hodoe Is entering upon the work of which one day perhaps far in the future will be serviceable to the amerl can commissioners at the great peace conference another his written this concerning the choice by the president of colonel house for this w ork he Is peculiarly qualified for it by his alp experience of recent years by his study of political problems which the war has raised and by his integrity of mind and character will yon take on the house mastery case Mist cry my dear watson there any |