national defense began in 1939. With mammoth government contracts in the
offing, Weinberg had no trouble converting the Business Advisory Council
of leading businessmen into an agency for helping governmental leaders
plan the policies for war and for the post-war period.

* * * * *

In September, 1960, _Harper's Magazine_ published an article by Hobart
Rowen, entitled "America's Most Powerful Private Club," with a
sub-title, "How a semi-social organization of the very biggest
businessmen--discreetly shielded from public scrutiny--is 'advising' the
government on its top policy decisions." Here are passages from the
article:

"The Business Advisory Council meets regularly with government
officials six times a year.... On two of these six occasions ...
the BAC convenes its sessions at plush resorts, and with a
half-dozen or more important Washington officials and their wives
as its guests, it indulges in a three-day 'work and play'
meeting....

"The guest list is always impressive: on occasion, there have been
more Cabinet officers at a ... BAC meeting than were left in the
Capital....

"These meetings cost the BAC anywhere from $6,000 to $12,000 or
more, paid out of the dues of members ... which have been judged
tax-deductible by the Internal Revenue Service....

"After the 1952 election, the BAC was having its fall 'work and
play' meeting at the Cloister, just off the Georgia coast and a
short distance from Augusta, where Ike was alternating golf with
planning his first-term Cabinet. [Sidney] Weinberg and [General
Lucius D.] Clay [members of the BAC executive committee] ...
hustled ... to Augusta, conferred with Ike [a 'close, intimate,
personal friend' of both men]....

"The result was historic: Ike tapped three of the BAC leaders ...
for his Cabinet. They were Charles E. Wilson of General Motors as
Defense Secretary; [George M.] Humphrey, then boss of the M. A.
Hanna Co., as Treasury Secretary; and Robert T. Stevens of the J.
P. Stevens & Co., as Army Secretary....

"Afterwards, [Secretary] Humphrey himself dipped into the BAC pool
for Marion Folsom of Eastman Kodak as Under Secretary of the
Treasury [later Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare]....

"Membership in the Council gives a select few the chance to bring
their views to