end of
the winter of 1914-15, sent his intimate friend, Colonel Edward
M. House, to London, Paris and Berlin, in order to ascertain
semi-officially whether there were any possibilities of peace.

Mr. House, who lived in an unpretentious abode in New York, occupied
a peculiar and very influential position at the White House. Bound
to the President by intimate friendship, he has always refused
to accept any Ministerial appointment, either at home or abroad,
although he was only possessed of modest means and could certainly
have had any post in the Cabinet or as an ambassador that he had
liked to choose. In this way he remained entirely independent, and
since President Wilson's entry into office, was his confidential
adviser in domestic, and particularly in foreign politics. As such
Colonel House had a position that is without precedent in American
history. During his stay in London, at this time, he is said to
have described himself to the wife of an English Cabinet Minister,
herself not favorably disposed towards America, as the "eyes and
ears of the President." I know from my own experience how thoroughly
and effectively he was able to inform his friend on the European
situation, and how perfectly correctly, on the other hand, he
interpreted Mr. Wilson's views.

It was not easy to become more closely acquainted with Colonel
House, whose almost proverbial economy of speech might be compared
with the taciturnity of old Moltke.

Unlike the majority of his fellow-nationals, and particularly his
immediate fellow-countrymen of the Southern States, Colonel House,
while possessing great personal charm and the courtesy that is
characteristic of the Southern States, is reserved and retiring.
It took a considerable time before I got to know this able and
interesting man at all intimately. I did not become intimate with
him until the time of the journey to Berlin already mentioned.
Even then it was the earnest wish of Colonel House to obtain for
his great friend the chief credit of being the founder of peace.
Colonel House was particularly well fitted to be the champion of the
President's ideas. I have never known a more upright and honorable
pacifist than he. He had a horror of war because he regarded it as
the contradiction of his ideals of the nobility of the human race.
He often spoke with indignation of the people who were enriching
themselves out of the war, and added that he would never touch the
profits of war industry