in which Baruch is found—witness the work, “Philip Dru, Administrator,” commonly attributed to Colonel E. M. House, and never denied by him.
As a matter of fact, Baruch could probably do a better job than Trotsky did. Certainly, the recent experience which he had in governing the country during the war was a very valuable education in the art of autocracy. Not that it is by any means Mr. Baruch’s possession alone; it is also the possession of scores of Jewish leaders who flitted about from department to department, from field to field, receiving a post-graduate course in the art of autocracy, not to mention other things.
Before Mr. Bernard M. Baruch got through, he was the head and center of a system of control such as the United States Government itself never possessed and never will possess until it changes its character as a free government.
- Mr. Jefferis—“In other words, you determined what everybody could have?”
- Mr. Baruch—“Exactly; there is no question about that. I assumed that responsibility, sir, and that final determination rested within me.”
- Mr. Jefferis—“What?”
- Mr. Baruch—“That final determination, as the President said, rested within me; the determination of whether the Army or Navy should have it rested with me; the determination of whether the Railroad Administration could have it, or the Allies, or whether General Allenby should have locomotives, or whether they should be used in Russia, or used in France.”
- Mr. Jefferis—“You had considerable power?”
- Mr. Baruch—“Indeed I did, sir. * * *”
- Mr. Jefferis—“And all those different lines, really, ultimately, centered in you, so far as power was concerned?”
- Mr. Baruch—“Yes, sir, it did. I probably had more power than perhaps any other man did in the war; doubtless that is true.”
What preceded Mr. Baruch’s attainment of this power, how far his power reached and how it was used will be our next inquiry.
The common criticism made against President Wilson that “he played a lone hand” and would
