(Part Three)by Brian McConnell
July 22, 2007
An Imperialism of Capital (to 'Rule the World')Following passage of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, a coalition of bankers the following year distributed a "confidential leaflet" outlining their plans to assume possession of "th
ree quarters of the western farms" and control of the United States' entire monetary system. Compounding and further exacerbating tensions already fueling widespread civil unrest, the "
United States Bankers' Magazine in 1892" published these excerpts:
“We must go forward cautiously and consolidate each acquired position, because already the inferior social stratum of society is giving unceasing signs of agitation. Therefore, prudence dictates to us a line of conduct that seems to give in to the will of the people, until the execution of our plans be well-enough established for us to be able to declare our intentions without having to fear any organized resistance. Our confidence men shall have to closely watch the Farmers Alliance and the Knights of Work, and take steps immediately, either to control both associations in accordance with our interests, or to break them." . . .
. . . “Let us make use of the courts. Let us go forward as fast as possible at perceiving debts, at foreclosing (depriving of recourse to justice when a certain time limit has been transgressed) on debentures and mortgages. When, through the law's intervention, the common people shall have lost their homes, they will be more easy to control and more easy to govern, and they shall not be able to resist the strong hand of the Government acting in accordance with the orders of the central power of imperial wealth, under the control of the leaders of finance. Our top leaders are perfectly aware of the truth. They are presently working at establishing an imperialism of the capital to rule the world. But while they are implementing this plan, they must keep the people busy with political antagonisms." . . .
Excusing their coup as an effort to preserve the "future life of national banks, as fixed and safe investments", any question concerning a cartel's plan to command control of the United States' economy should have signaled a red alert upon emanation of what's been called the
"Panic Circular" on March 11, 1893. Distributed "by the
American Bankers' Association to all national banks throughout the United States", the communication conveyed detailed instructions for retiring silver, "silver certificates, and Treasury bonds" or ("all the Government's money") and substituting "National Bank Notes" instead. Advocating a repeal of "the purchasing clause of the Sherman Law", the directive enjoined members "to retire one-third" of their currency and call in half their loans.
38 The result was both swift and dramatic, precipitating a run on gold which depleted federal reserves to their statutory limit, thus bringing about "
the worst economic crisis" in the United States' "history to that point".
39Forging the 'Empire'In the meantime, but prior to joining
W.T. Stead on staff at the Pall Mall Gazette in 1881, and while yet a student at Balliol College, Oxford,
Alfred Milner had already formed "a close friendship with" the 'social economist'
Arnold Toynbee. After abandoning his journalistic career in 1885 however, and within only four additional years, the aspiring Milner was delegated "under-secretary of finance in Egypt”.
40 Around this same time, having succeeded Sir Gordon Sprigg in 1890 as 'premier' of Cape Colony, Africa,
Cecil Rhodes in January of 1896, was forced to resign that same post for his complicity in supporting the
J
ameson Raid.
41 Coincidently then, but with Lord Rosmead's resignation as "High Commissioner for Southern Africa and Governor of Cape Colony", as colonial secretary,
Joseph Chamberlain in April of 1897 appointed Alfred Milner to fill the vacated position.
42With a new influx of
British 'uitlanders' (or foreigners) spilling into the adjoining Transvaal region following the discovery of gold there in 1885, Milner, Rhodes, Chamberlain, "and mining syndicate owners" like "Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato and
Lionel Phillips" pressed for an annexation of "the independent Boer republics". Championing uitlanders 'rights' and subsequently believing "the Boers would be quickly defeated", "military buildup" became a justifiable pretext in their plan to "precipitate a war". Recognizing that the failed Jameson attack signaled the likelihood of armed conflict,
Martinus Theunis Steyn, President of the Orange Free State, hosted a conference between the Transvaal's
Paul Kruger and Milner in May of 1899. However, when negotiations faltered "despite Kruger's offer of concessions", Chamberlain stipulated conditions to avoid a British assault in September by "demanding full equality for British citizens" residing in the South African province. Sensing the inevitability of war himself, Kruger issued an ultimatum of his own insisting that the British "withdraw all their troops from the border of Transvaal" within 48 hours to avert bloodshed. The British press in turn, responded with haughty indignation, dismissing Kruger's terms as contentious absurdity and
war was formally declared on October 11th.
43While media reaction intertwined with British sentiments however, these same events were searing the conscience of
Cecil Rhodes' most crucial 'inner circle' colleague. Having established
The Review of Reviews in 1890 as a central component of his benefactor's 'secret society',
Lord Rothschild was joined with
W. T. Stead in 1891 as trustee of the Rhodes fortune. While Rothschild was "to handle the financial investments", Stead assumed "full charge of the methods by which the funds" were to be used in carrying out the "various projects for propaganda" he and Rhodes had previously agreed upon in 1894.
44 Oddly enough though, but recognizing a "gulf between the rich and poor", Stead had introduced the "Masterpiece Library" to the general public in 1895 as a way of affording quality literature "regardless of class" distinction. Intended to convey a "true Christian way of life to the receptive minds of the young", the series was highly lauded and eventually helped Stead become "the foremost publisher of paperbacks in the Victorian Age".
By the "end of the nineteenth century" however, and due to a proliferation of armament, conflict between European countries possessing exorbitant military "budgets" had intensified to the point that Stead began a tour of the continent in September of 1898 to promote proposed peace talks amongst national leaders.
45 Following his attendance at the "
International Peace Conference held at The Hague in 1899" and having played "a prominent part" there, the
Boer clash now impelled Stead's break with Rhodes' cadre of elitists by organizing a
"Stop the War Committee".
46 Consequently, while popular opinion generally supported the South African campaign, notable others were voicing outra
ge over the 'methods of barbarism' utilized by the British.
47 These cruelties included a program of mass confinement in what would for the first time be referred to as "
concentration camps". Supposedly designed "as a form of humanitarian aid", the compounds were used instead to intern "large numbers of civilians" driven from their homes by Britain's employment of '
scorched earth' tactics.
48With his personal integrity at stake, W. T. Stead's opposition evoked almost an immediate requital from his former patron. Thus, later in 1899, Cecil Rhodes modified the seventh and final draft of his will by removing Stead as trustee and in lieu, substituted a handpicked "board of seven" comprised of Alfred Milner, Lord Rothschild's son-in-law (
Lord Rosebery), Lord (Sir Edward) Grey, Alfred Beit, L. L. Michell, B. F. Hawksley, and
Dr. Starr Jameson. Also, but in carrying out their trustor’s expressed intentions following his demise in 1902, this same group would found "the Rhodes Scholarships".
49 Still reeling from the reprisal however, and somewhat desperately, W. T. Stead waged a dire attempt to revive the
Daily Paper he'd first established in 1893 prior to publishing,
If Christ Came to Chicago and the revitalization it had subsequently inspired within the megalopolis. Facing the mounting prospect of "total bankruptcy" however, the newspaperman is said to have suffered "a complete nervous breakdown" and on his doctor's "advice" undertook a voyage with his daughter Estelle to South Africa. Though initially "welcomed by Dr. Jameson", after causing "a public outrage" in describing "the Boers as heroes of the war", a return "to England" was necessitated to liquidate "his Daily Paper debts".
50At virtually the same time, but with a recently fashioned 'military-industrial' machine of its own under full steam, two of America's most illustrious newspaper magnates,
William Randolf Hearst and
Joseph Pulitzer, were themselves heatedly contesting the issues of journalistic integrity, to be won like spoil, during yellow journalism's gilded age.
51 Because of the press' allegations of "extensive atrocities" being committed by Spain against Cuban resisters and the armed U. S. intervention which accompanied them, the "mysterious sinking of the battleship
USS Maine on February 15, 1898" led "journalists like William R. Hearst" to proclaim "that Spanish officials" were behind the 'conspiracy'. Although the Spanish-American War that ensued lasted only "113 days" from its outbreak, the United States nonetheless assumed "ownership of the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, the Philippines", Guam and would subsequently bestow independence to Cuba in 1902.
52The Business of Global Dominion
In addition to Cecil Rhodes' death that same year though, still other events of similar and related importance were occurring almost simultaneously. The second of these, after earlier in 1889 initiating the "biggest ever expansion of the navy in peacetime", included
Lord Robert Cecil's (Lord Salisbury) resignation as British Prime Minister on July 11th.
53 Though Salisbury was succeeded by his nephew and Society for Psychical Research co-founder
Arthur Balfour, it was
Alfred Milner who "became the focus or rather the intersection point" for three converging subgroups, 'the Toynbee group', 'the Cecil Bloc', and the 'Rhodes secret society'. Of these, as "a nexus of political and social power", the Cecil Bloc is said to have provided Milner with "the political influence without which his ideas could easily have died in the seed". Expanding from a "sphere of politics into the fields of education and publicity", the Cecil Bloc's 'influence' was "chiefly visible" at Oxford and "in The Quarterly Review and The Times".
54 The third, and in many ways, culminating event of this series in 1902 was a formation of 'the Coefficients
', or a "dining club founded" by
Fabian Society "campaigners
Sidney and
Beatrice Webb". Comprised of the 'crème de la crème' among "British socialist reformers and imperialists of the Edwardian era", faction 'insiders' included
Alfred Milner, (fellow Rhodes Trustee)
Sir Edward Grey,
Bertrand Russell, and his fellow Fabian . . .
H. G. Wells.
55 The following passage is recited from
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell Volume I, page 230:
"...in 1902, I became a member of a small dining club called the Coefficients, got up by Sidney Webb for the purpose of considering political questions from a more or less Imperialist point of view. It was in this club that I first became acquainted with H. G. Wells, of whom I had never heard until then. His point of view was more sympathetic to me than that of any member. Most of the members, in fact, shocked me profoundly. I remember Amery's eyes gleaming with blood-lust at the thought of a war with America, in which, as he said with exultation, we should have to arm the whole adult male population. One evening Sir Edward Grey (not then in office) made a speech advocating the policy of Entente, which had not yet been adopted by the Government. I stated my objections to the policy very forcibly, and pointed out the likelyhood [sic] of its leading to war, but no one agreed with me, so I resigned from the Club. It will be seen that I began my opposition to the first war at the earliest possible moment."56If Russell's recollection is accurate, it's a convicting testimony as to the sheer power and influence the
Rhodes-Milner Roundtable would exert on the future course of mankind's global destiny. Thus, where a Central European Bloc known as the
Triple Alliance had been instituted between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in 1882, but some time prior to actually becoming British Foreign Secretary himself in 1905, Edward Grey was already deliberating plans for a counterforce (or 'Entente') of European nations.
57 Thus, considering his earlier service "as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs" to (fellow Rhodes Trustee)
Lord Rosebery, it's rather abhorrent that Grey's crowning achievement as Foreign Secretary would be a consummation of the
Triple Entente between Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1907.
58
At virtually the same time however, but in America, events were unfolding which in retrospect, would prove an especially portentous predictor of the desolation that was about to befall 'Western Civilization'. "Early in 1907" then, prominent U.S. banking members including
Paul Warburg, "
a partner of Kuhn, Loeb and Co.", started serving notice of impending disaster. On publishing an "official reform" proposal entitled,
A Plan for a Modified Central Bank, Warburg "outlined remedies" to "avert" the inevitability of a
panic like that of 1893. Also, and almost concurrently, as "chief executive of
Kuhn,
Loeb and Co.",
Jacob Schiff too, delivered a speech "to the New York Chamber of Commerce" warning:
"unless we have a central bank with adequate control of credit resources, this country is going to undergo the most severe and far reaching money panic in its history."59Not surprisingly then perhaps, but later that year amidst the financial jockeying of Wall Street tycoons, a number of banks initiated "a retraction of loans" beginning in New York which "soon spread across the nation". Consequently, the "stock market fell nearly 50% from its peak in 1906" resulting "in recession" and sweeping "runs on banks and trust companies".
60 Where financier
J. P. Morgan had previously been enlisted by
President Cleveland to stem the "
Panic of 1893" with a bond issue "to supply the U.S. Treasury with $65 million in gold, half of it from Europe", the industrialist again intervened in October to quell the "
Panic of 1907".
61 With "$35 million of Federal money" earmarked by
Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou, ironically enough, Morgan has been heralded for his role in convening "a team of bank and trust executives" who subsequently deflected disaster by redirecting "money between banks", further expanding "international lines of credit", and purchasing "plummeting stocks of healthy corporations".
62 ________________________________________________________________________38 Louis Even, "An example of banking philosophy",
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