check check check hello hello check check everybody John the morgue I'll check it in here for yet another edition of the creature from Jekyll Island by G Edward Griffin today is going to be chapter 12 sinking the Lusitania and before we get started there does appear that there was a really some illustrations towards the at the end of chapter 11 the Rothschild formula so we'll check those out first and we'll get going with chapter 12 let's just make sure y'all can hear me and everything hope you can hear me check check check hey Tiffany Vinci and I'm not sure anyone can hear making everybody there we go alright looks like we're in and by the way I did do some troubleshooting on this laptop today updated some drivers so hopefully we have a little bit better stream quality today we shall see I know that last one I did was uh just butchered butchered by YouTube's processing for whatever reason but hopefully we're good to go thanks James crow alright says Ian so let's get going so top left we've got this illustration a satirical a satirical cartoon of 1848 depicts quote Rothschild pondering over which of Europe's rulers to favor with loans while revolutionaries challenged the ancient order he's supporting so maybe we can zoom in on that a bit maybe alright and then there's another illustration here this is a caricature of Nathan Rothschild showing him in his habitual position before one of the pillars in the exchange it was here that he capitalized on his advanced knowledge of Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and was able to acquire the dominant holding of England's entire debt ad but a small fraction of its worth right so chapter 12 sink the Lusitania the role of JP Morgan in providing loans to England and France in World War 1 the souring of those loans as it became apparent that Germany would win the betrayal of a British ship and the sacrifice of American passengers as a stratagem to bring America into the war in the use of American taxes to pay off the loans so the origin of World War one usually is attributed to the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria Hungary by a Serbian nationalist in 1914 this was a serious affront to Austria but hardly sufficient reason to plunge the world into a mortal conflict that would claim over ten million lives and 20 million wounded American schoolchildren are taught that Uncle Sam came into the war to make the world safe for democracy but as we shall see the American war drums were pounded by men with far less idealistic objectives since the latter part of the 18th century the rothschild formula had controlled the political climate of Europe nations had increasingly confronted each other over border disputes colonal Tarrant a colonial territories and trade routes an arms race had been in progress for many years large standing armies had been recruited and trained military alliances had been hammered together all in preparation for war the assassination of Ferdinand was not the cause but the trigger it was merely the spark that lit the fuse that fired the first loaded cannon an investment in war the exigencies of war in Europe required England and France to go heavily into debt when their respective central banks and local merchant banks could no longer meet that need the beleaguered governments turned to the Americans and selected the house of Morgan acting as partners of the Rothschilds to act as sales agents for their bonds most of the money raised in this fashion was quickly returned to the United States to acquire war sensitive materials and Morgan was selected as the US purchase agent for those as well a commission was paid on all transactions in both directions once when the money was borrowed and again when it was spent furthermore many of the companies receiving production contracts were either owned outright by Morgan holding companies or were securely within its within his orbit of bank control under such an arrangement it will not be surprising to learn as we shall see in a moment that Morgan was not overly anxious to see hostilities come to a close even the most honorable of men can be corrupted by the temptation of such gigantic flows of cash writing in the year 1919 just a few months after the end of the war John moody says quote not only did England and France pay for their supplies with money furnished by Wall Street but they made their purchases through the same medium inevitably the house of Morgan was selected for this important task thus the war had given Wall Street an entirely new role hitherto it has been exclusively the headquarters of Finance now it became the greatest industrial mart the world had ever known in addition to selling stocks and bonds financing railroads and performing the other tasks of a great banking center Wall Street began to deal in shells Cannon submarines blankets clothing shoes canned meats wheat and the thousands of other articles needed for the prosecution of a great war and quote the money began to flow in January of 1915 when the house of Morgan signed a contract with the British Army Council and the Admiralty the first purchase curiously was for horses in the amount tendered was 12 million bucks but that was but the first drop of rain before the deluge total purchases would inevitably climb to an astronomical three billion dollars the firm became the largest consumer on earth spending up to 10 million dollars per day Morgan offices at 23 Wall Street were mobbed by brokers and manufacturers seeking to cut a deal the bank had to post guards at every door and the partners homes as well each month Morgan presided over purchases which were equal to the gross national product of the entire world just one generation before throughout all this Morgan vigorously claimed to be a pacifist nobody could hate war more than I do he told the Senate munitions committee but such professions of righteousness were difficult to accept luhan's and comments quote the 500 million dollar loan contracted in autumn 1915 brought to the group of bankers at whose head Morgan was a net profit of 9 million dollars again in 1917 the French government paid to Morgan's and other banks a commission of 1.5 million dollars and a further million in 1918 besides the issue of loans there was another source of profit the purchase and sale of American stock which the Allies surrendered so that they could buy munitions in the States it is estimated that in the course of the war some 2000 million or two billion dollars passed in this way through Morgan's hands even if the Commission's were very small transactions of such dimensions would give him an influence on the stock market which could carry very real advantages his hatred against war did not prevent him citizen of a neutral country from furnishing belligerent powers with 4.4 million rifles for a matter of 194 million dollars the profits were such as to compensate for some degree his hatred of warfare according to his own account he received as an agent of the English and French government's a commission of 1% on orders totaling 3 billion dollars that's with a B that is he received some 30 million bucks besides these two chief principles Morgan however also acted for Russia for whom he did business amounting to four hundred and twelve million dollars and for Italy and Canada figures for his business with the last two not having been published JP Morgan and some of his partners in the bank were at the time shareholders and companies that were concerns which made substantial profits from the orders he placed with them it is really astonishing that a central bank buying organization should have been confided to one who was buyer and seller at the same time end quote Germany's u-boats almost won the war but there were dark clouds gathering above Wall Street as the war began to go badly for the Allies with the passage of time in the condensing of history it's easy to forget the Germany and the Central Powers almost won the war prior to u.s. entry employing a small fleet of newly developed submarines Germany was well on her way to cutting off England and her allies from all outside help it was an amazing feat and it changed forever the concept of naval warfare Germany had a total of 21 u-boats but because they constantly had to be repaired and serviced the maximum number at sea was only seven at any one time yet between 1914 and 1918 German submarines had sunk over 5700 surface ships 300,000 tons of Allied shipping were sent to the bottom week one out of every four steamers leaving the British Isles never returned in later years British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote quote at that time it certainly looked as though we were going to lose the war end quote robert farrell in his woodrow wilson in world war one concluded quote the Allies approached the brink of disaster with no recourse other than to ask Germany for terms end quote William McAdoo who was secretary of the Treasury at the same time says in his memoirs quote across the sea came the dismay of the British the dismay that carried a deepening note of disaster there was a fear in a well-grounded one that England might be starved into abject surrender on April 27th 1917 ambassador Walter H page reported confidentially to the president that the food in the British Isles was not more than enough to feed the civil population for six weeks or two months end quote under these circumstances it became impossible for Morgan to finds new buyers for the allied war bonds neither for fresh funding nor to replenish the old bonds which were coming due and facing default this was a serious issue on several counts if bond sales came to a halt there would be no money to continue purchasing war materials commissions would be lost at both ends furthermore if the previously sold bonds were to go into default as they certainly would if Britain and France were forced to accept peace on Germany's terms the investors would sustain gigantic losses something had to be done but what Robert Farrell hints at the answer quote in the mid 30s a Senate committee headed by Gerald P Nye of North Dakota investigated the pre 1917 munitions trade and raised the possibility that the Wilson administration went to war because American bankers needed to protect their allied loans I believe that end quote as previously mentioned by William McAdoo the American ambassador to England at that time was Walter Hines page a trustee of Rockefellers social engineering foundation called the general education board it was learned by the Nye Committee that in addition to his government salary which he complained was not high enough page also received an allowance of 25,000 bucks a year an enormous amount in 1917 from Cleveland dodge president of Rockefellers National City Bank on March 15th 1917 ambassador page sent a telegram to the State Department outlining the financial crisis in England since sources of new capital had dried up the only way to keep the war going he said was to make direct grants from the US Treasury but since this would be a violation of neutrality treaties the United States would have to abandon its neutrality and enter the war he said quote I think that the pressure of this approaching crisis has gone beyond the ability of the Morgan financial agency for the British and French governments the greatest help we could give the Allies would be such a credit unless we go to war with Germany our government of course cannot make such a direct grant of credit end quote the Morgan Group had floated one and a half billion dollars in loans to Britain and France with the fortunes of war turning against them investors were facing the threat of a total loss as Ferdinand Lundberg observed the declaration of war by the United States in addition to extricating the wealthiest American families from a dangerous situation also opens new vistas of profits end quote Colonel house one of the most influential men behind the scenes at this time was Colonel Edward Mandell house personal advisor to Woodrow Wilson and later to FDR house had close contacts with both JP Morgan and the old banking families of Europe he had received several years of his schooling in England and in later years rounded himself with prominence members of the Fabian Society furthermore he was a man of great personal wealth most of it acquired during the War Between the States his father Thomas William house had acted as the confidential American agent of unknown banking interests in London it was commonly believed that he represented the Rothschilds although settled in Houston Texas the elder often remarked that he wanted his sons to know and serve England he was one of the few residents of a Confederate state who emerge from the war with a great fortune it is widely acknowledged that Colonel house was the man who selected Wilson as a presidential candidate and who secured his nomination he became Wilson's constant companion and the president admitted publicly that he depended on him greatly for instruction and guidance many of Wilson's important appointive posts in government were hand selected by house he and Wilson even went so far as to develop a private code so they could communicate freely over the telephone the President himself had written quote mr. house is my second personality he's my independent self his thoughts are mine and I'm sorry his thoughts in mine are one end quote George Viereck an admiring biographer of house tells us quote house had the Texas delegation in his pocket always moving quietly in the background he made and unmade several governors of Texas House elected Wilson because he regarded him as the best available candidate for seven long years Colonel house was Woodrow Wilson's other self for six long years he shared with him all but the title of the chief magistrate magistracy of the Republic and magistracy yeah there you go for six years two rooms were at his disposal in the north wing of the White House it was house who had made the slate for the cabinet formulated the first policies of the administration and practically directed the Foreign Affairs of the United States we had in two presidents for one super ambassador he talked to emperors and kings as an equal he was the spiritual Generalissimo of the administration he was the pilot who guided the ship end quote a secret agreement to get the u.s. into war as the presidential election neared for Woodrow Wilson's second term Colonel house entered into a series of confidential talks with Sir William Wiseman who was attached to the British Embassy in Washington and who acted as a secret intermediary between house and the British Foreign Office charles seymour writes quote between house and wiseman there was there were soon to be few political secrets this was upsetting to the end quote this was upsetting to the Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan mrs. Bryan as co-author of her husband's memoirs writes quote while secretary Bryan was bearing the heavy responsibility of the Department of State there arose the curious conditions surrounding mr. e/m houses unofficial connection with the president and his voyages abroad on affairs of state which were not communicated to secretary Bryan the president was unofficially dealing with foreign governments end quote what was the purpose of those dealings it was nothing less than to work out the means whereby the United States could be brought into the war Varrick explains quote ten months before the election which returned Wilson to the White House in 1916 because he kept us out of war Colonel house negotiated a secret agreement with England and France on behalf of Wilson which pledged the United States to intervene on behalf of the Allies on March 9th 1916 Woodrow Wilson formally sanctioned the undertaking if an inkling of the conversations between Colonel house and the leaders of England and France had reached the American people before the election it might have caused incalculable revulsion zuv public opinion from this conversation in various conferences with Edward gray grooves the secret treaty made without the knowledge and consent of the United States Senate by which Woodrow Wilson and house chained the United States to the chariot of the unn tante after the war the text of the agreement leaked out gray was the first to tattle page discussed it at length Colonel house tells his story tells its history Z Hartley Groton discusses it at length in his book why we fought but for some incomprehensible reason the enormous significance of the revelation never penetrated the consciousness of the American people end quote the basic terms of the agreement were that the United States government would offer to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Germany and the Allies and would then put forth a specific proposal for the terms of that settlement if either side refused to accept the proposal then the United States would come into the war as an ally of the other side the catch was that the terms of the proposal were carefully drafted so that Germany could not possibly accept them thus to the world it would look as though Germany was at fault in the United States was a humanitarian as ambassador page observed in a memorandum dated February 9th 1916 quote house arrived from Berlin Havre Paris full of the idea of American intervention first his plan was that he and I in a group of the British Cabinet gray Asquith Lloyd George reading etc should at once work out a minimum program of peace the least that the Allies would accept which he assumed would be unacceptable to the Germans and that the president would take this program and present it to both sides the side that declined would be responsible for continuing the war of course the fatal morale a fatal moral weakness of the foregoing scheme is that we should plunge into the war not on the merits of the cause but by a care sprung a trick end quote on the surface it is a paradox that Wilson who had always been a pacifist should now enter into a secret agreement with foreign powers to involve the United States in a war which she could easily avoid the key that unlocks this mystery is the fact that Wilson also was an internationalist one of the strongest bonds between house and himself was their common dream of a one-world government they both recognized that the American people would never accept such a concept unless there were extenuating circumstances they reasoned that a long and bloody war was probably the only event that could condition the American mind to accept the loss of national sovereignty especially if it were packaged with the promise of putting an end to all wars in the future Wilson knew also that if the United States came into the war early enough to make a real difference on the battlefield and if large amounts of American dollars could be loaned to the Allied powers he would be in a position after the war to dictate the terms of peace he wrote to Colonel house quote England and France have not been the same have not the same views with regard to peace as we have by any means when the war is over we can force them to our way of thinking because by that time they will among other things be financially in our hands end quote and so Wilson tolerated the agony of mixed emotions as he plotted for war as a necessary evil to bring about what he perceived as the ultimate good of world government with the arrival of 1917 the president was planting hints of both war and world government in almost every public utterance in a typical statement made in march of that year he said quote the tragic events of the thirty months of vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world there can be no turning back our own fortune as a nation are involved whether we would have it so or not end quote it was about the same time that Wilson called together the Democratic leaders of Congress to a special breakfast meeting at the White House he told them that in spite of public sentiment there were many sound reasons for the country to enter the war and he asked them to help him sell this plan to Congress and the voters Harry Elmer Barnes tells us quote these men were opposed to war and hence rejected his proposals somewhat heatedly Wilson knew that it was a poor time to split the party just before an election so he dropped the matter at once and with Colonel house mapped out a pacifist platform for the coming campaign Governor Martin Glyn of New York and senator Ollie James of Kentucky were sent to the st. Louis convention to make keynote speeches which were based on the slogan he kept us out of war before he had been inaugurated a second time the Germans played directly into his hands by announcing the resumption of submarine warfare it was fortunate for Britain in the bankers that the Germans made this timely blunder as Great Britain had overdrawn her American credit by some four hundred and fifty million dollars and the bankers were having trouble in floating more large private loans it was necessary now to pass on the burden of financing the untaught a to the federal treasury end quote selling war to the American people through secret secret agreements and trickery America had been committed to war but the political and monetary scientists realized that something still had to be done to change public sentiment how could that be accomplished Wall Street control over important segments of the media was considerable George wheeler tells us quote around this time the Morgan firm was choosing the top executives for the old and troubled Harper & Brothers publishing house in the newspaper field Pierpont Morgan at this period was a fact in control the New York Sun the Boston News Bureau Barron's magazine and The Wall Street Journal end quote on february 9th 1917 representative callaway from texas took the floor of congress and provided further insight he said quote in march 1915 the JPMorgan interests the steel shipbuilding and power a powder interests and their subsidiary organizations got together twelve men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the Daily Press they found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers an agreement was reached the policy of the papers was bought to be paid for by the month and an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness militarism financial politics and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers end quote Charles S Mellon of the New Haven Railroad testified before Congress that his Morgan owned rail railroad had more than 1,000 New England newspapers on the payroll costing about 400,000 bucks annually the railroad also held almost half a million dollars in bonds issued by the Boston Herald this web of control was multiplied by hundreds of additional companies which also were controlled by Morgan and other investment banking houses in addition the Morgan Trust exercised media control by its power of advertising writing in 1937 Lundberg says quote more advertising is controlled by the JP Morgan junta than by any single financial group a factor which immediately gives the banking house the respectful attention of all alert independent publishers Morgan control over the media at that time is well documented but he was by no means alone during the 1912 hearings held by the Senate privileges and elections committee it was revealed that representative Joseph Sibley from Pennsylvania was acting as a funnel for Rockefeller money to various cooperative congressmen a letter was introduced to the committee written by Sibley in 1905 to John D Archibald the man at Rockefellers Standard Oil Company who provided the money in that letter Sibley said quote an efficient literary Bureau is needed not if not for a day or a crisis but a permanent healthy control of The Associated Press and kindred avenues it'll cost money but will be the cheapest in the end end quote Lundberg comments further quote so far as can be learned the Rockefellers have given up their old policy of owning newspapers and magazines outright relying now upon the publication's of all camps to serve their best interests in return for the vast volume of petroleum petroleum and allied advertising under Rockefeller control after the JPMorgan block the Rockefellers have the most advertising of any group to dispose of and when advertising alone is not sufficient to ensure the filty of a newspaper the Rockefeller companies have been known to make direct payments in return for a friendly editorial attitude end quote it's not surprising therefore that a large part of the nation's press particularly in the East began to editorially denounced Germany the cry spread across the land to take up arms against the enemy of Western civilization editors became eloquent on the patriotic duty of all Americans to defend world democracy massive preparedness demonstrations and parades were organized but it was not enough in spite of this massive sales campaign the American people still were not buying polls conducted at the time showed popular sentiment continuing to run ten to one in favor of staying out of Europe's war clearly what was needed was something both drastic and dramatic to change public opinion morgen control liver shipping banking was not the only business in which Morgan had a strong financial interest using his control over the nation's railroads as financial leverage it created an international shipping trust which included Germany's two largest lines plus one of the two in England and the one of the two in England the White Star Line's Morgan had attempted in 1902 to take over the remaining British line the Cunard company but was blocked by the British Admiralty which wanted to keep Cunard out of foreign control so her ships could be pressed into military service if necessary in time of war the Lusitania and the Mauritania were built by Cunard and became major competitors of the Morgan cartel it is an interesting footnote of history therefore that from the Morgan perspective the Lusitania was quite dispensable Ron sure no explains quote a Pierpont assembled a plan for an American own shipping trust that would transpose his community of interests principled cooperation among competitors in a given industry to global plane he created the world's largest fleet under private ownership an important architect of the shipping trust was Albert Balin whose Hamburg America steamship line with hundreds of vessels was the world's largest shipping company Pierpont had to contend with a single holdout Britain's Cunard Line after the Boer War the Morgan combined and Cunard exhausted each other in debilitating rate Wars end quote as stated previously Morgan had been retained as the official trade agent for Britain he handled the purchasing of all war materials in the United States and coordinated their shipping as well following in the footsteps of the Rothschilds of centuries past he quickly learned the profitable skills of war I'm smuggling Colin Sampson author of the Lusitania describes the operation quote throughout the period of America's neutrality British servicemen and civilian clothes worked at Morgan's this great banking combine rapidly established such a labyrinthine network of false shippers bank accounts and all the paraphernalia of smuggling that although they fooled the Germans there were also some serious some very serious occasions when they flummoxed to the Admiralty and Cunard not to speak of the unfortunate passengers on the liners which carried the contraband end quote the Lusitania the Lusitania was a British passenger liner that sailed regularly between Liverpool and New York as she was owned by the Cunard company which as previously mentioned was the only major ship line which was a competitor of the Morgan cartel she left New York Harbor on May 1st 1915 and was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland six days later of the 1195 persons who lost their lives 195 were Americans it was this event more than any other that provided the advocates of war with a convincing platform with their views I'm sorry a convincing platform for their views and it became the turning point where Americans reluctantly began to accept if not the necessity of war at least its inevitability the fact that the Lusitania was a passenger ship is misleading although she was built as a luxury liner her construction specifications were drawn up by the British Admiralty so that she could be converted if necessary into a ship of war everything from the horsepower of her engines and the shape of her hull to the placement of ammunition storage areas were in fact military designs she was built specifically to carry 12 6-inch guns the construction cost for these features were paid for by the British government even in times of peace it was required that Kru include officers and seamen from the Royal Navy Reserve in May of 1913 she was brought back into drydock and outfitted with extra armor revolving gun rings on her decks and shell racks in the hold for ammunition handling elevators to lift the shells to the guns were also installed twelve high-explosive cannons were delivered to the dry dog all this is a matter of public record at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich England but whether the guns were actually installed at that time is still hotly debated there is no evidence that they were in any event on September 17th the Lusitania returned to sea ready for the rigors of war and she was entered into the Admiralty Fleet register not as a passenger liner but an armed auxilary cruiser from then on she was listed in the Jane's fighting ships as an auxilary cruiser and in the British publication the naval annual as an armed merchant and part of the drydock modification was to remove all of the passenger accommodations in the lower deck to make room for more military cargo thus the Lusitania became one of the most important carriers of war materials including munitions from the United States to England on March 8th 1915 after several close calls with German submarines the captain of the Lusitania returned in his resignation he was willing to face the u-boats he said but he was no longer willing to quote carry the responsibility of mixing passengers with munitions or contraband end quote Churchill sets a trap from England's point of view the handwriting on the wall was clear unless the United States could be brought into the war as her ally she soon would have to sue for peace the challenge was how to push Americans off their position of stubborn neutrality how that was accomplished is one of the more controversial aspects of the war it is inconceivable to many that English leaders might have deliberately plotted the destruction of one of their own vessels with American citizens aboard as a means of drawing the United States into the war as an ally surely any such idea is merely German propaganda Robert Ballard writing in National Geographic says quote within days of the sinking German sympathizers in New York came up with a conspiracy theory the British Admiralty they said had deliberately exposed Lusitania to harm hoping she would be attacked and thus draw the u.s. into the war end quote let's take a closer look at this conspiracy theory Winston Churchill who was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time said quote there are many kinds of maneuvers in war there are maneuvers in time in diplomacy in mechanics in psychology all of which are removed from the battlefield but react but react often decisively upon it the maneuver which brings an ally into the field is as serviceable as that which wins a great battle the maneuver which gains an important strategic point may be less valuable than that which placates or overall a dangerous neutral end quote the maneuver chosen by Churchill was particularly ruthless under what was called the cruiser rules warships of both England and Germany gave the crews of unarmed enemy merchant ships a chance to take up the lifeboats before sinking them but in October of 1914 Churchill issued orders that British merchant ships must no longer obey a u-boat order to halt and be searched if they had armament they were to engage the enemy if they did not they were to attempt to ram the sub the immediate result of this change was to force German u-boats to remain submerged for protection and to simply sink the ships without warning why would the British want to do such a stupid thing that would cost the lives of thousands of their own seamen the answer is that it was not an act of stupidity it was cold-blooded strategy the Churchill boasted quote the first British counter move made on my responsibility was to deter the Germans from surface attack the submerged u-boat had to rely increasingly on underwater attack and thus ran the greater risk of mistaking a neutral for British ships and of drowning neutral crews and thus embroiling Germany with other great powers end quote to increase the likelihood of accidentally sinking a ship from a neutral so-called great power Churchill ordered British ships to remove their names from their holes and when import to fly the flag of a neutral power preferably that of the United States as further provocation the British Navy was ordered to treat captured u-boat crew members not as prisoners of war but as felons survivors wrote Churchill should be taken prisoner or shot whichever is the most convenient end quote other orders which now are an embarrassment and embarrassing part of the official Navy archives or even more ruthless quote in all actions white flags should be fired upon with promptitude end quote the trap was carefully laid the German Navy was goaded into a position of shoot first and ask questions later and under those conditions it was inevitable that American lives would be lost a floating munitions depot after many years of investigation it is now possible to identify the cargo that was loaded aboard Lusitania on her last voyage it included 600 tons of pirate up high rock Celine commonly called guncotton six million rounds of ammunition twelve hundred and forty-eight cases of shrapnel shells which may not have included explosive charges plus an unknown quantity of munitions that completely filled the holds on the lowest deck and the trunk ways and passageways on F deck in addition there were many tons of quote cheese lard and furs and other items which were shown later to be falsely labeled what they were is not not now known but it is certain they were at least contraband if not outright weapons of war they were all consigned through the JP Morgan Company but none of this was suspected by the public least of all those hapless Americans who unknowingly booked a passage to death for themselves and their families as human decoys in a global game of high finance and low politics the German Embassy in Washington was well aware of the nature of the cargo being loaded aboard the Lusitania and filed a formal complaint to the United States government because almost all of it was in direct violation of international neutrality treaties the response was a flat denial of any knowledge of such cargo seeing that the Wilson administration was tacitly approving the shipment the German embassy made one final effort to avoid disaster it placed an ad in 50 East Coast newspapers including those in New York City warning Americans not to take passage on the Lusitania the ad was prepaid and requested to be placed on the papers Travel page a full week before the sailing date it read as follows quote notice travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles that in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German government vessels flying the flags of Great Britain or any of her allies are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk Imperial German Embassy Washington DC April 22nd 1915 although the ad in the hands of newspapers in time for the requested deadline the State Department intervened and raising the specter of possible libel suits frightened the publishers into not printing it without prior clearance from State Department's attorneys of the 50 newspapers only the Des Moines Register carried the ad on the requested date what happened next is described by Simpson quote George Varrick who was the editor of a German owned newspaper at the time and who had placed the ads on behalf of the embassy spent April 26 asking the State Department why his advertisement had not been published eventually he managed to obtain an interview with Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan and pointed out to him that on all but one of her wartime voyages the Lusitania had carried munitions he produced copies of her supplementary manifests which were open to public inspection at the collector's office more important he informed Bryan no fewer than six million rounds of ammunition were due to be shipped on the Lusitania the following Friday and could be seen at the moment being loaded on pier 54 Bryan picked up a telephone and cleared the publication of the advertisement he promised Varrick that he would endeavor to persuade the president publicly to warn Americans not to travel no such warning was issued by the president but there can be no doubt that President Wilson was told of the character of the cargo destined for the Lusitania he did nothing but he was to concede on the day he was told of her sinking that his foreknowledge had given him many sleepless hours end quote it's probably true that Wilson was a pacifist at heart but it is equally certain that he was not entirely the master of his own destiny he was transplanted he was a transplanted college professor from the ivy-covered walls of Princeton and internationalist at heart who dreamed of helping to create a world government and to usher in a millennium of peace but he found himself surrounded by and dependent upon men of strong wills astute political aptitudes and powerful financial resources against these forces he was all but powerless to act on his own and there is good reason to believe that he inwardly suffered over many of the events in which he was compelled to participate we shall leave it to others to moralize about a man who by his deliberate refusal to warn his countrymen of their mortal peril sends 195 of them to their watery graves we may wonder also about how such a man can commit the ultimate hypocrisy of condemning the Germans for this act and then doing everything possible to prevent the American public from learning the truth it would be surprising if the extent of his private remorse was not greater than merely a few sleepless hours the final voyage but we are getting slightly ahead of the story while Morgan and Wilson were setting the deadly stage on the American side of the Atlantic Churchill was playing his part on the European side with Lusitania left New York Harbor on May 1st her orders were to rendezvous with a British destroyer the Juno just off the coast of Ireland so she would have naval protection as she entered hostile waters when the Lusitania reached the rendezvous point however she was alone and the captain assumed they had missed each other in the fog in truth the Juno had been called out of the area at the last minute in order to return to Queenstown and this was done with the full knowledge that the Lusitania was on direct course into an area where a German submarine was known to be operating to make matters worse the Lusitania had been ordered to cut back on the use of coal not because of shortages but because it would be less expensive slow targets of course are much easier to hit yet she was required to shut down one of her four broilers and consequently was now entering submarine infested waters at only 75% of her potential speed as the Lusitania drew closer to hostile waters almost everyone knew she was in grave danger newspapers in London were alive with the story of German warnings and recent sinkings in the map room of the British Admiralty Churchill watched the play unfold and coldly called the shots small disks marked the places where two ships had been torpedoed the day before a circle indicated the area within which the u-boat must still be operating a larger disk represented the Lusitania traveling at 19 knots directly into the circle yet nothing was done to help her Admiral Koch at Queenstown was given that perfunctory instructions to protect her as best he could but he had no means to do so and in fact no one even bothered to notify the captain of the Lusitania that the rendezvous with the Juno had been canceled one of the officers present in the high command map room on that fateful day was commander Joseph Kenworthy who previously had been called upon by Churchill to submit a paper on what would be the political results of an ocean liner being sunk with American passengers aboard he left the room in disgust at the cynicism of his superiors in 1927 in his book the freedom of the seas he wrote without further comment quote the Lusitania was sent at considerably reduced speed into an area where a new boat was known to be waiting and with her escort withdrawn end quote further comment is not needed Colonel house was in England at that time and on the day of the sinking he was scheduled to have an audience with King George v he was accompanied by Sir Edward grey and on the way sir gray asked him quote what will America do if the Germans sink an ocean liner with American passengers on board and quote as recorded in houses Diaries he replied I told him if this were done a flame of indignation would sweep America which would in itself probably carry us into the war once at Buckingham Palace King George also brought up the subject and was even more specific about the possible target he said quote suppose they should sink the Lusitania with American passengers on board end quote a mighty explosion a watery grave four hours after this conversation the black smoke of the Lusitania was spotted on the horizon through the periscope of the German submarine u-20 the ship came directly toward the u-boat allowing it to full-throttle out of her path and swing around for a 90 degree shot at her bow as she passed only 750 yards away the torpedo struck nine feet below the waterline on the starboard side slightly forward of the bridge a second torpedo was readied but not needed quickly after the explosion of the impact there was a second and much larger explosion that literally blew the side off of a cargo hold number two and started the great ship immediately towards the bottom and what a hole it must have been the Lusitania one of the largest ships ever built sank in less than 18 minutes survivors among the crew who were working in the boiler rooms during the attack have attested that the boilers did not blow at the time Simpson tells this quote the G torpedo had failed to blow in the inner bulkhead of number one boiler room but just further forward something blew out most of the bottom of the bow of the ship it must have been the Bethlehem company's three-inch shells the six million rounds of rifle ammunition or the highly dubious contents of the bales of furs or the small forty pound boxes of cheese divers who have been down to the wreck unanimously testified that the bow was blasted by a massive internal explosion and large pieces of the bow plating buckled from the inside are to be found some distance from the hole end quote when a search team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute surveyed the wreckage in the summer of 1993 they reported quote when our cameras swept across the hold we got a big surprise there was no hole we found no evidence that u-20 torpedo had detonated an explosion undermining one theory of why the liner was sank and it is difficult to share the team surprise photographs show that the wreck is resting on its starboard or its right side since that's where the torpedo struck it's logical that the hole would not be visible it would be on the side buried on the ocean floor the team reported that they were able to inspect only part of the holes underside that is because most of it plus the entire starboard side is buried in the muck since the torpedo struck only 9 feet below the waterline the hole would not logically be anywhere near the bottom of the hole but at a point midway between the main deck and the bottom in other words it would be at the midpoint of the side that is now facing down failure to see the hole does not undermine the theory of international expla internal explosion it is exactly what one would expect in any event it should be obvious that the Lusitania would not have gone to the bottom in 18 minutes without a hole somewhere even the search team had to acknowledge that that fact indirectly when it addressed the question of what might have caused the second explosion in an obvious effort to avoid giving support to a conspiracy theory the report concluded that the explosion probably was caused not by munitions but by coal dust in the final analysis it makes little difference whether the explosion was caused by munitions or coal dust the fact that it could have been caused by munitions is sufficient for the case a hurried cover-up an official inquiry under the direction of Lord Mersey was held to determine the facts of the sinking and to place the blame it was a rigged affair from the beginning all evidence and testimony was carefully pre-screened to make sure that nothing was admitted into the record which would reveal duplicity on the part of the British or American officials among the papers submitted to Lord Mersey prior to the hearings was one from Captain Richard Webb one of the men chosen by the navy to assist in the cover-up it read quote I'm directed by the board of Admiralty to inform you that this is it is considered politically expedient that and Turner the master of Lusitania being most prominently blamed for the disaster end quote the final report was a most interesting document anyone reading it without knowledge of the facts would conclude that captain William Turner was to blame for the disaster even so mercy attempted to soften the blow he wrote quote blame ought not be imputed to the captain his omission to follow the advice in all respects cannot fairly be attributed to either negligence or incompetence end quote and then he added a final paragraph which on the surface appears to be a condemnation of the Germans but which if read with understanding of the background was an indictment of Churchill with Wilson house and Morgan now he wrote quote the whole blame for the cruel destruction of life in this catastrophe must rest solely with those who plotted and with those who committed the crime end quote did Lord Mersey know that there could be a dual meaning to his words perhaps not but two days after delivering this judgment he wrote to Prime Minister Asquith and to turned down his fee for services he added I must request henceforth that I be excused from administering his Majesty's justice in later years his only comment on the event was the Lusitania case was a damned dirty business the cry from war the purposes of the cabal would have been better served had an American ship been sunk by the Germans but a British ship with 195 Americans drowned was sufficient to do the job the players wasted no time in whipping up public sentiment Wilson sent a note of outraged indignation to the Imperial German government and this was widely quoted in the press by that time Brian had become completely disillusioned by the duplicity of his own government on May $0.90 a dour note to Wilson quote Germany has a right to prevent contraband going to the Allies and a ship carrying contraband should not rely upon passengers to protect her from attack it would be like putting women and children in front of an army end quote this did not deter Wilson from his commitment the first node was followed by an even stronger one with threatening overtones which was intensely discussed at the cabinet meeting on the 1st of June McAdoo who was present at the meeting says quote I remember that Bryan had little to say at this meeting he sat throughout the proceedings with his eyes half closed most of the time after the meeting he told the president as I learned later that he could not sign the note Bryan went on to say that he thought his usefulness as Secretary of State's was over and he proposed to resign end quote at the request of Wilson McAdoo was dispatched to the Bryan's home to persuade the secretary to change his mind last his resignation be taken as a sign of disunity within the president's cabinet Bryan agreed to think it over one more day but the following morning his decision remained firm in his memoirs annotated by his wife mrs. Bryan reveals that her husband could not sleep that night she said he was so Restless ty suggested that he read a little till he should become drowsy he had in his handbag a copy of an old book printed in 1829 called a wreath of appreciation of Andrew Jackson he found it very interesting end quote what irony in chapter 17 which that we shall review the total war waged by President Jackson against the Bank of the United States the predecessor of the Federal Reserve System and we shall be reminded that it was Jackson who prophesied quote is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in his nature has so little to bind it to our country is there not cause to tremble for the purity of our elections in peace and for the independence of our country and war controlling our currency receiving our public monies and holding thousands of our citizens independence it would be more formidable and dangerous than a naval and military power of the enemy end quote one can only wonder what thoughts went through Bryan's mind as he recalled Jackson's warning and applied it to the artificially-created war hysteria that at the very moment was being generated by the financial powers on Wall Street and at the newly created Federal Reserve from England Colonel house sent a telegram to President Wilson which he in turn read to his cabinet it became the genesis of thousands of newspaper editorials across the land he said piously quote America has come to the parting of the ways when she must determine whether she stands for civilized or uncivilized warfare we can no longer remain neutral spectators our action in this crisis will determine the part we will play when peace is made and how far we may influence a settlement for the lasting good of humanity we're being weighed in the balance and our position amongst nations is being assessed by mankind end quote in another telegram two days later house reveals himself as the master psycho politician playing on Wilson's ego like a violinist stroking the strings of a Stradivarius he wrote quote if unhappily it is necessary to go to war I hope you will give the world in exhibition of American efficiency that will be a lesson for a century or more it's generally believed throughout Europe that we are so unprepared and that it would take so long to put our resources into action then our entering would make but little difference in the event of war we should accelerate the manufacture of munitions to such an extent that we could supply not only ourselves but the Allies and so quickly that the world would be astounded end quote Congress could not resist the combined pressure of the press and the president on April 16th 1917 the United States officially declared war on the Axis powers eight days later Congress dutifully passed the war loan Act which extended a billion dollars in credit to the Allies the first advance of 200 million dollars went to the British that the next day and was immediately applied as payment on the debt to Morgan a few days later a hundred million dollars went to France for the same purpose but the drain continued within three months the British had run up their overdraft with Morgan to four hundred million dollars and the firm presented it to the government for payment the Treasury however was unable to put its hands on that amount of money without jeopardizing its own spendable funds and at first refused to pay the problem was quickly solved however through a maneuver described at some length in Chapter ten the Federal Reserve System under Benjamin strong simply created the needed money through the Mandrake mechanism the Wilson administration found itself in an extremely awkward position having to bail out JP Morgan wrote Farrell but Benjamin strong offered the help I'm sorry offered to help Treasury secretary McAdoo out of the difficulty over the following months in 1917 through 18 the Treasury quietly paid Morgan piecemeal for the overdraft end quote by the time the war was over the Treasury had loaned a total of nine billion four hundred and sixty-six million dollars including two point one seven billion given to the Armistice that was the cash flow they had long awaited in addition to saving the Morgan loans even larger profits were to be made for more production the government had been secretly preparing for war for six months prior to the actual declaration according to Franklin D Roosevelt then Assistant Secretary of the Navy the Navy Department began extensive purchasing of war supplies in the fall of 1960 Ferdinand Lindbergh adds this perspective quote by no accident all the strategic government posts notably those concerned with buying were reserved for the wall street Patriots on the most vital appointments Wilson consulted with dodge president of Rockefellers National City Bank who recommended the hitherto unknown Bernard barrack speculator in copper stocks as chairman of the all-powerful war industries board as head of the war industries board berrak spends government funds at the rate of ten billion dollars annually berrak pact the war industries board and it's committees with past and future wall street manipulators industrialists finance yours and their agents who fixed prices on a cost-plus basis and as subsequent investigations revealed saw to it that costs were grossly padded so as to yield hidden profits the American soldiers fighting in the trenches the people working at home the entire nation under arms were fighting not only to subdue Germany but to subdue themselves that there is nothing metaphysical about this interpretation becomes clear when we observe that the total wartime expenditure of the United States government from April 6 1917 to October 31st 1919 when the last contingent of troops returned from Europe was thirty five billion four hundred and thirteen million dollars net corporation profits for the period January 1st 1916 through July of 1921 when wartime industrial activity was finally liquidated were 38 billion Whitby dollars or approximately the amount of the war expenditures more than two-thirds of these corporation profits were taken by precisely those enterprises which the Pujo committee had found to be under the control of the so called money trust boom the banking cartel was able through the operation of the Federal Reserve System to create the money to give to England and France so that they in turn could pay back the American banks exactly as was to be done again in World War two and again in the big bailout of the 1980s and 90s it is true that in 1917 the recently enacted income tax was useful for raising a sizable amount of revenue to conduct the war and also as Beardsley Rummel into that a few years later to take purchasing power away from the middle class but the greatest source of funding came as it always does in wartime not from direct taxes but from the hidden tax called inflation between 1915 and 1920 the money supply doubled from twenty point six billion to thirty nine point eight billion conversely during World War one the purchasing power of the currency fell by almost 50 percent that means Americans unknowingly paid to the government approximately one half of every dollar that existed and that was in addition to their taxes this massive infusion of money was the product of the Mandrake mechanism and costs nothing to create yet the banks were able to collect interest on all of it the ancient partnership between the political and monetary scientists had performed its mission well summary to finance the early stages of World War one England and France had borrowed heavily from investors in America and had selected the house of Morgan as sales agent for their bonds Morgan also acted as their u.s. purchasing agent for war materials thus profiting from both ends of the cash flow once when the money was borrowed and again when it was spent further profits were derived from production contracts placed with companies within the Morgan orbit but the war began to go badly for the Allies when Germany's submarines took virtual control of the Atlantic shipping lanes as England and France moved closer to defeat or a negotiated peace on Germany's terms it became increasingly difficult to sell their bonds no bonds meant no purchases and the Morgan cash flow was threatened furthermore if the previously sold bonds should go into default as they certainly would in the wake of the defeat the Morgan consortium would suffer gigantic losses the only way to save the British Empire was to restore the value of the bonds and to end to sustain the mortgage cash flow was for the United States government to provide the money but since neutral nation were prohibited from doing that by treaty America would have to be brought into the war a secret agreement to that effect was made between British officials and Colonel house with the concurrence of the president from that point forward Wilson began to pressure Congress for a declaration of war this was known at the very time he was campaigning for reelection on the slogan he kept us out of war meanwhile Morgan purchased control over major segments of the news media and engineered a nationwide editorial blitz against Germany calling for war as an act of American patriotism Morgan had created an international shipping cartel including Germany's merchant fleets which maintained a near monopoly on the high seas only the British Cunard lines remained aloof the Lusitania was owned by Cunard and operated in competition with Morgan's cartel the Lusitania was built to military specifications and was registered with the British Admiralty as an armed auxiliary Cruiser she carried passengers as a cover to conceal her real mission which was to bring contraband war materials from the United States this fact was known to Wilson and others in his administration but they did nothing to stop it when the German embassy tried to publish a warning to American passengers the State Department intervened and prevented newspapers from printing it with the Lusitania left New York Harbor on her final voyage she was virtually a floating a munitions depot the British knew that to draw the United States into the war would mean the difference between defeat and victory and anything that could accomplish that was proper even the coldly calculated sacrifice of one of her great ships with Englishmen aboard but the trick was to have Americans on board also in order to create the proper emotional climate in the United States as the Lusitania moved into hostile waters where a German u-boat was known to be operating first Lloyd of the Admiralty wills by Winston Churchill ordered her destroyer protection to abandon her this plus the fact that she had been ordered to travel at reduced speed made her an easy target after the impact of one well-placed torpedo a mighty second explosion from within ripped her apart and the ship that many believed could not be sunk gurgled to the bottom in less than 18 minutes the deed had been done and it set in motion a great great waves of revulsion against the Germans these waves eventually flooded through Washington and swept the United States into war within days of the Declaration Congress voted 1 billion dollars in credit for England and France 200 million was sent to England immediately and was applied to the Morgan account the vast quantity of money needed to finance the war was created by the Federal Reserve System which means it was collected from Americans through that hidden tax called inflation within just five years this tax had taken fully one-half of all they had saved the infinitely higher cost in American blood was added to the bill thus it was that the separate motives of such diverse personalities as Winston Churchill JP Morgan Colonel House and Woodrow Wilson all found common cause in bringing America into World War one Churchill maneuvered for military advantage Morgan sought the profits of war house a scheme for political power and Wilson dreamed of a chance to dominate a post war League of Nations and they've got this newspaper clipping that the was quoted here and the German embassy this is the bottom bottom right image the German embassy attempted to place ads in 50 newspapers warning that the Lusitania was a target of war but the US government prevented them from being printed except for this one which was running the Des Moines Register when the ship was sunk off the coast of Ireland with 195 Americans aboard it became the center of a national campaign to generate emotional support for coming into the war right that's the end of chapter 12 the creature from Jekyll Jekyll Island thanks so much for watching and I hope you'll have a great day take it easy everybody