work. Having begun his career as a speculator in copper mines, he soon moved into the world of high finance. He refinanced the American Woolen Company and the Tobacco Products Company; launched the Cuban Cane Sugar Company; purchased controlling interest in the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company; organized the Submarine Boat Corporation and the Wright-Martin Aeroplane Company; became a director of the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railway, the Magma Arizona Railroad, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; was one of the heaviest stockholders in the Chase National Bank; was the agent for J.P. Morgan's British securities operation; became the first full-time director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most important bank in the Federal Reserve System; and, of course, contributed a quarter-million dollars to the Red Cross.
When Thompson arrived in Russia, he made it clear that he was not your typical Red Cross representative. According to Hermann Hagedorn, Thompson's biographer:
1. Sutton,
276
THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND
He deliberately created the kind of setting which would beexpected of an American magnate: established himself in a suite in theHotel de l'Europe, bought a French limousine, went dutifully toreceptions and teas and evinced an interest in objects of art. Societyand the diplomats, noting that here was a man of parts and power,began to flock about him. He was entertained at the embassies, at thehouses of Kerensky's ministers. It was discovered that he was acollector, and those with antiques to sell fluttered around him, offeringhim miniatures, Dresden china, tapestries, even a palace or two.1
When Thompson attended the opera, he was given the imperial box. People on the street called him the American Tsar. And it is not surprising that, according to George Kennan, "He was viewed by the Kerensky authorities as the 'real' ambassador of the United States."2
It is now a matter of record that Thompson syndicated the purchase on Wall Street of Russian bonds in the amount of ten-million roubles. In addition, he gave over two-million roubles to Aleksandr Kerensky for propaganda purposes inside Russia and, with J.P. Morgan, gave the rouble equivalent of one-million dollars to the Bolsheviks for the spreading of revolutionary propaganda outside of Russia, particularly in Germany and Austria. A photograph of the cablegram from Morgan to Thompson advising that the money had been transferred to the National City Bank branch in Petrograd is included in this book.
AN OBJECT LESSON IN SOUTH AFRICA
At first it may seem incongruous that the Morgan group would provide funding for both Kerensky and Lenin. These men may have both been socialist revolutionaries, but they were miles apart in their plans for the future and, in fact, were bitter competitors for control of the new government. But the tactic of funding
2. George F. Kennan,
(Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1956), p. 60
3. Hagedorn, p. 192.
4. Sutton,
MASQUERADE IN MOSCOW
277
Round Table into a fine art. A stunning example of this occurred in South Africa during the outset of Boer War in 1899.
The British and Dutch had been active in the settlement of Southern Africa for decades. The Dutch had developed the provinces of Transvaal and the Orange Free State, while the British had colonized such areas as Rhodesia, Cape Hope, Basutoland,
Swaziland, and Bechuanaland. Conflict was inevitable between these two groups of settlers whenever they found themselves in competition for the resources of the same territory, but it was the discovery of gold in the Whitewater area of the Transvaal that provided the motive for war.
