When Wilson was elected, Colonel House literally moved intothe White House and became the unseen President of the UnitedStates. Under his guidance, the Aldrich Bill was given cosmeticsurgery and emerged as the Glass-Owen Bill. Although sponsoredby Democrats, in all essential features it was still the Jekyll Islandplan. Aldrich, Vanderlip, and others identified with Wall Street puton a pretense of opposing the Glass-Owen Bill to convinceCongress and the public that big bankers were fearful of it. Thefinal bill was written with many sound features which wereincluded to make it palatable during Congressional debate butwhich were predesigned to be dropped in later years. To win thesupport of the Populists under the leadership of William JenningsBryan, the Jekyll Island team also engineered what appeared to becompromises but which in actual operation were, as Wilson calledthem, mere "shadows" while the "substance" remained. In short,Congress was outflanked, outfoxed, and outclassed by a deceptive,but brilliant, psycho-political attack. The result is that, on December 23,1913, America once again had a central bank.
Chapter Twenty-Three
THE GREAT
DUCK DINNER
The story is told of a New England farmer with a small pond inhis pasture. Each summer, a group of wild ducks would frequentthat pond but, try as he would, the farmer could never catch one.
No matter how early in the morning he approached, or howcarefully he constructed a blind, or what kind of duck call he tried,somehow those crafty birds sensed the danger and managed to beout of range. Of course, when fall arrived, the ducks headed South,and the farmer's craving for a duck dinner only intensified.
