The Goose-step: A Study of American EducationSinclair, Upton
History
The Goose-step: A Study of American Education
Sinclair, Upton
Education -- United States; Universities and colleges -- United States
A year later the “Evening Post” made a further examination, considering
not merely the fellows and the overseers, but the nine directors of the
Harvard Alumni Association, the nine members of the Association’s
nominating committee, twenty candidates for overseers who had just been
called, and six who had just been called as candidates for directors of
the Association. That made a body of eighty Harvard graduates, forty of
them Boston men, and twenty-nine of these forty being financial men, or
attorneys for the State Street houses. All but six were connected with
the three interlocked financial institutions; twenty were connected with
Lee, Higginson & Company or its institutions—nine with the Old Colony
Trust Company, the great Lee-Higginson bank, five with Lee, Higginson &
Company itself, four directors in another Lee-Higginson bank, six
directors in a Lee-Higginson savings bank, six in another Lee-Higginson
savings bank, four in a Lee-Higginson insurance company, and six
attorneys for these. “State Street,” you see, is like Virginia; the old
families have been intermarrying for so long that everybody is related
to everybody else.
A Harvard graduate wrote to the New York “Evening Post,” “Harvard has
assets to be invested of about thirty-four million dollars. Is that the
reason why practically five-sixths of the Boston business representation
(of Harvard) is affiliated with investment banking concerns, or is it
because they wish to use Harvard as a knighthood for their friends?” The
“Evening Post” went on politely to say that it did not believe this was
the case; the financial domination of Harvard had resulted by accident!
But this bit of humor did not save the “Evening Post” from the wrath of
the interlocking directorate. The paper offended also by opposing
America’s entry into the war—and so the valuable advertising business of
Lee, Higginson & Co. was withdrawn, and shortly afterwards the owner of
the paper was forced to sell out to Mr. Lamont, a partner of the House
of Morgan. This story is in “The Brass Check,” page 248. To complete it
we should note the part played by Harvard in the swallowing. It was a
Harvard overseer who bought the “Evening Post”; another overseer is now
president and trustee of the “Evening Post” company, and a third
overseer is also a trustee of the “Evening Post” company!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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