John Moody, author of many standard reference works on American finance, stated in McClure’s Magazine, Aug., 1911, “The Seven Men,”

“Seven men in Wall Street now control a great share of the fundamental industry and resources of the United States.  Three of the seven men, J.P. Morgan, James Stillman, and George F. Baker, head of the First National Bank of New York, belong to the so-called Morgan group;  four of them, John D. and William Rockefeller, James Stillman, head of the National City Bank, and Jacob H. Schiff of the private banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb Co., to the so-called Standard Oil National City Bank group ... the central machine of capital extends its control over the U.S..... The process is not only economically logical;  it is now practically automatic.”

What was true in 1911 is even more true in 1984;  the seven men are now, as then, merely American agents for London interests.  In 1919, Moody wrote in “Masters of Capital”, “All of the great bankers began as dry goods traders, including Junius S. Morgan.”  Beebe Morgan was a dry goods house.  J.M. Beebe Co. of Boston made Junius S. Morgan a partner.  Junius Morgan was later invited to join George Peabody & Co. of London, which handled most of the House of Rothschild’s trading in American stocks.  Junius Morgan’s son, J.P. Morgan, later changed the name of the firm to J.P. Morgan & Co., but it continued to one of three representatives of the House of Rothschild in the U.S., the others being Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and August Belmont.

The Morgan group and the National City Bank group held a secret meeting at Jekyl Island, Ga. the week of Nov. 22, 1910 to consolidate their financial power.  Present were Sen. Nelson Aldrich (his daughter married John D. Rockefeller Jr.), his private secretary, Shelton, A. Piatt Andrews, Asst. Sec. of the Treasury, Frank Vanderlip, president National City Bank, Henry P. Davison, J.P. Morgan’s righthand man, Charles D. Norton, pres. First National Bank of New York, Benjamin Strong of Liberty Natl. Bank (he later married the daughter of the president of Bankers Trust, became president of Bankers Trust, and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) and Paul Warburg, a German immigrant who had joined Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

Although these men were the most influential financiers in the U.S., they were present at Jekyl Island merely as the emissaries of Baron Alfred Rothschild, who had commissioned them to prepare legislation establishing a central bank in the U.S., modelled on the European fractional reserve central banking organizations of the Reichsbank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of France, all of which were controlled by the House of Rothschild.

To enact the Federal Reserve Act into the law of the land, the bankers elected Woodrow Wilson president of the U.S. in 1912 by splitting the Republican Party, defeating the popular William Howard Taft by financing Theodore Roosevelt’s malicious Bull Moose third party candidacy.  Wilson’s academic career at Princeton had been financed by gifts from Cleveland H. Dodge, director of National City Bank, and Moses Taylor Pyne, grandson and heir of the founder of National City Bank.  Wilson then signed an agreement not to go to any other college.  The Federal Reserve Act was legislated through Congress as the Glass-Owen bill, backed by two Democrats, Congressman Carter Glass of Virginia, and Sen. Robert Owen of Oklahoma.  Owen was persuaded to back the bill by Samuel Untermyer, who had cultivated him while acting as counsel for the Pujo Money Trust investigation.  Untermyer flattered Owen by entertaining him at Greystone, his palatial Hudson River estate.  Untermyer claimed to be a “progressive Democrat”, although he lived in feudal splendor, employing 167 men to tend his expanse of orchids and greenhouses.  At Greystone, Owen dined with Paul Warburg, Bernard Baruch, and other financiers who had been instructed to get the Federal Reserve Act passed.  Owen, a former Indian agent who knew little about finance, was easily persuaded by Paul Warburg’s doctrinaire pronunciamentos about “our antiquated banking system”, which must be brought up to par with the more modern banking system of Europe.

After the Federal Reserve Act had been passed by Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, six New York banks controlled by the Morgan-Standard Oil group bought controlling interest of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which they have held ever since.  The May 19, 1914 organization chart of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that of the 203,053 shares issued, National City Bank took 30,000 shares;  the Morgan-Baker First National Bank took 15,000 shares.  These two banks merged into the present Citibank in 1955, giving them one-fourth of the shares in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  The $134 billion Citicorp is now the largest bank in the U.S.  The National Bank of Commerce of which Paul Warburg was a large shareholder, took 21,000 shares;  Hanover Bank (now Manufacturers Hanover, of which Lord Rothschild is a director,) took 10,200 shares;  Chase National Bank took 6000 shares;  Chemical Bank took 6000 shares.  These six banks in 1914 owned 40% of the stock of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  The Federal Reserve System printout of shareholders July 26, 1983 showed that they now own 53%, as follows:  Citibank 15%; Chase Manhattan 14%;  Morgan Guaranty Trust 9%;  Manufacturers Hanover 7%;  Chemical Bank 8%.  Citicorp Citibank is No. 1 in size in the U.S.  No. 3 is Chase Manhattan with $82 billion assets;  No. 4 is Manufacturers Hanover, $64 billion;  No. 5 is J.P. Morgan, $58 billion;  No. 6 Chemical Bank.  No. 11 is First Chicago, formerly First National Bank of Chicago, controlled by the Baker-Morgan interests.  House Rept.159362, p.183, notes, “Next to Baker and Son, Morgan & Co. is the largest stockholder of First National (of New York), owning 14,500 shares;  Baker and Morgan together own 40,000 of the 100,000 shares of First National Bank.”

The New York Times, Sept. 3, 1914, at the time of the Federal Reserve stock was being sold, showed the principal stockholders of these banks as follows:  National City Bank – 250,000 shares of which James Stillman owned 47,498;  J.P. Morgan & Co., 14,500;  W. Rockefeller 10,000;  M.T. Pyne 8267;  Percy Pyne 8267;  J.D. Rockefeller 1750;  J.S. Rockefeller 100;  W.A. Rockefeller 10;  J.P. Morgan Jr. 1000.  National Bank of Commerce, 250,000 shares – George F. Baker 10,000;  J.P. Morgan Co. 7800;  Mary W. Harriman, (widow E.H.) 5650;  Paul Warburg 3000;  Jacob Schiff 1000;  J.P. Morgan Jr. 1100. Chase Natl. Bank – George F. Baker 13,408. Hanover Natl. Bank – James Stillman 4000;  William Rockefeller 1540.

During a period when thousands of U.S. banks have gone bankrupt since 1914, these banks, protected by their interest in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, have grown steadily.  A Senate Report, “Interlocking Directorates among the Major U.S. Corporations, a staff study of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs,” June 15, 1978, shows that five of these aforementioned banks held a total of 470 interlocking directorates in the 130 major corporations of the U.S., an average of 3.6 directors per major U.S. Corporation.  This massive report is worthy of anyone’s detailed study; we can only give the totals here:

CITICORP 97 directorates
J.P. MORGAN CO. 99 directorates
CHEMICAL BANK 96 directorates
CHASE MANHATTAN 89 directorates
MANUFACTURERS HANOVER 89 directorates
Total 470

This centralized control over American industry by five New York banks controlled from London suggests that instead of 130 major U.S. corporations, we may have only one, which in itself is an outpost of the London Connection.

In the early 19th century, the House of Rothschild established a number of affiliates in the U.S. which carried the code identification of City banks, or City companies, identifying them as originating in the financial centre, the City of London.  The City Bank was established in New York in 1812, in the same room in which the Bank of the United States had operated until its charter expired.  Later called the National City Bank, its principal for fifty years was Moses Taylor, whose father had been a confidential agent for John Jacob Astor and British intelligence.  Like the Morgan-Peabody operation, Moses Taylor doubled his fortune in the Panic of 1837 by purchasing stock in the depressed market with capital advanced by N.M. Rothschild of London.  During the Panic of 1857, while many of its competitors failed, City Bank prospered.  Moses Taylor purchased the outstanding stock of Delaware Lackawanna Railroad for $5 a share during the panic.  Seven years later, it was worth $240 a share.  He was now worth $50 million.  His son-in-law, Percy Pyne, had come from London to work at City Bank, and married Taylor’s daughter.  When Taylor died in 1882, he left $70 million.  His son-in-law, now paralyzed, became president of the now National City Bank.  John D. Rockefeller’s brother William invested in the bank, and persuaded Pyne to step aside in 1891 in favor of James Stillman, Rockefeller’s associate, to become president.  William’s son William married Stillman’s daughter Elsie;  his other son Percy married Stillman’s daughter Isabelle.  James Stillman also had a London connection – his father, Don Carlos, had been a Rothschild agent in Brownsville, Texas and a successful blockade runner during the Civil War.

The National City Bank acquired several subsidiaries in New York, the National City Co., later renamed the City Co., and City Bank Farmers Trust Co.

The dominance of the Morgan-Kuhn Loeb financial power in New York is shown by a Dow Jones report in the New York Times Feb. 11, 1928 that of total offerings of bonds in 1927, J.P. Morgan was first with $502,590,000;  National City Co. was second with $435,616,000;  Kuhn Loeb was third with $423,988,000.  On July 3,1929, the New York Times noted that Charles A. Peabody had joined the boards of National City Co. and City Bank Farmers Trust.  On Aug. 4, 1932, the New York Times stated that National City Bank would issue its own currency against U.S. bonds carrying the circulatory power under the new Federal Home Loan Bank Act which empowered National City Bank to issue up to $124 million in currency.  The National City Bank had now become a “bank of issue”, a function formerly reserved to central banks.  On June 8, 1933, James H. Perkins, chmn National City Bank, announced the National City Co., would change its name to City Co. of New York.  On Nov. 21, 1933, the National City Bank listed 31 affiliates including City Bank Farmers Trust, City Co. of New York, City Co. of Massachusetts, 44 Wall St. Co. and Cuban Sugar Plantations Inc.

On March 3, 1934, the New York Times announced that National City Bank would sell the National Bank of Haiti, a wholly owned subsidiary, on April 29, 1934.  The Times also noted that National City Bank had organized United Aircraft Feb. 2, 1934, and that its subsidiary, City Bank Farmers Trust had celebrated its 112th anniversary on Feb. 28, 1929.

On June 27, 1934, the City Co. of New York was designated German bond scrip agent in the U.S.  On May 22, 1933, City Co. of N.Y. announced its merger with Brown Bros. Harriman, with Joseph Ripley as chairman of the board.  The company went through several name changes as Brown Harriman Co., Harriman Ripley, and is now Brown Bros. Harriman once more.

On March 4, 1934, Gen. Billy Mitchell, addressing the Foreign Policy Association, stated that National City Bank and its affiliates control aviation in this country.  Allen W. Dulles, introduced as a “specialist in international affairs” announced the profits of international munitions makers were unconscionable.

On March 2, 1955, National City Bank announced it would purchase the stock of First National Bank for $165 million, $550 a share (in the 1929 boom, First National sold for $8600 share).  Some market analysts believed the stock should have brought $750 a share in the 1955 sale, suggesting that the Baker family was no longer able to protect its interests.  The resulting Citibank became the largest bank in the U.S., with a controlling interest in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.  National City Bank had been in Hong Kong for eighty years;  it has a $90 million Citibank Centre there.  In 1983, 4% of its annual profits came from the Hong Kong operation, which is the center of the world’s drug trade.