Everything old is new again . . .
While it might be unfair to visit the sins of the fathers on the great-grandchild, the persistence of the Bush family in American politics and the persistence of their policies to deny healthcare, social safety net, workers' rights and civil rights to the majority of Americans is cause for concern. Their methods of controlling political debate are also persistent and worrying.
The morphing of the 1930s American fascists into the modern GOP and the morphing of fascist pressure groups into modern lobby interests in Washington offer some interesting history.
Today I offer Bush family history from 1900 to 1920. If nothing else, it should demonstrate that the demons America wrestles with today are the same as those that silenced, imprisoned, brutalised, impoverished and demeaned our great-grandfathers.
1900 -
Mellon bank, 6th largest in America, finances very successful oil "gusher" in
Spindletop, Texas.
George Herbert ("Bert") Walker founds G.H. Walker & Co. in St. Louis, later moving to 1 Wall Street in New York.
1911 - Standard Oil of New Jersey found in violation of Sherman Anti-Trust Act and split into several companies of which John D. Rockefeller had at least 25% of stock.
1913 - Formation of Federal Reserve Board under the Federal Reserve Act. The prime sponsor Nelson Aldrich, the maternal grandfather of Nelson and David Rockefeller.
The National Association of Manufacturers was exposed, through a series of articles in the New York World, as being involved in bribery of congressmen, other corruptions including union busting and violence against workers. Samuel Prescott Bush, president of Buckeye Steel (where workers labored 7 days a week, 12 hours a day), was a founder of the NAM and its first President. (Charges against Members of the House and Lobby Activities of the National Association of Manufacturers: Hearings before the Select Committee of the House of Representatives_, 63rd Congress, 1st Session, 1913; and US Senate, Maintenance of a Lobby to Influence Legislation: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, 63rd Congress, 1st Session, 1913) Mellon bank buys out Gulf Oil, opens first drive up gas station in Pittsburgh.
1917 - America enters WWI. DuPont supplies 40% of gunpowder. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia creates "communist state." U.S. Military is used for the first time to suppress anti-war dissidents by using overt police-type actions, and covert surveillance of dissidents. This led to the establishment of the Military Intelligence Division (MID)with two missions: 1. Prevent troop disaffection, and 2. protect national resources and morale that might affect military actions. MID became involved with strike breaking and "slacker" raids." Slackers were those whose loyalty was questioned, or who found excuses not to join the military. "Disloyalty" eventually became "subversion." Prescott Bush at Yale leads Skull & Bones to desecrate the grave of Geronimo, steal his skull and bring it back to their "Crypt."
The MID continued after the war, fuelling paranoia that communists were attempting a takeover in the United States and supporting fascist adherence to what has became known as the "National Party Line." Private sector firms and groups such as Pinkerton's, Burns, Wackenhut, and "service" organizations such as the American Legion, etc., share information with government agencies about Communist organizations, labor movement groups, and other dissidents.
Industrial "defense" programs and seminars for weeding out radicals and other "undesirables" such as labor organizers were set up by the National Association of Manufacturers in conjunction with the FBI and the army. The American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) provided "security" guidance for its members in addition to countersubversive propaganda.
Philip Scranton: "There are lots of spy reports in the Military Intelligence Division files for World War One at the Nat'l Archives, as literally hundreds of agents were recruited to work in munitions and war-related plants in 17-18. I copied materials for Phila, of course, and looked at others for Bridgeport, etc. in the east. They were charged with sniffing out Hun sympathizers, of course, but also looked for union folks and "slackers." There are about 3,000 boxes of MID materials, but there's a microfilm index by individual name and company name."
1918 - The Thule Society is founded, being the beginning of the Nazi party in America. Samuel P. Bush became chief of the Ordnance, Small Arms and Ammunition Section of the War Industries Board (despite having no background in anything but steel), with national responsibility for government assistance to and relations with Remington and other weapons companies. His appointment was at the behest of Bernard Baruch and Clarence Dillon, influential Wall Street bankers. Through his interest in Remington Arms Company with Percy Rockefeller (who also had an interest in Buckeye Steel) and duPont, Samuel Bush made and sold arms to 75% of the WWI combatants on both sides, earning the nickname "Merchant of Death".
1919 - Tea Pot Dome Oil Scandal, involving banker and soon-to-be Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, rocks Washington. Henry
Ford makes anti-Semitic views public. The American Legion is formed to discourage WWI veterans from demanding their rights and promised bonuses. 24 year old J. Edgar Hoover is made head of the General Intelligence division of F.B.I. Mass raids in 12 American cities result in the arrest of hundreds of Union of Russian Workers. The Bureau consistently exaggerates the radical views of strike leaders and treats strikes as part of a planned revolutionary takeover.
George Herbert Walker forms strong ties to the Guaranty Trust Company in New York and to the British-American banking house J.P. Morgan and Co. These Wall Street concerns represented all the important owners of American railroads: the Morgan partners and their associates or cousins in the intermarried Rockefeller, Whitney, Harriman and Vanderbilt families.
1920 - Warren G. Harding elected president - Andrew Mellon appointed secretary of treasury. American companies such as Ford, GM, American I.G.(I.G. Farben), AT&T, ITT, duPont, General Aniline & film, others start trade agreements with Nazis in Germany, including conspiracy to re-arm
Germany in violation of Versailles and Geneva Disarmament agreements, with the help of Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce. The Nazis' 26-point plan for world domination is accepted by party. Mellon pushes Oil Depletion Allowance
Act through Congress.
Hoover collects dossiers on over 70 thousand individuals including prominent liberals Jane Addams, and Fiorello LaGuardia. Newspapers, magazines, other publications are scrutinized. Special projects set up for the Negro Press and the I.W.W. Another series of radical raids held in January. Up to 10,000 suspected radicals were arrested on blank warrants, held ncommunicado, many subjected to extreme brutality. Hundreds held for long periods of time with no arrest warrants. Warrantless searches were common. Eventually all arrested were released. Hoover, Bureau and Justice department widely criticized for improper conduct, though nothing really became of it. J. Edgar Hoover claims in congressional committee testimony that 50% of all labor strikes are communist inspired...a conclusion wholly unsupported by evidence. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) formed to fight rights violations.
Bert Walker of W.A. Harriman & Co. arranged the credits needed for Harriman to take over the Hamburg-Amerika Line, central to Germany's transportation industry. The line, owned by I.G. Farben, was used for Nazi espionage in North America. Samuel Pryor, then chairman of the executive committee of Remington Arms and a close friend of Samuel Prescott Bush, helped arrange the deal and served with Walker on the board of Harriman's shipping front organization, the American Ship and Commerce Co. Hamburg-Amerika smuggled in German agents, and brought in money for bribing American politicians to support Hitler. A 1934 congressional investigation showed Hamburg-Amerika subsidized Nazi propaganda efforts in the U. S.
Hat tip to Occupied America for much of the timeline.
This is a continuation of a theme started with Appeasing the Nazis: Bush Family History for Kossacks
If there is sufficient interest, I will carry on from 1921 to World War II tomorrow, covering the significant role the Bush and Walker families played in aiding Nazis both in the United States and in Germany in the run up to the war and their likely involvement in the attempted coup against Roosevelt in 1933.
To be continued . . .