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THE AMERICAN RED CROSS MISSION IN RUSSIA — 1917
Poor Mr. Billings believed he was in charge of a scientific mission for the relief of Russia ....
He was in reality nothing but a mask — the Red Cross complexion of the mission was nothing but a mask.
Cornelius Kelleher, assistant to William Boyce Thompson (in George F. Kennan, Russia Leaves the War)
The Wall Street project in Russia in 1917 used the Red Cross Mission as its operational vehicle.
Both Guaranty Trust and National City Bank had representatives in Russia at the time of the revolution.
Frederick M. Corse of the National City Bank branch in Petrograd was attached to the American Red Cross Mission, of which a great deal will be said later.
Guaranty Trust was represented by Henry Crosby Emery.
Emery was temporarily held by the Germans in 1918 and then moved on to represent Guaranty Trust 'in China.
Up to about 1915 the most influential person in the American Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. was Miss Mabel Boardman.
An active and energetic promoter, Miss Boardman had been the moving force behind the Red Cross enterprise, although its endowment came from wealthy and prominent persons including J. P. Morgan, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Cleveland H. Dodge, and Mrs. Russell Sage.
The 1910 fund-raising campaign for $2 million, for example, was successful only because it was supported by these wealthy residents of New York City.
In fact, most of the money came from New York City.
J.P. Morgan himself contributed $100,000 and seven other contributors in New York City amassed $300,000.
Only one person outside New York City contributed over $10,000 and that was William J. Boardman, Miss Boardman's father.
Henry P. Davison was chairman of the 1910 New York Fund-Raising Committee and later became chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross.
In other words, in World War I the Red Cross depended heavily on Wall Street, and specifically on the Morgan firm.
The Red Cross was unable to cope with the demands of World War I and in effect was taken over by these New York bankers.
According to John Foster Dulles, these businessmen "viewed the American Red Cross as a virtual arm of government, they envisaged making an incalculable contribution to the winning of the war.'
In so doing they made a mockery of the Red Cross motto: "Neutrality and Humanity."
In exchange for raising funds, Wall Street asked for the Red Cross War Council; and on the recommendation of Cleveland H. Dodge, one of Woodrow Wilson's financial backers, Henry P. Davison, a partner in J.P. Morgan Company, became chairman.
The list of administrators of the Red Cross then began to take on the appearance of the New York Directory of Directors: John D. Ryan, president of Anaconda Copper Company (see frontispiece); George W. Hill, president of the American Tobacco Company; Grayson M.P. Murphy, vice president of the Guaranty Trust Company; and Ivy Lee, public relations expert for the Rockefellers.
Harry Hopkins, later to achieve fame under President Roosevelt, became assistant to the general manager of the Red Cross in Washington, D.C.
The question of a Red Cross Mission to Russia came before the third meeting of this reconstructed War Council, which was held in the Red Cross Building, Washington, D.C., on Friday, May 29, 1917, at 11:00 A.M.
Chairman Davison was deputed to explore the idea with Alexander Legge of the International Harvester Company.
Subsequently International Harvester, which had considerable interests in Russia, provided $200,000 to assist financing the Russian mission.
At a later meeting it was made known that William Boyce Thompson,
director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, had "offered to pay the entire expense of the commission"; this offer was accepted in a telegram: "Your desire to pay expenses of commission to Russia is very much appreciated and from our point of view very important. "
The members of the mission received no pay.
All expenses were paid by William Boyce Thompson and the $200,000 from International Harvester was apparently used in Russia for political subsidies.
We know from the files of the U.S. embassy in Petrograd that the U.S. Red Cross gave 4,000 rubles to Prince Lvoff, president of the Council of Ministers, for "relief of revolutionists" and 10,000 rubles in two payments to Kerensky for "relief of political refugees."
AMERICAN RED CROSS MISSION TO RUSSIA, 1917
In August 1917 the American Red Cross Mission to Russia had only a nominal relationship with the American Red Cross, and must truly have been the most unusual Red Cross Mission in history.
All expenses, including those of the uniforms — the members were all colonels, majors, captains, or lieutenants — were paid out of the pocket of William Boyce Thompson.
One contemporary observer dubbed the all-officer group an "Haytian Army":
The American Red Cross delegation, about forty Colonels, Majors, Captains and Lieutenants, arrived yesterday.
It is headed by Colonel (Doctor) Billings of Chicago, and includes Colonel William B. Thompson and many doctors and civilians, all with military titles; we dubbed the outfit the "Haytian Army" because there were no privates.
They have come to fill no clearly defined mission, as far as I can find out, in fact Gov. Francis told me some time ago that he had urged they not be allowed to come, as there were already too many missions from the various allies in Russia.
Apparently, this Commission imagined there was urgent call for doctors and nurses in Russia; as a matter of fact there is at present a surplus of medical talent and nurses, native and foreign in the country and many haft-empty hospitals in the large cities.
The mission actually comprised only twenty-four (not forty), having military rank from lieutenant colonel down to lieutenant, and was supplemented by three orderlies, two motion-picture photographers, and two interpreters, without rank.
Only five (out of twenty-four) were doctors; in addition, there were two medical researchers.
The mission arrived by train in Petrograd via Siberia in August 1917.
The five doctors and orderlies stayed one month, returning to the United States on September 11.
Dr. Frank Billings, nominal head of the mission and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, was reported to be disgusted with the overtly political activities of the majority of the mission.
The other medical men were William S. Thayer, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University; D. J. McCarthy, Fellow of Phipps Institute for Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, at Philadelphia; Henry C. Sherman, professor of food chemistry at Columbia University; C. E. A. Winslow, professor of bacteriology and hygiene at Yale Medical School; Wilbur E. Post, professor of medicine at Rush Medical College; Dr. Malcolm Grow, of the Medical Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army; and Orrin Wightman, professor of clinical medicine, New York Polyclinic Hospital.
George C. Whipple was listed as professor of sanitary engineering at Harvard University but in fact was partner of the New York firm of Hazen, Whipple & Fuller, engineering consultants.
This is significant because Malcolm Pirnie — of whom more later — was listed as an assistant sanitary engineer and employed as an engineer by Hazen, Whipple & Fuller.
The majority of the mission, as seen from the table, was made up of lawyers, financiers, and their assistants, from the New York financial district.
The mission was financed by William B. Thompson, described in the official Red Cross circular as "Commissioner and Business Manager; Director United States Federal Bank of New York."
Thompson brought along Cornelius Kelleher, described as an attache to the mission but actually secretary to Thompson and with the same address — 14 Wall Street, New York City.
Publicity for the mission was handled by Henry S. Brown, of the same address.
Thomas Day Thacher was an attorney with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, a firm founded by his father, Thomas Thacher, in 1884 and prominently involved in railroad reorganization and mergers.
Thomas as junior first worked for the family firm, became assistant U.S. attorney under Henry L. Stimson, and returned to the family firm in 1909.
The young Thacher was a close friend of Felix Frankfurter and later became assistant to Raymond Robins, also on the Red Cross Mission.
In 1925 he was appointed district judge under President Coolidge, became solicitor general under Herbert Hoover, and was a director of the William Boyce Thompson Institute.
THE 1917 AMERICAN RED CROSS MISSION TO RUSSIA
Members from Wall Street financial community and their affiliations Medical doctors Orderlies, interpreters, etc.
Andrews (Liggett & Myers Tobacco)
Billings (doctor)
Brooks (orderly)
Barr (Chase National Bank)
Grow (doctor)
Clark (orderly)
Brown (c/o William B. Thompson)
McCarthy (medical research; doctor)
Rocchia (orderly)
Cochran (McCann Co.)
Post (doctor)
Kelleher (c/o William B. Thompson)
Sherman (food chemistry)
Travis (movies)
Nicholson (Swirl & Co.)
Thayer (doctor)
Wyckoff (movies)
Pirnie (Hazen, Whipple & Fuller)
Redfield (Stetson, Jennings & Russell)
Wightman (medicine)
Hardy (justice)
Robins (mining promoter) Winslow (hygiene) Horn (transportation)
Swift (Swift & Co.)
Thacher (Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett)
Thompson (Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y.)
Wardwell (Stetson, Jennings & Russell)
Whipple (Hazen, Whipple & Fuller)
Corse (National City Bank)
Magnuson (recommended by confidential agent of Colonel Thompson)
Alan Wardwell, also a deputy commissioner and secretary to the chairman, was a lawyer with the law firm of Stetson, Jennings & Russell of 15 Broad Street, New York City, and H. B. Redfield was law secretary to Wardwell.
Major Wardwell was the son of William Thomas Wardwell, long-time treasurer of Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of New York.
The elder Wardwell was one of the signers of the famous Standard Oil trust agreement, a member of the committee to organize Red Cross activities in the Spanish American War, and a director of the Greenwich Savings Bank.
His son Alan was a director not only of Greenwich Savings, but also of Bank of New York and Trust Co. and the Georgian Manganese Company (along with W. Averell Harriman, a director of Guaranty Trust).
In 1917 Alan Wardwell was affiliated with Stetson, Jennings 8c Russell and later joined Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardner & Read (Frank L. Polk was acting secretary of state during the Bolshevik Revolution period).
The Senate Overman Committee noted that Wardwell was favorable to the Soviet regime although Poole, the State Department official on the spot, noted that "Major Wardwell has of all Americans the widest personal knowledge of the terror" (316-23-1449).
In the 1920s Wardwell became active with the Russian- American Chamber of Commerce in promoting Soviet trade objectives.
The treasurer of the mission was James W. Andrews, auditor of Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company of St. Louis.
Robert I. Barr, another member, was listed as a deputy commissioner; he was a vice president of Chase Securities Company (120 Broadway) and of the Chase National Bank.
Listed as being in charge of advertising was William Cochran of 61 Broadway, New York City.
Raymond Robins, a mining promoter, was included as a deputy commissioner and described as "a social economist."
Finally, the mission included two members of Swift & Company of Union Stockyards, Chicago.
The Swifts have been previously mentioned as being connected with German espionage in the United States during World War I.
Harold H. Swift, deputy commissioner, was assistant to the vice president of Swift & Company; William G. Nicholson was also with Swift & Company, Union Stockyards.
Two persons were unofficially added to the mission after it arrived in Petrograd: Frederick M. Corse, representative of the National City Bank in Petrograd; and Herbert A. Magnuson, who was "very highly recommended by John W. Finch, the confidential agent in China of Colonel William B. Thompson. "
The Pirnie papers, deposited at the Hoover Institution, contain primary material on the mission.
Malcolm Pirnie was an engineer employed by the firm of Hazen, Whipple & Fuller, consulting engineers, of 42 Street, New York City.
Pirnie was a member of the mission, listed on a manifest as an assistant sanitary engineer.
George C. Whipple, a partner in the firm, was also included in the group.
The Pirnie papers include an original telegram from William B. Thompson, inviting assistant sanitary engineer Pirnie to meet with him and Henry P. Davison, chairman of the Red Cross War Council and partner in the J.P. Morgan firm, before leaving for Russia.
The telegram reads as follows:
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM New York, June 21, 1917
To Malcolm Pirnie
I should very much like to have you dine with me at the Metropolitan Club, Sixteenth Street and Fifth Avenue New York City at eight o'clock tomorrow Friday evening to meet Mr. H. P. Davison.
W. B. Thompson
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