The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

172 INTIMATE PAPERS OF COLONEL HOUSE

names proposed. I had taken the precaution to thresh these
matters out with McAdoo and could tell the President his
state of mind. I am anxious for this Board to administer the
currency law successfully, for I am certain the President's reputation in history will rest largely upon its success or failure.
'April 28, 1914: After dinner we went to the office for the
President to sign his mail. We read the Mexican despatches
together and afterward got down to the real finish of the
Federal Reserve Board. He took his pen and wrote down
their names: Richard Olney first, then Paul Warburg,
Harding, Wheeler, and Miller. He turned to me and said,
"To whom would you give the ten-year term?" I advised
giving it to Miller, which he did. He gave Olney the twoyear term, Warburg four years, Harding and Wheeler the
six and eight-year terms.
'I told him McAdoo preferred Hamlin.1' He replied,
"But I prefer Olney and I happen to be President." He also
said, "McAdoo thinks we are forming a social club." This,
of course, was because McAdoo had consistently urged a
Board that would work in harmony with him.'
Olney, however, found it impossible to accept. He wrote
the President that he had undertaken trusts which he could
not resign and that the provision requiring each member of
the Board to give his entire time to its work would prove an
insuperable obstacle to his acceptance. 'You can hardly be
sorrier than I am,' he said, 'that I am able to do so little in
aid of an Administration whose first year of achievement
makes it one of the most notable the country has ever
known.' The appointment was therefore given to Mr.
Hamlin, according to McAdoo's wishes.2
1 Mr. Hamlin was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury whom
McAdoo desired to take out of the Department and put upon the Board.
2 A further change in the original composition of the Board resulted
from Mr. Wheeler's inability to serve. After some delay the place was
given to F. C. Delano of Chicago.