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Morgenthau, speaking for the group of Harlem real estate operators of 

which he was the head, "are going to war for a moral principle." J.P. 

Morgan received the proceeds of the First Liberty Loan to pay off 

$400,000,000 which he advanced to Great Britain at the outset of the 

war. To cover this loan, $68,000,000 in notes had been issued under the 

provisions of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act for issuing notes against 

securities, the only time this provision was employed. The notes were 

retired as soon as the Federal Reserve Banks began operation, and 

replaced by Federal Reserve Notes.

During 1915 and 1916, Wilson kept faith with the bankers who had 

purchased the White House for him, by continuing to make loans to 

the Allies. His Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, protested 

constantly, stating that "Money is the worst of all contraband." By 1917, 

the Morgans and Kuhn, Loeb Company had floated a billion and a 

half dollars in loans to the Allies. The bankers also financed a host of 

"peace" organizations which worked to get us involved in the World 

War. The Commission for Relief in Belgium manufactured atrocity stories 

against the Germans, while a Carnegie organization, The League to 

Enforce Peace, agitated in Washington for our entry into war. This later 

became the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which 

during the 1940s was headed by Alger Hiss. One writer* claimed that 

he had never seen any "peace movement" which did not end in war.

The U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Walter Hines Page, complained that he 

could not afford the position, and was given twenty-five thousand 

dollars a year spending money by Cleveland H. Dodge, president of 

the National City Bank. H.L. Mencken openly accused Page in 1916 of