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Paul Warburg also stated to the Committee, "I went to England, where
I stayed for two years, first in the banking and discount firm of Samuel
Montague & Company. After that I went to France, where I stayed in a
French bank."
CHAIRMAN: "What French bank was that?" WARBURG: "It is the Russian
bank for foreign trade which has an agency in Paris."
BRISTOW: "I understand you to say that you were a Republican, but
when Mr. Theodore Roosevelt came around, you then became a
sympathizer with Mr. Wilson and supported him?" WARBURG: "Yes."
BRISTOW: "While your brother (Felix Warburg) was supporting Taft?"
WARBURG: "Yes." Thus three partners of Kuhn, Loeb Company were
supporting three different candidates for President of the United States.
Paul Warburg was supporting Wilson, Felix Warburg was supporting Taft,
and Otto Kahn was supporting Theodore Roosevelt. Paul Warburg
explained this curious situation by telling the Committee that they had
no influence over each other’s political beliefs, "as finance and politics
don’t mix."
Questions about Warburg’s appointment vanished in a hue and cry
with Wilson’s sole appointment to the Board of Governors, Thomas B.
Jones. Reporters had discovered that Jones, at the time of his
appointment, was under indictment by the Attorney General of the
United States. Wilson leaped to the defense of his choice, telling
reporters that "The majority of the men connected with what we have
come to call ‘big business’ are honest, incorruptible and patriotic."
Despite Wilson’s protestations, the Senate Banking and Currency
Committee scheduled
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