HOUSE, EDWARD MANDELL (1858-1938), American statesman and diplomat, was born at Houston, Tex., July 26, 1858, the seventh son of Thomas William House and Mary Elizabeth Shearn. His father, who had left England as a boy, came to Texas when it formed part of Mexico, joined the revolution, helped to free it and bring it into the Union. The younger House was educated at the Hopkins grammar school and Cornell uni versity, and returned to Texas in 188o, where he lived for more than 3o years as planter. His chief interest, however, was public affairs. He took an influential part in the successful campaigns of Governors Hogg, Culberson, Sayers and Lanham, and during the period 1894-1904 his political influence in Texas was regarded as decisive.
He refused invariably to become a candidate for office himself, but acted as the intimate adviser of the several governors named. Although frequently urged to participate in national politics he remained aloof from the disastrous Democratic campaigns that followed the Bryan candidacy of 1896; but in 1912 he played a major role in securing the nomination of Woodrow Wilson, and at the time of the election Wilson had come to put full trust in him, offering him a choice of cabinet positions. Following his custom, House refused any office, but politically as well as per sonally he remained closer to the President than any member of the official family. It was upon his recommendation that Wilson chose a number of his cabinet ; after the inauguration both President and cabinet utilized his wide knowledge of men and his shrewd estimate of political effects to help them in meeting legislative and administrative problems ; he exercised a great influence in the framing of the Federal Reserve Act and also played an important part in the organization of the original Federal Reserve Board. Wilson spoke of him as his "independent self." House's chief interest lay in foreign affairs, and through close contact with American ambassadors abroad and his intimacy with European statesmen, as well as the confidence of the President, he was able to influence the course of American foreign policy. In 1913 he helped to tide over the crisis in relations with Great Britain over the Panama tolls exemption until Wilson secured the repeal of the exemption. In he undertook informal ne gotiations with the diplomatic representatives of Argentina, Bra zil and Chile, which led to the drafting of a pan-American pact designed to guarantee peace in the Western Hemisphere. In the spring of 1914, House, apprehensive lest war should break out in Europe, sailed for Germany to offer the assistance of the United States in reaching some arrangement between England and Germany which might avoid war. He talked with high officials of the civil Government, the army and navy, and had a confer ence with the Kaiser, in which he received some encouragement. William II. later said :—"The visit of Colonel House to Berlin and London in the spring of 1914 almost prevented the World War." At London he found Sir Edward Grey ready to entertain any feasible plan to preserve peace. This, House wrote to the Kaiser on July 7, 1914. The murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, however, precipitated war before the plan could be developed.
Returning to the United States, House maintained close in timacy with the British and German ambassadors and thus helped to smooth American relations with the belligerents. In Jan. 1915 Wilson sent him abroad to study the possibility of American mediation. He suggested the principle of the "Freedom of the Seas," after visits to London, Berlin and Paris, as a possible step towards a compromise; but the sinking of the "Lusitania" ruined all chances of success. In the autumn, House proposed that Wilson suggest to the Allies that a peace conference should be summoned; if Germany refused the conference or rejected terms calculated to ensure a just settlement, the United States would enter the war on the side of the Allies to enforce such terms. House left for Europe again in Dec. 1915, visited England, Ger many and France, and finally made the aforesaid offer to the British, the substance of which was incorporated in a memoran dum drafted by Grey and himself. The Allies, however, refused to take advantage of it.
In the summer and autumn of 1916 House took an influential part in the campaign which led to Wilson's re-election. After the United States entered the war, he kept in close touch with the chiefs of the war-making agencies, and was in consultation with the special envoys of the Allies : Balfour, Northcliffe, Tar dieu, Reading. In the autumn of 1917 Wilson named him chief of the special American ,mission designed to co-ordinate Allied war needs, especially the problems of finance, supply, tonnage and man-power. The conferences in London and Paris which he attended proved to be the turn of the tide. After his return he was intimately concerned in Wilson's drafting of the Fourteen Points, and at the request of the President he drafted a tentative covenant for a League of Nations, which formed the basis of Wilson's later plan. In Oct. 1918 Wilson sent him to Paris to represent the United States at the Allied Council, which granted an armistice to Germany.
After some difficulty, House succeeded in pledging the Allies to Wilson's Fourteen Points as a programme for peace. He had previously organized "the Inquiry," a body of experts for col lecting authentic data for the use of the Peace Conference. House was one of the U.S. peace commissioners signing the Treaty of Versailles, and although ill at the opening of the conference he played an important role by reason of his intimacy with Euro pean statesmen. He was a member of the commission that drafted the League of Nations' Covenant, and ultimately most of the details connected with the formation of the League were settled with his co-operation. In July and Aug. 1919 he represented the United States in the organization of the Mandates system. After his return to the United States he urged President Wilson, by letter, to compromise with the Senate so as to secure ratification of the Versailles Treaty and the entrance of the United States into the League. A serious illness, coming at the same time as the physical breakdown of Wilson, combined with other factors to interrupt the close relations between the two men which had persisted since 1911.
Col. House had won a reputation for such sagacity and dis interestedness that his advice was continually sought by political leaders even after the overthrow of the Democratic Party in 19 20. He continued his interest in international questions and maintained close relations with the chief statesmen of Europe.
In 1912 House published, anonymously, a political romance, Philip Dru; in 1921 he edited (with Charles Seymour) What Really Happened at Paris, a series of essays on the Peace Con ference written by members of the American Delegation. He also wrote, after 192o, a number of articles upon contemporary politics and political leaders for The Philadelphia Public Ledger, Foreign Affairs, Harper's and The Encyclopedia Britannica.