HOUSE, Edward Mandell, universally known as Colonel House, personal representa tive of President Wilson to European govern ments during the war: b. Houston, Tex., 26 July 1856. His father, Thomas William House, was an Englishman who settled in Texas and there built a mansion in which he lived with his family the life of an English country squire. A typical Westerner, Colonel House spent his youth in farming, hunting and riding. He was from Hopkins Grammar School, New aven, Conn., in 1877 and Cornell University in 1881. He made a special study of politics and economics, and though he never sought any public office, he was actively engaged in State and national politics for many years in the Democratic interest. He first came into wider prominence when President Wilson entrusted him with a diplomatic mission to Europe early in 1914, some months before the outbreak of war. Though strong premonitions of war were in the air, he found no belief in a coming con flict either in England or France, but strong military excitement in Germany. In 1915 and
1916 he again represented the President on mis sions to the governments of the European bel ligerents, and on 7 Nov. 1917, after the United States had entered the war, Colonel House arrived in London as chairman of an American mission to the Allies, to attend the deliberations of the Supreme War Council. Since then he had under his supervision the task of preparing materials for the use of the American com missioners at the eventual peace conference. At the Inter-Allied Conference of Premiers and Foreign Ministers held in Paris in Novem ber 1917 he presented the views of the Ameri can government in relation to the co-ordination of activities and unity of command. In Oc tober 1918 Colonel House again visited Europe in connection with the general peace movement and armistice question. Consult Smith, A. D. H., 'The Real Colonel House' (New York 1918).