Churchill, the Federal Reserve, and World War I

Once it was discovered that Winston Churchill was involved with Bernard Baruch and other speculators in the stock market crash of 1929, which was deliberately precipitated by banks calling margin loans even while Winston Churchill was in the NYSE galleries to watch the induced sells -- which was effected in part to "correct" with an American deflation an imbalance of gold flows that had resulted when five years before Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer had put Britain back on the gold standard at pre-World War One ounce per pound ratio.
In the same way earlier Churchill, when first lord of the Admiralty was involved with Bernard Baruch and Edward House in arranging for the vulnerability and fast sinking of the Lusitania in order to get America into World War One and rescue Churchill from the disastrous Dardanelles campaign against Turkey as trench warfare was stalemated on the Western Front. Arranging for Elbert Hubbard to be aboard the sacrificial ship was merely a great convenience.
And yes of course, Franklin Roosevelt and Churchill were in tacit agreement to force Japan into attacking the US at Pear Harbor by endangering the lives of the Japanese army in China by the imposition of an oil embargo.



Let's look into all of this a little.

In 1915, according to many of his contemporaries, Churchill was reviled and mistrusted throughout Britain, as a dishonest, ego-driven political adventurer and a public danger to the Empire. Indeed his political career would appear to have been placed at considerable risk at this time. Winston Churchill's role in, and responsibility for the Dardanelles/Gallipoli disaster of 1915 has remained a contentious issue ever since that tragic event. On the one hand an overwhelming body of popular opinion, supported by social historians, journalists and biographers of Churchill, has accorded his heroic status retrospectively, and maintains that he was denied the spectacular victory his visionary strategy merited only by the weakness and irresolution of others - in particular, of Lords Kitchener and Fisher, heads of the British Army and Royal Navy respectively. The alternative, minority opinion, held by leading military and naval experts in 1915, and supported by a small number of prominent military and naval historians in recent years, maintains that Churchill was almost entirely responsible for the Dardanelles fiasco himself. The primary source evidence necessary for a resolution of this matter is contained within the official documents of the British Cabinet, Admiralty, War Office and Foreign Office; within the private papers of the individuals concerned; and also within the evidence presented to the Dardanelles Royal Commission in 1916-17. This material has been available for public scrutiny since the mid-1960s with the expiration of the Fifty Year Rule on official secrecy. For some inexplicable reason, however, this evidence has never been subjected to an exhaustive investigation by Britain's scholars. Finally, Dr Andrew Bonnell stated Winston Churchill's contempt for the expertise of the admirals, his usurpation of absolute control over naval operations and the consequent naval disasters during the early months of the war; Churchill's deception of everyone involved with his claims for the success of a purely naval operation at the Dardanelles; the various factors which contributed to the naval fiasco, especially Churchill's press release on 20 February, giving the Turks advanced warning of his forthcoming operation; and the central minesweeper problem, persistently ignored by Churchill. He also investigates the means adopted by Churchill to re-write the history of the Dardanelles campaign in order to extricate himself from any blame - in particular, his flouting of the Official Secrets Act and his Privy Councillor's Oath in order to publish official documents in his version of the events surrounding the campaign..

"So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs."
~ Elbert Hubbard

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"The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence."
~ Elbert Hubbard

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The following has been assembled from historical accounts from many websites -- but when facts are brought together for the first time we things become obvious that were not obvious before.

How Bernard Baruch, Col. House and Winston Churchill got Elbert Hubbard

After being denied permission to go to Europe to visit the Kaiser in the name of peace (America was still formally neutral), the White House suddenly relented. And within a week Hubbard had booked passage on the Lusitania.

It was 1916. Woodrow Wilson was running for re-election on the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War" even as he signed the Federal Reserve Act and the Income Tax laws that would make financing of World War One Possible, even though, unlike Henry Ford who did everything he could to end the war, Wilson never tried to broker peace. The fact is that J.P. Morgan Sr. personally chose Wilson and Bernard Baruch and Edward House were assigned to control him. The war was to continue until the British had taken control of "the Holy Land" (Palestine) from the Ottoman Empire which had sided with Germany and until the oil lands (present day Saudi Arabia and Iraq) were also taken, and the Romanov dynasty of Russia was brought down by a Jewish controlled revolution. Then and only then were the "14 Points" presented by Wilson -- to which the Germans agreed to an Armistice -- only to find after it was too late that the victors had no intention of honoring the 14 Points. Wilson himself admitted he had been fooled by Col Edward House, but he never caught on to the even bigger role played by Bernard Baruch. (The truth of how Wilson's administration was controlled by Baruch from the Democratic Convention of 1912 to his last day in office -- Jeff Rense interview from 2007 here with full-quotation reference documentation here.

J. P. Morgan Sr. with Paul Warburg, Nelson Aldrich got the Federal Reserve act passed -- the credit machinery to allow a world war to go on for years. Morgan Jr. played a prominent part in financing World War I. Following its outbreak, he made the first loan of $12,000,000 to Russia.[ In 1915, a loan of $50,000,000 was made to France. The firm's involvement with British and French interests fueled charges the bank was conspiring to maneuver the United States into supporting the Allies in order to rescue its loans. By 1915 J.P. Morgan Jr. had gained the status of financial agent for French war financing. Morgan Jr. played a prominent part in financing World War I. Following its outbreak, he made the first loan of $12,000,000 to Russia.[3] In 1915, a loan of $50,000,000 was made to France. The firm's involvement with British and French interests fueled charges the bank was conspiring to maneuver the United States into supporting the Allies in order to rescue its loans. By 1915 it became apparent the war was not going to end quickly, the company decided to forge formal relationships with France.
Three moral giants of the time were Henry George, Elbert Hubbard and William Jennings Bryan. Each was strong in the principles of Washington and Jefferson of staying out of Europe's sordid affairs. Rothschild agent Bernard Baruch managed a brokered convention in the 1912 political race, willing Bryan's approval for relative unknown Woodrow Wilson in exchange for Bryan becoming Secretary of State -- Byran who in `1900 had run against "Imperialism" and who in 1914 saw nothing but British Imperialism and German competition behind the war. But Bryan found himself a most powerless Secretary of State as Col Edward House and Bernard Baruch were controlling foreign policy from the White House -- pretending to be admiring and worshipful admirers of Wilson, Wilson gave them run of the "details" of foreign policy. To further strengthen their hand, in the very week in August 1914 World War I began Wilson's wife died. Baruch through his white house spy Dr. Graysen introduced Wilson to an attractive jeweler's daughter who made sure that Wilson was well distracted from the details of foreign policy in wartime. Furthermore, Baruch was visiting Grayson every week at a time when Wilson's health unaccountably turned bad and continued so for much of the war -- to the point where Edith Wilson, after Wilson's White House wedding, was holding his had as he signed the bills that House and Baruch approved. (see the Rense interview).
William Jennings Bryan resigned when he found the Wilson Administration allowing financiers to void American neutrality. Bryan backed Wilson in the 1912 election in exchange for appointment as Secretary of State, but the policies of the great anti-imperialist populist was not what J.P. Morgan had in mind when he selected Wilson to the Wall Street's fist Democrat president. Bryan found himself Secretary of State in name only.

In 1913 Secretary of State Bryan declared:
"We know of no cause today that cannot better be settled by reason than by war. I believe there will be no war while I am Secretary of State. ... I hope we have seen the last great war."

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At the beginning of the First World War, Elbert Hubbard published a great deal of related commentary in The Philistine and became anxious to cross the ocean, report on the War and land an interview with the Kaiser himself. When his application for a passport was denied in 1915, Hubbard went directly to the White House and pled with Woodrow Wilson's personal secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty. At the time, the President was in the middle of a cabinet meeting, but Tumulty interrupted and, as a result, the Secretary of State (William Jennings Bryan) and Attorney General Thomas Gregory were also able to hear of Hubbard's situation and need.

The pardon was found to be appropriate, and Elbert Hubbard's clemency application process lasted exactly one day. Seventy-five percent of those petitioning for clemency in the fiscal year were not so fortunate; their requests were denied, adversely reported, or no action was taken. Hubbard accepted Wilson's pardon, obtained a passport and, on May 1, 1915, left with his wife on a trip to Europe, but the ship was hit by a torpedo (and what else?) and sank in 18 minutes. It was the Lusitania and all investigations into the precise causes of the ship's loss were obstructed by the British government as a massive propaganda campaign by both Britain and Wall Street dominated American newspapers since Wall Street had bet on the British in its war financing gambles.

Many lifeboats overturned while loading or lowering, spilling passengers into the sea; others were overturned by the ship's motion when they hit the water. It has been claimed that some boats, because of the negligence of some officers, crashed down onto the deck, crushing other passengers, and sliding down towards the bridge.

Lusitania had 48 lifeboats, more than enough for all the crew and passengers, but only six were successfully lowered, all from the starboard side. Lifeboat 1 had overturned as it was being lowered, spilling its original occupants into the sea, but it managed to right itself shortly afterwards and was later filled with people from in the water. Lifeboats 9 and 11 managed to reach the water safely with only a few handfuls of people, but both later picked up many swimmers. Lifeboats 13 and 15 also safely reached the water, each overloaded with around seventy people.

In a letter sent to Elbert Hubbard's son dated 12 March 1916, Ernest C. Cowper, a passenger who was aboard and survived, gave this highly implausible story of Hubbard's last minutes, complete with his final words endorsement of German the British propaganda line that the Germans are the bad ones in the war.

"I cannot say specifically where your father and Mrs. Hubbard were when the torpedoes hit, but I can tell you just what happened after that. They emerged from their room, which was on the port side of the vessel, and came on to the boat-deck. Neither appeared perturbed in the least. Your father and Mrs. Hubbard linked arms-the fashion in which they always walked the deck-and stood apparently wondering what to do. I passed him with a baby which I was taking to a lifeboat when he said, 'Well, Jack, they have got us. They are a damn sight worse than I ever thought they were.' They did not move very far away from where they originally stood. As I moved to the other side of the ship, in preparation for a jump when the right moment came, I called to him, 'What are you going to do?' and he just shook his head, while Mrs. Hubbard smiled and said, 'There does not seem to be anything to do.' The expression seemed to produce action on the part of your father, for then he did one of the most dramatic things I ever saw done. He simply turned with Mrs. Hubbard and entered a room on the top deck, the door of which was open, and closed it behind him. It was apparent that his idea was that they should die together, and not risk being parted on going into the water."

Immediately following the sinking, on 8 May, the local county coroner John Hogan opened an inquest in Kinsale into the deaths of two males and three females whose bodies had been brought ashore by a local boat, Heron. Most of the survivors (and dead) had been taken to Queenstown instead of Kinsale, which was closer. On 10 May Captain Turner gave evidence as to the events of the sinking where he described that the ship had been struck by one torpedo between the third and fourth funnels. This had been followed immediately by a second explosion. He acknowledged receiving general warnings about submarines, but had not been informed of the sinking of Earl of Lathom. He stated that he had received other instructions from the admiralty which he had carried out but was not permitted to discuss. The coroner brought in a verdict that the deceased had drowned following an attack on an unarmed non-combatant vessel contrary to international law. Half an hour after the inquest had concluded and its results given to the press, the Crown Solicitor for Cork, Harry Wynne, arrived with instructions to halt it. Captain Turner was not to give evidence and no statements should be made about any instructions given to shipping about avoiding submarines
The formal Board of Trade investigation into the sinking was presided over by Wreck Commissioner Lord Mersey and took place in the Westminster Central Hall from 15-18 June 1915 with further sessions at the Westminster Palace Hotel on 1 July and Caxton Hall on 17 July. Lord Mersey had a background in commercial rather than maritime law but had presided over a number of important maritime investigations, including that into the loss of the Titanic.
A total of 36 witnesses were called, Lord Mersey querying why more of the survivors would not be giving evidence.
Statements were collected from all the crew. These were all written out for presentation to the inquiry on standard forms in identical handwriting with similar phrasing. Quartermaster Johnston later described that pressure had been placed upon him to be loyal to the company, and that it had been suggested to him it would help the case if two torpedoes had struck the ship, rather than the one which he described. Giving evidence to the tribunal he was not asked about torpedoes. Other witnesses who claimed that only one torpedo had been involved were refused permission to testify.
Clem Edwards, representing the seamen's union, attempted to introduce evidence about which watertight compartments had been involved but was prevented from doing so by Lord Mersey.[
It was during the closed hearings that the Admiralty tried to lay the blame on Captain Turner, their intended line being that Turner had been negligent.
Captain Webb, Director of the Trade Division, began to prepare a dossier of signals sent to the Lusitania which Turner may have failed to observe. First Sea Lord Fisher noted on one document submitted by Webb for review,"As the Cunard company would not have employed an incompetent man its a certainty that Captain Turner is not a fool but a knave. I hope that Turner will be arrested immediately after the enquiry whatever the verdict". First Lord Winston Churchill noted, "I consider the Admiralty's case against Turner should be pressed by a skillful counsel and that Captain Webb should attend as a witness, if not employed as an assessor. We will pursue the captain without check".
At one point in the proceedings, Smith attempted to press a point he was making, by quoting from a signal sent to British ships. Lord Mersey queried which message this was, and it transpired that the message in question existed in the version of evidence given to Smith by the Board of Trade Solicitor, Sir Ellis Cunliffe, but not in versions given to others. Cunliffe explained the discrepancy by saying that different versions of the papers had been prepared for use, depending whether the enquiry had been in camera or not, but the message quoted appeared never to have existed. Lord Mersey observed that it was his job to get at the truth, and thereafter became more critical of Admiralty evidence.
Now consider this:
As Franklin Roosevelt noted, when war did come in August 1914, it overwhelmed Bryan. He was almost totally unprepared and unequipped to deal with the practicalities of directing American foreign policy in a world at war. And to do him justice he was profoundly, if naively, shocked that the European great powers had so quickly resorted to war to settle their differences. Wilson, as is so common with most presidents in modern times, was really his own secretary of state, amply aided by Colonel House. By the way, I should point out that House's rank was purely honorary -- like that of "Commodore Vanderbilt" -- bestowed on House by the Governor of Texas for political services rendered to the Democratic Party.
Thus it was House, and not Bryan, who went to Europe early in 1915 to see if there was any hope of bringing the fighting to an end. And House was in London on 7th May 1915, when the British liner "Lusitania" was sunk by the German submarine U20. 1,153 passengers and crew perished including 114 American citizens, many of whom were women and children. The Colonel told William Hines Page, the extreme anglophile US ambassador, "we shall be at war within a month."
...Within a few weeks of the Lusitania" sinking, Bryan had resigned. On the verge of a nervous breakdown, at a cabinet meeting, Bryan had shouted out, "You people are not neutral. You are taking sides." To which Wilson had replied in the iciest of his very icy tones: "Mr. Secretary, you have no right to make that statement. We are all honestly trying to be neutral against heavy difficulties."
Shortly afterwards, the two men had a private meeting at the White House. A distraught Bryan told the President, "Colonel House has been Secretary of State, not I, and I have never had your full confidence." He offered the President his resignation which was accepted immediately. ...
... the Lusitania sinking, Germany's atrocities, real and invented, in Belgium and France, together with her espionage and sabotage activities in America (which was supplying the British war effort since U-boats had not kept ships from reaching Britain while British mine fields in the waters around Germany's ports prevented nearly all shipments from America from reaching the German side.

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6 Months Later - Henry Ford and the "Peace Arc"

President Wilson welcomed President Theodore Roosevelt efforts to lead the "Preparedness" campaign. Roosevelt was gung ho for war from the first and remained so until the day he got word that his own son had actually gotten killed "over there." He had been expecting him merely to pick up enough "glory" to back a handsome political career as his father did in the Spanish American War. The death of his son shut him up fast. But no one seemed to notice it at the time.
Henry Ford was alone among American industrialists in criticizing the "preparedness movement."
In an interview with the "New York Times" published on 11th April 1915, Ford told the paper, "the word 'murderer' should be embroidered in red letters across the breast of every soldier," no matter what his nationality. Wars, according to Ford, occurred only because the capitalists and Wall Street financiers profited from them. And they dare call Ford naive!
In the same month that Ford gave his interview to the "New York Times", American peace activist Jane Addams was presiding over the International Congress of Women at The Hague. The Congress came up with a plan to set up a commission of neutrals to conduct "continuous mediation" between belligerents. Miss Addams returned from the Netherlands and had an interview with Colonel House. The Colonel politely told her that her plan was a mistaken one. The President, House said, know better than she did about what the best methods were to gain peace."
... Wilson and House were both suspicious and resentful of the many non-official attempts to bring the war to an end. Indeed Wilson regarded them as "dangerous" and House treated them as cranks and crackpots. He wrote: "Their intentions were good but they had no idea how to set about them; the were like children entering for a chess tournament before they learnt the moves."
But if the Colonel treated most of them, including Jane Addams, as impractical cranks, Henry Ford could not so easily be dismissed.
At the beginning of November 1915, Ford was visited by Rosika Schwimmer, a flamboyant and extrovert Hungarian campaigner for women's suffrage. With her was Louis Lochner, the secretary of David Starr Jordan who headed the American Peace Society. Ford and his wife Clara were both impressed with the sincerity of their visitors. Clara immediately offered $10,000 to pay for citizens to flood the White House with telegrams calling on Wilson to officially support the process of continuous mediation. Ford himself surprised Schwimmer and Lochner by telling them that he had proof that the war had been deliberately started by German Jewish bankers, but nevertheless agreed to sponsor the peace campaign saying, "men sitting around a table, not men dying in a trench, will finally settle the differences."
Matters now began quickly to gather pace. In New York later that month, Ford met with a number of American peace workers including Jane Addams. They all agreed to send, if possible, an official mediating commission to Europe, and failing that, a representative private group. Further, Ford accompanied by Lochner, would go to Washington to obtain Wilson's official blessing for the scheme. Before leaving New York for the meeting the President, Ford and Lochner had an hour long interview with Colonel House on 21st November. In his notes on the meeting, the Colonel complained that earnest Lochner monopolized the conversation and would hardly let Ford get a word in edgeways. House wrote:
"... just as soon as I got him discussing his great industrial plant at Detroit and plans for the uplift of his workers, the young man would break in .. Ford I should judge is a mechanical genius .. who may become prey to all sorts of faddists who desire his money."
House was also suspicious of Ford's real motives, wondering if the wild idea was not just one great publicity stunt to boost sales of Ford automobiles. In any case, the Colonel found Ford's ideas about peace both "crude and unimportant."
Nevertheless, Ford was too unimportant a public figure to be brushed off, and especially with the presidential election only a year off. And so on 22nd November, he and Lochner met with President Wilson at the White House. The President was in a good, almost skittish, mood that day. Earlier in the year while still in mourning for his wife Ellen, he ad met a Washington widow Edith Bolling Galt and fallen head over heels in love with her. Their marriage was going to take place in less than a month's time. Under his fiancee's influence, the normally reserved, not to say aloof, president had become much more forthcoming, indeed jocular, as Ford was to find. Lochner described how the interview began....
... After their would be witty exchanges, Wilson and Ford got down to business. Ford explained his mission. He urged the president to appoint a neutral commission, which he himself would finance. A peace ship had already been charted, and furthermore, in order to gain peace, Ford told the President, he was willing to sacrifice his entire Fortune, adding, perhaps disingenuously, "I guess I know how to make some more." ... Wilson told Ford that while he approved in principle of continuing mediation, a better plan might materialize and he did not wish to be tied to one project. Despite the president's unwonted bon homme, it was obvious to Ford that nothing was going to be forthcoming from the White House. Just as he was about to leave, Ford startled Wilson by saying, "If you can't act, I will." Walking away from the White Hose, Ford told Lochner that in his opinion the President was "a small man" incapable of seeing the enormous potential of Ford's scheme.

True to his word, the next day at a press conference at New York's Biltmore Hotel, Ford announced his plans "to go it alone" and in his own words, "... try to get the boys out from the trenches before Christmas .. the main idea is to crash militarism and get the boys out of the trenches. War's nothing but preparedness. No boy would ever kill a bird if he didn't first have a slingshot." He explained to reporters, "I've chargered a ship, and some of us are going to Europe." He hoped to assemble on board a group, "of the biggest and most influential peace advocates in the country, who can get away on this ship," and named among them, ex-Secretary Bryan, Hane Addams and his great friend the inventor Thomas Alva Edison.
And when a skeptical reporter asked, "Do you actually expect to get the boys out by Christmas?" Ford replied, "Well, there's New Year and Easter and the Fourth of July, isn't there? We're going to stop the war." ...
... The "New York Times," a paper that reflected the opinion of politically sophisticated East Coast pro-Allied Americans was, was afraid that an immediate armistice on the lines that Ford was suggesting would leave the Germans in possession of all of Belgium and northern France. The paper thought that on the whole Ford's peace mission would do, "as little harm as good," and perhaps highlight, "that immediate peace, enormously desirable as it is .. might be attained at costs in comparison to which those costs of continuing the struggle would be negligible." [Remember those real war objectives of getting Russia, grabbing middle east oil lands and taking the Holy Land from the Turks and Islam.]
... Ford sent telegrams to political, business and peace leaders inviting them to sail on the "Oscar II," which the press was already dubbing, "The Ship of Fools." Most that Ford most wanted with him were put off by what was being given an air of "circus ballyhoo" by the press. Ex-president William Howard Taft, Cardinal Gibbons, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Thomas Edison and Colonel House all politely turned down their invitations. Less polite attacks made on Ford and his peace mission by other senior American statesmen and politicians. Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt declared that, "Mr. Ford's visit abroad will not be mischievous only because it is ridiculous. ...
Some support was garnered. Helen Keller announced that she was with Ford, "heart and soul," and Governor Hiram Johnson of California telegraphed Ford, telling him, "I cannot too highly commend you."

There was great disappointment however, when, on 1st December, Jane Addams pulled out of the mission. She had been suddenly taken ill. .. In fact, Miss Addams had argued against the whole idea of the voyage because of the mockery that would surround it. Her loss to the expedition was a grave one, for her presence might have given it both the authority and stability which it was sadly lacking.

... On the day of sailing, Ford gave one last press conference ...
"Yes, tell the people to cry peace and fight preparedness."
"What if the expedition fails?"
"I'll start another."
Ford finished by saying, "We've got peace-talk going now, and I'll pound it to the end."
...

When asked by a reporter on the ship if he thought the "Peace Ship" expedition a "Holy Cause", Ford replied:
"No, I don't know what you mean by 'Holy". Instead of a 'Holy Cause' I consider this expedition a people's affair."
"Are you not sailing with faith?"
"Yes," Ford replied, "but it is faith in the people. I have absolute confidence in the better side of human nature... People never disappoint you if you trust them. Only three out of six hundred convicts in my factory have failed to make good."
"I consider that the peace ship will have been worthwhile if it does nothing more than it has done already in driving preparedness off the front page of newspapers and putting peace on the front page."
On the same day, 7th December 1915, President Wilson delivered his Third Annual Address to both houses of Congress. The President told senators and congressmen that "the whole face of international affairs has change" and he asked for substantial increases in both the United States Navy and Army.
During the voyage Ford and several other passengers contracted severe colds.
"Oscar II" arrived at Christiana, (now Oslo), Norway, on Saturday 18th December and the delegates disembarked the following day. Ford went to his hotel where he stayed still suffering from a severe cold. He decided to return home and started off for New York on Christmas Eve.
Back in the United States, Ford energetically continued is campaign against American preparedness and his opposition to the war. He maintained a keen interest in the Conference's work and continued to see Louis Lochner on the latter's trips back to America, encouraging him to carry on the process of mediation in Europe.
At the official level, on 18th December 1916, in the election season, President Wilson sent to all the belligerents identical notes suggesting that they state the terms on which they were prepared to consider peace. The Germans expressed willingness to confer, but the Allies, especially Britain's prime minister David Lloyd George, rejected any suggestion of peace without victory ... [whereupon] Germany in a bid to end the war itself through victory, resumed unrestricted submarine warfare intended to starve Britain into accepting peace without the German defeat that David Lloyd George was holding out for.
Two months later American was at war.

6 Months after the sinking of the Lusitania in which Elbert Hubbard died, Henry Ford organized a peace enterprise, with the blessing of William Jennings Bryan who had just quit as Wilson's Secretary of State over Wilson's not-very-neutral stance of military "preparedness" to enter the Great War. at his own expense. The American media was vicious in its attacks. The newspaper reporters aboard ship were openly hostile. Ford was trying to force the convening of a peace conference that would end the war. And, of all things, a flu epidemic broke out on ship.

The Negative Spin on Ford's attempt to end World War One -- the only industrialist to do so -- continues to this day.
For example:
Called "a sublimely screwy paragraph in American history" by a contemporary observer, one Ford biographer later noted that, although "the proportion of actual lunatics" among the ship's passengers "was probably small, the general impression was of a revival in a psychopathic ward." Indeed, from the beginning, the Ford Expedition was hampered by ridicule from the American press for its idealism and its motley collection of passengers. Burnet Hershey, a Brooklyn Eagle reporter traveling with the Peace Ship, recalled that "every crackpot and nut in the country wanted to get on that boat," from socialists, to prohibitionists, to anti-smoking crusaders, to pro-German partisans, and people from "every religious splinter-group" in the country.

To symbolize America's unified desire for peace, Ford invited a remarkably diverse group of people to accompany him to Europe, including thirty college students. Letters went out to the heads of major American universities asking them to nominate a student for this high-profile expedition. "We were not very far out until practically everybody had met Mr. Ford," wrote Kenneth Pringle in a letter to the University Daily Kansan. "He is a likeable, democratic sort of man - very much in earnest." On the voyage over, British gunboats stopped and searched the Oscar II for contraband and ammunition, and during this interlude, Pringle got to speak with some British marines. They are "sick and tired of the war," he told the Kansan, and "want to see it ended so they can get back home." One marine told Pringle that "there was considerable rivalry in the Royal Navy over who would get to take charge of the Peace ship" and this soldier "felt rather proud of his good fortune." Pringle, apparently, remained strikingly upbeat, both during the trip and following his return to KU. He did not regret "taking the time off from [his] school work to go with Henry Ford to attempt some arrangements whereby peace might be brought to the warring nations." According to the Kansan, he "does not feel in the least that the expedition has been a failure, as the delegates did not expect to accomplish all" the idealistic goals that many critics had ascribed to them.
They hoped, as historian Barbara Kraft has explained, to act as international mediators, "transmitting peace proposals from both sides until negotiable terms had been developed and the warring powers were ready to meet at the peace table." According to Charles Merz, one of Ford's biographers, "The theory was that the war had settled down into a groove, that the bitterness which it aroused had shut off the chief powers from a direct exchange of their peace terms, but that an indirect exchange of views might in due time take place through a neutral agency."

In the final months of World War I after the objectives of the war in the middle east and Russia had been realized a killer strain of influenza appeared that was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. No known flu strain had ever been most deadly to this age group. The origins of the deadly flu disease were unknown. British and American propaganda blamed Germany. The virus was first introduced at a US military training camp in Kansas, but was this an attack, a preliminary test or a coincidence? 20 and 40 million people would eventually die of this strain of virus in the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351 which depopulated a third of Europe. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected.