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The Mirrors of Washington by Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace) Gilbert
page 41 of 168 (24%)

He withdrew from the Street and eventually purchased The North
American Review. In the meantime J. P. Morgan and Company had
underwritten the bonds of the Harper publishing house and the elder
Morgan asked Harvey to take charge of the institution. This he
agreed to do with the understanding that he should be permitted to
direct the policy of Harper's Weekly, one of the assets of the
firm, without interference from the bankers.

With his peculiar faculty for detecting the weaknesses of
financiers and politicians, Harvey now had before him an
opportunity which was not afforded by the sedate old North American
Review and he promptly took advantage of it. He had seen enough of
the union of finance and politics to place little faith in either
of the old parties. One was corrupt and powerful; the other was
weak and parasitical. In both organizations money was a compelling
consideration. Not being accustomed to think in terms of party
allegiance Harvey decided that the only remedy for a very bad
situation was a militant Democracy. He had the organ; next he
needed the leader.

About this time, quite accidentally, he was present at Woodrow
Wilson's inauguration as president of Princeton University. The
professor appealed to the editor,--why, one can only conjecture.
Perhaps it was a common abhorrence of machine politics, a passion
for phrase turning, for there is a similarity in the methods of the
two which separates them from the rank and file of ordinary
politicians. Harvey scrutinized Wilson more carefully, making a
political diagnosis by a careful examination of his works, and
decided that he was the man to turn the trick.
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