# SD on Woodrow Wilson Quote- Illuminati! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852 "2005-07-30T04:35:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/1 "2005-07-30T04:35:02Z")
a power so organized, so pervasive, that they dare not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it preview lede^ What the hell’s Wilson talking about in this quote below? “Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.” Woodrow Wilson - In his book entitled The New Freedom (1913): ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/2 "2005-07-30T05:04:39Z")
Heh. Not so esoteric as the Illuminati or what-have-you. He was just speaking (somewhat hyperbolically) of the same forces that are commonly called “Big Business” today. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/3 "2005-07-30T16:16:21Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Heh. Not so esoteric as the Illuminati or what-have-you. > > He was just speaking (somewhat hyperbolically) of the same forces that are commonly called “Big Business” today. Do you have any additional text that would support you theory? “Big Business” seems to be included in the phrase " biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing," as being among those who are afraid. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/4 "2005-07-30T17:43:23Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > Do you have any additional text that would support you theory? From the first chapter of [_The New Freedom_](http://www.sakoman.net/pg/html/14811.htm): > [@](#): > > There was a time when corporations played a very minor part in our business affairs, but now they play the chief part, and most men are the servants of corporations. > > You know what happens when you are the servant of a corporation. You have in no instance access to the men who are really determining the policy of the corporation. If the corporation is doing the things that it ought not to do, you really have no voice in the matter and must obey the orders, and you have oftentimes with deep mortification to co-operate in the doing of things which you know are against the public interest. Your individuality is swallowed up in the individuality and purpose of a great organization. […] > > No man can deny that the lines of endeavor have more and more narrowed and stiffened; no man who knows anything about the development of industry in this country can have failed to observe that the larger kinds of credit are more and more difficult to obtain, unless you obtain them upon the terms of uniting your efforts with those who already control the industries of the country; and nobody can fail to observe that any man who tries to set himself up in competition with any process of manufacture which has been taken under the control of large combinations of capital will presently find himself either squeezed out or obliged to sell and allow himself to be absorbed. > [@PatriotX](#): > > “Big Business” seems to be included in the phrase " biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing," as being among those who are afraid. Sure, but if you read it, you’ll see that’s exactly what it’s about. The idea that the law needs to protect the weak from the strong – and that monopolies are destructive, that corporatism abstracts business to the point where individual conscience is bred out of policy, etc. A Big Man in Widgets has reason to fear the Whatsit Corporation, if he’s trying to break into the Whatsit business. Things are liable to go hard for him, even in the Widget end of things. No Nine Old Men, just the way things are set up. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/5 "2005-07-30T19:04:19Z")
Thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/6 "2005-07-30T23:34:42Z")
There are dark rumors that Colonel Edward House was Wilson’s Illuminati handler. I have no idea who this Colonel House really was or what he was doing hanging around the White House. Since probably no one knows the answer to that, it allows the anti-Illuminati conspiracy theorists free rein to speculate. **Larry Mudd** ’s quote answered the OP quite definitively, it would seem. Wilson was criticizing corporations. But what unnamed fear was Richard Nixon admitting in 1969 when he said he wanted to pull out of Vietnam but there were forces that wouldn’t allow him to, that he was afraid if he went against them that what happened to Kennedy would happen to him? Was some _éminence grise_ giving orders to Nixon behind the scenes? ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/7 "2005-07-31T00:05:35Z")
Vested interests. Those who make pots of cash from the status quo. Eisenhower called them the ‘military-industrial complex’. Of course, that was in the bad old days before they invented lobbyists. Nowadays the Scary People in Expensive Suits have no need to assassinate or intimidate, since they can just buy their politicians off-the-peg. Or more realistically, they have politicans panhandling in their waiting rooms 24/7… ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/8 "2005-07-31T01:28:01Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > There are dark rumors that Colonel Edward House was Wilson’s Illuminati handler. I have no idea who this Colonel House really was or what he was doing hanging around the White House. Since probably no one knows the answer to that, it allows the anti-Illuminati conspiracy theorists free rein to speculate. House was a political operative/handler. He had been prominent as a behind the scenes man in Texas Democratic politics. When Wilson ran for president, House became his campaign manager, and when he was elected, House was his right hand man. So, you can probably consider House to be Wilson’s Karl Rove or James Carville. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sd-on-woodrow-wilson-quote-illuminati/314852/9 "2005-07-31T22:50:46Z")
At this period in American History, there was an organized crime group called The Black Hand. It specialized in blackmail. It is important to note that there was an anti-immigrant movement very prominent in our country, Wilson was sympathetic to this movement, and the Black Hand was allegedly a primarily Italian-American organization. This could well explain Wilson’s hyperboly. Other possibilities include the Anarchist & Communist movements, as there was a Red Scare going on at the time.