Republic of Money: The "Harvester Trust" to Obama

[Hannah Bell]

CYRUS MCCORMICK:

Cyrus McCormick (b. 1809) is credited with the invention of the mechanical reaper; the company he founded (Chicago 1846: 'McCormick, Ogden & Co.') evolved into International Harvester (IH).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_McCormick




MCCORMICK FAMILY:

Contrary to the picture painted in schoolbook history though, McCormick and his brothers weren't exactly Horatio Alger types. Father Robert (1780) owned four large agricultural operations in Virginia, 1800 acres in total, with numerous manufacturies (grist mills, saw mills, forge, distillery). And slaves.

This was only one piece of the family holdings:

http://www.astro.virginia.edu/research/observatories/26inch/history/walnutgrove.php

http://www.vaes.vt.edu/steeles/mccormick/info.html




THE BEGINNING OF THE BUSINESS:

So Cyrus went to the Chicago frontier & met this guy - who happened to be a transplanted member of the wealthy NY Ogden family, Chicago's first mayor, real estate tycoon (both in NY & Chicago) & later railroad tycoon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_Ogden



Cyrus somehow convinced Ogden to front a paltry $50,000 to form the aforementioned "McCormick, Odgen & Co." Within a few years, McCormick was rich enough to buy Ogden out.




HAYMARKET RIOT:

By 1886, the McCormicks were very rich indeed, & the McCormick plants were the target of a strike:

"On May 3, striking workers in Chicago met near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co.
Union molders at the plant had been locked out...and the predominantly Irish-American workers at McCormick had come under attack from Pinkerton guards during an earlier strike action...."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair


In 1884, Cyrus McCormick II (1859-1936) had tried to cut his workers' pay, despite his 71% profit margin.

When he lost that fight, he installed labor-saving machinery to get rid of union leaders. His workers continued making demands, so he shut down the factory, paid off the police, & hired scabs. (An Age of Extremes: Joy Hakim)

"Well-planned and coordinated, the general strike to this point had remained largely nonviolent. When the end-of-the-workday bell sounded, however, a group of workers surged to the gates to confront the strikebreakers. Despite calls by Spies for the workers to remain calm, gunfire erupted as police fired on the crowd. In the end, two McCormick workers were killed..."

The murders were the impetus for the rally the following day at Haymarket Square & the chain of events now known as the Haymarket Riot:

"The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket riot or Haymarket massacre) was a disturbance that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago, and began as a rally in support of striking workers.

An unknown person threw a bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers and an unknown number of civilians. In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. Four were put to death, and one committed suicide in prison...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair




INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER (Now "Navistar"):

Cyrus McCormick II became the first president of International Harvester when JP Morgan merged McCormick & several former competitors to monopolize agricultural machinery manufacturing. McCormick II & his brother Harold ran IH for the next 40 years.

IH--the "Harvester Trust" -- was one of the "Trusts" Teddy Roosevelt railed against, but for some reason, IH was never "busted."


From "Dynastic America & Those Who Own It" 1921:

"The Harvester Trust (International Harvester Co.) does a
world business, as its name indicates. Besides virtually monopolizing
the sisal output of Yucatan from which it makes binder twine, the
Trust manufactures and sells farm implements in France...
South America and Canada. It operates in these countries through subsidiaries.

There is keen competition in Russia between the International Har-
vester and German Harvester concerns. Before the war the foreign
trade of the Trust was 40% of its gross, or about $50,000,000 a year.

In 1915, Dr. Victor Rendon... protested to the State Department that the
Harvester Trust and the Plymouth Cordage Company had a monopoly
of the sisal supply of Yucatan and were reducing the growers to a state
of "peonage."

Agents of the Harvester Trust were charged before a Senate
Committee in 1916, with helping to finance a revolution against the
Carranza Government in Yucatan..."

http://www.archive.org/stream/dynasticamericaa00kleirich/dynasticamericaa00kleirich_djvu.txt.



INTO THE PRESENT:

Documenting the long history of IH's dubious business practices, though, isn't the intent here; rather, to show how the McCormick billions still influence present-day events.


Here's a list of Chicago's "Renaissance 2010" charter school initiative funders:

http://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/obamas-arne-duncan-sec-of-education-and-renaissance-2010/


The first thing you'll notice is the overlap between Ren 2010 sponsors & Obama campaign funders: Gates, Pritzker (Hyatt hotels) & Crown (General Dynamics) are the biggest names, but many of the lesser-known on this list were also Obama backers.


What's less immediately obvious is the number of big Ren 2010 donors with McCormick-derived money:


1. McCormick Foundation ($1,000,000-$1,999,999 category)

The McCormick Foundation is the charitable trust est. 1955 upon the death of Robert R. McCormick, grand-nephew of Cyrus. It derives from the Chicago Tribune fortune.

The McCormick family married into the Tribune. In the mid 1800s, the Chicago Times was a McCormick mouthpiece. The rival Chicago Tribune was run by Joseph Medill, also Chicago mayor 1871-73.

One of Medill's daughters married Robert Patterson. This founded a New York/DC publishing dynasty (NY Daily News, Newsday, Washington Times-Herald). His G-grandson Joseph Albright married diplomat Madeleine (nee Korbel).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Medill
http://www.nndb.com/people/042/000205424/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright


In 1876, when Cyrus's nephew Robert Sanderson McCormick married another Medill daughter, Katherine, that was the end of the Times-Trib rivalry, & the beginning of another publishing dynasty.

Control over two major Chicago papers was helpful in political disputes - like Haymarket, e.g.:

"Such apocalyptic rhetoric was further bolstered by the Chicago Tribune's terrifying post-Haymarket reports of citizens stumbling across (hidden bombs)..."

"The Chicago Times described the defendants as: "arch counselors of riot, pillage, incendiarism and murder."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket


The Tribune McCormicks were the chief fundraisers for the Haymarket memorial to the police (blown up by the Weathermen in the 60s).





2. Northern Trust ($2,000,000-plus category)

Northern Trust was originally an investment fund for Chicago's elite. The McCormicks were among its original shareholders. Over the years McCormick progeny worked for it in various capacities (& may still).

NT administers various McCormick trusts & charities, including the afore-mentioned RR McCormick Foundation:

http://www.secinfo.com/dsvRm.9j4.htm.

NT received TARP funds:

http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2009/03/tarp_deposits_from_us_bancorp.php



3. Kirkland & Ellis LLP ($500K to $999K donor)

KE is the law firm founded by Robert R McCormick, Chicago Trib publisher. It's now 11th in the world by revenue & also a Top 20 Obama donor. KE became the Tribune house counsel when Robert took over the Trib.

Steven D. McCormick, current partner:

http://www.kirkland.com/sitecontent.cfm?contentID=220&itemID=7946



4. Commercial Club 'Civic Committee' ($1,000,000 - $1,999,999)

Chicago muckety-mucks business club; McCormicks presided over it 1899, 1940-41,
1948-49, 1976-77. Close McCormick associates held the President's office in other years as well.

For example, current Chairman Madigan is an ex-Tribune exec, & President Janotta ('94-'95), is Chairman of William Blair & Co., the investment firm founded by Cyrus McCormick's brother's grandson William McCormick Blair.

Jannotta ran the firm with William's son Edward McCormick Blair for decades before taking the chairmanship.

http://www.commercialclubchicago.org/organization/past-members.html

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2207.html

http://people.forbes.com/profile/edgar-d-jannotta/6352



5. William Blair & Co. (<$24,999)

As previously noted, this is the Chicago investment house founded by the grandson of Cyrus's brother & business partner William S. McCormick.

Grandson William McCormick Blair (b. 1884) was Yale, Skull & Bones 1907.

He started his post-college career at Northern Trust, then joined Lee, Higginson, which went bankrupt by financing the Swedish Match King Ivar Krueger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee,_Higginson_&_Co.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Kreuger

He passed the management reins to his sons Edward (Yale 1938) & Bowen in 1961, but remained Senior Partner until his death in 1982. Janotta joined the firm in 1959.

Incidentally, among the principals listed in this 1997 filing:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1026682/0000950137-97-001427.txt

HARVEY H. BUNDY III Manager-Research

= Harvey Hollister Bundy III, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth '68 & now Trustee, & grandson of bonesman/spook Harvey I:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Hollister_Bundy
http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/about/staff/overseers.html


Ed Jannotta has some interesting connections too....which brings us to Donald Rumsfeld. But that's another story.

[Hannah Bell]

1. Returning to the list of Renaissance 2010 donors:

6. Rauner Family Foundation ($1,000,000-$1,999,999):

This is the personal foundation of Golder-Rauner (private equity firm) principal Bruce Rauner:

http://www.gtcr.com/our_team/index.asp?Bio_ID=125&MainList=Employee_Type_ID@2&View=Principals

Golder-Rauner "was founded in 1980 as Golder Thoma & Co. by Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma....Golder Thoma received much of its initial funding from William M. Blair..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTCR


The Rauners live in Winnetka, stomping grounds of Rumsfeld & Ed Jannotta of William (McCormick) Blair & Co.

Ed Jannotta's son (Ed Jr.) also started at William Blair & Co., but now he's a principal & senior advisor with Golder-Rauner:

http://www.gtcr.com/our_team/index.asp?Bio_ID=256&MainList=alphaSet@&View=

Rahm Emmanuel represented Golder-Rauner in a 2001 bid to buy a home security business (SecurityLink) from SBC Communications (Bill Daley's telecom biz).

More Rahm history connections here:

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/in-banking-top-obama-aide-made-money-and-connections/

& here's a Golder-Rauner connection to Hurricane Katrina.

Seems GR sold its LifeCare hospitals to the Carlyle Group two weeks before Katrina (8/30/05):

LifeCare rented a floor in Memorial General Hospital.

"At LifeCare that afternoon (Tuesday, August 30), confusion reigned...At first everything seemed fine; Robichaux established computer communications with LifeCare’s corporate offices in Texas and was assured that LifeCare patients would be included in any FEMA evacuation of Memorial. But as the day wore on, the texts between LifeCare staff members and headquarters grew frantic as it became clear that the government’s rescue efforts and communications were in chaos.

...45 patients corpses were removed from MMC, 10 of which expired before Katrina struck. It suggested over half received medication hastening their death. Of the 35 deaths, 25 occurred on the LifeCare unit, which rented a floor in Memorial. Their mortality rate after Katrina was 48%. Tenet Health owned Memorial Medical Center and had 10 deaths."

http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html



7. The Madigan Foundation ($500,000-$999,999)

This is the personal foundation of former Tribune exec John Madigan, who's also on the Board of the McCormick Foundation.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=23369

"According to the Tribune...covering the latest round of “Renaissance 2010”, the most important thing about all the “new schools” being created in Chicago was that the principal of one of them was a “turnaround” story herself...

One of the many things left out was the Wal-Mart connection to the new charter schools in Chicago and the direct connection of the Tribune’s top executives to the assault on public schools. "

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?section=Article&page=355



8. John W. Rogers, Jr ($250,000-$499,999)

This is Arne Duncan's business partner, & the scion of one of Chicago's most prominent black families. His great-grandfather was a Tulsa lawyer who fled to Chicago following the 1921 race riot:

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20142895,00.html

Rogers Jr.'s great-grandmother, J.B.'s wife, also attended Oberlin: 1876-9.

His grandfather was "renowned U.S. Supreme Court attorney C. Francis Stradford" who argued the landmark Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee (restrictive covenants).

His mother was "the first woman to graduate from University of Chicago Law School, in 1955 the first black woman to be named Assistant U.S. Attorney, and in 1973 the first woman Deputy Solicitor General of the United States" - & a Nixon Republican.

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2625/LaFontant-Jewel-Stradford.html

His father was lawyer (later judge) John W Rogers.

http://www.chicagolawyermagazine.com/2009/01/14/closing-argument-52-years-later-the-changes-ive-seen/

http://books.google.com/books?id=SLMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=%22rogers,+rogers,+strayhorn%22&source=bl&ots=CadHmBVXEl&sig=qNoDawnwM40LX79vkdmX-Yd3xoQ&hl=en&ei=cQC2SrTPCYWcsgOOubTSDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2


Rogers Jr. went to Princeton in 1980, & his first job after graduation was with William (McCormick) Blair & Co.



Finally, a few other McCormick connections:

Robert Hall McCormick (1847), nephew of Cyrus, married Sarah Lord Day, whose uncle Daniel Deforest Lord established Lord, Day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Day_&_Lord

& whose uncle James Couper Lord married a daughter of Margaretta Brown, daughter of James Brown, a founder of NY's Brown Bros Harriman.


Cyrus's son Harold (Robert Hall's first cousin) married Edith Rockefeller, daughter of John D.

Their son Harold married Anne (Potter) Stillman. Her father James Brown Potter was the son of Mary Brown, Margaretta Brown's sister, & Howard Potter, a Brown Brothers partner.

Her first husband, James Stillman, led the Rockefeller-associated National City Bank.

Returning full circle to the present, Bill (Ren 2010 funder & Obama backer) Gates' great-grandfather James Willard Maxwell (b. 1864) happened to be President-founder of Seattle's National City Bank.


http://books.google.com/books?id=nbupvBGRpwEC&pg=PA485&lpg=PA485&dq=seattle+jw+maxwell+%22national+city+bank%22&source=bl&ots=uLarZFd6D9&sig=SuY1u3pfoEAI8La2wMLTrHs1-Yg&hl=en&ei=0xa2St_GNYuCsgPt8rCeDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2


And on a completely unrelated note:

Harold McCormick's sister Mathilde married the Swiss Max Oser, & their daughter married Linus Pauling, Jr.

[Hannah Bell]

5. kick

[HamdenRice]

2. Oh.My.Gawd! That explains everything! That's why Obama eats black pepper on his pate!!!

It's all just so CLEAR and OBVIOUS now about WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON!!1!1!

It's the PEPPER MAN! He's still controlling us all FROM TEH GRAVE!11!

[Hannah Bell]

3. i don't know about that, but it does explain where some of his campaign cash came from,

[Hannah Bell]

4. kick

[Greyhound]

6. "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."

As true today as ever.
:kick: & R