certainly cannot now be accurately predicted; but the phenomenon must be mentioned if
you are to have a true picture of what is going on in the United States.
Would George Bush adopt this anti-Christian outlook as his own? One can never know
for sure how a young person will respond to the doctrines of his elders, no matter how
cleverly presented. There is a much higher degree of certainty that he will conform to
criminal expectations, however, if the student is brought to practice cruelty against other
youngsters, and to degrade himself in order to get ahead. At Andover, this was where the
Secret Societies came in.
The Secret Societies
Nothing like Andover's secret societies existed at any other American school. What were
they all about?
Bush's friend Fitzhugh Greene wrote in 1989:
Robert L. Tim '' Ireland, Bush's longtime supporter [and Brown Brothers Harriman partner], who later served on the Andover board of trustees with him, said he believed [Bush] had been in AUV. What's that? I asked. Can't tell you, '' laughed Ireland. It's
secret! '' Both at Andover and Yale, such groups only bring in a small percentage of the
total enrollment in any class. `That's a bit cruel to those who don't make AU[V] or Bones,' '' conceded Ireland.
A retired teacher who was an adviser to one of the groups, cautiously disclosed in his
bicentennial history of Andover some aspects of the secret societies. The reader should
keep in mind that the school, to celebrate itself, published this account:
A charming account of the early days of K.O.A, the oldest of the Societies, was prepared
by Jack [i.e. Claude Moore] Fuess, on the occasion of their Fiftieth Anniversary. The
Society was founded in ... 1874....
[A] Major concern of the membership was the initiation ceremony. In K.O.A. the
ceremony involved visiting one of the local cemeteries at midnight, various kinds of
tortures, running the gauntlet--though the novice was apparently punched rather than
paddled, being baptized in a water tank, being hoisted in the air by a pulley, and finally
being placed in a coffin, where he was cross-examined by the members.... K.O.A. was
able to hold the loyalty of its members over the years to become a powerful institution at
Phillips Academy and to erect a handsome pillared Society house on School Street.
The second Society of the seven that would survive until 1950 was A.U.V. [George
Bush's group]. The letters stood for Auctoritas, Unitas, Veritas. [Authority, Unity, Truth.]
This organization resulted from a merger of two ... earlier Societies ... in 1877. A new
constitution was drawn up ... providing for four chief officers--Imperator [commander],
Vice Imperator [vice-commander], Scriptor [secretary], and Quaestor [magistrate or
inquisitor]....