President Theodore Roosevelt had denounced Harriman's father for "cynicism and deep-
seated corruption" and called him an "undesirable citizen." For the still- smarting Averell
to take his place among the makers and breakers of nations, he needed a financial and
intelligence-gathering organization of his own. The man Harriman sought to create such
an institution for him was Bert Walker, a Missouri stockbroker and corporate wheeler-
dealer.
George Herbert (“Bert”) Walker, for whom President George H.W. Bush was named, did
not immediately accept Harriman's proposal. Would Walker leave his little St. Louis
empire, to try his influence in New York and Europe?
Bert was the son of dry goods wholesaler who had thrived on imports from England. The
British connection had paid for Walker summerhouse in Santa Barbara, California, and in
Maine-- "Walker's Point" at Kennebunkport. Bert Walker had been sent to England for
his prep school and college education.
By 1919 Bert Walker had strong ties to the Guaranty Trust Company in New York and to
the British-American banking house J.P. Morgan and Co. These Wall Street concerns
represented all the important owners of American railroads: the Morgan partners and
their associates or cousins in the intermarried Rockefeller, Whitney, Harriman and
Vanderbilt families.
Bert Walker was known as the Midwest’s premier deal-arranger, awarding the investment
capital of his international-banker contacts to the many railroads, utilities and other
midwestern industries of which he and his St. Louis friends were executives or board
members.
Walker's operations were always quiet, or mysterious, whether in local or global affairs.
He had long been the "power behind the throne" in the St. Louis Democratic Party, along
with his crony, former Missouri Governor David R. Francis. Walker and Francis together
had sufficient influence to select the party's candidates.
Back in 1904, Bert Walker, David Francis, Washington University President Robert
Brookings and their banker/broker circle had organized a world's fair in St. Louis, the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In line with the old Southern Confederacy family
backgrounds of many of these sponsors, the fair featured a "Human Zoo”: live natives
from backward jungle regions were exhibited in special cages under the supervision of
anthropologist William J. McGee.
So Averell Harriman was a natural patron for Bert Walker. Bert shared Averell's passion
for horse breeding and horse racing, and easily accommodated the Harriman family's
related social philosophy. They believed that the horses and racing stables they owned
showed the way toward a sharp upgrading of the human stock--just select and mate
thoroughbreds, and spurn or eliminate inferior animals.