THE ORDER OF SKULL & BONES


Skull & Bones was founded at Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut in
1832. It is the oldest and most prestigious of Yale's seven secret societies.
Among the others are: Scroll & Key, Book & Snake, Wolf's Head, Eliahu, and
Berzelius. These fraternities serve as a recruiting ground for young men
destined for careers in government, law, finance and other influential
sectors of American life. Skull & Bones is the elite of the elite among these
secret societies. Only Scroll & Key can claim a near equal influence on
American affairs over the past 160 years.

Unlike the Greek fraternities on most other American university
campuses, Skull & Bones and its similar secret societies exist exclusively at
Yale. They are not part of any nationwide public association. The other elite
Ivy League colleges, Harvard and Princeton have similar e~clusive secret
societies. Yet, even among these few universities, the secret societies of
Yale-led by Skull & Bones-are unchallenged in their influence on American
political affairs.

According to some accounts, the Skull & Bones secret society at Yale
has an underground affiliation with two other societies which were
simultaneously founded at two other locations. The number "322" that appears
under the skull and crossbones on the Order's emblem is believed to indicate
the year of its founding-1832-and the fact that it is the second lodge within
an international system. By some accounts, the lodge holding the number "1"
is in Germany and the lodge numbered "3" is based at another American
college.

Since its founding, Skull & Bones has only inducted about 2,500
members. At any given time, only about 600 or so members of the Order are
alive. This small number underscores the tremendous concentration of power in
the hands of its members.

If the members of Skull & Bones were to select a Hall of Fame from
among their own elite ranks, some of the people whose names would almost
certainly appear at the top of the list would be:

* Alphonso Taft, a founding member of the Order who served as the
Secretary of War under President Rutherford B. Hayes (1876-1880).

* William Howard Taft, the only man to ever serve as both the
President of and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

* Henry Lewis Stimson, partner in the Wall Street law firm of Root and
Stimson, Secretary of War under President Taft (1908-1912), Governor General
of the Philippines (1926-1928), Secretary of State under President Herbert
Hoover (1929-1933) and Secretary of War under Presidents Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (1940-1946).

* Averell Harriman, investment banker with Brown Brothers Harriman,
director of the Lend-Lease program of the U.S. State Department (1941-1942),
U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943-1946), Governor of New York, Under
Secretary of State for Asia (1961-1963), and presidential secret envoy to
Soviet leaders Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov.

* Robert Lovett, partner in Brown Brothers Harriman, Assistant
Secretary of War for Air (1941-1945), Deputy Secretary of Defense, Secretary
of Defense (1950), leading member of the New York Council on Foreign
Relations.

* Harold Stanley, investment banker, founder of Morgan Stanley.

* Robert A. Taft, United States Senator (1938-1950).

* Prescott Bush, investment banker and partner in Brown Brothers
Harriman, United States Senator from Connecticut, father of George Herbert
Walker Bush


* George Herbert Walker Bush, United States Congressman (1964-1970),
Chairman of the Republican National Committee, United States Ambassador to
the United Nations, first American Diplomatic Liaison to the Peoples Republic
of China, Director of the Central Intelligence Ageney (1975-1977). Vice
President of the United States (1980-1988), President of the United States
(1988- ).

* John Thomas Daniels, agro-industnalist, founder of Archer Daniels
Midland.

* Hugh Wilson, foreign service officer, Counsellor to Japan (1911