managing editor a decade earlier, from Oswald Garrison Villard. After failing to make a profit, he sold the paper in January, 1922 to a syndicate that was headed by the paper's editor, Edwin F. Gay. J. P. Morgan On January 1, 1911, he became a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co., following Davison to the company. World War I The company had also started an improvised system so that the Allies could buy supplies from them. In 1917, he joined the Liberty Loan Committee, which helped the treasury sell war bonds to Americans. He also served unofficially as an advisor to a mission to the Allies, led by Edward M. House, as requested by President Woodrow Wilson. Lamont not only advised the other countries but also went to them. Right before he was going to go to Europe, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia. He and the head of the American Red Cross, William B. Thompson, along with the approval of the British prime minister, Lloyd George, tried to convince America to aid the Bolsheviks so that Russia would stay in the war. However, they were unsuccessful. Peace negotiations Both he and Norman H. Davis were appointed as representatives of the Treasury Department to the Paris Peace Conference and had to determine what Germany had to pay in reparations. He drew up the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan to reduce the amount paid by Germany. Influence In the interwar period, he was a spokesman for J.P. Morgan because J.P. Morgan Jr. was retiring. He handled the press and defended the firm during hearings like the those of Arsene Pujo that investigated powerful Wall Street bankers. He was one of the most important agents for the Morgan investments abroad. A member of the Council of Foreign Relations, he was an unofficial advisor to the Wilson, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt administrations. Hoover contacted Lamont about his proposal for a debt repayment moratorium in the 1931 financial crisis. This also has important implications for later events such as his 1932 election campaign. Japan Lamont later undertook a semiofficial mission to Japan in 1920 to protect American financial issues in Asia. However, he did not aggressively challenge Japanese efforts to build a sphere of influence in Manchuria; indeed, he supported Japan's non-militaristic politics until late into the 1930s. Ron Chernow won the National Book Award for his book The House of Morgan