South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-02-04
STA TESMEN
REAL AND NEAR
BY FRED c. KELLY.

received WISH one DIlBnt CltdI day
from a little group Of Indianapolis
people who dropped into his office TO
pay their respects.
These are neighbors of mine. said
Kern, turning TO friend in the office
Il wish you would show them about
bit"
Certainly" said the friend. and he
took the party in tow.
That night the local friend met
Kern and said:
Well I showed your neighbors
good time. Got a carriage and took
them all around town and they seem
ed to enjoy themselves immensely
''W-h-a-t.' exclaimed Kern. YOu
got a carriage? When l said 10 show
them around. / meant to take them
over liz the capitol and walk them
around for a half hour. Why you
must have spent good deal of
money"
Yes. it cost a little over $14.55 adj
mitted the man, but I thought you
wouldn't mind the expense and So
'Lookee herei" broke in Kern,
after this you leave my neighbOrs
alone. Youll get them into a lot Of
foolishly extravagant habits"
John Shelton Williams. who as
comptroller of the currency is going
to be an important person in our
new currency system, is a man who
appears 10 be surrounded by high
ramparts of dignity containing spikes
and barbed wire.
But most of his dignity is nothing
more than a streak of misfortune.
Williams does not feel anything like
as dignitied as he looks.
AS one friend of his put it, THAT
manner of his is just as much hard
luck as if ii were a club foot or
caulihower ear. He should be sym
pathized with rather than con-
denlned."
And it is a fact that one may walk
right up to Williams with impunity.
He talks regular language and wears
no porcupine quilts.
Williams seeming dignity was
handed to him as a heritage from an
cestorS who wore it back in the early
days when dignity was considered al
most as important possession as
good character. Many of his folks
We're identified with the first families
of Virginia movement. For example,
one of his direct antecedents was a
brother of Mrs. Martha Washington,
wife of George Washington, the well
known father of his country. And
Williams mothers grandfather
was Edmund Randolph first attorney
general of the United States.
In these days of Democratic sim
plicity and statesmen born in log
cabins and sod houses. and struggling
for an education while working as
bric<layerS. cowboys schOol-teachers
and what not. it is almost restful to
hear of a man who grew up the way
John SHELTON Williams did.
Williams father was a prominent
L. L I'll
young John SHELTON was sent to pri-
vate schools. For all we know he
may have worn velvet pants and lace
collars and driven home from school
in a carriage.
Williams had none of the boyish
notions of running off with a circus
or becoming a street car mOtOrmap.
The only ambition he can remember
was to be a financier, and the moment
he had finished his schooling he took
a job. or rather accepted position"
as the old saying is, in his fathers
office. When he was 1 years old he
dashed off a giddy little tome, en-
titled A Manual Of Investments" 1t
was mostly figures and had little plot
or heart interest TO il, but even at
that it was a pretty fair book for
mere boy of Is to write. Most Of
Williams associates did not know
enough of finance at that age TO dis
tinguish between the paying teller
and the receiving teller in a bank.
BY the time he was p. Williams
could understand a great deal of
financial talk that was commonly
supposed TO be within the cOmpre-
hension only of bankers who wore
cutaway coats and sidewhiskers. One
day Williams mother proudly told
the boy
''You'H probably grow up To be the
secretary of the treasury
Not long ago when Secy. McAdoO
was away, and Williams as assistant
secretary was in McAdoo's place. he
wired his mother and reminded her
Of the remark she had make some 40
years previous.
Williams is a brisk person with a
disposition to do everything rapidly
He walks like a man enrOute to a
frst-class fire ard talks as fast as an
auctioneer. He has SO much energy
that he has to be doing something all
the while After he was taken into
partnership with his father in the
banking business, he Chafed under
the monotony of office routine and
hTanched out as a railroad president.
and consolidated the SeabOard Air
Line railway from New York to Flor
ida. just for the sport of the thing
Williams takes a whole lot of pride
i'm his financial accomplishments. but
there have been complimentary things
said about him that irritate him. For
instance. a few days ago I saw him
pick up copy Of a work containing
biographies of prominent men and
his eve fell on this about himself:
He is man of handsome pres
enCe. easy 10 approach and cordial
and affable in his manners
With much Impotence Williams
seized a pencil and savagely crossed
out these lines
And yet * was entirely true
Copyright. 1914. by Fred G.. Kelly
All rights reserved.)
FOR PROTECTION.
a small boy had been vaccinated