The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-09-21
BARNEY" BARUCH

as Bernard M. Baruch, now war
councillor of the United States. For
instance, one might easily be led into
saying that it is the little things that
count, or that existence is made up
of small incidents, or that pebble has
been known to turn the course of a
river, or that one thing leads to an
other, and so on, ad infnitum. Ber-
nard M. Baruch, or Barney" Baruch,
as he is better known to the public,
took a place in brokerage house at
SO a week. He did not exactly polish
up the handle of the big front door,
but he weighed the mails of the con-
Germ that employed him so carefully
that his compensation was soon raised
to S.. Then he got job in small
bank, at small salary. Later he be-
gan, in small way, with a big bond
and stock concern. At the end of six
years he was able to withdraw from
the partnership in that house with
100000 in his own name. There
upon he started in business for him.
self, attended sedulously to his own
affairs, read the newspapers careful
ly, and one day discovered a "but"
in a speech by Mr.. Lloyd George,
which enabled him to go into the New
York Stock Exchange and. "clean up"
an immense profit.
The world might never have known
anything about this if he had not been
named, in the course of sensational
episode, as one of those who had been
apprised in advance of the forthcom-
ing of the famous "peace note" dis
patched to all the Powers by President
Wilson, some time before the latter
decided that the United States could
not, in honor, keep out of the war. Be-
fore a committee of Congress, "Bar-
ney" Baruch testified that he had no
advance knowledge whatever with re-
gard to the peace note, but he made no
attempt to conceal the fact that, from
his own judgment of existing condi-
tions, based partly upon a passage in
an interview with Mr.. Lloyd George,
published in London about the same
time, and telegraphed to New York,
he made his trades on the probability
that something would be said or done
that might be taken to indicate, on
the side of the Allies, a willingness to
negotiate with the enemy. Although
Mr.. Lloyd George was misunderstood
or misquoted, the interview contained
passage, following a "but", which
seemed to intimate that, while the
peace overtures made by Herr Won
Bethmann-Holweg could only be re-
jected without qualification, the door
would not be closed against a posi-
bic understanding.
This in a measure, lets the outsider
into stock exchange mysteries, but it
does not altar the principal fact that
Barney" Baruch came through the
inquiry with a clean bill. How pleas
ing this circumstance was to President
Wilson very few knew at the time,
but, as matter of fact, any other out
come would have been extremely dis
agreeable to the Executive. The rea-
son is not hard to give.
AS Bernard M. Baruch increased in
wealth he was invited to accept va
rious honorary positions in the COM
munity where he was so well known.
Thus he was given a seat in the Board
of Trustees of the College of the City
of New York. Here one of his closest
associates was William F. McCombs,
who was later to manage the campaign
for the nomination and election of
Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Through
Mr.. McCombs Mr.. Baruch met the then
Governor of New Jersey, and some
thing in the nature of a personal and
political friendship sprang up between
the two. Mr.. Baruch first became in
terested in Woodrow Wilson because
his friend, McCombs, was interested
in him, and, as time went on, he be-
came interested in Woodrow Wilson
for his own sake, subscribed to his
campaign fund and voted for him.
Nearly five years elapsed between
the preliminary campaign of 1912 for
Woodrow Wilson's nomination, at
Baltimore, and the appearance of
President Wilson before Congress, on
April 2, 1917, to ask that war might
be declared existent between the Unit
ed States and Germany, and in that
interval Mr.. Wilson was very busy in
the White House, while Mr.. Baruch
was very busy in Wall Street. Mr..
Wilson did not give Mr.. Baruch
thought, perhaps, as a possible office
holder, nor, it may be presumed, did
Mr.. Baruch ever entertain thought
of filling an officeholder's job. But
the little things previously referred
to were moving, and when war was
declared Mr.. Wilson thought he saw
where a man of Barney" Baruch's
talents might be made very useful to
the country. Barney" Baruch had
all the money he could reasonably ask
for. He had scored his triumphs in
Wall Street. Perhaps he was tired of
the game. At all events, he respond
ed promptly to President Wilson's in
vitation, sold his seat in the stock ex-
change for $4,000, turned the key in
his Office door, went home, packed a
suitcase, took the express to WASH
ington, and was soon sworn in as a
member of the Council of National
Defense.
1t is now the particular business of
Barney" Baruch, who is now a men,
Der of the War Industries Board, to
see to it that in all the larger and
more important, perhaps it would be
well to say, the vital, transactions of