The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1918-08-02
WIRE DIRECTOR
LEARNED BUSINESS
FROM GROUND up
DAVID ]. LEWIS WILL ASSUME
CONTROL NATIONAL LINES
AT MIDNIGHT.
FORMERLY COAL
Studied Law, Became Democrat and
Went to Congress Where He Won
Reputation in Work for Parcel Post
System. .a
(By United Press.)

nine years old, unusually small in
stature, energetic, optimistic, UNI
schooled, former coal miner lawyer
and ,politician-that's David ]. Lewis,
who at midnight tonight assumes the
responsibility of administering the
great wire systems of the country
Under government control.
His life, row crowned with one Of
the greatest tasks in the war govern
ment, has been, for the most part, one
of toll. He learned the point of view
of labor when for IA years he mined
coal. He learned the wire business
from the ground up by studying 1t
for many years. Today he Is charg.
ed with applying his knowledge OF
the worker to his views on wire
operation, to develop an efficient sys-
tenn that VIII bring about the realiza.
ton. of his government wire control
dreams. a 49,, $50. s
Lewis, at the age of seven went 70
work in a coal mine in Clearfield
county, Pennsylvania, his birthplace,
II His parents, Welsh immigrants,
were poor and needed his help SO he
sshoAdered pick and shovel-little
ones his father made Tor him-and
marched to work with mis- father.
After four years at this he ran
away from home, his mother having
died. He became breaker boy at the
anthracite mines and at the age Of 10
contract miner, the youngest in the
district. When he was 20 he was
working in fire clay mines at Mount
Savage, Md. 1t was a newspaperman
who then stepped in and changed his
career. Lewis was. a, fluent speaker,
thing he learned from his father,
who had been a Welsh Baptist preach
erh,He went to. Cumberland as a
labor delegate and after speaking
there a, newspaerman, said to him:
ts'"You should be q lawyer an and not
/, q coal miner a., .,o..,- 81, .,o,, \
The idea appealed to the young man,
4 and he was, introduced to B, A, Rich
tmond, a lawyer, who gave him copy
o. Blackstone. He read the 600 pages
IN q week. But it took only a min
ute to convince him he knew little
He could read but not write, and Of
Latin he knew nothing.
I So he started the study of Latin
and law, and kept at it day and night
for four years. Then he was ad-
mitted to the bar and with little
money and few friends, began prac-
tice at Cumberland.
His studies led him into the field
of economics, and he read every book
he could lay hands on. When the
fight against the railroads was under
way in the COS, he prepared brief
in favor of naturalization which went
through 33 editions.
Lewis was Republican but chang
J. ed his views and Joined the Demo
Gratis, then in a minority. He tackl ed
politics with the same spirit that he
} did lavss ys1lhaaa3 $y.isi
Il. sfIp 1908 he was nominated for
4 sedhsre as "a forlorn hope" and ran
j. against. his law partner. He, put up
y sdch spirited campaign that his cleo
ton followed in the next. campaign
One of the biggest jobs he did in
, congress was in connection with the
parcels post law. Friends say he read
every bit of literature available IN
all languages. Finding fundamental
S theories lacking, he evolved his own
from the mass of data he collected.
!, Then he started intensive study Of
e wires, a subject that had previously
:, interested him and for two years read
/, and studied the experience of Europe
It At the end of that time he believed
l. he had learned all he could of the
r. subject, and began his fight in con
d gres for federal control.
d Wires, he held-and still holds
e are a natural monopoly and should
!. not be in private hands. He thought
q the house was wiling 10 adopt his
ideas. Lewis ran for the senate in tho
hope he might convert that body. But
he was defeated and later was ap
pointed to the tariff commission by
: President Wilson.
Il When the government recently as
sumed control, Lewis doomed as The
man best acquainted with the ques
ton which arose and his selection
| was inevitable