Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-06
The Matter of Transbor-
tat;on When Amer;ca
Entered the w ar.
Ho,O the Shifting
Board Is Fighting the
Hun, and Even More
Is Required Than a.
Big Building Program.

Allied Maritime Transport Council.
which now Classics the tonnage OF
the United States, Great Britain,
France and Italy. recommends the re-
cruiting of vessels and other helpful
shipping measures.
1t was Gay, of course, who. being
himself chosen. picked and organized
professor. a doctor Of philosophy. as Is
shown by the records of the Univer-
slty of Berlin, he is, nevertheless.
practical and free of all mischievous
and unbelievable dreams. The rain
BOWS ne sees have no pots of gold at
their two ends.
Dark Of hair and eyes, compact of
frame. brisk but never brusque, cheer
full and stalwart, he would harmonize
with and function perfectly, atmos-
phcrically and otherwise, in factory
or bank. Lecturing to classes has
given him, style, vigor and readiness
as conversationalist.
There Is the academic mind and
there Is the trained historical mind
and there is the disciplined economic
mind. Gay has them all. Business
during the sixteenth century has been
one of his most patient studies. The
hero of that age, according to his
analysis of the age. was John Calvin.
the Ii,;tn of "unpausing activity" as
DR.. William Lindsay Alexander, the
Scotch scholar, has described him.
"Why arc the Yankees of New Eng
land moncy-makers" Gay asks his
classes in political economy, business
management. banking. bookkeeping,
, craftsmanship and cost accounting.
The answer Is without geographical
prejudice because Gay was born in
Michigan. whore his father was Il
lumberman. Because" says Gay. re-
nlying to his own inquiry. New
of John Calvin"
Stricken with fever, asthma. stone
and govt, Calvin toiled on. Too i'll
to preach himself. he was carried on
lie comes?" was his answer to re-
monstrating friends. A pious man.
indeed, was Calvin. but Gay asserts
that he transformed the face of bust
ness. He made labor at last respect
cursed but blessed. This Calvin
taught and his teaching was brought
In the Mayflower to Massachusetts,.
Yet he did more. He reformed the
habits Of living. Jewels and velvet
clothing. Even the hours for eating
after frugal supper. to labor till
midnight" DIR. Alexander writes.
Therefore the Puritans became in
drstrious. thrifty and temperate and
they took these virtues with them
when they set out for America. Such
is the reply, then, to the great uues-
ton that DR.. Gay asks of his classes.
and which he answers. Adding
meanwhile that Calvin revolutionlzed
the thought and program of mankind.
X u
To Gay facts always are dominant.
They are concrete and can be handled.
boxed, shipped and utilized. Opinions
may be sound and safe or false and
dangerous. Facts, accordingly, are the
base from which he moves toward
any end that he has in purpose. With
him the history of business Is an open
page. Human transactions are accu-
rately defined. And the result, so far
as Gay himself is concerned, Is an
almost canny foresight of that which
is to happen. Thus: The facts are so
and so and this or that will come to
pass.
Usually. the political economist says:
"Ethically. regardless OF experience
and the infirmaties of humanity, con-
ditlons under my formula will inn
prove" But they do not, fundamen-
tally. Vision in such case is inva-
riably forward. Gay begins by look
ing backward.
Gays childhood was spent in the
woods, whittier his father, Aaron F.,
had moved from Detroit. In those days
pine village consisted of one street,
in which there were stumps and a
roadway of slabs embedded in and
covered with sawdust. Houses were
built of rough lumber from the mills.
There were stores and saloons and
sidewalks peppered with holes made
by the spikes in loggers' boots.
1t was no place, Aaron f. thought,
in which to rear a family. He sent his
wife and son, therefore. to Europe
where they lived alternately in Eng
land. France and Switzerland and
whore the son attended school.
Dean Gay was graduated at the
University of Michigan at the age
of twenty-five. Then he returned to
Europe and two years later won his
degree at Berlin. He began at Har-
ward as an instructor Since 1906 he
has been professor Of economics and
since 1908 dean Of the graduate school
of business administration.
"rhis." says Emerson. "is the key to
the power of the greatest men-their
spirit diffuses itself?" The forty scien-
lists are Gay, proportioned more or
less in equal parts; and troops are
moving and the allies are being sus-
taned.
(cOpyright 1918 by James II Nnrrowl