El Nuevo mexicano., 1918-01-03
With the Hooverites
UNCLE SANS cRocERYMAN
fSamuel Crowthcr In LeslIe,s,

NHs4H w. WTN'T ~
Hoover in Washington wired Whitmarsh
in New York: "Can you IKE breakfast
with me tomorrow morning?" That wal
in June. Whitmarsh innocently went
down, and in the midst OF the e~ggs-.it
may have been during the fruit-IIoover
pinned on him the fine sonorous title OF
Chief of the Division OF Distribution OF
the Uaited States Food Administration,
which is another way Of saying that Whit
marsh found himself charged with the vi
tally Important function of seeing thai
the whole country gets a square deal on
passing around the food.
He Is the man who has control of the
big distfihutors-the wholesale grocers
and other maligned Observation-Disclosures
through them endeavors to hold a rein on
the corner grocer. He is the man who is
trying to arrange that you may be able
to buy q can OF peas every day in the
year and 10 cans on no day in the year;
and that the price you pay represents the
cost Of production and distribution plus a
fair profit, but only a fair profit. He is
not one OF those who advocate a society
In which the mar who sells his labor
may regard the sky as the limit OF the
profit, but in which the seller Of goods is
expected to market at cost or a bit less,
and to live comfortably on the deficits.
Since that fateful breakfast Whitmarsh
has been putting In anywhere from 10 TO
IA hours a day in Washington working on
the puzzle that Hoover handed to him
puzzle that has as yet been unsolyed
by any OF the food administration abroad.
Even the lehman crop of superhumans has
been unable, despite pragmatic sanction.
to keep the rich from getting more than
they need and the poor from being starved.
have not gone far enough as yet to
know II our plans will work out, but the
odds are, and ! say this advisedly, that
they will. Certainly no better man than
Whitmarsh could be had for the ticklish
job Of keeping everyone happy and at
the same time giving nc one all that he
wants. For that Is about what food ad.
ministration amounts to when stripped OF
detail.
The reason Hoover picked on Whitmarsh
was because, as the president Of the Ma.
tional Association OF Wholesale Grocers,
he was the logical choice and also because
he had a national reputation for doing
things in a nice way. He was known as
a man with whom YOU might disagree but
with whom you could not quarrel,
Why and how he learned to be a dlplo-
mat takes one back to 1886 when Whit
marsh as a boy of IT entered the famous
wholesale grocery Of his uncle, Francis 4.
ILeggett-
In 1909 Mr. Leggett died and the nephew
became the head of the firm which three
years later he turned into a porbration.
Holding that the men who had worked
faithfully were entitled to share in the
profits, he arranged that each executive
should be given the opportunity to buy
stock and so managed the loans that those
who wished might pay practically all of the
subscriptions out of dividends. Today
every executive Of the company owns stock
and sits on the board of directors. The
men who grew up with the company are
now the owners and form a remarkable
business family, preserving all the tradi-
lions which make for pleasant working and
none which might retard business. 1t is
a hard company to break into, but the
man who is once in and makes good never
thinks OF keeling a weather eye open for
another job. That is just about the great
est compliment that can be paid to any
management.
But what kind of a man is he? Just
a big, healthy, red-faced, hard-working
human being who stands something over
six feet. wears s~pectacles, and who has
tended to his business until now. He
is helping his country also-like many an
other man who is quietly, a little sol
emnly, and very earnestly making every
sacrifice--he is praying that his bit may
help to give a whit better fighting chance
to the other fellows body-and to his own
He has two boys: Francis is a lieutenant
at Camp Upton. Karl would have gradu-
ated fTAm Harvard in 1919, but he is at
Plattsburg. There are three men in the
Whitmarsh family; their service flag has
three stars.