New-York tribune., 1918-02-09
Then There Is
"After the War"

| trench sklrmish.
Then There Is
"After the War"
Then there was after the war. And
General Manager Piez was pretty GER
tain that, peace or no peace, the United
the equipment it is now lining up for
action: In the first place, peace would
scarcely dent the iron necessity Of
ships that faces the world increasingly
as the war goes on. Europe without
1ood, America in need of foreign ma
tcrals and everywhere the extreme
need for transportation to link up again
the scattered and crippled fragments Of
world half shot to pieces!
But there was more to it than that
Ana mere the face of the general man.
ager lighted up with enjoyment. Ap-
parently 1T came close to the chief in
tcrests of this man, who manages some
twenty thousand men on his own prof.
ccts when he is home.
Ihe shlpbuiding machine we are
getting started now will be equipped
for turning out a hundred standardized
shlps where now we turn out one.
Surely nobody would expect us to scrap
All this organization this thing that it
| 80 ~ 'A"A ~ W SCt SUlURy Wnen IL IS fuIIV
equipped to do it's job at an immense
saving of human force. The war is a
terrible opportunity, but it is never
theicss an opportunity, and it would be
foohsh to make a start and then let it
drop. NO, the United States will PROB
ably go on building ships, replacing the
tonnage losses, building up an answer
to the increased needs that will come
with peace"
An Effective
Man From Chicago
He is rather youngish man. has
that air of trimness that seems to mark
most OF the effective men from Chicago
with clear and candid gray ewes under
halr OF the kind the novelists call iron
gray and a mouth that seems to indi
cate generosity and human interest. He
bears no official air and frankly ex-
presses in his manner an attitude of
doubt-although it is probably sub.
conscious on his part-as to the results
OF working for hundred million crit
cal masters: But Piez isn't alone in
that. The jump from an Office where
responsibility has been concentrated
and the lines of its administration and
coordination laid down on definite lines
to job that demands equally definite
results, but is surrounded on all sides
by all kinds of intangible atmospheric
considerations has left its mark on all
t1ne tne business men who have come into
Washington The old-style business
man used to be a good politician. The
n: new one isn't, because his job is too
opportunism of politics.
Plez is of the new order, troubled
perhaps although this is only guess
by the little indefinite things that
get IN the way at Washington
Use of Second
Rate Men
"Id rather have lot of second-rate
n,s4 nlen working for me-" he said, ethan
Nrst-class ones. Sometimes the differ
ence IS only in q mans opinion of
hlmsef. But men who are constantly
asking to have their responsibilitv de-
1lned usually haven't grasped that in
this job down here everybody makes
his own responsibility. The opportunity
is without limit"
=, tie might have meant that the ego
that is careful of other egotistic toes.
out OF self-knowledge of what it means
to be stepped on. usually spends so
mucn time marking out territory that
his JOB takes second place. But he
didn't put it in that way.
Plez lives in Chicago, where he is pres
ident OF the Link Belt Company, a corp
Grafton located at Chicago, indianapolis
and Philadelphia. He has never ;suilt
a ship, but he knows good deal about
organizing forces of men, whatever
their object. He went into the world
CT affairs as a craftsman for the com
pany which he now heads. That was
in 1889, after he had put himself
through the Columbia School of Mines
by teaching night school, when family
reverses made self-support imperative.
He is tifty-one years old, and has taken
some part in public life in illinois. He
was member Of the commission which
formulated the Illinois factory act in
1909 and chairman of the Illinois Work
mems Compensation Commission.