New-York tribune., 1918-03-07
B. NJ. Baruch
By RALPH BLOCK
wv 1ASHINGTON, March GA stock
wv trader is man who studies
causes He studies them and then

N "a I
w trader is man who studies
causes. He studies them and then
observes them, with a stop-watch in his
hand, in order that he may harvest at the
fortunate moment the fruits that follow
their Towering into effect.
In his fashion, such trader is a meta
physician. The world he works in is the
elementary world of pure logic, the founda-
ton OF the apparently confused and illogi-
cal world that towers above it,
stock market trader has nothing to do
with chance; he is not gambler. He is
mathematician, for his experience is with
facts that are remorseless and inexorable
as mathematics. He is merchant who
deals in cause and effect.
Baruch was that kind of trader. He
still is, although the world knows him
chiefly as the governments magician in raw
materials, now the head of the War Indus
tries Board. But Mr.. Baruch. who pitted
the sharpness of his mind against the dis
cretlons and secreces of the worlds pro-
ductlon, when he was in New York, IS still
the same Baruch in Washington. Only it
is harder game he plays now, the lines
drawn little tighter, the causes he is al
hidden, and their effects more difficult to
bring to fruition
Washington is full of patriots whose Jobs
lit them like an ancestral overcoat. Ha..ff OF
the men who came to Washington to help
out were SO highly specialized in their own
particular jobs that the peculiar atmos-
phere of government job has left them
bewildcred. They give an impression of the
sharp edge of eagerness dulled by uneasi-
ness. They look like men who know they
are expected to do certain job, who want
to do that job, but are not quite sure in the
new environment Of government office
whether the conditions will allow them to
do it.
Baruch is an exception. He seems to
have been made for this job. Before the
war his business brought to him a vast
knowledge of the sources of commodities
the origins of materials. His special Job
in the war has been to find raw materials
before any has told him they arc
wanted, and then tell people where to 20
and buy them when they discovered their
needs. Not only does he find the materials
when others can't, but he finds them at
prices which add considerably to their value
In March of last year Baruch bought con-
per-45O00, 900 pounds of it-for the armv
and navy at 16 2-3 cents when the market
price was 35 cents. He bought-or rather
arranged and then "advised"-the purchase
OF 100000 tons of steel for the nayv at
from one-third to SO per cent below the mar
ket price. Zinc, alcohol, magnesia, nickel.
cement-every raw material necessary for
war has been drawn within the magic circle
of Baruch's hand.
They tell interesting stories about some
OF these purchases. Before platinum be-
came scarce Baruch saw scarcity looming
up ahead. Away off in Russia were two
platinum merchants. Not long ago 21 600
ounces of platinum costing some $20OO,O00,
arrived in New York, via the Transsiberian
route and the Pacific Ocean, 1t came from
Russia. Nitrates from South America.
linen from Befast-ths is a part of the
Baruch story. Part Of it remains to be
told after the war. when the full acceptance
OF open diplomacy will cast no shade of in
discretion upon the communicating of for
elgn governments to serve American needs