New-York tribune., 1918-12-02

career in finance, politics and interna-
tional affairs. He is survived by his
widow, who was Miss Dorothy Payne
Whitney, daughter of the late William
c. Whitney, and three chidren-Wh Whit
ney Willard, aged SIX; Beatrice, four,
and Michael, two.
Major Straight resigned the chair
manship of the Mayors Committee on
National Defence, which he had ac-
cepted at the behest of John Purroy
Mitchell, and entered the service i'm
mediately on Americas entry into the
war. He served for time in the adju-
tant generals department at Governors
Island and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Then
he was assigned to undertake the in
stallation and administration Of the
war risk insurance act in this country,
and sailed in December. 1917, to direct
the same work with the American
forces in France After the completion
of this work he went to the General
Staff College, and had been serving
with combat troops.
The son of an American missionary
to Japan, Willard Dickerman Straight
was born in Oswcgo, N. Y. January
81, 1880, and received his early train
ing at the Bordentown IN. J.) Mill
tary Institute. He was graduated from
Cornell in 1901. Ten years later, when
little more than thirty, he had be-
come recognized as an authority on
financial problems in the Far East,
had been selected by the late J. P.
Morgan, at reported salary of $4,000
year, to represent a syndicate of
American bankers in China and had
won for his bride Miss Whitney,
A master of Chinese and Japanese
politics, he became the right hand man
of great American bankers and was
1909 when with British, French and
other European financicrs, they under
took to syndicate loan of $27 500, 900
to China. This loan, as far as Amer
lean bankers were concerned subse-
quently fell through by the withdrawal
of support by the government at Wash
ington.
Interested in Far East
The Far East had always attracted
Straight, since as boy he accompanied
his father, the late Professor William
Dickerman Straight, to Japan. He
quickly mastered difficult Chinese and
Japanese dialects and came to under
stand Oriental subtleties.
Two years after his graduation from
Cornell, Straight entered the Chinese
Imperial Maritime Customs Service,
serving at Nanking and Pekin. When
the Russo-Japanese war started in
1904, he resigned his place and went
Associated Press and Reuters Agency.
q NJ 1no
he was ordered home. That same year
he was appointed American vice-consul
and private secretary to the American
Minister at Seoul and the next year he
received his credentials as American
Consul General at Mukden, where he
remained until 1908.
In 1909 he became the representative
in China of group OF American bank
ers. In 1912 he returned to this coun-
try and was associated with J. P. Nor
gan & Co. in connection with irterna-
tional affairs
Had Varied Interests
In 1915 he resigned to undertake the
study of international law at Columbia
University. Late that year the Ameri-
can international Corporation was
formed and Straight was elected vice
president. He became subsequently a
director of the international Bank, the
Pacific Development Company, the
Stems Carey Railway and Canal Com
pany and other enterprises, some of
which were engaged on work in the
Orient
He was fellow of the Royal Geo
graphical Society of London, a trustee
of Cornell University and member of
numerous clubs in New York and Lon
don. He took an active interest in the
American Asiatic Association, of which
ne was president for several years
He also promoted the organization of
India House He had a home in New
York City and another at Old West
bury. Long Island.