The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-11-15

position with the New York Central
associated lines, in charge of all their
rolling stock, shops ana machinery,
kept j. F. Deems really busy, in the
sense of occupying all his capacity
for work. He saved money-Iatura-
ally, considering his poynood-
invested it in various things with
which he kept in touch.
IA SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS MAN
This collateral business is not very
interesting, and throws no light ON
the man himself, except that 1t was
all constructive, like mining in South
America, and was never speculative,
nor the kind that profits by the lesser
acumen and shorter sight of others.
And during all those years, there
was that lure of that other and
greatest American production-from
,the soil.
/ During all those years of my rail.
road executive work" ne said ear
nestly, Il subscribed for more agri-
/ cultural journals than railroad jour
mails l read farm journals with more
care, more interest and more plea
sure than / did the railroad journals.
! 1t Is easy to discover why and how
Deems made Iowa his civic sweet
heart. The framework of the story
came from a little group OF men in
,Ottumwa whom / met one day and
casually induced to talk about J. f.
Deems.
WHEN DEEMS
CAME TO IOWA
+ Deems found his place as a citizen,
when he went to Ottumwa over a
quarter OF a century ago TO be mas
ter mechanic at a very modest salary.
From the beginning, he acted as
though it was his home and not mere
ly the abiding place of a railroad
executive apt to be ordered to move
hither and yon. In a short time, he
was actively interested IN all public
affairs, municipal, school and all the
rest, in his home town. In little
while, he was { llitted into the
counsels of the strong men who were
doing things to build up Ottumwa.
81 recognized that he was above the
average when he first came into my
store" said J. b. Sax, one of them.
I These men still delight to talk
about Deems, and they told enough
in one evening to fiji magazine
article. He still loved dogs, it seems,
anu ne hlUWS Lie Stdio ny tutlI III oL
names, it appears from one of the
incidents his old friends told-the
man who was nodded under those
Allegheny mountain oaks. Indeed,
his knowledge has very wide boun-
daries, and he has the exact know
ledge of an engineer on many topics
Of conversation.
WORKING FOR
FELLOWMEN
There is not room here even to
catalogue all the things in which
Deems became interested construc
lively while he lived in Ottumwa.
For one thing, he was the originator
of a building and savings associa-
ton, of which he became a director
when 1t was founded in 1885, around
1896, he was its vice-president; he is
still interested in it. Apropos, it has
been very successful as well as use
full, 1t survived a cataclysm of other
similar corporations in Ottumwa.
This is but one Of many things Deems
helped to do IN Ottumwa while mas
ter mechanic in the shops there.
! OF course, he was popular among
the mechanics working in the shops,
and when the free silver tipped
tongue or Bryan unsteady lured the
workingman, Deems, with no pre-
tense of ripping rhetoric, but with
much sense and logic, made speech
one night TO the shop men. 1t was
his first public work for his party,
although he had always Deen re-