Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-02-17
WILLIAM GIBBS McADOO B ByHP

NEW YORK, Feb. 17.--In every school
room there Is always that one boy who
has his hand way up when the teacher
asks stickler+ His eyes snap, and his
fingers snap, and his body lurches out
of the seat He is strictly on the job.
His name, / haven't a doubt. down in
that little district school near Milledge-
Vile, Ga, in the very early seventies, was
William Gibbs McAdoo; because today,
still, when you put a question to him,
now grown to a powerful and command
ing maturity, his eyes snap-and his
| fingers, almost-with undated zest for
solving a knotty one.
For this is easily the Keynote OF the
| character of William Gibhs McAdoo, for
mer secretary of the treasury Of the
United States, and very probably our
next president; that life Is a school to
him, that rightly the thirst for knowledge
can never be slaked, and that prob ems
are not conquests but thrilling adven-
lures, and that, when they are properly
untangled. they can be made to con-
tribute benefcently to the processes of
daily living.
Only with the realization of this can
one understand the manner in which
| McAdoo sees his various successes" the
federal reserve act. the federal farm loan
act. the war risk insurance bureau, and
, his handling of the railroads of the
country during the war He does not
look upon these things as dragons he
had to meet and slash into subsection
with the inept sword of politics. He
saw them as crises in the rythm of our
economic and social life but crises that,
unless they were properly met and medi-
Gated, would react enormously against
our future welfare.
NOT SEEKING TO BE
PRESIDENT MADOO.
70 a man who considers In this Eeht
what he has done Of publs work, it IS
not possible TO talk in me way one
usually talks to an avowcd candidate
for the presidency. AS a matter of fact
it is hard to meet McAdoo as a "candi-
date" at all, because I know. as well
as many other newspaper men know.
that he is not seeking this highest of
offices. His health suffered badly when
he was In Washington, and had It not
been for the fact that America entered
the war he would have retired permn-
nently from public life as soon as Prest-
dent Wilson began his second term. In
addition 10 this his fortune has dUin-
died and he now feels Il is his duty to
stay In private life in order 10 pile up
sufficient funds 10 insure his family
competence in short. Il IS absolutely
true that McAdoo has not thrown his
bat In the ring. The democrats OF the
nation have simply annexed his very
ll-brushed fedora aud SHE'D 1t IN Tor
themselves.
And now since we have mentioned h.s
clothes. let US take a look az McAdoo
today, as he sits high up In the largest
Office building in the world, at the cor
ner of Broadway and Cedar street lie
does not resemble much the paiiid. hard
piled McAdoO Of Washington. The old
gusts OF color play on his high cheek
bones again, and his eyes have tho
bright CLINT OF hard blue steel that used
70 make men mark him in the days when
lie was building the tunnels beneath the
Hudson river. He has dropped the "a
nous double breasted blue serge suit snd
wears the apotheoSis OF an American
business suit a soft finished tweed IN
subtle blues and cloudy grays n shows
up his spare. neatly knit slx-foot-two
frame. and it is nicely accented by p tie
with Just the proper fash Of brlllAuce
For. let ~ be known. McAdoo has learned
the art OF dressing properly just as he has
learned everything else; his clothes ar,
so perfect that only their effect is pro
duced upon thu onlooker unless pertinent
observation IS exercised. that no one
would ever call him q DANDY IS the tri.
umph lie has achieved I'm this mattcr
MORE IMPORTANT
THAN CANDIDACY.
As he Sis at his desk. locking our
over Trinity church yard to the Hat
Jersey coast line beyond he refuses 10
discuss what ould do II we're presi
dent" lie says, instead:
II think there are things much nearer
and more important 70 the public welfare
today than that question. or the question
Of any mans personality. what we
want to consider now IS the question Of