Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-08-23


war. He had found day coach, entirely
empty, and had taken 1t unto himself. His
train reached Aberdeen, Md, where mu-
nitions Of war were being prepared, and
hundreds of colored workmen swarmed
into il.
He overheard conversation between two
of them which gave him the irrefutable
measure of just what money had come to
mean to these men in halcyon days of war
wages
lis you got change fo' ter. dola So,
Change nothin'!' said Nose derisively.
Ten dolla's is change"
William Allen White. of Emporia, Kan,
Is inclined to chuckle over having found
out that an aspiring writer forged his name.
1t is well known fact that young au-
thors are regularly grated upon by GER
tain variety of pubisher-a publisher who
VIII bring out book II the author will pay
for the printing. or one half of the print
ing, always set down ut a definite sum.
This sum Is, as a matter of fact, sufficient
to print the book and yield profit to the
quasi publisher.
Now here comes a young writer who
presents manuscript to publisher and
with 1t a letter over the name of William
Allen White which says that a lot of people
in Kansas are hoping to buy this book.
The publisher got susp spicious and sent the
letter to Mr.. White. lie hadn't written it
at all, but, knowing the snarcs set for him
who let's it be known that he has written
a book, he is amused that one writer is
so bold as to transfer the deception to the
other end of the game.
1t was a very handsome hat which citi-
zens of Wyoming recently presented to
President Harding in calling his attention
70 hn 81. thAA. .a halI
year in Cheyenne. Mr.. Harding has another
hat, however, that is highly priced and
about which hangs the sentiment of an early
political experience and the memory of the
only time he was ever fired from a job
1t was back in the days when James G.
Blaine ran for the presidency on the Re
publican ticket. In those days there were
many marching clubs and there was
Blaine stovepipe hat worn by the supporters
of that candidate all over the country.
Warren Harding was youngster just
grown and had his first job of reporting on
the newspaper in Marion which has long
since ceased to exist. That newspaper was,
however, Democratic in its persuasions, and
the editor, felt it deeply when his reporter
insisted OH wearing this headpiece symbolic
of the opposite party.
Finally he issued an ultmatum that
Warren Harding should desist from this
Haunting Of the badge of the enemy or he
should separate himself from the payroll.
Harding gave evidence of early political
loyalty by choosing the latter horn of the
dilemma. He was fired. Eventually he got
back at his former employee by starting
an opposition paper which put him out of
business. He still has the Blaine stovepipe.
At the age Of eighteen, Albert D. Laskcr,
chairman of the shipping board, went up
to Chicago from his native home down in
Texas, and went to work as the handy
boy around advertising agency in the
Windy City. Four years later he was draw
ing a salary Of 500 week as advertising
director. In ten years he owned the agency.
Lasker noticed that this agency had been
taking contracts to rehabilitate nearly de-
fGnct commercial enterprises. 1t got fees
for its services, or commissions on the new
business. Lasker asked his associates why
they should not purchase. these enterprises
which they were re establishing and get all
the profits. From that idea he has come
t. be many times millionaire at the age
of forty. He has taken hold of breakfast
foods, automobiles, canned products, one
after another, led them to great prosperity
through national advertising, and harvested
the returns.
lie had done just this for an industrial
concern down in Indiana, and Will Hays,
the chairman Of the Republican National
Committee, had known of the exploit. So
VIII Hays asked Lasker to try his rcju-
So did an advertising man come into ma
tional political life.
l met Charles Pergler, an old friend of
mine, in Il hotel lobby. Pergler used to be
n farm boy out in Iowa and later a lawyer
IN Chicago. | asked him what he was doing
for u living now and he said that he was
Minister to Japan. ! protested that our
representative III Japan was not q Minister,
but an Ambassador, and he explained that
he was not our Minister, but the Minister of
CZecho SlOvakia, which statement unfoldcd
a bit of romance.
PCrgler was born in Bohemia and came
to the United States as n small boy. When
he was young man he went back to his
native land and remained there for two or
three years later returning TO the United
States and entering the practice of law No
body ever took him for anything but
hustling young American.
When the great cataClysm came in Eu-
rope. however. and Prof. Thomas j.
Masaryk, working from the United States,
laid tn" basis of the organization of n new
repubh" in Europe, Charles Pergler became
his secretary. AS such, the young lawyer
had good deal to do with shaping the mold
for Il new nation, largely upon the plan Of
the Government of the United States
Now this good American, although tech
nically a Czech, is going about the world as
an ancient people.
Congressman Joe Walsh, who represents
the district in which Plymouth Rock Is To-
Gated, was, eight years ago, clerk of the
Fisheries Station, at Woods Hole Mass,
where experiments are tried in rcpopulating
the waters around about with choice and
edibl" dcnizens of the deep. When President
Harding went up to Massachusetts for the
Pilgrim celebration Mr.. Walsh went along
with him as his guest on the modern May
flower. 1t was an imposing homecoming for
the bureau clerk Of n decade ago.
Clara Sears Taylor, who was in charge
of the wOman's end of the Creel Bureau of
Information during the war, and who is
now Il rent commissioner for Washington,
is one Of the best story tellcrs among women
in public life. She was once Il member of
a woman's organization in Denver, she
says, and 1t went on the rocks because every
iF,ilE "A n ig gtaIn m, ala