The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-06

''in the gutter" statistics show that the majority find their way up among the leaders of life.
 Unlike John D. Rockefeller and An drew Carnegie, this man of finance IS giving his money to those agencies in the community which he believes are doing the community the most good while his own mind is keen and ab- sorbed in big business. The Oil King and the Steel King did not spread their beneficence until they had retired from active duty. s.. :. 4.zse ,,.se.,sx
 But it could not be otherwise with Mir. Baker.SS6
 He will never retire until he joins the ranks of those who sleep beueath7 the headstones in the historical churchyard which is just across the way from the office building in which he is living proof of the old saying that going clock does not get rusty.
 MT. Baker is one of the four wealth. jest men in the United States.
 The other. three are Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Andrew w. Mellon, that titanic figure whose stewardship of the government money has been so able and so sound.
 He is personally rated as being worth $500, ,OO0, 900. .t.
 Yet if you turn to newspaper and magazine records, the country over you'll find practically nothing about him.
 Why, he never even ran for political office et.
 He was never even mentioned for the Vice Presidency!
 And he hasn't given out an inter view to a newspaperman since 1883 with the exception of one year ago in which he let drop these golden ob- servations on talking to the press:
 q dislike interviews. I have not spoken for publicity since 1863, when I was p years old. Silence is my pol icy. Silence uses up less energy than talk. There is rarely ever a reason good enough for anybody to talk. l have always been very quiet worker. That served to distinguish me. I did nothing unusual when began. l think the country is on the road to prosperity-perhap the greatest pros perity this or any oher country ever attained. But I shouldn't be talking about it. Business men of America should reduce their talk by at least two thirds. Silence is the secret of success. Silence spells financial happiness"
 Some one has said that his first job was in a village grocery store in the then small town of Troy, New York, at two dollars week. By diligent use of the broom, or, who knows, perhaps be- cause he didn't like the work, he soon found himself night watchman at five dollars a week. Then he became a olorly in AIhauH
 Baker In 1868
 The first record of big doings by Mir. Baker is the brief announcement found in bank annals that in 1863 he and John Thompson and the latter's two sons organized the First National Bank under the National Bank aet-Of that year. And so well did that bank per form its task of stabilizing the money market during the panicky times fol- lowing the Union reverses early in that year that the institution earned the sobriuuet Fort Sherman"
 The life story Ot this man as told in Who's Who is a winner for brevity. It sums up his first seventy years with this line:
 "George Fisher Baker, born March 27. 184O. chairman of the board, First National Bank of New York, 1909 lex president.)"
 Who's Who should put an "ad'' in the newspapers in the Lost and Found Column, reading:
 "LOST-Life record of George Fish CT Baker from date of birth, 1S4O, to date of acceptance of chairmanship of board of directors of First National Bank, New York City"
 It might bring results.
 It certainly would produce as much as interviewer can produce who calls to see him. For he simply won't be seen. And, if he consents to shake hands with the caller, his mouth couldn't be opened by a champion clam sheller.
 Even the magazines who dig out the past and present and future, too, some times, of the great and near-great can not penetrate the mystery of those years.
 Oh, yes, Who's Who adds a bit after that year. It reads:
 President First Security Company, New York, and Long Branch Railroad Company; director of New York Cen tral Railroad and affiliated companies, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Railroad Company, West Shore Rail- road, c. & S. Railroad, United States Steel Corporation, Philadelphia & Read