The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-13

IKn IinS up, All armJ tvh .Sis0s-zI and photographers came to see me ~ certain hour, and while the reporters popped questions, the. flashlights went popping., After they had gone, a young cub reportef breezed into my office, hls l hat on his head at Ia jaunty angle and ! hisowhole attitude, oh so superior:
 <. .e.I have been sent, Il don't, know why, tos write something about your birth, day. What is there about Aprh z5 any more than any other day that they re making a fuss about your blrth- dayi9 he wanted. to know
 T replied was S9 and that there were not so very many of us left at that age. .t
 i.What about it, the young gentle man demanded, his. hat still on his head. <
 "eDon't you know, I asked him.. that Ion April 23,, Shakespeare was born, &St. George was born, and I was borH
 All in the same year,' asked the zeub ?s's, xes Are you going to make speech at Ithe national convention this year! Iasked the veteran senator. ;s T t.'I don't know he replied, sbut I've had the habit of doing it for more than a generation. At the last convention lin Chicago spoke for an hour. and thsy told me that I was heard better than any of the other speakers. In tact, one breezy westerner squeezed his way up to me afterward, told me he ihad been sitting about two miles from Ehee nlatform and that Twas the only speaker he heard. .e.... - How old are you?' he asked.
 "'Eighty-six,' I told him. ''He fixed his eyes on me for a mo nent, then he exploded:
 .s;s .;ss You are either damned liar or fon're a miracle.
 AIthough the senator has his grave sIl built ready for him with name and Everything. cut out, he hasn't any in+ ention of occupying it for long, long inne.
 The Dawes report has fulfilled the ikhest expectation of financial Amer lea. There is particular qualification Iter the fact that the many recom- uendations were adopted unanimously. [ is not expected Germany will agree oAthe proposed plan until the repara- ions commission fixes some limit to he amount Germany will have to pay 1 the long run. It is teheved by many hat if this be done, Germany will onne to terms and get down to busi- ess. " f- .s
 It. is hinted in responsible circles hat; immediately an agreement is cached, billions of German money now hiding throughout the world will low back to the Fatherland and start hings humming there at rate never nown before =; Meanwhile, however, Ameriean fi- anciaI leaders are moving along con sfyatiyely, Awaiting the outcome of le impending negotiations between the lilies and Germany over the report. ct underlying, sentiment in high places as been appreciably Strengthened.
 Hartman killed himself by overwork , .61. Hugo Stinnes, the German su- erman, who was rapidly gobbling up erman industries and reaching out he an octopus to foreign countries, is ead, from oTerwork, at 55.
 His fate will make an impression bon more than. one American finan- al and industrial giant-and particu- rly upon number of American wives. Shines was not a loyeable character. atriotism was sacrificed to profit. His rst concern was not for his fatherland, lt for his own pocket and power. He eely ruined in order-t orule.< His ann tions, surpassed those of Caesar, AL Iander the Great, Napoleon.
 He was queer mixture. of modesty Id vanity. He dressed more carelessly an his own clerks, ate more sparingly an his own workmen, travelled more iostentatiously than his own minor sociates. He lived, not in a castle, t, relatively speaking, in a cottage.
 Yet he would boast as he passed tel or newspaper office, or bank
 other, establishment, i"I own all of at." He bragged loudly that he was !. richest man in the world. He re- rded himself as Gulliyer in brid Of Lilliputiahs. He would Haunt
 enormous roll of big bank bills with
 the pride of an office boy with his st weeks pay. He found childish glee, too, ip, me anical toys These constituted his ly hobby. x .,..- s He boasted that he had never taken single days vacation in his life.
 Had he been wiser in this respect he obably would still have been alive. lman nature does have limitations.
 Something I wrote during my travels
 the south, about the policy of the ited States Steel corporation in mug ng responsible executives, has appar- ly been nsmisinterpreted, as reflecting ofl the corporations representative
 Birmingham, Ala, George G.. Craw- d, president of the Tennessee Coal, m and Railroad company. The crit sm was aimed solely at the corpora n's policy, not at Mr. Crawford, or other subsidiary company presir 1t. Here. is an extract typical of the or of letters which have 'bombarded
 Mir. Crawford is unquestionably
 minghann's leading industrial figure, position he has attained, not through
 so-called pull, but one which ne rits because of his outstanding abil-
 as a business man, engineer and
 zen. His continued efforts in every ection of his company's activities are
 bout doubt responsible, to greater ent, for our advancement than any
 er. one thing in the district. Aside
 n making their plants profitable,
 ch, of course, is necessary in order
 them to exist, he is now spending,
 has spent, large sums of money
 put forth. great personal effort in
 development of better housing,
 ter schools, better health and work
 conditions for their employees, and
 io instance has his welfare and eds
 tional work not kept fully apace, or
 f in advance of the strictly cominer-