The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-04
TOM MILLER IS . EQUAL TO ANY TASK HE TRIES
Alien Property Custodian Still Has Control Of
 $347,0OO,OOO
By HERBERT COREY

ssNW NWASft1NG1ON, rep. o.-IOm NH Ter says he thinks of himself as the president of a trust company-
 But he does not look like the presi dent of a trust company. Most trus company presidents look like a grea deal of money surrounding a horrit case of indigestion. Miller looks like . soldier in civvies who likes his job and good deal like an ex-rolling mil man who is still healthy and not unlike . person who can shoe a horse. I have no inside information, but I'd bet 6 hutton that from time to time he has akinned his knuckles on the kind faces of4the opposition.
 Just Plain Tom Miller
 ssssEveryone speaks of him as Tom Miller. Not as Col. Thomas W. Miller or as the custodian of alien property or as former Congressman Miller. Many who know him disagree with some of his ideas violently, but he remains Tom Miller. He doesn't have to advertise that first name, either. It isn't neces- eary for. him to put warm hand on the shoulder of a caller and say:
 .g"Call me Tom"
 \ He isn't belligerent or scrappy, but he assuredly has the courage of his convictions. When he was a kid he ranched and mined in Nevada. Then he moved eastward and got a job in Charley Schwab's rolling mills in Pitts burg. Being about the size of dressed beef and with a pair of impressive shoulders he got along very well push ing around large hunks of molten steel. Then he became a foreman. He ex- plains that he owed his nice new job to the fact that he was able to meas ufe pig iron within one sixty-fourth of an inch. That is what an education win do for a man. After which he moved eastward again to his native 6tate of Delaware. His father was about to run for governor.
 Turned Down, But Elected
 q think I'd like to be a congress. man." said Tom Miller. A
 The politicians patted him on the head, those who could reach up that high, and told him to run along like a nice boy. They said that two Mil lers on the same ticket, especially in a small state like Delaware, simply would not do. So Tom ran for con gressman and was elected on the same tocket on which his father became gov ernor. He was, I think, the youngest congressman in the House. Maybe the youngest on record. This story did not come from him, and I have been afraid to ask him about it for fear he would make a heavy noise. He is a candid person. Two of his clerks disappeared from the office one day, and the custo- dian of alien funds accidentally discov- cred them talking football and smok- ing cigarettes in a distant entryway.
 You have heard of how the army talked terriby in Flanders? That's the way the custodian talked to the chat terers.
 Enlisted Became Officer
 Maybe his own service in Flanders, plus that term on Nevada ranch, plus the associations of a rolling mill, gave him eloquence. When the war began he took course at Plattsburg Training camp, and when we got into it he-en- listed as a private. He finished the war as a lieutenant colonel after Il months on the line, during which period he had received citations for gallantry in action and especially meritorious conduct. Which recalls a bit of gossip which did not come from Colonel Mil Ter and the publication of which he is apt to resent. Anyhow, the story goes that President Harding offered him the post of assistant secretary of war.
 Thank you," said Colonel Miller. II don't want it. would not mind be- ing Secretary of War, for then I could boss Pershing. But I am not going, to be assistant secretary and let him boss he. Not any more."
 + Like Ex-Service Mems Work
 The first discovery he made after President Harding made him custodian of alien funds was that he was doing the work of a trust company president with civil service help. Now, civil serv- ice held is all right. but it has not been trained along that particular line. So he began to train it. He enlisted as many ex-service men as possible in his office, because they are snappy They know how to take orders without taking offense. It isn't necessary to kiss top sergeant when he is ordered to right dress. He happened to walk clock struck five.
 saClang."
 A typewriter stopped at the bell. He noted that the young lady who was running it had ceased firing just this way: Very truly -" She drew { transfer the next day.
 Gets On The Job Early
 His personal staff work into thu night cheerfully. That's a part of tht game with them. He gets down tc work at half past eight in the morning He rides in the car the government gives him, but because he happened tc make some money when he was a miner out west he sends the young Ia. dies home in his own car when they work at night.
 Il wanted to know how long the of fee of custodian of alien property is apt to be continued. He said he thought it might hang on for ten years It Is not an easy job cleaning up after