Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14

slant shift of scenes. He had a chance
to take charge of the operation oi
nlanufa curing certain things used By
railroads, such as iron and steel brake
beams.
His crossing over from engineering
into business was a perfectly logical
development. For, while still in college
he spent two Summers working as a
craftsman in the shops of the Michi-
gan Central, and he had even stopped
college entirely to work there for two
years on end At graduation, his
thesis had been a design for an al
steel boxcar-a type of car he then
imagined 20 years before one was ac-
tually built.
Once over on the business side, his
rise was rapid. First as vice president
OF the Simplex Railway Appliance Co..
then as vice president of the American
Steel Foundries Co., he began to be
known in Chicago for integrity and
ability.
Trustee of Library.
BY 1912 he was president of the Amer
lean Foundries Co.. a concern which
manufactures hearth and electrical
steel castings for machinery and rail-
way supplies such as steel wheels and
Specialties for railway cars and loco
motives. He became chairman of the
board of the Grifin Wheel Co., which
makes chilled iron car wheels Yet
during these years he found time for
the world of culture, which was grow
ing up around him and which he was
helping so much to shape.
There is in Chicago one of the finest
scientific libraries in the world-the
Newberry Library. Mr.. Lamont became
trustee of that. While not a bookish
man, he is great reader of books, es-
pecially in the field of American his
tory and biography. He prefers to spend
his evening with such book in his
hand to spending 1t In society or at the
theater. There Is in Chicago an art
museum which is more than collection
Of paintings. Mr.. Lamont became a
trustee and an active director in that.
There is in Chicago one of the finest
universities In the country. Mr. Lamont
became not only trustee but the in
innate friend of many of the faculty
of that. There has been endowed by
Julius RoSenwald an industrial museum
the like of which does not exist this
side of Munich. Mr.. Lamont became
very much interested in that.
Resigned 80 Directorships.
Just to cut the enumeration short.
sum up by saying that he resigned
from more than 80 directorships to
come TO Washington including that
Of one of Chicago's oldest banks and
one, of the biggest newspapers In the
country.
He had once before come to WASH
ington--to do his bit in the war. Be-
ginning with the rank Of major. under
Gen. Roberts. he was chief of the
procurement division Of the ordnance
department, and ended as colonel and
chief of. the projectile section.
Those who knew him in that heated
Summer, remember how he would car
ny on through the sitting day like the
rest of them In regulation collar and
buttoned-up tunic and trousers under
the shiny puttees, and when the day
was over go back home and peel on
and get to work again in the cool Of
the night.
He stayed on In Washington until
February, 1919, working for the Claims
Board on that tangled matter Of can
celed Government contracts. Then he
went back to achieve during the next
10 years his present position as one
OF Chicagc's most leading citizens.
He has had such lifelong absorp-
ton In his work and such lifelong
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