The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-21
Country Boy and Grocery Clerk
Nav Become World Bank Head
'Horatio AIger Career Is
Record of War Debt
Banking Expert.
by BRUCE CATION
NEA Service Writer

CHICAGO, Nov. 2f.-A former
country boy who spent his days
behind the counter in a little gro
Gerry store in Texas and meanwhile
burned the midnight oil to study
law at night school that he might
prepare himself for the future, now
stands in fair way to become head
of a worldwide banking organiza-
ton.
He Is Melvin T. Traylor, president
OF the First National bank of Chi
cago, who, his friends here believe,
is soon to be named president of
the Bank of International Settle
ments, that vast financial organiza-
ton to be set up in Europe to han
die GermanyS war reparations pay
ments to the world.
Traylor now is in Europe and it
is recalled that Owen D. Young,
author of the plan and his close
personal friend. visited Chicago last
summer, supposedly to persuade
TTaylor to accept the office.
The Young plan for the settle
ment of reparations. put into a form
acceptable to all parties at the re-
cent Hague conference, includes a
project for the international bank.
capitalized at S100OO0,00O The in
stitution's purpose is to take the
reparatiOnS question out of politics.
put 1t on a sound business basis.
collect the payments made by Ger
many and distribute them among
the creditor nations.
World Wide Influence
1t is to collect approximately
half billion dollars a year in annui-
ties and bids fair, in time, to be-
come one of the most powerful f1nan-
cial organizations in the world
through its influence on foreign
exchange.
The man whom Chicago feels cer-
tain will be chosen as the head of
this gigantic institution has worked
his own way up the ladder Of sue
cess.
Born near the little town Of
Breeding, KY, f1fty-one years ago,
Traylor still has the trace of the
south in his speech, and there is
Kentucky angularity about his
wiry and muscular figure. Golf has
kept him in the pink of physical
trim.
When 20, Traylor went to Hills
boro, Tex, and became a clerk in
a grocery store. He decided to be-
come a lawyer and at night he
studied law books by the aid of a
kerosene lamp. In three years he
was able TO pass the bar examina-
ton.
Clients were few, but the strug-
Cling young attorney fortunately got
job as city clerk. Three years
later he was appointed county at
torney. Then, in 1907, destiny
stepped in and turned his career to
banking.
Moved to East st. Louis
He became cashier of the Bark
OF Malone, Tex, and two years later
when it was merged with the Citi-
zenS' National bank of Ballinger, he
became president of the combined
institutions.
This lasted only two years. The
National Stockyards bank of East
st. Louis, ILL.,, with which the Balm
ger bank had dealings, soon saw he
was young man of energy and
ability.
So they brought him to East st.
Louis and made him vice-president.
Three years later, in 1914, he went
to Chicago as vice-president of the
Livestock Exchange National Lank.
Later he become its president.
In 1916 Traylor left the stock
yards district for the loop to be-
come president of the First Trust
and Savings bank. Not long ago
the First National bank acquired
this bank and the Union Trust as
we'll.
And. naturally enough, Melvin A.
TraylOr was made president Of the