Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05
IDA GILBERT MYERS.


terday, 1t was but one Of
thousands of vocables muddling along
in the uphill business Of uncovering
ideas or hiding them deeper, according
to the luck of the moment.
Then. Yesterday q new world stepped
into the open. With 1t, both herald
and arbiter, marched this efficiency"
Rather, the old world in Its true char
acter, this was. SO overgrown with
human tinkerings and makeshifts had
it been almost from the beginning, how
ever. that its original nature and in
tent had grown dim and well-nigh for
gotten, At this fresh appearance the
earth declared stoutly that 1t was, at
bottom, an economic affair. It's prime
concern, so it said, was to grow things,
to make things, to fabricate in IL
limitable variety and bulk for the use
of the human and animal life that it
spawned and Uttered in an intending
fecundity. To get these commodities
moving back ana forth BY land, air and
sea under the urge of supply on the
one hand, need on the other. One of
its important jobs, this. To bring the
whole earth, finally, into neighbor-
hood of exchange. This, too, its work.
1t denied that it was, primarily, a
political world, going on to say, that
politics. religious and social programs
were necessary elements Of advance in
their places. They became agents Of
order, protection, general equity, hap
piness and finally of culture and
these, the earth was farm, workshop,
factory, highways of communication.
It spoke Of its tremendous progress
within the past few years under the
influence of science applied to the COM
mon life in a thousand lines Of knowl-
edge and power, In thousand lines of
administrative wisdom. It pointed
right here to the fact that today the
Government, once the exclusive purlieu
OF politician and statesman, has come
to recognize the economic world and
the political as partners in Q grand
cooperative unity of achieving for all
the full benefit Of the world In which
they live. The Government and the
people are one, not in any coercive
union, but in free interchanges of
knowledge, purpose, need, At measures
for ends in view.
And so, today the Government Is
expressing its new vision in many ways.
One of these is in the character of
those chosen for the high places of re-
sponsibility and administrative power,
1t IS at this point that ''efficiercy"
comes into its own. It Is the efflcient
man, the one fitted by personality
training, technical knowledge, definite
and seasoned experience, high purpose,
wide vision, fearlesSness and an I'M
faltering hand-thiS kind Of man who
IS, more and more, being called to help
the entire country through his capable
and earnest work in one or another of
the high seats of the Government itself.
So.
ANDREW w. MELLON: The Man and
nv II
more, F. Heath Coggins & Co.
You will seize upon the proportions
of this ,work--upon its emphasis
ana balance-as its outstanding excel
lence. Ten years ago the story of An
drew w. Mellon would have been an
other story. taking its chief substance
from the financial successes Of the man,
from his high standing in the world
Of money and its uses, from his per-
Sonality and staunch character. And
there the story of another sagacious
American flnancier would have ended
But Philip Loves study of Mr.. Mellon
couldn't have ended there, since it Is
within the past decade that the Secre-
tary OF the Treasury has rendered to his
country the great service of his life. It
is in this public capacity that the au-
thor presents the man. To be sure, there
Is the looking in upon the youth of MT.
Mellon, upon the surroundings Of his
early years and his responses to these.
There Is the touch upon the early tastes
and reticencies that characterized him,
These, for setting and for the lifelike-
ness OF the character-but very soon
Mr.. Love reaches the Secretary Of the
Treasury in an accounting Of his public
career, the career with which the world
Is concerned
"On March 4, 1921, Andrew Mellon
walked into his new ofices in the
Treasury Building, hung up his hat and
overcoat and went to work" He's been
at this work ever since. A momentouS
date that, in the finances of the Govern
ment. For war settlements and agree
ments were on hand. Imitation on the
one hand, armies Of unemployment on
the other. The whole centering, directly
or otherwise, upon the institution in
which Mr.. Mellon had engaged to run
The Peoples Business"
To the average reader the undertak-
ing stands as a bewilderment of colossal
portions-complicated involved, myS-
ferrous, bedeviled. To the new Secretary
1t was business house, that Treasury,
bigger than the ones he had worked
With, but not greatly different. And be-
cause 1t was a business house he in
sisted upon business experts to handle
it; So political favorites had to go
where they could do less harm. And
that made trouble-a little, not much,
since this man was obliviouS of any
thing that did not effect the Job in
hand. And this is not really an inn
portant point, save that 1t explains some
OF the durries Of criticism that blew
the Secretary'S way. What is i'm
portant is that Philip Loves study of
Andrew Mellon sums for the use Of any
intelligent reader not only the actual
purpose of the Treasury of the United
States-sums it simply and clearly
put 1t covers, besides, in explicit terms
the activities of this Government
agency through one of the most trying
periods of its existence, and sets down
In detail besides the peculiar profess
sional fitness of the head of the Treas
ury for the high and sound conduct OF
the finances of the United States during
this exigency. Laws pertaining to one
and another OF the situations to be met,
reports of the progress Of one measure
or another-indeed, the study stands as
body of technical knowledge, as a
definite course of procedure, as q sum-
mary OF projects and measures bearing
upon the workings of this institution
that Is so near to every citizen. Not
only the financial expert and the pro-
fessional banker, but the everyday man
the one who pays 1920 annual tax
can profit by this clear study OF the
methods Of the greatest bank IN the
world in the hands of an etnciency ex-
pert IN the ways of money. And, be-
sideS-here Is one of the high points
OF the book-the chance to come upon q
clearly great man of most unaSSuming