The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-10-10
BY FORREST DAVIS
Times STAN Writer
Copyright. 1892. by the New York Worl
rrnLna (-rArrllra 10


THE rather bleak nature of
Il Samuel insult was warmed
very little along his march to in
dustrial and civic magnif1cence in
Chicago. Two elements in his
early life did, however, survive to
mellow the power king. One was
his English birth; the second,
his intimate association with
Thomas A. Edison.
In the face Of a somewhat fierce
municipal patriotism, insult never
forgot that he was, after all.
Briton. In 1929, as he crossed
the north Atlantic for the seven
tieth time, he confded to a Chi
cago friend that he relaxed only
while at sea or in England.
He kept an estate in the viii
lage of Theale, near Reading, a
place where he lived briefly as a
boy. He had an office in London
Few incidents so impressed him
with his general worth in the
world as the demand uttered by
Lord Rothmere in the London
Daily Mail in 1925 that the Chi
cago nabob return to the land of
his birth to become the power
overload Of Great Britain.
"A prophet not without honor"
he paraphrased to a friend, dis
playing a cable version Of the
Rothemer proposal.
insults speech, which grew
nasal and high-pitched to match
the clatter of Chicago's loop, re-
tanned more than trace of
Cockney especially when under
stress. At times he appeared as
British as Brussels sprouts.
TINE second factor of great sat-
L isfaction to insult had to do
with his industrial prestige. To
have been a pioneer with Edison
in the old Wizard of Menlo
Park" days set him apart
1t gave him a professional
cachet; he not only exploited
electricity, but he had helped de-
velop the force that Franklin di-
Yined.
AS he looked back on his eleven
year association with Edison, be-
ginning in 1881-only just after
the inventor had perfected a COM
mercially practicable incandeScent
filament-Insull regarded himself
even more as a builder.
The fact is implicit in his fire.
quent addresses at electrical trade
gatherings, and have it from his
friends as well.
insults life story bears all the
familiar, somewhat dreadful, stig
mata of an Alger book.
Born in poverty, rising to wealth,
fame and power through hard
work, thrift, loyalty-the virtues
which Victorian England and eX-
panding America erected into a
nineteenth century relgion-and
through the happy chance of a
favorable patron.
insult was born in harsh pow
erty. Edison was lis patron.
The England into which insult
was born on Nov. II, 1859, dwelt
in peace and abundance. A long
respite after the Napoleonic wars
had established the beginnings of
a golden age.
But the insult family, living in
dingy rooms in Westminster
Bridge road, near the east bank
of the Thames, opposite the house
of parliament and between Lam
beth palace and Waterloo sta
ton, had no share in England's
booming prosperity.
At IA Sam, who had attended
such private schools as were open
to his class, was forced to shift
for himself.
EULOGISTIC biographers have
II put the best face possible on
Insults education The family
lived for a time in oxford and
several writer's have asserted that
he completed his schooling there,
leaving a vague implication that
he attended the university.
insult himself never attempted
to gloss over the meager oppor-
tunities he enjoyed.
He relished telling of his early
struggles; his first apprentice
clerkship at five shillingS a week;
the encounter with the Office bully
"a great grandson of the founder,
mind you, sir!-in which small
Sam tapped the big fellows
claret."
Whatever the occupation Of IN
sull's father, also Samuel, it does
not appear clearly on the record.
Associates of insult understood
that the elder insult was a
preacher
But when the old gentleman
died in 1919 the brief cable dis
patches did not refer cas- they
undoubtedly would had it been a
facO to him as an ordained
clergyman. He was described as
a volunteer worker for temper
ance."
What is altogether likely is that
Samuel insult, the elder, worked
at some trade or other and eX-
horted on the side as lay
preacher, possibly of the Congre-
gational or Wesleyan sect.
The power king helped con-
struct a memorial to his parents
in March. 1881, when he con-
tributed 100000 to the London
Temperance hospital.
1t was said at the time that
his father and his mother, who
was surnamed Scott, had been
interested in the hospital.
THAT insult came from re-
i spectacle, lower middle class
English parents seems established
in spite of suggestions, repeatedly
heard in Chicago, that his stock
is Jewish.
Once described as an English
Jew" in magazine, he offered, so
far as is known, no contradiction.
A leading Jew in Chicago as
sured me of his conviction that
insults father, at least, was jew
ish. He gave as authority the re-
port of Chicago politician who
called on the insults years ago