Evening star., 1932-04-13
for a place at the top of the financial

for place at the top OF the financial
heap
Born in Beverly, Mass, August l,
1888. of very old New England stock,
Richard Whitney numbers among his
ancestors merchants in the India trade.
His father, who died in 1901. was for
a time president of a small Boston
bank: his uncle Edward, a correspond
ent banker for J. P. Morgan.
The Whitneys. an ambitious and cul-
tured family, put Richard, like his elder
brother George, through well known
groove which for patrician youth is
something like a royal road to high
finance. They sent him to Groton, to
Harvard. to the Somerset Club, to
Kidder. Peabody & Co. in Boston.
At Groton you are a success if you
are well bred, of conventional principles,
and strong muscles Thus you NAV
make friends for life with boys who
will one day fall heir to railroads and
banks.
There was absolutely nothing unor-
thodox or eccentric about Dick Whitney,
as his classmates remember him. He
was a good student and popular. He
made center on the Groton foot ball
team. was captain of the base ball
team, form prefect, and treasurer of
the Summer camp.
At Harvard he also went well. max
ing the varsity crew in his junior year.
He was a natural oarsman, and a good
enough student to gain his A B. after
his third year.
Moved to New York
It is notable that he became a mem
Der of the Porcelain Club, composed of
the WealthieSt, most fashionable, and
most attractive of the lovers of learn
ing at Cambridge. At the next stage,
with the extremely dignified banking
house of Kidder, Peabody & Co., Dick
Whitney spent year learning all about
bonds. His uncle Edward was now in
New York as member of J. p Morgan
e. Co, and his brother, George, had
begun working for the same house in
1909.
A year later Richard Whitney came
to New York. He joined the Wall Street
firm of Potter, Choate & Prentice. He
made good progress. BY January. 1912.
driving hard ne had got a seat of his
own on the stock exchange and become
a member of the old brokerage firm of
Cummings & Marckwald He was then
%. In 1916 he put out his own shin
gle: Richard Whitney & Co. Hand
overland smooth and transformations
was his climb thereafter. In the war
he was picked as a valuable young dol
lar-a-year man for Hoover'S food ad-
miniStration.
Coming back to the market after two
years of public service with an excellent
record and many worthwhile connec-
tions, including Mr.. Hoover himself
Mr.. Whitney was elected to the august
governing committee of the exchange
Owner of an estate at Far Hills, N. J.,
of stable of thoroughbreds, president
of the Essex Fox Hounds, treasurer of
the New York Yacht Club, member of
the Links, the Turf and Field. the Rae
cuet and the Knickerbocker Clubs, Dick
Whitney's education was more or less
complete.
In the handsome, noiSe-proof preS1-
dents room of the exchange, decorated
in Colonial style, hung with the por-
traits of Washington, Jefferson and
Franklin, he now rules over the ad-
miniStrative machinery, stage-setting,
properties and trappings of the ex
change. He is the head of an elaborate
business government.
These are dark times for the stock
business the exchange, under Mr.
Whitney's energetic leadership, has
been trying to carry out various liberal
reforms" Yet traditional enemies,
Senate S, AMI "demagogues" thunder
continuously against the Wall Street
institution and call its head to Wash
ington and put him on the carpet.
MI. Whitney, who pleads fervently
that free and open market" must
be kept up, is obliged to crusade, to
educate the public" to carry on a
mighty campaign against congressional
or State intrusion.
Mr.. Whitney is humane toward the
2,400 hired workers of the exchange
and charming to visiting crown princes
and Presidents of South American re-
publics, for whom he must act as gal
lery guide. For all his services he is
paid nothing year, this presidency
being honorary.
(Copyright. 1892, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Incl