Evening star., 1933-12-01
MONETARY EXPERT
! APPEALS To AIDES
Prof. Warren, RooseveIt's
Adviser, Known as a
Disciple Maker.
special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
ITHACA, N. Y, December l (N.A.
N. AD.-Prof. George F. Warren, the
Presidents monetary adviser, quiet,
unassuming man whose speech Is
sorinkled with homely witticisms
smacking of his earlier life on Ne
braska farm, hides under that CLOAK OF
quiet dominating and relentless WILL
his colleagues say.
As head of the agricultural economics
department at Cornell University, Prof:
Warren has gained the reputation Of
a disciple maker" because of the
eyanpelistic fervor with which his
/ students and subordinate instructors
advocate his causes.
One of his associates described him
as genius of common sense" Prof.
Warren is extremely popular with the
farmers Of New York and an effective
speaker wherever farmers congregate.
Without the tricks of oratory, he holds
his audiences with a Sheaf OF enormous
charts which he uses to drive home his
contentious. He speaks In short, plthy
sentences.
Successful in Legislature.
One reason for Prof Warren's pop
ularity with the New York farmers and
his unpopularity on some parts OF
Cornell campus is his successful &C
tivities with the New York State Leg
islature. AS one of Mr.. Roosevelt S
advisers, he is given credit for OBJ
tanning State aid for rural schools and
roads. He is also said to have IN
fluenced rural members OF the Legisla-
ture so that they appropriated $500, 900
for a handsome agricultural economics
building after the money had been
slated to go to the zoology department.
Prof. Warrens early mathematical
training explains his devotion to math-
enatical formulas based on statistical
data and his disregard for the ideas of
other men. One of the amusing anec-
dotes told around the campus is an
argument he had with one of his col
leagues about the time necessary to
develop q pure-bred HolStein herd.
The colleague had mentioned that a
cattle-raising friend had developed a
scrub herd into pure-bred herd in a
little over 20 years. Prof. Warren took
out his pencil and began figuring. After
short time, he announced that such a
development was impossible; that, in
tact, it would take 300 years to make
such a change. The colleague an
nounced that the calculation must be
wrong.
Cut 800 Years to 23.
Prof. Warren was positive that he was
right and showed his figures to prove it.
The colleague pointed out that he had
neglected several factors. Prof. Warren
started calculating When he had fin
ished he triumphantly announced that
such a change could be made in %
years. According to the report around
the campus, Prof. Warren was just as
positive about his 300-year figure being
correct as he was about the 28-year
figure.
Prof Warren's chief farming activity
now is with flock of 5000 chickens.
This flock. together with bulletins he
had written about poultry diseases, led
to the report in Washington, which was
even cabled to London, that he was the
inventor of the plan to increase the egg
production per hen by artiflcially light
ing the chicken houses.
According to the gossip writer's who
spread the story: the plan was used sue
cessfully until it was learned that the
forced production shortened the life OF
the hen by 80 per cent Some financial
writer's thought this was a perfect Il
1ustration of the shortcomings of his
dollar devaluation plan. But Prof. War
rem did not invent the lighting plan.
Proud Of Common Sense.
On his farm and in his class room,
Prof. Warren prideS himself on his prac-
tical common sense.
He is scornful of book" farming.
He lives, when not in Washington, in
a large, old-faShioned house. where he
has reared three sons and three daugh-
ters. He neither smokes nor drinks.
His associate, Prof. Pearson. says that
physically he can stand punishment far
better than many younger men.
Talking with farmeiS is one of his
delights, and he gets suggestions from
them as to possible subjects that might
be profltably investigated by the Agri-
culture College. He likes to give home
ly advice. Once when he was advo-
eating the dyring of newly threshed
wheat by spreading it out thin on barn
floors. a neighboring farmer complained
that he couldn't follow the advice be-
cause his barn was filled with wagons
Spread the wheat under the wag-
ons," said Prof. Warren. And also
spread the wheat in the wagon beds.
Then you'll be able to spread the wheat
even thinner"
Another of his sayings led to the
report that his barns were not painted.
You paint barn roof to preserve it.
You paint house to sell it. And you
paint the sides Of barn to look at, if
you can afford it." Most of his barns
are painted, roof and sides. The one
near the farm home is in the conven-
tional red.
ConsuIts With Associates.
Before he laid out the new agricul-
tural economics building, he asked the
desires OF all the professors and in
structors who would have rooms there.
He said that he did this because he
thought people 100 years from now
would have about the same desires as
those of today.
Under the floor of each room he had
an empty pipe installed
That pipe" he explained, rs for
something not yet invented. Some day
it will come in handy, and our success
sors won't be put to the expense of
Minute Mystery