Evening star., 1933-02-19

~ERTAIN paradOx1cal facts con-
front the student of the career
of Harry Flood Byrd, the
~ dynamic young man who
seems destined to loom large
in the next administration.
He comes Of aristocratic Virginia line
age being descended from Col. William
Byrd. I'd, of Westover, founder Of Rich
mond. but he is the most modest and
unassuming of men. He is wealthy,
but as Governor of the Ofd Dominion
he waged a successful fight on two OF
the biggest corporations in existence
He is a teetotaler and he was the first
newspaper publisher in the State to de-
cline liquor advertising, but as chief
executive he had no bitterer enemy
than the superintendent of the Virginia
Anti-Saloon League. He was a recog-
nized spokesman for the Democratic
machine" during his 10 years in the
Virginia Senate, but he succeeded as
Governor in putting through many OF
the governmental reforms which the
machine had fought relentlessly for
years.
1t would not be fair, however, for any
one to conclude from the above that Mr..
Byrd has been guilty of gross incon-
sistencies in his personal conduct or in
his attitude toward public questions.
If he is a lineal descendant of one
of the great landed families of his State.
his demeanor and bearing are those OF
a Democrat, in the original sense of
that word. There is nothing snobbish
or supercilious about HMM fact, he
has one of the heartiest handclaspS and
most vigorous backSlaps seen in Vir-
ginia in long while.
II he owns some IS 900 apple trees,
the largest privately owned orchards in
the country, publishes two newspapers
and is actively interested III other busi-
ness enterprises of various kinds, he is
liberal in his attitude toward economic
questions. Pr res d e n t-elect Roosevelt
doubtless would have applauded the
successful fight he made as Governor
to force the oil companies to furnish
him with their wholesale and retail
prices on gasoline In Virginia and other
States whenever he requested them to
do so, as well as the victorious battle he
waged against a subsidiary of the Amer
ican Telephone g. Telegraph Co. which
was seeking to place in effect rates
which he regarded as too high.
And if Mr.. Byrd was for many years
devotee of the noble experiment. he
was a prohibitionist from conviction
rather than in response to the bludgeon-
ings Of the Anti-Saloon League. A
total abstainer, he holds no fellowship
with the tribe of amphibious statesmen
who vote one way and guzzle the other.
Took Over Small Paper.
And finally, If Mr.. Byrd trained with
the machine for a decade and then
turned around and hit that reactionary
organization a wallop on the jaw, 1t can
at least be said that he saw the light
at last. Like CAP Smith in New York.
he was regular" over a long enough
period to get himself elected to the gov
ernorship. Once he was safely in, the
organization" discovered that he had
built up such following that 1t would
have to go along with him or be
wrecked.
Harry Byrd was born A years ago,
the son of the late Richard Evelyn Byrd,
distinguished public figure in the
State He attended the public schools
in Winchester and then was matric-
ulated in the Shenandoah Valley
Academy. But when he was Is he de-
cided to abandon further efforts at
formal schooling and to enter business.
He accordingly took over the Win
chester Star. small newspaper then
in serious financial difficulties. and put
it on its feet with almost miraculous
speed. A few years later he published
the Martinsburg Journal, and at about
the same time he became interested in
fruit growing, field of endeavor in
which he has been extremely active
ever since
At the age of 27 Harry Byrd was
elected to the State Senate For the
next decade he was a quiet, hard-work-