Evening star., 1933-06-18
new SHOALS BOSS
{ IS BORN BUILDER
Arthur Ernest Morgan Was
Practically Unknown Be-
fore Appointment.
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

was not universally known In the Unitet
States when 1t was announced that HI
had been nominated by President Roose
welt to have charge of the vast Tennes
see Valley development project designed
to put two million men to work and tx
create permanent national power asSe1
at Muscle Shoals.
Mr.. Morgan had not had exceptiona
publicity. The Capital was unfamiliar
with his record. But in his own home
town, the little city of Yellow Springs
Ohio, he was abundantly famous. The
people of that community esteem him
not only as good neighbor and friend
but public benefactor-the man who
put electric lights in their homes, the
man who put Antioch College on the
world map.
Natural Builder.
The story of his career is that of a
natural builder. He was born at Gin
cinnati, June 20, 1873, the son of John
D. and Anna Frances Wiley Morgan.
His father was a surveyor. and in the
pursuit of the engagements of his pro-
fession removed his family to Minnesota,
where the boy attended ST. Cloud High
School He was a frail lad, not nor
mally strong. That circumstance, added
to domestic impecuniosity barred him
from going on to educational opportuni-
ties of loftier character. But he was
to earn in later life the honorary de-
grees, D. Sc, given by the University
Of Colorado in 1923, and D. S. E., con-
ferred by the Case School of Applied
Science in 1882 A practical education
ist. perhaps his own lack Of exceptional
cultural advantages furnished him with
the ambition, the impetus, to go to
school to life, to make the most OF every
;A,, .sel.H hive
Meantime, he had to accumulate
physical capital ordered to spend as
much time as possible out of doors, he
compromised with necessity by seeking
employment as a farm laborer and
logger But it was not easy to find
work. Few to whom he applied thought
him sturdy enough to survive a full
days toll when nature made me" !"
he wrote in his diary in 1900, "she
started out with large, noble pattern,
went bankrupt and filled in with saw
dust and straw" But there must have
been some good, honest sand some
where In his composition. He demon
strated it day by day as he made his
way West from the Gopher prairie" of
his childhood to Colorado
Thought . Trifie "Odd."
Curious anecdotes are told of those
hard years of his youth. One tells how
he quit his job in lumber mill because
he heard that the plankss he was saw
ing out Of the logs were intended to be
used in building a gambling hall
Doubtless. people thought him a trifle
''odd" There almost certainly was
something the matter with a young
fellow whose pastimes were botany and
geology rather than drinking and
fighting.
Finally he returned to Minnesota to
Join with his father in a small engi-
neering practice. As time passed he
grew with the responsibilities which
came to him. His health improved, his
mind fowered cut. BY 1907 he was a
supervising engineer in the service of
the Federal Government, in charge of
reclamation enterprises in the South
He had qualified for that assignment
by drafting the drainage code of Min
nesota in 1905 Since that date he
has done similar work for Arkansas,
1888; Mississippi, 1911; Ohio, 1914;
Colorado, 1922. and New Mexico. 1927
He has mastered scores of full size
rivers and hundreds of smaller streams.
The natural habits of moving water he
has studied through nearly three dec
ades, always with the object of learning
how best to harness and use it. Ten
Ohio cities owa to him the flood control
bulwarks which preserve their existence.
His achievements did not bring him
the extravagant celebrity which accrues
TO movie stars and base ball players,
but his reputation in his own profess
sional field was Of the highest-he had
fame among those qualified to judge,
and when President Roosevelt began to
look about for an engineer Competent
TO direct the Tennessee Valley business
those whose opinion he solicited were
unanimous in agreeing that Morgan
Is the right man"
ReorganiZed Antioch College.
But he had to be drafted. When the
summons reached him, he already had
his hands full with the administrative
duties and executive problems of the
presidency Of the institution of learning
founded at Yellow Springs by Horace
Mann in 1853 and reorganized under
his own management in 1921-Antioch,
"a nonsectarian, co-educational college
with program which unites in one
organized whole a liberal education.
preparation for a calling or for major
life interest, and experience in prac-
tical life under guidance and counsel"
To the ideal so stated he added his own
contribution: My hope for Antioch is
that through great desire disciplined by
knowledge, and through great COM
mitment to fine purpose, its students
may be a powerful force for remaking
human life" In the dozen years OF
his leadership he raised the school
from the bogs Of failure to the elevated
plateaus OF success. Its yearly budget
In 1920 was pitiful 5000. In 1882
1t was S350,600 The gain represented
IN this comparison of costs was organic
ana authentic. 1t was not a mere
yicarious growth OF buildings and deco
rations. On the contrary, it was a
natural development under the stirnula-
ton OF purposeful campaign, planned
py Mr.. Morgan and put into effect by
himself. He has been a committee of
one to see that Antioch prospered Last
year the student body numbered SAB.
Cooperative tuition. whereby the stu
dent does some useful work of an i'm
meolately remunerative kind in the
school plant and thus earns his way in
part. costs the undergraduate $500 for
the 40 weeks of the school year. Scholars
come from Al States and 6 foreign
countries. Graduating, they work in
schools, department stores, commercial
laboratories. libraries, factories, Offices
places close to life and near to the
common interests and concerns of peo-
pie: Mr.. Morgan never has believed in
coasters. On the contrary, he has in
sisted on education for participation in
the real labor of a real world
Man of Vision and Action.
friend describes the new czar of
Muscle Shoals as follows: Rather
stern OF face, with a squarely set, reso-
lute Jaw, high wide forehead over pierre
ing gray-blue eyes, rare composite of
the visionary and the man OF action,
He is often dressed in a gray tweed
suit. Unless mis- wife has successfully
tntervened, he may be wearing one OF
his favorite red ties In his office. as
he sits talking with you, he will nerv-
ously toy with some gaoget which
seems to aid him in his thinking. AL
though reserved to the point of actual
aloofness, he can be one of the most