Evening star., 1934-04-29
Special Dispatch to The Star.
N YEW YORK. April % (NANA)

once week, Or. A. A.
" Berle, jr., goes from New York
4 to Washington for conferences
on the financial affairs of the
city and the Nation. Frequently he
goes to Albany, the State capital, for
similar meetings.
On other days, he passes two hours
at the municipal building here and
two hours at city hall, partly with
Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia. Twice
week, he lectures at Columbia Uni
versity and he also works there on two
research jobs in finance. Either at
home or at his private law Office, he
usually is busy until midnight.
His title is negligible. He has the
position Of city chamberlain, a post
which he took on condition that the
salary be cut from $4,000 to s13,390
year and that the Office itself be
abolished as soon as possible, on the
ground that the city doesn't need a
chamberlain. Now resolution to this
end has been drawn and soon it will
be passed. unless something slips.
One-Man Brain Trust.
Yet that will not affect DR.. Berle's
arduous schedule in the slightest. For
the fact is, although the citizens in
general are unaware even of the ex-
istence of this man Belle, that he Is
New York City's one-man brain trust.
He Is financial adviser to both Presi-
dent Roosevelt and Mayor La Guardia
and nine -tenthS of his time is devoted
to public affairs.
"There's no use figuring the time I
pass comforting with people" he said
in an interview on his mode of life
and his opinions. because my most
important work is done in solitude
The time that counts is the time I
pass meditating and fairly praying
over money problems. Such thinking
goes on even in the bathtub."
Although the name annoys him.
DR., Berle really was and is a member
Of the original brain trust of Presi-
dent Roosevelt With Gen. Hugh
Johnson. Raymond Molev. Charles
Taussig and Rexford Guy Tugwell. he
was on the Research Committee of the
Democratic party before the national
election in 1882, and that's when it
all started.
Grew Into Present Role.
The President insists that what
goes on in this country now is not
revolution. but evolution. The dis
tinction seems to apply to the case
of DR.. Berle. Follow him from birth
and it seems that he just grew into
-truster His father, Rev. Adolf
Augustus Berle liberal minister and
sociologist, of Boston had large map
placed on the wall of the dining room
and during meals would discourse to
his family on current events and keep
referring to the map.
He deliberately trained the minds
Of his two sons and two daughters, so
that it was natural for them to name
their pet cats Tigris, Euphrates, Scipio
Africanus and Brunnhilde. and to
read all about tennis in the encyclo-
pedia while they were learning the
game. So Brain-truster Berle was
singing in French at 4, praying in
German at 5 and entering Harvard
at 13. He finished Harvard in three
years, was graduated with honors and
a Phi Beta Kappa key and at 81
he had the degree of bachelor Of laws
Soon he was in the office of Louis D.
Brandeis, Supreme Court justice.
Wife Has Many Degrees.
Now DR.. Berle and his brother,
Rudolph, are in law practice together.
DR.. Berle married Beatrice Bend
Bishop. a social worker descended
from Abraham De Peyster, first mayor
of New York, and she also has q
Phi Beta Kappa key and degrees
from Vassar, Columbia and the Sor-
bonnie at Paris. Together they have
conducted classes in euthenics at
Vassar and in the Summer they climb
mountains.
DR.. Berle still looks like student
and, of course. he is. His eyes are
clear, alert, thoughtful. He has a
boyish look, too, and his mobile face
and quick gestures indicate nervous
energy, but not nervousness. It IS
possible for one person to perform
the various tasks which he has un-
dertaken, he insists, because they be-
long together and are all OF piece.
Finance is finance" he explains,
wherever you find it, and the actual
laws of the game which tears our eco
nomic life loose from time to time are
still almost an unknown quantity.
This is because our economic think
ing Is still based on a balance of small
economic units, although now large
corporations dominate, and it Is in
evitable also because we are now in
the final decade of a century Of in
dustrial revolution. So the world has
had no experience in facing such a
situation.
Must Find Way Out.
"Italy and Germany have simply
abandoned a free economy, France
glides toward their position and only
England seems TO be avoiding it for
the time being. Russia approaches q
completely mobilized economy. We,