The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-07-12
MARKET BOARD
CHIEF WISE TO
WALL ST. WAYS
Joe Kennedy Should Be, He
Made Millions There
Himself.


BIZ Scripps-HOrGrd Newspaper Alliance
WASHINGTON, July 12.-Pres-
ident Roosevelt wanted a couple OF
Wall Street eyes on Wall street.
That, partly, is the reason he
selected six-foot, frecked, red-haired
Joseph P. Kennedy to head the
securities and exchange commits
sion, now organizing for its COM
plicated task of supervising the
issuance of securities and regulating
the stock markets.
For Joe" Kennedy, as the
President has called him for years,
knows the ms and outs of the mar
ket. The jargon is his language.
Fluently he talks Of "fy guys" the
traders who jump into the market
Monday and get out Thursday with
enough quick money to take a
vacation, as he expresses it.
That sort of business is out
henceforth, says Mr.. Kennedy, who
is still sensitive about the revela-
ton that he got cut out of one
of the repeal" stock pools Of 1888.
A history of the alcohol pool oper-
alton was laid. before Mr.. Roosevelt
as an argument against the ap-
pointment of Mr.. Kennedy, but
without success.
Ties of friendship bind these two
men who met when Mr.. Roosevelt
was assistant navy secretary and
Joe Kennedy was in charge of ship
building for Bethlehem Steel, boss
as a youngster of $4,000 men.
Thereafter their paths separated
Franklin Roosevelt ran, unSucceSs-
fully, for president, was
plunged for a time into political
oblivion by disease, then came back
as Governor of New York. Mr.
Kennedy went from steel into the
brokerage business, then blossomeo
forth as moving picture magnate
Irish to the Core
A year before Governor Roosevelt
became a candidate for the Demo
cratic presidential nomination their
acquaintance was renewed in the
executive mansion at Albany.
Irish heart and Irish soul, Joe
Kennedy threw himself into the
campaign to elect his friend Presi-
dent. And he opened his pocket
book.
He sat with the board Of strategy
at the Chicago convention. He was
familiar figure on the Roosevelt
campaign train. James A. Farley
relied on him.
There were vague reports that
Mr.. Kennedy would get this or chat
government post, even cabinet
portfolio. But he dropped from the
picture. He did not even attend
the Inauguration. 1t was assumed
that he preferred private life.
Financial Prodigy
Then. this summer, came the OPP
portunity to give Mr.. Kennedy a
lob that he knew something about.
Mr.. Farley was insistent that the
President appoint him. He got the
job despite the protests of those
who did not see why a Wall street
man should sit on commission to
regulate Wall street.
Joe Kennedy was financial prod
ICY. After graduation from Har-
ward. where he played first base on
the Crimson nine, he became a state
bank examiner. His father and a
group of friends organized a bank,
the Columbia Trust Company, and
at 25 he became its president. When
the war came along he went with
Bethlehem Steel at its Fore river
plan in Massachusetts,.
Mered Film Companies
Subsequently, he transferred his
activities to Hayden-StOne, becom-
ing its Boston manager. There he
learned the investment and broker
age business under the late Galen
Stone, whom he numbers among
the great in American finance. EX-
panding his operations he ventured
into the motion picture field and
was, at one time, operator Of three
competing corporations. 1t was he
who merged Pathe, First National
and Films Booking Offices into what
is now R. K. O.-Radio-Keith- Or
pheum. For a period he was chair
man of B. F. Keith & Co.
He has made lots of money and
lots of friends. For his charming
wife, four sons and five daughters
the children range from 212 to 10
he has homes in New York and
at Cape Cod. He spends his winters
in Florida-at least he has. His new
job probably will introduce him to