The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-01-29

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 He is Donald R. Richberg, who a2andoned Chicago law practice five years ago to gamble his fu- ture on the New Deal.
 To all outward appearances that gamble was successful. Rich berg today is one of the most opulent lawyers in Washington. Oil companies, motor moguls, h. ternational Business Machines, Latin American dictators all seek his services. Business flows to his office in such volume that he has to turn it away.
 Amid all this, Richberg still is able to keep his ''tn" at the White House, is consulted by the President on some of the most important problems fac- ing the New Deal Moreover, he has real charm, a brilliant mind and enjoys very happy family life.
 In fact, Don Richberg has al- most everything there is to be had in life except one thing-the respect of old friends who fought and bled with Don back in Chi cago or during early MIRA days. Among them he is the most un- mercifully berated individual in or out of the New Deal.
 Youth In Chicago
 Don Richberg has behind him line of fighting ancestors. His grandfather, named "Ritchberg" came over from Germany during the revolutionary disturbances of 1848. His father, a famous law yer, ran away from home as a boy to enlist in the Union Army.
 And as a youngster, Richberg displayed all the fighting quali- ties of his forebears. He had built up thriving law practice when, in 1915, he got disgusted with it and became the cham pion of the underdog. Labor unions, civic lean-up commit tees and other lost causes be- came his clients.
 Then he became special coun- sel for the City of Chicago in a vitriolic attack upon the biggest utility magnate in the Midwest 8 man who had built an opera house, endowed Chicago charities and monopolized its public utili- ties.
 Don Richberg was convinced that Sam Insults People Gas Light and Coke company was Overcharging its consumers by millions of dollars annually. On behalf of the city he brought suit.
 From that point on Richberg's life became hell. Insull showed the same ingenuity in fighting him that he showed in his more recent attempts to escape the arm of justice. Richberg was shadowed by detectives. Attempts were made to frame him with women. For one year his pay and all expenses of the lawsuit were held up and he had to borrow money to push the case. Mayor Big Bill Thompson, who had received $1O0,000 campaign con- tribution from Insull, attempted to discharge him. The city police confessed that they expected he was going to be rubbed out"
 But in the end Richberg won his suit.
 Sudden Change
 Following other victories on behalf of the public and labor. Richberg joined the New Deal, where he helped write MIRA and became its counsel-most impor- tant position next to General Johnson'S.
 Then a change came over Richberg. It came SO quickly that his friends could not be- lieve it. It first fiared into the open when the Edison Electric Institute set up an NRA code for the electric light industry, by which it proposed to put municipal and government owned power plants under the domination of the private cOm- panies.
 Henry Hunt, counsel for PWA, opposed this. Whereupon Rich berg, the man who had risked his life fighting the big utilities, rose and championed their cause.
 This took the breath out of his old friends. But it should not have done so. Long before this Don had gone over to the inter- ests which he once fought.
 DiabOlical Drift
 It is quite possible that he, himself, did not realize this transition at the time. After wards he said that "step by step, through the diabOlical logic of events, the NRA became the ap- parent exponent of 'price-fixing' that hateful objective of the OE%ES VV>ENHS nNOnnn