The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-07-08


 Six feet three, soft-spoken and as benign as a doting grand father, he is a combination of boiled, tight-fisted banker, daring big-time gambler, and grand-standing, nimble footed, wire-pulling politician.
 No one has ever heard Jesse raise his voice in anger. He is the gentlest and mellowest of com- panions. A man of great wealth, he affects no airs, lives quietly and simply, has little to do with the giddy social whirl. He doesn't even play golf. Only recreation is mos toring with his wife and an oc- casional game of bridge with a few intimates.
 And Jesse is just as homely in his conversation. He likes to talk about his aching feet, his weak back and trials and tribu- lations he went through several years ago with bad case of shingles. Once he took off his shoes while nobody was looking in Buckingham Palace.
 Yet this man built . dozen skyscrapers and the three lead- ing hotels in Houston, Texas; heads the largest bank in that city; Is a large-scale realty own CT In New York.
 His political life is as contradic- tory as his character. He once granted a $l,500,0 REC loan to & mortgage company he had con- trolled; has dished out hundreds of millions to banks, railroads and insurance companies-but despite all this big business generosity, he has treated small businessmen as if they were unwanted step- children. GRABBED CONVENTION
 In 1928, he wsked into a meet ing of the Democratic National Committee, planked down a $200,- GOO check and walked out with the party's national convention sched- uled for Houston. Houston didn't have a hall big enough to hold 1t at that time. But a big wooden structure was erected, and the delegates sweltered and swore in the blistering heat and the jam packed hotels.
 Jesse did right we'll by him. self. He owned the hotels, res- taurants and theaters. Also he got himself a big splash of na- tional publicity with a flamboy- ant, though unsuccessful, vice. presidential boom.
 In the political arena of Wash- ington there has been no smooth CT and wilier operator than Jesse Jones.
 Appointed by Hoover, through the influence of Jack Garner (then Speaker of the House), Jesse appeared doomed for the shelf when the New Deal stormed nto office. Yet n few months he was more potent than ever.
 NEAR SERETHARY
 Not only had he wangled hm- self into the chairmanship of the REC but he has sold Roose- welt on the idea of expanding its activities into newer and bigger business fields. And with this resounding triumph under his belt, Jesse set his cap for Secretary of Treasury, an office which his in- side pipelines told him soon would be vacant. (William H. Woodin was in i'll health.) Jesse tried awfully hard for that prize: pulled every wire he could command swallowed the gold juggling policy that must have curdled his banker blood, and made himself honey-sweet around the White House. But an old friendship beat him out.
 When the late Secretary finally dropped the Treasury reins, the President turned to Henry Morgenthau, . trusted Duchess county neighbor, and Jesse experienced what was probably the greatest disappoint- ment of his public career.
 But fl he felt badly about 1t no one around him ever saw it 'Jesse bounced right back again. TiGHT-FIsTED LENDER
 A movement for government loans to small businessmen waa neatly corralled by him and by iFst-stepping lobbying. herded in- to the REC. There it was Stymied What he did with this power is summed up in a remark attri- buted 10 Senator Carter olaGa hard.bltten New Deal foe when the lending act was up for re- newal several years later: "Tm