Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-10

his campaign physician, DR.. Harold B.
Barnard, was Wilkes lack of repose.
To get the man to rest on Sundays 1t
was necessary to hide the train on re-
mote siding more or less inaccessible to
political visitors. If there was anybody
to talk to- Willlzie would talk. I recall
a Sunday on the train IL miles out OF
Albany when his whole encourage went
on tiptoe, saying, He's asleep, and for
Gods sake let him sleep"
His Friends.
During his seven years in New York
Willkie has made few close friends.
Among them are Sloan Colt, president
of the Bankers Trust Co.; Thomas w.
Lamont of the J. P. Morgan firm; George
Howard, head of the United Corp; Roy
w. Howard, publisher of the Scripps-
Howard newspapers; Perry Hall of Nor
gan, Stanley Co. With these and others
he played poker once every month or so.
These were business friends. 1t was Of
his literary and artistic friends that he
was most proud Willkie was friend
of Dorothy Thompson and her detection
toward the end of the campaign he felt
as a real blow. In Miss ThompSon'S
apartment he would take on all corners
in argument. At the time of his NOM
ination in Philadelphia some of his Mid
die Western hackers thought perhaps
because of this friendship he shared
Miss Thompson's belief in European in
tervention What about it, Wendell? they
demanded. WILKES reply, as related by
one of these men, is revealing:
Dorothy is one of my best friends.
have great admiration for her mind
and her ability. I wouldn't say one
thing in detraction of her. But just
don't go along with her views"
He also appeared occasionally at the
literary salon of Mrs. Irita Van Doren,
editor of the Herald-Tribune's book re-
view section. Mrs. Van Doren persuaded
him to do two book reviews. One was
a review of Lord David Cecils 1.-THE
Young Melbourne" covering a period of
English history that Willkie knows very
well. Willkie takes a pride, too, in the
fact that he has sold Il articles, three of
them to the Saturday Evening Post and
one to the Atlantic Monthly.
Willkie has boosted that his living ex-
penses, including insurance premiums,
have not been much more than $4,000
a year The balance of his SIS, 900
Salary-With taxes deducted-he has put
into five Indiana farms with a total of
1890 acres. With no motor car, no
yacht, no horses, no country place in
Connecticut or on Long Island, it is easy
to see how the WILKES have kept down
the cost of living to a figure very low
for a family in the s75,0O0-a-year class.
Curious Duality.
And talk, Wilkes hobby, is cheap.
He is perhaps most persuasive with
single individual, although even with an
audience of one he tends to the broad
platform effect. With a group of four
or five he is inclined to be oracular,
holding the floor to the exclusion of gen.
eral conversation.
Examined at close hand, WILKES per-
sonality is seen to have curious duality.
AS young man he was a Socialist, a
rebel, and to a certain extent he has
remained a rebel. But increasingly it is
apparent, he has rebelled against sur
face manifestations while conforming
with the basic canons of the civilizations
in which he has become a leader He
held out against fraternities and then
joined Beta Theta Pi, one of the best on
the campus. In New York he protested
against banker control of utilities and
then became director of the First Ma
tional Bank. Willkie has sought to
compel the great and the powerful to
meet him on his own terms
The opportunities that are open to an
ex-PreSident or an eX-candidate for
President are limited, and particularly
if the ex-candidate has any further po-
litical ambitions. The New York Life
Insurance Co. has made it custom to
reward such "exes" with directorships
Herbert Hoover has one and so does AL
Smith. Calvin Coolidge also served on
the board of the New York Life But
such dictatorship would scarcely be a
career for the dynamic Willkie.
One thing seems fairly certain and
that is that Willkie cannot return to the
utility business if he still cherishes am
billions for public Office. An undoubted
handicap in the campaign Just ended
was the utility-big business tag. If he
plans to go on in politics, and having
made a much better race than either
Landon or Hoover he may decide to try
for it again in "A, he might conceivably
go back to Indiana. Directing the opera
ton of his farms, his Hoosierisms would
have more natural background than
in Wall Street Office
Willkie has laid plans for a much
needed rest Despite the pleadings of
newspaper friends, he declined to attend
the dinner of the National Press Club
in honor of President Roosevelt. And
this refusal was before the election when
the Republican candidate believed he
had chance to win. When he comes
back, he will decide in his own way and
in his own time the future of Wendell
Willkie. And that future, it is conceiv-
able, may have no little bearing on the
future of these United States.