The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1940-07-04
WILKES Heritage Of Liberalism
Stems From l848 German Emigration
His Nomination
Climaxes Life
OF Surprises

Of Surprises
wher. did wendell wiIIkie come
": This Is IN, III fir.s 81 .ls arflelss
answering those questions and tell
Ing the story Of the Republican presi-
DENTAL nominees Iife.
BY ToM WOLF
There's an old army story about
4 certain Private Jones who spent
one night in Paris In the suite of
q top-ranking general
Next morning the generals or
derby awakened Jones to a day
that was full of surprises.
Everywhere he went, officers
and men alike jumped to snap the
salute to Private Jones.
Around noon. thoroughly con-
fused by this unaccustomed dis
play of universal respect, Jones sat
down to think IL over.
A sudden thought brought beads
Of sweat to the private's forehead.
Gosh" he gasped. remembering
he had shared the generals suite.
they must have Weakened the
wrong man."
These simple. incredulous feel
ings are undoubtedly shared by the
ptocky. tousle-haired. self-styled
Indiana farmer" who overnight
was doomed to standard bearer Of
the Republican party Wendell
Lewis willkie.
His Horatio Algerian career be-
gan all but literally atop an Indi-
ana cracker box.
He was probably the only Amcri-
can boy whom no one told in his
youth that some day he would be
president Of the United States.
POETIC
AWAKENING
In his earliest youth Wee Win
ny" willkie was awakened po-
etically. 1t was the custom Of
keen. erudite Herman Willkie to
call his four sons and two daugh-
tiers in the morning by rcciting
long. pertinent passages of Shake
speare into their sleepy ears.
Many times since those days,
Wendell Willkie has had occasion
70 wonder whether they walked
the wrong man:
There was the day In his senior
year at Indiana university when
Wen willkie. the red-sweatered
socialist" who for four years had |
noisily led the student anti-fra-
ternity faction, was tapped for
Beta Theta Pi.
II was the smoothest. swankest
and all-round best" of 1ndiana's
fraternities.
Its undergraduate president was
none other than the democratic
Apollo. young Paul v. McNutt.
Then there was the morning
they walked the youthful Wendell
Willkie--asleep on an old cot In the
lobby Of a cheap Akron hotel--to
give the green young lawyer. fresh
back from the World war, good
Job in the legal department of the
Firestone Tire and Rubber COM
pany.
Or again. the day in 1926 when
. prominent industrialist wrote
law firm: do not let this young |
man fWillkie) get away from us.
I think he Is a conner and |
we should keep our eye on him."
A PRETTY
GOOD RAISE
And there WAS that day in 1929
when the president Of the great
Commonwealth & Southern Corpo-
ration told the mature Wendell L.
Willkie to figure out his income for
the past three years. He directed
Willkie TO double that total
That figure would be Wilkes
annual salary II he would consent
to become general counsel 10 the
billion-dollar Commonwealth and
Southern.
And when In 1888 Wendell Will
kie found himself elected president
az this potent, sprawling utility
corporation. he is likely to have as
sumed his Characteristic feet-on-
desk position and pinched himself
vigorously to make sure they
hadn't walked the wrong man"
Today Presidential Nominee
Wiilkie, his keen mind darling