Evening star., 1942-09-22
@ Vice Chairman
Found Work ONLY
Path 10 Success
Diamond Stickpin
Helped Prod Wilson
To Presidency Of G-E

IlSspSu TIOO WILSON
To Presidency Of G-E
Wide World
NEW YORK, Sept. 22.-"There
just amt no golden chariot that will
take you there"
When Charles E. Wilson said that
about achievement, he was president
of a blue chip corporation with as
sets of s375,ooo,o00 and $1,000
workers.
1t was simple noun: work" no
golden chariot, that made him presi-
dent of General Electric. 1t will
again be that noun he will have to
apply in his new, incredibly more
vast job of vice chairman of the War
Production Board.
In his new post as top production
authority in the war program,
Charlie" Wilson will have "the re-
sponsibility of seeing to it that pro-
grams and schedules for all phases
of our war efforts are met
He will be dealing with a s5,OoO,-
100000 monthly business.
But there was day when SO
week was the financial sphere with
which Charlie Wilson coped.
Served as Office Boy.
He was an Office boy at Sprague
Electric Co., Qater to become sub
sidiary of General Electric) and he
had two ambitions. One was to be-
come general manager of the plant.
The other was to own a diamond
stick pin like the one his boss wore
in his tie.
The boss was stocky plant super
intendent named William T. Ruete.
Before he died he gave Charlie the
stick pin, but during his lifetime he
gave him great deal more.
He found out the tall, stringy
errand boys personal story. He
learned that Charles father, book
binder, had died when Charlie was
8, He had never recovered from
injuries he received in the Sunday
crush at the opening of the Brooklyn
Bridge.
He learned that Charles mother,
who became the bread winner as
we'll as housekeeper, cherished i'm
aginings that she could send him
through high school and onto COL
lege. Refusing to realize inevitability,
she spent the evenings encouraging
him in his aptitude for mathematics
Charlie. with an eye to reality even
at IL, saw the sooner he got to work
the better. For SO a week he took
the am. to 7 pm. errand boys job
at Sprague.
Told to Look Ahead.
Mr. Ruete heard the whole story
and said What you must do my boy
is look forward and equip yourself
for your next job"
= He put him in the shipping de-
partmens with instructions to so
familiariZe himself with the joo that
next month he could tell Mr.. Ruete
what was in every box and where
1t went
Mr.. Ruete urged him on to night
school. Charlie learned accounting
and electrical engineering. He paid
. his advanced courses by tutoring
backward students in courses he had
already mastered.
From the shipping room he went
to the office of the factory ac-
countal1t, became production man.
ager, assistant factory manager.
BY the time William Ruete called
Charlie to his bedside to give him
the diamond stick pin, Charles sue
cess was well enough realized that
Mr.. Ruete could talk about it in
the past tense. IT want you to keep
this he said, "to remember it was
your prod to success"
Mr.. Wilson is today an executive
who is persuasive without being
high pressure"
Argues with Slang.
His speech is colloquial and he
practices slang, rather than rhet-
oric, to clinch point.
Today, at 55, his eyes have a
humorous CLINT in their blue field.
Good humor wreathes his face. but
IN the strong line of his jaw, on
which the flesh is thickening now,
is the warning, Don't tread on me
too much" expression of boy
who came up the ladder alone.
He once said, Il seem to have
been born with plenty of energy,
and five or six hours of sleep a
night kept me in trim, does to-
day I am lucky still to be in
pretty swell shape, though I've
slowed down little" He stands
feet 2 inches.
Any one who knows him outlaws
at the suggestion that he has
slowed down.. and points out that
If so 1t includes an avidity for
three-hour stretches of handball
horseback riding, hunting golf in
the lower 80s.
Not Bad at Bowling.
They cite, too. the occasion at
the Scarsdale Golf and Country
Club when he scored 299 out of a
possible 300 at bowling. Immedi-
ately he began another frame.
Knocked off seven strikes in row
and scored 27S
ne uOcSIl always CuleI &c I'LL
scathed. He occasionally shows up
on Monday morning with crippled
fingers from too vigorous warning
with handball.
Through necessity, as boy on
the streets of New York, he acquired
en interest in fisticuffs, became an
excellent amateur boxer, working
out at YMCA gymnasiums. To this
day he attends all important pro-
fessional matches.
Closest confdant and helpmate in
all his endeavors is his wife, Eliza
beth Maisch Wilson. She had been
his childhood sweetheart and on his
2lst birthday anniversary, when he
was making $40 a week, they were
married.
Charles Edward Wilson's caliber
as war production boss remains to
be seen, but his qualifications are
excellent and his faith in the men
"who really do the job is firm.
OF them he has said, I'VE can