Evening star., 1943-02-14
W. A. HARTMAN LABORS BEHIND WAR SCENES
Quiet Fmonee Serves Roosevelt in

LONDON.-One of the United States
most important and least known inter-
national operatives today is tall, dark.
quiet man named w. Averell Hartman.
who looks like a combination of Gary
Cooper and Ray Milland; regards being
shot at in an airplane as an incident
not worth mentioning to his family, and
had the distinction of adding to Win
ston Churchills efTulgent vocabulary
the classic Americanism: $50 what?"
Hartman has the status of Minister,
although drawing no salary and the
designation of President Roosevelt's
special representative on lease-lend
matters in Britain in addition to which
he is member of the British-American
Shipping Adjustment Board and Donald
Nelson's special representative on war
production.
His assignment, which Hartman him.
self is at somewhat of loss to inventory,
involves everything from acting as an
international messenger to negotiating
with the temporary rank of Ambassador
with Premier Stain of Russia.
AldfCS VI 1Int.
He has a travel record probably sur
passed only by the shutting couriers of
the State Department In the two years
since his appointment he has crossed the
Atlantic 13 times, in addition to two trips
to Moscow and two to the Middle East.
Between trips he works in London,
stridlng about the city comforting with
the heads of the various divisions of the
British war effort and threading his way
lnconspicuously among the 400 bustling
to1lers at the American Embassy, head
ing staff of a score Of experts engrossed
IN problems relating to the planning,
production and delivery of war supplies,
co-ordinating Americas activities with
Britain's, and their joint effort with
other Allies.
Hartman headed the American group
which went with Lord Beaverbrook and
his associates on the first joint mission
TO Moscow, and went with Churchill on
his last Second front" conference with
Stain; was on hand when President
Roosevelt met Churchill in midocean
and was with Churchill in Washington.
and in Casablanca, in the Middle East
just before the start of the current CAM
paign.
Yet so strong is his passion for anony-
nifty that the average person would have
trouble identifying Hartman offhand.
He Is not to be confused with Mrs. J.
Borden Hartman, former Minister to
Norway, with Joseph, Lewis c.. Henry I.
~ live
himself, have played parts in American
finance. His listing in Who's Who is not
impressive; in the 1941 edition he in
dulged in self-description to the extent
of II lines, against % for his less promi-
nent brother, E. Roland Hartman, and
26 for Shirley Temple.
Fooled the Dopesters.
1t is when you come to the matter of
just who Hartman is that it becomes
apparent that, as in the case of the dane
ing bear, the remarkable thing is not
that he performs his assignment we'll,
but that he Is doing it at all
AS the silver-spoon son of one of the
leading tycoons of the last century, E.
H. Hartman, who once controlled 10000
miles Of the Nations railroads. the
chances seemed to favor Averell Harri-
mans becoming an unproductive if
amiable citizen.
He soon Jared the averages, however
After attending Groton School, he went
to Yale, and then to work for his fathers
principal interest, the Union Pacific
Railroad. But he upset our hypothetical
dopesters by working his way up to pur-
chasing manager, job they don't entrust
to even influential boobies.
Presently he left the railroad-retain-
ing his large inherited financial interest
TO go into business with his brother