The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1943-01-16
By HERMAN ALLEN
AP r ea+uTeS Writer

Oh IiFiIAS OP W tiiSll an oliSC
billing in varying degpees. On the
whole they've managed to. keep
then serves fairly dark. ... -
Although Congress authorized
the President, to appoint six ad
ministrative. assistants, he at pres
ent has only four on his staff.
They are David K Niles, William
H. McReynolds, Lauchlin Currie
and Lowell Mellett. Ranking right
slcngside with them, however, are
Eugene Casey, listed as an eX-
ecutive assistant, and Wayne Coy,
liaison officer between the Presi-
dent and the Office of Emergency
Management, overall agency
which heads up WPB, OCD, OPA
and the rest Of the wartime estab-
lishments.
The one VINO has most consist
emily buried himself in anonym-
ity is David K. Niles. This short,
stocky veteran of Massachusetts
politics, q. Harvard graduate, was
assistant to Harry Hopkins when
Hopkins was administrator of
WPA and secretary of commerce.
later. Later he became an adviser
on labor matters in the OPM and
WIPE. He was appointed an admino
istrative assistant lastsAugust, the
most recent appointee.. ,7r
He has kept himself out of the
newspapers, off the radio, away
from lecture platforms. He never
theleSs has an enormous first-name
acquaintanceship and can get al
most any job done for the Presi-
dent by simply picking up a
phone and calling some Dig shot.
William H. McReynolds, a gov
eminent servant for 40 years, has
known FDR since his New York
days He.'s a smooth locker, grey
ing of hair, who will smoke sew
eral cigarettes during a half-hour
interview.
To McReynOlds, 9 personnel eX-
pert, goes the credit for simplify
ing the civil service rules for the
duration of the war. He also takes
proud credit for arranging for
many wartime agencies to use eX-
listing statistical and research out
fits rather than set up new ones.
LauChlin Currie, unobtruslVe,
sandy-haired, a native of Nova
Scotia, is the Presidents contact
man with China, where he travel
ed last year on an economic as
signment from FDR, and Canada.
Modestlv he will admit that Il
believe l may have been of some
slight service to the President from
time 20 lime"
Currie toys constantly with an
ivory cigarette holder while talk
ing, but he actually smokes few
cigarettes. There is a signed por-
trait of Chang Kai-shek on the
mantlepiece of his ornate State
Department building office. (All
the assistants are quartered in
row in that venerable old monu-
ment.)
Lowell Mellett - called by some
"the most dangerous man IN
Washington" and by others lone
of the most important - was edl-
tor of q Washington chain news
paper for Is years, but quit his
$2O,0OO-a-year job in 1887 because
he and his boss couldn't agree
about President Roosevelt. He soon
became head OF. the National En-
Urgency Councils then 81 "a slow
pokcy ageqeK whIiGGh Gid, such
choices as looking up Information
for congressman to use an making
speeches.
Mellett organized "a really eff
Gent government information
service, branched out into doing
spade work for such things as the
Wage and Hour Law. He took
over, too, the controversial study
of economic conditions in the
South.
In 1899 NEG was absorbed into
the new Office of Government
Reports. which Mellett headed.
OGR's functions have now been
taken over by the Office of War
Information. Mellett heads Owls
motion picture division. Some see
this as a come-down for him, but
others point out that he remains
on the Presidents payroll and IS
consistently, if unohtruslVely,
present at FDR's press confer
ences.
Another bashful member of the
executive family is Wayne Coy. He
dislikes to talk about his job, re-
Fuses to take the glory for any
thing - which may be one reason
for BIS success in Washington.
An Indianan, like Mellett, Coy
spends his days in conferences
with worried officials and in dash
ing by auto among the numerous
buildings which house the mani
fold DEM agencies.
The descendant of an Irish
pioneer, Coy had struggling
youth and manhood until he
climbed on Paul McNutt's band
wagon, helped elect him governor
of Indiana, was put in charge of
state relief (Which gave him con-