The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-02-11
Britain Palmer Against Poverty
NAV Result in Freedom from Want
BY TOM WOLF
NEA Service staff Correspondent

PRODUCTION to his widely dis
cussed report on Social In
surance and Allied Services"
Sir William Henry Beveridge,
KCB, writes that the report
uses experience but is not tied
by experience.
This description Is thumb
nail autobiography of its author.
How he got that way is part
ly story of a man with brill
liant mind and partly a story of
two British traditions. Born in
1879, son of a Bengal, India,
civil servant, Beverage was sent
back to England for his educa-
ton. Like so many English par
ents, his family hoped he would
become a barrister. It's tradi-
ton that law leads to political
prominence.
A brilliant student, Beverage
was a triple first (took high
est honors) in mathematics,
classics and law at Balliol Col
lege, Oxford. At Balliol, too, he
met another tradition. Intro
duced by a former dean, it de-
manded that honor students sup
plement books with practical So
cial field work
When Beveridge was grad
uatcd he went not only to the
bar but also I. Toyn6ee Hall
a social settlement in the Lon
don slums. 1t changed his whole
career.
PLANNED TO HELP POOR
AS a result of his experiences
at Toynbee, Beveridge deter
mined to devote his life to at
lacking the problem of poverty.
His first report resulting from
his observations at Toynbee led
to the establishment of Britain's
first labor exchanges. 1t also led
him to be recommended to the
President of the Board of Trade
"a young man named Winston
Churchill. Churchills reaction
was indignant. who's Bever-
idge?" 1t is question neither
Churchill nor any important
government official of Britain
has ever asked since. Every
time a ministry has been in a
jam it has called for Beveridge
and a report.
His studies during the last
war led to creation o the Minis
try of Munitions and &c the food
rationing system, which he
worked out in 81 days while the
lines outside grocers' barren
shops grew longer and uglier.
For his work he was knighted
in 1919.
Already in the present war
he is responsible for the Army's
new Fifteen system" which
prevents skilled mechanics from
winding up as cooks.
Speed and an enormous power
of concentration and assimila-
ton are the key to his ability.
Everything connected with him
shows it. In his office on the
fourth floor of a small building
near Buckingham Palace, the
walls are plain following plaster.
No pictures. No curtains. Only
one small bookcase. Beverage
even discouraged his secretary's
attempts to keep fresh flowers
in the office.
Sir William sits behind a
huge desk across the corner of
the room. A long row o. trays
for papers stretches across it.
He is a big gray-eyed man with
white hair that flops down
from near-center part. Sir Will
liam is obviously uninterested
in which tie to wear, or whether
his pants are creased. His friends
say that half the time he doesn't
know what he is eating.
LIKE MOUNTAIN
CLIMBING"
He usually arrives at the of
flee at nine, attends to his cor
respondence for an hour, then
gets on with the problem at hand
until one, when he lunches out
He's back at two-thirty and
works at fantastic pace until
seven-with time out for two
cups of tea.
asked Sir William IL he en-
joyed the actual preparation of
a report or whether accomplish
ment was the reward. Tapping
the thick black frames of his
glasses against his lips as he
does when thinking, he finally
replied, "It's like mountain
climbing. I used to climb lots.
Half way up, exhausted, l hated
and loathed il and w S h d
would die. Then when ! reached
the top and saw the sun and
view I was glad / hadn't died. :"
Working at top speed eight
hours a day. he tried not to