Evening star., 1943-02-14

United States, but he is concerned with
factual surveys and analyses of require
ments, production, planning. design, raw
materials and transport
TITS mainly the privilege of making
recommendations, he says - with the
usual implications of such work: If you're
right, you don't get much glory, and if
you're wrong, you're in the middle.
Hartman gets up at every morning,
eats small breakfast and works in the
apartment for an hour or so before going
to his office. At II pm he still may be
on the go, pacing out into the blackout
after most of London is in bed, to keep
an appointment with Churchill, Beaver
brook or some other official
Hartman has spent a lot of time with
Churchill and his family both in Lon
don and at their country places, and on
trips with notables like Gen. Smuts.
Not being back-slapper or an es-
pecially glib social conversationaIist
hartman eschews formal dinners and
doesn't care for night clubs. Before the
war he had some race horses and one
OF the best Labrador retriever kennels in
the country, and for years was an ardent
polo player Now his principal diversions
are skiing, bowling and croquet. He takes
great pride in his croquet game and in
NE" YORK was member of the Herbert
bayard Swope coterie on Long Island
the pig league of croquetdom. Over here
MS leadlng antagonist Is Mrs. Churchill
demon at the game.
Talks Little About Work.
Publicly, Hartman is kind of Burton
HoifneS IN reverse: He covers a lot of
ground but talks little about it. He was
over there year before he made his
first public talk.
He is similarly reversed in his nar-
sonal talk. Kathleen was astonished at
formal dinner one night, after one of
harrlman's trips to Moscow. to hear a
long exciting account of how her fathers
plane mad been fired on by anti-aircraft
guns. When she taxed him with not
telling her about it, he merely said "Oh,
1t wasn't bad at ALL"
Despite his sober demeanor, which
seems to express an inherent convic-
ton that life was intended primarily for
hard work, Hartman has a keen philo-
sophlcaI sense of humor. His surface
soorfety led his ebullient friend, Anthony
j. Drexel Biddle, Ambassador to the
Exile Governments, to give him the
lronlc nickname of "Popsie." Now when
Hartman calls B1ddle, he says: Hello
Mr. Ambassador-this is Popsie"
somebody once described Hartman as
looking like the man the undertaken
sends to interview the bereaved family
But his serious nlien compensates we'll
Tor his dlsclination toward back-slapping
In inspiring confidence and winning
friends. Once Hartman was stalled for
three days at Gibraltar, and established
firm friendship with Lord Gort, Last
spring when doctor prescribed virtually
unootainable orange juice for Hartman.
Gort heard about it and went to the
trouble to send him crate of oranges
Harriman's somewhat Garbo-ish tend
encies, plus his untiring work for the
Government and the administration,
have led some people to speculate that
he might have political aspirations. Most
of the evidence seems to weigh against
this. His age, 81, is hardly an auspicious
one for launching political career. and
his reserved personality, mental inde-
pendence and commercial realism hardly
fit into a picture of campaign baIlyhoo
and platform visions of pie in the sky.
Rather Hartman gives the impression
of being one of the growing group of
affluent men who feel that wealth does
not excuse any one from contributing
what talents he can to public service,
and that only by such work can the in
stitutions that produce wealth be soundly
maintained.
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