The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-01

y
 Ed Stettinius has been blessed with four powerful supporters-the President of the United States; the man who sits at the Presi- dents right, Harry Hopkins an idolatrous former executive of General Motors, John L. Pratt; and pushing Stettinius quietly but very skilfully, the most powerful banking firm in the world, J. P Morgan & Co.
 Once before, a J. P. Morgan partner, Robert Bacon, who did not fit into the banking business, was deftly steered into the job of Secretary of State. And to- day it is ironic that Roosevelt, the man who in his first in augural address promised "tO drive the money changers from the temple" now at the threshold ot his fourth term has put J. F. Morgan man in the No. l Cabinet job which will affect the finances and peace of the world for halt a century.
 LONG BACKED BY FDR
 Not many people know 1t. but Stettinius had the backing Of F. D. Roosevelt long before Ed thought of entering the Govern ment. Roosevelt dropped a sug- gestion to his close friend Myron Taylor, then head of U. s. Steel, that he hoped industry would recognize promising young men like Ed Stettinius. This hint was dropped as Roosevelt was taking Taylor out of U. s. Steel to make his ambassador tot he Vatican. so Stettinius was made chairman of the U. s. Steel at the mazlng age of 37.
 Roosevelt had come to know
 young Stettinius when the lat
 ter's father became Assistant
 Secretary of War in the Wilson
 Administration. Tine elder
 Stettinius had been J. F. Bor-
 gan's representative for the pur- chase of all British-French war
 supplies in the U. s. A., later
 supervised war supplies in the War Department and thus came
 in close contact with young
 Roosevelt, then assistant secrre-
 tary of the Navy.
 That background, plus the per- sonal plea of Harp Hopkins, is why the President turned down the recommendation of thirty congressman that Jimmy Byrnes be Secretary of State and, il- stead appointed his old friend Ed Stettinius, Jr.
 So definite was the expectation that Jimmy ByrneS would be Sec retary of State that ByrneS' legal counsel, Ben Cohen, turned down an appointment to the U s. Court of Appeals in order to be Byrnes' counsel in the State Department.
 So when the Hull resignation became known, Senators Connally of Texas and George of Georgia hustled down to the White House to clinch the Byrnes appoint ment. The FreSlOent arEdnsOu ~ see them at 200 p. m. but sent Stettinius' name to the Senate at 1 p. m. They were boiling mad. The timing of their engagement and the message to the Senate they figured. was no coincidence BOOSTED UP LADDER
 Stettinius' first big job was with John L. Pratt, chief operating vice president of General Motors. Pratt took young Stettinius under his wing at the age of only 26 and helped boost him up the ladder until Ed himself was made vice. president of General Motors at the tender age of Sl.
 Later. when Ed came to Wash- ington with the National Defense Council, he brought John Pratt with him. Pratt has remained, and watches over his young hope full with the zealous devotion of a mother hen with one chick. A iiewsman once told Pratt he planned to write a personality sketch of stettinius.