The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-09
A "Natural"
By Harlan TROTT

ny uAh1f11N 1hO41
Here in Washington they say James ". For
restal is a natural for that new post of his.
Indeed, anyone delving into the life and inn
portant times OF the nations first Secretary
Of Defense will hardly be surprised to learn
that he has always been regarded as a big
league kind of man.
There was a time, Of course, in the more
rugged days of an individual, when a young
fellow starting out in the world as bond
salesman with a Princeton diploma and a
directory Of well-to-do prospects couldn't miss,
and what fun was there in knowing that?
But never once since Dean Mathey, Prince
ton 10, introduced him to William Phillips
Of W. A. Read Co., who right there hired
him as one of Reads bond statesmen, has
'Runt' Forrestal, Princeton is, been "be-
hind in the count"
Mr.. ForrestaI meets all the eligibility rules
for a person in the Government, including
the unwritten one that a prospective public
servant must have been a newspaperlnan at
some time in his life. This is not counting
the time he was chairman of the Daily Prince
tonian. During summer vacations, /he helped
work his way through college, first for a
time at Dartmouth and then afterward when
he finished up at Princeton.
That was how his path happened to cross
that OF Franklin D. Roosevelt. The latter was
a candidate for the New York State Senate
when James Forrestal, a reporter at one time
Or another in that period for Beacon. Pough-
keepsie, and Mount Vernon newspapers, met
the future President and became a political
supporter.
Later he had a brief fling on the old New
York World but thanks to that double play,
Observation-Disclosures. the newspaper
side of Forrestal was retired before any
further damage was done.
This was his niche. no doubt about it. Down
in the shade vs. of Wall Street where he felt
alive and kicking in the world of Walter
Bagehot, whom he had read at Princeton and
forever after admired.
In time he became a partner in the firm.
Where other successful brokers read the tape.
Mr.. Forrestal kept right on reading Bagehot,
too, that nineteenth century sage of Thread
needle Street.
Gradually Mr.. Forrestal picked his way
over the limp forms of his associates who
had succumbed to his liberal kind of political
views. BY the 1905. he had become a one
man Wall Street cheering section for those
famous fireside radio chats. Since there were
no survivors between him and Clarence Dill
Ion by that time, he replaced the retiring
President of Dillon. Read Co.
Soon after, Mr.. Forrestal was invited to be-
come an assistant to President Roosevelt.
That was nearly a decade ago. In a little
while he went from Executive Avenue over
to Constitution Avenue as Assistant Secretary
of the Navy. Then he replaced Frank Knox
as "Secnav" when the peppery ex-Chicago
publisher passed on at the height Of his own
valiant work in the war.
New jobs. bigger Jobs. one after the other.
the man with the chin like Old Ironsides lust
shoves it out a little farther and bores in.
the way he boxes and plays tennis, giving
it the old Princeton try.
1t was hard to picture the product of Walter
Bagehot in the Nays white-paneled world OF
fouled anchors and melodic brass sea clocks.
AS far as Josephine Forrestal or their nearly
fullgroWn sons Michael and Peter know. col
lecting ship models and sea prints and
barnac1ed notions about the influence of sea
power before Bikini was never one of this
ex-financier's hobbies.
That is to say. in moving into the broad
new realm of Defense Secretary. there was
never any need to cast his thinking adrift
ffom the taut grius of naval tradition such
as fouled more than one governmental re-
form, as his World War I counterpart, Jo-
sephus Daniels. we'll knows. Mr.. Forrestal is
a tough tactful administrator in whose veins
salt water runs thin il at all.
Nevertheless. Mr.. Forrestal did not close
his mind to what goes into the making of
our sea tradition. He let his thinking expand,
d%igesting the philosophy of Mahan in the light
OF the complex pattern of naval strategy that
was expanding like the Navy from two-ocean
to seven-ocean dimensions.
Never. they say, was James Forrestal an
about New Dealer. Yet Harry Hopkins was
his close friend who in turn was always sing
ing Mr.. Forresta1's praise to the President.
Firm, patient. ~forceful, is the way they sum
up the strongest traits in this ex-Wall Streeter
who was destined for the big lea que as long
ago as when talent scouts from the world of
industry and finance were securing the
Princeton campus in the spring. of 1915 and
stopping TO size up the articulate young chair
man of the Daily Princetonian.
Mr.. Forrestal has confessed that one of his
ambitions in Washington has been to remain
Obscure" And. as far as anyone knows. this
is the only goal in which James Forrestal
has failed.
Long ago, he insisted, you can't make a
hero out of a civilian in a blue serge suit.
No, but the nation has discovered you can
make a Secretary of Defense out of him.
Christian Science Monitor.