Evening star., 1948-06-13


budget Of $4,000, ,000, 900 is a more
complicated machine than the Gov
ernment whose expenses in 1898
were defended with Speaker Thomas
B. Reeds observation that "this Is
q billion dollar country"
There were individually richer
men in the Coolidge cabinet that
contained such members as Andrew
w. Mellon, Herbert Hoover and John
w. Weeks. Today, the big private
income oficials are not In the cab
met itself unless Defense Secretary
James Forrestal, q former president
OF the investment house of Dillon
Read 81 Co., is considered wealthy
man. Former Commerce Secretary
w. Averell Hartman, now rowing
Ambassador for the European Re-
covery Program, is definitely IN the
bracket of Mellon and Weeks.
Prominent Men on Jobs
Rich men in the Truman admin
istration are for the most part just
below the cabinet level. The most
prominent of these are:
Paul Hoffman, head of the ERP
formerly president of the Studebak-
er Corp.
Thomas B. McCabe,, chairman Of
the Federal Reserve System, former
president of the Scott Paper Co.
Robert A. Lovett, Undersecretary
of State, formerly with Brown Bros.
Hartman, New York investmen,
bankers.
A. Lee M. Virgins, UndersecretarJ
of the Treasury, past president ol
the American Bankers Association
John J. MeCloy, president OF the
World Bank, former member o1
Cravath, De Gersdorff, Swaine ano
Wood, Wall Street lawyers.
Eugene R. Black. assistant to Nc
Cloy at the World Bank, former vice
president of the Chase Nationa
Bank of New York.
w. Stuart Symington, Secretary
of the Air Force, formerly head OF
the Emerson Electric Co. of st
Louis.
William H. Draper, jr., Undersec-
retary of the Army, formerly with
Dillon, Read & Co.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Assistant Secretary of the All
Force, chairman of the board of the
Hudson Bay Mining & Smelling Co
John Nicholas Brown, Assistant
Secretary of the Navy for Air, who
inherited great wealth in real
estate.
Lewis L. Strauss, member of the
Atomic Energy Commission, for
merry with Kuhn, Loeb & Co., in
vestment bankers.
William McChesney Martin, chair
man of the Export-Import Bank
former president of the New York
Stock Exchange.
Charles E. Saltzman, Assistant
Secretary of State, former vice
president of the New York Stock
Exchange.
Some Were Persuaded
The late Harry L. Hopkins and
Defense Secretary Forrestal, who
Joined the Roosevelt administra-
ton in 1910 as a White House ad-
ministrative assistant, were response
BILE for persuading many OF these
rich men to join Government serv-
ice. The anomaly of such a New
Dealer as Mr.. Hopkins seeking the
personal friendship of rich men and
promoting them in Government was
one of the paradoXes of the Roose-
welt administration. The war was
also responsible for making many
rich men willing to make the sacri-
flee of coming to Washington.
Another paradox is that President
L
carrying on the Roosevelt policies
let so many of the New Dealers
leave Government and that many
of them are making large incomes
in private enterprise, and not all by
writing their memoirs.
A few of these men like Chester
Bowles, former OPA administrator
and William Benton, former Assist
ant Secretary of State, had large
incomes before they came to Wash
ington. Others. like Dean Acheson,
former Undersecretary Of State,
gave up lucrative law practices,
used up their savings and had to
leave public service to replenish
their fortunes. But the ardent New
Dealers, like Thurman Arnold
Thomas G. Corcoran, Leon Hender-
son, Paul Porter, Abe Fortas, Oscar
Cox. scraped along on their Gov
ernment salaries and made big
money after they left the payroll.
Choice Is Limited
Congressional parsimony, bred OF
jealousy, and high income taxes are
basic reasons why President Tru-
man has great difficulty in finding
the right men for the right jobs.
He must often choose among rich
men, who can subsidize their own
governmental services, officers In
the armed services who have linn
tied amount of financial security in
their retirement pay. and men al
ready in civil service.
Director Hoffman Is at present
confronted with the task of per-
suading $4,000 to sl00,o00-a-year
men to take the maximum SIS 1000
a year he can offer for Is top jobs
in administering the multimillion-
dollar European Recovery Program.
For the other jobs he can pay only
$4,000 year, which is less than
subsistence wages for men with ex-
perience in handling hundreds of
millions of dollars.
Mr.. Hoffman himself gave up a