Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-10-29
Britain Breaks in New Hand at the Cash Reoister
Grips Successor as
Exehequer Boss Also
Is Austerity-Minded
By Glenn Williams

dilO ilt IL IleGu jill THESE quail
ties, plus the proverbial patience
of Job, as chancellor of the ex-
chequer. It's the toughest peace
time job Britain can offer.
He succeeds aging, sick Sir
Stafford Grips in the task OF
running this country's economic
and financial affairs. Grips,
long i'll with colitis and ex-
hausted from the four Am. to
midnight regimen oil keeping
pace with the task, had to re-
tire.
Gaitskell, helper and stand
in for Grips since last Febru-
airy, assumed the stars role on
quick notice. Grips had ex-
pected to come back to work
next month, at the end of q
three months rest.
The magnitude of the Job is
enough to scare a veteran of
many years experience in polit-
cal and governmental campaign
ing.
Was College Professor
But when youthful Hugh
stepped off a plane last Fri
day afternoon to don his bur-
den he was grinning wide
enough to show the dimples in
both his brown cheeks. There
was no trace of fright or funk.
Gaitskell is a homebody with
twin anchors in his home and in
the jobs that have rocketed him
from civil servant to top cabi-
net status in less than six years.
He's only A now and is the
youngest boss of the national
till since Austen Chamberlain,
a conservative industrialist who
believed in a protective tariff,
took it on in 1908. Chamberlain
was 80. Gaitskell wasn't even
born yet.
That event occurred on April
9, 1906. His father was a civil
servant and he sent Hugh to
Winchester. one of Britain's
prep schools. Grips also had
gone there.
Hugh was graduated from Ok
ford University when he was 81
with first class honors in philos-
ophy, politics and economics-a
course of study which since the
war has become a favorite of
American Rhodes scholars at
Oxford.
His socialist views cropped
up strongly during his junior
year in college. A general strike
took place in the spring of 1926.
Young GaitSkell shuttled be-
tween Oxford and London, dis
tributing leaflets pleading the
strikers cause.
Hugh became a young pro-
fessor at London University.
where he fell under the tutelage
of Hugh Dalton. himself now a
cabinet member and former
chancellor.
Hugh gave up one OF his
favorite habits to follow one of
Grips tax policies. In an ef-
fort to cut dollar spending on
American tobacco, Grips liked
tobacco duties. Cripps hoped
many Britons would give up
smoking. Gaitskell did, but
Grips and most other Britons
just dug deeper in their pockets
and kept on putting.
Gaitskell drinks little hard
liquor, but likes to down a pint
of Britain's mild. watery draft
beer now and again.
Seldom does he utter a word
that the politically partisan
British press can nail him with.
He did once. AS fuel minister.
seeking to save coal, he humor-
ously advised the nation to take
fewer baths.
Stuck to Politics
Il have never had a great
many baths myself" he said.
1T does not make great differ
ence to health"
The press made much of it.
Hugh learned that many a wise
crack looks cold and crude in
print. He hasn't slipped since.
Gaitskell, though young, is no
newcomer to the intricacies of
government affairs.
Winston Churchill's wartime
team plucked him out of his Job
as a professor of political econ
omy at London University while
the first blitz bombs were falling
in 1910. Hugh was put to work
IN the civil service as one of the
top planners of economic war
fare.
Two years later he moved into
the Board of Trade, presided
over by Dalton.
One night. near the end of
the war, he sat up with Dalton
until the wee hours of the
morning. discussing problem:
Should he go back to the uni
versity. stay in the civil service.
or turn to the turmoil of pol
iticS.
He chose politics, and won a
seat in Parliament in 1945,
when the Labor Party won an
overwhelming majority. Hugh
turned down an immediate offer
OF Junior minister's job, and
spent a year learning the ms
and outs of Parliament.
Then he became parlia-
mentary secretary to Emanuel
Shinwell in the fuel ministry,
just in time to see the country
plunge into a coal crisis. Shin
well soon went out. Hugh got
his job.