Evening star., 1953-11-15

HAIRY DEA1Eh While.
around Boston" But memory
fails him on the name Of the
orphanage.
At the age of 20 White ap-
peared at the 1922 spring session
of Columbia University to take
undergraduate work. He re-
manned there until June, 1923,
when he left for Leland Stanford
University in California. Colum-
bia says it has no further
information about him.
White was married before he
entered the Army. His wife was
the former Ann Terry. a woman
of a literary turn Of mind. One
report says she is a native Of
Russia. Another says she comes
from Springfield, Mass. The
fact cannot be verified. Mrs.
White will not talk to reporters.
At Stanford, White blossomed
as brilliant student. Many
years older than his under
graduate classmates. he majored
in economics, was elected to Phi
Beta Kappa and received his
ABB. degree in 1924. The next
year he received his masters in
economics.
Aggressive and Brilliant.
A Stanford professor who asks
anonymity today recalls White
as IAN aggressive and brilliant
student-king who wouldn't hesi-
tate to disagree with his in
structor and who could present
well-conceived arguments to sup
port his views. He was, however,
open-minded. He had no lido
syncracies either in manner or
dress. He was well-integrated.
knew he was going to Harvard
and was going to pursue an aca-
demic career. He exhibited no
left-wing tendencies"
In 1925 White went to Har-
ward, remaining there six years
as an instructor and tutor in
economics and receiving his
Phi. D. in 1880.
People who knew him in those
years, speaking behind the cloak
of anonymity, say he was bril-
liant, blunt and sometimes sar-
castic-adjectives that charac-
terized him later in Washington.
OF medium height and build.
dark and seldom smiling, White
drove hard to rise in the aca-
demic world. s 40
Some say heresented the fact
that at the age Of 40 he still
had only an instructor status.
They believe he blamed his jew.
ish background for his failure to
find a higher post at a large
university. This theory of frus-
tration is, of course. a facile
one and cannot be documented
in Whites case.
In 1882 White obtained 4 Job
teaching economics at Lawrence
College in Appleton. DR.. Henry
M. Wriston, then president OF
Lawrence and now president OF
Brown University in Providence,
R. l., recalls him as "a very
fine teacher . recommended
by an expert In anti-Marxian-
ism"
Called Good Teacher.
DR.. Wriston is, incidentally,
one Of only two persons who
would place their names on the
record during a search OF several
days by this reporter.
IT can only tell you what I
knew about him at Lawrence"
DR.. Wriston said. "At that time
there was not the slightest trace
of Marxianism in his teaching.
He was a good teacher and he
left of his own accord to enter
the Government"
Teaching associates at Law
renee corroborate DR.. Wriston's
opinion that White was a good
teacher. But, they add, he was
opinionated and consequently
not very popular With other
faculty members and townsfolk.
While believing he was "too good
an economist to fall for the
Communist line" they said he
was a rabid anti-Nazi and SEEM
ingly had respect for Russia as
a rising anti-Nazi power.
Entering Government service
as an economic analyst for the
Treasury Department at $500
a year in 1884, White rose to
assistant secretary of the Trea-
Sury in 1945. Shortly afterward
Elizabeth Bentley first told the
FBI he was part of a Washing
ton spy network. She said he
was it's courier.
White resigned as assistant
secretary of the Treasury on
April 80, 1916, taking the
$17,000-a-year job of United
States director on the executive
board of the Monetary Fund. He
left the fund in April. 1947.
Former President Truman says
that, when it was discovered
White was wrong" he was fired
by being allowed to resign.
Plan Opposed by British.
During World War II, Whites
plan for the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank
was fought by the renowned
British economist, the late Lord
Keynes, who complained that IL
unduly favored the United
States. After a lengthy series of
conferences, the plan that
emerged at Breton Woods, N.
H., largely was Whites original
project. Russia objected that it