| Show I WHO'S VHO'S S 'S NEWS NEWSWEEK f raA Y THIS WEEK WEEK By LEMUEL F. F F PARTON YORK The YORK The other day a NEW N brisk dapper little old man stepped into a big Wall street in in- investment investment investment vestment banking office and asked for the top boss WC W W. C. C Durant with an air o oIn ot of otIn ofin In Scrimmage assurance He Hc 77 hadan had an audience Again at and came out full of business and stepping high A friend who was doing busi busi- business business business ness there that day reports to tome tome tome me that the peppy visitor was vas William G. G Durant Duranl twice head bead of General Motors once the thc master of and that at the age of 77 71 Mr Durant was scouting new v capital for another big tourney In motor finance My ly friend couldn't learn whether er he got It but said lie he had heard there was a deal on which might put Mr Durant on the main line again lie Dc said the lit lit- little lit lit- little little tle Napoleon of early carly day auto finance looked as if he be were about to merge all companies and skim the cream It was in 1910 that the bankers crowded Mr Durant out of the presidency pres pres- presidency presIdency of General Motors He was back in 1915 and out again in 1920 in the war post-war crash in which he jettisoned of ot his own money trying to stop the down down- downslide downslide slide of the stock He took his losses casually and was busy for years in daring market mark t forays but never quite converted any of his passes An acquaintance of ot this writer who knew Mr Durant well told me how he laughed off olf his second re- re relinquishment relinquishment of his hit motors kingdom I built the greatest automo automo- automobile automobile bile bUe building in the world at Detroit he said according to tomy tomy tomy my informant and when I did It I fixed it so they wont won't soon forget me Hidden somewhere in even y ever column and and every cail- cail capi capital c l- l tal and big stack of that building there is a deeply chiseled D. D There wasn't anything anon anon- anonymous anonymous r ous about that job and I took good care to leave my mark on onIt It it So did the ling king In Kipling's when he was pulled off of his big pal pal- palace palace palace ace building job when They said thy use is fulfilled He Carved on every timber and cut cut on every stone and the poem concludes After me cometh a builder tell him I too have bave known FOR COR OR several years Dr Karl T. T Compton president of Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the nations nation's greatest scientists has explored the For Science Science- no mans man's land Government between an ex- ex Collaboration govern govern- government government government ment and an ex ex- expanding expanding technology He thinks they ought to get together but he is no advocate of bureaucracy or extreme federalization He doesn't like the idea of the government getting on anybody's neck He thinks the gov gov- government government with its vast resources might be an invaluable collaborator with science and should be in fact but he advances this idea warily as he finds creativeness and social progress in the old American free free- for all for all without elaborate govern govern- governmental governmental mental trimmings lie He never claimed an Ivory tower and sees secs the problem in Its simple social components of jobs a rising standard of living social social progress progress and security Ho notes i he the killing job potentialities ties of the machine In certain individual Instances and as as- assesses assesses assesses industrial management with finding a corrective This qualified admission is in sharp contrast to the view of Dr Robert Andrews Millikan 1 another distinguished scientist who has wrestled with the same problem Doctor Millikan is for throwing the throttle wide open with the certain certainty ty that machines ultimately will make more jobs than they destroy Both however prescribe as a cure for our technological ills more of ot the hair of the dog that bit us The difference in view is that Dr Compton urges certain collective rationalizations and judicious self- self imposed controls by industry and management For many years Dr Compton bas has been blasting at the Inner citadel cit of the atom to seize there the hidden golden key of power which has bas long been the he pie pic In the sky sky of the great physicists lie He batters down dorm A ft rampart now no and then and in W inthe Inthe the long view of the scientists thinks that we may some day tap reservoirs of energy so vast that all our present Ills iUs will bo easily soluble therein He lie has headed M. M I. I I T T. since 1930 Now rounding 50 He was head of the department of physics at Prince Prince- Princeton Princeton ton before 1930 one of the most richly garlanded men of his profession profession sion in honors and records of ot achievement 0 D Consolidated Service Se News New ewe Features j A r r f I. I |
