Show d t 4 f I f vp Wr t i i p j r. r L Lt i. i i r 1 f r A lb l te rE nJ 1 F f 2 I r. r 1 0 Q I. 7 pia f Vu 1 SEYMOUR PARKER GILBERT JR is re reco recognized og- og n ed throughout the world as being the rile greatest youthful genius genits in the monetary affairs of nations since Alexander Hamilton 0 h 0 j f t Ii 11 w a r Ta of y nJ Z a aI aa ah h I a v 11 f 7 f- f j i iI I k Mr 1 Gilbert and his bride who was Louise Ross Todd a aF a F Louisville society girl and who is as much interested as he in inh inthe h 1 the big j job b ahead of him r I k A A AMAN MAN of two thirty-two has just been given the hard hardest st job in the world the hardest at least in his chosen field r f. f of finance and probably th the toughest f political assignment in history Since r. r it was offered by the United States Government Government Gov q in operation co-operation with all the theother other great powers of the world worl J he couldn't refuse it although he had just begun to get fairly started in the making of his fortune He didn't quibble nor ask for delay He didn't issue a statement He merely cabled a query When shall shallI I start Seymour Parker Gilbert Jr former t Under Secretary of the Treasury of the United States recognized by all bankers and economists throughout the world as the greatest youthful genius of the in intricacies intricacies intricacies in- in of money since Alexander Alexande- Hamilton is the young man with the big job Officially his title is Permanent Agent General for Reparations under the Dawes plan but these mere bald words do not begin to d depict the spectacle a whole I world may now watch At two thirty-two a youth is arbiter of all Europe's fate His is the colossal job to stabilize the i currency of the earth I r r Sixty hundred and fifty milli million dollars' dollars worth orth of specie must pass through the youthful fingers of Seymour Parker Gilbert Gilbert Gil Gil- bert late of Harvard and Rutgers durr during during dur dur- r ing these next few years German railway railway railways rail rail- way ways German agriculture German w monopolies and German industry all must pay their financial tribute to the golden stream whose flow will be guided by a 5 youth who was blinking in his cradle when those who not so long ago swayed the destiny of nations were in power Five long years ears of struggling contending contending con con- contending tending forces had their outcome in inthe inthe J the Dawes plan The solving of Germanys Germany's Germanys Germany's Germanys Germany's Ger Ger- many's colossal reparations problem was r awaited by the whole world Men Dien in m high places sit sat back and waited and hoped but no less did the man in the street hang f his hopes on the day when one of the greatest financial riddles of the ages might be solved Everything in his life liCe v I was affected by the money chaos brought r about by money conditions which followed followed followed fol fol- lowed the great war Then came the victory of the Dawes plan with its two major objects object To find a way for Germanys Germany's reparation reparation tion payments to be made To balance the German budget and k stabilize the German currency so coms completely com com- t. t s upsetting the money markets of the world It to It is to carry through to success this thU I plan lan for which nations the world over s waited that Seymour Parker Gilbert has been summoned 0 A it Once before in his brief but amazingly significant career this young man was compared to Alexander Hamilton It was when Gilbert at the age of twenty- twenty eight after extraordinary achievements in the Department of the Treasury as Assistant Secretary was appointed Under Secretary of the United States Treasury a position but once removed from the Cabinet The comparison was not farfetched farfetched far far- fetched in any way The lives and achievements of these two young financial financial finan finan- cial ial wizards were so parallel as to make the fact remarkable Both were quiet inveterate almost miraculous students of figures Both bore brilliantly on their sho shoulders the responsibility of millions at an almost youthful age Not since the days of the great young Hamilton has any man of Gilberts Gilbert's age so nearly matched his feat And in certain ways it was remarked at this time Gilbert Gilberts outdistanced his famous predecessor For when Gilbert retired from his position of Under Secretary and sometimes Acting Secretary of the Treasury of the United States he was but thirty y years ars of age When Hamilton retired from his famous office first Secretary of the Treasury he was thirty When Hamilton withdrew from the Capitol the public debt was But when Gilbert resigned it had soared to the proportion of In handling it he was but once removed from Secretary Secretary Secre Secre- tary Mellon And n now w once more men in high places are comparing young Gilbert to to the famous Alexander Hamilton whose master hand w was s the means of bringing about the reconstruction of the finances of the young United States and the fruits of whose creative constructive and practical mind will live on as long as the problem of dollars continues to have havet t its place in the affairs of men And this time too it can truthfully be observed observed observed ob ob- served that the comparison is not at all far Alexander Hamilton took the reins of or finance in the United States when a war and the founding of a new nation had thrown affairs into confusion and when the disaster and disintegration which threaten tho the life of any country financially tottering hovered over Amer Amer- ica Gilbert faces somewhat at of a similar situation only his is far more complex A war one of the most devastating wary wars of oi history has left financial chaos in its wake Europe must be guided through its mazes the world itself must be piloted back to o financial health Gilbert is appointed to be the man manto manto manto to accomplish what is called by some a 11 practically insurmountable task That was what they called Hamiltons Hamilton's job I i 1 j i T II 4 s t f I L i Vi ViI I c work man They all explained however however however how how- ever that from Gilberts Gilbert's poi point t of view it isn't hard work He likes it Consequently one man went to the Treasury Building in Washington and got down the entrance book in which are kept records of all persons entering and leaving leaving leav leave ing the building after hours rs He found that in one month of thirty one days including including in including in- in four Saturdays four Sundays and a holiday Gilbert had been in his i I I r t n N Y x n f z a r 4 q 4 L ft Y 4 i t tr tri i If y 1 e g It will be among Mr Gilberts Gilbert's Gilberts Gilbert's Gilbert's Gilberts Gil Gil- berts bert's duties to see that the findings of the German Indemnity Indemnity In In- Commission 0 over ve r which General Dawes presided presided pre pre- sided he Ilc is shown in the center of the above group are carried out ahead Oddly enough both young men had just touched the age of or two thirty-two when called to their prodigious assign assign- ment The only sort of job he likes said one of his intimates not long ago in Washington is one that from the very start seems to be impossible It gives him plenty of excuse to work all night trying to find tind out why it cant can't be done He is intensely curious when curious when the wheels wont won't go round he wants to know why And generally he finds out HOW OW Mr Gilbert came to be Under Secretary of the United States Treasury when he was only twenty-eight twenty years old is still lot of a n a mystery even evento evento evento to experienced bankers bankers' and politicians in Washington Wahington All of them know it was because he was the one outstanding man for the job All of them are ac acquainted acquainted acquainted ac- ac with his amazing record his native gift for politics his habit of oft ticking t to a plan that he knows is right when everybody else says it is wrong and his method of getting a little recreation recreation recreation tion after a hard days work in the theoffice theoffice theoffice office by a hard nights night's work in the same place But other men have had a lot lotof lotof lotof of these qualities and haven't gone gone as asfar l far in sixty years as Gilbert has in frt in thirty Since Mr Gilbert will not tell the world what makes him great men have been driven to various expedients to find out for themselves One of them not long ago checked up through a lot of his friends and found them tremendously puzzled He was told that Gilbert just knows knows knows-he he has the instinct He was given a lot of other suppositions but allo all o of his informants agreed that Seymour Parker Gilbert Jr is the original hard d x h Alexander Hamilton the father of Americas America's financial financial finan finan- cial system and through whose farsighted genius the new Republic emerged from a chaos of debt was also a young man office until after midnight on fifteen different different different dif dif- ferent nights Some nights he didn't leave until And on virtually aUthe aUthe aU all the other nights he worked long hours after the regular office force had gone gona home No man is indispensable But this young oung man now holding the job that is in many respects the most important in the world got nearer to that distinction distinction distinction tion in the United States Treasury than anybody else in its history He went there at the age of twenty five following following follow follow- ing his graduation graduation-at graduation graduation-at at two twenty two twenty from the Harvard Law School He went to tott th tt 3 s Treasury because the army wouldn't take him for trench service This was due to a troublesome appendix operation the wound of which refused to heal Russell T. T Leffingwell was then Assistant Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Gilbert became a member of the War Loan Staff He was born in Bloomfield N. N J. J October 13 1892 the son of or a widely known Jersey politician After grade and high school records in Bloomfield Bloomfiel d that are still held up as examples to th the e boys and girls of the town Gilbert went to Rutgers He graduated in 1912 a athe ot at atthe t the head of the class and then entered d Harvard to graduate in 1915 with honors The l known law firm of Cravath Cravat h Henderson was was more than glad t to o get such a promising young man and an d there he stayed until this country go got t into the war in 1917 At the time Wil Wil- liam Gibbs McAdoo was Secretary of the Treasury and Woodrow Wilson was President Gilbert is and always has been a Republican but that didn't mat mat- ter After McAdoo l as Secretary came Glass then Houston and finally Andrew W. W Mellon And every everyone one of them evidently evidently evidently evi evi- dently wondered why hb his predecessor hadn't promoted that young man Gilbert Gil Gil- bert The truth was of course that each of them did promote hi him In July of 1920 Mr Leffingwell re resigned resigned reo re- signed from the Government service All through though the tortuous job of getting out the thear var ar loans Gilbert had beep been wo work wont working wonting ing ng late nights making himself in indispensable indispensable in- in dispensable learning more about the business than the yet veterans crans When Mr Leffingwell quit Gilbert was his right- right hand man Gilbert was named to su suc succeed succeed suc- suc him as Fiscal Assistant Secretary He lIe w was S then twenty-seven twenty years old but he knew so much about the finances of or the United States and the rest of the world that there wasn't an any competition for the job It took Mr Gilbert just one year to convince Secretary Mellor Mellon that the Government Government Government Gov Gov- wasn't getting wha it ought to tobe tolie be tie getting while he was only Assistant Secretary Secretary-a a position that many manya a nationally nationally nationally na na- na- na known banker of sixty would woul snatch at with eagerness So Mr Mellon Mellon Mellon Mel Mel- lon made him Under Secretary All Mr Gi Gilbert bert had to do in that post was to direct the work of the Bureau of the Budget t Commissioner of Accounts Accounts Accounts Ac Ac- counts and Deposits Division of Bookkeeping Bookkeeping Bookkeeping Book Book- keeping and Warrants Division of Deposits Treasurer of the United States Comptroller of the Currency Federal Farm Labor Bureau Section of Statistics Statistics Statis Statis- Statistics tics Government Actuary Commissioner of the Public Debt Division of Loans and currency Register of the Treasury Division of Public debt Accounts and and Audit Division of Paper Custody Savings Sav Say in ings s Division Bureau of Engraving and Printing Mint Bureau Secret Service Division and Disbursing Clerk That Th is he had nothing else to do when the Secretary was on the job But when Mr Mellon was occupied with something else It fell to the lot of the young man h How the Young Man Gilbert Who No Now ow Sits In n as Agent General for or Reparations Under the e Dawes awes Plan an A Attained acne So o Eminent a Place ace in in inor World or Affairs airs from rom Bloomfield to handle supervision of the finances and to act for and by I direction of the Secretary in any branch y j of the department and represent tho the Secretary in dealings with the Federal I Reserve Board the War Finance Corporation Corporation Corporation Cor Cor- and the F Farm rm Loan Board When Mr 1 Gilbert had finished all that he could go home Other men of more mature years had held the same jobs and most of them went home long they had finished In other words they followed the Washington convention of ot calling it a day early enough in the afternoon to leave time for a round of golf olf or a nice chat at the club before dinner or a long motor ride Some of them held the office with credit and dis dis- Not one ever got as much work done done but but then none ever made a practice practice pine tice rice of sticking around until A. A A M. M finishing it 0 MAN 1 in n the public life liCe of America NO who has come anywhere near the big jobs held by Gilbert since he landed in Washington hectic days of 1917 has ever so thoroughly succeeded in avoiding the limelight No Ivo man has ever been appointed to office according to the veterans who was ever so thoroughly fitted for each of his new and more exacting jobs That is what they are ara saying today today the tho Senators and fiscal experts in Washington who have been in personal touch with Gilbert and know his capabilities It was recalled right after he was named to succeed Owen D. D D Young who helped General Dawes to draw up the reparations plan that after leaving the Government service two years ago to return to his New York law firm Mr Gilbert took a quiet trip to Europe Because Because Because Be Be- cause of the jobs he had held because of the work he had done in billion dollar financing operations for the Government he should have been a conspicuous character character char char- acter actor and his movements should have hav been chronicled But nobody knew that G Gilbert lbert was going abroad Not a line lina got into the newspapers until Fate Fat stepped in Then one day the cables s carried the news that Seymour Parker Gilbert had bad been injured in Germany Incidentally it was stated that he had been traveling in the Ruhr And since then it has coma com out that Gilbert wanted some hand first-hand information of conditions there the ability abil abil- ity of Germany to pay and similar questions ques ques- questions that will be of immense necessity to him as Agent General for Reparations So after his simple-minded simple manner h he be went and got that information FISCAL experts throughout the world are counting heavily on the young 1 man from Bloomfield to do a dexterous job of financial tight rope walking within |