Show 1 He Keeps Prices Down Leon r Henderson Loves a Scrap Gets Plenty No Now By JACK TACK STINNETT W WASHINGTON WASHINGTON-If U ASHINGTON-U If the administratIon ad- ad adm administration m ministratIon i n i s t rat ion had searched through all its odd million-odd em em- err err- for a man to crack the whip over industry and keep the prices of defense materials down it is doubtful if it could have found anyone who puts more zest into the job than Leon Henderson It isn't that Henderson enjoys enjoys enjoys en en- joys belaboring legitimate busi busi- ness Hes He's too good an economist economist economist mist to feel that way about it But he does docs love a scrap Next perhaps what he loves most is a anew anew anew new job And in the third place he probably has thought talked and written more memos on the activities of controlled prices than any other government worker in the six years that he has been around Washington It was a scrap that led to Hendersons Henderson's first government 4 ii s H W i 1 5 Leon Henderson Old hand I at scrapping job He was going along h own quiet way as as' 1 industrial ol olgie economics economies at c Ca eo gie Institute of Tc when General q Hugh Hugl Joh called him into an N NR R ference A On I If 11 the general J expected tame pedagogue to show a up an ant expound in cultured tones professional a all 4 Verbiage he got ct I the surprise of C his life life phrases almost as ft salty as a's a as ti generals general's Henderson cro swords words swords with the N NR R A bo boss j It a glorious slam bang When the dust of battle ha settled Johnson hired hh him j i Was Just a Beginning That was only one of a W lor chain of federal jobs Hender son was to hold He later W be came economic adviser t to w P A. A He was made a member of the temporary national era e committee that tha Invest gated monopolies He work for the senate monopolies com COg v Even ven n. n now w in ln action to his job as price-hawk price of tte defense commission commissio he I b 1 member of the securities and rid exchange commission and anda ona on- on a few weeks ago resigned the defense priorities board bout Through it all he has been sort of unofficial economic adviser to the administration and a ne nw net netI I deal source of new ideas This business of spreading tremendous energy over th the whole landscape is nothing ne new ne to Henderson The son sort of T I Swedish New Jersey farmer lamer le he e worked his way through Swarthmore college by holding down 14 jobs often several of ci f. f them at the same time He lie He went into the ordnance corps i in the army as a buck private in ia 1917 and emerged two yeas yearl later as a captain Henderson is a medium median height fellow with i a II shock of black hair which he he never burdens with a hat H He has a tendency to be careless in appearance One of hii hili idiosyncrasies is gum gura and arid he must buy his packages packager of wax by the gross i J Takes Ills His Own Medicine l He practices the economics he preaches and the report Is ii i that he has made considerable money in private investment In Ira 1937 he shocked the government govern govern- ment and a good many other economists by predicting t a I. I business slump Things seemed H to be sailing along beautifully but the slump came just as he be predicted it would in his boom and bust memo to Harry Hopkins Hopkins Hop Hop- 1 kins then secretary of com corn merce 1 i As the defense commissions commission price-hawk price he twice hail bill zoomed out to threaten industries indus indU- tries unless they pulled prices' prices down The first time it mi as the scrap iron and steel indus India try Henderson r reportedly talked to the ind industry stry leaden leaders leaders' like a Dutch uncle told them more about their business than thai some of them knew themselves and before the week was out scrap iron prices were cascading toward the government level When it came to the lumber industry Henderson didn't t w wear r kid gloves In a bb blistering harangue he told them to 10 g gin get in line or else else |