Show ) THE MEN WHO DECIDE OUR DESTINIES From a log cabin on a tobacco farm this genial extrovert has gone on to success in t business 'politics government— y- - ' and family life By FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER ' Luther is an indefatigable hunger and isherman Hera he it nested interest —and consternation" The Hodges are urbane and cosmopolitan The mein theme of Hodges’ administration They enjoy good bookstand cherish their asso- -' was increasing th4 industrial development of ciations with playwright Paul Green of the CarNorth Carolina through "Operation Bootstrap" olina Playmakers and with Carl Sandburg were industries Mrs Hodges who is popular with the cabinet aggressively Big state in to the set branches wives up encouraged sponsors her share of public events and Small businessmen got financial transfusions used to entertain extensively Yet essentially when the Governor created the Business Devd- she is not a clubwoman or a joiner Her deepest satisfactions are in reading bridge (which she opment Corp with lending power of $10 million to service industries needing special help plays with tournament skill) history and paintIn 1956 Hodges entered the race for afull ing still life and landscapes four-yea- r The Secretary on the other hand is indeterm as governor and won in a landslide He served longer aa governor than any fatigable in fishing and hunting Says General other man elected to that job Waynick “When he pulls a trigger something is likely to drop” It was just nine years after Luther Hodges He is facile too with a quip Asked by a re- entered politics that he was invited to Palm Beach where President-elec- t Kennedy an- porter when the Business Ethics Advisory Council of the Commerce Department will complete nounced his appointment as Secretary of Commerce On the plane returning from Palm Beach Jhq0deltbeganJaatJfayrhesaidri!!AboutJani dynamo sat deep in uary" Asked why the delay he replied “It’s hard to write a new Ten Commandments” thought His private secretary leaned over “Has A natural extrovert and optimist Hodges has it sunk in yet?" he asked he bother “Don’t me" raised hand a always been a joiner Even while he was build- Hodges “I’ve started working" ing his career he was active in the Methodist already replied Church and the YMCA He organised classes for The Hodges now live in an apartment in illiterate millworkers and for 10 years taught 'Washington’s Woodley Place Their children are at night Entering politics he developed a showfar from home however Nancy 85 the wife man’s flare When a magazine asked him’ to of John C Finlay ah oil executive lives in New Delhi India Betsy 36 is the wife of an pose in his underwear he genially complied Martha Hodges more reserved than he thought engineer and lives in Anacortes Wash ad in business this was too great a price for the governor 25 research is that Luther II doing of North Carolina to pay ministration at the University of North Carolina The Hodges are proud grandparents of' arty to Ed and Early to Mm' eight youngsters For all his family pride Luther Hodges is not Secretary Hodges is buoyantly youthful He ' rises a demonstrative father or grandfather: “In genat 6 anL retires at 10 (at the latest 10:80) even if there are guests He says “I eral" says E L Rankin “he is quite restrained There are no outward displays of affection He just tell them ‘Excuse me I’m going to bed’ " show doesn’t He eats lightly and his favorite foods are white is sentimental- but his exterior man" beans turnip salad and corn bread He has kept it He’s a very complicated own his his early weight at 190 pounds the same as it was 'Hodges apparently applied his children when of he was sworn in as governor He doesn’t to the background rearing smoke and drinks very moderately "When my son was about 10" he says “we came His twin fetishes are punctuality and speed home after a year in Europe where he had With his associates he is demanding: His own been getting an allowance I told him then Tour allowance will be cut when you get back tempo is so fast that he wants his staff to antito America You will have to earn your own cipate his thoughts He writes notes to them before leaving home in the morning and arrives spending money’" out-of-stat- In college Hodges made varsity basketball team spends an after noon sur fishing on North Carolina coast at his office at 8 or 8:15 with a brief case crammed with “Klots: What think?—! " “Ruder: See H” By 8:30 he expects an nswerV Afterall it is two hours since he thoughttofitl When he loses patience he likely to apologise — though in an indirect way “Fve decided” he once told a secretary who had briefly fallen from grace “that you jtnd I shouldn’t get mad at the same time” e - - TWe Hodges sssumed the post of Secretary of Commerce without illusions He knew that for many years in both Democratic and Republican administrations the power of the Commerce Department had declined that its single towering figure had been Herbert Hoover To his new employees he quipped: “The only way this de- partmentxan gn up- Up is where he’ is trying to take it As of the important advisory committee silver-haire- d '62-year- old an on (the labor-manageme- nt so-call-ed “wage-pric- e committee”) he has developed cordial relations with the Department of Labor which had long been hostile to Commerce Congress at his re- quest has set up the U S Travel Service to " stimulate tourism in the United States The De-- 7 pertinent also has assumed broader powers wit£ responsibility for the President’s depressed-ares program and with its role in developing international trade Hodges’ job also is- - to reassure businessmen- that the President is not antibusiness “I want the Department of Commerce to mean to the avenge businessman what the Department of Labor has come to mean to labor" the Secretary told me Luther Hodges believes firmly that the American dream that propelled him is still a great national resource but one that citisens must not expect to have handed them as a dole “It is the search for security” he told me “that keeps men from getting ahead If they would stop thinking of punching the dock work for the love of work and not be afraid to make bold moves there would be no stopping them” Behind each word one seems to hear the slogan Hodges has lived by: “It can be done” ‘ -- - i i Only Way Is Up f Stonily WmU Afrit 1 1KI I ’jT |