W. S. Gifford

In a Manhattan subway train, last week, some telephone girls sat together and giggled. They would bow their heads together over a newspaper, whisper for a moment, then fling themselves back, shaking and cackling, helpless with mirth. A man seated opposite eyed this performance. His face was at once sharp and bland; he had a wing collar, a bow tie, a blond mustache. Perhaps he knew that the girls were becoming hysterical because they had discovered in him a resemblance to the man whose picture appeared on the front page of their newspaper, whose name appeared on the front page of other sheets, thus: GIFFORD, 40, HEADS BIGGEST UTILITY COMPANY (New York Times) ; W. S. GIFFORD ELECTED HEAD OF A. T. & T. Co. (New York Herald-Tribune). If he knew this, it seemed to cause him neither amusement nor annoyance. He meditated, perhaps, on the fact that he had at his direct command more such girls than any other man alive. He was Mr. Gifford, new president of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co.

It is said that he got his first job with the company by mistake. When he was graduated from Harvard in 1905, he wrote to the General Electric Co. asking for a job, misdirected his letter to the Western Electric Co. This story, which has been often told of him, ends with the words "He got the job." In 1908, he was transferred to the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., made chief statistician--a position which he held until 1916.

When, at that time, it became evident that the U. S. must enter the war, the National Consulting Board selected a corps of 240 experts from every branch of industry to make a survey of the country's resources. Theodore N". Vail, dynamic Dutchman, then President of the A. T. & T., recommended W. S. Gifford to head this corps. No one outside the electrical industry had ever heard of Gifford, yet on Vail's word he was appointed. When the corps had done its work, he was chosen Director of the Advisory Committee of the Council of National Defense. Associated with him worked Daniel Willard, Bernard Baruch, Julius Rosenwald, Howard E. Coffin, Samuel Gompers, Charles M. Schwab, A. C. Bedford. Congress looked with suspicion at the Council of National Defense, jealous of its powers, exasperated by its efficiency. Mr. Gifford did not mind suspicion, but he did not permit interference. He did not hesitate to disagree with Secretary of War Baker over matters of policy, expenditure. He won every argument. One week after the Armistice was signed, he returned to the American Telephone & Telegraph Co.

The A. T. & T. is the largest utility corporation in the world-larger than the U. S. Steel Corporation, in capitalization and stockholders and employing nearly the same number of workers. Its' assets are over two billion dollars. It serves 16,000,000 telephone subscribers. Mr. Gifford is one of the youngest men ever picked to head any great utility. He succeeds dapper Harry B. Thayer, President since 1919, who will become Chairman of the Board of Directors--an office specially created for him.