Statesman in Industry

Of statesmen who have turned tycoons the U. S. has few. Of statesmen or tycoons of the kind which stepped on U. S. shores last week, the U. S. has none whatever. For he is a man who (one may presume) would not deny except in modesty that his brilliant conversation has charmed many beautiful women, that wine accelerates the human faculties, perhaps even that a game of chance may produce a fine exhilaration. He is representative of the British notion that the highroad to success, even in politics 'or business, is not paved entirely with the virtues that the parson preaches of Sundays-that, in fact, its finest pavings are the stones of genius.

What U. S. politician could turn upon a stranger and say, as he once did: "Sir, I have never seen you before and have no desire to see you again. However, since you appear to wish to lose -L-100 I will dive for that sum from the top springboard of the hotel diving pool tomorrow at eleven!" Yet from the man whom his college classmates knew as "Galloper" Smith, from the man who was the youngest Lord High Chancellor of Britain's UTILITARIAN BIRKENHEAD . . . went to see his boss. history, who has been Secretary of State for India, and now is a great public utility tycoon-in short, from the Earl of Birkenhead, it was the gesture of a genius who would not truckle to vulgar respectability.

Last week this prodigal orator, statesman, financier landed in Manhattan. With him landed also Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, onetime (1924-1928) Secretary of State for War, Sir Harry Duncan McGowan and many another. But no affair of state took Lord Birkenhead to the U. S. Not as statesman but as tycoon came he. For last year, perhaps foreseeing the exit of the conservative ministry and the advent of England's present Labor cabinet, Lord Birkenhead resigned his government portfolio, looked over the many offers from corporations seeking his ability and his reputation, chose finally the chairmanship of Greater London & Counties Trust, Ltd. He became also a director of Imperial Chemicals, Ltd., Lord Melchett's British counterpart of I. G. Farbenindustrie.

Utilities, not chemicals, however, were Lord Birkenhead's major errand. Greater London & Counties Trust, Ltd., is a holding company for British light and power companies serving 95 cities in England and Scotland. Areas exclusively controlled comprise 9,300 square miles, including large manufacturing centres in the neighborhood of London, and with a population of more than 2,000,000. As electric service is increasing at double the rate in corresponding U. S. cities and towns, prosperous is Greater London & Counties Trust, Ltd.

Yet, despite its potency, Greater London & Counties Trust, Ltd., is not an independent company, is controlled by Harley Clarke's Utilities Power & Light Corp. of Chicago. Utilities Power & Light controls eight U. S. companies which supply electricity, also gas, to St. Louis, Indianapolis and 830 other U. S. cities and towns with a total population of more than 2,800,000. Counting its British subsidiary, Utilities Power & Light last year* showed a net of $5,999,168. Gross British revenues equalled about one-fourth of gross U. S. and British revenues combined.

What Lord Birkenhead will discuss with Mr, Clarke he did not say, though a prospective $50,000,000 expansion campaign for his English company might well furnish an interesting topic of conversation. To U. S. newsmen, however, Lord Birkenhead spoke chiefly generalities. Said he:

"Industrial development goes hand in hand with the progress of electric energy." . . . In Great Britain the use of electric energy is much less per capita than in the United States and the energy is not produced or sold as cheaply as here. ... A cheap and abundant supply of electricity is our aim. . . . This will have a beneficent effect upon British industry and tend to alleviate the unemployment problem."

As to utility progress under a Labor ministry, Lord Birkenhead remarked: "The present ministry is for state ownership in the abstract. Yet this same government is helpless to take any steps in that direction."

* For twelve months ending June 30, 1929.