Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1916 — THE TRAFFIC COP OF BIG BUSINESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE TRAFFIC COP OF BIG BUSINESS

SERE’S AN INTRODUCTION ]TO JOSEPH EDWARD DAVIES, WHO IS CHAIRMAN OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION AND COUSIN OF LLOYD-GEORGE, BRITISH CABINET MEMBER.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.

W OSEPH EDWARD DAVIES, I one time commissioner of corporations, and now the '.v, I chairman of the federal trade commission, is a Celt. feybfebr He shows it in his face, his iMgjSyjg mannerisms and his metliods of work. His father was a Welshman who came to "v this country sixty odd years ago, joining a Welsh colony in southern Wisconsin, a colony hardly second, it is said, in size and in the mark which it made on the state, to that which entered into the life of central New York much more than half a century ago. - The Celtic people are more or less emotional, and perhaps the accent should be placed on the more rather than on the less. In the greater men —whom the Celts have contributed to public life, the emotionalism while marked, has always shown the effect of the steadying hands of thought and of conscience. Emotionalism does not run away with Uoyd-George of Wales and of England, nor does it run away with his cousin, Joseph E. Davies of Washington and Wisconsin, for this chieftain of the federal trade commission is a cousin of the man now most in the public eye in the British Islands. . _ It is within the range of possibilities that if two or three years ago some great corporation official of the United States should have consulted a, fortune teller she would have looked at his palm and said: “Look out, for a dark, handsome man is about to stand in your path." Mr. Davies is a dark man, and it is no flattery at all to say that he .is a handsome one. He became the commissioner of corporations soon after Mr. Wilson was inaugurated president —>f the United States. Many men had picked Joseph E. Davies for a cabinet position, and there are those to say that the prophecy of such a place for him eventually may not go unfulfilled. * The bureau of corporations, as its name implies, looked after corporation matters. It was a check on Illegal doings on the part of great concerns of the country and it was also intended as a help to such corporations as wanted ; to obey the law to the last letter and who wanted to know definitely just what the latter was. Joseph E. Davies is a man of considerable brawn, and he would not be where he is probably if he were yiqt a. man of more than considerable brain. He comes by both by inheritance, for his father was a blacksmith, of “the - muscles -of - his-brawny-arms-wete-strong-as-iron-bands" species. Mr. Davies’ mother was the daughter of a barrister. She was of Welsh and French extraction, thereby keeping the Celt blood in Mr. Davies virtually undiluted. The mother was one of

the best known women among the people of her race in America, and her fame reached outside of racial territory. She was an ordained minister, becoming one at the age of twentytwo years. She came to this country many years ago on a lecture tour. At Watertown, Wis., she met and married the father of the present chief of the federal trade commissioner. There is one incident in the career of Joseph E. Davies which Washington politicians account remarkable. The chairman of the trade commission, as everybody knows, is a Democrat. After Mr. Wilson had been elected men all over the country began to write to him urging the appointment of the Wisconsin man to a cabinet position. Mr. Davies knew nothing about these efforts in his behalf. His mother was in England and ill. The son went abroad to care for her and to bring her back to this country as soon as she was able to travel. He was compelled to stay in England for months and was entirely out of direct touch with political affairs and his own concerns in this land. At that time the Wisconsin legislature ..was Republican. In the body were a good many former students of the University of Wisconsin, of which Mr. Davies is a graduate. One night four Republican members and a Democratic member of the legislature happened to meet. The Republicans said; “Joseph Davies is an able, high-mind-ed man. He ought to have a place in President Wilson’s cabinet.” It is needless to say perhaps that the Democratic member coincided, instants ly with what his Republican colleagues had said. Then the Republican suggestion was that the senate and assembly of Wisconsin should adopt resolutions-r ecommending Davies for a cabinet position. The Democratic member said, “That, would be fine, but you can’t get a Republican legislature to do it." What was the result?. The Republican assembly by unanimous vote passed the resolution and the Republican senate instantly followed suit. Joseph E. Davies is under forty years of age and he is one of a group of young men whom President Wilson called as governmental aids in his administration. In positions just below that of cabinet rank there are today in Washington many young men, or young as the world looks on age when considering the responsibilities which it must bear. One finds a . genial host in the office of the commission’s chairman. Mr. Davies has the Celtic temperament which makes for hospitality and good nature. Until a Celt reaches the point of righteous indignation and is therefore likely to explode, he is as polite as nature ever allowed any man to be. It makes little difference whether the Celt is Irish, Highland Scotch, Welsh or French, so far as this polite

characteristic is concerned, but there are times when the fires break loose and expend their flames on the head of the offender. It is said that one or two such things have happened in the career of Joseph E. Davies. There are a good many men in public life and in business life who are likely to become offenders against the properties of government and business, and on such as these the Celtic temper sometimes breaks. There is one thing that is certain, Joseph E. Davies loves his home state, and he has an abiding affection for his educational alma mater. He attended the public schools of Watertown, Wis., graduated from the high school in 1894 with a class of which he was the valedictorian. He at ouce entered the University of Wisconsin and was chosen president of the freshman class. On graduation he was both class day and commencement orator. While he was attending the university he was made athletic instructor. He was one of the winning team in the Illinois-Wisconsin intercollegiate debate. He graduated in law in 1901, and in the year following he was made temporary chairman of the Democratic state convention. At the beginning of his administration President Wilson gave Mr. Davies an opportunity to accept or decline two high offices of government, the assistant secretaryship of war -and the governor generalship of the Philippines. Both of these offices the Wisconsln man declined. Later, however, he accepted the position of commissioner- of corporations, a place which his record in the law made him seem peculiarly fit. Into the campaign of 1912 in behalf of Woodrow Wilson Mr. Davies entered as a battling figure. He was as prominent in the Wilson movement in the middle West and the West as was the Princeton man, William H. McCombs, in the East. Mr. Davies was a Wilson follower prior to the nomination of the present president at Baltimore. At the convention he joined forces with Mr. McCombs in the struggle which finally was successful in securing the president’s nomination. During the election campaign Mr. Davies directed the Democratic forces in virtually all the western and middle western states. Here is Mr. Davies’ definition of the government body over which he presides as chairman: “We might put it this way," he said. “The trade commission is the traffic police force to see that the rules of the road on what we may term the industrial highways of the nation are maintained. It is tq compel the big touring car, in the use of those highways, not to disregard the rights of the little one, but to accord it its due share of the road.” Washington men have characterized this as a rather striking characterization of the functions of the trade commission. Of course the big touring car ip “big business,” and the small touring car is “little business.” The government, ever since men began to think progressively, has been trying to get fair trade conditions: —Joseph E. Davies of Wisconsin today is at the head of the commission which has this work in large part in hand. He has not been long in the present office. The future is ahead of him and it is up to him to make as good in his new office as the records show beyong cavil that he has made good in other walks of life.