THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JULY 12, 1940
BREATHLESS MOMENTS
By CHARLES W. DUKE
Lord Stamp: Man Of E
Momentum
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EX
TO plan the smooth running of Road Building Society, and more cil, organised to plan and control ington and Lee Universities. The its vast machine of war econo- besides, Lord Stamp is the British an unparalleled trade drive, con- Greeks had some letters for him man of many tains (guess whp?) the name as well (Dr. L. of Athens), Not to mics, Britain employs the joint Government's
mention the Portuguese. and widely representative services talents. He is not the theorist, but of Lord Stamp. of a banker, an economist, a statis- the practicing economist, Others Now that is an imposing list of His has been the success story tician, a railroad chairman, a may draw up the plans of the important positions for one man in excelsis; just to pattern, with building society president, and a economic machinė; he is the works to fill (some say it is too many) nothing unexpected in it. He came and, of itself, explains sufficiently, of an ordinary family, went to an foremost authority on public ad- manager. ministration. A constant. harmony
clearly, a remark made to me re- ordinary school, became - nå or“. of ideas is obtained by the simple Adviser on Economics to His cently by another British econo- dinary junior civil servant, at the expedient of their being all one Majesty's Cabinet is this out-of- miist: “If you want to understand age of 16 at the very ordinary and the same man-Lord Stamp, -the ordinary economist, who used Britain's economic measures you wage of 15 shillings a week. He
examination have. first got to understand worked in the Inland Revenue De- a huge trench on the town publicly least-known and private to mark university
partment all day, and studied commoḥ near Carshalton, Surrey, ly most-employed figure of im- papers. Chairman of the Com- Stamp."
And that is not a very difficult economics most of the night, tak- England, a blazing bonfire is portance in wartime Britain. mittee of Civil Servants which co-
A busy man and a man of ordinates ministerial acitvities he task, really, despite the amazing- ing his degree by spare-time work. burning. The flames prey upon stupendous
seven tons of oaken logs, a ton energy
this Corfimittee ly complex nature of Lord Stamp's Is Josiah is, too. When
23 he married a school- of firewood, a load of forest oak, Charles Stamp, first Baron of passes along the results of its de- engagements and attainments. For At
the "wizard" of teacher, before he could afford it, a layer of charcoal and ten gal- Shortlands, G.C.B., G.B.E., K.B.E., liberations to the Ministerial Com- Lord Stamp,
The heat is C.B.E., Knight of Grace, Order of mittee, composed of the Ministers British war economy, is essential- and they happily plugged along lons of kerosene, St.
The on £4 a week. And very glad he terrific.. John of Jerusalem, Grand of the Crown, it passes along the ly a straightforward man.
When the fire- dies down to Cross with Star, Austrian Order of first Baron of Shortlands as well, Wizard of Oz, you remember, in was that he had taken this "rash
for he is Official Adviser on Econo- spite of all the wonderful things action," for (according to the pat- redhot embers, a slim little man.. Merit.
Besides being such mundane but mic Co-ordination to this Commit- he could do and his fabulous en- tern of the model success story) he from
faraway India takes his vironment, turned out to be a very was thereby inspired to work all place at the upper end of the active things as Director of the tec.
Nor does this end the number ordinary and likable fellow in the the harder. Soon he had made a trench. Carefully his feet are ex- Bank of England, Chairman of the
applying name for himself by London, Midland, and Scottish of his employments. For the list
principles of economics and statis- amined by a group of scientists, Railway, President of the Abbey of members of the Exports Coun-
tics on a sound scientific basis to who find nothing in the way of taxation problems, then growing protection against fire, except a so vastly difficult. Before the end square of court-plaster under the of the World War, when still in arch of the right foot. The left his thirties, he was Mr. David. foot is entirely bare. Lloyd George's chief financial ad- At a given signal. the Indian viser, and he soon won posts and steps into the embers. Down honours in the world outside the comes his bare left; foot on Civil Service. One such was the redhot ember-yet he winces not end, with a very ordinary line in Chairmanship of the London a bit! Calmly and with steady magic. So with Lord Stamp. Solid School of Economics.
tread he traverses the length of of build and solid of character,
the trench. Each time he sets a the first Baron of Shortlands is Since then he has sought new foot down he counts five. It is jan average
surface heat of man of more than worlds to conquer, Anding new announced the average attainments; a man of Interests but always maintaining the trench is 800 degrees. simple tastes and deep religious the old. He is a member of statis- After completing the journey
length feelings, a teetotaler, a nonsmoker, tical societies in Britain, America, the full 12-feet
of the calmly a lay preacher at Free Church and Hungary, and was Treasurer trench, the fire-walker gatherings, a family man with four of the International Statistical In- turns and retraces his steps. At
TE
By John Allan May,
in the "Christian
Science Monitor"
sons.
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a
stitute. He has been President of the end of the experiment, when the Geographical Society, the Ad- he steps forth smilingly from the vertising Association, the Library fiery path, his feet are examined. It is the average, everyday Association. He has been Chairman They are unscorched, the piece quality of Britain's Economic Ad- of the Rockefeller Social Service of court-plaster is not even signed viser that is the reason why, al Advisory Committee. As a busi- and the temperature of his pedal though his name is known to all, nessman he has been and is at extremities is entirely normal. his fame to most, this key man once a railroad chairman and How was it done? Kuda Bux, of the war effort is personally. so director of those separate road the fire-walker "from India, says little in the public eye. He has not transport, companies.
it is a ceremony performed by
His books seldom make headlines, as safe as his Bank of England, the Investigating MACLEAN
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you your teeth to-day?
"Ess, it's dolly good"
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TOOTH PASTE
the dazzling brilliance in theoreti- As the Chief of the Economic certain: people. of India at their cal work of some of his contem- General Stag in the war, he will religious festivals. No trick at poraries, the marked individuali“ proceed steadily, solidly, safely, on all. All that one requires for ties that naturally impress readers a complex course, without any such a feat is faith. (and editors) of the popular press. fancy theorising. For he is like that Joseph Dunninger, chairman of Committee of the Universal Council for Psychic Research, says it is "häi-wattari," amiracle performed only by Shinto priests, who know that while the fire burns hot at the edges of the pit the interior char* coal cools rapidly.
his speeches are too sound, safe as solid as his Building Society, and solid to catch public imagina and as steady as the trains on his tion.
efficient, but ordinary, railway. But these very things contain the key to his success. Lord Stamp (Continued from Col. 6). has been the chosen man. of a long "gimmick"--an instrument of the line of premiers, Liberals as well black ast. Kneeling to pray be as_Conservatives. In 1910, Mr. fore starting his fiery walk, Sher- Lloyd George sought his services man contends. Kuda Bux ap as a financial adviser. He was call- plied a protective footbath of a trick done with the aid of a
ed in to reorganise the Nobel In- aluminum and potassium. dustries Limited, great chemical and explosive concern, after the World War. They called him in to be, British Representative on the Dawes Reparations Committee. When the Young Committee carie along, they hurriedly sent for sound, practical Josiah Stamp once more. When the Grain Futures En- quiry was opened in Canada în 1931, they made him Chairman.. The list could go on and on. For Josiah Stamp may not be a great popular figure, but he is a great figure to governments.
Lord Stamp, unlike some of his contemporaries, is a comforting economist. He is not revolutionary, he does not produce new theories out of a hat with the air of con- uror's mystery that cannot be ex- plained by any but the magician, he always stacks up with the ac cepted facts, he can be guaranteed never. to say, anything to startle you like many brilliant mèn. Yêt there can be no denying that Lord Stamp is a man of brilliant intel- lect. He is, in fact, the great ex- ample of brilliant orthodoxy, the proof that conservatives are not just stolld average fellows that people of accepted brilliance seem to take them to be. And that is a cheering thought.
Lord Stamp's attainments are. well enough known to the world of scholarship. He took first-class honours as a Bachelor of Science jat. London University before he attained his majority. Since then,
his work has gained him so many thanks to
honorary degrees that they are, commonly spoken of as the Stamp] Collection. Oxford' and- Cambridge Universities have conferred” doc-
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Universities of St. Andrews, Edbi- burgh, Leeds, Dublin, and Sydney, Australia Also McGill, Toronto, Pallahan, Proced Western Ontario, MacMaster, Har-
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James Sherman of the Society of American Magicians says it is
(Continued at foot of Col.
They're well worn but they've
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