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Col. Samuel McRoberts

Head of the Procurement Division of the Ordnance Bureau of the War Department

LAWYER, who became the treasurer of a meat packing company from which he graduated to the vice-presidency of a bank, is the head of the procurement division of the Ordnance Bureau of the War Depart

ment.

The most fun he ever had, Col. Samuel McRoberts has often told his friends, was when as a boy on his father's farm in Missouri he used to drop down between the rafters in the mule sheds upon the backs of the unbroken mules, wrap his arms and legs about them and let them kick. Any one who enjoyed this was well equipped to meet almost any tough proposition. But the main thing about the mule story is that young McRoberts tackled his tough proposition in the easiest way.

When the boy decided that he was going to be a lawyer, he taught school a few years to get enough money to pay his way through Baker University and take the law course at the University of Michigan.

The year 1893 found him, at the age of twenty-four, beginning the practice of law in Chicago. In his second year he had a case against Armour & Co. The company lost the case but won the attorney. McRoberts's refusal to compromise attracted the attention of Mr. P. A. Armour, head of the packing company. In 1895 Mr. McRoberts became attorney for Armour & Company. In 1904, at the age of thirty-five, he became treasurer.

As treasurer of Armour & Co. he handled the sale of $30,000,000 in bonds to the National City Bank of New York and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in 1909. His ability so impressed Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip and the other officers of the National City Bank that they offered him the position of vice-president of their institution.

His training of law, business, and finance have added a valuable experience to his forceful and aggressive character, but his energy creates no friction. He still has the habit of getting on top of his job as he got on top of the mules, by the easiest way.

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Col. Guy E. Tripp

Head of the Production Division of the Ordnance Bureau of the War Department

OLONEL Guy E. Tripp, chairman of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, whose job in Washington is to see that the Ordnance Department gets what it wants when it wants it, has an effective way of getting things done as he wants them. He doesn't say much, but when he does talk it is in such a clear and convincing way that others are likely to agree with him.

The story is told in the Stone and Webster organization of how he once convinced his associates there. The financing and management of a public utility property in a new field had been offered them, and Col. Tripp was asked to look into it. He reported that in his opinion it was worth doing. The reports of others were adverse to the proposition, and it was about to be turned down. Col. Tripp asked, if the firm did not care to go into it, if they had any objection to his doing so. That made them take a different view of the matter; they took over the property, and it proved to be one of the best public utility corporations which Stone and Webster ever acquired.

Soon after receiving his Government appointment, Col. Tripp left Washington on a circuit of the manufacturing plants to see what could be done to speed up deliveries of guns and ammunition. Because of his experience and his character there is reason to believe that he will be able to help the makers of guns and ammunition solve their problems and the problems of their relations with the Government, and speed up deliveries.

In 1910 he was appointed chairman of the reorganization committee of the Metropolitan Street Railways of New York City. It was in that position that he demonstrated remarkable ability to bring opposing interests into agreement.

The two leading private banking groups in New York came to know of Mr. Tripp's fairness and honesty through his handling of the Metropolitan reorganization. He has the friendship and respect of both. The list of companies in which he is a director ranges through the alphabet from the American International Corporation to the Wabash Railway.

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Lt. Col. Charles N. Black

Assistant to the Chief of the Ordnance Bureau of the War Department

T. COL. CHARLES N. BLACK, the civilian engineer recently added to the purchase section of the Ordnance Department, has a reputation for carrying through whatever he undertakes, whether it be a difficult engineering problem or the tracking of a grizzly bear in the high Sierras. Nothing is too hard for him to undertake.

While a student at Princeton, although not known as a crack athlete, Black challenged the champion college swimmer, agreeing to give him a ten yard handicap in a 100 yard swimming race. He then proceeded to endorse this astounding proposition by offering to bet $100-a large sum in those days-that he would win the race. The bet was covered, and the entire college, faculty included, assembled on the chosen day to witness the race. Black cut his way through the water by the then little known "crawl" stroke, overcame his antagonist's handicap, and won by a neck. One of his early undertakings for the engineering firm of Ford, Bacon & Davis, of which he is a member, was the construction

of a lighting and power plant and street railway in Atlanta, Ga. After solving the engineering difficulties, Mr. Black found publicity in the open the only way to counteract local antagonisms. This was accomplished through handbills and the purchase of the Atlanta Journal from Mr. Hoke Smith. Subsequently he built up or managed various public utility properties in the South and West; principally in New Orleans, Birmingham, Kansas City, and San Francisco.

When Mr. Edward R. Stettinius needed assistance in the export department of J. P. Morgan & Co., in handling the munition purchases in this country for Great Britain and France, Mr. Black was one of the men he called about him. That alone is good testimony of Col. Black's qualification to fill the position he now holds in the purchase section of the office of the Chief of Ordnance. But back of his experience and training is an outstanding ability to go straight to the kernel of a situation and carry a thing through that makes his service of particular value to the Government at this time.

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Mr. Ralph Crews

Legal Adviser of the Ordnance Bureau of the War Department

WHEN Ralph Crews was 17 years old he is 41 nowhe started to study law, working as a clerk in his father's law office by day and attending the Chicago College of Law by night. He was admitted to the bar before he was 21. When only 29 years old he was general counsel for the National Packing Company-the old beef trust, since dissolved. In this capacity he continued until 1912 when the dissolution came.

His chief characteristics are concentration and energy. For example: He prepared the evidence in the trial of the ten big Chicago packers accused of violation of the Sherman Act, which resulted in their acquittal. During the trial, and without warning, the Government demanded by the following morning a list of all original stockholders of all packing concerns-there were several dozens of them -affiliated with the National Packing Company. The counsel for the packers were sure it couldn't be done. To trace the countless changes in ownership would involve a search through scores of record books. But Crews

spent the night in his office, surrounded by clerks, working there until within five minutes of court time the following day. He appeared in court as the bailiff sounded the gavel with a great chart showing ownership of stock in all packing concerns, carried through, transfer by transfer, down to the last owners.

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'Crews just went over to his office and started concentrating," one of his associate lawyers said.

"He has an extraordinarily developed faculty of speeding up and concentrating all energy about him and without wasting any of it. He never looks at a letter or a document once he has dictated it. He knows just what he wants when he does a thing and it isn't necessary for him to duplicate effort. And he has an indexed mind into which he carefully files away his business. His memory is never at fault. He can recall any business transaction, even down to any letter or document connected with it, without resorting to files or a clerk. He is a champion concentrator."

He plays as wholeheartedly as he works. Once out on the golf links or reading history or driving his motor, business is a blank page.

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GENERAL SIR HENRY SEYMOUR RAWLINSON
The British Military Representative at the Inter-Allied conference at Versailles

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