Business: Bitter Boniface

A beetling, black-browed Viennese with a thick accent and a passion for hotels is Ralph Hitz, president of National Hotel Management Co., Inc. According to legend, this son of an Austrian horse dealer ran away from home to become an elevator boy in Vienna's Hotel Sacher, was coaxed back into the family on the promise of being taken to New York. Three days after he arrived in 1906, prodigal, 15-year-old Ralph Hitz ran away again, became a $3-a-weekbusboy in a Broadway hashhouse. Then for nine years he crisscrossed the U. S., paying far more...

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