In Los Angeles last week, long, lean William Gibbs McAdoo cocked an acquisitive eye across the continent upon the big red leather chair in the U. S. Senate which holds the long, lean frame of Republican Senator Samuel Shortridge of Menlo Park, Calif. Would the son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson step out of the political obscurity which has enveloped him since his retreat from Madison Square Garden in 1924 and offer himself as a Democratic candidate for the Senate?* Solemnly Son- in-Law McAdoo announced: "A large number of men and women of standing and character have been urging me to enter the race. I have reached no conclusion but I feel I owe it to them to give the matter thoughtful consideration."
That the Wartime Secretary of the Treasury, irked with the law, has been getting more and more political has been fairly obvious for some time. A rampant Dry out of step with the dominant eastern wing of his party, he has, it is said, reconciled himself to the fact that he has no chance for the Presidency. Late last year he published his autobiography (Crowded Years) which contained some political explosives and, in telling the story of an unparalleled career, again attracted attention to the almost forgotten name of McAdoo. Then last month the students of Southern Methodist University at Dallas listened to some statesmanlike McAdoodling. With war and disarmament as his theme, this able Democrat there delivered an address that would have warmed even the critical heart of his famed father-in-law. Excerpts:
"That all men are brothers is a noble and Christian thought but human experience has demonstrated that it is, at best, nothing more than a pleasant theory. . . . To abolish war effectively we must contrive to lessen the intense economic tension. . . . Any reduction in armaments is desirable on the ground of national economy but if we believe that such a reduction would put an end to war—unless the movement is accompanied by profound economic adjustments—we are simply deceiving ourselves."
Mr. McAdoo argued that the next war would "convert the civilized world into a madhouse." He chided the allied powers for not keeping their disarmament promises to Germany, warned that the U. S. could not safely purchase Europe's disarmament with War debt cancellation, viewed the Republican tariff with alarm.
* Born to war-ruined parents at Marietta, Ga. in 1863, William Gibbs McAdoo sold papers as a boy, migrated with his family to Knoxville, entered the University of Tennessee. Thirty-six years later, as Wartime Secretary of the Treasury, he borrowed more money at a single time through Government loans than had any other U. S. official in history. As head of the War Risk Insurance Bureau he issued more life insurance than all other private companies put together. As Director General of Railroads he controlled more miles of track than any other man ever has. He married President Wilson's youngest daughter Eleanor and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.