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As soon as he put over "Southern Delivery," Will Clayton is supposed to have stopped running squeezes for good. But he collected a vast number of enemies in the process, most vociferous of whom were a few New York Cotton Exchange members, and they had the ear of Ellison D. ("Cotton Ed") Smith, senior Senator from South Carolina. Since 1928 there have been three Federal cotton investigations, all apparently for the prime purpose of pinning something on Will Clayton. It is probably the greatest regret of "Cotton Ed" Smith's life that he has never succeeded in catching Will Clayton out of bounds. Anyone with a grudge against the courteous Texan is given a chance to make headlines before the Smith Committee. In the current investigation the best that Senator Smith could do was to produce a Cotton Exchange member who promptly departed for Europe after having accused Will Clayton and little John H. McFadden, then president of the Exchange, of being a two-man cotton monopoly. Last week Jack McFadden went to Houston to give more time to the job of being Will Clayton's biggest competitor.
"I'm Mr. Clayton." Bitter though many a cotton man is on the subject of Will Clayton, Cotton Man, few have anything but respect for Will Clayton, No. i private citizen of the Nation's biggest State. He seldom fails to arouse in people he meets an admiration close to hero worship.
Will Clayton's natural charm has a good deal to do with the hero worship he inspires. Even in offices where instant dismissal would probably follow failure to recognize his humorous eye, his strong, handsome features, his iron-grey hair parted in the middle, he always introduces himself, hat in hand, to receptionist or secretary, "I'm Mr. Clayton."
In Houston he lives simply in a two-story brick house, walks the 48 blocks to his office, contributes to church and charity with the same generosity he shows his employes. On Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tenn., he has a modest summer home. Of close friends he has few and Houston's golf links and clubs see little of him. Politically he is a Democrat, but not, he says, "a New Deal Democrat." His wife, who was Susan Vaughan from Kentucky, is the New Dealer of the family. At the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Mrs. Clayton was asked about her contribution to the Party treasury, replied that she had been inspired by her husband's announcement that he had joined the Liberty League (from which he has since withdrawn). "Right then & there," said Mrs. Clayton, "I decided to match what he gave [to the Liberty League]. So when my check for a Telephone Company dividend came along, I just sent it to Mr. Farley with a personal check of my own to make up $7,000. I told Mr. Farley I wished I could give $10,000, but the family budget wouldn't stand it."