"Most of them have never before participated actively in politics. . . . Realizing that the American system is threatened and that the future of the country is menaced, they have agreed to put their shoulders to the wheel."
Thus last week did Republican National Chairman Henry P. Fletcher describe the 16 archfoes of the New Deal whom he had picked as National Finance Committeemen to fill the GOPot for 1936. Great indeed was their stake in what Chairman Fletcher called "the American system." Among the 16 were:
Charles Francis Adams, Hoover Secretary of the Navy.
Wallace McKinney Alexander, San Francisco sugar and shipping man, board chairman of Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd.
Sewell Lee Avery, president & board chairman of Chicago's Montgomery Ward & Co.
Charles B. Goodspeed, director of Chicago's Buckeye Steel Casting Co.
Joseph Newton Pew Jr., vice president of Sun Oil Co.
Herbert Lee Pratt, onetime board chairman of Standard Oil Co. of New York.
Andrew Wells Robertson, board chairman of Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
Edward Lamed Ryerson Jr., president of Chicago's Joseph T. Ryerson & Son (steel & iron).
Alfred Lee Shapleigh, board chairman of St. Louis' Shapleigh Hardware Co., president of Shapleigh Investment Co.
Ernest Tener Weir, board chairman of National Steel Corp.
Named committee chairman was William Brown Bell, president of American Cyanamid Co. (chemicals), hitherto famed chiefly for the bitterness of his attacks on the New Deal and for his attempt to secure Muscle Shoals for his company. "I'm a rank amateur in politics." bonged Mr. Bell last week, "but I'm pretty much disturbed by the condition of the country."