THE CABINET: Edison Up

Few businessmen gave their support to the New Deal earlier or moreenthusiastically than Charles Edison, head of Thomas A. Edison, Industries: the fair-sized electrical apparatus business that the Edisons salvaged from the late great Thomas Alva’s historic inventions. The Roosevelt Administration was not a month old when President Edison, whose politics were previously recorded as Republican, plastered the walls of the Edison plant in West Orange, N. J. with a message urging his 3,000 employes to “get going” behind President Roosevelt. “Buy something—buy anything—anywhere! Paint your kitchen. Send a telegram. Give a party. Get a car. Pay a bill. Rent a flat. Fix your roof. Get a haircut. See a show. Build a house. Take a trip. Sing a song. Get married,” cried the message. Edison employes were handed $5 each, told to ‘spur on Recovery by buying something they would not otherwise have bought.

It was not long before Son Charles became an important cog in New Jersey’s New Deal machine. Successively he was a member of the State Recovery Board, of the Regional Labor Board, NRA Compliance Director, State Director of the National Emergency Council and member of the National Industry Recovery Board. He was called in as consultant when the Federal Housing Act was being drafted, named FHA director for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Last week President Roosevelt found a higher post on which Charles Edison might expend his zeal, named him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a job vacant since the death of Henry Latrobe Roosevelt last February.*

The new Assistant Secretary of the Navy inherited none of the inventive genius of the Wizard of Menlo Park, but he did inherit his father’s prodigious capacity for work. Since he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1913, Son Charles has met the business problems of the numerous Edison enterprises as energetically as his famed father attacked technical problems in the laboratory. Frequently he could be found in his grey-walled office in West Orange for 17 hours at a stretch. He had his first opportunity to become acquainted with the U. S. Navy and his new chief during the War when his father served as President of the Naval Consulting Board underAssistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt. During those years Charles Edison supervised the manufacture of war materials at the Edison plant. He lives quietly with his wife (they are childless) in a large stone residence in Llewellyn Park, a private residential section in West Orange. Hard by is the home of his mother, Thomas Edison’s second wife, now Mrs. Edward Everett Hughes. Mrs. Hughes publicly supported Alf Landon while her son was supporting President Roosevelt. At 46, with his heavy black hair turning grey, Charles Edison bears a noticeable resemblance to his famed father.

*Another important subcabinet post yet to be filled: Under-Secretary of the Treasury, vacated last January by Thomas Jefferson Coolidge after he split with the Roosevelt Administration over U. S. financial policies. Last week Washington newshawks obligingly sent out the following, at the facetious suggestion of the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau: “Wanted: Outstanding financial and Government bond expert worth $25,000 to $100,000 annually, willing to work for $10,000 a year as Under-Secretary of the Treasury. Good opportunity for reliable man. Must be willing to work. References required. Apply H. Morgenthau Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D. C.”