Harvard's Shattuck

When a university is endowed for $82,820,000, when a tycoon like Edward Stephen Harkness has given it $13,000,000 for an educational experiment, it is sure to be circumspect in its choice of treasurer. And Harvard University had to choose a new treasurer when Charles Francis ("Charlie Ad") Adams was appointed U. S. Secretary of the Navy.

The new treasurer, named last week, is Henry Lee Shattuck. Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Shattuck has no "who" in Who's Who. But not for some time has he needed such identification in Massachusetts. Since 1923 he has been Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He could have become Speaker this year had he chosen, and Governor Fuller once asked him to run for Attorney-General. He did not choose. Detached of mien, not outwardly the politician, he appeared to feel that his post was at the purse-strings of his commonwealth and there he stayed, vigorously, vigilantly economical. That was why Harvard was so eager to have him as treasurer. The answer to why he would leave the Legislature for the university is summed up more simply: he is a Harvard man.