Second to Hurley

In November, U. S. Secretary of War James William Good died. A month later, to take his place Patrick Jay Hurley, then Assistant Secretary of War, was selected by President Hoover (TIME, Dec. 16). A question immediately arose: who could fill the vacated Assistant Secretaryship? From that post Dwight Filley Davis had gone into the Cabinet succeeding the late Secretary of War John Wingate Weeks; Mr. Hurley's elevation seemed to establish the precedent that War Department assistant secretaries are full secretaries in embryo. So, for five months the President of the U. S. weighed carefully the qualifications of candidates. Last week he sent his choice to the Senate: Frederick Huff Payne, Lieut. Colonel in the Ordnance Reserve Corps, Board Chairman of Greenfield Tap & Die Corp., of Greenfield, Mass.

Colonel Payne was picked for business rather than military attributes. "As the Assistant Secretary of War he will have supervision over the procurement of all military supplies and all matters pertaining to industrial preparedness for war." Descended from a long line of successful New Englanders, he is harddriving, hardworking, speedy. When he wants to go somewhere, he flies there. He talks and lives business, has little time for golf or other diversions. Like his great & good friend Calvin Coolidge, he says little that is not practical and, if humorous, dry.

He began his career as a Massachusetts bank examiner, rose rapidly to be president of Boston Mechanics' Trust Co. At his appointment to the War Department, he was chairman of the Massachusetts division of the New England Council, chairman of the Massachusetts Industrial Commission, a member of the National Industrial Conference Board.

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