B-Units & Windsors

International

To the land of the free and equal, where every mother's son had a chance to become a millionaire or President, sailed from France 29 years ago one Charles Eugene Bedaux. Although slight in stature and of no great muscle, this ambitious little Frenchman promptly took the highest paid job he could qualify for in Manhattan as an unskilled laborer, that of a "sand hog" digging skyscraper and subway foundations under heavy air pressure which gives a workman who emerges too quickly cramps and pains called "the bends." Using his brain as well as his shovel, Sand Hog Bedaux was able after a few years to begin living the American success story of which he had dreamed in France. The new trade of "efficiency expert" had fired his imagination and he invented the Bedaux System of "B (for Bedaux) Units" now defined by Webster's Dictionary as "A system of wage payment in which work is subdivided into units equivalent to the number of minutes that a task should take and the payment of the worker on the basis of the number of points of work accomplished in a given length of time."

It was Success when the onetime Sand Hog married as his second wife a pretty Daughter of the American Revolution, Middle-Western Miss Fern Lombard. It was Success when the small, swarthy little emigrant returned to his native France and bought for $750,000 a princely chateau in Touraine, ordering its ancient vineyard grubbed up to make a golf course which proved that Charles Eugene Bedaux had been thoroughly amalgamated in the American Melting Pot. It was Success for Mr. & Mrs. Bedaux to disport themselves on the Riviera with a wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Herman Rogers, one of whose dashing friends was a Mrs. Simpson. By this time Science was being served in columns of newsprint by the Bedaux Expedition of French Citroen caterpillar cars to the subarctic regions of Canada.

The American Federation of Labor's American Federationist said in its issue of September 1935 that the Bedaux system "stripped of its pseudo-technical verbiage, is nothing more nor less than a method of forcing the last ounce of effort out of workers at the smallest possible cost in wages." Next for Charles & Fern Bedaux a unique pleasure was in store--the abdicated King of England married Mrs. Simpson in their chateau in France (TIME, June 14). Later the honeymooning Duke and Duchess stayed at the Bedaux chateau in Hungary. And this week Mr. & Mrs. Bedaux landed in Manhattan charged to arrange and carry through a tour of the U. S. and possibly Canada by the present King of England's elder brother and His Majesty's eldest sister-in-law who are expected to arrive November 11 on the Bremen.

The Fifth Avenue apartment of the Bedaux is at present let to Actress Gertrude Lawrence. It still smells of lilac, a perfume so much liked by Mrs. Bedaux that she has quarts of it always handy, ready to be sprayed about the rooms. On the 53rd floor of the Chrysler Building, Mr. Bedaux's office is done in weathered oak with a medieval monastery effect. According to Manhattan's World-Telegram this week, Mrs. Bedaux has said, "If Charles had horns he would be the Devil," and she used to appear sometimes at parties he gave in Greenwich Village in an apartment he leased under an assumed name, transforming it now into a Japanese, now into an East Indian or other exotic setting.

In Washington last week officials testily told correspondents off the record that Mr. Bedaux's preliminary cablegrams from Europe have packed all the punch to be expected from a self-made man who has risen so far and so fast. The Efficiency Expert apparently got the impression over that something distinctly more official was expected than for the Duke of Windsor and President Roosevelt simply to eat a Gridiron Club Dinner and for the Duchess simply to dine at the Women's National Press Club. Out of the Melting Pot meanwhile poured thousands & thousands of letters about the Duke and Duchess from U. S. citizens to the White House, the State Department, the Interior and Labor Departments and the National Parks Service. About seven out of ten stressed "American democracy," recalled the democratic reputation of His Royal Highness when he was Prince of Wales and "Britain's Goodwill Ambassador" and criticized the Administration for "snubbing the Duke thus far." The remaining letters called Mr. Bedaux such things as a Fascist blood sucker, identified the Duke as his dupe and indicated that to the irate writers the Duchess will always be Mrs. Simpson.

The Bedaux arrived on the Europa same day that Captain Ernest Aldrich Simpson was discovered among the Queen Mary's, disembarking passengers (see p. 40) along with British Ambassador Sir Ronald Lindsay. Sir Ronald divulged that he had "dropped around" to see Mr. Bedaux in London about Windsor's plans, had himself "scratched down the names of a few cities" as possible suggestions. Mr. Bedaux, after going into a half hour huddle with his lawyer, denied that he was the Duke's "manager," said the Duke preferred to make his own announcements. Nobody knew whether or not, as reported, President Roosevelt had decided to ask the Duke & Duchess to lunch. It seemed certain that Mrs. Roosevelt would be away on a lecture tour. At latest reports the President seemed to be waiting for U. S. opinion to crystallize, the higher officials of the British Embassy in Washington were icicles of frigid reserve, and cables from the Duke and Duchess had declined with thanks the Gridiron dinner and Women's Press Club invitations.

In London the newsweekly Cavalcade, which has fattened its circulation by specializing in Windsor news ever since the early days of the abdication crisis (TIME, Dec. 14, 1936, et ante), announced results of a "nationwide" straw vote in which Cavalcade got subjects of King George VI to ballot on: 1) "Which foreign nation do you like best?" and 2) "Should the Duke and Duchess of Windsor be invited to return to England to live?" Result: 37% preferred the U. S., 28% France and 15% Germany; 61% were for inviting the Windsors back to England. This survey was made last July (Edward abdicated last December) by the British Institute of Public Opinion, the London branch of the serious, well-reputed American Institute of Public Opinion which makes personal interview surveys which it sells to the Press. Cavalcade has just signed up for its services, figures Britons must feel much the same about Edward today as they did in July.

In Paris last week the Duke lunched with U. S. and British correspondents, telling them he is "a very happily married man."

"Sportsmanship is absent from some newspaper comment on the activities of the Duchess and myself," added Windsor. "We are looking forward to our tour of the United States to study methods of housing and industrial conditions. . . ."

Commented Nobel Novelist Sinclair Lewis: "There is no longer any way for the Duke of Windsor to make himself useful to the world."

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