Angel

With proper gratitude the French Government last week recognized the legal status of the Lafayette Escadrille Foundation. The most beautiful War memorial in France, a white marble temple in the Pare de Villeneuve-l'Etang where lie the bodies of 67 U. S. aviators who died for France before General John Joseph Pershing arrived with his A. E. F., will now be cared for in perpetuity.

The land on which the memorial stands was the gift of the French Government. Money for the building, its ten stained glass windows and the crypt, was given by the parents and friends of the dead men and the survivors of the Escadrille. The $40,000-endowment fund which assures its maintenance is the gift of a kindly old U. S. citizen who has already spent a fortune for France.

William Nelson Cromwell was born in New Jersey in 1854. Graduated by Columbia Law School, he became a clerk in the Manhattan law office of Algernon Sidney Sullivan. Ten years later he was a partner. Lawyer Cromwell's most spectacular case occurred in 1902, when, with the assistance of a French engineer named Phillippe Bunau-Varilla, he succeeded in selling to the U. S. for $40,000,000 the French franchise to the Panama Canal over the rival bid of a Nicaraguan route. The firm of Sullivan & Cromwell had its richest successes in the bold bad days of big trusts 20 and more years ago. William Nelson Cromwell is supposed to be the lawyer who first figured out how to turn an illegal trust into a legal corporation. His fee for this was often as much as $250,000.

In Paris where he now spends the greater part of every year, William Nelson Cromwell is known for his snowy chrysanthemum-like hair and the original manner of tying his neckties. He has also the distinction of being the financial angel of the Legion of Honor. Mr. Cromwell built the chevaliers a beautiful little pink marble museum near their palace on the Quai d'Orsay. Commander Cromwell be came a Grand Officer of the Order with a large plaque to pin on his dress coat. Among his other benefactions may be listed the American Braille Press for the blind of which he is founder-president. and the $630,000 which he recently gave to the New York County Lawyers Association. In May Mr. Cromwell donated $50,000 to further scientific research in France. The money was divided among ten scientists selected by the French Government.

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