The Moneyman

I wish that my Room had a Floor; I don't so much care for a Door. But this walking around without touching the Ground, Is getting to be quite a bore.

--Gelett Burgess

In all Washington bureaucracy no man feels the need of touching the ground more than W. (for Warren) Randolph Burgess (no kin to the poet, whose limerick he likes to quote). As the Treasury's top money expert, Burgess dabbles in such weighty and occult fiscal matters as rediscount rates and refundings, deals in sums that would frighten a lesser man. As manager of the biggest peacetime financing in history, he must raise $65 billion this calendar year. Last week Congress promoted Moneyman Burgess from Deputy Secretary to the new post of Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs at a salary of $17,500.

Rangy (6 ft. 4 in.) "Randy" Burgess, a Brown University graduate, has dealt in fiscal matters all his business life. He spent 18 years with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, later was elected vice chairman of the National City Bank of N.Y. and president of the American Bankers Association. He has worked with every Treasury Secretary since Andrew Mellon, in 1933 declined an offer to become Under Secretary under William Woodin because the pay was too low ($10,000).

A year ago Banker Burgess, a fiscal conservative, was hotly criticized for quarterbacking a 30-year bond issue designed to curb inflation by soaking up long-term investment capital and stiffening interest rates. When it appeared that the medicine might be too stiff, he promptly eased up on his tight-money policies. Nevertheless, Burgess still favors debt-lengthening, has managed to boost average public bond maturities by six months and hopes to stretch them further.

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