1911*
Here is the latest member of the Grandfather's Club and he sure joins the group with a blitzkrieg, which he blamed on the stork. The man referred to is Slim Eaton, who had two granddaughters arriving within a period of four days. The first is daughter of son Fred, Class of '41, and the second is the daughter of Edward, Class of '37. Slim writes that at present he is well occupied with the business of providing colonies of small homes in defense areas. These have been described as "economic" homes, and his company expects to undertake government defense housing as well. Slim still remembers the class reunion, and he is more convinced than ever that the "eleveners" and their wives and kids are very nice folk.
Les Waldron is the latest member of the class to join the OPM forces in Washington. Resigning his position as Vice President and Sales Manager of the Pennsylvania Rubber Company, Les joined the staff of the Rubber Branch and has moved his family to Washington, 1111 Shepard Street, N. E., but still retains the farm at Jeanette, Pa., which he still considers home.
Another man indirectly engaged in National Defense is Cap Caproni, Architect and Engineer of New Haven, Connecticut, who has recently issued a flyer showing industrial buildings which he has built for National Defense purposes in various parts of Connecticut.
The class extends its sympathies to Sam Aronowitz, whose father died recently in Albany.
Miss Betty Butts, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chester Chamberlain Butts, of Newton Center and Fitzwillian, New Hampshire, was married December 20 to Mr. Hugh Harwood, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Leslie Harwood Jr., of Newton Center and Wayne, Maine. The marriage took place in Morganton, North Carolina, at the home of the bridegroom's brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Harwood. Betty attended the Brimmer School and was graduated from Ashley Hall at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1938. Mr. Harwood is a graduate of Phillips Academy and Harvard in the class of 1940. He is now a corporal at Camp Croft, Spartansburg, South Carolina, where he and his bride will live.
A quiet home wedding took place in Concord on December 19, when Prudence Ayers was married to Mr. Brewster Rundlett. Her dad, Ben, is still confined to his room, but keeps in touch with us by occasional letters and always asks to be remembered to the other members of his class.
John Coggins is always trying to start something he can't finish. His latest has to do with the fact that the Chicago and New York delegations are slowly disintegrating and that "it's time to organize Washington, Hollywood, Orlando, and Plainfield into 'Last Man' clubs. Hardening of the arteries is beginning to show in the big cities. How about Boston?"
All the class will recall John McDonald, originally and formerly of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Probably, however, not many of you are aware of the reputation which he has made for himself in his very modest way in Washington. In fact, you could not get the following information from him, but would have to pick it up second-hand, as the Secretary did in one of his snooping trips about Washington in an attempt to uncover some news of interest to nineteen-eleveners.
John did graduate work at Princeton for one year and worked as a reporter on the Manchester Union for two years after leaving Dartmouth, and then attended Yale Law School, where he was graduated as the second highest in his class. He started his law practice with Gaston, Snow, Saltonstall & Hunt, Boston, and in 1919 transferred to the Taggart, Tuttle, Wyman & Starr law firm in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1921 he became Assistant Solicitor of the Department of State, which job he held for one year, whereupon he was appointed Assistant Counsel for the United States on the American and British Claims Arbitration Board, which job he held for another year and was then made Associate Counsel of this Commission. During this time he was sent to Great Britain to settle certain claims arising out of the Boer War and other things. These were claims of American citizens which were handled as claims of the .United States on behalf of its citizens. He participated in the settlement of these claims for the British and American Commissions in London.
From 1926 to 1927, he was counsel for the United States with the Mixed Claims Commission of the United States and Mexico. This was a commission set up by the State Department for settling the Mexican claims. From 1927 to 1931 he was Assistant Agent in the Arbitration Board. In 1931 the treaty covering the Mexican claims expired. Meanwhile, John had become thoroughly familiar with the entire Mexican claims situation and wrote an article which reviewed the arbitration and its accomplishments, which was originally published in the American Bar Association Journal, and was later reprinted in the Congressional Record. These claims cover the wide variety of claims for damage, such as for contracts, loans, deaths, property losses, banking losses, illegal taxes, land claims, personal injuries, expropriation of lands, damages from the Revolution, etc. These claims ranged from that of a woman who lost three mules to the expropriation of the entire property of a large oil company. The revolution claims resulted from the revolutions of Villa and Carranza. These were special and were separated and settled later in the Treaty of 1934. The general claims earlier referred to are just now starting to be settled.
At present, John is extremely busy working with governmental authorities in Washington in preparation of new legislation to be passed by Congress which is of great current interest as a result of the two governments recently getting together and making certain agreements for oil settlements, agreements on stabilization of currency, the purchase of silver, and an agreement by this country to assist in the development of the international highway. In consequence of the financial arrangement entered into between the two governments, Mexico will turn back forty million dollars to the United States for the settlement of these general and agrarian claims. The agrarian claims are of interest since they resulted from the seizure of lands which had been purchased by citizens of the United States for agrarian purposes, principally ranches. The claim had earlier been made by the Mexican government that United States citizens could not obtain title to these lands since they rested not in any individuals, but in the tribal units. Therefore, they never could have been properly purchased. An instance of the size of these ranches is shown by the fact that one consists of 1,250,000 acres. Now, as a result of this recent agreement, which is about to be covered by the proposed legislation and treaty, these American claimants will be reimbursed.
Because of a rule of the State Department that no lawyer may engage in private practice for two years following service in the department, John clid not establish himself until 1933. Meanwhile, he had started making a study of the whole claim situation and for seven long years was preparing himself for handling these claims when the time came. Consequently, by the time these claims were started to be settled in 1938, John was recognized as the outstanding authority in the United States on Mexican claims. Although he represented only a small fraction of one per cent of the entire claims which were made available to all claimants, his claimants recovered ten per cent of the entire award, and he is now busily engaged in the pressing of claims which are about to be settled under the new proposed treaty.
John has been professor of international law and arbitral procedure at Georgetown University Law School and lecturer at George Washington University.
In 1925 he married Esther Barry, who, like John, is a Bachelor of Law, and who has been an able co-worker with John in this work. They have a son, John Jr. A few years ago they bought a small farm in Bethesda, Maryland, which is an immediate suburb of Washington. The farm now consists of a very attractive renovated house with a sufficiently large plot of ground so that he has the unusual advantage of having plenty of room, even though he is in the middle of a now thickly settled community. Apparently John runs to farms, because he has recently purchased a 150-acre farm in Barnsville, Maryland, about twenty-five miles distant, where he has twenty-nine Jersey cows, one bull, three sows, 6 shoats, one boar, 150 hens, three horses, a truck and tractor, a superintendent, and where he is putting in a new bathroom. In other words, John would appear to be getting ready to lose anything that he may possibly make out of the claims settlement. However, more power to you, John, and may you live to a ripe old age when all the claims may be settled.
Secretary, Hanover, N. H.
