PERSONNEL: New Men in Old Jobs

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Last week, to fill the gaps made by appointments to Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Defense Commission, the No. 1 motormaker, No. i steelmaker, both closed their ranks without fuss or confusion. From top-flight executives of General

Motors and U. S. Steel, directors had no trouble picking other men. Both choices were characteristic.

>G. M. is a production man's corporation. To fill the big shoes taken off by production wizard William Knudsen (who is on indefinite leave of absence), G. M.'s eye passed right over its host of lawyers, financial men, salesmen, engineers. The tap went to another production man: white-haired, taciturn Executive Vice President Charles Erwin Wilson, long Bill Knudsen's right-hand man, now acting president in his stead. > U. S. Steel is a financier's corporation. To the sedate job of board chairman vacated (by resignation) by youthful, snow-thatched Ed Stettinius, Big Steel named no production man, no salesman, no engineer. The directors' choice: Irving Sands Olds of Wall Street's top-notch law firm of White & Case. Like Ed Stettinius and his predecessor, Vatican-legate Myron Taylor, Lawyer Olds is a graduate of Steel's Finance Committee. Unlike either (but like New Dealer Tommy Corcoran), he was once secretary to the late, great Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

> Another big organization that closed ranks last week was the U. S. Government's SEC. Sworn in as new minority (Republican) member (replacing able George Mathews. resigned) was retired Businessman Sumner Pike, once vice president of one of the Street's toniest investment firms, Case, Pomeroy & Co., Inc.