MICHIGAN: Prodigy's Progress

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Heavy Mortgage. Fred Alger's error is a common one in Michigan because Soapy is an uncommon politician. From his office on the second floor of the state capitol in Lansing, Governor Williams runs Michigan with a fine air of democracy and honest folksiness. His office door is never closed, and newsmen are privileged to wander in & out of his "goldfish bowl" (as he calls it); they listen in on state conferences. Soapy detests pomp and formality, sends his three youngsters to Lansing public schools. He lives well within his $22,500-a-year salary: there is only one maid to help Nancy run their rambling old house eight blocks from the capitol (Michigan does not provide an executive mansion). Frequently Soapy answers his own telephone.

In religion he is a devout Episcopalian. In political philosophy he is a New Dealer with a pressing desire for public service and a sense of noblesse oblige. From his days in short pants he has been outstanding for two clear qualities: natural leadership and dogged ambition. In proper balance these qualities should lead to greatness. Yet in practical politics Soapy Williams has somehow not been great There are, in his record, strong indications that he has pawned the quality of leadership to feed ambition.

Dutch Bobs. "He's just the kind of guy who has to lead." says Soapy's admiring younger brother Hank, now a Republican district committeeman and rancher in Glenwood Springs, Colo. "Soapy was president of the choir at St. Paul's in Detroit. He used to kick me out all the time. I made the kids laugh and Soapy would run me out. Luckily I had pull: father was a vestryman and he would get me back in." Father Henry P. Williams built up a comfortable income in the pickle business and in Detroit real estate. Mother Elma Williams is a Mennen, sharing with her brother control of the Mennen Co. (shaving cream and toiletries), worth an estimated $12 million. She had her own positive notions about bringing up her three sons, Mennen, Henry and Richard. "We used to wear our hair in those Dutch bobs." Hank recalls, "and we used to have to wear those Buster Brown collars. But the kids in school in the seats behind us would write all over them, and when Mother saw what they wrote we didn't wear them any more."

In summers the family traveled widely, both in the U.S. and abroad. One summer the three boys were packed off to a ranch in Wyoming. There the cowboys dubbed little Dick "Suds." called Hank "Lather," and Mennen "Soapy." Much to Mrs. Williams' distress. Mennen's nickname stuck with him from that date on.

Horrible Armlock. Hank was perhaps the first victim of Soapy's grim determination. "Soapy was a muscle man when we were kids," he says. "That was the time of Lionel Strongfort, and Charles Atlas was just starting to advertise in a big way. Soapy used to get all of those muscle books and send for all of Atlas' muscle courses and all the gadgets. He used to use me to practice his wrestling holds. I was sort of double-jointed and gave poor Soapy a bad time, I'm afraid. He would prop the book up in front of him and then get a horrible armlock on me. I would wiggle out of it, and Soapy would check the book again and mutter, 'I'm sure that is the right hold, Hank. Let's try it again.' "