Business & Finance: Partners & Personnel

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The exterior of the solid grey institution at No. 23 Wall St. bears no name, but every visitor to Wall Street recognizes it as J. P. Morgan & Co. And all Wall Street if not all the world recognizes election to partnership in that institution as the highest honor in U. S. private finance. Last week the rare honor was again bestowed. The recipient, known long in advance, was Seymour Parker Gilbert, 38, onetime (1924-30) Agent General for German Reparations payments, a lawyer by profession. Ever since he worked with Banker Morgan and Morgan-Partner Thomas William Lament at the Paris Conference of 1929 which drew up the (Owen D.) Young Plan, a Morgan-partnership for Lawyer Gilbert has been rumored. It comes as capstone to an already brilliant career.

In 1918, at the age of 27, Seymour Parker Gilbert was made Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under William Gibbs McAdoo. Later he served under Carter Glass, then under David Franklin Houston. When Secretary Mellon was appointed he promoted Mr. Gilbert, for skill and industry, from a $5,000-a-year Assistant Secretaryship to the $10,000-a-year Under Secretaryship. In 1923 Mr. Gilbert resigned to re-enter law, but a few months later was called upon to succeed Owen D. Young as Reparations Agent General. He is shy, no socialite. In 1924 he was married. He likes to say he has as yet not had time for a honeymoon. Last week he announced he will "attend to the honeymoon presently."

When the son of an alumnus-member enters college, fraternitymen call him a ''legacy," watch him well, knowing that he will expect election. A triple "legacy" election of last week took place in Kuhn, Loeb & Co. where three sons of partners became partners. Eldest of the three is Frederick M. Warburg, 33, son of large-mustachioed Felix Moritz Warburg. He was graduated from Harvard in 1919, worked for American International Corp., Kuhn, Loeb, M. M. Warburg & Co. of Hamburg, and Lehman Brothers. At the time of his election, he was again working for Lehman Brothers. He likes riding, snow-sports.

Next in age is Gilbert Wolff Kahn, 27, son of Otto Herman Kahn. A quiet, unobtrusive, solid young man, he exhibits none of the grand manner of his father, has no publicized talents like his young brother, Roger Wolff Kahn, who leads orchestras, composes songs, flies airplanes, writes a newspaper colyum. At Princeton, Gilbert was business editor of the Daily Princetonian. He has worked for Equitable Trust Co. and in various foreign banks.

Youngest of the three is John M. Schiff, 26, tall grandson of Jacob Henry Schiff, who is credited with much of Kuhn, Loeb's rise to its present high position in international banking. Son Schiff received a diploma at Yale in 1925, went to Oxford. Later he worked for Bankers Trust Co., then for Missouri Pacific Railroad. He likes horses, entertains quietly on the big Schiff estate at Oyster Bay.

Important changes in brokerage firms:

¶ New partners in Jackson Brothers, Boesel & Co. include William Fletcher Farrell, husky son of John Fletcher Farrell, vice president and treasurer of Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corp., and William H. Fleischmann, son of Vice President Paul W. Fleischmann of Standard Brands, Inc.