Greeley Daily Tribune from Greeley, Colorado • Page 3

Millionaire H. L. Hunt Concentrates On Making And Saving Money, Not Showing It By SAUL PETT DALLAS, Tex. (AP)-On weck- 1 day mornings, lie drives himself downtown. He parks his car three blocks from the office to save 50 cents in parking fees.

He carries his lunch from home In a brown paper sack. He is dressed less impressively a i out of ten business men you meet. His suits usually are store-bought, not custom-tailored. On occasion, lie wears the rong Buii, jacket the right one is being repaired for battle fatigue. By the improbable standards usually attributed to Ills kind -in Texas, he lives a life of austerity, i no yachts or private planes, has no chauffeur for his four cars, and maintains only two homes--one at a profit.

He is something less than an ostentatious tipper. He has his own comb-trimmer but frequently allows his wispy white hair to grow long at the Icmples and back of the neck. With his hair long, with those blue-gray eyes antl a general look of gentle yearning; he suggests a struggling unknown author, vhich he is, in a manner of speak- spcculator. His education stopped at the fifth grade and he roamed the West as a farm hand, cowboy and lumberjack. In Arkansas, he began to taste real wealth, trading in cotton land, a a i his speculation into 20,000 acres.

But 1021, suddenly, in the panic of -his cotton land became When he travels, he flics com mercial. Away from home, he often is irritated by food prices. "I he says, "like a sucker pay- Ing $3 for a hotel breakfast." At home at personally goes around the house turning off lights. Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, at 71 one of -the richest men in the vorld, is thrifty 'and admits it. He sees, not a contradiction, but a connection between thrift and great wealth.

Estimates of his fortune range from 400 million to two billion dollars. Estimates of his weekly income range from one million before taxes to one million after taxes. How much is H. L. really worth? Hunt smiles at estimates, neither confirming nor denying.

Pinned down, he says he has no way of knowing what others arc worth, doesn't really care, and what's more, he says, has no accurate way of knowing his own worth. But durinR a rare series of Interviews at "Mount Vernon," Jlunt's outsize model of Washington's home, the country's biggest independent oil producer did drop some scattered clues. "We are proud of our production. During (he a we Hunts pnxluced more oil a a produced or had access to, including Romania." "Our net profit (shared by Hunt, four sons and two daughters) from oil leases at Cotton Valley, has been about 50 million dollars in the last 20 years and it will go on producing another 25 or 30 years." "Our net profit from oil leases at Duck Lake, will be around 100 million In the next 20, 25 years, we've had it about six years." "We have at least several other leases of this size." "My boys have 11 million acres in Libya and they're beginning to return a a a i production." The Hunts have business interests in 15 or 20 slates--he wasn't sure at the moment--as well as in a a a Africa the Middle East. They're in oil, cotton, i ber-growing, cattle, pecan groves, and real estate, and one son, Lamar, also owns the Dallas franchise of Ihe new pro football league.

Tall, Erect Man Hunt is a tall, erect a whose (ace resembles Herbert Hoover's and whose politics are to the right of the former President. With a reporter, he is polite, friendly, cautious. He reveals little of the inner man except a fear of what a be said of him in print. The personality a emerges is a bland one, as plain as the clothes he wears, as undefined as his soft, ringless fingers. But behind the hlandness, one suspects that H.

L. Hunt can be as positive as a pile-driver when he wants to be. He tolerates--almost seems to about his wealth up to a point and with polite firmness, changes the subject. He clearly gives the impression that making money is far more fun than possessing or spending it. What is Hunt's recipe for making money? "You have to be lucky.

You have to be of an acquisitive nature, aggressive and thrifty. You have to be honest and fair or at least have people think you arc. You can't do a great volume of business unless your word is accepted. "I've never tried to become the biggest oil man or a i else. I simply like to do things--oil, cattle, real estate, limber, whatever--on as big a scale as I a "For all practical purposes, I regard a man with $200,000 as well off as a man with 200 million.

A millionaire who 'throws his money around is stupid; he gives our Communist enemies lots of propaganda against the United States. "I don't spend much money. There's nothing I want but what I'd buy. Hut I have no inclination to throw money away." Born In Illinois Haroldson Lafayette Hunt was born in Vandalia, 111., the son of a large-scale farmer and grain worthless. He had nothing negotiable a for all practical purposes, was broke.

Borrowing for "walking around" money, he went to El Dorado, to investigate an oil boom there. "I began trading in oil land." "Yes, but how did you do that without money?" "Well, when you have no cash, you have to rely on other things, like conversalion. I'd drive out to see a farmer, offer him $25 an acre for an oil lease, drive back inlo'town and find somebody willing to pay $35 an acre." He got rolling that way. Four years later he had many wells of his own and sold a half interest in some properties Into East Ttxas In 1930, Hunl went to East Texas, bought 4,000 acres for $30,000 cash, $45,000 short-term notes and about $1,200,000 to be paid one-fourth of the pro duction, he says. This was to become the greatest oil field dis.

covered in the world, up to that time. He expanded into other oil fields, other stales, finally other countries. Now at 71, with one of the world's biggest fortunes piled up around him, why does he keep going--why not quit? "There is no stopping-place," he says. "I couldn't live in retirement. I don't want to hunt or play golf.

I just a to do what I'm doing. 1 have a good time doing it. "There are times when I've wished I'd wake up stone broke. It would be a great adventure- to see how good I was, to see if I could 1 create lots of. wealth again.

And as this is read across the land, millions of minds will begin to stir, wheels will turn within wheels, and people without num her will start gelling ideas for separating Haroldson Lafayette and his money. Don'l. Books In This attitude is strikingly re fleeted in Ihe waiting room out side the Hunt Oil Co. offices. The only reading a I noticed was two copies of a pocket-book titlei "Alpaca," written and publishei by H.

L. Hunt. A band across each book covei said, "For inspection only. Please do not remove." A poster on a table shrilled in large letters, "If yon have an open mind, like romance, love freedom, you'll be fascinated by Copies may be purchased from the re- for 50 cents." Although billed as a novel "Al- jaea" mostly concerns itself with a small mylhical country. With picturesque logic, he suggests a ad a ted system of suffrage whereby men in the highest income brackets get seven votes, not one; two votes go to each citizen who waives old age icnefils or government salary; no iteracy or lunacy test is required or any voter; and a citizen can delegate others better informed ban he to vote for him.

Hunt had 100,000 copies of the book printed by a Fprt Worth trinler noted chiefly for his production of books. He preferred, Hunt said, a cheap soft-cover book to keep the cost down and achieve greater distribution. Stands on 10 Acrei Hunt's home, "Mount Vcrnon," stands on 10 lovely acres ovcr- ooking a lake--a view which he considers better than George Washington's. While it has only 15 rooms, the house is three or 'our i larger than (he first president's home on the Potomac. There's a swimming pool off one wing, small by Hollywood standards, and servant's quarters in the rear.

The home, which is tastefully furnished in French provincial and early American, is big and comfortable. Here, Hunt lives with his second wife, a comely, youthful woman of unflagging Southern courtesy and a sweet smile, and her four smiling children, who call the master of the house "Popsy." The two youngest girls sometimes sing grace at dinner and Ihe family enjoys singing folk songs and hynms together. They, of -course, eat well but again, not lavishly. Wine is not served with dinner. Hunt is proud of some of the concoctions developed in his own kitchen, such as prune muffins and carrot cakes.

Being something of a health faddist, he insists on his bread being baked in his own kitchen of flour ground in his own kilchen from wheat grown in Deaf Smith County, Texas, because of its high fluoride conlenl. The first Mrs. died in 1055. Hunt's six children from that marriage are now grown and living in their own homes. 1 asked Hunt if "Mount Vernon" were his only home, He said yes, but then had an afterthought, "Oh, there's also the place in Wyoming." The place in Wyoming is a cattle ranch, where the younger Hunts enjoy fishing and hunting, but the elder Hunt has visited only twice.

He is not a man with hobbies. Outside of making money, Hunt's chief interest is public affairs, and his interest is intense. Several years ago, he spent 3V4 million dollars promoting "Facts Forum," a series of radio discussion programs which became holly controversial. Critics said it was ultra-conservative propaganda, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-Negro. Hunt the charges.

Hunt says he is not a heavy contributor to political a a i He did not, he says, support the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy financially although he admired much of his work. Bui if Douglas MacAiihur had been nominated for president, says, "I'd have gone all out for him financially." Polished Performance TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) Gelling a shocshinc turned info a big problem lor a Tucson business man. A 13-year-old shoeshinc boy kept missinu the man's shoe and applying polish to sock.

Finally, the customer offered the boy 10 cents to slop. The boy became belligerent, lore a sliding screen door from its hinges and Ihrcatcncd to throw rocks through the customer's window. Census Takers Try To Be Diplomatic WASHINGTON A Census Bureau officials said Sunday they arc trying to be diplomatic with people who arc touchy about answering the I960 census questions. The door-to-door canvass, which began Friday, already has put the agency's diplomacy to the lest. 1 Several women phoned census headquarters here to say- they didn't want their husbands to a their true age.

Each was several years older than her mate. The bureau arranged to have women counted separately. A similar solution worked with two elderly- divorcees living in a rooming house. Their landlady was mailed an advance census questionnaire and came to them to get the required personal data. However, the women didn't want to reveal their divorce status.

They'll he visited separately. Whether you like (he questions or hot, you have a legal obligation to answer them. Anyone who refuses can be prosecuted. The a i penalty is 60 days in jail or $100 fine. Giving false information is considered even more serious.

The a i penalty for this is a year in jail or a $500 fine. Mnnclny, A i I. I i Page I THE I I I ASSN. liclit its a a mccling J'riday night at the Jnrkson school. Members chose three new tlircclurs, Arnold Mekelburg, Bob Bales and Bud liesl.

and the board seleclcd its officers. Pictured above, left to righl, are J. Brown, vice president; Don Lindstrom, director; Bill Neal, first president of ttic association; Bill Spcelzcn, president; Besl; Hank Gosselin, director; Mrs. Roh Rates, representing her husband, Ihe secretary, and Mckcl- bnrg, the treasurer. Retiring board members were Bill Lanning, Bill Bohlendcr and Dick Marlink.

Two committee chairmen chosen were Roy I land, pools and grounds, and Ed Boos, program. Opening of the association's swimming pool, in Hillside, was tentatively set for June 5. This will be the third of operation for the pool. Sjicctzen opened the meeting with a welcome to the membership. The i a i a report was given by Tom accountant for the association.

Boos reported on the insurance program. Following the introduction of the pool personnel, meeting was opened to a question and answer period. Membership of the association consists of 32S families. Tribune photo by Hobcrt Widlund, Tra4enurk A I U. 3.

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