Preacher Militiaman

Undismayed were National Guardsmen throughout the land last week when a six-foot Baptist clergyman eased his big frame down to the desk of Chief of the Militia Bureau in the War Department at Washington. Well did militiamen know that this new Federal director of their organizations in 48 states has long been leading a double life: that he is as much a soldier, seasoned in hard service, as he is a preacher potent in the pulpit.

William Graham Everson was Adjutant-General of the Indiana National Guard as well as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Muncie, Ind., when President Hoover appointed him to succeed Major-General Creed C. Hammond. In Washington Preacher Everson became a full-fledged Major-General of the Regular Army (pay and allowances: $9,700). His job: to administer the $27,000,000 per year the U. S. provides to help maintain guard units; to supply them with U. S. equipment, regular Army officers for training; to keep them up to Regular Army standards.

Conscious of an incongruity, Preacher-General Everson explained:

"I'll probably be called a hypocrite for leaving the pulpit to take this job. A fellow wrote me I'd go to hell for it. Maybe he's right. If he is, I won't be travelling a lonesome road. . . ."

Ohio-born 50 years ago, General Everson was ordained a Baptist minister in 1901 after service as a private in the Spanish-American War. He held pastor-ates in Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky. In the World War he was a colonel of infantry on the Italian front; in 1923-24 he was the American Legion's chaplain. In 1921 he went to the First Church of Muncie, raised $350,000 for a new building, highly organized his flock, even down to an emergency blood transfusion corps. When he left Muncie, his church refused his resignation, made him pastor emeritus. His last call there was upon an indicted bootlegger. He played with the 'legger's children on the floor, made another friend.

A sample Everson day: Flew from Indianapolis to Muncie (54 miles), performed a wedding and a funeral, visited five sick parishioners, gave a pint of blood to a dying boy, witnessed a major operation of a friend, edited the church's weekly bulletin, wrote a Sunday sermon, returned to Indianapolis before 8 a.m. next day.