Growing Rich - Arabictrader.com

GROWING RICH WITH GROWTH STOCKS
ite reaction. Then, once Farnham got his point across, the stock was
out.”
PAPP’S POLITICAL MACHINE
Papp and Stein were often at odds with each other away from the
office as well, particularly on the political front. The trouble began
in 1962, when a young stockbroker friend of Papp’s called and said
he was going to run for Congress. “He wanted my wife and me to run
his campaign in Evanston, which was 25 percent of the district,” Papp
shares. “He was a stockbroker named Don Rumsfeld. I said, ‘Don we’ll
help you, but I don’t know anything about politics.’ He told me, ‘That’s
all right. I’ll teach you.’ He was only 28 years old, but he won.” Two
years later, Rumsfeld asked Papp to help out fellow Republican Chuck
Percy, who was running for governor. He agreed and did so on
weekends and evenings, as he had done for Rumsfeld in his bid for
Congress before.
A few years later, he served as Richard Nixon’s local presidential
campaign chairman in Cook County. At the same time, Stein and his
wife were staunch supporters and close friends of the opposing liberal
candidates in almost every campaign Papp was involved in. The Steins
were friends of Hubert Humphrey and were financial contributors to
the Kennedys. Fortunately for Papp, Roe and Farnham were Republicans
and supported his political endeavors. Papp kept a very low profile
in the campaign, yet enjoyed enormous success. “I guess I was lucky,”
he surmises. “For one thing, the timing was right and the candidates
I helped were going to do well regardless of whether I got involved
or not. The reason I did well personally is because I tried to hide and
stay out of the public eye. Hardly anybody knew I was even involved.
The more people knew, the madder Stein got.”
The tension between these two came to a head in 1969, when Papp
was tapped to serve on a board charged with transforming Fannie
Mae into a private company. There were nine slots available. Among
those also being considered was Ferd Kramer, Stein’s brother-in-law,
who was already on the board. When Papp was chosen to replace
Kramer, he claims Stein went ballistic. “For one thing, Stein thought
he would get to go to Washington with Kennedy, and that never
happened,” Papp says. “Then I was chosen for Fannie Mae over his
relative. By then, he had pretty much retired from the firm, but he
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