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Show B'j'Men Who Run the Government in Vacation Time I I BY WILLIAM ATHERTQN DUPUY ' ' ' i H I There Is a new bunch on the job in Washington keeping Urn wheels or Government Gov-ernment on tho move- The bit; chiefs aie uway on their vacations and tho still young men behind the throne are performing- their tasks. Yet withal there scums no Interruption in the government of the ninety millions. Yet who knows who arc Ve. ranking officials In Washington today Who knows the names and faces of tho men on the lid? Who knows the men who would bo called to take the places of the cabinet officer or of tho president himself if emergency should arjsc calling for immediate im-mediate action? . Well, there are good men and true at the helm. There are cynical ones who will say that these lesser officials arc , . really the men who do the biislnesa " which reaches the light of day though , their chiefs, even when those gentlemen, nre not on their vacation. For the lesser men arc more likely to remain through tho evele of varying ..administrations and nre therefore more familiar with the tic-tall tic-tall of the work in hand than are their i biffs. Uut cabinet members nre men of large mind and experience and an Is-noranco Is-noranco of detail may not bo used against llTho president taken his capital with him when he leaves Washington. It may be at Beverly. It moy be on a launch off the coast of Maine. It was at Panama once during Roosevelt's adininlstratlon, and It was on an American bouom on all points between Panama and AVashlnB-ton. AVashlnB-ton. It Is always under the hat of the president. There is no assistant president presi-dent as long as tho president is alUe. But there are assistant secretaries ol t o departments, and these have all tho powers of their chiefs. Tho signature of one of these is Just as binding as that of one of tho head of tho deparlmonls. The president Is therefore holding the job and officially at the helm crecr bis vacation may bo taking him. But not so the cabinet men. Mno young mon are today transacting tho affairs or as many departments in Washington. Isot a cabinet officer is left on tho . lid. lho. serenity of a great quiet has settled down over lho nation's capital. But it is ' nevertheless the center from whjeh biggest business In the world is bcln conducted, and these nine young men arc running the business. 111 State Department. Thero is Huntington Wilson, for Instance, In-stance, at the department of state. TIis finger Is upon the pulse of the foretell relations and the myriad of Its details while Mr. Knox is away. Assistant Secretary Sec-retary Wilson is as imperlurablo and inapproachable in-approachable in hot weather as when It is cold He never thaws. No man can .reach him without first kicking his heels for throe hours in Ihe outer oftlcc. It would be undiplomatic to havo it otherwise, other-wise, and Mr. Wilson is nothing If not diplomatic. Ills demeanor Is carcnilly guarded. He speaks with much caution. When he does speak he carefully expunges ex-punges all meaning from anything he savs. It was for tills that he was promoted pro-moted some years ago from a secretaryship secretary-ship at Pckln to a third assistant see-relarvship see-relarvship at the slate department. It Mil was for tins tnai no u;, u.u " Mt:, from tho ministership to Argentina to ,i B?' which he had just been appointed to talce K Off thc lrst asslslantshlp undor tho prcs-i prcs-i Hv ent administration. my. Yet even Mr. Wilson Is known to haye , Weit ' relapsed for a moment this summer into A Ml l an almost plebcan appreciation of the op- " IK nrcsslveness of labor at a desk whllo all Up the world Is taking its vacation. Some It davs ago he rung petulantly for his mes-M'- sensor. When that attendant in ebony Mil appeared tho acting sccretai-y ordered W- him to go for a tub and intorcopt an Wf ice wagon on tho way. When both ar-K ar-K rived post haste this tub was ordered K Into the dummy fireplace of tho spacious Ml office and the loo man was commanded M to build high with liis ware. Then the MJ r-loctrlc fan was trained upon tho mlnla-m mlnla-m itiro ico pack and tho accustomed sell, se-ll, ronlly of tho oTfico was restored. Two R hours lalor a consul from an Asiatic post Wt: was admitted into tho sanctuary. m Holds Down Itid on Navy. ML Around tho corner from Mr. Wilson Is Beekman Wlnthrop, assistant secretary mf of the navy. Here a a young man of Br great wealth who might bo cruising as II free as the wind on his own yacht at tho H dictate of fancy and who Is by prefer-II prefer-II onco prcsplrintr over a departmental desk H in Washington. But Mr. Wlnthrop Is II accustomed to hard tasks. He has suc-I suc-I ceeded in making himself a UEcful "ci till ti-ll zen and a. man of great ability despite If lho absence of tho necessity of working. M He has labored unremittingly despite In- herited wealth. , , , Mr. Wlnthrop, who"sita on the lid for r Secretary Meyer, was graduated from Harvard in 1000 and admitted to practice B law In New York. Ho went to the Phil-j lpplncs instead and bocame secretary to Governor Taft, Later ho was judge of am the Court of First Instance In those Islands. Is-lands. Then ho became governor of Porto Itlco and assistant secretary at tho treas- iSi ury. then assistant to Mr. Meyer. In all m Ids past experience thero has boon much 7 work and not a little hot weather. IIo w has become Inured to both. He likes It t in Washington In tho summers and JJ wishes they were without end. Inclden- tally, ho wears a Vandyke beard, which is the onlv one of its kind In secretarial H circles outside the department of agrlcul-0t agrlcul-0t ture. Ho still woars It theso summer ft days. I ( In Treasury Department. -fZ . Mr. Hillis is over In tho treasury, :. Charles D. HIIIIs. It is his duty to rc-Z rc-Z main In charge of the purse-strings of PI; the nation and the multitudinous other WJi t duties, whllo Mr. MacVelgh takes his va--rl ! cation In New Hampshire. At tho treas-, treas-, . urv there Is little cessation of work Jjy I through tho summer. The acting sccro- i tary Is busy all the time, v !; Mr. Mills Is a personal appointee of J f Arv rrcsidenl Taft's. He is the kind of man fOt I r that Mr. Taft likes best. He Is tl$ col- H ft lege man. and may almost be termed a IPs liedagogue, for his chief duties before cn- terlrig government service wore admln- hC i. Jsleriiig the affulrs of a preparatory 7p ; school In Nov.' York stato. Before that fit. he had lived in Ohio, and It Is said that ijfft !: he had a way of his own of getting votes II for tho parly. One of his three children, some weeks r'Jff ago, tho son, threw the household into iff . confusion by asking at the supper tablo: f; "Are you rich, papa? -Teacher asked mo f L. If you wore rich." t'sL Bt To which tho man who is handling all -"off rfr 1,10 funds of tho nation was forced to iJ7 mf' respond In the negative m Youth Is Entliroiicd. Si At tho department of justice, again. tr you ih Is enthroned. The baby assistant SS t attorney general of them all Is In charge. im x This man is William R. Harr. a native of isSl F the District of Columbia and but thlrty- 3 fc eight years old. Mr. Harr is again a man of the ranks who has worked, his Iy '. way up and In whoso caree,! politics has k ' played no part. He has never cjist a V t vote In his life. He learned tho printer's :vM tr-ado early In life, then stenography. Ho y went to Georgetown university law school ' at night and graduated. He was for "j?8 years secretary to Mr. Justice Harlan of gO$J' & ,nc s,ln,l'nie court, and In that position sat at tho fount of knowledge, hi l0Q hu was appointed to U Jl0sUl0l .tJS Wet It in the departmunt of JUslkp: lie. "mastered "mas-tered Its ovory detail niul iiirv:inaed hit Idly. A year nno I'l'imldiUlL 'fait lliinultlt-ed lliinultlt-ed him an asM!ntant. utUjl'lltJV HelleWli .He has made good and IS jlnlldlllig ail lhl-portant lhl-portant sharo of tha bUHlllUsa Gi liid gov ernment'H groat luw Ouluej Mr. Harr would not h uitUhs attorney goneral were It not for tlld fftel Ullti Uverv one of tho four moil Willi milli Jllul away from Washington. Ml'. wlOKeTiJbanl has decided to accompany Boarclni'V Ktl-gel Ktl-gel to Alaoka. Mr. Bowcni, thn solicitor genei-al, is away on hla vocation, Mr. Kenyon, assistant to the attorney goneral, gon-eral, and care must bo taken to handle thlB title correctly. Is loitering with the this department, as Is tho bureau of fish- Mr." Cablo Is a busy young man. Yet It does not come hard for him. He has been busy all his life. Ho is from tho busy burg of Chicago, whoro he has bceu busily administering tho affairs under tho direction of his father, Ransom R. Cable, president of the Rock Island. Ho Is a Yale man, a. graudato of Columbia university univer-sity law school and a member of a score of fraternities and clubs. But above all ho Is acting secretary of commerce and labor and Is discharging all tho duties of that office right off tho reel without a by-your-leavo to anybody. Is on to tho Jot. Charles P. Granfleid, first assistant postmaster goneral. is another of the man-'on-the-job sort. Ho has been In tho postoffico department for twenty-five years, Ho bogan at $1,000 as a clerk, and says there is not a job In the wholo department ho has not hold. He knows postofficc details from top to bottom and upsldo down. Mr. Grandficld was chief cleric for Mr. Hitchcock when tho latter was assistant postmaster general. He was promoted when Mr. Hitchcock got the cabinet portfolio. port-folio. Six months ago ho was appointed postmaslor for tho city of Washington. But he has boon so busy upstairs that ho has had no opportunity to take charge of the new job, which is on the groun; floor of tho samo building. He is stllT assistant postmaster general, and tho postmastcrshlp Is waiting. The cause of this dotontion Is the strenuous effort that tho postmrustor goiw oral Is making to run the department without a deficit. Two years aso Undo Sam went in tho hole $17,000,000 in tho leisurely. Mr. Fowler, assistant attorney general, is doing likewise. The cub of the offico is sweltering on the lid. Cablo at Helm. Benjamin Stlckney Cablo, another youth of thirty-eight, is in charge of tho department of commerce and labor. He Is assistant secretary over thero, and the only assistant that the department boasts. It therefore devolves upon him to stick to the ship wkon Mr. Nagel is away, and this summer that official is making a long trip- to Alaska. Thero Is a multitude multi-tude of detail to bo handled by the department de-partment of commerce and labor. Every odd and end that can find no placo in the other departments Is cist Into its hopper. There is the monstrous task of taking a census that Is just now under way. There Is tho Immigration and naturalization business of Mie government to bo handled. han-dled. Such details as the lighthouses of the government aro "administered from i If I I I llll postal buuinoss. Tho figures for the year ending Juno 30 last are not yet available, but Mr. Grandfield states that thpy will bo around $5,000,000, a rodiltillon of ?lsj( 000,000 in a uinglo ecason. For tile Ooni-lng Ooni-lng year tho postraastor gonoral mid hla first assistant are roaolved Mint there Hlmll be no deficit. Thoy hold that at tho prosont rate tho department will pay Its way, Thoy claim that tliuro mm be no mlucarrlage of plans unlcati tho public simply gots Us back up and quits licking QtampH, Mr, arandfleld Is watching tho gamo In the abaunco of his superior with Just thlri purpoQo In mind. He is a native of Missouri Mis-souri and requires a demonstration whou-avwr whou-avwr it Is proposed to spend any of the postal fund. About once a month he trota ovor to tho treasury department and gives back a few millions of the mazuma that has boon set aside for his department. It Is not neadotl. Mr, Hitcli- pock Is running ovor to Europe and will later go to Arizona. In the meantime tho eaglo screams from boing- squeezed with tho MJssourJan on tho Ud. Our Own Frank Piorco. Prank Plerco is answering present at lho Interior department whllo Mr. Ballln-ger Ballln-ger Is donylng reports that ho is going to resign and traveling through tho public pub-lic domain out west. Mr. Piorco Is first assistant at tho Interior department, and has become so accustomed to tho heat of antagonisms that have run riot during recent controversies that 95 degrees, with plenty of humidity, has no effect whatever what-ever upon him. Long familiarity with vampire muckrakers has so steeled his nerves that he feels ablo to qualify as an immune to all the ills, physical and mental, to which flesh is heir. Mr. Pierce came out of Utah some four or five years ago, but insists, In making tho announcement, that ho Is a Presby terian. He was a Utahn by adoption rather than by birth, having first seen the llsht of day up Vermont way. Ho likes Utah bost, however, for it Is not so closo to the place where Glfford Pinchot lives. Likewise in Washington, :i much cooler placo than that to which the conservation crowd would like to consign con-sign tha assistant secretary of the interior. in-terior. But this leads to questions too heated for tho dog-days. Suffice it to say that Mr. Piorco will be in town all summer. sum-mer. In Agricultural Department. Mr. Wilson, tho soorotary of agriculture, agricul-ture, tho man who has held a cabinet position longer than anybody else, Is looking Into forest problems in the west, and Prof. Hays, his assistant. Is calling in measured numbers to tho farmers to look In the book and soo that It is right before they plant their crops in the old way. Proi. Hays is the big thinker of tne agrlculttiral world. Ho knows all about what and whoro and why things jrrow. He taught the farmers out in Mlnnosota how to double tho production of flax by using tho right sort of seed. Ho has, hammered good seed Into the farmers" of tho country to tho tuno of increased in-creased production amounting to ton and possibly hundreds of millions a year. The production of an average cornfield can be doubled by breeding the right sort of seed. Tho samo Is Iruo of wheat, cotton cot-ton or any of the other crops. Hays Is on tho Job insisting on this. Hays Is also the consolidated rural school man. Ho has the plan worked out for a new education for farmers' children chil-dren an education that will train them for life on tho farm. Ho came near getting his bill providing for this through tho last congress. He expects to get It through tho next. A man of big ideals that are close to tho mass of tho people. is this Prof. Hays of the departmont of ' 1 agriculture. 1 . Oliver at War Bureau. ( Tho secretary of war Is at the other i sldo of'tho world, traveling in tho Orient. MMM His riKHlstant, General R. S. Oliver, is or- ; dlnarlly in charne. General Oliver has i B never been In the rcirular army, as his name might Imply, and camo to his pros- B cnt post as a civilian. His great cnthusl- ' H asm is the militia. Ho holds down tho desk at tho department at Washington during the absence of his chief unless H there are calls to visit como of the militia 1 encampments In the meantime. It hap- IH pens that through August there arc many such calls. Genonil Oliver will consc- Bl ciuontly be much away from Washington. 1 In his abnoncc another of those detail ll ! men who have the intricacies of thn de- III partmcnts at their linger-tips will be in nMMl charge. This man Is John C. Scoflcld, flfl whose tlllo is assistant and chief picric HH of tho department. Mr. Scoflcld has been jLH 1 chief clerk for a long time, but the tltlo ILH of assistant has recently been given him JEH that he might be authorized to net as flHH secretary of war. Mr. Scoflcld began as (rtH a clerk twonty-two years ago. and has IH gradually advanced until ho is now sign- ing orders for his government in all fliH things military. Silence In White Houso. Wmm Over at tho "White houso thero Is an ( ffH ominous silence. Wendell W. MIschlor, 1)1 assistant secretary to tho president, is In 1 fH charge. MIschler Is the most negative tfH man In tho world. His specialty Is BH stenography. Tie can tako dictation at ftH the rate of a million miles a minute and iH reproduce his notes even to the Intona- RH tlon of the speaker's voice. He was tho i flH still and flitting shadow that was con- flH stantly at Mr. Taft's elbow during tho WMm campaign, and not one word that his itiH chief uttered In all thoso months missed 1 holng recorded In his notebooks. He is l',H the human graphophono cylinder. Hla LuH mission Is lo receive and reproduce die- Fl tatlon. To think or act othenviso would VMM be sacrilege. ) Much of tho president's mall still comes ( to the While house. There are hundreds of lottora that rcquiro certain stereotyped answers. Theso answers are numbered. All letters falling Into number ono basket aro answered in that personal and IntI- J i mate formula which states that tho presl- i j dent Is forced to decline tho Invitation . I so kindly forwarded, because of his other j engagements. There are a scoro of boxes I with those formal answers attached. Tho S summer White house is busied in neatly i K typewriting them and putting them In S the mail. Likewise tho mail from Bov- ) W crlv is returned to Washington to bo filed away. There is a trainload of presl- W dent's mall on file there. Tho perform- ancc of theso tasks aro tho activities j a which are housed in the little box wing l of tho Whllo houso which is the most 5 important business office In America. ' j |