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Show Telephone Traces White HouseJIistory President Hayes Had First Phone in Executive Mansion By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON Recently the President turned down a very flossy television set because he already had one. It was installed in the White House last January in time for Mr. Truman Tru-man to "see" the installation of the new Republican congress. However, I Imagine this innovation caused nowhere near the flurry among the White House staff that ensued on that day in 1878 when the first telephone instrument was put in. That was in the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, the 19th president and that was the year in which the Democrats, who already had control of the house, acquired control in the senate as well. However, the opposition, when it became the majority, made blunder after blunder. Mr. Hayes continued his administration with a quiet if perhaps somewhat monotonous dignity, dig-nity, until he was succeeded by another an-other Republican, President Gar-j Gar-j field. 1 doubt if the even tenor of Mr. 1 Hayes' existence was frequently said, "she doesn't need a number to get her man." Once she located Cornelius Van-derbilt Van-derbilt Jr. with no other clue than that he was motoring east from California. I don't know how many longdistance long-distance calls a day she put in at the peak of the war but I do know that the number of long-distance culls out of Washington jumped from approximately 11,000 a day in 1939 to well over 48,000 in 1945. Today To-day they have dropped back to a little over 44,000. It is fair to assume as-sume that the White House calls have followed the same curve under the nimble-fingered direction of "Hackie." Even by 1935 It took five operators in shifts to handle the White House calls. At that time Miss Hachmelster was the first and only woman to operate a White House switchboard. President Truman uses the telephone tele-phone a good deal he has so many friends on Capitol Hill that U131U1UCU ujr lm ringing of the telephone bell or much ot anything any-thing else for that matter. Very few residences resi-dences or places of business possessed pos-sessed phones then. Furthermore, Further-more, the telephone tele-phone was by no means accepted as a means of communication Baukhage 'r presidents or their entourages In those days. In any case, the White House managed to limp along on one phone until the end of President Presi-dent Cleveland's administration. By the time President McKinley entered the White House, all government gov-ernment offices had phones and they were accepted as every-day necessities, but they were not an important element in the handling of While House business. When Teddy Roosevelt came in, despite his strenuous activities and what was considered then a somewhat some-what revolutionary outlook, he made very little use of the telephone tele-phone himself. Then along came Franklin Roosevelt Roose-velt and the New Deal, a part of which was a five-position branch exchange with more than 200 official offi-cial extensions and 20 outside trunk connections to handle the calls. "White House calling" became a by-word. Then also came the first woman telephone operator and probably the most efficient of either sex that the White House ever had or will have in many a day. Louise Hach-meister Hach-meister "Hackie" is probably favorably fa-vorably known to more famous users of the telephone than any other operator in history. Her genius gen-ius in being able to locate people anywhere in the world has been the subject of many a story. Louis Howe, who introduced her to the President while she was working at Friends of Roosevelt headquarters, called her "the world's greatest telephone detective" because, he LOUISE HACHMEISTER ". . . doesn't need a number . . ." his voice is almost as familiar over those branch lines as it was when he was a senator himself. I don't know how much fun he gets out of the television set. His bowling alley is pretty dusty and the dirt doesn't often fly on his horseshoe pitching court or whatever what-ever the technical name of that arena is. As to the "video," it can't be half the novelty to him that the old-fashioned telephone instrument was to President Hayes. |