| OCR Text |
Show ' jVU V-. J". -.hAi -v ; .-Tt I Washington, D. C. ! STIMSON GIVEN FULL I AUTHORITY ; Henry L. Stimson, Republican secretary of war, and the only man i in the United States who has served aln three cabinets (Taft's, Hoover's land Roosevelt's) is proceeding cau--itiously. But he has been given com--plete authority by Roosevelt to re- . . organize the entire war department, even including the ousting of Demo- ' 'cratic appointees. The inside story of Stimson's appointment ap-pointment can now be told, i It so happened that he had just delivered a strong pro-allied address 'at the Yale university uni-versity commencement com-mencement exer-.cises, exer-.cises, when he i got home and received re-ceived the long distance call from : Roosevelt inviting I him to become secretary of war. "Mr. President," Presi-dent," replied i Stimson, "I have IT v s La jjust delivered an nenry l. Stimson address which no man in high official position should imake." "I know all about your speech," Roosevelt replied in effect, "and I still want you to be secretary of war." Stimson then replied that the decision deci-sion was so momentous that he -wanted two or three hours to tolk it over with his wife and close friends. ! "Take all the time you want, Hen- ry," said the President. Note To get the full significance of this exchange, it is necessary to remember that Stimson and Roosevelt Roose-velt had fought each other in New lyorfc state l .i:ticr . ever .'ir.fc 1910, ' '-when Stimson ran for governor and iEoosevelt, just out of Harvard, ran for the state senate. After two or three hours Stimson Stim-son telephoned the President and a'ceepted the appointment. Howev-'er, Howev-'er, he added one condition. '. "I'm not as young as I used to be," he said, "and I can't work 18 and 20 hours a day any more. Therefore There-fore I've got to have men around me whom I know intimately and can absolutely trust. A tremendous responsibility re-sponsibility will be on my shoulders," shoul-ders," Stimson added, "and I can-:not can-:not afford to fail." To this Roosevelt replied in bantering ban-tering tone: "Appoint anyone you want, Henry. The only thing I ask is not to appoint too many Republicans Repub-licans at the very first." Stimson apparently did not catch the joking note in the President's voice, for he replied: "You can rest assured, Mr. President, that whether Democrats or Republicans, i-they will be good men." ' The first man Stimson asked to shelp him in Washington was a Dem-ocrst, Dem-ocrst, Benedict Crowell, now president presi-dent of the Central National bank of Cleveland and formerly assistant secretary of war under Woodrow Wilson. He is also a close friend of Roosevelt's, who was then assistant assis-tant secretary of the navy. Crowell got to know Stimson when the war department was under bitter Republican Repub-lican attack in 1920, and Stimson, a Republican and an ex-secretary of "war, defended him. So this time Stimson asked 'Crowell to help him, by going to Washington and making a quiet survey sur-vey of the situation inside the war 'department. Stimson had not yet ' been confirmed by the senate and could not make the survey himself. But he wanted to know all the facts in advance in order to waste no time once he took the oath of office. Crowell made the survey and reported re-ported that the production of new war weapons and material was progressing pro-gressing most satisfactorily. However, How-ever, he found the war department rent with feuds and the personnel situation badly in need of reorganisation. reorgani-sation. This is one of the first jobs Stimson Stim-son is tackling. There will be an important shakeup in high rank nny officers. . . . NEW NAVAL BOSS '. Col. Frank Knox, new Republican secretary of the navy, already has been sized up by the admirals. They describe their new boss this way: "Hard-boiled and seems to know his stuff." Naval officers frankly admit, however, how-ever, that they don't like Knox which is a good omen. For the admirals ad-mirals never like a secretary of the navy who really runs the show. And in the navy today they certainly need a two-fisted secretary. |
