Show own om aft am mom MA ARM AR 0 0 HIS is a sketch of T newton newbon D baker president adent hsong Hs ons new secrena secretary ry of ff ar fior Y Z 10 merly mayor of y A cleveland 4 A EWTON D BAKER I 1 had been told by a man well acquainted with him Is id the kind ot of thoroughly goods good citizen we all approve of highly and fall to Imi imitate t lie he has lofty lafty ideals he has haa high principles he Is utterly sincere he is simple and U unaffected both jn in thought and life he has a clear yvell well disciplined mind he has haa an extraordinary command of concise and effective speech without being bein 4 in the least effusive he is a good mixer you will find him full of of charm out in cleveland he lived in d a modest frame house with his wife and three children smoked flake tobacco in a 25 cent pipe drove his own ford and for amusement read greek and latin books on the street cars thus runs an article by rowland thomas in tho the new york world it is interesting to notice my informant added that he is the second of tom johnsons disciples to be lifted into prominence by president wilson brand whitlock is the other it is hardly ex exaggeration agge to say that brand whitlock in belgium has proved himself a great man will baker lie be as successful in the war department frankly much as I 1 like him personally I 1 am wondering whether ho he will measure up to tho the job what he has done he has done well but he be has never been tested out in really big affairs has he the capacity for them you know a 38 caliber r revolver may be a perfect weapon as a revolver but fall lamentably it pressed into service is aa a seacoast gunt gun I 1 Is newton D baker big enough to be secretary of war at a time like this what im asking myself what the country Is asking itself I 1 think naturally those remarks ran through my head ad as I 1 talked with tuo the new secretary of war last week I 1 saw him twice once in his modest bedroom at lie university club where he to is living for or the present as a bachelor because the children are in school in cleveland and we dont lantto want to break into their year the second time he was in his office in the war department tho the office to which ono one penetrates through that dread antechamber where hang the portraits of all the previous incumbents of the office on both occasions I 1 got the same impression odthe of the physical man nature in molding his body did a neat job he Is a markedly small man but in proportion all tho the way through his littleness carries no suggestion of tho the dwarfish his head is large but not enough so to make him look his hands and feet are of moderate size well formed and muscular he has a chest big enough to breathe in a waist which carries no adipose luggage his skin Is swarthy his hair black and straight A pair of hazel eyes full of life but comprehensive rather than kee keen n the wide mouth of an orator or actor mobile yet firm ot at up lip the brow of a scholar a face lit in general in which the perpendicular lines of strength streng thare are accentuated i a manner at ai once dignified dig d and friendly a bearing which I 1 should call attentive rather than alert those these are the characteristics of the outward man his mentality is not so easily characterized I 1 shall have cotry to try to bring it out tor for you in a series of rather detached glimpses as he himself revealed it to me in the course of our conversation our talk ranged over many topics wo we had tor for instance been ope speaking aking of the extraordinary amount of reading of standard english authors he had bad done before he was twenty years old and I 1 asked him whether the familiarity of his mother tongue thus acquired had not been an important element in his various successes lie he said 1 I think that is true ability to express myself effectively in speech has been of great value to me this led to a brief sketch of his personal history mr baker was born in 1871 in Mart martinsburg insburg W va a community of persons wherein his father was the leading physician ile he was the second of four sons at the age ot of twenty in 1891 lie he received his bis degree of bachelor of arts from johns hopkins university having completed tho the fourbears four years course in three years followed it a year of graduate work in roman law comparative compard tive jurisprudence and economics and then his law course which he took at washington and lee uni hersity ver elty sity completing the two years work in one year that compression lia he told me was done tor for family reasons money was not plentiful in a country doctors family and there were other son bons eons s to educate after his bli graduation in 1893 mr baker hung out his shingle in martinsburg Mart insburg to indicate that he was willing to practice tico law as he puts it and remained in that receptive c condi adl year when postmaster general wilson called him to washington to bo be his bis private secretary 1 I di divided aided vided my two c cases ases between the other members of the local barthe he told me and went in 1899 mr air baker was invited to come to cleveland lando 0 as a partner with reran one of at tho the cites leading firms of trial lawyers ila ho went there met tom johnson and was magnetized by that association was drawn into local politics and had fourteen years of active campaigning pai gning there serving four terms sa as pity city soli solicitor altor under mayor johnson and two terms as m mayor after his bis chief was depoi deposed ed he declined d to run for a third term and had just resumed his law practice at the beginning of this year when ho he was called to Wasfi washington ington returning io to our topic I 1 asked him to what other qualities besides his ability as a speaker he felt feli indebted for what he bid bad accomplished he pondered that and said raid i or N A ev v S ay V 6 b ar 1 looking at myself impersonally I 1 am inclined to think I 1 have a very patient mind I 1 mean by that a mind which moves slowly which plods forward instead of dashing or leaping there Is noth ing brilliant about it A brilliant mind it strikes me la Is like a thoroughbred horse good tor for a race but afterward needing to be stabled for a day or two my mind Is like a plow horse it cannot spurt but it can go on turning furrow after furrow that leta lefe mb me goi get through a lot of work by a patient mind he went on 1 I also mean a mind which does not leap to alludes and decisions but feels feela its way and a mind which does dead not get its back up easily opposition does not make my mind bristle A difference of opinion Is not a personal thing with me and I 1 think he said his dark eyes twinkling and his wide lips quirking with tun fun it has been a very decided id advantage vantage to me ma to be so little and to look so young I 1 really mean that he hastened to add and cited two instances in illustration one was his argument before the supreme court of the united states in the cleveland traction cases an argument which attracted the flattering favorable comment of the learned justices the other othe r was vas a speech which was one of the outstanding features of the baltimore convention which nominated president wilson neither of those he commented could by any stretching of 0 words be called a great speech the natural of men was what pulled me through in both cases I 1 looked so handicapped that my hearers said instinctively give the boy a chance I 1 such cool almost academic self analysis led i me to ask him how life struck khim him S so a to speak what ambitions it stirred in him id like to practice law he said that Is my one ambition there Is ia no office or position that I 1 care for but id like to practice and practice and practice elaw law further talk along that line cevelo developed ed the rather interesting fact that the new secretary of war Is one of those men who seem to have boen been moved forward by ilie the urgings and propulsion of their friends instead of at fighting forward of their own accord in response to an inner impulse postmaster general wilson all but dragged him from his bis neds in Mart martinsburg insburg to get gei his first taste of cabinet ways and duties and responsibilities martin foran dragged him to cleveland to become a trial layer lawyer tom johnson dragged him into politics and woodrow wilson has just dragged him to the war department the circumstances of the foran ease case are unusual enough io to partake of the romah romantic tle in 1897 when the young and still younger looking attorney was return returning hig from his first visit to europe europa he yaa was table mate of the latew late W T stead and a mild mannered retiring english barrister one day baker came on deck to find the barrister in a peck of trouble A stalwart six foot irishman bullof full of gaelic alre had waylaid dimand him and was charging him in his bis own own p person erson with all the wrongs england had ever perpetrated on the dis country 1 I happened to be rather familiar fajr with the irish land laws so mr jr baker tells it and contrived to substitute myself tor for i the barrister in the argument the upshot vf f I 1 it t was that my opponent and I 1 became good friends and spent the rest of the voyage playing chess together we parted in new york I 1 went back to Mart martinsburg insburg and no word passed between us tor for two iwo years then the man martin foran wrote me the firms business had so increased that another partner wasI was required and that he wanted me I 1 had bad long jelt felt I 1 should be in a larger community than martinsburg Mart insburg and I 1 liked cleveland but I 1 knew they wanted a trial lawyer which I 1 was not so I 1 went on full of excuses prepared to thank him and be dismissed in friendliness before I 1 could get my first excuse out mr foran had bad up bored me into an office and said heres yours and before I 1 caught my breath he had bad sent some clients anfor in for me to talk with 1 I stayed 1 in cleveland Clevelan dand and learned to be a trial lawyer his enlistment as aa an active fighter in the johnson camp was equally casuat casual tom was sick one and night and the young lawyer was pressed into to fill his bla place at a rally toms tome sick said the man who introduced him this is newton D baker chos going to speak in his bla place hes a lawyer all I 1 know about him go ahead boy and tell them what you know baker told them and so BO began the activities which led to tour four terms as solicitor and legal leader of the ibo anti traction combine forces and two terms as mayor I 1 asked mr baker how the mayor of Clev elands job compared with that thai of the secretary of war 1 I love personal relationships one of the plea pleasance sante st things about being mayor of a city the size of cleveland is the great number of people with whom it puts one into touch at the war department I 1 find a large part of my duties to Is taken up with seeing people I 1 am very glad that is so I 1 like to see people constantly of course he explained 1 I dont mean that flocks ot of casual visitors drop in to see me here but the business of the department brings many people to me daily I 1 had meant to ask him how the two positions compared in size and difficulty he was noncommittal on that point and I 1 suggested that at least he be did not seem appalled by the size of his bis new task even though the mexican situation had given him a baptism of fire tor for a greeting ho he said 1 I am not appalled no man can hope to escape mistakes alsta mistakes es are inevitable I 1 know I 1 shall ishall make some but the only things one need be really afraid of are insincerities and indirectness also it is well to remember that unfamiliar tasks have a way of looking mountainous familiarity reduces th their air proportions at present iam work ing here from halt half past eight in the morning till midnight to become familiar with mine that slow mind of mine he said smilingly compels me to put in those long hours what Is your idea of the functions of the secretary of war the duties he said are largely legal almost all the secretaries have been lawyers he cited the names of many from stanton down to his bis predecessor garrison strictly military affairs are not my province experts must care for those things legal questions touching the conflicting rights of state and federal gov governments ern ments the navigability of streams the proceedings of courts martial such things thing s comprise the problems I 1 have to settle I 1 am an executive congress Con gresa has made i laws governing g OT ernin g my department deparini ent it Is my duty to see that they are carried out conscientiously about preparedness he felt obliged to decline to say saya s word and fri rut him of an interview av in lir which he be livas was recently quoted as aei saying that he be was for peace at almost any price so I 1 am he answered stoutly because peace seems to me the reasonable thing bao I 1 do not say that war Is always avoidable it seems to come som sometimes eilmes as earthquakes come a natural cataclysm the french revolution I 1 think was such a war but wai war Is always regrettable peace Is what spells progress we have to advance step by step I 1 do not think we can hope to force advancement van cement coment by violence andi believe that sometimes we shall have a court of nations and no more wars was it lowell said the telegraph gave the nirid a nervous sy system stern abour As our world gets better coordinated co by intercommunication we shall havo have fewer of the misunderstandings which cause wars constantly as we talked alike ali kein in his domicile and in his office the new secre unpretentious pipe was in his bis I 1 mouth 4 constantly his bis knees crooked and lif his s feet curled ato up to comfort comfortable able bious aitra on radiator top and desk top though there was always dign dignity afy about him we might haye have been two undergraduates chatting together his attitude was not suggestive of lounging or of affected careless carelessness neis it was I 1 thought the bodily ease which is apito reflect outwardly the mental states of self unconsciousness and serene serene self confidence As AB city of cleveland inace traction matters Ts b be fought the mobilized flegm big guns guas of ohio to a standstill the peon pie to retain him until he be had done what be het bet out to do to be sec of war just jus pow now to be lifted at one step from local into national prominence enco at a critical moment like the present to ta a tar far more more searching test of hla his capacities than any behas bea has yet undergone |