Show arta telephone elep hone T traces races wn white n ite orm hoase bouse n astory I 1 president r hayes had first phone filEx in executive mansion by B BAUKHAGE G E news A analyst naly if and d 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 to see the installation of the new R republican congress however irmagine I 1 imagine this innovation caused nowhere near thel the flurry lurry among the white house staff that en ensued suedon on that day to in 1878 when the tha first brat telephone instrument was put iri in that was in the administration ol 01 rutherford B hayes of ohio the president and that was the year in which the democrats who already had control odthe ho house us e acquired control in the senate as well however the opposition when lt it became the majority made blunder a after blunder mr Hayes continued u ed his a administration with a quiet quie t if perhaps somewhat monotonous dignity until he was succeeded by anther another 0 republican president garfield i I 1 doubt it if the even tenor ol of mr hayes hayese existence was frequently disturbed by the ringing of the telephone bell or much ot of anything else for that matter very few residences or places of business possessed phones then Fur further therA more the telephone was was by n ea no means accepted accept as a means of cc communication mm uni cation for presidents or Bauh brokhage hage th their air entourages in those days in any case the white house managed to limp along on one phone until the end of president Clev elands administration by the time president mckinley entered the white house all government offices had phones and they the were accepted as everyday every day necessities but they were not an important element in the handling of white house business when teddy roosevelt came in despite his strenuous activities and what was considered then a somewhat w hat revolutionary outlook he ma made de very little use of the telephone himself then along came franklin roosevelt and the new deal a part of which was a five position branch exchange with more than official extensions and 20 outside trunk connections to handle the calls white house calling became a byword by word then also came the firs farst t 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 hachmeister hackle hackie is probably favorably known to more famous users of the telephone than any other operator in history her genius 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 worlds greatest telephone detective because he said she need a number to get her man once she located cornell cornelius us vanderbilt jr with no other clue than that he wils was motoring east cast from california I 1 dont know how many long distance calls a day she put in at the peak of the war but I 1 do know that the number of long distance calls out of washington jumped from approximately a day in 1939 to well over in 1945 today they have dropped back to a little over it Is fair to assume that the white house houe calls call have followed the same curve under the nimble fingered direction of hackle even cven by 1935 it took five div a operators in shifts to handle the white house calls call sAt at that time miss was the first and only woman to oper operate itei a white house switchboard 4 president truman uses toe the t telephone a good deal he has so many friends on capitol hill that LOUISE I 1 hachmeister UCH ft need a number his voice is almost as fa familiar millar over those branch lines as it was when he was a senator himself I 1 dont know how much tun fun he gets out of the television set ills bowling alley is pretty dusty and the dirt often fly on his horseshoe pitching court or cr whatever e er the technical name of that avena arena is As to the video it cant be half the novelty to him that the old fashioned telephone instrument was to president hayes |