New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-02-14
TIE EIGHTH CHAIR.

Norman 7 Colman as first Secretary OF Agn-
culture was confirmed by the Senate yesterday
II NAV safely be taken for granted that there
will never again be less than eight members
Of the Presidents Cabinet. The wisdom oil
having a Department of Agriculture mas Deen
questioned by many, but this is ROAD upon
which there seem to be no steps backward lho
Department has been created, and the future
tendency will undoubtedly be to enlarge ltS
snhere so as to render it more worthy OF the
name rather than to reduce it to It's former
position.
The addition of another to the Executive Dc
partments is in itself an incident OF CONSIDER
able Importance. 1t is interesting to trace inc
process of expansion that has gone on slowly
since President Washington began his nrsO
Administration one hundred years ago Wi1n d
Cabinet of only four members, or one-hslI tne
new number. The State Department., "hion
was originally known as that OF Foreign Al
fairs was the first to be established. Inc war
Department, at that time OF great Importance,
included the Navy also, which was not erecUeu
into a separate Department until l'Vo' Inc
Treasury which was then small bureau with
a few clerks. gave small promise of the great
development it has since undergone along WIN
the growth of the country, but WITHOUT IL
should be remembered, departing materially
from the system devised by the genius oil ham
ilton. The Attorney-General was a memoer Oh
the Presidents Cabinet from the beginning
Init the Department of Justice was not formally
created until 1870, when the necessity Oh
uniform construction and application OF inc
laws which had been impossible heretofore
with several law officers acting independently
of each other, could not be longer ignored. IL
is an interesting fact as illustrating the SLOW
ness with which the Government first organized
itself, that the delay Of the Presidents In
aupuration from March to Apnl 80, 1903,
owing to the hardness of members OF Congress
in reaching their posts was more than eAceeu-
ed by the delay in creating the Departments
and setting them in motion. The first nom
ination made to fill one of them was that OF
Hamilton as late as September IL, 1883. The
other places were filed during the same month
The office of ostmaster-General was eStao-
lished at the time the first Cabinet was formed,
but the Department was not constituted unul
FIVE years later. Even then the Postmaster
General was not considered Cabinet officer
and IL was not until 1929 that he was invited
by President Jackson to Cabinet meetings
which he has ever since attended. Up to that
time he had been considered a subordinate OF
the Treasury Department. In the tenth year
of the existence Of the Government the Navy
was erected into a separate Department.
Then for period Of half a century there was
no further expansion, but by that time various
a e rnlatpd
especially to domestic affairs, had grown to
such point as to suggest the formation OF a
new Department in imitation Of those OF In
ternal Affairs or Of the Interior under European
Governments In 1849, therefore, the Home
Department Y as created, for that is the title
given in The act which seems, however, never
to have been used. 1t took patents, the census
and public documents from the State Depart
ment; the public lands, mines and mining and
judicial accounts from the Treasury; Indian
affairs from the War Department, and pen
sions from the War and Navy. To these have
been since added the public surveys, the Terri
tories, the Bureau Of Education, the Pacific
railways, ETC., until the Interior has now be-
come one of the most important of the Depart
ments.
The effort to enlarge the Department Of
| Agriculture by adding several bureaus now
under other Departments was defeated in Con
gress The creation Of the Department, how
ever, increases by one the influential body
known in practice as the Presidents Cabinet
but not known under any name to the law
and it is likely that, in course Of time othel
bureaus, whose work is related to agriculture
will be merged in it, Now the public il
chiefly interested in the selection the incoming
President will make for the place. The Office
will have little patronage or power, but 1T il
obvious that the man holding it will stand OF
a level with the other advisers of the Presi
dent, and may WELD an equal political influence
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