The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1897-04-10
MR.. McKINLEY'S CABINET.
Notable Business Men..NOt a Cabi-
met of Scholars.

ter study of Mr.. McKinley's cabinet,
by Albert Shaw. After referring to
the ages of the several secretaries, and
the fact tina. the average age of the
whole group is more than siXty-twO
years, greater than any of it's thirty pre-
decessors, the writer goes on to say:
at is further to be noted that this
cabinet is pre-eminently composed of
business men as distinguished from
politicians. None of them have been
devoid of political experience, and
each has political weight in the party
councils of his own state. Mr.. Sherman,
of course, is veteran public servant,
whose life has been given to practical
participation in the official work of car
rying on the United States government.
Three others beside Mr.. Sherman
namely, Mr.. Wilson, Mr.. Long, and
Mr.. Mckenna have had Congressional
careers and have had large and promi-
nent experience in the legislatures of
their own states, Mr.. Long having been
one of the most brilliant governors in
the history of Massachusetts. General
Alger has served as governor of Michi-
gan, and Mr.. Bliss might have been
governor of New York more than once.
Mr.. Gary, also, would have been COVER
nor of Maryland if the state had not
been hopelessly Democratic. Thus, the
cabinet has had on the average a lair
share of experience in political work
and public life. But each member Of it
has large and responsible private inter-
ests, and possesses in that sense great
deal of weight in his own community.
1t is a cabinet of men accustomed to
large business affairs. 1t happens to be
true also that it is cabinet of men of
means, several of whom are reckoned
as millionaries. But these are to be
considered rather as representing the
best type of administrative ability,
rather than merely as the possessors OF
large wealth. They are typical men of
affairs rather than typical rich men.
Their business knowledge IS of a kind
that ought to be of inestimable value in
the conduct of the affairs of the United
States government. which in the course
of their four years term, must, in the
normal order of things, collect and ex-
pend more than two thousand millions
Of dollars.
1t is worth while to observe further
that this is ca binet distinc:ively of city
business men OF New York City in the
most authoritative sense, while Mr..
Gage, more completely than any other
man that could be named, is a repre-
Chicago. Mr.. Long, though a lawyer,
and therefore professional man rather
thae business man, is nevertheless III
his practice very closely identified with
the large business interests of Boston.
and stands for that city very admirably.
Mr.. Gary represents the manufacturing,
banking, and commercial interests of
Baltimore as typically as New York and
Chicago are represented by Messrs.
Bliss and Gage. However much or lit
tie Mr.. Mckenna may have been iden-
tilted with the commercial life of San
Francisco, it is certainly true that the
substantial business men of that city of
all shades Of political opinion, have APP
plauded his appointment as that Of
man Immediately representing the best
quality Of their San Francisco life and
ha do
titled with the development of the fine
city Of Detroit for thirty years or more,
and is in every sense an exponent Of
those particular manufacturing and bust
ness interests that have played the
leading part in the prosperity of the
city, Mr.. Sherman-although his legal
residence and summer home is at Mans
field, Ohio-belongs, in fact, to the
beautiful city Of Washington, where in
the pursuit Of his official duties he has
had his principal residence for the past
forty-two years. The only member of
the cabinet, therefore, who is not of the
city rather than Of tue country, is the
| Secretary of Agriculture, Mr.. Wilson,
who is at once farmer, student, scie mist,
administrator and teachar, and who, in
all around capacity, has no superior i'll
the cabinet, while in fitness for a specific
| portfolio he has probably no equal. This
| cabinet made up of city men is in rather
striking contrast on that score with Mr..
! Cleveland's of 1898, which had Mr..
| Olney of Boston as its only member
| who might be considered as identified
in any representative sense with the
! life of a great city. No other cabinet
in the history of our country has, to any
such extent as the one now at work,
| been drawn from the heart of the larger
! business life centerIeg in our great
| towns. The change in this respect sug-
gests certain radical changes that are
| coming about in our social and indus
| trial conditions.
If the new cabinet may be called a
group of men of city manners and ex-
| ceptional social qualifications, it is not a
body of university bred or strikingly
| learned men. Mr.. Long, with is Harv-
! !,
is the exception. Mr.. Gary, of Balti-
more. attended in his early youth, the
college at Meadowville, Pa, where Mr..
Mckinley also went for time; but the
other members OF the cabinet are not of
| college training. All of them, however,
have been studious men, and we may
| leave it for our educational friends to
! say whether or not they would have
been a wiser or better trained group if
they had graduated from the colleges OF
! their day. Mr.. Gage has been wide
reader, and is an economic student and
! thinker of high repute-as Mr.. Handy
made plain in the character sketch
published in this magazine last month.
/ Mr.. Sherman has always been a man OF
especially studious tastes, and the quail