The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-09
JUST LIKE OIAER FOLKS
PRESIDENT M.KTNLEY LIKES TO
KNOW WHAT NEWSPAPERS
SAY ABOUT HIM
PROFITS BY HIS READING
Always Takes Pains to Have His
Actions Correctly Under
stood and Re-
ported.

Three packing cases, such as originally
contained bargains in organizes and wash
fabrics, trunk as large as small house
and six bundles, each as large as one
man could carry, were piled just inside
the main door of the White house nearly
all day Thursday, says the Pittsburg Dis
patch. The bundles. trunk and boxes
must have weighed half q ton or more.
The statesmen who came to pay their
respects and even those who came for
more serious business had to make a
wide detour to get around them. The
sailors, Of course, did not make detours.
They merely luffed and weathered the
obstruction.
But no matter how they got around
it, each individual looked closely and
smiled knowingly. for nearly every one
OF them has similar bundles, though
smaller, when he returns from a trip.
They consisted of newspapers gathered
during the transcontinental trip. Every
place at which the president stopped had
special doings in honor Of the unusual
pleasure Of entertaining the president,
and naturally the newspapers mad very
complete reports Of the affair.
Although he was the center of attrac-
ton and heard all t4at was SAID and
saw all that was done, the president is
as curious about the matter as the man
who lad never before seen a president
And the only way to find out what real
ly happened is for nim to reau the local
papers. That is what he will do just as
soon as he has time.
Before this article is read that half a
ton of newspapers will be cut to pieces
by the clerks and messengers at the
White house. They will arrange the mat
ter in very comprehensive 4orm, in
chronological order. Everything the New
Orleans paper said about the New Or
leans entertainment will be arranged I'M
der the New Orleans caption First will
come the chronicles by the New Orleans
reporters. Following this will be the spe-
cial dispatches from New Orleans to
newspapers in the path of travel and
the newspapers wlicI. had correspond
ents on the train or sent men ahead
of the president to write about him
Third and last, the views Of the editorial
writers will be presented.
CLIPPINGS TO BE BOILED DOWN.
1t being impossible for the president
to read all this mass of stuff, it follows
that there must be some eXcision before
1t is presented to him. Secretary Cortel-
you and Assistant Secretary Barnes do
the cutting. The clippers indicate what
seem to them most likely the president
will want to know. When the secreta-
ries get hold Of that they still further
cut down the amount they think the
presidential eye ought to scan. By the
time the clippings reach the president
the reading matter worth considering is
enclosed in heavy blue lines. The part
not Enclosed in the frames of blue lines
is not considered worth reading, If the
president has anything else to- do. But
1t is all preserved in scrapbooks. Every
thing is included in these books of which
the president has several hundred. COW
ertng every year he has been in public
6O11rCn foe f11Tn
of these articles, since the party left
New Orleans, is Mrs. McKinley's illness.
The president gets more out of the
newspapers than they get from him. For
instance, two months ago the state de-
partment took steps to exact apologies
from Morocco and Venezuela. The pres
ident knew nothing about the matter
until he began reading the clippings
they showed him that many newspapers
did not think the game worth the candle
He reached the same conclusion, and
gan and La Guayra were sent about
their ordinary business. The president
put stop to the whole matter. For
Z three or four days there was nothing to
be had as to what had occurred Then
the newspaper men learned that the
ships had been sent back to the duty
they were performing before the state
department thought apologies were
needed. But the president didn't tell
his friends, the newspapers, what he had
done. His action did not become known
until the whole subject became stale and
Improbable.
There is no mortal who profits to a
greater extent from what he reads than
the president. He has always had the
greatest possible concern to have his
actions correctly understood and report
ed by the newspaper men. There has
never been a time in his public career
when he had not had the strong support
of the Republican newspapers and the
personal friendship of those who be-
rated him for his opinions. And he owes
nearly all his success in politics to the
fact that he selected men as secretaries