Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-03-29
THE NEW NAVY HEAD
Mr.. Moody's Notion Of His
Coming Work.
HIS HOME AND WAYS
DOES NOT PROPOSE TAKING
PART IN SOCIETY.
Resembles the President and Has Been
Intimate With Him Since Spanish
War Opened.

Written for The Evening Star
This is a government of Congress and
the civil departments are subordinate to it"
Thus William Henry Moody, who is to
become Secretary of the Navy on May l.
defines his new position and tacitly ex-
presses his policy. His experience as a
member of Congress has inspired this re-
spect for the legislative branch of the gov
eminent and his selection to be a member
of President Roosevelt's cabinet has not
turned his head or lowered his estimation
of the body from which he retires
Sitting in his modest parlor the other
morning, with his feet thrust into a pair
of very rusty house slippers. with a short
sack coat closely buttoned about him and
the appearance of one who had just left
his breakfast table and morning mail Mr.
Moody chatted most agreeaby and pleas
antly about his selection as the head of the
navy department and of the interesting
events that have studded an unusually &C.
tive life.
Almost his first observation touched on a
question that is always uppermost in the
Washington mind Il am not going to be
a social leader or attempt any eXtravagant
entertaining he said. This was in answer
to the usual inquiry as to what sort of
social swath the new Secretary of the Navy
proposed to cut in the capital city. Unless
you newspaper men loan me the money l
quiet and modest life to which L have been
accustomed since coming to Washington
There are people in Washington who
| think the President ought to be governed
| by social considerations in the selections
of his official family. There are officers
| and friends of the navy who believe that
| the Secretary should be a man of wealth
and make his department popular with So
| cially inclined statesmen at Washington.
| When this idea was suggested to President
! Roosevelt at the time he was Seeking a
| n Secretary Long he heca in
| dignant, and in as forceful language as he
| can command declared that he was not
| hunting society leader, but man who
| could conduct the Navy Department sue
| cessfuly, who could steer safe course
| through all the shoals and treacherous
channels of the chickering's and jealousies
selves to that service. and l think l
have found the man. he exclaimed, in
Congressman Moody of Massachusetts"
| When the office of Secretary of the Navy
was created in 179s President Adams turn
ed to Massachusetts for man to place at
it's head. He selected George Cabot,
statesman and a man of wide experience
| in naval affairs. George Cabot came from
| Salem, a town in the district which has
| been represented several years in Congress
| by Mr.. Moody, who now, 104 years later,
accepts the portfolio which was offered to
| the great grandfather of Senator Henry
| Cabot Lodge. 1t seems natural for PreSi-
| dents to turn to Massachusetts and espe-
| cially to this section of the bay state for
has furnished more cabinet ministers than
| almost any other state in the Union. The
old Essex district, as it is known has been
the home of many distinguished men, and
| Mr.. Moody, the latest cabinet officer to
| come from that section, is not overshadow
ed by any of his predecessors.
Who the New Secretary Is.
Born within sound of the surf on the
north coast of Massachusetts, Mr.. Moody
| has a natural love for the sea and matters
connected with it. In his native town of
| Newbury he was but few miles from the
Gloucester coast, and, as boy, spent many
happy hours fishing, bathing and boating
in the salt water. He comes Of a long line
of New England farmers and seafarng
men. According to the custom of New
England families the sons of the household
are put in various avocations and profess
sionS so that each generation furnishes
worthy members of the standard occupa-
lions of that region. One son might re-
main at home on the farm, another be sent
to sea, another enter business, and perhaps
the fourth take his heritage in the best
education afforded in New England col
leges and universities. The Moody family
was no exception to the rule, and from
the time the first of the name, William
Moody, came from Ipswich, England, to
Newbury, Mass, in 1884. members of the
family have cultivated the land and plow-
| ed the sea.
Mr.. Moody, the new Secretary of the
Navy is the ninth in descent from the
English Puritan who came to MaSsachu-
sets shores 26S years ago. His father,
Henry Moody, now long past the four-score
year mark and lovingly cared for by the
son in the latter's home in Have-hill in
herited a farm from his father, and amid
the ordinary surroundings of a New Eng
land farmstead the new head of the navy
began life. Following the New England
custom Mr.. Moody's parents decided to
give him his portion of the estate in a
liberal, sound education. II was not ex-
tremely fond of farm work, although out
door exercise has been to me always life's
eiiXer,' said Mr.. Moody. "and I willingly
accepted the parental distribution of "a
yors in the way of an education
Mr.. Moody came of the same class Of
people as President Mckinley, and of him
can be said, as Secretary Hay, the orator
of the Mckinley memorial exercises in
Congress, said of the dead President: HE
never looked down on any one, nor could
he imagine any one looking down On him. :"
| In the Moody establishment there was
| neither poverty nor richesp and the cduca-
| ton which young William received at the
Phillips Andover Academy and Harvard
| University was the fortune with which he
started to win success in the world.
Studied Law With Richard II. Dana.
Mr.. Moody always speaks with great az
| lection of his law tutor, the late Richard
II. Dana, whose 1.-TWO Years Before the
Mast may have had something to do with
the young lawyers interest In naval af-
fairs 1T always believed in coming In
contact with genius, says Mr.. Moody in
his "reminiscences of the effect his associa-
| lions with men like Mr.. Dana have had in
shaping his own course. 1t was with a
good deal of satisfaction that Mr.. Moody
passed an examination for admission to