Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-07-04

courage. He has been Duner Ior
president for nearly ten years, and has
learned to say no with remarkable ease
and to limit himself to dozen yesses
day-which is enough for a cabinet
officer.
Also-and this is important-Mr.
Cortelyou is not a practical politician.
A practical politician has no place In
a cabinet. Mckinley knew this better
than most presidents. He had been
down the line in politics, and he knew
that If he wished to keep incompetent
men and rascals out of Office he must
separate the promissory power Of the
campaign from the appointive power or
the administration. So he studiously
offended the political bosses In his
party by going into the bossed states
and picking out the bosses dearest en-
emies and elevating them to the cab
met. Thus he did with Root in New
York, and Smith Of Pennsylvania and
by choosing unknown men from va
rious states in which the senators were
powerful. President Roosevelt seemed
to recognize this axiom of administra-
ton in appointing Mr.. Cortelyou. TO
have chosen man even remotely con-
nected by political obligation with the
men who raise campaign funds or the
men who have friends to take care
or would have been suicidal to the
new department.
Mr.. Cortelyou's two chief assistants
are James r. Garfield, commissioner OF
corporations, and George F. Clark, as
sistant secretary Of the department.
Each Of these men has special fitness
for his work. Young Mr.. Garfield has
added to the training Of literally ed
ucated and successful lawyer the III
valuable experience of short excur-
sion into practical politics and more
than all has done good, though brief
service in the civil service commission,
a place that might well be called the
government rogues' gallery, for there,
sooner or later, all the crooks OF the
service come to be catalogued and
cleaned. Mr.. Clark is a sociologist of
another type; he has come down from
the firm ground Of practical life to
this field in the theoretical. He has
been a railroad conductor, which
means that he has poked around In the
switch shanty enough not to believe
all he hears, and later he managed a
labor union and was promoted from
that job to a place on the coal strike
commission, and from there called to
serve in the department Of Commerce
and Labor.
Thus the reader will see that the tri-
umvirate that will have most to do
with interpreting the law creating the
department Of Commerce and Labor,
and enforcing 1t, Is made up of good
average American citizens, from the
middle way and walk of life. Their
view Of the law Is likely to be the con-
servative view that the American al
ways takes of his duty, when it Is up
on his own shoulders, and one cannot
escape from the conclusion that the
enforcement Of the law Is sure to make
the most radical change In the attitude
of this American government to life.
It virtually makes a new criminal code
for new business conditions, making
the corporations amenable and subject
to punishment, as the individual has
been since the law was first written.
The fact that the lawyEas 80 quietly
established, not to satisfy an angry
people, but to satisfy the ends Of SIM
pie justice, will make 1t more thor
oughly respected than otherwise, and
hence easy to enforce. The earnest
ness Of the present administration to
enforce such law, and to correct
those social and economic abuses that
our civilization has fostered for a gen.
Grafton, may not be questioned.