The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-18
SECRETARIES WORK HARD
MEMBERS OF THE CABINET SPEND
LONG HOURS AT THEIR DESKS.
Signing OF Documents No Small Part
of the LabOr-A Glimpse at the
Methods of These Busy Men.

considered. A brief survey Of matters
pending in each department showed that
mans work was cut out for every member
of the Cabinet. This was nothing new.
however, as every of the Presidents
official family learned long ago that his
position was no sinecure. The actual hard
mental and physical work performed by
Cabinet officer would be a revelation to
those who imagine that the position is
alone one of honor and that the labor is
performed by subordinates. There is not
head Of a department who does not work
longer hours than any of his employees.
do you work as hard as you did in the
practice of law in New York;" Representa-
tive Hepburn asked Secretary Root the
other day, when they were discussing the
burdens and labor of public official.
Eyes, f.alieve do" was the secretary's
reply. 81 put in about as many hours as
did in my law Office in New York. and,
while my professional labors were some
times harder, never had more trying work
to do" This is the statement of man
whose annual professional income was usu-
ally measured by six figures, and who is
now drawing $1,000 a year for as great ex
penditure of mental and physical effort
the highest administrative decision Cabinet
officers are compelled to perform a great
deal of clerical drudgery. This work is
heavier in some of the departments than in
others, as 1t consists In signing papers and
letters which the law demands shall bear
the bona fide signatures of the heads of the
departments. This is not the most wear
ing of Cabinet officers duties, however,
and the hours spent in scrawling his name a
rev thousand times in the course of a day
is often a relief from more annoying mat
tiers.
Each Cabinet officer is expected to receive
members OF Congress and other visitors on
public business and TO stand in the place
of the President in dealing with them.
Ihere Is not day, even in the dullest sea-
son in Washington, that hours of the sec
retar1eS time are not occupied in giving
audience to delegations and individuals de-
handing offices or favors. There is not
day that important and puzzling problems
do not come before the heads of depart
ments for their determination. In their at
tention to their exacting duties every men,
Der of the present Cabinet is a model of
industry and sets good example to all his
subordinates.
SECRETARY SHAW'S WAY.
The casual visitor to the Treasury De-
partment who is ushered into Secretary
Shaws office might conclude that the lat
ter has nothing to do but crack. a joke and
be pleasant to visitors. There ID nothing i'm
.
is hourly disposing of mass of business
and that his desk at no time is clear of for
midable looking official documents that sug-
gest transactions involving millions. The
secretary does not permit his visitors to
feel that they are trenching on his time, blu,
he cannot help an occasional glance at the
papers piled up on his desk. Even when the
hour comes for the real, physical drudgery
of the day. which is the signing of hun
dreds of letters and other papers. the Sec
rotary does not hesitate 10 admit visitors.
Go ahead and talk he says. II have
learned TO do two things at the same time.
1 can listen and write my name
He goes along attaching his name to pa
pers at the rate of fifty to sixty a minute,
but will occasionally pause and look at his
visitor over the top of his eyeglasses. If
what the man is saying particularly inter-
ests him he will pull off his glasses, tap
his lips with them and then make reply.
This reply is frequently the relation of
pertinent anecdote, whose point having been
perceived the secretary readjusts his glasses
and with chuckle again starts his pen
racing against time. Mr.. Shaw is in his
office punctually at o'clock in the morning
and If his cominss and goings were meas
ured by a time clock, as are those of the
clerks in the department. he would have
100 per cent at the end of the month for
punctuality.
Secretary Roots industry is proverbial. In
his administration of the War Department
he has simply startled some OF the OLD
barnacles in the service The speed with
which he disposes of intricate, troublesome
questions enables him to keep his desk
practically clear. These questions come to
him from a dozen sources in the great de-
partment which he directs. They relate 10
everything from a problem of administra-
ton in the Philippines to the purchase OF
army mules. Intimate and accurate knowl-
edge of law is required in his decisions. This
is where his long legal practice stands him
in good stead.
Mr. Roots applica ton to his duties and
his performance of a tremendous amount of
work In a day has compelled every sub
ordinate and clerk in that department TO
put in faithful days labor. The secretary
has probably as many callers as any other
head of department; but he has the facuI-
ty of disposing of them rapidly and salts
faotorily. He has no time for long-wnded
speeches, and when he sees a visitor pre-
pairing to advance a labored argument in
support of some request or proposition Mr..
Root by a few wAll-directed questions gets
the fun purport OF the mans errand and Is
prepared TO give him an answer before he
has his throat cleared to begin his speech.
This direct manner OF doing business has
made the secretary popular with army Off
been accustomed to command and secure
quick obedience. He Is terror, however, TO
some of the civilian employees and a few of
the army officers who have sat at desks in
the department longer than they ever sat
in the saddle in the field.
MOODY STIRS THEM UP.
Another Cabinet officer who, by example
and observation has worked a reform
among the clerks i'm his department is Sec
rotary Moody, of the Navy Department. Mr..
Moody gets to his desk promptly at o'clock
in the morning and does not leave until in
the afternoon, and he expects his subordi-
mates TO observe the same hours. The other
morning he happened to drop into the Blu
reau of Navigation, and although the hands
of the clock in that office pointed to 9
o'clock there was not clerk at work He
asked Admiral Taylor, chief of the bureau
why the desks were not occupied. The lat
ter made inquiry. and the chief clerk re-
ported that the clock was ten minutes fast.
"A clock that is good enough to quit work
by is good enough to go TO work by OBJ
served MIR. Moody in a significant way The
clock was at once regulated and the clerical
force OF that bureau is now time. Mr..
Moody has discovered that some of the OIL
GERS in charge of bureaus and divisions
were III the habit of absenting themselves
from their desks on the slightest pretext.
| When the chiefs were not there the clerks
were apt to be idle The secretary ordered
that hereafter Officers must have good rea-
son for not being at work, ana the result is
that six hours and a half labor Is now be-
! ing performed in the Navy Department
each day.
When it comes TO close application 10 the
| duties of his Office and long hours of hard
! labor all the members of the Cabinet Will
| ingly yield the palm 10 Postmaster General
Il n. III