Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1903-05-21
is A COSTLY HONOR
CABINET POSITIONS ARE NOT
FOR POOR MEN.
Ample P"ivate Funds, in Addition TO
Their Salaries, Necessary to Main
tain Their Proper Position in OFF,
cial Life-Why the Post Is Sought
For.

Inc position OF cabinet officer
must be snap in Washington. re-
marked visitor to resident official
friend in the Office of an uptown hotel
this morning. II would like to have
The office rendered to me- The alac-
rity with which I would accept the
portfolio would be astonishing"
But there might be reasons why
you would not accept" replied the
official. The position is very far
from snap, as you say, and !, be-
ing poor man, would, for one man
in the capital, decline the honor, no
matter how much l might secretly de-
sire the Office.
There is not member of cab
met, with possibly an exception here
and there, who gets out of the game
for less than $4,000 a year and no
one under $4,000 or $4,000. To prop
erly maintain the position of cabinet
officer, to live upon the salary paid
would entail the practice of economy
which would be quite unusual. A
member of the house can liye--and
many practically do--upon his mile
age, but not a member of the cabinet
upon his salary. / have known of
many members of different cabinets
who have spent from $4,000 to $780,.
600 year. In the senate and house
combined there are scores of men
who have practically no incomes
other than their salary of 5000 a
year. These men work for what may
be properly termed their wages.
Cabinet officers do not work for
their salaries; they merely accept
what the congress decided century
or two ago, in stage coach days, to- be
adequate compensation. The salary
of the Office did not enter into their
calculations in ninety-nine cases out
of 100 when their portfolio was ten
dered them.
when a cabinet officer Is a wealthy
man, as most Of them usually are,
they work for variety Of reasons.
Some have wives who have social am
billions and tastes which cannot be
gratified In their former environ
ments. Others work for the personal
pleasures, the privileges and the hon
ors the position bestows, the last be-
ing more or less passed down to their
posterity.
1.-THE pay is incommensurate with
the responsibilities and the work. A
cabinet officer once said to me: My
salary pays my house rent and gas
bills. My work is performed solely
for love: it is uncompensated and,
upon the theory that the laborer is
worthy of his hire, am going back
home and gather up the stray strings
to my scattered income" and home
he went shortly afterward.
"To the feminine members of a
cabinet officers family the rule is
reversed. They get about 100000 a
year each out of it in the gratifica-
ton of their personal ambitions and
desires and the fun they have.
"You often hear men say: I
would go into the cabinet for $4,000
a year. These men can't get in.
Ninety-five per cent OF the cabinet of
ficers of the United States, who are
not multimillionaires, serve their
country at sacrifice, and the latter
do, too, to a certain extent. Upon a
single meeting of the cabinet may
hang the fate of hundreds OF thou
sands of lives and the expenditure Of
billions OIL money, yet the men who
thus are to pass judgment are paid
salaries on par with the cashier in
a New York bank of small size"
'T should think that congress would
properly increase the pay Of cabinet
officers"
my friend, you do not understand
Washington life. For over a century
there has been a deadly social feud
between the members of the senate
and the members Of the cabinet. Up
to the time of the passage of the
presidential succession act, placing
the senate In line for succession to
the presidency in the event of death,
the senators had the best of it, but
to-day the wives of the cabinet mem
bers carry the trophy flag. There
is no immediate prospect of the pas
sage of the bin you suggest. - Wash
ington Star