The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-30
PEPPERMAN ROSE FROM RANKS
 TO POSITION OF INFLUENCE
Assistant Chief of Bureau of Insuiar Affairs Went up Purely Through
 Merit.

Washington Correspondent of St. Louis
 Globe-Democrat.
 W. Leon Pepperman is a striking illustration of the possibilities present. ed to young men of the right sort. un der our government. In his career he Illustrates. too, the beneficence of our system of civil service It proves be- yond cavil that If a young fellow has in him the right kind of material has been wise in the selection of his parents and in improving what they gave him as an inheritance of brain and character-there is nothing beyond his reach or that a government, now in a position to give gifts to the naturally gifted as 1t never was before, will not do for him. Every moralist, every teacher of the young and ever lecturer to men, can find and give inspiration in what Pepperman has done.
 It is true that he is not a man of national reputation, nor Is he now at the pinnacle of his ambition, nor has he secured for himself a position which is not duplicated in many other branches of the government. But Pepperman has climbed by his own en- deavor, and without political backing or teh personal friendship of men of in- fuence or affluence, to a place that many e man of twice his years might well envy. It is a position of such responsibility to the government and to the people of the country that he will be more in the public eye from now on than he has been in the past ten years, when he was doing his hardest climbing.
 Even at that his position is subordi- nate to that of Colonel Edwards, chief of the Insular Bureau of the War De- partment, whose place has often been described in the daily and illustrated press as that of the "colonial secretary of the administration" It is to his bureau that all of the vexing ques- tions of executive management and ad- ministrative handling of the insular possessions of the country now come. The story of Pepperman's rise is a story, too, of the development of the islands under our government. It Is q story of great responsibility and of expansion in duties, and story of how we found men and means to meet and handle new tasks so well that other and older nations, long schooled in the management of colonies and de- pendencies, can learn lessons from us.
 Pepperman is now Assistant Chief Of the Bureau of Insular Affairs in charge of the office of administration of isth- milan canal affairs This long title Is not half as comprehensive as are the duties he will have to discharge. He II offices in the annex to the Navy De partment fin the Mills building, suite of offices for which the Government has just agreed to pay $10,o00 per annum Every one knows by this time that the President has entirely reorganized the isthmian canal commission, appointed an entirely new set of officials and giv- en them a new plan of organization fol work. We'll. Pepperman is to hav' charge of the Washington offices O. that great $200,000,000 project. It l. the intention of the commissioners t( spend the greater part of their time or the isthmus, and this is in accord witt the wishes of the President, but 1t cal readily be imagined that there will b. a mass of work here which can not b. attended to anywhere else. Congres! will be asking about the details O every cent of expenditure. Informa tion must be secured as to shipment of machinery and supplies, and ther are a thousand and one other things O hardly less importance that will hav' to be disposed of in the office where MT Pepperman, a man just past his SOu birthday, will be in charge
 Pepperman was born and raised ant educated in the State of Alabama, { fact that has never weighed to his ad vantage when the political majority o the country and the control of the Gov ernment at Washington is considered He had just completed his education when a circular fell into his hands de scribing the civil service examination about to be held at Montgomery, Ala at which there would be keen compe tition for places under the Govern ment. Pepperman, fresh from his tex books and with a recently acquire' knowledge of shorthand and typewrit ing to give a practical turn to what h' had acquired in the Southern prepara tory schools, made up his mind that h' would enter the competition. At tha lime Theodore Roosevelt of New Yorl was at the head of the civil servic'