The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-20
HAY MAY QUIT.
Secretary Taft Is Mentioned as His
Successor.

Washington, March 20.-Walter
Wellman, correspondent of the Chi
cago Record-Herald, send the follow
ing to his paper.
Is the great public career of John
Hay drawing toward its end2 This is
the question which was most anxious
~ discussed at the capitol today on
receipt of the news that Mr. Hay had
embarked for Europe in condition
verg1ng upon physical collapse For
some time there had been whisperings
In the cabinet and diplomatic circles
that Mr. Hay might not remain long
The talk of his retirement was due in
part to the secretary's i'll health, in
part to his attitude of mind concern
ing himself and in some small part at
least to the unsa tisfactory relations
existing between the administration
and the senate as to foreign affairs.
But no one had till just now regarded
the state of Mr.. Hays health as seri-
Gus enough to warrant more than
passing speculation upon his future,
and the other conditions have been of
such long standing as to deprive them
of any special or critical significance
Members of the cabinet said today
they would not be surprised II Mr..
Hay resigns his post as secretary of
state on concluding his present voy-
age in search of rest and health Nor
would they be surprised If he returns
fresh ened and reinVigOrated and dis |
posed to yield to the earnest request
of the president that he stay at his
post The opinion of MI Hays asso- |
ciates is that everything depends upon
the success the secretary may meet
with in his search of health 1t is |
we'll known that President Roosevelt
views with anything but composure |
the danger that he may lose the serv-
ices of the man who has won his
place, in the estimation of all the
world outside the United States and in |
the opinion of q vast majority of
thinking Americans. as the foremost
diplomatist or international statesman |
of his time.
For the present Secretary of War
Taft will look after the important |
phases of Mr.. Hays work in the state
department in addition to his own |
duties in the war department. The
understanding is that if Mr. Hay re-
tires from office Mr.. Taft is to be his
successor.
Much surprise was expressed here
at the news from New York that Mr..
Hay was so weak as to be unable to |
walk up the gangplank to the steam
er's deck without showing an alarm
ing physical weakness. During much |
of the last winter Mr.. Hay has not |
been well, and for days at a time he
remained at home instead of going to I
his desk at the department But even
at such times he continued to attend |
to his work and managed the state |
department from his library. His fire.
quently recurring indisposftion has not
been regarded as serious-only the /
colds to which he is peculiarly SuS-
ceptibIe, occasionally a touch of grip /
or rising temperature, and during the
last week or two a recurrence of the |
bronchial trouble which formerly an
noyed him.
Mr. Hay is a man who often takes
a gloomy view as to his health and is
inclined to magnify the importance of
as much as any other. President
Roosevelt and the members of the
cabinet have not been alarmed by the
recent illness of the secretary; hence
the genuine surprise at the news from
New York that he is a really sick man
and that he has Before him a battle
for health and strength
Though only 66 years old. Mr.. Hay
has a half serious way of Joking about
his advancing years that often i'm
presses his friends with the idea that
he is a man inclined to pessimisn over
the fight of time and the accumula-
ton of rnflestones- along his path.
Yet when DR.. Osler came out with his
dictum as to the use
lessness of men past so, Mr. Hay met
it with such whitening sarcasm and so
many apt and pungent quotations
from his favorite poets and authors
at which Mr.. Hay is peculiarly apt
that his friends concluded the cruel
shaft launched by the Baltimore ply
old enough to know
better-had not pierced Mr.. Hays
armor. At other times and with
more intimate friends, Mr.. Hay dis
closed pessimism as to this age and
Dr. Osler's judgment. In all this the
friends of the secretary have seen him
as he is-a brilliant man of many
moods, one day erect with hope and
confidence and the next in the depth
of gloom about his health and age;
but so witty even in his sadder mo-
ments that even those closest to him
found it difficult to discern whether
his pessimism was a mere cloak for
mis- cleverness or with his wit he was
Oravely trying to cover his forbod-
ngs.