The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-12-07

Isuits the association that comes through
!athletic and social relaxation brings
them into closer relationship than mere
| business intercourse does.
Therein lies the value of membership
in the tennis cabinet Those who play
tennis with the president get to know
him intimately; and what is more to
the point, he gets to know them quite
as well. What more natural than that
these constant associates should find
preferment at the presidents hands?
Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Garfield came
together through common interest in
civil service reform. This was a thing
CLOSE to Mr.. Roosevelt's heart. His first
federal office was civil service comms-
sioner, and he never lost his pride and
interest in the work of the commission
When he had q chance to appoint a
member of the commission, he took
time and care in selecting his man. He
ehose Garfield, who had been one of
those foremost in the civil service pro-
paganda. When the bureau of corpora
tions was created in 1908, Garfield was
appointed its first chief, and intrusted
with the work of carrying out Mr..
Roosevelt's anti-tru ideas.
From the very beginning of their Of
ficial association Garfield and the presi-
dent were personal friends. They had
views in common and worked together
without a hitch. Garfield's investigation
of Standard Oils operations increased
the presidents admiration for him, and
nobody was surprised when the an,
nouncement was made that the young
man from Ohio would enter the Roose-
welt cabinet as secretary of the interior
upon the retirement of Ethan Allen
Hitchcock from that office.
Mr. Garfield is of serious mind. But
so are they all serious-these members
of the tennis cabinet. Some of them
are more serious than others.
Mr.. Garfeld's seriousness is plea
SAINT, genial kind, that meets you half
way and takes you by the hand and
shows you wherein you are wrong
Lawrence 0. Murray, assistant secre'
tary of commerce and labor, is serious,
particularly when he plays tennis. Al
ford w. Cooley, who succeeded Garfield
as civil service commissioner, and has
just been appointed assistant attorney
general, is serious. Sometimes he
doesn't know it.
One of these times is when he is max
ing what the newspapers call felicl'
tious speech. Clifford Plnchot, the fores.
ter, is serious, more so than usual, per-
haps, when he helps the president to
chop down trees. Chopping down trees,
with strenuous president to set the
pace, is enough to make anybody Sc
rious.
All this mention of seriousness brings
Herbert Knox Smith to mind. Mr. Smith
is to succeed Mr.. Garfield as commits
sioner of corporations He is now the
deputy commissioner
There is a common belief in Washing
ton and in the dark caverns of the
money octopus that Mr.. Smith hyphen-
ates his name. 1t is not so. You will
find him in ''Who's Who" under the
letter IS" right above the immortal
Hoke. There is not hyphen in sight
and search of the congressional direc-
tory, the list of Yale alumni and other
publications is equally fruitless.
In speaking of him, however, it is
customary to refer to Knox Smith Some
scoffers have sought to disfgure the
name by making it ks-Myth," but
the very character of the main bellies
this too phonetic rendition.
Mr.. Smith knocks realities. He has
been engaged too long in the game of
hunting trusts to be fooled by any mere
chimerical combinations in restraint of
trade or anything else. He knows real
trust when he sees one.
There is nothing frivolous about MI
Smith. He is earnest and pugnacious.
You can observe these qualities IN his
very walk and every hair of his close
clipped mustache.
| His is not the genial earnestness OF
Garfield or Pinchot. His is the take
YOU blythe throat stand and deliver
kind. Yet there is halo OF romance
over all his seriousness.
! 1t will be as if the days OF chivalry
have returned co this sordid, modern
world when Mr.. Smith assumes charge
OF the bureau of corporations. 10 HIM
a trust is brutal giant holding the
eaptive maiden in his fortified tower
Other knights Grant might seek to OBJ
tain her release by writs of habeas cor
pus or by suits under the Sherman law,
but Mr.. Smith is more direct.
He will mount his coal black charger
and all in armor digit will storm the
prison of the fair one. His motto is:
eff YOU see trust, bust it..
Cooley is a pink checked, boylsh look
ing fellow, the picture OF health and