The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-01
CORTELYOU HAS
 NOT WON HONORS Handling of Financial Panic No Credit to Administration CORTfLY0UPS RAPID RISE Sketch of Men Who Have Occupied Position as Secretary of Tresury.
 All Were Men of Wide
 Experience.
B YsEWELL HAGGARD.

of the Roosevelt administration, The criticism has been made by financial experts that neither the President nor his secretary of the treasury, George B. Cortelyou, is man fitted by training to cope with such an emergency. One of the harshest critics of the admin istration's relief measure is Representa- tive Charles N. Fowler of New Jersey, chairman of the House committee on banking and currency, who describes Sec retary Cortelyou's new bond issue as Surprising, extraordinary, unwarranted and most unfortunate" He holds that the $100, ,000,000 issued of treasury certih- cates is illegal and MT. Fowlers opinion carries great weight, for he is one of the recognized financial experts of the coun- try.
 MT. Cortelyous critics point out that his only experience has been as a stenog- rapher, private secretary, and personal appointee of the President. They declare and rightly, that this has not fitted him for the extremely delicate and responsl- ble position he now holds. MT Cortel- you's deficiencies stand out more prom inently when one reviews the roll of pre- vious secretaries of the treasury.
 The first secretary of the treasury was Alexander Hamilton, who was one of the foremost statesmen of the day when he entered Washington's cabinet Of his genius as a financer Webster said: He smote the rock of the national resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth; he touched the dead corpse of public credit and it sprung upon its feet"
 Hamiltons successor was Oliver Vol cott one of his pupils. Wolcott served both as auditor and comptroller of the treasury and was regarded as a man em- inently qualified for the office. Follow Fol n xtzt- ba had been United States senator and was John Marshalls successor as secretary of war in Adams cabinet Jefferson ap- pointed as his secretary of the treasury Albert Gallatin. a commanding figure of American politics, whose fame as flnancier Is second only to Hamilton's.
 It would require too much space to take up each secretary of the treasury sepa- rately Some of the less brilliant men were Dallas, Crawford Rush McLane and Duane. Some of the more distin- guished were Roger B. Fancy, who was afterwards chief justice of the United States supreme court; Robert J. Walker, who had been a United States senator and became the author of the Walker tariff and Howell Cobb and Joli A. Dix, who were declared in their day to be the equals. if not the superiors, of the Pres idents under whom they served.
 Lincoln's first secretary of the treas- ury was Salmon P Chase, who had been a United States senator and governor of Ohio. MT. Chase left the treasury to be- come chief justice of the United States supreme court. Between Chase and Grants first secretary of the treasury were William Pitt Fessenden and Hugh McCulloch, who funded the national debt and had served for two years as comp troller of the currency before he became secretary of the treasury
 Though President Grant shifted his cabinet officers even more than President Roosevelt, he always selected men of experience to direct the treasury depart- ment His first secretary was George B. Boutwell,, who had been governor of Massachusetts and a congressman for many years. Next came William A. Richardson, who, although he proved in capable, was an accomplished lawyer and had been the financial agent of the gov ernment in Europe. Benjamin H. Bris- tow was Richardsons successor. Bris- tow had been one of the foremost figures in Kentucky politics and was the choice of the reform republicans for president in 1876. It was he who, much to Grants dismay, exposed the whisky ring.
 In later years we have had John Sher- man, who resumed specie payments. Sherman, 1t is hardly necessary to re-
 
 his party. Also John G. Carlisle, dis tinguished figure, who had been the dem ocratic leader of the House, speaker of the House and United States senator; Lyman J. Gage who was recognized as the leading banker of Chicago and Les lie M. Shaw, banker and business man and twice governor of Iowa.
 George B. Cortelyou has risen from cla rlxch in a administration to three cabinet offices under a republi-. can President. Though he owes much of his success to his benefactor, he pos sesses many eminent qualities. His expe- rience has been almost if not entirely, clerical, and he is a good clerical execu- tive. He has given no evidence in his public utterances that he has any practi- cal knowledge of law, of political econo- my, or finance.
 Although the Presidents best friends are of opinion that the appointment of Mir. Cortelyou is the greatest blunder of the Roosevelt administrations, they do not do so with any animosity toward the secretary of the treasury. All admit that MT. Cortelyou deserves great credit.
 Cortelyou was a government stenogra- pher when Wilson s. Bissell recommend ed him to President Cleveland as "a New Yorker, handhome young fellow. smart as chain lightning" and got him trans ferred to the White House force. He was not secretary to the President then he was just stenographer. When Cortelyou was promoted to be secretary to the Pres ident he succeeded failure named John Addison Porter. Presidents had not been in the habit of promoting stenographers to this position Usually they had picked out somebody they knew at home, or somebody who helped them in their cam paigns and wasn't big enough to get cabinet office or some other high gov ernment job. AS a result most of them were looked upon as jokes. An exception to this r,he was Dan Lamont; H, K. Tburber and Porter represented the rule.
 Usually the secretary, being small man, suffered grotesque imitation of the head as soon as he found himself dealing with public men, and his head underwent progressive enlargement until he lost his job. Such was the history of John Ad- dison Porter, who was probably thef ex- treme limit in the way of impossible sec- retaries.
 Then some good angel whispered to William Mckinley to violate the time dishonored precedent and not take Por- ter's successor from the ranks of the broken down political hacks he used to know, but to promote good clerk. So CorteIyou became secretary.
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