The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-02
GLIMPSES OF THE CABINET

the President induced Mir. Root to re- turn to his cabinet, after the death of John Hay, under a sort of quasi under standing that he would be the adminis- traton candidate as the Roosevelt suc- cessor. Roots personality and the drift of New York state affairs made him impossible. The President. master poli- tician as he is. was first to see it. and without any feeling of unfriendliness ths secretary of state has been himself grad ually displaced by the secretary of war. Now, nothing Is done without consulta- tion with MT. Taft. The same thing used to be true to MT. Root. It Is true that the President interferes less with the actual workings of Mir. Roots depart ment tlian with any other in the govern ter of conservatism. He Is at the head of a department where the President realizes conservatism Is a most com mendable quality. Then. too, the Presl- dent wants Root to stay In his cabinet. He lets him run his department and even make the political appointments under it, and shape his own policies, and make his own plans, more than he does any other member of the cabinet.
 George Cortelyou's relations with the President are peculiar. They say that at cabinet meeting he never opens his mouth to offer advice or suggestion. or to even make known a condition of his de- partment. You know the members of the cabinet hold two meetings each week when the President is in town. There ia fah he cabinet room. The President sits at the head of it. Then to his right sits the secretary of state and to his left the secretary of the treasury, and so on, from right to left, in the order of their seniority. Seniority and relative rank are determined by the dates of the es- tablishment of the different departments by law For years the secretary of the department of agriculture sat at the foot of the cabinet table. Now it Is the sec- retary of commerce and labor who oc- cupies that chair. The President turns to his secretary of state to submit any thing from his department that may need executive advice, or the opinion and advice of his associates Usually each department chief has something on which he would like to hear the opinions of his associates. If he has no real seri- ous business to offer he contributes some story or experience of the week, which he thinks will be interesting or which indi- cates the political or other drift.
 In the order of their rank the Presi- dent in effect calls the roll of his cabi- net chiefs. MT. Cortelyou Is said to al- ways have the same sterotyped reply, Nothing today, MT. President and to conflne his utterances throughout the cabinet meetings to the sentence.
 But after the others have gone, if the President does not detain him. which he usually does. he remains voluntarily to report on the things in his department. The President has way of having Cor telyou look into things and of asking his advice. Cortelyou reports the result of his investigations or offers his advice in low voice and in few words. The Presi- dent Is said to weigh his advice carefully and accept 1t more frequently than that of any other member of the cabinet.
 They say that in recent months presi- dential politics has been barred even from jocular discussion in the cabinet. It is not surprising with such repeated coup ling of the names of his various cabinet chiefs with the high office.