Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-29

copyright. l9Oe, by John Elfretb Watk1nS.)
@yHE political commanders-in-chief
have their tents pitched and
have posted the rosters of their
IL STATS. Reveile now sounds
every morn at headquarters and
each camp bristles and bustIes with &C
tive preparations for war.
Frank Harris Hitchcock. the republican
general. is ten years younger than Nor
man Edward Mack. the democratic COM
mander-in-chief the former being forty
and the latter having reached the half
century milestone the day before COM
missioned to lead the Bryan forces in the
coming battle. Hitchcock Is bachelor
Harvard graduate and a lawyer; Mack
has wife and two pretty daughters. Is
a self-made man and a journalist. There
is possibility that the republican gen.
eral. who was born in Ohio. may become
President some day. but his democratic
oppOnent-nO matter how successful his
battle nor how great his popularity-never
can, because. like his predecessor. Mr.
Taggart he is of foreign birth. By way Of
further contrast in their lives. these two
conspicuous figures in present-day events
moved in opposite directions when small
lads. The boy Hitchcock went north.
from his native heath, Amherst, Ohio, to
Boston, where he entered the school
which prepared him for Harvard, while
the lad Mack left his birthplace in On
tario province. Canada. and went south.
across the American frontier. to seek his
fortune in the United States. When
Hitchcock was still a towhead in kilt
skirts Mack was sweeping out country
store. After working for time In Brad
ford, Pa, during the early oil excitement
in that region he went west, starting an
advertising business In Detroit and push
ing il further in Chicago until 1874. when
he settled in Buffalo. and there. In 1879.
started the Times. through which news
paper he has made fortune.
Hitchcock a Singer.
few months after his graduation
from Harvard, in 1891, Hitchcock came
to Washington a government official
although but twenty-four. Having left
the Roosevelt alma mater a trained statis-
tician and economist he became chief of
the division of foreign markets. in the
Department Of Agriculture. and soon
made a reputation as an expert on foreign
trade and the tariff. While at these du-
ties by day he studied law in the Column
bian University by night and after being
admitted to the bar Of the District OF
Columbia at twenty-seven and Of the
United States Supreme Court at thirty.
he; left the Department of Agriculture to
become chief clerk of the new Depart
ment of Commerce and Labor. under
George b. Cortelyou. the first Secretary.
He and Cortelyou were close friends.
although the latter was the elder by five
years Both had burned the midnight oil
to study law. while working for the gov
eminent and both were musical. Cortel-
YOU a pianist and Hitchcock possessed of
a fine voice. which in the early days had
been heard in amateur comic operas
given by the Columbian students. 30
when Cortelyou was chosen to general
the Roosevelt forces. four years ago, he
took Hitchcock with him as secretary to
the national committee, This was his APP
premiership in politics and so successful
was he with the details of management
that he served later as secretary of the
committee which arranged the Roosevelt
inaugural ceremonies.
A Fanatic on Classification.
Hitchcock is almost a fanatic on classi.
fication. on having a place for everything
and everything In its place. on indexine
and card cataloguing and docketins and
the latest systems of saving time in Of
fl routine. 1t was due to his peculiar
genius in this line that President Roose
Welt put him on the famous Keep com
ai..b O0d do. an