The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-09-04
THE LID MEN
At WASHINGTON
(cOntinned from Page ONES

y 1pnnps
G see. Almost any Democrat who coul
break into the cabinet in these persis,
ent Republican times, would be wilIin
: to make summer of it and aceordinp
e ly Mr.. Wright is not grumblinp. III
is the Federal official of highest ram
in Washington and gathers some sat
lsfaction from the realization of tina
distinction. All the same he is gettin,
. lonesome and the other day observes
that he had stood the weather in tn
. philippines nicely but found that tn,
summer weather of Washington wa
getting under his collar. He lives al
nearby hotel, the lobby of which /,
well nigh deserted in the hot months
so that the Tennesseean much of the
time is unable to find any raconteurs
who will join him in spinning yarns to
while away the evenings. In fact he
has begun to mark off the days on his
calendar against the arrival of Pres.
ident Theodore Roosevelt in town.
Then Secretary Wright's cabinet col
leagues will come focking back to
town and the men. who have been
sitting on the big lids and the little
lids, will resume their wonted voca-
tions The business of the government
will move ahead by leaps and bounds.
When Secretary Taft was first left
in Washington to sit ON the lid the
idea was widely circulated that he was
to be kind of acting president. Of
! course there is no such office, but the
President can designate some one to
look out for executive business in his
absence. He can. however delegate
any one to act officially in his stead.
AS Secretary of State Root was absent
then on a voyage around South Amer
lea, Secretary Taft was directed to
keep an eye on the State Department
He did actually attend to considerable
State Department business and came
nearer to being the acting president
than any other cabinet officer whom
Mr.. Roosevelt has ever told to sit on
the lid.
Later Secretary Root sat on the lid
for while during the absence of the
President. but save for an experience
or two of that nature, Secretary Root
has taken care to be away from Wash
ington when the President has been
taking extended trips. He gets away
to his summer home in New York about
as early as President Roosevelt reaches
Oyster Bay and does not return till
the middle of September or the first
of October.
Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou
has been left on the lid once or twice
for brief periods. He served little
while last year, when Postmaster GEN
eral Meyer was out of town. Mr..
Cortelyou, however, is fond of his
summer home at Hampstead, Long Is
land, where he spends not less than
two months every summer.
When cabinet officer is absent,
there must be an acting head of his de-
partment. The assistant secretaries, of
whom there are two or more in several
of the departments, are generally proud
| to become the nominal heads and to
| sign the official mail that ordinarily
| goes to the Secretary's desk. In the
earlier days, when member of the
| cabinet rarely took more than a
month IS vacation, the business of the
department proceeded about the same
in his absence. Now it is recognized
that the acting secretary is on the lid
to keep all important business, except
that of the most pressing character, in
allegiance till his chief returns. That
is not such welcome role. Some mat
ters are handled by the secretaries at
their summer homes. Indeed, it has
become common announcement that
this secretary and that secretary is tax
ing away bundles of official papers with
him. Some sceptical persons think this
is in the main pleasing fiction, and
that cabinet officers are quite as human
as other people when away on vaca-
tion.
And yet, with officials sitting on the
lids in every department, a good bulk
of government business is transacted
at half dozen official summer homes
outside of Washington, The President
leads in this activity. There is almost
instant communication between the
White House offices here and Oyster
Bay. The telegraph wires are either
kept made up or arrangements are per-
fected whereby through service can be
had on very short notice. Nothing of
very great moment comes up in any OF
the departments that he is not inform
ed about speedily. There are numerous
messages daily. Frequently the long
distance telephone is used, although
that service is not always entirely sat
isfactory. For some reason it fire.
quently happens that Oyster Bay can
not hear Washington distinctly, or vice |
versa. There is daily mail bag from |
the White House offices to the Presi- |
dent, and, although he is several hun
dred miles away, he keeps very thor !
oughly informed about everything that |
is going ON in official Washington.
Congress intended, 1t IS supposed, |
that there should be sufficient assistant |
secretaries in each department to as
sure the presence of some one of them
for each department constantly. In
recent times, however, there has been
such an exodus that others have been
called in. The Navy Department and
the War Department, the Department
of Agriculture, and the Department of
Commerce and Labor have each but one
assistant secretary. Because of the fire.
quent absence of the Secretary and
Assistant Secretary of War, it had be-
come the custom to ask one of the big
generals to sit on the lid for while |
Sometimes it was the Adjutant General |
and sometimes the Chief of staff. Con-
gress, preferring that the head of the !
War Department should always be a |
civilian, conferred upon the chief clerk |
In nd Il IL 4 4 q