The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-11-22
Never in History Will There
Have Been Such a Friction
less Change in the Admins
tration.
FEWER CABINET CHANGES
THAN EVER BEFORE.
Heads That Will Fall Will Be
Among Assistant SeCretar-
ies-Jobs That Are at Taft's
Disposal.
Special to Palladium.

Special TO PALLADIUM.
Washington, Nov. 21.-Promise Is
held out that there will not be even .
jar when the Roosevelt administration
ends and the Taft administration be-
gins on March next. Almost world
wide attention has been attracted to
the coming merger of the two ad-
ministrations. The opinion is freely
expressed that history does not record
case of such frictionless change in
the headship of a great government.
There probably will be fewer imme-
diate Cabinet changes than ever be-
fore marked the incoming of new
president, except In cases where q
vice president has succeeded. This
is due. of course, TO Mr.. Taft's having
SO long been a member of the Roose-
Welt cabinet and having associated as
such with Mr.. Roosevelt's present ad-
visers. The only man who has en-
tered the cabinet since Mr.. Taft quit
il. except Secretary of War Wright,
with whom he was associated in the
Philippines, is Mr.. Newberry. who has
just succeeded to the secretaryship of
the navy, and the president-elect
knows Mr.. Newberry and his qualifi-
cations almost as well as he does any
other member of the cabinet. There
is no reason. therefore, why he should
not take all the time he wants in maxi
ing up his own cabinet, appointing his
new members one at time and thus
always having experienced hands at
the helm. Mr.. Taft is the first man
TO be elected president since Martin
Van Buren, who served In the cabinet
of his predecessor, and Van Buren,
having been elected to the vice presi-
deney. was not in the cabinet during
Jackson's second administration.
Heads That Will Fall.
The heads that fall in the early part
of the Taft administration are likely
to be chiefly those of assistant secre-
taries and important bureau chiefs who
failed to show that they would be use-
ful to the administration. These
places. much more than places in the
cabinet. are used for the paying of po-
litical debts. As q matter of fact, Ii
has ceased to be popular to appoint
men to cabinet positions for purely po-
litical considerations. President
Roosevelt has made but one such ap-
pointment. He made Henry c. Payne
postmaster general to please and keep
peace with Mark Hanna. and the ap-
pointment failed of its purpose.
The duties of a cabinet member as
the executive head of one of the great
departments have grown SO tremen-
dously important that no president
can afford to have a weak man In his
cabinet. President Roosevelt has set
the example of appointing the very
best men he could find with out re-
gard to geographical considerations
(which formerly were always taken In
to account or even party lines. He
has not hesitated to call democrats in
to his cabinet, and no one has ever
questioned the loyalty of the service
they rendered. 1t is not likely, there
fore, that the president of the future
will go back to theold practice of us
ing cabinet places as coin for the pay
ment of political debts.
The assistant seeretaryships, how
ever. are still considered the legiti-
mate spoils of politics. So long as the
president has man he can trust at the
head of a department. he doesn't need
to worry about the kind Of assistants
his minister has. IL the minister
doesn't like or trust the assistant he
doesn't need to turn any duties over
to him. That is matter wholly In
the hands of the departments head.
Instances have been known in recent
xrhA fcfn
went through an entire administration
with no more important duty to dis
charge than to sign his pay check. In
some cases il has been because the
cabinet member didn't trust his assist
ant; In other cases il has been because
he was jealous of him. There is at
present a member of Mr.. Roosevelt's
cabinet who for years had an assistant
to whom no important duty was ever
assigned. The assistant died and a
new one, of the cabinet members own
choosing, was appointed. and now the
assistant practically runs the depart
ment.
Assistant Secretaryships-
There are more of these assistant
secretary places than most people i'm
agine, for most of the men filling
them do not come often into the lime
light There are three assistant Sec
retaries of state, three assistant secre-
taries of the treasury, one assistant
secretary Of war, one assistant to the
attorney general and six assistant at
torneys general with a solicitor gener-
al outTanking all theassistants, four