The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1909-02-14

you will have to see Mr. Carpenter.
so it's just as well to get acquainted
with him little before that time.
OF course you know by Mr.. Car
pcnter is meant Frederick Warner
/ Carpenter, who is now Mr. Tafts
| private secretary, ann who after
March will be secretary TO the
/ president. Mr. Carpenter has been
for eight years private secretary to
Mr.. Taft, during which time Mr. Taft
has been president of the Philippine
commission, governor OF the Philip
pines, secretary Of war, presidential
candidate and president-elect
Carpenter is as small as his chief
is big He does not weigh much
more than 100 pounds. He looks as
delicate as woman, yet his frame
is like steel and his capacity for
work Is unlimited. At any rate none
of his fellows have ever known him
to quit his desk until it was cleared
and It is always grudgingly that he
turns over task to subordinate.
Private secretaries TO men in high
positions are like poets and artists
born, not made Carpenter had mere
~ proven himself the efficient ma
attentive TO detail. thorough. self
effacing. until he came to the war
department.
But at the war department the sit
uation began to develop as to call
forth the inspiration of genius. Taft
was the old fire horse of the admin
istration. ever ready for a run, and
with a wide variety of interests. Fur
ther, he was the strong presidential
possibility, and the callers at his
office Were nearly as numerous as
those across the way at the white
house. 1t was Carpenters duty to
meet these people, sort the vital from
the unimportant, admit the right
man to the inner office and get rib
of the others without offense. II is
at best. tedious nerve-racking
task and its exactions sat heavily
on young Carpenter who takes life
very seriously. The lines in his face
have deepened, and they are the lines
of worry. but worry is his role, and
he plays it well.
In meeting this emergency, he
proved unusually efficient, but in "A
way entirely his own. Carpenter is
the antithesis of the "glad-hand" art
list He mingled with the crowds that
came TO see Mr.. Taft with an abso-
Lutte impersonality, listening to their
wants, sorting, dismissing. He was "A
machine that worked automatically,
and who could feel a grievance at
machine?
The machine was fitted TO the
task, and the work it lid was sat
isfactory. His judgment in just these
matters was proven correct, and his
handling of thes ituation was shown
TO be effective. He was a born pri
vate secretary, the individual for
whom many public men search for a
lifetime and fail TO find Carpenter
became Indispensable to his chief
All the time this frail young man
was working like a demon. Mr. Taft
Is a huge worker himself, but when
he went away to receptions I'm the
evening, Carpenter still labored, A.
he received visitors through the day
he answered letters, and as he ush
cred these callers in Mr. Taft''
sanctum he asked what disposition
TO make OF one or two things tha
hung between his fingers in memo
randa
Mr., Taft had found him in Sal
Francisco, quite by accident, Al
president of the Philippine commits
sion the future president found him
self in need of a stenographer Upor
the suggestion Of a friend he ca
bled to young Carpenter, who wa
then in a lawyers office in the cit!
by the Golden Gate, ami offered hin
the position. He accepted and wen
Immediately to Manila, and with tn,
advancement Of Mr., Taft to the gov
ernorship OF the islands. he became
his private secretary.
Carpenter was born in Minnesota
; in 1872 His father moved to Call
, fornia when he was ten years old an
| his youth was spent on a ranch Il
, that state. When he had reached hi
majority he ventured to Minnesot
where he attended the UNIVERSITY
graduating as o bachelor of laws 4