Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-03-06
MIR. TAFT's CABINET

MIR. TAFT's CABINET
 MT. Taft's cabinet, with the accept ance of the treasury portfolio by Frank lin Macveagh, is now complete. It stands as follows:
 Secretary of state--PHILANDER c. KNOX, of Pennsylvania.
 Secretary of the Treasury-FRANK- LIN MACVEAGH, of Illinois.
 Secretary of War---JACOB M. DICE INSoN, of Tennessee.
 Attorney General-GEORGE w. WICKERSHAM, of New York.
 Postmaster General-FRANK H. HITCHCOCK, of Massachusetts.
 Secretary of the Navy-GEoRGE VON L. MEYER, of Massachusetts.
 Secretary of the Interior-RICHARD A. BALLINGER. of Washington.
 Secretary of Agriculture--JAMES WILSON, of Iowa.
 Secretary of Commerce and Labor CHARLES NAGEL, of Missouri.
 Six of the nine are lawyers, four of them in active practice, MT. Knox in the senate and Mr. Macveagh retired from practice has been engaged in the banking and mercantile business. By special act of congress, reducing the salary of the secretary of state after March 4, MT. Enox vas made eligible when his appointment wss sent to the senate. MT. Macveagh became eligible by divesting himself of all connection with the mercantile and banking inter ests with which he has been affiliated. He will thus not come within the inhi- bitions of the staJute prescribing the qualifications of the secretary of the treasury. In the somewhat similar case of Alexander T. Stewart, New York merchant, as the New York Sun reminds us, it was held that MT. Stewards pro posal to withdraw from al participa- tion in the profits of his business would not cure his ineiigibility. MT. Stewart, however, was actually ineligible when appointed. MT. MacVeagh, we are pretty sure, will not be found In that predicament. If there were no existing disqualifcations at the time of his ap- pointment, of course there will be no question of his eligibility. It is, how ever, curious commentary on MT. Taft's selections that two of them should have been ineligible, and that the ineligibility of one should be removed by compliance with the terms of the statute, while that of the other was cured by technical evasion of con stitut!onal provision.
 Five members of the new cabinet held office under President Roosevelt, Messrs. Knox, Meyer and Wilson, hav- ing been in the cabinet, MT. Hitchcock, an assistant postmaster general, and MT. Ballinger commissioner of the gen. eral land office. Of the others, Mir. Dickinson alone, we believe, has held public office. MT. MacVeagh is noted for his, activity in civic and municipal affairs, and MT. Nagel and MT. Wicker sham are experienced lawyers. The un- known quantities in the new cabinet, therefore, are not large. It will have to be tried out to some e-stoa., but the ma jority is composed of experienced hands
 What win probably excite most dis cussion is the unusual circumstance that two of MT. Taft's advisers are demo- crats of the old school. It is certainly freak of politics that brings anti-Bry- an democrats into progressive repub- hcan administration, pledged to clinch the Rooseveltian policies. Nothing could better illustrate the breakdown of party lines and party traditions and party dogmas than the appearance of these men at the council table of an ad- ministration that represents the ant.th- esis of all that the democracy used to stand for. It is a living picture of the fusion of national sentiment encom. passed, through the operation of vari- ous causes, during Mr. Roosevelt's ten. ure of office.