The Colorado statesman., 1909-06-26

- eight topics of ma
- tional and inter-
national impor-
tance which he had discussed with
the chief executive. OF course no
president of the United States is like
ly to issue a denial of such a report.
Roosevelt overdid the denial business.
The statesman himself would prob
ably deny in such a contingency that
he mad ever given the papers the in
terView in question; but its issuance
helps to make him big man at
home. He is known as comforting
with Taft on all sorts of questions,
and the amount of beating on the
tympanum of the president, which is
done purely in aid of the personal am
bition of individuals in all walks and
grades of life who can get access to
him defies eXaggertion. A prosperous
real estate agent in Washington made
his start in life by borrowing White
House stationery on which to write
letters to his friends in the south
while waiting to see a Democratic
president of the United States He
used to go regularly to the White
House, having no real business with
the president, but apparently to bor-
row the engraved letter heads of the
White House with which to impress
persons hundreds of miles away from
whom he was seeking money for in
vestment in Washington real estate.
And the game worked. At the other
end of the line he was the house
guest of the president. The thrifty
promoter rarely took pains to deny
this, although he may not absolutely
have claimed that honor in so many
words. Is it any wonder that the
president becomes suspicious?
The cabinet room is filled chock a
block during all the waking hours
with persons who want to see the
president. 1t is said that he does not
pass them along so successfully as
Roosevelt did While this may be
true, the fault is primarily with the
public, which is pressing him with so
many requests. The invitations are
among the most difficult with which
the president has to deal. Any group
of men who arrive in Washington
think that as the bearer of an invita-
tion to the dedication of something
they have a right to see the president,
and while Mr.. Taft has accepted an
extraordinary number he is probably
declining more than any other occu-
pant of his Office. The trouble is that
the founders of the constitution,
when the country had but 100000
people, supplied but one man for the
presidential office and made little pro-
vision for the distribution of its du-
ties among subordinates. One need
not go back to Franklin Pierce, who
was said to have looked forward to
the arrival of a train from this part
of the country, which reached Wash
ington in the early evening, because
it might bring some welcome callers
from his home land, to see the piling
up by geometrical ratio of the de-
mands upon the time and attention of
the president. Twenty years have
made an astonishing difference.
The changed use of the telephone
is not without its suggestiveness.
Twenty years ago the White House
contained just one telephone standing
against the wall in the northeast cor
ner room, where the Office telegrapher
made his headquarters. No one re-
sponded to it except during Office
hours. The presidents wife used to
send out a maid to transmit a mes
sage, usually through one of the
clerks, perhaps twice a week No
general appointments were made by
it except in the rarest emergency. Its
use was not greatly different from
that of fire alarm signal. The White
or of the clerical staff, had acquired
no telephone habit and were virtually
uneducated to its possibilities. What
is the situation to-day? The White
House central, Main No. G." is
manned day and night. The exchange
connects with virtually every room
in the mansion, in the office building
and in stables; the man at its switch
board partakes of the nature of a
private secretary. Upon him is
poured list Of appointments and he
is busy making them. 1t seems as If
the entire town were connected with
the White House, and also the larger
centers of the country. The access
of the telephone to the old mansion
has repeated the experience of the
railroad. 1t has geared up the wheels
of business to newly accelerated
speed, with the result that the pres
sure upon the presidents time is un-