The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-03-11
WHO'S WHO In THE CABINET
OF PRESIDENT WIN. Fl. TAFT

One of the most striking features of
the new cabinet will he the quiet re
serve of it's leading members. Knox,
Wickcrsham. Dickinson. Hitchcock and
MacNeash nave no liking for the spec
tacular, the hurrah and the head
cracking policy. When they speak their
tones are soft. but their meaning plain.
the words polite, but their decision
firm.
Senator Knox, who heads the cabinet
as secretary of state. is sc years of age.
He MAS born in Pennsylvania, educated
at Mt. Union college in Ohio, and
started his career as a poor young
lawyer in Pittsburg. by study, by
work. by force of intellect, by brain
power. pure and simple he achieved
political game at the top, first by be
ing called in consultation by the state
leaders, and then by entering the cabi-
net OF President Mckinley in 1901 as
attorney general. He continued in that
position under President Roosevelt un-
which position he now will resign to
again enter the cabinet. He has been
described as being sensational as q
volume of Blackstone, as witty as Il
copy OF the revised statutes, as com
municatiNe as a supreme cour justice.
No one ever saw him display emotion
or heard him utter a hasty, i'll tempered
word. He is calm, serene, cool, calcu-
lating. methodical, precise, analytical.
riendS say his recreation is
reading the constitution.
Never a Senatorial Apprentice.
Among his intimates Senator Knox is
a delightful conversationalist and n
genial host. He has accumulated a
comfortable fortune from the law. In
Washington he has a fine house and
an exceptional library. He reads OF tho
top floor and has a Workshop office
in the basement. His favorite retreat
is Il beautiful country place at Valley
Forge. PA, on the site of Washington's
Inflated winter camp of revolutionary
days.
He belongs to the republican oil
garchy of senatorial leaders headed by
Senators Aldrich and Hale, having en-
tered that exclusive circle the day he
took his No long apprenticeship
was required of him.. Foreign affairs
of state and diplomatic relations are
already familiar to him. Though long
a lawyer for corporations, his greatest
legal victory was in defeating them as
counsel for the government in over
throwing the Northern Securities com
pany, the most gigantic of railway
George w. Wickersham is a New
York lawyer, whose career has been
similar to that Of Mr.. KnoN's in man.
particulars. After a long and emil
nent career at the bar, devoid of mix
ture With political life. he starts in
at the top. So reserved is he that his
name doesn't even appear as a partner
in the law firm Of Strong & Cadwal-
lader, of which he is a member, along
with Henry w. Taft. brother of Presi-
dent-elect Taft. He was the "otiice
man." studying and planning the moves
to be made by his more conspicuous
associates. He is a rather short man,
with dark hair and a sprawling NOUS
tache tinged With gray. He wears
large spectacles and is not vain about
his personal appearance. His predom-
mating characteristic is to be prepared,
always prepared. before speaking. NOV
ing or acting. In personality Mr..
Wickersham is deliberate without be-
ing ~perfunctory: formal in speech
without being %pedantic. He has a full.
round voice, pitched in a low, even
tone. He is even tempered. never ex-
cited, V hasty. His mind governs
absolutely every word and action. His
outward expression is dictated from
within.
Among lawyers he is credited with
possessin the unusual dual capacity
of being an equally good trial lawyer
and adviser a combination of harris
ter and solicitor. He has in corpora
ton law the knowledge of experience
as We'll as that of theory.
In recent years MI. Wickersham has
been in the public eye as counsel to
August Belmont in many of the affairs
of the subway company. He is fairly
ricn. He was born in Pittsburg in
1858. attended Lehigh university and
the University of Pennsylvania. He
came to New York from Philadelphia
II 1882. He belongs so the Republican
organization of the Tw~enty-seventll
district, but never has been active in
politics.
War Department.,
The wal department is to have an
other able lawyer at its head. Elihu
Root established h record of apply
ing knowledge of the law to working
out problems of war. OF all the cab
met members Judge Dickinson had the
most extensive education in youth. He
studied at the University of Nashville,
then at the Columbia in New York
City. Next he went abroad and
studied at Leipsig university and in
Paris. He was born in Mississippi in