The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-16
From the Boston Globe.

From the Boston Clone.
II HAT the summer vacation has
w become well-established ma
tional institution is shown by the
friendly tone of the press of the country
in Its comment on Mr., Tafts wise course
in setting UP a summer home on our
New England coast Notwithstanding
Congress was In session when he left
Washington, the President was followed
to his Beverly cottage by the hearty
good wishes of the people, while the pub
lie necessity which obliged him to return
to the capital for a few days has been
the subject OF expressions of commisera-
ton in the newspapers. Apparently his
countrymen expect and wish him to stay
away from the seat of government as
much as he possibly can these summer
days
Nothing else better marks the change
which has taken place in the opinions
and habits of the American people in
this regard. For in times gone Presi-
dent was threatened with Impeachment
for doing what Mr.. Taft is doing now
with popular approval.
the chief magistrate by the year and that
he must stay on the job His every abb
sence from the White House was closely
measured and for him to leave Wash
ington while Congress was sitting would
have done violence to an unwritten law.
In the early days, when the presidency
was the heritage of the Virginia aristoc-
racy, 1t was customary for the chief ex-
eoutiye to pass a good deal of his time
on his nearby estate. The capital itself
had been on wheels for many years and
the new city of Washington was slow to
gain prestige In public sentiment.
After the Virginia line of Presidents,
however and In the succeeding era of
rough and ready statesmanship, the pres
idential customs OF staying more closely
to the White House became fixed Jack
sons only summer resort lay beneath
the widespreading branches of the trees
on the lawn, where, with corncob pipe
in his mouth, he delighted to stretch him
self and hold his bed of justice on the
green grass. There were yet extremely
few vacationists in the land. Only men
of fortune and lesure-and there were not
iildly Oh lHeS6 lllcli-lldu lHc NdtdllOli
habit, and they generally INDUCED it
sparingly by making a comparatively
brief stay in some primitive hotel at the
shore or at the springs.
Grant was really the first President to
claim a vacation, and he had to fight to
get it. Numerous summer resorts of ma
tionai wealth, and the ranks of the sum-
mer recreationists were swelling year by
year.
Nevertheless, when Grant took a cottage
at Long Branch freedom shrieked and
many good people stubbornly resisted the
step as the first toward the ruin of the
republic A statistical alarmist proved by
figures how revolutionary it was for the
President to live anywhere except in the
White House. Polk had been away from
his desk there only 81 days in all, or an
average of about nine days a year; Fill
more's absences In three years totaled GO
days, while Pierce and Buchanan were
away less than two weeks in the year.
A government clerk in the lowest grade
now has 80 days Off.
President Grants vacation was not only
denounced in the press and on the party
platform but Congress as well took no.
tice of It, The House of Representatives
on motion of Mr.. Blackburn of Kentucky,
afterward a senator, and now snugly