Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-11-10

Regular observers Of life at the White
House calculate that sooner or later nearly
everybody who shakes hand with the presi-
dent writes him letter. When national
campaign is on hundreds Of worthy peo-
pie take their pens In hand TO drop MIR.
Taft q few lines telling him all about It.
Most OF them throw local sidehghts on
the situation, and they are all read and
answered regardless OK the value Of the
contents. Sometimes the white House mail
reaches rs high as one thousand letters
in a day A fair average, according 20
the New York Post correspondent. would
be two hundred a day. Mondays and Tues
days are the tightest days Of the week.
OF these hundreds Of letters, an unusually
large number is brought in a pretty direct
way, to the personal attention OF the presi-
dent.
A perusal Of the daily mail offers q lib
eral education in itself. Senators and SIM
ners, editors and ethnologists, ministers
and marketmen, diplomats and dipsoman-
iacs, offieeholders and officeseekers, ath-
letes and atheists-au sorts and conditions
Of individuals, find It necessary to address
themselves personally to the chief execu-
tive Of the nation. No scrap OF correspond
ence IS ever entirely neglected, II It doesn't
call for anything else It calls for an ac-
acknowledgement from some white House
funeHonary; whether it be the President
in person or merely one OF his clerks.
Three times a day a special messenger
brings the white House mail to the execu-
tive offices. It is received in the basement,
spread out on table. and Immediately
sorted. Most Of the letters fan naturally
into two piles, one for the president. the
other for his secretary. But then, also,
there is the large mass OF personal corrs-
spondence, that Of Mrs Taft, for instance,
which is sent to her secretary, and that OF
the attaches OF the office. Occasionally
there is mail for some one not at the White
House, with the request that It be for
warded. There was letter, for example,
not long ago, from man in a northwest
ern state who wanted to sell the president
some calves. Not satisfied with making
bid for White House patronage, the en-
terprlsing westerner enclosed a note for
ex-President Roosevelt, with the request
that it be forwarded.
The first distribution Of the White House
mail is completed by o'clock. The second
mail arrives at noon; the third. which is
usually small, at p. M The first step to
be taken after sorting Is the opening OF
the mail The clerk who is put at this task
has been at It for more than ten years and
he carries more confidential correspondence
in the back OF his head than any other
man in the country. II the letters contain
enclosures, such as stamps, pins, photo
graphs, souvenirs etc, these are properly
listed. Each letter is stamped, "rhe White
House-Receiver, together with date.
If the letter is on a purely departmental
matter, the receiving clerk marks Il Tor
the department TO which It should be re-
ferred tossing It Into the box with the
other papers that are TO go forward TO the
departments that day. But II there IS any
thing personal in the letter or anything IN
which the president might be expected t.
take personal interest different disposl-
ton is made Of It, It IS handed over to, an.
other clerk, who reads it carefully, and
then prepares a SUMMARY OF its contents
| OF these summaries he makes three car.
bon copies, which are sent one to th'
president one to his secretary the, thirt
to Assistant Secretary Latta. A fourti
remains on the desk OF the clerk for pur
poses OF record. on it is marked the dis
/ position of each letter, so that at any mo
meht Of the day It may be promptly pro
duced II desired.