Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-07-14
WASHINGTON
SOCIAL NEWS
WHAT SOUR OFFICIALS" ARE DO
ING TO DIsPEL THE ENNUI
ATTENDANT UPON THE AD-
VENT OF THE SUMMER SEA-
SON AT THE CAPITAL.

Summer quiet has fallen upon
what there is left of official Wash
ington like a wet blanket while the
major members of the executive
branches are away doing business in
homeopathic installments, mixing
statecraft with tennis or gentleman
farming.
At the State, War and Navy Build
ing for instance, only subordinates
remain. Secretary of War Dickinson
is sailing over the bounding billows
of the Pacific for the Orient. He
does not expect to be back at head
quarters again before October
Secretary Meyer is in Hamilton, Mas
sachusetts. Secretary Knox has a
farm at Valley Forge where he
watches the hands make hay from
the cool embrasure of his study win
dow His chief method Of exercise
is playing billiards with his family.
But it's a hot summer that brings
nobody any good. While the cab
met members are away the seconds
in command have a free hand in pre-
siding over the operations of the
partments. Those who did all the
work during the legislative year
without getting any credit for it
have a chance to sign their names
to official documents as "acting
secretaries" and to see their names
in the public press in the same
capacity.
The official summer begins at the
State Department when Second AS
sistant Secretary Adoo gets home
from his bicycle trip in France. For
years his going heralded the arrival
of spring and his coming meant that
a new order was to prevail in the
Secretary Knox is legal
and exact and when he speaks of
foreign relations his statements have
neither frills nor atmosphere" His
interviews are unembelished and |
unadorned and have no more liter
airy feeling than an algebraic prob
lem in quadratic equations.
With Adee it is different. The
Second Assistant loves joke better
than diplomatic coup de grace.
He has been in the Service several
decades and his humor-as we'll as
some of his jokes-have ripened dur
Ing that time. When Acting Secre-
-ary Adee discusses a Central Ameri-
can embroglio 1t becomes a thing of
delight. 1t glows with color. 1t is
no longer mere statement Of
nasualities-so many killed and so
many wounded and so much damage
lone-but a rounded story, pathetic
and humorous, which suggests an
other until one goes away with a
unwritten brochure in his
mind on war and How She is
Fought" in Central America.
From the perfunctory cable dis
patches he draws a picture of the
american minister in Persia his
sorrows, which are many, and joys.
which are few. One forgets the
lalue of fact in the delight of fancy
nd the amusing game of diplomacy,
IS reflected through his accounts (
'ecomes less a struggle for the pres.
ige of nations than game of cross s
purposes among men of different
and different instincts,
With very human failings and vir-
ues, all of which have their bearing
n the fearfury abtruse and lofty
ubject of foreign relations.
Assistant Secretary Huntington
wilson will preside for a time, at 1
east, this summer He, too, has {
is atmosphere" which he drapes I
bout himself with the studied care Z
I a Buddhistlc mahatma. His Office {
} sealed and darkened TO keep out l
he sunshine and heat In one cor |
er before an electric fan Is a {
hunk OF ice which cools the
raught. This Is the only positive t
tilltarlan thing in the room. The {
est is negative. One whispers In r
tinctively in this hushed chamber I
Dr. fear he will dispel the air OF c
othingness which hovers there un- 4
istuTbed. II seems almost saerl- a
sge that the Ice is not frozen in a I
ubdued shade of gray that 1t may e
lend better with the environment.
Assistant Secretary Wilson's re-
ection OF activity in foreign affairs Il
axes on the same tone, He dis {
purses, as rule, with a Russian {
garette in his hand--small and L
ainty and giving the faintest odor S
5 he aeceRtuates--the term seems 4
ard In this connection-one point q
; another while talking in the most L
lbdued voice, one gets the inn d
ression that far away somewhere,
has happened or Is hap.
enlng g-realized through an intan. Il
ble poetic yeil-soft murmurings a
lat sift above the monotone OF "
avs VTnOn iaovfnw fha omco A.