University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-10-12
INSPECTION. TRIPS
NOW VACATION FADS
Washington Officials Have
New Way Of Spending
Hot Days.
MIX WORK AND PLEASURE
Secretary Oliver Sees Forts
in New Mexico-Also
Snake Dances.
By United Press.

Gals are returning HO the scene OF
their labor. President Taft will not
leave Beverly for the White House
until October Is and others will not
return until about that time but
number have come in from their vaca-
lions and inspection trips. Bronzed,
erect and cheerful they seem to have
Jared well, whether absence was due
to desire to seek rest or the prose
cution of official business.
The passion for inspection, like ty-
phoid fever, is almost entirely sum-
mer disease in Washington. When
the thermometer mounts to the hun
dred mark and the asphalt pavements
on Pennsylvania avenue begin to grow
mushy under foot, those who held
down the padded chairs behind the
mahogany desks in the executive de-
partment begin to waken to the ne
cessity of going off somewhere to do
some inspecting.
1t has been a growing habit for
number of years, it is said to be good
thing for the men go to see some
thing of their official dominions. But
it was not so in George Washington
time, nor in Grover Cleveland's for
that matter. Washington had home
down the river within easy distance
of this city at Mount Vernon. Cleve-
land had a summer place just on the
outskirts of the city which has given,
the name Cleveland Park to one of
the capitals suburbs. OF late Presi-
dents have been obliged to HE off to
summer resorts and smaller officials,
at the same time, can very conven-
iently find it necessary to inspect.
Fever Attacks Secretaries.
Former Secretary of the Navy, New
berry, who stuck to his desk, grimly
observed once that it seemed to be
matter of tradition that the navy yards
in the vicinity of New Orleans and
Florida needed inspection in the win
ter time and the yards and stations at
Newport and Portsmouth had to be
looked after in the summer. The same
rule holds for the ordinary inspec-
ton trip. Canada, Alaska and the
cooler regions are the favorite hunt
ing grounds for inspectors and occas-
ionally there is necessity for making
a hurried trip to Europe to see how
things ARE being done on the other
side.
Secretary of the Navy Meyer is 60
ing to inspect the naval stations from
New York to Puget Sound and Cuba.
Secretary Dickinson who has already
borne, went to London and other
coming home with General Edwards,
Chief of the Insular Bureau, by way
of Siberia and will stop at Berlin and
some other places to CLEAN bits of
military wisdom in passing.
Secretary Nagel and Attorney Gen
eral Wickersham have gone through
the arduous duty of inspecting the
affairs in Alaska, at the di-
rection Of President Taft.
Assistant Secretary of War, Oliver,
found it necessary to inspect some of
the forts in New Mexico. Inciden-
tally he saw the snake dances and
few other sights of the Southwest. As
sistant Secretary of the Navy Win
throp, who has been one of the few
high ranking officials to stay in Wash
Ington most of the summer, has &C.
casional fits of the inspection fever
In the State Department, there has
also been some desultory summer i'll
speeding. Secretary Knox has kept to
the sylvan quiet of his farm at Vaney
Forge. Occasionally it has been nee
essary for officials to run up to COM
municate with him and discuss af-
fairs of the movement. Director Gen.
eral Carr of the Consular Service
made trip to Canada to see some of
the consular posts. The head of the
bureau of trade relations, J. B. Os-
borne, went to Londan and other
places in an official capacity.
Rear Admiral Reggie" Nicholson,
chief of the bureau of navigation of
he Navy Department, short time
ago went to San Francisco to inspect
he yard at Mare Island. Other Rear
Admirals also have found it necessary
% take trips here and there during
he summer season.
1t might even be said that the trips |
are necessary for many of the men
who go away; that it is directly in
he line of their duty and of advan-
age to them in their work. In a gen.
,ral way all that can be said Of the |
habit is that it is of modern origin |
as is the summer vacation. |