Evening star., 1912-11-07

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President-elect is the choosing OF the
nine men who shall become his official
advisers and act as the heads of the nine
executive departments of the govern
ment. It is a task which calls for much
thought, for upon it the success or fall
ure Of many administrations has de-
pended. To find capable advisers ana
chief lieutenants, and at the same time
to meet the exigencies of politics, mas
tested the resourcefulness of more than
one President The pressure that Is
brought upon him in behalf of this or
that person for a cabinet position often
taxes his patience. Presdent-elect Car
field wrote that he was so overwhelmed
with such pressure that he had about
reached that frame of mind where
multitude of Endorsements was his best
reason for turning down the candidate
possessing them.
The day was when geographical consid-
eratons weighed strongly in the selec-
ton of cabinet officials. New England
was considered as being entitled to one
l.member, New York and Pennsylvania to
one each, the south to one or more, the
Mississippi valley to one or two and the
far west to one. But, since the first ad-
mnistration of Cleveland, Presidents
have felt more and more free to ignore
geographic considerations In a number
of instances they have drawn several
members from a single state, as in the
case of Root and Straus and Cortelyou
of New York, Wilson and Shaw OF Iowa
and Taft and Garfield of Ohio, in the
Roosevelt administration. In the Taft
administration Illinois has two cabinet
officers-MacVeagh and Fisher; Massa-
chusetts two. Hitchcock and Meyer, and
New York two, Stimson and Wickersham
These two administrations seem to be the
only ones in cabinet history where three
states have had two-thirds of the men,
bers of the cabinet.
4 i
A number Of Presidents have had small
groups of personal advisers known as
Kitchen cabinets"
Personal Advisers the name originat-
=, ing from the story
W 1ACS1ucAIS. that Jackson ad
mitted these advisers at the back door OF
the White House. Tyler had school
masters cabinet made up largely OF
Virginia educators. Roosevelt's group OF
favorites was christened the ''tennis cabi-
net" from their fondness Of that game.
But, in the making of their cabinets,
large majority of the Presidents have Sc
lected men who could play the role of
both personal and official advisers. Some
of them have frequently appointed per-
sonal friends to important cabinet po-
sitions. Mckinley first appointed his law
partner, William r. Day, assistant secre-
tary of state. and later elevated him to
the premiership of his cabinet. 1t was
charged at the time that he wanted to
make a vacancy from Ohio in the Sem
ate so that he could place Mark Hanna
there SO he appointed John Sherman Sec
retary of State in a sort of emeritus
way, with Day as his understudy and heir
apparent
ministration. surprised the country by
appointing as his Secretary of State
man who had lately been a republican,
and who had voted the democratic ticket
for the first time that year-Walter Q.
Gresham of Indiana. There was consid-
cradle criticism of the appointment by
democrats. 1t was not the first time that
Cleveland had appointed a Secretary of
State which called forth protest. When,
in his first administration, he appointed
Thomas f. Bayard of Delaware, a sena-
tor from Virginia held up the appoint
ment for day, stating that Bayard was
a better friend of England than he was
of the United States.
-
The cabinet. as a body of official ad-
visers, who meet together with the Presi-
dent, has no con-
Reasons for stitutional exist
Cabinet Meetings. snv - Iau ,ass, s'a,.e,s ar,s,
ence. 1t meets as such body only be-
cause the President desires it, and some
times, when it's members are not in har-
mony, the President has seen them indi-
vidually and not collectively. preferring
thus to keep peace rather than to recon-
struct his cabinet.
AS such a body 1t did not always con-
sist of the heads of the departments. In
1880 Washington wrote Lafayette: MANY
of your old acquaintances are associated
with me in the administration of the
government. BY having Mr. jefferson
at the head of the Department of State.
Mr. Jay of the judiciary. Hamilton of the
Treasury and Knox of War, 1 find myself
supported by able coadjutors, who har-
moniZe extremely well together"
When the British. in 1890. waited to march
Canadian troops across United States soil
from Detroit to the Mississippi Washington
obtained his advice from his three Secre-
the 1HleI justice ana the vice
President but did not consult the Attor-
ney General The first cabinet meeting
he held was when foreign complications
arose. in the nineties. Madison Jeffer-
son and Randolph called the heads of the
departments 1.-The cabinet" but Wash
ington did not. Hamilton called them
ministers" The first time they were
officially designated 1.-The cabinet was
in resolution in the House in the days
of Andrew Johnson's quarrel with Con-
gress. The first time the word appears
in the statutes is in 1907.
Hamilton, as Secretary OF the Treasury.
meddled in the affairs of the Departments
of State and War. He
Hamilton and Jefferson differed
as Meddler. ington on pleaded s with with
them to exercise mutual forbearance''
and "temporizing Weddings for the sake
of peace Jefferson wrote that he and
Hamilton were daily pitted in the cab
met like two cocks" but when he talked
Of resignng Washington told him he
was, needed to preserve the necessary
check upon himself and Hamilton and
thus to keep things in their proper chan
mel
During the administration of the elder