Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-03-12
EARNS HIS SALARY
Mr.. WILSON FINDS THAT NEW
PRESIDENT is BUSIEST MAN
IN THE COUNTRY.
OFFICE SEEKERS BEsET HIM
Civil Service Employees Fear Demo-
ton More Than Dismissal-Few
Changes Are Expected In the
White House Staff.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.


Neutrality-suspicious. activities are
crowded into the first ten days of an
administration than into any succeed
ing ten weeks. The offices of the
White House resemble the ante-rooms
of convention halls when the conven-
ton is about to assemble. If Presi-
dent Wilson is to get the nine hours
sleep which he has said that he needs,
he probably will sleep heavily because
of the WEAKNESS of the crowded day.
Nine men out of every ten who
surge in and out of the executive
mansions office rooms, overfiowing
occasionally by sheer force of the
surge behind them. are seeking pre-
ferment for themselves or for others.
There has not been in years, perhaps
never before. such a crowd Of office
seekers in the city of Washington as
there is here today, and, in fact, as
has been here for two or three weeks
waiting for the incoming of the new
administration.
In addition to listening to the pleas
of the men who seek office, the new
president has some hundreds of other
principal things to do, to say nothing
of some thousands of odds and ends
of work. Moreover, he is compelled
to adjust himself to his new position
and to his new home and his new sur
roundings. He is the hardest worked
man in the country at all times if he
attempts to live up to all his duties,
and during the first few months of his
administration he probably works
harder than any two other men in the
United States. If people think the
president does not earn his salary,
they must think again in order to get
the seat of knowledge well balanced.
Demotina in Civil Service.
The civil service employees in the
city of Washington, and doubtless
elsewhere through the country, very
likely need not shake in their shoes
for fear that under the direction OF
the new president they are to be GUST
ed. Civil service is supposed to pro-
tect, and Mr. Wilson has said that it
will protect while he has the direc-
ton of national affairs. Most of the
shaking, therefore, which civil service
workers are doing is due to the fear
not that they will be discharged, but
that they may be denoted, or, in 9TH
er words, be kept in the service, but
given inferior positions at smaller pay.
1t is not likely that much of this
demoting will be done, although it is
possible. as is true in some cases
where men have been given the high
est places in the civil service at a
late hour simply to provide them with
good places under the civil service
blanket, it may be that they will be
denoted and the places which they
have occupied briefly will be given to
others recommended by influential
Democrats and approved by the pres
ident. None of the civil service posi-
tons pays more than $4,000 or $4,000
a year.
White House Staff May Remain.
The White House staff of secre
taries and clerks is busy these days.
How many changes there will be no
one knows yet, but with the outgoing
of Private Secretary Charles D. Hilles
and the incoming Of Private Secretary
Joseph P. Tumulty, the under secre-
taries and the clerks naturally fear
that an earthquake may follow. The
White House force. however, has re-
duced things SO to system that a
new force could not do the work until
after months of practice. 1t is under
stood that Mr. Wilson intends to keep
the White House force pretty nearly
intact for the reason that business
must be expedited, and for the further
reason that there are about as many
under secretaries and clerks who be-
long to the dominent political party
as to the outgoing political party, or
the other one which came into ex-
istence at the Progressive convention
in Chicago last summer 1t is said
that Mr.. Taft did not know the po-
litical affiliations of half a dozen
members of the White House staff,
and it is possible that Mr.. Wilson
likewise will elect to remain in ig-
norance of the parties to which his
unior workers belong.
Much Sought For Jobs.
Every incoming cabinet officer with
in ten days of his taking of the
oath probably will have appointed
all the assistant secretaries which
have places i'll his office. There
are one or two assistant secretaries,
however. who are pretty sure to re-
main in where they are. They are
men who are accounted invaluable in
their positions, having held them so
long that every detail of Office work
is known to them, and they have be-
come so useful in courts of last re-
sort that they probably will not be
disturbed. One such man is Second
Assistant Secretary of State Alvey A.
Adee. who has been in Office SO long
that most people have forgotten the
date of his entrance thereto. and it
is probable that Mr.. Adee is willing
that they should forget. When any