The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-19
John Bassett Moore Has Al
ways Lab0red Far Into
the Night
BRYAN FINDS NEW
TASKS EXACTING
Holland Says President Wilson Since
Inauguration Has Revealed an
Almost Unreasonable Ca
pacity for Industry
BY HOLLAND.

wv YORK, MAY Especial. In the
visit to this city which Prof. John
4 Moore has just ended he gave
to- friends here. unwittingly doubtless,
the impression that he has been intensely
occupied, almost overwhelmed, by the
work he has found 1t necessary to do since
he entered the state department as coun-
selor at the beginning of President Will
sons administration. Professor Moore
has shown himself to be a man of almost
unlimited capacity for industry. In addi-
tion to his lecture courses at Columbia
university ne has been occupied in the
preparation of two continental digests for
the use of the state department. and he
has also edited the letters and addresses
of James Buchanan. In Professor
Moore's two earlier services in the state
department, the first having been when
Thomas F. Bayard was Secretary of State
and the second at the time of the Spanish
war, he mastered the archives of the
state department. There is certainly no
other man of his time, and possibly none
of any time since the republic was organ
lied, who has obtained such encyclo-
paedia knowledge of the history of the
state department and of its archives.
For this reason, in addition to his widely
recognized capacity as a diplomatist, it
was presumed by Professor Moore S
friends in this city that he would not
find his services in the state department
under Secretary Bryan excessively labor
ious.
The probabilities are that Professor
Moore speedily discovered that by rea-
son of the resignation of two of the as
sistant secretaries of state at the begin
ming of President Wilson's administration
and the unfamiliarity with the depart
ment with which the newcomers neces-
sarily have been embarrassed, it was es-
sential that he undertake a great amount
of work, much of it drudgery, which
should have been committed 10 trained
bands. Not from him has there come
any complaint or apprehension that the
work has been too eXacting, but some of
those who have taken heed of what he
has done since he went to Washington
have feared lest he may have found the
work almost overwhelming.
A Twelye-Hour Day
Some of Professor Moore's friends in
this city have heard from Washington
that his daily routine begins at 8 o'clock,
or almost Immediately after he has
brealkfasted. The work he finds to do
each day is so imperative that it is fire.
quently impossible for him to go out
for luncheon He makes a frugal lunch
con out of glass of milk and a sand
wich, this repast being taken while he
is still at work. He does not leave the Of
flee until o'clock. If there are no even
ing engagements that cannot be escaped,
he returns to the state department and
frequently works till midnight.
Professor Moores friends say that as
soon as he took hold in the state depart
ment, late in March, he discovered that
the regular and routine business in the
department had increased enormously
since the days when he first served as
assistant secretary of state. In addi-
ton, there are questions of the gravest
consequence which demand the most
thoughtful consideration and the most
complete knowledge of our diplomacy II
they are to be satisfactorily answered.
Colonel BRYAN as Secretary