The Washington herald., 1913-03-18
STATESMEN-REAL AND NEAR
By FRED c. KELLY.

William c. Redfeld, the new Secretary
OF Commerce. knows a great deal about
the very things that his department
has to deal with. And yet he starts on
under Il handicap that is a great source
of sadness to his friends. who sit about
and wonder IL something can't be done.
l refer. of course, to his whiskers.
Just how to get him 10 remove them.
without actually using force and perhaps
making a scene, is the problem that con-
fronts the administration.
Inasmuch as the Charles +. Hughes
whiskatorial decorations have been moved
TO comparatively safe and sane basis,
there is a feeling that perhaps Redfield,
II properly approached, can be made to
see the light.
The Redfield outfit is not the usual
thing in whiskers at all. Not only are
they sidewhiskers. but they are lacy.
zephry. inutile whiskers that luttse.
And they are pink-a rare. delicate pink,
but pink. They give him the appearance
of a high priced eye, ear and nose
doctor.
Aside from whiskers, nothing can be
said against Redtield. During his single
term in the House, he was one of the few
men who ever made tariff discussions
interesting. He had a way of throwing
rhetoric. romance and human interest
into a tariT talk. His speeches were as
full OF incident as novel And always
he seemed to have at his disposal an
elaborate array of facts.
Tho man has a first class sense of
humor, too. although at times he likes
the humor visible to the eye. For ex-
ample. lie says that the funniest thing
he ever saw was an incident at the table
on shipboar rd. Across from Redfield
was pompOus little man who took HIM
self seriously and had little to say to the
ordinary SIS run of humans. One even
ing when this passenger was looking
about at his fellow voyagers with an
especially high degree of dignity, the ship
gave a flop and a large plate of beef
steak and gravy jumped night into the
central area Of the mans white shirt
front. And he still tried to maintain his
dignity. Redfeld says he laughed for
forty minutes.
No matter where he goes, Redfeld man.
ages to get in a few questions that produce
facts worth remembering. And he does
remember them. Over in Japan a few
years ago. he saw some women driving
piles. He inquired how much they were
paid. 1t was only few cents a week.
And yet" observed another American
in the party, you are a low tariff man.
and would place American labor in COM
petition with such as that"
We'll, let's see." said Redfeld, "how
many piles do they drive a day" And
he began to jot down figures on the back
of an envelope. Now, 1 happen to know
how many piles an American laborer get
ting $50 a day could drive. Here are the
figures. In proportion to the
amount of work accomplished, the Amer
lean gets even less than these women do.
Senator Thomas Pryor Gore. the blind
man, who was one of the first to foresee
Wilson in the White House. never dictates
or prepares a speech in advance. True
the manuscript would be Of no avail in
delivering the speech. but if he SO de-
sired he could revise a speech several
times. have it read to him. and thus MEM
orize it. Instead, he prepares 1t. memoir
ICES it. and delivers it before the speech
Is ever put on paper at all. Cores
speeches are frequently full of statistics,
too. And yet. he is obliged to speak, not
only without manuscript, but without
any kind of notes.
In every other Senator's Office, an inn
portant speech is a big burden on the
and their assistants. The
speech must be dictated. revamped, trim
med, manicured. escalloped. fluted and
gilded before 1t is ready for the market
In Cores Office nobody knows when he
is preparing a speech. He has things
read to him that may or may not be with
that in view. When he gets all the infor-
nation he desires. he sits quietly and
composes his argument, and that Is all
the fuss there is to it.
Cores facility at memorizing figures |
s marvellous. few weeks before the |
nominations last year he |
was riding on the train with a friend |
md bought an almanac from the train |
boy to find some election statistics. He |
asked the friend to read over the figures |
IN the popular vote for Bryan and Taft |,
n the various States.
Lets see. now, how many I can re-
he said when he had heard |
he list read over once.
And he started in and repeated the /
igures for each and every State in the |
Union just as 1t was in the book.
COPYRIGHT. 1913. By Fred C. Kelly. All Rights Re
servrdl ]