Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1913-05-30
UNIQUE NEWSPAPER
CABINET" C0NvENES
TWICE EACH WEEK
President Confers Freely With
Worlds Correspondents at
Washington.
WILSON'S ANSWERS CRISP
No Evasion or Quibbling-Execu.
tive Replies Directly to all
Questions.

" oA~, Ahoy op' 'ioitOi .
to Washington-andW Washington these
days means the White House for that
is the one point of interest that no
tourist ever overlooks during the early
days of a new administration-have
noted that a number of spruce-looking
men, slightly worried in appearance,
but withal very jaunty and full of that
which is known as pep" collect in the
anteroom of the executive offices every
Monday morning and Thursday after
noon. At 10 o'clock on the former day
and at o'clock on the latter the men
disappear within the inner sanctums
of the White House, to re-appear about
Is or 20 minutes later and hurry off,
apparently having completed their bus
mess.
Did they but know it, these men are
the members of President Wilson s
newspaper cabinet" with whom he is
wont to confer twice a week-for NIL
tual benefit.
The newspaper men are anxious,
most anxious, to obtain news of what
is going on in the White House and
particularly what the president in
tends to do and to get some line on the
state of mind of the chief executive
Also the president is anxious to dis
cover, through the representatives of
the press what the attitude of the
country is on certain subjects and to
discover, through the words dropped
by the correspondents, what he ought
to do with respect to many of the thou
sand-and-one rules of etiquette in
Washington of which he is still ig.
norant
The Washington correspondent is an
institution peculiar to himself. Well
dressed, almost to man, clean cut.
gingerly alert, they form what is with
out doubt the most capable assortment
of correspondents in the United States
Even New York, with it's scores of big
metropolitan dailies and hundreds OF
magazines cannot boast of the number
Of newspaper writer's that Washington
can. The capital of the country draws
from the entire nation for her CORE.
spondents. San Francisco and the Pa.
cific Coast, the North, the South, the
East and the great metropolis of the
world each send their quota of picked
men to cover" the news of the home
of the president, and the seat of Con.
gress and the starting place for practi.
cally one-half Of the really big news
which breaks" every day.
The London Times, that great "thun-
derer" whose voice has overthrow
ministries and partnerships in Great
Britain, has two men to do its Wash
ington work. Germany. France, Switz.
erland, Italy and Mexico have star
men who visit the White House every
week and the presidents newspaper
cabinet" Is, indeed, cosmopolitan,
heterogeneous collection of star men
from all parts of the earth.
The hours Of the semi-weekly con-
ferences were chosen with direct refer
ence to the desires of the cabinet"
The morning paper man desired that
their sheets should not be left uncov-
cred on the big events Of the day, while
the afternoon papers insisted that they
also be given time when their repre-
sentatives could confer with the chief
executive about the big policies Of the
administration. Therefore the Mon
day conference has been set for 10
o'clock in the morning while the cor
respondents obtain entrance into the
executive sanctum at o'clock on
Thursday afternoon.
Usually about so men are present at
these meetings. They form a wide
semicircle about the presidents desk
with the chief executive himself as the
center and two of the omnipresent Sc