South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-08-13
Statesmen Real
and Near.
By Fred c. Kelly

WASHINGTON Allen Tread
way of Massachusetts and E. r. Kiess
of Pennsylvania are two men of a
type that it is wonder there are not
more of in congress. They are hotel
men-summer hotel men, and cater to
the wants OF people who are on vaca-
ton and free from care. Men and
women who are on vacation and free
from care are. as anybody knows, the
fussiest lot of people that ever get
together under a hotel roof. They do
not always know exactly what they
want, but whatever they think they
want they want it right anyway and
just the way they think it ought to be.
The trouble is that being freed from
the usual everyday responsibilities
gives them a chance TO sit about and
feel sorry for themselves While en-
gagged at that they look around and
see things that are not as they should
be. The hotel is not being run as it
should be-not at ALL So they go TO
the proprietor and tell him how he
ought to run his hotel.
The proprietor is already conduct
ing his place the way he thinks is
wisest and he cannot conveniently
change his plans every couple of days.
inS guests that they are a bunch of
NUTS, as they often are. and that their
ideas ere not worth a single, solitary,
shriveled picayune. Instead he must be
Suave, courteous. diplomatic. When
man is a successful summer hotel
proprietor, as both Messrs. Kiess and
Treadway are. one may assume that
he is clever at listening TO the wants
of mankind and taking care of some
OF those wants. but Ignoring others
when he thinks the want shouldn't be
there.
Now, those same qualifications also
are To be found in a great many men
in politics. Ii would be difficult, per-
haps, TO find two different lines in
which the same man ought to do well
as the hotel business and politics. Yet
the only men in congress-unless 1 am
carelessly overlooking somebOdy-whO
have used in politics what they learned
about dealing with people in the hotel
business art Messrs Kiess and Tread
way. And they look less like hotel
proprietors than one would expect.
Kiess makes one think of a cross be-
tween a clergyman and the manager
OF a dry goods store. Treadway has
more of the critical dignity of bank
er than the glad-handing attitude one
associates with hotel proprietor, and
this may be partly explained by the
fact, that in q sense he is a banker;
he is a director OF a loan and trust
company and trustee OF savings
bank.
The more one thinks about il. the
stranger il seems that there are not
more hotel men in politics. Probably
the most conspicuous example of what
hotel man can do by applying to
politics the very things he already
knows. is the case OF Thomas Taggart
who runs not only hotels but the state
OF Indiana as we'll Taggart's success
I in both the hotel business and politics
I is in knowing the folks he meets. He
is a tactful person. For instance, a
I little while ago, a famous woman sing
er happened TO be a guest at Tag
\ CARTS big health resort hotel. Some OF
\ the other guests greatly desired TO
Y hear her burst forth in song and show
what she could do. They went to Tag
/ CART with a verbal petition for him 70
ask the woman 10 sing. He said ne
1 thought IL could be arranged. Turning
I 10 a woman guest who knew the sing
er, he said:
Wont YOU go and tell Nine. Tum-
titum that a number OF the ladies are
wishing she would sing? Ask her il
\ she won't oblige them"
The singer readily got up when her
friend asked her and sang several
selections.
If / had asked her myself" ex-
I planned Taggart. she would have
sent me a bill for $500 or $780,
Sen. Kern who is one Of Taggart':