The Washington herald., 1914-12-05
White House Qualifications.

| Speaker CiarlSs nomination of the Hon. James
R. Mann for the Presidency may not influence the
next Republican National Convention any more
than did Mr.. Mann's tribute to Speaker Clark two
years ago, but it was a graceful thing for the
Speaker to reciprocate in kind. And what the
Speaker said true especially in his acknowl-
edgement of Mr.. Mann's industry, parliamentary
knowledge and his "pestiferous" opposition to the
Democratic party. In the last four years the Dem
ocrats in the House have learned that this old
lieutenant of Speaker Cannon carried field mar
shals baton in his knapsack He has put the big
Democratic majority in hole so many times that
he has made their reform rules ridiculous and a
menace to legislation and to the boasted har-
mony in the majority ranks. Jim Mann will also
be on the job in the next Congress- and with a
Democratic majority of thirty in place of the
present majority of I47, Speaker Clark may we'll
wish him elsewhere, even in the White House.
The qualifications named by Speaker Clark may
not all sugges: Mr.. Mann for the Presidency, but
the Speaker could have added that Jim Mann has
more reliable information and more exact knowl-
edge to how legislation is developed, and what
legislation has been enacted in the last twenty
years than any other living Should he be
elected President, his Cabinet would not wander
about in the labyrinth of the law trying to find
out their duties and responsibilities; would it
be necessary to change the old order of things to
allow members of the Cabinet to sit in the House
and participate in debate. Jim Mann in the White
House would continue to be the foundation of legis-
lative knowledge and the boys on the Hill would
continue to go to him to find out what had been
done and how to do other things.
1t would be great advantage to the President
if the legislators came to him to find out these
things, for he could in that way keep his hand on
the legislative machine as we'll as the executive
lever
The Presidents who have had the least friction
with Congress have been those who have had legis-
lative experience and intimate acquaintance with
legislators and legislation. That of the
secrets of President McKinleys success in his
dealings with Congress He knew the law, how
and why it had been made, and he had the 1egis-
lator's respect for the law. He also knew how to
proceed when he thought the law should be
changed and whom to consult about the proposed
changes so to bring them about with the least
possible friction
Jim Mann has the same knowledge and the
same respect from his political opponents for no
minority leader has oftener called short truce in
battle to pay tribute to some leader of the ma
jority. His pestiferousness is persistent but not
continuous. The Speakers tribute to Mr.. Mann
may not secure him the nomination, but if it should
help to carry Mr. Mann to the conspicuous place
to which Mr.. Clark attained in the Baltimore
convention, with a majority of the delegates voting
for him, it is safe to predict that there will be no
w. J. Bryan in the convention to violate his pri-
mary instructions and rob him of victory.