Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-17
With the President at His Desk in the WIFI

found. among permanent members OF
the White House staff, two assistant
secretaries who have held over from
one administration to another. The
first is Rudolph Forster. who has been
in the White House for eighteen or
nineteen years; the second. Thomas W.
Brahany, a native Of Wisconsin. who
Der of the stan is n p Webster. dis
bursting officer of the White House. who
has charge of all vouchers and pay
ments under the contingent fund and
the travel fund, and who purchases all
OF the supplies needed by the executive
office. Mr.. Webster succeeded Col. Crook
when the latter died a few months ago.
Another member of the staff. and one
of long experience, is Warren S. Young.
who has served in various capacities for
thirty or forty years, and who knows
intimately important phases Of the work
which would escape the average man. As
already mentioned, the Presidents priv
ate stenographer is Mr.. Sven. and. in
addition, the staff includes about fifteen
clerks. among them a record clerk, cor
respondence clerks. messengers and six
or seven Stenographers in normal times.
although when business pressure is un-
usually heavy additions are made to the
force.
Located at one side Of the staff room
is the telegraph room. where three oper-
ators are regularly on duty. two in the
daytime and one at night, their number
being increased when necessary, under
a law which gives the executive once
permission to ask other departments Of
the government to detail men for emer-
gency use. AS a matter Of fact. the tele-
graph room is SO highly important part
Of the executive ONCE that a number Of
the STAFF engaged in other work are
fully competent to act as telegraph oper-
ators at any moment, and the telephone
operators are among the ablest switch
board men in the country.
A dozen telegraph wires running from
this corner Of the stan room are con-
nected with the main ONCE OF the tele-
graph companies in Washington. From the
switchboard, telephone wires lead to all
departments of the government, and a
direct wire runs from the White House
hundreds of miles across the country, far
UP to the Presidents summer home in
Cornish, N. H. Another telephone wire
runs directly from the executive office to
the main switchboard In the Capitol. The
purpose of maintaining these various d.
rect wires Is to avoid any possible delay
in getting connections through telegraph
loops or telephone central stations.
While there is nothing In the regulations
to enforce the rule, yet 1t Is fact that
telephone connection with the White
House is practically instantaneous.
derstood when one remembers how inn
nortant it il for the President to be kept
in constant means of communication with
cabinet members and other advisers
throughout the country. 1t has been said
that the executive office is the nerve
center of the nation" and in sense this
may be true for public opinion Is regis
tered there, in the form Of letters and
4elegrams wien matters Of wide and
urgent importance arise. For example. in
times Of quiet, particularly in midsummer.
when all of official Washington is absent
from the capital, and when domestic as
well as foreign affairs pursue their
usually peaceful ways. sometimes less
than fifty kilograms a day come ever
the wires into the White House. Yet at
other times the number received not in
frequently runs up to a thousand or
fifteen hundred, occasionally even as
high as two thousand. but this only when
intense interest is aroused over some
critical situation. or because Of a definite
campaign carried on In order to pass or
defeat some pending congressional meas
ure or government policy.
Within a few days after the Lusitania
was sunk by a German submarine tele-
grams poured into the White House liter
ally by the thousand. President Wilson
had no difficulty in ascertaining what pub
lie opinion was in that crisis. Again, 1t
happens not infrequently that some organ
ization, pushing a particular measure, will