The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-11-30
DESERVING DEMOCRATS
WATCHING PLUM TREE
LANE is THE ONLY STRONG MAN
IN cABINET-CHANGE
EXPECTED,

In the face OF semi official denlals
put forth by the White House, no one
| in washington Is authorized positive
Inv to assert that there will be changes
in President Wilson's cabinet after
the 4th of March, but even with posi-
tive information lacking, the opinion
is general that there will be several
vacancies to fill, due to the "resigna-
ton" of incumbent cabinet officers.
! Cabinet changes will be the subject
of gossip for the next three months,
but definite information porbably will
be slow to leak out, especially as Mr.,
Wilson has faculty for concealing
such matters from the public until the
| time he Is ready to act, or course, the
! president is not going to ask any of
Mis- present cabinet to resign-that Is
to say, he Is not going to ask them
! publicly to quit. Certainly not No
president does, save in most extraor-
binary circumstances. But no pres-
dent can prevent member of his
cabinet from rendering his resigna-
ton and that is the practice most
likely to be followed.
Only One Strong Man.
Since the retirement of Secretary
Garrison, there has been but one
strong man in the Wilson cabinet
Secretary Lane, of the department OF
the interior. All the other members
are men above whom the president
towers; all the others are men he do
inmates and directs, and compared
with the president, some of the cab
4 met have proven mental pigmies If,
as many public men believe the pres
ident intends to make his second adj
ministration as successful as possible,
he certainly must weed out some of
the men of small caliber with whom
he has surrounded himself for the past
four years, and pick new cabinet.
But there are other reasons for ex-
| pecting sweeping cabinet changes. The
president must extend some recogni-
! tion to the men who aided materially
in his campaign this fall. There are
today no large offices at his command
save on the commissions created at
the last session of congress- There is
no big office open for Vance McCor-
mick; none for ex-senator Charles A
Towne credited with having done
very effective work on the stump, and
no offices for those men who contrib
uted young fortunes to the Wilson war
chest. Some of these men will have
to be provided for, and some of them,
as the measure usually is applied,
are entitled to cabinet places or to
good diplomatic posts.
designations Expected.
| OF course, the announcement has
has been made that on March 4th the
president will expect the designations
of every foreign representative of this
government and that move will place
Vat his disposal large number of am
bassadorships and ministries, as we'll
las consuates, but not all who resign
will be retired; some will be promot-
ed and others transferred. But those
jobs take men out of the country, and
some do not care to 60 Nothing but
cabinet jobs will be acceptable to
some of the big democrats who earn
ed recognition,
Cabinet gossip has so far intlmated
that the secretary of commerce, Mr..
Redfeld; the secretary of the navy,
Mr.. Daniels; the secretary of the
treasury, Mr. McAdoo; the secretary
Iof agriculture, Mr.. Houston, and the
secretary of war, Mr.. Baker. are slat-
ed to go. OF course, the president will
mot publicly force them out, but the
resignation of all these cabinet mem
bbers would occasion no surprise.
There has been an intimation that
Postmaster General Burleson also
might quit, but Mr. Burleson plays
the kind of politics the president APP
proves, and he probably will hold over
Just how extensive the changes will
be, no one knows; the president him
self probably has not decided, but the
cabinet for the next four years will
be very different body from that
which sat with the president during
the recent months.