The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-05-06

in the least enusive, he is a good
mixer You will find him full of charm Out in
cleveland he lived in modest frame house with
MS wife and three children smoked fake tobacco
In 25-cent pipe. drove his own Ford, and for
amusement read Greek and Latin books on the
street cars" Thus article by Rowland
Thomas in the New York World
1t is interesting to notice" my informant added
that ne is the second of Tom Johnson's disciples
70 De l1fted into prominence by President Wilson
brand Wh1tock is the other. 1t is hardly exagger-
atlon to say that Brand Whitlock in Belgium has
proved hlmsef great man. Will Baker be as
successful in the war department? Frankly
nucn as l like him personally, l am wondering
"netner ne will measure up to the Job What he
mas done he has done well. But-he has never
Deen tested out in really big affairs. Has he the
capacity for them? You know a 3S-caIiber re-
VoIVer may be perfect weapon-as revolver
out fail lamentably if pressed into service as a
seacoast gun! Is Newton D. Baker big enough to
De secretary of war at time like this? That's
what I'm asking myself That's what the country
is asking ITSELF think"
Naturally those remarks ran through nv head
as talked with the new secretary of war last
week saw him twice, in his modest bed
room at the University club where he is living
for the present bachelor because the children
are in school in Cleveland and we don't want to
break into their year" The second time he was
IN MS ONCE in the war department the office to
which one penetrates through that dread ante
chamber where hang the portraits all the previ-
GUS incumbents of the Office
Oh OoIH occasions l got the impression
OF the physical man. Nature in molding his body,
did neat job. He is a markedly small man but
in proportion all the way through. His Iittleness
carries no suggestion of the dwarfish His head
is large, but not enough to make him look top
heaVy. His hands and feet of moderate SIZE
well formed and muscular He has a chest big
enough to breathe in, waist which carries no
ad1pose luggage. His skin is swarthy, his hair
black and straight. A pair OF hazel eyes full of
hfe' but comprehensive rather than keen; the
wide mouth Of orator actor, mobile vet firm
of lip; the brow of scholar; face in general in
which the perpendicular lines of strength are &C
centuated, manner at once dignified and friendly
bearing which should call attentive rather than
alert-these the characteristics of the outward
man.
His mentality is not so easily characterized 1
shall have to try to bring it out for you series
OF rather detached glimpses, as he himself re-
Vealed it to me in the course of conversation.
Our talk ranged over many topics. We had for
instance, been speaking OF the extraordinary
amount of reading of standard English authors
he had done before he twenty years old and
asked him whether the familiarity of his mother
tongue thus acquired had not been an important
element in his various successes. He said 81
think that is true. Ability to express myself eff
fectively in speech has been of great value to me-
This led to brief sketch of his personal his
tory Mr.. Baker was born in 1871 in Martinsburg,
w. Va. community of 900 persons, wherein his
father was the leading physician. He the
second Of four sons At the age OF twenty, in
from Johns Hopkins university, having completed
the four years course in three years. Followed
year Of graduate work in Roman law, comparative
Jurisprudence and economics, and then his law
course, which he took at Washington and Lee uni
veFsity, completing the two years work in one
year. THAT compression" he told me, was done
for family reasons. Money not plentiful in
a country doctors family, and there were other
sons to educate" After his graduation in 1893
Mr.. Baker hung out his shingle in Martinsburg to
indicate that he willing to practice law" as
he puts it, and remained in that receptive condi-
ton until 1896. the last year of the Cleveland ad-
Ininistration, when Postmaster General Wilson
called him to Washington to be his private sec
Rotary. At divided my two cases between the other
members of the local bar, he told me, and went
In 1899 Mr.. Baker invited to to CleEe-
land, o. as a partner with Foran & McTigue one
of the city's leading firms of trial lawyers. He
went there, met Tom Johnson and magne-
tized; by that association drawn into local
politics and had fourteen years of active
paigning there serving four terms city solicitor
under Mayor Johnson and two terms mayor
after his chief was deposed. He declined to run
for third term, and had just resumed his law
practice at the beginning of this year when he
called to Washington
Returning to our topic 1 asked him to what
felt indebted for what he had accomplished He
pondered that and said
MAKES WORK FOR LAUNDRlEs.