Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-02-18
THE BROOKLYN EAGLE

Washington, February 11-There is
far more regret than resentment in
Administration quarters over the
resigu alton of Secretary Garrison
There is real sorrow that President
Wilson's Secretary of War felt that il
was necessary to quit the Cabinet, be-
cause the usefulness of Mr.. Garrison
as a public official was so widely ap-
preciated that he had come to be pop
ularly regarded as n of the main
stays of the White House. In fact, IN
many quarters it was common to hear
Mr.. Garrison described as 'the ablest
man in the Cabinet.n 1t was a popular
opinion, no matter how accurate II
may have been.
This description in larse part grew
out of the fact that Secretary Garrison
made an infinite number of friends
where he made very few enemies; that
he was an efficient and Woodworking
official, who rarely made a break" in
public utterance; that he was positive
in his opinions, consultative and tena-
cious in supporting them and was
more than once strongly aligned on the
Presidents side when Mr.. Wilson had
serious differences with his former
Secretary of State, Mr.. Bryan.
Mr.. Garrison came to Washington at
the beginning of the Wilson term,
wholly unknown to the public life OF
the National Capital and kno wing
very little of it himself. He came to
take charge of a difficult department
of the Government and to occupy
shoes of some distinguished predeces-
sors in recent years, such as Elihu
Root and William III. Taft. For nine
years prior to his acceptance of the
Wal Portfolio he had been a judge in
New Jersey, holding the post of vice
chancellor of that State. His judicial
work has never brought him in touch
either with the men or the policies
concerning which he would have to
deal in his new office.
Took Hold of War Department I'm
an Able Manner.
He took hold of things at the War
Department in q n which
seemed to indicate that President Will
% had made no mistake in his Sc
lection of at least one executive officer.
One of the first things Mr.. Garrison
did was to win the confidence of the
officers and enlisted men of the Army.
This was no easy thing. The Army,
as a whole, is suspicious of a new
Secretary of War, because almost iu-
variably 1t knows nothing of him and
because 1t is constitutionally skeptical
of the ability of any civilian to
understand the needs of a military
machine. The Army first discovered
that Mr.. Garrison was very human.
He had infinitely less red tape about
him than the Army itself. He was
approachable. He did not surround
himself with formalities and ceremo-
malls.
MI. Garrison showed an aptness in
studying the Army from the military
viewpoint. He did not cease to be q
civilian, but he understood the neces-
of giving much weight to what
the professional and trained soldiers
said. He worked in harmony with his
officers to a surprising degree. His
annual reports were confined to what
he thought could be actually achieved
for the Army; there was no day
dreaming or poetry in them. He saw
the evils that some of his predecessors
had likewise seen, but he did not at
TO force a cure of all of them,
because he recognized the futility of
to do too much at once.
Rather early in his administration
Mr.. Garrison showed ability to cope
with emergency situations. At the
time of the Dayton floods he took per-
sonal charge of the relief work, organ
it aud modelled 1T efficiently and
quickly, and returned to Washington
with people all over the country say
ing that the President had a olive
one'' in his Secretary of War.
Mr.. Garrison took early sters to cut