Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1916-05-09


Nn2M sincere. He is simple and unaffected
tx %M both in thought and life He has
VIZ w clear, welldisciplined mind He has
NLEENA" an extraordinary command of concise
GsEA and effective speech. Without being
in the least effusive he is a good
mixer You will find him full of charm Ont in
cleveland he lived in modest frame house with
his wife and three children. smoked fake tobacco
III zo-cent pipe, drove his own Ford, and for
amusement read Greek and Latin books on the
81 81 Get cars mus runs an article by Rowland
Thomas in the New York World.
m 1t is interesting to notice" my informant added
that he is the second of Tom Johnson's discinles
TO De lifted into prominence by President Wilson
DIano Whtiock is the other. 1t is hardly exagger-
alton TO say that Brand Whitlock in Belgium has
proved himself a great man. Will Baker he as
successful IN the war department? Frankly
1Iucn as like him personally l am wondering
"he'ner ne Will measure up to the job What he
mas zone ne has done we'll But-he has never
Deeh tested out in really big affairs Has he the
capacity Tor them? You know a 3S-caliber re-
VolVer may be perfect weapon-as a revolver
Dut fall lamentably if pressed into service as
seacoast gun! Is Newton D. Baker big enough 10
De secretary of war at time like this? That's
"hat l 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 l saw him twice. once in his modest he'd
room at the University cub9 where he is living
Tor the present a 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 his office in the war department the office to
which one penetrates through that dread ante
chamDer Where hang the portraits of all the previ-
Gus incumbents of the Office
On both occasions l got the same impression
OF the physical man. Nature, in molding his body
old neat job. He is markedly small man. but
in proportion all the way through His littleness
carries no suggestion of the dwarhsh His head
is large but not enough so to make him look top
heavy. His hands and feet are of moderate size
well formed and muscular. He has chest big
enough to breathe in, waist which carries no
adipose luggage. His skin is swarthy, his hair
black and straight. pair of hazel eyes full of
life, but comprehensive rather than keen; the
wide mouth of an orator or actor, mobile yet firm
of lip; the brow of a scholar; face in general IL
which the perpendicular lines of strength are ac-
centuated, manner at once dignifed and friendly
bearing which l should call attentive rather than
alert-these are the characteristics of the outward
man.
His mentality is not easily characterized. |
shall have to try to bring it out for you in series
of rather detached glimpses as he himself re-
vealed it to me in the course of our conversation
Our talk ranged many topics. We had for
instance, been speaking of the extraordinary
amount of reading of standard English authors
he had done before he was 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, a community of 5000 persons, wherein his
father was the leading physician. He the
second of four sons At the age of twenty, in
1891, he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts
from Johns Hopkins university having completed
the four years course in three years. Followed a
year of graduate work in Roman law, comparative
jurisprudence and economics, and then his law
course, which he took at Washington and Lee uni
versity, completing the two years work in one
year. THAT compression, he told me, was done
for family reasons Money was 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-
ministration, when Postmaster General Wilson
called him to Washington to be his private sec
Rotary Il divided my two cases between the other
members of the local bar he told me, and went"
In 1899 Mr.. Baker was invited to come to Cleve-
land o. as a partner with Foran & McTigue,
of the citys leading firms of trial lawyers, He
went there met Tom Johnson and was magne-
tiled; by that association drawn into local
politics and had fourteen years of active cam
paigning there serving four terms as city solicitor
under Mayor Johnson and two terms as mayor
after his chief was deposed. He declined to run
for a third term, and had just resumed his law
practice at the beginning OF this year when he was
called to Washington.
Returning to our topic, asked him to what
other Qualities besides his ability speaker he
felt indebted for what he had accomplished. He
Wondered that and said: