Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-05-05

NJ zen we all approve of highly-and
TIT W fail to initiate! He has lofty ideals.
He has high principles. He is utterly
MIM sincere. He is simple and unaffected
TX wv both in thought and life He has
VIZ - IN clear, welldiscplined mind. He has
NNEEgS%V an extraordinary command of concise
@zz2 and effective speech. Without being
in the least effusive he is good
mixer. You will find him full of charm. Out in
Cleveland he lived in modest frame house with
his wife and three children, smoked flake tobacco
IN a 25-cent pipe, drove his own Ford and for
amusement read Greek and Latin books on the
street cars" Thus runs an article by Rowland
Thomas in the New York World
1t is interesting to notice" my informant added
that he is the second of Tom Johnsons disciples
10 be lifted into prominence by President Wilson
Brand Whitock is the other 1t is hardly exagger-
alton to say that Brand Whitlock in Belgium has
proved himself a great man. Will Baker be as
successful in the department? Frankly
much as like him personally, | am wondering
whether he will measure up to the job. What he
has done he has done we'll. But-he has never
been tested out in really big affairs. Has he the
capacity for them? You know 38-caliber re-
volver may be perfect weapon-as revolver
but fail amentably if pressed into service as
seacoast gum 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, l think"
Naturally those remarks ran through my head
as l talked with the new secretary of war last
week saw him twice, once 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 his office in the war department, the office to
which one penetrates through that dread ante
chamber where hang the portraits of all the previ-
GUS ncumbents of the office.
On both occasions I got the same imnreSSiOn
OF the physical man. Nature, in n ding his body
did a neat job. He is markedly small man, but
IN proportion all the way through His lttleness
carries no suggestion of the dwarfish. His head
is large, but not enough so to make him look top
heavy. His hands and feet of moderate size
we'll 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 A pair of hazel eyes full of
life, but comprehensive rather than keen; the
wide mouth of an orator actor, mobile yet firm
of lip; the brow Of a scholar; face in general in
which the perpendicular lines of strength are ac-
centuated a manner at once dignifed and friendly
a bearing which should call attentive rather than
aert-these the characteristics of the outward
man.
His mentality is not easily characterized.
shall have to try to bring it out for in series
of rather detached glinpses, as he himself re-
vealed it to me in the course of our 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: Il
think that is true. Ability to express myself eff
fectively in speech has been of great value to me-
This led to a 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 was 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
versty completing the two years work in one
year "That compression" he told me, was done
for family reasons Money was not plentiful in
country doctors family and there were other
sons to educate" After his graduation in 1893
Mr.. Baker hung out his single in Martinsburg to
indicate that he was willing to practice law, as
he puts it. and remained in that receptive condl-
ton until 1885, the last year of the Cleveland adj
ministration when Postmaster General wilson
called him to Washington to be his private sec
retary 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, one
of the city's leading firms of trial lawyers he
went there met Tom johnson and was magne-
t;zad. nv that association drawn into local
politics and had fourteen years of active cam
pagning 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 l asked him to what
other qualities besides his ability speaker he
felt Indebted for what he had accomplished. He
pondered that and said