New-York tribune., 1918-04-15
The Portrait of
q Secretary
By Ralph Block

State OF the united States is a great
u position. The Secretary of State is
the custodian of the great seal He is next
in line of succession to the Vice-Prcsident.
He is in charge of all the state papers. In
moments of cloquence, when don't
things quite truthfully, and remembering
Thomas jefferson and J. @. Adams and
Daniel Webster, we call the Secretary Of
State the American premier He may have
been once. He isn't now, of course.
Fifty years after the Great War, when
the diaries and the memoirs and the bog
rarhles begin pouring in, it will be inter
csting to sec how large shadow the pres
ent Secretary of State throws against his
background. A Secretary of State has a
peculiar hold on historical attention. Treat
les are named after him, even if he may do
nothing else worth recording. Under any
circumstances, it wouldn't be possible to
forget Mr.. Lansing Will history, weigh
ing out the regulations with it's nice scales
and balances, do anything more than chalk
him up at the rate of pleasant man?
You never can tell beforehand what the
future is going to decide about anyone or
anything. Seward believed it was going to
be up to him to the nation. The chief
use Seward has in history is to provide
an opportunity for human appreciation Of
the vanities of brilliant man.
But Mr.. Lansing hasn't any pretcnsions,
as Seward had. He is a most modest man.
Will history reverse the process this time
and give to Robert Lansing rather than
taking away from him? Perhaps it won't
be possible to measure him truthfully until
Time chooses to measure another who is
greater than he. SO much may depend on
the ratios involved. Surely that will be
many days from now
ne seems little weary now, does Mr..
! cfr
1T was sono three years ago that he
quietly emerged from the background of
the State Department to pick up the reins
that Bryan had dropped. The diplomats
were dlscrectly enthusiastic about him. He
seemed so much in the genteel tradition of
o1plomacy. The rather trim, regular feat
ures that the newspapers printed made him
out as being everything a Secretary of State
ought to be. 1t seemed appropriate that
ne shouid De IN touch with all the great
chahcellerles, reserved gentleman who
knew the usages of statesmen, intimate
with the stage settings behind the scenes
NO novelist could have imagined a better
hgure for a Secretary of State. moro an
proSimatlng what every one had nicturcd
lot the place. He had been on all kinds Of
III '"Ierhatlonal commissions. He know inter
national law better than Billy SUNDAY
knows the Bible.
NOW the trimncss has dropped awav a
niue lie is still the unquestioned pattern
from winch the official manner is made. He
is still man Of many discretions with .
sure sense Of his own of the right nronor-
tlons of things. His imagination is turned
steadily on immediate facts 1t never feels
any desire to leap away across the cracs
ana raVlnes OF craftsmanship That was
Mr. Bryans imagination.
ie.' even SO quietly, Secretary LANSING
has bent little in the conflict A. he
stands in the long audience room. with tho
portrait OF Root behind him, and Lewis
Cass, wrapped in cloak, and Olnev and
ri"u''o, ana Adams looking down at him
from the walls, there is an air of v,oo.;
ness about him which even cont;,;+,' "ea,.-
not hide. His hands, resting an b;ah
packed chair, twitch little. nervouslv II
is SAID his health is not good He ;s not .
"a, aall man. even less than of middle height.
tic gray ha1r is closely brushed and the
."ustache clipped short. All this is fam;l-
lar' But the forehead is lined and tharo
are me winding lines on the cheeks. ahout
the eyes. e"'' A"ou'
IAN secretary of State allow himself 70
~ human Can he allow himself little
o"4 P'oPre VIII his fine manner he
position? VI his
IL might be asked about o+bor ~
T 1u' 'eS, IL can scarcely be said of LANSING
m'a uaSerellon' this careful training of the
~ co ana the voice, is unconscious. II rom
~, ms 10 something that is LANSING him
nc is the rare figure of a conven-
oohal type realized in the flesh. with, ovor,,
convention carried over unbroken from tho
realm of fiction TO that of actua1itv 1.an
sing has pretences. A'""-
Even a diplomat may have his sinccritics