The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-18
Little Stories Of the
 DayFron, Washington
Frederick P. Keppel Impresses Visitors Man Who Had Very Delicate Task Under Superior Orders-Gala-
 van Severe on Army Officers in High Places
By HUGH W. ROBERTS

Washington, January 17.-(Special) Who is this man, Frederick P. Keppel, third assistant secretary of war, against whom Major Frank S. White of Birmingham and Major Taussig of St. Louis have expressed phillipics?
 Requests for such information have reached the local Age-Herald bureau from readers of The Age -eHrald inter ested in the differences which were developed, on account of conscientious objectors, between the war department and certain of it's legal officers.
 Personally. Mir. Keppel is entirely prepossessing. He is pleasant to look upon and to talk with. His sauvity is an outstanding characteristic. His viewpoint on mundane affairs is ap- parently broad He does not give the impression of one who looks through a narrow channel or as one who speake one thing and inwardly dwells pleasantly on another.
 Mir. Keppel was at one time dean of Columbia university His ancestry was English-and therefore he is relieved of the imputation, based on the physi- cal appearance of his name when writ tel, of German extraction. And in tes- timony adduced by committee of Congress that between 25 and 60 per cent of the members of the faculty of Columbia stood for peace at any price, no reference to the third as- sistant secretary was made or sug- gested.
 It is an interesting fact that before T. ct af r1 sistant secretary, Dean keppel served as receiving man" for Secretary Ba- ker. This position is not compatible with the dignity attached to one who has served as head of a leading emu cational institution of the United States. And yet the man who dis charges such duties acceptably is diplomat. Keppel is a diplomat. He knew how to meet people how to rush them into the secretary's office, how to turn them away and how to smile all the time. When Congress gave the President the right to in crease the number of assistant secre- taries, Keppel was one of those named.
 The New York World last Sunday printed an interesting article dealing with conscientious objectors It was stated that out of 5,700,000 men drawn for service less than 5000 were con. scientious objectors; that of the 6O0o all save 500 were handled without fric ton. That publication carried a fine compliment to the administration in discharging 2 duty at once Necessary and unpleasant. The third assistant secretary was charged with the hand ling of cases growing out of friction between military men and conscien- tious objectors. But he acted in ac- cordance with policy which had been mapped out by the war department with the approval of the President There is no question, therefore, but that whatever way Keppel is justly to be criticized. in greater measure the Secretary of War and the President of the United States are to be justly crit icized. Otherwise one might hold a police reporter responsible for the edl- torial policy of newspaper As to whether or not the President, MT. Ba- ker and MT. Keppel are in more or less great part conscientious objectors themselves is quite another question.
 It is unquestionably safe to state, in this connection, that it was the policy of the war administration to deal as kindly with conscientious objectors as possible. The subject was a delicate one The department, with the ap- proval of the President, thought it wise to run no risk of stirring the