The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC u. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. c.
/ NEW TYPE OF SECRETARY

I
type of man for that position, and
who approaches it in a different way
from those who have gone before. His
name is Edwin Thomas Meredith He
is publisher and banker and is an
| aggressive man of affairs. He comes
| from Des Moines where he~publishes
a farm paper. He has been direc
tor in one of the leading banks of
Iowa, in the Federal Reserve bank at
Chicago, and in the Chamber of Com
merce of the United States; has been
| the head of the National Association
of Advertising clubs, and has served
! on various governmental bodies dur
ing and since the war.
The department of agriculture here
tofore has gone in for two types of
| secretary. The type which has pre-
dominated thru most of its existence
has grown copious quantities of
whiskers, has harked back to the good
| old days of whiting sticks at the
| corner grocery has harbored a pair
| of brogans in its closet, reminiscent
soil. representative of a class in our
| citizenship. The second type has been
from the college class room, the
laboratory of the scientist. 1t has
understood the miracle performed by
| the plant root when it reaches into
| the earth for natures elements and
| hands them to the farmer in the
| form of prize ears of corn. It has
known that clover will not bear seed
unless the humble bee is present in
the fields, carrying pollen from one
! blossom to another on its feet as it
/ hunts honey, and thus fertilizing those
! blossoms.
/ But here comes a new type. Secre-
tary Meredith has none of the ear
/ marks of the farmer. There is none
! of the dandruff of the scientist on his
coat collar While he has edited agri-
/ cultural papers, and made something
| of a study of farming. he makes no
pretense of being an authority. While
he is a college man from a school
which leans toward agriculture, he
| converses little of chemical reactions.
He is a stalwart outstanding man.
wearing a business suit of the best ma
terials, made by the best of tailors.
| His muStache is short-cropped. his
eyes alert. his enthusiasm unbounded,
his geniality contagious. He is the
| type of man one would set down as
an executive. He might be the head
of a big corporation, the driving force
in any large undertaking.
1t is in the light of executive general
manager that the new secretary of
agriculture regards himself. He does
not believe that it is his business to
master the scientific problems of the
department There are hundreds of
scientists under him, each of whom
has devoted years to the study of given
details. When ever he wants scien-
tific direction he has but to press a
button to get a specialist. He realizes
that the executive must assign detail,
not handle it. He believes that the
man who sits at the center of an or
ganiZation which is far-flung, nation
wide, is primarily the co-ordinating
agent which makes it work as a single
producing machine. and secondarily,
the sales agent who sees to it that the
product of the machine is properly
marketed.
Theoretically the departments at
Washington are executive. Their
business is to handle the detail of
government. The state department
takes care of those issues that arise.
| day by day, as between the United
| States and other nations. The treas
ury department is the fiscal agent Of
| the government, taking care of the
| business thai comes to it. Thus most
of the departments are intended
merely to handle the daily grist. The
| department of agriculture is a diff
ferent basis. Its purpose is not eX-
ecutive but chiefly creative. 1t is to
make two blades grow where one for
merly sprouted but withered. 1t is
! to increase the quantity of food that
| comes to the tables of its peoples and
provide some for other peoples who
are hungry. 1t is hardly an executive
! department at all.
1t was a quarter of a century ago
that the department of agriculture
began to get a hold on the conscious
ness of the American farmer. 1t was
then that that group of scientific men
which it had gathered began to ham
mer home the lessons in farming that
may be learned from an understand
! ing of the laws of nature that lie back
of the unfolding of crops. 1t was then
that there began to grow an appre-
| citation of the possibilities that lay in
| studying the results in given crops
attained by all men everywhere and
making the best results available at
| the farm.
It was a hard fight those first few
years against the prejudice which the
experienced farmer felt toward the
dude who came out from the city to
| teach him how to farm. 1t took a
| long time for the book farmers,
sprinkIed here mad there thruout the
nation, to demonstrate their results in
profits and thus win following. But
today the value of scientific farming
| is undisputed. 1t no 1ongee requies
the seductiveness of the missionary.
All it needs is that the people be
| aroused to an energetic practice of
what has already been demonstrated.
The department of agriculture needs
to be sold" to the American farmer.
| That farmer everywhere needs to be
| aroused to the vital advantages of
making use of what it has to offer
The lessons which it has learned in
three decades of scientific and prac-
teal study need to be carried to every
farmstead.
This is the view of the new secre-
tary of agriculture. He believes that
his job is to sell" the department to
the people. He holds that in these
| times with the war over and the cup
boards of the world empty. the pri-
mary national and world need is pro-
| duction. Every mine, mill and fac
tory in the nation should be working
at top speed that the markets of the
nation and of the world may be sup
piled There is stupendous opportun-
ity of profit in supplying them. but
there is also a stupendous possibility
of serving a great and helpful purpose
in the world.
And in this scheme of production
n ;l.1tlt i- ~ fc,Ad