The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-06-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. @.
KITCHEN CABINET.

is to be the unofficial adviser, the
minister without portfolio. the Col
onel House, the Kitchen Cabinet Of the
new administration?
There must be such a functionary,
for no president has ever yet got along
without an adviser of the kind who
| holds no office and seeks none.
Howard Warrington, a newspaper
man of Columbus, Ohio, has already
been named as the Colonel House of
the Harding administration by Harry
Wilson Walker. and the nomination
seems to meet with many endorse
| ments and no objections. 1t is said
| that already See Warrington" has
become. one of the administration
! watchwords.
| The facts with regard to Manning
ton and his connection with the ad-
lows:
He, like the president. is an Ohio
J newspaper man. His home is in CO.
! lumbus, next door to that of Harry
M. Daugherty, the attorney general,
and he is said to be Daugherty's clos
| est friend. He began life as a coun-
/ try editor, and supplemented his earn
| ings by investments in leading Ohio
| Industries SO successfully that he is
now able to leave business behind and
] devote himself to politics without a
| salary.
| During the campaign Warrington
was extremely active in the mysterious
fashion befitting Warwick. He con-
sumed an enormous amount Of mile
! age, and held a great number of con-
ferences. At Marion he was in charge
of the newspaper men. and is said also
| to have read all of the Harding
| speeches before they were delivered.
Now he has come to Washington,
and he, Daugherty and Jesse Smith,
| have taken large house on K street
| and there dwell in considerable style.
Jesse Smith is an Ohioan also, store
| keeper, and said to be one of tho
sharpest traders in the middle west.
| He has no intention of helping to run
the administration, according to the
most reliable reports, but has merely
| come here along with the rest of the
population of Ohio, doubtless to avoid
| loneliness.
A House of Mystery. =
This K street house bids fair to be
an administration landmark, housing
| as it does the cabinet officer and the
private citizen who are reputed to be
| closest to the president. 1t is also said
to be famous for its hospitality. Its
occupants are careful to explain that
their establishment is not a place of
undemocratic magnificence, but a
measure of economy. For time, it
seems. Warrington and Daugherty
lived at one of the local hotels. They
| found the service unsatisfactory, and
one of the bellhops stole Mannington's
trousers at critical moment. SO that
affairs of national and international
Importance were delayed while the
n presidents secret adviser was panta-
loon1ess. Following this unfortunate
episode, the K street house was taken,
and is said to have proved less ex-
pensive as well as more convenient.
Just exactly what happens in this
x street residence is of course a mys-
terry. Being a mystery is one of the
chief functions of a presidential adj
wiser. and may also be one of his chief
assets, as Colonel House demonstrated.
Warrington, it is said, will emulate
the colonel by never speaking for d.
, rect quotation. He will be much
never talk himself, except in the
blossom of the administration family.
His moral sentiments and political
convictions will reach an expectant
world at second and third hand, and
they will be lofty and somewhat gen.
} eral in character. Thus he is already
known to have expressed the opinion
that unemployment should be reme-
died and that taxes ought to be re-
duced.
} He is described as a man detached,
philosophical, humorous, addicted to
making epigrams, and not strongly
partisan. 1t is stated that he will
keep the president informed as to pub
w
of Ohio will be the laboratory in
which he will test and analyze that
strange fluid. He is said to quote with
i approval McKinley's remark: Tell
me what Ohio thinks and I'll tell you
what the country thinks" His theory
is that in Ohio are represented all the
elements of the American population,
| and that therefore Ohio opinion is a
cross-section of American opinion. 1t
may at least be hazarded that Ohio
| nj a fn n
: with the activities of the present ad-
. ministration.
!, Besides studying public sentiment
the next most important function of a
Kitchen Cabineter is to economize the
l presidents time by seeing people.
Patronage. matters, especially, 1t is
understood, will be the care of Mr.
Warrington, but he will "see' people
on a great variety of subjects. Every
one who has had any dealings with
administration knows that there Is al
/, ways an unofficial some one whose
2 ear is sometimes worth more to the
= seeker of favors than that of the
president himself, In the late admin,
l istration, of course, this place was
t long held by Colonel House. In Taft's
n time, Brother Charlie was the man tc
. see, and during the Roosevelt admin
istration, despite the self-sufficiencS
n of its chief incumbent. "See Lodge
f was advice given so often that ever
}, Archie Roosevelt, as a small lad, 1.
= said to have given it to a Waterman In
the White House grounds who was IL
( need of some favor from on high
6 Hanna was the power behind the por
tico in McKinley's administration. and
s. Daniel S. Lamont was Cleveland's ia
e vorite adviser, So the succession run
= all the way back to Andrew Jackson
who seems to have been the first Il
lean heavily on unofficial advisers
u and to have given origin to the term
i Kitchen Cabinet"
y Mrs. Harding's Part.
y All of these have been men of mys
stery to some extent. That is, no on
has known just what part each ha
e played. One might guess with som
If confidence that some of them hav
" been strong men dominating veal
- presidents and others have been in
VI