Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1922-11-18
THRONES VISIT NG
THE WHITE HOUSE
AUTUMN DAYS BRINGING SIGHT
SEERS, AND THE PRESIDENT
MUST GREET THEM ALL.
HAND SHAKING A NECESSITY
Mr.. Harding Finds in Golf Some Re-
lief From the Hard Work That Has
to Be Done by Every Chief
Executive.
Bv EDWARD B. CLARK

Washington.-The great American
travelling public never seems to lose
It's interest in the White House. De-
casionally a president of the United
States gets a vacation, establishing
what is called a summer White House
elsewhere in some place where he can
rest his hand from the effects of the
daily shaking, and to some extent his
head from the results of the daily con-
centrated thinking This thing I'M
happily for a president, has not hap
pened for some time.
In these autumn days the offices of
the White House show daily thrOngs
of visitors as large as they were in
the glad spring time, a season of the
year which heretofore it has been
thought always brings the greatest in
f1ux of Sight-SeerS the Capital city.
The line forms daily between II and
l o'clock and through the office of the
President it goes, each individual in
the line shaking the presidential hand.
1t must be Wearying task, but
it is one that all presidents have sub
mitted to with apparent good nature.
There has been some respite at the
White House for q few weeks, not
from the assaults, if that word is
allowable, of the great American pub
tic, but from the cares of legislation.
President Harding today has the
chance, which came to his predecessors
likewise when congress was not in
session, of getting away for an hour
or so daily from the White House en-
vironment TO traverse the golf course,
or to seek the secluded hooks of
Rock Greek park.
Chance for Short Vacation.
1t is expected that when Mrs. Hard
ing RECEIVERS sufficiently from her re-
cent illness to enable her TO travel
she and the President will seek some
place for Il rest of a week or two but
it may be that this little vacation
necessarily must be postponed until
congress takes its recess at the holt
day season.
1t is not certain at all that the
American people realize how their
presidents work. There is no such
thing as an eight-hour day in the
White House, nor even a ten-hour day,
nor a twelve-hour day. If presidents
did not include in their daily round of
| duties an hour or two for outdoor
exercise they could not maintain a
working base Presidents, however,
are sensitive about having much
written concerning their outdoor exer
| cise.S They all have seemed to think
| that the people will believe they are
| playing instead of working if it is said
| that they take an afternoon horse
+, back ride or an afternoon on the golf
| links.
The truth is that every president of
| the United States is told by his physi-
| clan that he must exercise if he wants
| to be able to continue his work. There
fore it is that the afternoon or part
of an afternoon spent out OF doors
becomes a part of the presidents
| duty to duty"
Theodore Roosevelt never played
| golf but he did play tennis. Also he
rode horseback and while doing ii
| jumped his horse over five-barred
gates Also he tramped and did other
| things strenuous.
President Taft played golf and
rode horseback President Wilson
| played golf, and in this pursuit he
has been followed by President Hard
ing, who likes the game and makes nc
bones about saying so.
White House Jobs Are Strenuous.
Should any American think that the
| TO
White House have an easy time of il
| he should put his thinking cap on
again and direct his meditations into
ether channels There are men EN-
| ployad in the White House who have
| had nothing resembling a real vaca
ton for good many years. The
trouble with the White House clerical
curriculum, if that is what it should
be called, is that some one always
must be at headquarters who knows
about everything.
There are some employees at the
White House in the more important
jobs who have been there for year:
and who know just where every let
ter and telegram of the past can bt
found, just when this thing happened
and when that thing happened. These
men always must be present even i
the president is absent. The result i:
they go for the main part vacation
less.
The secretary to the president get:
just as much vacation as the presi
dent gets, and no more and no less
He can quit occasionally when thu
chief executive goes away, but as {
rule he must go with his chief and hi:
work in a measure continues, so tt
speak, in the field. The position OF
secretary to the president is trying
one, for a secretary, unless he watche:
out, can make mistakes which will b'
counted as the mistakes of his chief
tain.
AS a rule, however, a secretary to
president knows his chiefs thought,
on every subject. 1t is his business II