Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-03

Roosevelt had the facility all the time.
It was legendary the number of
times President Roosevelt was photo
eraphed. but the cameras have clicked
even more industriously in the vicinity
of his successors. That is because OF
the increasing public demand for pic.
lures and the increasing number Oh
camera to supply the demand Mr:
Taft did not seem to lend himself wen
to photography-his pictures were all
much alike-but Mr.. wilson came IN
to be another good subject and was
often photographed until ms Illness
after his return from the peace con-
! ference. Since then pictures of Mr..
wilson have been extremely hard to
| get. Mrs. Wilson was photographed
less than any modern mistress Of the
White House.
Harding Much Photographed
Mr.. Harding is an exceptionally good
subject for the photographer. he
poses well, as if unconscious OF the
lens. and gets a great deal OF mis- per
| sonality into the pictures. Since MS
nomination for the presidency TWO
years ago he has probably been the
most photographed man in the world;
Harris & Ewing alone have a Thousand
pictures of him.
II becomes evident from what has
been said of the taking OF the Roose-
| welt horseback picture that these snap
! shots of the great in action, pictures
that seem casual and accidental, are IN
reality staged and arranged affairs.
And so they are-most OF them. Not
long ago there was published a photo
graph of President Harding playing
,, golf on the public links IN washington
! one morning before most folks had
eaten their breakfasts. The ~unsophis-
| ticated must have wondered how the
| photographer. too. happened to be
there at that early hour. He didn't
| happen TO be there-it was arranged
in advance. Each day the president S
schedule for next day is given. out to
the correspondents at the White
| House. If any Of these activities lend
| themselves to news pictures, the pho
| ~tographers arrange to be there. Now
| and then the photographers are able
to pull off stunts of their w devls-
ing.
In spite of the willingness of the
modern public official to be photo
graphed, the news photographers are
not cynical when it comes to the essen
tial modesty Of such men. Many no.
tables, were they to consult their own
feelings, would shrink from the camera
as does the rare individual who holds
I'D a newspaper in front of his face
to prevent the photographer from CIV
ing him unwelcome publicity. But
public men. most of them. believe thor
oughly in full publicity; and they fee
that the public has just as much right
to see what they look like rs it has to
read about what they are doing. And
so they submit to the snapshots as Il
duty that comes to them with office
Now and then. however, there comes
the rare individual who objects. Gen
eral Dawes was one of these. Wher
he was first made director of the
budget he held his famous meeting
with the governmental heads; and II
his speech, to illustrate how useless
government employees should be swept
out and expenses cut down. he waved
a new broom in front of his audience
Government economy was then tht
watchword; and a photograph Of Gen
eral Dawes waving his broom would
have been good stuff. But he refused
to pose. The photographers appealed
to President Harding, who was there
but he only replied, with a laugh
"No. this is General Dawes owl
show. I'll not interfere
Later on a photographer happened
to surprise General Dawes on the cap
itol steps. He secured a good picture
and after that the picturesque genera
was not so camera-shy.
There is one familiar figure il
Washington. a man who on several oc
c~asions has been prominently in TIL
public eye, who has never been pho
tographed. This man is Andrew Furu
seth, the head Of the Seaman's union
and the man who is as much respon
sible as any other for the provision
of the La Palette law regulating tn
conduct of our merchant marine. 81
far as is known here. no picture o
Andrew Furuseth has ever been pub
lished. More than once Furuseth ha
made bodily attack upon photographer
who attempted TO defy his wishes.