The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-09-23
DAILY NEWS LETTER
General News and Gossip From Staff Members at Home and Abroad.
By GEORGE R. HOLMES. IT M c Storf rorroS1a-I Io-&

Washington, Sept. 23 - Almost daily there can be seen in Washing ton, at the close of government busI-s ness for the day, the frail figure of an old man. nearing seventy, emerging from the Treasury Department and beginning a long trudge homeward- twenty block away.
 Sometimes the f1appers and the young clerks that volley out of the great government departments at quitting time almost trample him underfoot in their haste to grab seats in street cars and buses. If you looked carefully at this fratr old gentleman you would notice that <; ne was neatly, but certainly not ex- pensively dressed. You would notice the face somewhat thin and a little peaked-as of one who has wilted a bit in the crucible of the worlds grind. The thought might strike vou that ] there was a typical cog in the great wheel of government-an aged and bent clerk who had given the best years of his life to an unappreciativo ] government.
 You would be wrong. The man Is Andrew w. Mellon, Secretary of the , Treasury, with one-third of the worlds wealth in his keeping. He is $300,003,0 900, perhaps $500 900, ,o95.> He doesn't know exactly how much he is worth. It probably would take 3 corps of aceount'a @ full year to
 
 say that statisticians dispute about who is the wea1thiest man in the United States. and consequently in tho wor1d-Rockefel1er or Mellon.
 He has linn cuisines at his call. Also stables of horses. He seldom uses either, unless he is in great hurry. which is seldom. His quiet trudge homeward after work is his principal recreation and his principal public appearance.
 Andrew W. Mellon is by long odds the strangest Cabinet figure Wash tngton has seen in many years. He is quiet to the point of being absolutely taciturn; he is shy to the point or seldom appearing in public. Golf has no attraction for him; politics he abhors; cards he never plays; he is no raconteur-and he doesn't like Washington.
 What does he do? He works, tends strictly to his own business and escapes from Washington ar every opportunity. He is devoted to his daughter and seldom does week. end find them apart.
 The Secretary of the Treasury has few if any inttnates in the capital. He goes to Cabinet meetings at tho White House by slipping across the narrow little street that is called East Executive avenue. which divides the Treasury from the White House. He goes through the long passage from the mansion to the Executive Offices, where the sessions are held. He doesn't like newspaper reporters. They bother him with questions.
 He takes little part in political dis cuss1on-talk as to how this policy or that policy will affect the fortunes or the party in power. In the first place, ne doesn't know how; in the second place, he isn't interested.
 
 One distinguishing trait he has in common with other public men. He. is an incessant smoker. A particIls' kind of tiny cigarette is an ever-co3 stant companion. They are me- specially for him.
 Periodically there are reports ths he is going to resign. So far the. nave just been reports. He has ru hls department as he saw fit. Ther are more Democrats in the Treasur Department today than Tn any othe department of Washington = ract which has led to several political .as- saults upon him.
 How influential MT. Mellon Is may be judged from the fact that he IS credited with beating the bonus sim gle handed; that is, convincing a Re- publican President that he should veto a bill passed by a Republican House by to 1 and by a Republican Senate to 1-all in the midst of a campaign in which the Republicans cheerfu1ly admit they are going to need every vote they can get to re- elect their Congress.