The Winslow mail., 1923-10-05
PRESIDENT WIFE
NEEDS SECRETARY
IMPORTANT POSITION IN THE
WHITE HOUSE WHICH MISS
LAURA HARLAN FILLS.
CORRESPONDENCE is HEAVY
Must Understand All That Pertains
to Proper Conduct of Social Affairs
and Know All the Gradatons OF
Official Life.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

BY EDWARD 3. CLARK
Washington.-A daughter Of a for
ner associate justice of the United
States Supreme court is social secre-
ary to Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, wife OF
| the President Of the United States.
Miss Laura Harlan, daughter of the
ate Associate Justice John M. Harlan,
aolds this really important White
| House position.
There may be some plain folk OF
America who cannot understand why
The mistress of the White House needs
4 social secretary. The title and the
suggested duties may seem tri1e I'M
democratic, but every ruler Of the do
nestle end Of the White House activi-
lies for a great many years has been
compelled to employ qualified woman
10 attend to correspondence and to
arrange the hundred odd affairs, SHALL
and great, in which it is necessary for
socially.
The country has read much about
an overworked President. 1t has read
less about an OverWorked Presidents
wife. But overworked the presidents
wives are, for they have multitudinous
duties to perform which If not prop
erly done would lead to misunder-
standings, heartaches and sometimes
to breaches Of friendship which, SEEM
lngly, are past the healing.
The social secretary Of the Presi-
dents wife must be a woman who
knows residential society and who un-
derstands thoroughly all those things
which pertain to the proper conducting
Of social affairs in which foreigners
here present are to participate. Truth
fully speaking, the foreigners are un-
derstood to be the most difficult ele-
ment in the field of White House so
cial activities. Precedents must be
observed, and If subsecretary by any
chance, Xshould be given unintentional
preference over a secretary, a war
cloud would appear upon the horizon.
Plenty for Miss Harlan to Do.
Miss Harlan, present social secre-
tary, succeeds herself in the position
which she holds. She was Mrs. Hard
ing's secretary for some years. She
has lived in Washington virtually all
her life, although she was Kentucky
born. There is said to be politics in
the selection of a White House social
secretary, but it may be only accident
that Miss Harlan is Of a Republican
family while her predecessor in the
White House was of a Democratic
family.
A social secretary to a presidents
wife works at least union hours. She
must answer a good many Of the let
ters which are written to the presi-
dents wife, but the number of letters
received is so great that it is neces-
sary to employ additional help to see
to it that no one who has cOmmUni-
Gated with the First Lady of the Land
is offended because her epistle is not
answered.
There are certain letters which the
presidents wife must write in person
and in her own handwriting. These
are letters to intimate friends or are
letters of coincidence sent to persons
who have met with a loss of someone
near and dear. 1t is impossible for
a presidents wife to answer all her
letters in person; but it is said to be
fact that every answer sent to a
letter is read by the presidents wife
and signed by her and that a large
percentage Of the answers actually are
dictated by the woman who signs
them.
Many Write to Presidents Wife.
American women in all narts of the