Evening star., 1925-09-06
Agriculture Chiefs
Serving In Cabinet
Drawn From Colleges
DR.. Jardine, at Present in
Office. Attained to Emil
nence In the Educational
World by Work at Kansas.

Washington for the last % years
has come to associate the Secretary of
Agriculture with collegiate life, since,
with the sole exception of Mr. Edwin
7. Meredith, who was so briefly the
incumbent Of that office, every head Of
that division of the executive depart
ments has reached high fame as the
president or professor in an important
college. James Wilson Of Iowa, for Is
consecutive years the Secretary of
Agriculture, had been for many years
the senior professor Of the Agrictural
college at Ames, Iowa. Under him.
first as a student and then as a in
structor, was the late Henry Cant
well Wallace, for more than seven
years the successor Of his preceptor
DR.. David Franklin Houston was pres
ident of the Washington University.
st. Louis, when he accepted President
Wilson's invitation to become Secre.
tary of Agriculture.
DR.. William Marion Jardine's term
dates from February 25 Of this year,
and his eminence in the educational
world Is part of the progress of his
adopted State, Kansas. in matters of
pedagogy. Besides being a highly
successful executive of the Kansas
State Agricultural College, DR.. Jardine
was very popular one, for when he
ton he was escorted in state by the
military department of the institution,
while the entire student body was on
the platform and gave the rousing col
lege yell as the train sped away.
Mrs. Jardine, who but recently
joined her husband at the Capital and
is comfortably settled for the Winter
In the Mayfiower, shared this uni
versal favor, and she comes to Wash
t,,1r t,, {oJ L. Wit 4,
the reputation for tact, discretion and
originality which will endear her to
her associates in the cabinet set and
to the official circle as a whole. Kan
sas though claiming DR.. Jardine as
citizen only since 1910, when he came
there from Utah, is proud of his rec
ord, and deems him one OF its lnvalu-
able assets. His career, even in the
dry, prosaic wording which books OF
reference require, reads like tale
woven together for child's magazine,
and in addition to this story of ad-
venture and success against great
odds, he is the central figure of as
pretty a romance as ever adorned the
biographical records of the cabinet
circle.
Mrs. Jardine, as Miss Effie Nebeker
of Bears Lake, Utah, was studying
diligently at the Utah Agricultural De
partment, possibly with no thought or
future save that Of sharing the life
of some quiet farmer near her home,
when bill" Jardine. as cotemporary
annals dub him, arrived at the college.
He was a picturesque figure, had been
a cowboy and hints of wonderful
adventure hung around him. In brief
time he became a foot ball hero and
the leader in all the college athletics,
but as yet he was unmoved by the
adoring eyes of the girl students. But
this did not last long. He soon at
tached himself to Miss Nebeker's
train, and the year after he had taken
his degree Of A. B. in the Utah College
he married his college chum. This
the Secretary and his wife are quietly
celebrating the twentieth anniversary
Of their marriage.
There are three children. The eld-
est, William Nebeker, will enter his
sophomore year in the Kansas State
College, of which his father was presi.
dent. This young man has never been
in Washington, but he will be here
for the Christmas holidays and will
receive quite cordial welcome from
the young folk who are arranging
holiday dances. The daughter, Marion,
who shares her fathers middle name.
Is IA, and her sister Ruth will soon
be 10. These young girls attended
the public schools of Manhattan. the
home town of the Kansas State Agri-
cultural College, and the serious prob
lem now facing the Secretary of Agri-
culture and Mrs. Jardine is to select
the proper day school for their daugh-
tiers. Having satisfactorily solved the
question of a home by obtaining a
suite in the May1ower, this selection