Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-15
Presidency Is Called
Office Managership

| To the Editor of The Star:
The American people have a wrong
conception of the office and duties OF
the President. Instead of appointing
to the exalted office Of the presidency
men who would be real rulers, leaders
and shepherds of the people. we ap
point men who are and can be little
more than glorified general Office man
ayers. One may capitalize the words
and write them down General Office
Managers" but that makes little diff
ference as regards the office.
A general manager of a small or a
large office has a ranking superior,
and while a President of the United
States has no ranking superior, the
very nature of the multifarious petty
details and small ractical business
matters that Presidents now attend to,
and the time that they spend upon
this petty routine work, prevent them
from concentrat ting their attention
upon weighty problems of policy and
action. AS a consequence, some other
man. or men who have more time
and leisure to devote to a thought
full consideration Of the problems that
confront the country, and whose
thought and study fit them to grapple
with such problems, step in and rob
be theirs.
One way to change this state of af-
fairs is to elect Presidents whose
capacity and strength of mind would
be great enough TO enable them TO cut
through the Gordian knot of red tape
and detail, and who would, perforce.
take time for that study, thought and
meditation that Presidents must en-
gage in if they would make wise and
Just decisions. If such heroic action on
the part of Presidents would be re-
garded as usurpation of power or au-
thorlty. then a Federal commission. or
perhaps an unofficial commission of
men. should be formed-men who
would have no partisan prejudices.
who would set about to devise ways
from petty detailed work and red tape
A President should not be like a
lumberjack who does the actual work
Of cutting down timber and hauling
logs. He should be the timber cruiser
who surveys a stand of timber, the
man who determines what timber shall
be cut and what left standing. A
President should be thinker a
scholar, a man of books as we'll as of
experience of life. A practical states
man. no matter how trained and ex-
pert he may be, is not fit to lead a
great people if he does not love books.
Such a statesman has no survey of
the past. no knowledge Of life as a
whole, no broad philosophy of life,
no settled policy, no mature wisdom
and thought to enable him to take
the right steps and measures in any
and every matter affecting the welfare
of the people.
A President should have these three
great qualities: ]. The ability to read
character; to know whether man he
good or evil, wise or foolish, we'll
Informed or i'll informed; ,, the abili-
ty to devise wise policies in relation to
the welfare of the people; 3. the
ability to know the right road to take
when two roads are before him and
he must take one of them. Abilities
like these are of more value to a
President than a knowledge of tariff
schedules, finances and parliamentary
procedure. Above all, our Presidents
should be good men-men of moral in
tegrity like President Coolidge.
CHARLES HOOPER.
Occur d Alene, Idaho.
December 7. 1927.