Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The big idea behind the whole new
Hoover cabinet Is seen here now TO
be so'tdity and dependableness There
are NO comets in 1t. 1t consists of sub
stantial planets that will steadily re-
volve In their orderly orbits and who
will constitute strong and loyal solar
system. with Hoover. at the center, not
needing much to worry about any
wanderings off the reservation or about
any collisions or explosions.
That Is the ultimate inside analysis
made of 1t here at this week end just
before Inauguration day, and every
fresh consideration of the matter seems
to confirm the dominant view
The eight cabinet names so far re-
vealed are eight assurances Of tran
quillity.
The most spectacular of the lot is
William D. Mitchell, who will be At
torney General. Mitchell Is q scintil-
lating jurist He is now solicitor gen.
erAl Justices of the Supreme Court
have declared that he is the ablest
solicitor general who has ever argued
before them. He is probably second to
nobody at the whole American bar
as a student and as practitioner OF
the law. He is spectacular, indeed, in
his profession He Is utterly the re-
verse Of spectacular, however, in his
personality.
He is quiet, modest. utterly unob-
trusive, utterly unquarrelsome, utterly
indisposed to NEEDLE and intrigue. He
does his duty, and then does his duty
some more, and then lets 1t 90 at that.
That same sort OF quality, In q gen.
eral way. is seen to pervade the whole
new cabinet, with virtually no contrary
tendency anywhere in it.
Mellon, who holds over from the
Coolidge cabinet, In addition TO all
his technical financial knowledge. Is
personal reliability itself. He never
whispers against colleagues. He never
undermines anybody. He does not
even know how to intrigue. He does
his Job. and gets it done. and goes
home to his pictures, and there you
are, and that's all.
Good, the new Secretary of War, Ii
another miracle of reticence and self
control In the campaign of last year
he had the most trying position held
by any Republican. He had to try to
carry the West for Hoover under con-
slant Interruptions and interferences
from an ignorant national committee
headquarters in Washington. Why he
did not either resign or else 90 crazy
was something nobody could solve.
Good solved it. He smiled outwardly
till he got calm inwardly. His steadi-
ness and stanchness was the grandest
personal spectacle on the whole Repub-
lican side of the campaign battle. Hoo
YER will be able to repose absolute trust
in Goods control of his temper and con-
troll of his speech under any provoca-
ton whatsoever.
As for Charles Francis Adams, who
is going to be Secretary Of the Navy, it
can be said that he has more or less
specialized all his life long in deserving
trust In fact, If one may be a bit
flippant, trusts have been largely Mr..
Adams occupation. He Is trustee of the
Boston Ground Rent Trust and Of the
Boston Real Estate Trust and of the
Western Real Estate Trust and OF the
Old Colony Trust. AS treasurer of Har-
ward, he has dealt with millions I'M
quiveringly and unjarringly. Moreover,
there has never been an Adams-from
old President John Adams down-who
did not feel that he had slightly more
delicate and refined sense of duty and
responsibility and right relationship to
public life than people who, for instance,
are not Adamses. Hoover will have no
public tantrums from the office of the
Secretary of the Navy while Adams oc-
cupies it. Adams will administer and
report and confer and administer-and
that will be that.
The same will be true of Ray Lyman
Wilbur the new Secretary of the In
terror When Hoover and Wilbur we're
young men together, just out OF STAN
ford University they said to each other,
Lets build houses for ourselves on the
Stanford campus and live there side by
side" They both did get houses on the
Stanford campus and they have lived
there side by side for years and they
will now live equally intimately and
equally amicably side by side In Wash
irgton. Wilbur, like Adams, loves to
administer correctly and irreproachably
and he could as soon turn against him
self as turn against his fellow boy who
now is to be President.
Brown, the new Postmaster General,
Is almost as equable in temper as Good.
He can seldom be induced to lift his
voice. In the midst of political typhoons
and hurricanes he is the quiet, calm
center. Like Good, he knows politics
through and through. Like Good, he is
wary and watchful. 1t was his advice
that took Hoover into the primary
campaign against Senator Willis in
Ohio last June-a campaign in which
Hoover first demonstrated his genuine
capacity to win delegates. Good and
Brown are the professional political
anchors in the cabinet and they are