Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-17
Our New Attorney General
De al

/ himself nor allowed other people to push
him. / believe that the idea of such an
appointment never had occurred to him,
but that he had intended to complete
his work in Washington and then &C
cept certain glittering offer Of pri-
vate character which would have taken
him to New York
Service in War Time.
But Mitchell is one of those men who
have both strong sense of private duty
and strong sense Of public service. He
devotion of his private life and he had
proved the second in at least two occa-
sions of a national character. The first
was when the Spanish-American War
broke out and the second was during
the World War.
A volunteer in the Spanish American
War, he went as lieutenant with the
18th Minnesota Regiment to camp at
Fort Smelling and then to Georgia.
Disappointed that he did not get to
Cuba while the war was still on, he went
there afterward to look it over
Partly because he had had some mill
tary service and had always been inter-
ested in military affairs, Mitchell was
put at the head of a newly organized
home guard when, at our entrance into
the World War. great deal of dis
affection developed in Minnesota. When
the home guard was absorbed into the
militia, he became colonel. A nasty
situation developed in connection with
the street railway strikes in the Twin
Cities. 1t was the sort of tense and
ugly affair with which we have become
familiar, in which men on both sides
often lose their heads too readily.
Mitchell developed an organization so
completely ready that at a telephone
call It could be modified in 80 minutes
Yet he handled it with such discretion
that order was restored and maintained
and not single shot was fired.
Activities in st. Paul.
At this time he was engaged in the
active practice of the law in st. Paul, in
his fathers firm, as he had been since
his admission to the bar. He had made
| for himself a sound reputation, both as
lawyer and as public-spirited citizen
He had gone on with his studies and
with his outdoor life-he personally
superintendent the laying out Of the golf
course at White Bear Lakeland he had
reputation such that when some ques-
| tlOIl WAS UlUOt III OL. Edul, UIlleT ledQ-
ing citizens had the habit of saying:
What does Mitchell say? I'd like to
talk to him about it,"
Naturally. Washington asked him to
be one of those majors we saw so much
OF during the war. who dug their spurs
into the unoffending oak of their roll
top desks. Mitchell wanted to see real
service. Much to the disgust of his
friends, he volunteered as private in
the Field Artillery at Camp Taylor. He
then was 43 years old, and his physical
examination showed a man in his
twenties. No wonder that the 1.-THE fig
ure you see before the Supreme Court
today keeps at 81 the outlines of q man
not yet 40.
Derided by Army Officer.
One day at Camp Taylor, after the
guns had been ordered to be laid on the
weather-vane of a certain barn, the
gunners were changed. Mitchell was
called to the gun. Before he had re-
sighted 1t, an officer came by and found
that 1t was pointing not at the vane, but
at the other end of the barn. He bawled
Mitchell out. OF course, Mitchell had to
take 1t in silence. Then the officer laid
on verbal shot as accurate as the gun
sight itself:
Guess If you live long enough" he
said, maybe you'll have some brainsi'
1t Is the story which Mitchell's friends
like TO remind him of.
| Again the war ended before Mitchell
had seen service or had gained his COM
mission. He was well enough up In the
officers training class. however. to have
Continued on Fifth Page.)