Evening star., 1933-08-02
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

During the current job-hunting and
job-grabbing season In Washington
much has been said about the similarity
which characterized that other illustri-
GUS Democratic regime, the Andrew
jackson administration, hundred odd
years ago. In the first year Of Old
Hickorys presidency he removed some
1000 people from the civil service. or
many times more than were dismissed
by all six Of his predecessors put to-
gether.
Less familiar to US moderns than the
spoils system originated by President
Jackson is the fact that he had brain
trust" 1t consisted Of politicians, not
professors, and was called the kitchen
cabinet" One Of Jacksons biographers,
William Graham Sumner in the Amer
ican Statesmen series, says the kitchen
cabinet of four members controlled the
administration. The key man In the
brain trust Of 1888 was Amos Ken
dali, native Of Massachusetts,, graduate
of Dartmouth, and once a tutor in
Henry Clay's family. Sumner quotes
of Kendall: He had a whooping voice,
an asthmatic cough, with a STOPPING
frame and a phthisicky physiognomy.
Yet this little whiffet Of q man was the
Atlas that bore on his shoulders the
weight of Jackson's administration. He
originated or was consulted in advance
upon every great measure, and what the
prompt decision and indomitable will of
the illustr1ous chief resolved upon the
subtle and discriminating intellect Of
Kendall elaborated and upheld"
+ ~
Uncle Sans young Sherlock Holmes,
John Edgar Hoover. just appointed di-
rector Of the New Bureau Of Investi-
CATION Of the Department Of Justice.
Is a native WaShingtonian. Still on
the sunny side Of 40 and lawyer by
profession, he Is serving under his
seventh successive Attorney General,
his first chief, Thomas w. Gregory,
in 1917, having been a Democrat like
his present superior, Homer s. Cum
mings. Mr.. Hoover succeeded the late
william j. Burns as director Of the
Bureau OF Investigation in 1924, under
Attorney General Harlan r. Stone. He
has made so enviable a record there
that he was publicly commended In the
Since he took charge Of the bureau,
there has been q decrease in the in
vestigative personnel with. an increase
In accomplishments in the way Of fines,
convictions and recoveries. During the
past year convictions were obtained
in 9551 per cent Of all cases investi-
gated by the bureau, upon which in
dictments were had The bureau lost
less than per cent Of its cases which
went to trial. During Mr. Hoover's
administration there have also been
established and developed the national
Division Of Identification, the crime
laboratory, the collection of criminal
statistics from all law-enforcement
training school for new appointees to
the investigative force and q close CO.
ordination and cooperation Of the
police chiefs and law-enforcement OIL
cialS, not only Of the United States.
but Of Canada and other foreign
countries.
Everybody in the Washington lime
light sooner or later finds that he has
a double" Now somebody's discov-
cred that Gen. Hugh johnson and
Senator Bob Wagner of New York. bear
a brotherly resemblance to each other.
The Roosevelt professoriat keeps on
expanding. DR.. William L. Thorp,
newly appointed director Of the Bureau
Of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,
comes to Secretary Roper's big de-
partment straight from the chair of
economics at Amherst. His immediate
chief. Assistant Secretary of Com
merce Dickinson, Is also a university
professor. There are now almost more
professors in office at Washington than
politicians. which seems to indicate
that Jim Farley has gone collegiate.
II X
Col Louis McHenry Howe IS one
member Of the Roosevelt regime who
decided early In life to 60 political
rather than collegiate. In his Congress
Aonal Directory autobiography he mar.