Evening star., 1935-02-10

do you think you may be Presi-
dent some day?"
His answer was:
mo, I don't. But I know ! won't
ever be anything if fall to be good
Secretary of the Interior
The possibility of failure annoys
him, but he admits that it is true
that competent men often are driven
from Government service simply be-
cause they are competent.
Good men," he says, sometimes
are destroyed by small and selfish
men,"
Denies He Is Politician.
Mr.. Ickes denies that he is a poll
tician. Much of the opposition he
has he attributes to that limitation.
His principal foes, he believes, are
political adventures who resent his
inability to play BALI with them
But when a friend warned him that
group on Capitol Hill meant to get
him he replied: "Al right. If they
start anything I'll show them that ]
can fight back"
And meanwhile the Secretary is too
busy to indulge in the jitters. Il
can't work and worry at the same
time" is his doctrine. Until the
President tells me he is dissatisfied, ]
will stick to the job he put me in and
try to do the best I can to justify his
confidence"
The gossip Of Washington is to the
effect that Mr.. Roosevelt is too at
tached to Mr.. Ickes and that some
thing will have to be done about it.
The Secretary is a progressive Re
publican, and that is enough to damn
him utterly in the estimation of un-
compromising Tammany Democrats,
greedy for greater patronage. Talk
of driving a wedge" between the
Chief Executive and his public works
administrator has been heard for
months, but it never amounts to any
thing. When Vice President Garner
wss approached by several of the
complainers recently, he said:
Better lay off Ickes. You won't
get anywhere trying to bother him. >
AS to the $4,O00,000,00 fund, it is
bound to be a source of sorrow to
any man who attempts to manage it.
Mr.. IckeS declares:
"a mitred saint could not satisfy
everybody. There are certain to be
mistakes, honest errors which no one
is perfect enough to avoid. And there
may be waste and corruption, because
so many people will be enlisted and
some of them will be sure to be un-
reliable. Private business has that
same handicap all the time, and pub
lie business is no different in that re-
gard. The human factor is involved
in >both cases, and human being are
not perfect"
Some of Secretary's Jobs.
The Secretary is president Of the
Public Works Emergency Housing
Corp, treasurer of the Federal Sur
plus Relief Corp, chairman of the
Federal Oil Conservation Board and
member Of the National Emergency
Council, the Migratory Bird Conser-
vation Commission, the Council OF
National Defense, the Smithsonian
Institution ablishment" and the
National Forest Reservation Com
mission. He has in his charge Sub
sistence Homesteads, Soil Erosion
Service, General Land Office, Bureau
of Indian Affairs, Office of Education,
Federal Board for Vocational Educa-
ton, Geological Survey, Bureau of
Reclamation, National Park Service,
st. Elizabeth's and Freedmen's Hos
pitals, Howard University. War Min
erals Relief, Territorial Officials for
Alaska, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands,
Alaska Railroad and Alaska Road
Commission. Also, the five branches
of the Bureau of Mines and, as oil
administrator, the two branches of
the Oil Administration.
No wonder he is busy, and no won
der he refuses to be disturbed