Evening star., 1952-11-28
Thomas L. Stokes:
Ihonos [. Stokes:
The Mushroonoing Presidency
Shermon Adams Job Ahead Ranks Him. in Some Wovs
Above the Cobinetl Sort of Bourd Chornon -,

How vast and intricate, as
well as powerful, the job of
President of the United States
has become is freshly exempli-
fled for us as our next Presi-
dent selects his key personnel
and lays plans for taking over
the Office.
This is illustrated most dra-
matically in one appointment.
that of Gov. Sherman Adams
of New Hampshire to be chief
assistant to the President, or
what will become, for many
practical purposes, really a sec
ond President, in effect, from
the administrative standpoint.
The high caliber of the Cover
nor and the scope of his project
ed task testify to the almost
fantastic growth, in really a
short span of years, of the
Presidential Office and it's ad-
juncts and to the Importance
of the supervisory role to which
he is assigned. It ranks, in it's
intrinsic significance, with the
Cabinet. Indeed, in some ways
it will be above the Cabinet in
that it is a co-ordinating post
for all Government depart
ments as well as the veritable
flock of special executive agen-
cies that have so multiplied in a
very few years.
The Office might be compared
variously to a chairman of the
board or superintendent of a
vast industrial plant of many
and diverse departments. But,
in addition to that, it also
reaches into the often vague and
unpredictable field of politics.
There the human element must
be encountered and dealt with
daily, expressing itself in differ
ences over policy that must be
compromised, and in ruffled per-
sonal feelings of the often tenn
permental prima donnas,
whether congressional leaders
or cabinet and agency heads,
who must be kept soothed and
restrained from stepping too
heavily on each others toes.
The staff which works directly
for the President has, in the
last few years. spilled all over
the remodeled and expanded
Executive Office, itself, into the
basement of the White House
proper, the mansion, and across
the street into the big building
with it's baroque, gingerbread
architecture which housed both
the State and War Departments
not so many years ago.
Almost unbelievable, unless
you had seen it all with your
own eyes, is the contrast with
what is really a short time ago,
even if 80 years back in the
piping times of peace and pros
perity nder Calvin Coolidge.
The job for that New Englander
who was President was simple,
mechanically speaking, COM
pared with the job of the New
Englander who is to become
Assistant President.
One presidential secretary
first c.. BaScom Slemp of Vir-
ginia, afterward Everett Saun-
ders of Indiana, both previously
House members, handled what a
whole corps of folks do today.
Each did, successfully, and sue
ceSsfully. all the varied chores
for the President, including ar
rangement of appointment
schedules, interviewing people
looking for Government jobs,
keeping peace in the official fam
lily, and also acting as press
secretary. These functions now
are broken down among many
separate officials, each with a
staff at his beck and call, so
there is the clatter of busy en-
terprise where once there was
the calm and serenity of road
side chapel.
Strange as il NAV seem y,oU