THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. MAY 5, 1907.
Wlfi Tiff
IF Hi;'
11 HiiUy
ORE THAN TWO SCORE ARE
LIVING AND ALL ARE DO
ING VERY WELL! THANK YOU
JOHA?Z. -LOVGj
JWVNLZyj SECRETARY Or TfiEWAVy
THERE are nearly 40 mm now living,
but not at present In the Cabinet,
, who have been official adiisers of
the Chief Executive, and every one of
them Is doing well.
There are three "cx-Secretar!es"' of
State, four of the Treasury, five of War,
Jeven of the Interior, eight of the Navy,
one of Agriculture, two of Commerce and
Labor, eight ex-Postmaster-Generals.
These figures added make 46. but some of
'he "exes" have served In more than one
Cabinet place, while four. Root, Cortel
Vou, Metcalf and Bonaparte are still
Cabinet members.
The oldest of them all, Norman i. Col
man, first man to serve as Secretary of
Abriculture. is SO. The youngest, Paul
Morton, second of Roosevelt's five naval
heads to date, is ."0. George B. Cortel
you, now Secretary of the Treasury, is
five years younger than Morton.
The repartment of Agriculture was es
tablished Just before the end of Cleve
land's first term. Colman had been
Commissioner of Agriculture and was
made Secretary, but, of course, was dis
placed after Harrison's Inauguration. A
York State boy was educated in' the
"little red schoolhouse." At 20 he started
West, reaching St. Louis five years later,
having tarried In Kentucky, where he
taught school 'and was admitted to the
bar, and In Indiana, where he practiced
law and served as District Attorney at
New Albany. At St. Louis he went into
agricultural Journalism, through which he
became an agricultural leader in the
West. When the Civil War came he was
made a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Enrolled
State Militia. He has filled many high
Places, Including the Lieutenant-Governor's
chair, and possesses a French decs
ration because of his services to agri
culture. Mr. Colman is still In active
life in St. Louis.
Paul Morton as chairman of the
Equitablo's board of trustees, Thomas
F. Ryan's right-hand man in insurance
never was in public life before he be
came a Secretary and has not been since.
He was born in Detroit, and his father
was Secretary of Agriculture during
Cleveland's second term. Paul's career
from the bottom to the top In railroading
'tis said he began as clerk at 36 a
month, and wound up at JBfi.OOO a year
was one of the romances of success we
read about. It was Morton who posted
Roosevelt on the details of railroading
ii nd so made It possible to get the rate
bill through Congress.
Picturesque Naval Secretaries.
The majority of the eight surviving
Naval Secretaries have been picturesque
entities. The latest, to leave the Depart
ment, Charles Joseph Bonaparte. Attorney-General
at 56. descended from a
King, but American born and Intensely
loyal to the land of his birth, yields to
few 1n that respect.
William Eaton Chandler. Arthur's
Naval head, approaches the limit for
audacity and courage. He is a Harvard
law school graduate and now is prac
ticing law In Washington and Concord,
his birthplace and present home. As
chief counsel In the suit to have the prop
erty of Mary Baker Eddy. Christian Sci
ence head, placed in a receiver's hands,
he Is specially prominent Just now. He
was a big factor in the rows accompany
ing the rate bill's passage. Being a friend
of both Senator Tillman and the Presi
dent he was right In it and he uttered
his full share of the language generated
during that episode. Chandler is 70. He
was in the United States Senate from
1SS7 to 1901. Since then he has been
president of the Spanish Treaty Claims
Commission at Washington.
The Ufa of, Benjamin Franklin Tracy,
who served under Harrison, has been full
of contrast. At .77 he Is an active New
York lawyer. He followed Whitney in
the department and was a tremendous
force in the Navy's rejuvenation.
He was schooled in the village academy
at Owego, N. Y., where he was born. He
helped to organize the Republican party
In the state: he raised two regiments
when the war broke out. and was made
Colonel of the One Hundred and Ninth
New York Volunteers. He won the medal
of honor for gallantry and was bre
vetted a Brigadier-General. Then he set
tled in Brooklyn, where he became "Uni
ted States District Attorney and later
Judge of the New York Court of Appeals,
highest state tribnnal. and for years was
state Republican leader. His services in
formulating the internal revenue laws
so that a maximum amount is collected
' at a minimum expense were of great
value.
At one time his farm near Owego was
famous for its fine horses, cattle, poultry
and pigs. He is still proud of a tribute
to his agricultural standing reported by
.a New York friend. This friend told an
Owego farmer that General Tracy was
one of the country's greatest men.
"Ya-as," drawled the agriculturist, "I
guess Tracy's the biggest hog man in the
huM coboodler
One of the most convincing of mod
ern advocates. General Tracy has not
often been really eloquent, but his op
ening address as chief counsel for the
defense in the famous Beecher-Tilton
trial was a gem of eloquence. It was
Issued in book form after delivery and
50,000 copies were sold. The great
est grief in Tracy's life came when his
Washington home burned down and his
wife and daughter perished In the fire.
Since leaving the Cabinet, he has
stufck Dtctly dnse to . Ms cxoXession.
though he served as president of the
commission which drafted the charter
of the "Greater" New York in 1898, and
he ran for Mayor of New York, but was
badly defeated by Van Wyck, Tam
many candidate, in .a three-cornered
contest. ' Seth Low, the Citizens' Union
champion, being third contestant When
Secretary of the Treasury Windom
died at a New York Board of Trade
dinner, in 1891, he fell into Tracy's
arms.
William Henry Moody, 64, a native of
Massachusetts, like Roosevelt, a Har
vard man, and now a member of the
United States Supreme Court, is one of
comparatively few wno has served in
two Cabinet positions. Roosevelt ap
pointed him both to the Attorney-Generalship
and the Navy Department.
Moody's predecessor under McKinley,
John Davis Long, also of Massachus
etts man, had Roosevelt for his assis
tant Just before the Spanish War, and
there was more or less friction between
them until Roosevelt's . resignation to
Join the Rough Riders. Long is be
tween 68 and 68. He held several State
offices, including the Governorship, be
for going to Washington as a Repre
sentative In 1883. He was born in (
Maine, got his degree at Harvard and
lives at Hingham, near Boston. The
bulk of his very heavy lawN practice
has always been in the Bay State capi
tal. Hillary Abner Herbert, who held the
post during Cleveland's second term.
I South Carolinian by birth, but Alabama
bred, and a Confederate officer m the
the Civil War, is practicing law In
Washington at 73. At 64 Nathan Goff.
Naval Secretary under Hayes, is a
United States Circuit Judge, living at
Clarksburg, W. Va.r the place of his
birth.
Richard Olney, at 71. one of the fore-
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most legal lights in Boston, where he , was on the down-hill road, Day fully
him, and was hade head of the depart
ment when Sherman resigned. Day re
signed at the close of the war, but
served as chairman for the United
lives on Commonwealth avenue. Is one
of the best-known surviving Secre
taries of State. He served in Cleve
land's second term, and made the
greater part of his reputation by the
audacity with which he upheld the
Monroe Doctrine In the mid-nineties,
when England was preparing to force
certain claims against Venezuela. At
least, it always has been supposed by
the public that he wrote the Presi
dent's famous message to 'Congress an
nouncing that this Republic would not
allow the landing of an armed Euro
pean force on any part of the Western
continent without making every pos
sible effort to prevent it.
William Rufus Day, who succeeeded
John Sherman, is now a Justice of the
Supreme Court. He is 58, slight, also
retiring and silent unless he is wit
nessing a baseball game. Called to
Washington by McKinley in the midst
of the perplexing Incident to the be
ginning of the Spanish War to be
Sherman's assistant, when tha 1 alter
States on the Paris Commission which
fixed the terms of the treaty of peace
with' Spain. McKinley made Day a Cir
cuit Judge. In 1903 Roosevelt put him in
his present place.
The third surviving Secretary of
State. John Watson Foster, is possi
bly the most famous American inter
national lawyer. He was appointed to
the state portfolio by Harrison, in 1892.
soon after the Republican National Con
vention. In which Harrison had defeat
ed Blaine for the Presidential nomina
tion. A Pike County Hoosier by birth
and a graduate of the State University,
Foster had served in the Civil War as a
Colonel, had been an editor in Evansville,
and United States Minister to Mexico,
Russia and Spain; he had also been
counsel for various foreign governments,
and. had.uesolialfidjfidnxocltv treaties
&Trr,rtEV3. TZJA
with Brazil, Spain. Germany, the Brit
ish West Indies, -etc.
His income from his international law
practice was big, and he used to wonder
whether he could get it back or not.
Harrison was not re-elected, but Foster's
fears proved groundless, since he was
sent to Paris in 1893 to represent this
country in the Behring Sea arbitration.
He represented China in her peace nego
tiations with Japan and since then has
been intrusted with several important
special missions for this Government and
has got his International practice back
again. He is now 71; his famous side
whiskers are as luxuriant as ever, though
whiter, and his voice and manner have
all their old-time suavity.
James Donald Cameron." Secretary of
War in-Hrant's l""t venr rich In Cual and
iron mines, manufacturing establishments
and the like, is retired at 74 and has been
for years. His home is at Harrisburg,
capital of the state over which he and
his father, Simon Cameron, were political
bosses before the Quay days dawned,
but he is much in New York. He was in
the Senate from Pennsylvania for 20
years after leaving the Cabinet, but re
signed ten years ago.
Two years older than Cameron. Red
field Proctor, appointed to the war office
bv Harrison, has been in the Senate ever
since 1891. He is so big a man six feet
three, and broad "according" that his
ordinary frock coat would be amply large
to serve almost any one of his colleagues
as an overcoat. He had been prominent
in Vermont state politics and had served
as Governor, but never was in National
politiCK before entering the Cabinet. He
is famous for his dry New England
humor. Once a fellow Senator, speaking
along lines that Proctor opposed, an
nounced that he desired to drop into
verse.
"I wish to interpolate this little bit of
poetry." said the Senator, "which has
been set to music by an eminent com
poser." v
"Has it?" queried Proctor. "Then sing
it!"
His great wealth is in marble. His son
is now Governor of Vermont.
Stephen Benton Elkins, who followed
Praetor as War Secretary mder Harri
son, now United States Senator from
West Virginia, is about as big a man;
perhaps not so tall, but much stouter.
He is ten years younger and as rich, or
richer, his wealth being in coal and iron.
Born in Ohio, he went to Missouri as a
child, stayed there till he got his degree
at the University of Missouri, studied
law went to New Mexico to grow up with
the country, was sent to Washington as
Territorial Delegate, got acquainted with
the daughter of Henry Gassoway Davis,
Senator from -West Virginia, married her
and settled In West Virginia to be near
his father-in-law. After leaving the
Cabinet in 1893 he went back to his West
Virginia mines and railroads and was
made Senator in 1895.
At 63 Robert Todd Lincoln, appointed
Secretary of War by Garfield 16 years
after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated,
is living in Chicago. He never has been
much in politics, but as the son of his
father he has been mentioned several
times for the Presidency with more or
less sincerity. Upon leaving the Cabinet
in 1R95 he returned to Chicago, where he
had gathered a big law practice, after
graduating from Harvard College and
Law School, and - built up his practice
anew, his specialty being real esfate. He
became counsel for the Pullman Com
pany early In Its history and on the
death of Pullman was made its president.
He is a rich man in the modern sense
of the term. He was Minister to England
under Harrison.
Elihii Root, who preceded Taft in the
War Department, can hardly be termed
an "ex-Secretary" till after he finally
leaves the Cabinet.
The Nation's Financial -Men.
Leslie Morton Shaw, Just out of the
Treasury Department; at 58. and now at
the head of a New York trust company,
is the youngest of the Treasury ex-Secretaries.
Charles Stebblns Falrchild. who
had the portfolio during a part of Cleve
land's first term, is next youngest, being
65. He was an Albany lawyer and had
been Attorney-General of his state be
fore he entered the Cabinet, but after
leaving It made New York his headquar
ters, where for years he was president
of a big trust company, though now ire
tired. He is a native qf New York State
and a Harvard man. I
Lyman Judson Gage, who held the port
folio under McKinley. and was succeeded
under Roosevelt by Shaw, also became
president of a big New York trust com
pany after leaving the Cabinet in 1902.
He is a native of New York State, self
educated, and was a Chicago bank presi
dent before becoming a Cabinet Minister.
ROBERT of WXYSVZ:,
POSTMASTER G&VZRAZ
SUCCEEDING- FAyAZ7
He also was president of the Chicago'
World's Fair. At 71 he is retired and
lives in California much of the time.
Cleveland's Treasury had during hlffj
second term John Griffin Carlisle, now
71, who has been practicing law success-:
fully in New York ever since he retired
from the Cabinet ten years ago. He has;
been little in the public eye since leaving!
Washington. He is not a college man. I
He entered Congress in 1877 and served!
in both houses, being Speaker of' the I
lower one for six years. It was of hinv,
that McKinley once said: "That man)'
never had a cloudy thought."
Tlie Interior Portfolio.
Cornelius Newton Bliss and Ethan Allen'
Hitchcock, both chosen by McKinley to -hold
the portfolio of the Interior, Hitch-j
cock's service. Just concluded, reaching
imu nuybrveii a AQiminisirauon, are
both rich men. Bliss is 74. Hitchcock 71.
Neither is college bred. Both are mer
chants of the old school. Called into
public life without expecting, it hy Mc-
Klnlev. Hitchcock served first as Mini
ister and then as Ambassador to Russia, j
becoming Secretary of the Interior when;
Bliss stepped out. No one can yet have;
forgotten the reforms of Hitchcock's
regime. ,
Born in New England,- Bliss went to'
New Orleans as a boy, got back north i
and went to work fn Boston in 1866. but!
finally gravitated to New York, where;
he has been a noteworthy factor in the:
business world for .more than 30 years.
He was treasurer of the Republican Na-
tlonal committee in the last four cam-J
paigns and president of the American!
Protective Tariff League from its forma-i
tion, in 1888, until two or three years ago. j
Bliss was never so bored in his life a
when in the Cabinet.
John Willock Noble, who had the Inte
rior portfolio under Harrison, and David
Rowland Francis, who had it during the
latter part of Cleveland's second adminis
tration, are both residents of St. Louis.
Noble is now 75; he was a lawyer in the
metropolis of the mid-Mississippi Valley
when called to the Cabinet, and he has-
been practicing there ever since he lef(7!
it. He is an Ohioan by birth, was llv-
ing at Keokuk, Iowa, when the Civil',
War broke out went to the front, and"
rose to the rank of brevet brigadier gen-;
eral. -
Francis was born a Kcntuckian. Hei,
studied at the Washington University,
established himself as ft commissions
merchant, and served as Mayor of St.-
Louis and Governor of Missouri before1
entering the Cabinet. His entire career
has been remarkably successful, but he I
is best known because he was president
of the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition irt'
1904. This enterprise, in fact, made himf-J
more or less famous In every civilized
land. He is 56, rich, and has been talked!
of a good deal in the past as a Democrat
ic Presidential possibility.
.riose mitu. wuu iiciu me ntcn., -
retarvshlD three of the four years of
Cleveland's second term, returned to At-,
lanta on leaving the Cabinet and resumed
his law practice. It and the newspaper
which he took on a debt some years agol
have brought him a substantial fortune.)
and he will not need his salary as Gov-,
ernor of Georgia, to which office he was";
chosen at the last state election. Hej
gets his odd Christian name from hi?l
mother's family. He is 51, and la noC(:
a college man. J.
William Freeman Vilas, Secretary, off
the Interior during the latter half ofr
Cleveland's first term, who had previous-j
ly served as J?OBtmaster General, is 11 v-'
Ing at Madison, Wis., where he practiced?;
law- before his incurs Into Cablnetland-1
He is still practicing. He is 67, a native)!
of Vermont, and a graduate of Wiscon-
sin University. He served in the Civil;
War. rose to be lieutenant colonel, and"
was United States Senator from 1891 tor
1897. He Is rich. !
Henry M. Teller, Arthur's Secretary pf
tho Interior 25 years ago, is 77. He was:
a New York state boy, educated at A1-;
fred University, (aught school, practiced '
law. and. in 1861, reached Colorado via '
Illinois, where, he made a three years' ;
stop on the road. He got into the Unit-.'
ed States Senate in 1876, remained there
till put Into the Cabinet in 1882: In ISSi, ;
when he left the Cabinet, went into the
Senate, and has been a Senator ever
since, part of the time as a Silver Re-f
publican. One of his most remarkable
speeches was made in 1903. Its delivery :
took four days, and it took him a full !
tConcluded on I'aKe 11.)
4