Part 11

The last annual report of the Secretary of the Navy showed that the United States has 252 regular naval vessels, 55 of special classes, besides as many more of inferior classes called standard vessels, such as steam-cutters, launches, cutters, etc. The Secretary's report shows that $84,181,863.89 was appropriated for naval expenses, of which about seventeen millions yet remain unused. A large part of this has gone for new vessels. No part of the government is increasing so rapidly as the naval service. When all men are enlisted for which legal provision has been made, the naval and marine force will reach 34,810 men, or nearly 8,000 more than were in the army prior to the war with Spain. By the Congressional acts of 1864, 1868, and 1876 the navy was fixed not to exceed 7,000 men; the act of March 3, 1901, fixes the number at 25,000, but the necessities of the country have increased it beyond this.

The average citizen knows far less about the navy than about the army. Yet in time of war the army would be of little use without an efficient navy. In the Civil War no great progress was made in conquering the South till the blockade shut in the Southern States, preventing the export of cotton and the bringing in of the necessities of life.

In the late war with Spain, brilliant as was the service of the army, yet our navy carried away the greater laurels.

The North Atlantic Squadron during the last fiscal year has been engaged in severe training in marksmanship and evolutions, gaining facility in landing large guns, etc. The vessels of this squadron have extended their operations from Maine to Central America, particularly among the West Indies. The South Atlantic Squadron has assisted in commercial interests along the coast of South America. The European Squadron is now mostly in the Mediterranean Sea. The Pacific Squadron is scattered over such a great length of coast from Alaska to South America that the ships can not drill as a squadron, but are obliged to maneuver singly. The apprentice and training squadrons have been along the coast of Europe, but are now in the West Indies. These are afloat continually, except when stopped for repairs or supplies.

Possibly no condition in the war with Spain annoyed us so much as the use of powder which emitted smoke and thus showed just where our men were located, while they dealt with an unseen foe. The navy has taken up this matter, and is experimenting on the use and making of smokeless powder. We shall not be caught napping again. The navy is also practising wireless telegraphy; and while it can not be said to have adopted any of the half dozen systems now before the public, yet so far it has secured the best results from the Marconi system. This is used by Great Britain and Italy. Germany uses the Slaby system, France and Russia the Ducretet system. The Secretary of the Navy insists that none is a perfect success, as the difficulty of interference has not yet been entirely overcome. Wireless telegraphy has carried messages between British war-ships 160 miles apart. In 1908 and 1909 the fleet went around the world.

We have eight navy-yards, the principal one being at Brooklyn. The barracks for the marines in Washington are situated on Eighth Street, a short distance from the navy-yard; they cost $350,000. The navy-yard at Washington does not build large ships, but produces chains, anchors, ordnances, such as rifles, breech-loading guns, etc., together with a long list of materials used in the navy.

Admiral Dewey is not only the pride of the navy but of the nation. He receives $13,500 per year. Rear-Admirals are paid $8,000.

Extensive and important improvements are to be made at the Annapolis Naval Academy. The country expects great proficiency in its army and navy, so no pains, no expense should be spared in the preparation of men of whom so much is required. A number of years ago Commodore Perry, speaking to the students of Antioch College (Ohio), told the following anecdote:

"Some twenty-five years ago I was carelessly walking on the levee of a city of the Adriatic. A short distance from the shore lay a man-of-war at anchor. I called an oarsman to me, and had him take me out to the vessel.

"I saw no one on board, but by a rope hanging over the side I went on deck, hand over hand. I paid the oarsman, and told him to return for me in an hour.

"I wandered over the beautiful ship, admiring its guns, its keeping, its admirable appointments, and its excellent management, shown by its condition. At the end of my hour I began to look for my oarsman. Just then I discovered a door on my right. I opened it, and in that room sat thirty-two boys. I had been there an hour and had not heard stir enough to show that so much as a bird was alive on that boat.

"The youngest cadet came to the door and welcomed me with his cordial military salute. 'Boy, where is your teacher?' 'Gone ashore, sir.' 'Do you keep absolute order while he is gone?' 'Certainly, sir.'

"Then passing to the front, I said to one of the older boys: 'Young man, why do you act so differently from other boys? Are you afraid of being punished?'

"The cadet rose to his feet. 'Sir,' said he, 'you see before you thirty-two cadets. We all expect to govern others in our future work. The first element of a good governor is self-government; sir, we are practising that.'"

The Commodore added: "That was twenty-five years ago. In the providence of God none of these young men have been called to eternity. I will now read you their names." And the audience recognized in each man a name famous in the navies of Great Britain, Germany, France, or America.

Now those lads had not merely kept silent. The mastery of self made them victorious over temper, bad habits, and all depraved tastes. They were men in soul as well as in body. Truly, "He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city."

XXVII DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

IN February, 1903, President Roosevelt nominated to the head of the new Department of Commerce and Labor his secretary, George B. Cortelyou, and to be Commissioner of Corporations in that department James R. Garfield, who is a son of President Garfield, and a member of the Civil Service Commission. Of these appointments the New York _Times_ expressed the general opinion of the press of the country:

The former appointment is significant chiefly because the new Secretary is intimately known to the President, and his policy in the department will probably represent the President's views very closely. It cannot in any special sense be regarded as a political appointment. The selection of Mr. Garfield is also conspicuously on the merits of the appointee, who is not an active politician, is an able lawyer, has been prominent and useful in the promotion of municipal reform and of the merit system in Ohio and as a Civil Service Commissioner. He has plenty of energy, a cool head, experience in public affairs, and may be expected to do all that can be done with the powers of his new office, the value of which must depend much on the character of the Commissioner and the support and direction of the Secretary and of the President.

After that Mr. Cortelyou made an efficient officer in this Department, then was transferred to the Treasury, which he ably conducted during the panic of 1907. At the end of the Roosevelt Administration he was called to the presidency of the Consolidated Gas Company in New York City.

Mr. Garfield was soon called to deal with the great corporations, and confronted the greatest problem of the times. He came to his responsible place a comparatively unknown man. His name carried something of the halo which surrounds the name of his distinguished father, and for that reason he started with the best wishes of his countrymen.

Mr. Taft placed at the head of the Department of Commerce and Labor Mr. Nagel, of St. Louis, whose history the Congressional Directory sums up as follows:

CHARLES NAGEL, of St. Louis, Mo., Secretary of Commerce and Labor (the Arlington), was born August 9, 1849, in Colorado County, Tex. He left his home in 1863 as a result of the civil war, accompanying his father to old Mexico, and from there, by way of New York, to St. Louis. He graduated from the St. Louis High School in 1868; from the St. Louis Law School in 1872; attended the University of Berlin 1872-73; admitted to the bar 1873. In 1876 he married Fannie Brandeis, of Louisville, who died in 1889, one daughter surviving her. In 1895 he married Anne Shepley, and they have four children. He was a member of the Missouri Legislature from 1881 to 1883; president of the St. Louis City Council from 1893 to 1897; member of the St. Louis Law School faculty since 1886; Board of Trustees of Washington University; Board of Directors of St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts. Made national committeeman from Missouri in 1908. Has taken an active part in politics for the last twenty years by participating in conventions and speaking during campaigns, and has from time to time delivered addresses before bar associations and similar organizations upon various topics of public interest.

The new department has a wide scope, and under efficient administration may exert a good deal of influence. It takes over practically the scientific and statistical work of the government, especially the Coast Survey, the Bureaus of Statistics from the Treasury and State Departments, and the Fish Commission, besides the Labor Bureau, the Immigration Bureau, and the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and it has a new Bureau of Manufactures, with considerable duties. But undoubtedly the most important work it can perform is in the Bureau of Corporations. It will do a great work, if it only secures publicity of accounts. The powers of this bureau extend to "diligent investigation into the organization, conduct, and management of any corporation, joint stock company, or corporate combination engaged in commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, excepting common carriers." For this work the Commissioner is to have the "right to subpœna and compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence and to administer oaths." One of the objects of this power is to enable the Commissioner to "gather such information and data as will enable the President of the United States to make recommendations to Congress for the regulation of" interstate and foreign commerce.

The Survey, Quarantine, Immigration, and Life-Saving bureaus are next in importance. Along the coast new harbors and coast lines are constantly being surveyed. When the quarantine officer boards your ship at the entrance of New York harbor, and scares you thoroughly lest he keep you in quarantine for the sake of some poor Italian baby in the steerage, he represents the Secretary of Commerce guarding a great nation from disease. When the immigrant lands he is interviewed by an agent of this department and his money changed into United States currency. Some of these agents recognize in the poor, frightened, lonely, and travel-stained foreigner a human being who needs a friendly word and helping hand, but others would scare even an American woman, who knows her own value, out of her wits; what, then, must be the effect of such men on the feelings of these strangers? Nearly a half million of foreigners a year enter our ports, and I have seen many of them treated like cattle.

The Life-Saving Bureau has charge of the continuous line of life-saving stations which guard our coasts. No braver men have ever lived than the devoted servants of the government who patrol our shores. There are 269 life-saving stations on the coasts of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Great Lakes, and one at the Ohio Falls, at Louisville, Ky. The men of these stations were present last year at 693 disasters and saved 3,377 lives. Our government pensions soldiers and sailors who are hired to destroy lives; surely greater pensions should be awarded these heroes of the main for saving life.

XXVIII THE EXECUTIVE MANSION

THE President's house is generally known as the White House. It is situated on Pennsylvania Avenue, one mile west of the Capitol building. It contains two lofty stories above ground and a basement.

It was modeled after the palace of the Duke of Leicester by the architect, James Hobon. The foundation was laid October 13, 1792, and the building was first occupied by President John Adams in the summer of 1800. It was partially burned by the British in 1814. The front is ornamented by Ionic columns and a projecting screen with three columns. The space between these two sets of columns constitutes a carriage-way, admitting to the main entrance.

The White House proper contains but thirty-one rooms. The building was refitted and the wings for approach and for the private offices of the President were built during the administration of President Roosevelt. Whether seen through the tracery of leafless trees or through the verdure of summer, the White House always looks cool, restful, and beautiful. The situation is not regarded as very healthful, but everything that modern science can do is now being employed to improve its sanitary condition.

All official duties will in time be attended to in the offices which are situated just west of the White House, so that the latter will be used only as the private residence of the President's family.

Longfellow says:

All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses.

How true this must be of the home of our Presidents! George Washington watched its building, and with his stately wife walked through it when it was finished, and was satisfied. They were about ready to leave the scene of action, but they did much to prepare the stage for the procession of Presidents which has followed.

For the last fifty years much complaint has been made that the house has not been large enough and that it was lacking in modern conveniences, but in spite of these objections no trouble has yet been experienced in finding men who were quite willing and even anxious to occupy it.

The walls are covered with portraits of the Presidents and their wives. All these portraits are interesting.

Mrs. John Adams bewailed the unfinished condition of the house, and used the now famous East Room for drying the family linen.

Of all the noble matrons who have graced the White House, Abigail Adams was the wisest and greatest. Her letters make her the Madam de Sévigné of our land. Her letter (written February, 1797) to her husband, who had just succeeded Washington, sounds like the voice of an oracle. We quote a portion: "You have this day to declare yourself head of a nation. 'And now, O Lord, my God, thou hast made Thy servant ruler over the people; give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before this great people; that he may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?' were the words of a royal sovereign, and not less applicable to him who is invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation, tho he wear not a crown nor the robes of royalty. My thoughts and my meditations are with you, tho personally absent, and my petitions to heaven are that 'the things which make for peace may not be hidden from your eyes.' My feelings are not those of pride or ostentation upon this occasion. They are solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important trusts, and numerous duties connected with it. That you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the daily prayer of yours—"

The first New-year's reception at the White House was held by President Adams in 1801. Mrs. Adams kept up the stately, ceremonious customs established by President and Mrs. Washington. It was her son, John Quincy Adams, as Monroe's Secretary of State, who was afterward to write out a definite code for almost every public ceremony. This code is largely in force at the present time.

Martha Washington comes into history simply as the wife of a great man, but Abigail Adams was inherently a superior woman. Of all the women who occupied the White House she, only, gave the country a son who became a great man, and occupied the highest position in the gift of his country.

After John Adams came Thomas Jefferson, who had imbibed ultra-democratic ideas in the French Revolution. The ceremonies which prevailed in the Washington and Adams period were temporarily laid aside by this plain Virginia gentleman. He received the formal dames of the land in his riding-suit, covered with dust, riding-whip in hand, and with clanking spurs on his heels. His lovely daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, did her best to give the great house the air of a pleasant home. She succeeded well, and Jefferson's accomplished daughter smoothed many of the asperities existing among public men who had lived through the Revolution and suffered from the jealousies, misunderstandings, and injustices of the times.

Mrs. Dolly Madison was probably the greatest social genius that has ever occupied the White House. The papers of that day declare "Mrs. Madison is the most popular person in the United States."

Washington social life yet abounds in pleasing legends of her graceful, courteous kindness, not only to the gentlemen and ladies of the legations, but to the ignorant and socially unskilled who were among her worshipers. James Fenimore Cooper, in a private letter, gives a picture of the White House in the days of James Monroe:

"The evening at the White House, or drawing-room, as it is sometimes pleasantly called, is, in fact, a collection of all classes of people who choose to go to the trouble and expense of appearing in dresses suited to an evening party. I am not sure that even dress is very much regarded, for I certainly saw a good many there in boots.... Squeezing through a crowd, we achieved a passage to a part of the room where Mrs. Monroe was standing, surrounded by a bevy of female friends. After making our bow here, we sought the President. The latter had posted himself at the top of the room, where he remained most of the evening shaking hands with all who approached. Near him stood the Secretaries and a great number of the most distinguished men of the nation. Beside these, one meets here a great variety of people in other conditions of life. I have known a cartman to leave his cart in the street and go into the reception-room to shake hands with the President. He offended the good taste of all present, because it was not thought decent that a laborer should come in a dirty dress on such an occasion; but while he made a mistake in this particular, he proved how well he understood the difference between government and society."

The Monroes came to the White House after it had been restored after the burning in 1814. It was barely furnished at that time, and contained but few conveniences for entertaining. Mrs. Monroe brought furniture directly from Paris, which she used for the East Room. This has been frequently upholstered, and constitutes part of the handsome furniture at the present time.

John Quincy Adams, the fifth President of the United States, was one of the greatest men this country has yet produced. Repellant manners injured his usefulness and obscured the luster of his great name. It is said he could grant a request and thereby lose a friend, while Clay could say "No" so kindly as to win a friend.

The life of Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, is one of surprising interest. She was the daughter of Joshua Johnson, of Maryland, was educated and married in London, accompanied her husband to the many different courts to which he was minister, and brought to the White House a larger social experience than any of her predecessors.

She reestablished the stately ceremonials of the Washington period, which greatly resembled the customs of the English Court. Among the great men who frequented her levees were Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and Andrew Jackson (the latter always in buff pants and vest with blue broadcloth coat and gilt buttons).

Then came strenuous Andrew Jackson as President, with only the memory of his beloved Rachel, who had passed away before he became Chief Magistrate. She had been buried in the beautiful dress prepared for her husband's inauguration. A private letter yet extant gives this picture of the days when Emily Donelson (wife of the President's nephew) was the chief lady of the land:

"The large parlor was scantily furnished; there was light from the chandelier, and a blazing fire in the grate; four or five ladies sewing around it; Mrs. Donelson, Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Jr., Mrs. Edward Livingston, and others. Five or six children were playing about, regardless of documents or work-baskets. At the farther end of the room sat the President in an arm-chair, wearing a loose coat, and smoking a long reed pipe, with bowl of red clay—combining the dignity of the patriarch, monarch, and Indian chief. Just behind him was Edward Livingstone, the Secretary of State, reading a despatch from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. The ladies glance admiringly now and then at the President, who listens, waving his pipe toward the children when they become too boisterous."

Jefferson, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, and Arthur were widowers when they entered the White House.

Van Buren was the Talleyrand of American politics. Secretary of State under Jackson, he had won the heart of his chief, whose influence secured him the Presidency. His son's wife, Angelica Singleton Van Buren, gracefully conducted the ceremonies of the White House during the Van Buren administration.

General William Henry Harrison became President in 1841. His wife never came to Washington. He died one month after his inauguration. It was declared that he was worried to death by the fierce office-seekers of the time. His was the first funeral from the White House.

John Tyler, who succeeded Harrison, was a polished, cultured gentleman from Virginia. His was the literary period, when Washington Irving, Edward Everett, and John Howard Payne received foreign appointments.

His first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, made her first public appearance at the White House at the marriage of her daughter. She died in 1842. Eight months before Tyler's term expired he was married to Miss Julia Gardner, of New York. The festivities of the time began with her wedding reception, and lasted till the end of that administration.

James K. Polk, of Tennessee, became President in 1845. He was rather small physically, and so spare or thin that the tailor had to make his clothing too large to help out his appearance.

Mrs. Polk much resembled in manners Martha Washington. She dressed well and gave frequent levees, as receptions were then called. She received her guests sitting, with the President standing by her chair. A gentleman once said to her, "Madam, there is a wo pronounced against you in the Scriptures: 'Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you.'"

In 1849 Gen. Zachariah Taylor was inaugurated as the twelfth President of the United States. He lived sixteen months and five days after he became President. His wife, Margaret Taylor, was an invalid, but his daughter, "Miss Betty" as she was familiarly called, made the White House attractive.