Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at WashingtonGilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)
History
Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at Washington
Gilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)
Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaliel), 1865-1923; United States -- Politics and government -- 1921-1923
Frank to the utmost limits his caution will permit, people like him, but
not passionately. Men respect his ability, but they do not feel strongly
about it. He never becomes the center of controversy, as Daugherty is,
as Hoover has been, and as Hughes may at any time be. I have never seen
him angry, I have seen him enthusiastic. A Laodicean in short.
Secretary Fall hoped to be one of the chief advisers, but has been
disappointed. Mr. Harding had said of him, "His is the best mind in the
Senate," but he has found other minds more to his liking in the Cabinet.
With a long drooping mustache, he looks like a stage sheriff of the Far
West in the movies. His voice is always loud and angry. He has the
frontiers-man's impatience. From his kind lynch law springs.
He wanted to lynch Mexico. When he entered the Cabinet he said to his
Senate friends, "If they don't follow me on Mexico I shall resign." He
has been a negative rather than a positive force there regarding Mexico,
deviating Mr. Hughes into the ineffective position he occupies.
He has the frontiers-man's impatience of conservation. Probably he is
right. His biggest contribution to his country's welfare will be oil
land leases, like that of Teapot Dome.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Wallace, is an excellent technical
adviser, as unobtrusive as experts usually are.
The Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Denby, with his flabby jowls and large
shapeless mouth, has a big heart, and more enthusiasm than he has
self-command, judgment, or intelligence. He committed political suicide
cheerfully, when the Cannon machine in the House fell into disfavor. He
would do anything for a friend, not as Mr. Daugherty would because it
pays, but because he is a friend. A cause commands an equal loyalty from
him. Just because his head is not as big as his heart he is a minor
factor.
Mr. Davis, Secretary of Labor, is a professional glad hand man,
appointed because the administration meant to extend nothing to Labor
but a glad hand. When a crisis presents itself in industrial relations,
Mr. Hoover, who spreads himself over several departments, attends to it.
At the conference on unemployment, which was Mr. Hoover's, the best and
only example of the unemployed present was the Secretary of Labor.
CHAPTER VIII
THE GREATEST COMMON DIVISOR OF MUCH LITTLENESS
We have a form of government suited to effect the will of a simple
primitive people, a people with one clear aim. When we are all of one
mind the government works. The executive represents the general
intention, Congress represents the same intention. The party in power
owes its position to the thoroughness with which it expresses the common
purpose. Or, if you go back further, the structure of business serves
the same social aim.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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