Evening star. [volume], March 05, 1933, Page 5, Image 67

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
WHEN THE PRESIDENT SITS AT HIS DESK
Duties of the Chief
Executive at His Private
Office in The White
House Wing'Are* Many
and Varied, and They
Keep Him Close to the
Grind for Many Hours
Each Day.
BY JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG.
PRESIDENTS may come and go every four
years, and their personal traits and
general characteristics may vary greatly,
but their duties while occupying the
highest office in the gift of the Ameri
can people change but little.
Quite naturally the methods of applying
themselves to these presidential duties differ
according to the tastes, habits and training
of wie individual who happens to be President,
but the actual work and countless other duties
that will confront him during his term are
about the same as they always have been.
It has been frequently said that the office
of President of the United States is a "man
killer." Much was heard about this after Wood
row Wilson was stricken at the conclusion of
the World War and his participation in the
peace conference, and following the sudden
death of Warren Harding in a San Francisco
hotel. This phrase has been mentioned in con
nection with Presidents even since the recent
sudden death of Calvin Coolidge.
Whether or not the presidential office is a
"man killer" depends upon the man who holds
that office. At least It depends on just how
he goes about his work and how he handles it,
mentally as well as physically.
It is doubtful if any occupant of the White
House worked as hard. In a general sense, as
did President Hoover. Entirely aside from the
grave problems which developed during his
four years, Mr. Hoover will go down in White
House history as the champion toiler, at least
so far as the memory of old attaches at the
White House can recall.
Warren Harding worked hard in spurts and
was generally so" far behind that he rarely
caught up. This was because his genial and
sociable nature diverted his attention from his
work, thus necessitating real labor on his part
when he was in a working mood.
President Coolidge was methodical and kept
close to a scheduled routine, and .as a result
he succceded in keeping abreast of his work
each day and at the same time giving the out
ward appearance of having touch time on his
bands.
President Wilson was an especially hard
worker, but a really systematic one, and he.
like Coolidge, seldom found himself swamped.
Not even excepting Mr. Hoover, no President In
recent years kept In cloGer touch with all that
was going on and with the ordinary routine of
his office.
William Howard Taft often found himself up
to his neck with work and at the same time far
behind with his daily routine, but from different
reasons. Also like Mr. Harding, President Taft
loved to get away from the cares of his office,
if only for an afternoon of golf. But he had a
trait of putting off things until the very last
moment and because of this he was many times
forced to ftirn the midnight oil until the early
hours of the morning.
Theodora Roosevelt had a style all his own
and probably will never be resembled by another
occupant of the White House. He was an in
defatigable worker. He worked hard, and, too,
he played hard. However, despite his vast
activities and his interest in so many things,
he kept up with his daily work, and found
plenty of time to indulge In recreation. He was
as profound a believer in recreation as in work
and he saw to it that he did a good job of both.
But. as for working early and late, day in
and day out, with only the briefest and most
Infrequent departures, Herbert Hoover will not
be equaled for a long time to come. There
were few workdays throughout his four years
that Mr. Hoover was not at his desk in the
executive office before quarter to 9 o'clock in
the morning. Frequently he was on hand
earlier than that.
Mr. Hoover's workday was not over wnen ne
arose from his desk and started for the White
House to make ready for the evening meal.
Most always there was company for dinner, In
cluding men with whom he wished to discuss
certain pending problems, and the Hoover na
ture was such as to not wait until the meal had
been completed and he and his company were
jomfortably seated with cigars in one of the up
stairs sitting rooms or the Lincoln study. He
would i tart right in with the first course of the
meal to talk the business at hand. These discus
sions would last always until after 10 o'clock,
and if the subject was one of really great im
portance at the time, the President would con
tinue thom until midnight. Generally after his
evening business chats were over and his com
pany had gone he would retire to the quiet
seclu icn of the Lincoln study, where he would
writ? or read.
Considering the hours of actual work Mr.
Hoover gave to his office during his administra
tion, even aside from the overwhelming gravity
of the ecor.omi? problems confronting him, one
The west wing of the White House which houses the President's executive office. The bay window is directly back of the
President's desk.
Harris & Ewing Phot®.
would say without hesitancy that his was a
"man-killing" job, but he seems to have thrived
on it, and from all accounts and appearances
he is looking better and feeling better than
when he entered the office of President lour
years ago. His intimates describe it as "play"
for him. He evidently has enjoyed those many
hours of toil.
Therefore, when the question is asked just
what is the work a President has to do, it can
be answered by saying that It depends greatly
upon the ideas and traits and habits of the
individual who is President.
OF course, there is a set routine. This has
been virtually the same throughout the
years, with little change, but probably a little
more burdensome each year. But leaving out
the routine work, the presidential labors are
just about what a President makes them.
The drought of three years ago, the economic
depression with its ever-increasing unemploy
ment, and the foreign debt problem were suffi
cient in themselves to overtax any one Presi
dent, but, despite his many hours of worry be
cause of these problems, Mr. Hoover has borne
up under the strain in a most remarkable fash
ion. In spite of all these things to worry
about, he has made extra work for himself in
other directions.
His Intimates will admit readily that he has
gone out of his way in this respect, by taking
over the work of others—his subordinates. He
has personally worked out problems that were
the first concern of a department head and
more often the concern of some one as obscure
as a departmental division or bureau chief. It
was because of this characteristic that he was
always busy, always bent over struggling with
some problem or another. It was because of
this trait that he was seldom seen at leisure.
and rarely felt that he had time to close his
desk and go away for rest and recreation.
Most Presidents followed the theory that It
was their duty and responsibility to make the
final decisions, but that it was the duty of
their subordinates to work out the details of
the various problems and produce the answers.
In this respect Calvin Coolidge will stand out
as the greatest exponent of such a theory. He
was rigid in his determination to not do the
work of others and he minced no words in
making this known to those subordinates who
came to him in the hope that he would solve
some particular problem or at least help out
with the answer.
Mr. Harding's nature was such that he was
willing to assume some of the work of his
department heads, but he was generally lagging
so far behind with the work that was solely
his own that his good Intentions resulted In
Just that—good intentions. Mr. Wilson
possessed some of this Hoover trait, but he
knew where to draw the line.
Probably every man who has occupied the
high office of President has at one time or an
other said that "saying no" was the hardest
and meanest part of the work as President.
"Everybody seems to want something" Is
the way all who have been President have ex
pressed themselves soon after taking over the
reins of government. Warren Harding once
said, when speaking about the disposal of
patronage, which Is one of the greatest presi
dential worries: "With every appointment to
public office a President usually makes one
ingrate and 100 enemies."
Dealing out the so-called patronage plums
undoubtedly takes a lot of Joy out of the office
of President. He is continually besought,
pestered, cajoled and sometimes bullied, in the
The President's private office at the White House.
Harris Ac Swing Photo.
matter of patronage. It is naturally the aim
(it every man who has earned the high honors
of Chief Executive to appoint the best possible
men to the places of importance, but the
American system makes this a very difficult. If
not impossible, task.
There are about ?0,000 of these more choice
plums at the disposal of the President, most
of which are postmasters. Of course, the Presi
dent leaves the selection of the vast majority
of the postmasters to the Postmaster General
and the Senators and party leaders in the
States in which the appointments are to be
made. But. just the same, there is a certain
amount of correspondence with the White
House and the actual physical work of signing
each one of these appointments.
The signing of all these nominations is In
Itself something of a task. However, a Presi
dent must accustom himself to writing his
name. That takes nearly one-half of his work
ing time. There are great numbers of daily
routine departmental matters to sign, besides
a quantity of letters, orders, proclamations, to
say nothing of the daily bundle of photographs
to be autographed and the autograph albums
to be written into.
FORTUNATELY the President does not per
sonally answer all of his mail. Actually
he does not answer a quarter of it. The re
mainder is answered by his secretaries. Many
of these, however, must be signed by the Presi
dent. Moreover, a President sees only about
one-quarter of all the letters addressed to him.
If he attempted to see more he probably would
not have time to do anything else, and besides,
he would read some very mean things about
himself, as well as some disturbing things.
Throughout the Hoover administration there
was an average of 700 letters daily, in addition
to scores of packages and telegrams. The In
coming and outgoing telephone calls averaged
1,000 a day, which was 50 per cent more than
during the preceding administration.
But, one of the really big jobs of the presi
dential office is handling the mail. There is
one chief mail clerk with two assistants, who
open all the mail and packages and then
classify them according to the nature of their
contents. Some few go directly to the President.
The rest are handled by the President's aev
eral secretaries. Many of these letters are sent
directly to some one of the Government de
partments, to answer.
seldom aoes a aay go Dy witnout a number
of letters from persons asking aid cither
finai. cial or in the form of employment. Then
there are the daily crank letters from mentally,
unbalanced persons, who have some great in*
vention to show the President, or who haw
some plan calculated to bring about the end of
war, or the end of the economic depression, and
to bring about all sorts of conditions leading
toward Utopia. In addition there are the daily
average of letters criticizing and finding fault
and denouncing the President for "mistakes,*
and those letters in which the physical safety
of the President is threatened.
While the mail reading aod answering oc
cupies considerable of the time of the execu
tive office staff, tha system is such as to relieve
the President from any great amount of
physical effort.
The greatest trial confronting the President,
however, each day is having to give audiences
to a certain number of people and listen to
their wants. Virtually every day at least twe
or three Senators and as many House members
present themselves at the executive office t0>
take up some matter of "importance," generally
patronage, or to interest the President in some
pst legislation of interest only to their par
ticular State or congressional district.
But the daily callers seeking some portion at
the Executive's time are not confined to the
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