THE PRESIDENCY: Full Sub-Cabinet

Last week President Hoover mustered his sub-Cabinet of 30 members up to full strength by appointing a new Assistant Secretary of State, a new Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.* To James Grafton Rogers of Denver, Col., went the job of diplomacy. To Arthur Atwood Ballantine of New York City went the job of finance. Like all assistants to full-fledged Secretaries they were primed to work hard and get small public credit for their labors.

Both new Assistant Secretaries are 48. Both are corporation lawyers. Both are wealthy. Both like to write. Mr. Rogers’ knowledge of diplomacy is academic. Mr. Ballantine’s knowledge of finance is practical.

After his Yale graduation (’05) Mr. Rogers reported for the New York Sun for a year, returned to his native Denver for a law degree, married Cora May, daughter of James H. Peabody, famed Colorado Governor during the Cripple Creek gold rush. Enlisting for the War, he became a first lieutenant of artillery. After practicing his profession with John F. Shafroth, onetime Colorado Governor and Senator, and William V. Hodges, one-time G. O. P. treasurer, Mr. Rogers took the deanship of the University of Colorado’s Law School. Public-spirited, he helped Colorado taxpayers fight their Moffat Tunnel case, served as local president of the Boy Scouts, headed the State Bar Association. Slight in build, quiet in manner, conservative in dress, he enjoys writing amateur plays for Denver Cactus Club to produce (The Fire of Romance, The Goldenrod Lode, The Third Day}.

Born in Ohio, Mr. Ballantine was graduated from Harvard (’04). practiced law in Boston. During the War he became a special legal adviser to the Treasury on the collection of War taxes, later served as solicitor of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Always interested in the legalistic intricacies of taxation, he did special work for the Joint Congressional Committee on Internal Revenue. He is now a member of the famed Manhattan law firm of [Elihu] Root, Clark, Buckner, Howland & Ballantine, specializing in public service and business organization law. For recreation he writes scholarly articles on taxation for law reviews, plays hard at fashionable Piping Rock Club.

¶From President Hoover “Lame Duck” Congressman Richard Nash Elliott last week got one of the best jobs in the whole Federal service when he was appointed Assistant Controller General for a 15-year term at $8,000 per year.* After 14 years’ House service he was rewarded with this big bright plum chiefly because, as chair man of the Public Buildings Committee, he had scotched the old “pork barrel” method of Federal construction and inaugurated the Government’s present “lump sum” system of public building. To him, too, goes much credit for the extensive housing program to beautify the Federal City.

¶ Touched was President Hoover by the case of Police Lieut. David T. McElliott of Great Falls, Mont. It was Officer McElliott’s misfortune to be convicted last year of an “indirect” violation of the Volstead Act for which he was fined $100. Rather than pay the fine he languished in jail, the while appealing to the White House. Last week President Hoover granted him a full pardon, remitted his fine, because he had been a good policeman for 20 years.

¶ As a result of extra funds now being appropriated President Hoover announced that the number of men employed on Government construction would rise from 150,000 to 450,000 in 30 days.

¶ In the Blue Room of the White House stood a black man in ceremonial attire. He was Dantes Bellegarde. He made a little speech to President Hoover. President Hoover made a little speech to him. And black Dantes Bellegarde went on the State Department rolls as the duly accredited Minister to the U. S. fromthe black Republic of Haiti.

¶Last week Representative Ulysses Stevens (“U. S.”) Stone of Oklahoma went to President Hoover, implored him to help eliminate nepotism from the Government. He complained that many Congressmen used their clerk-hire allowance ($3,500 per-year) to put their wives, sons, daughters, cousins, aunts et al. on the Government payroll.

¶”A studied affront” was what blind Senator Thomas David Schall of Minnesota said he received last week when President Hoover passed over his recommendations for a Federal judgeship, nominated Minneapolis’ Gunnar H. Nordbye to the bench. After President Hoover had rejected Senator Schall’s No. 1 candidate, Ernest Michel, the Senator upon request supplied the White House with a list of ten alternates for the post. These, too, the President rejected, selecting instead a man whom Senator Schall averred was “especially undesirable” to him. The affronted Senator vowed to fight.

¶Eighteen years ago Patrick Jay Hurley, national attorney for the Choctaw Nation, started agitation for the U. S. to compensate these Indians with millions of dollars for land which had greatly enhanced in value since it was ceded to the Government by treaty in 1855. This session Congress at last passed legislation for adjudication of the claim. Much to the chagrin of Patrick Jay Hurley, now Secretary of War, President Hoover last week vetoed the bill on the ground that the U. S. had already paid for the land and its increased value was “the result of the efforts of our citizens in building this Nation.”

*The sub-Cabinet is departmentally distributed as follows: State, 5; Treasury, 4; War, 2; Justice, 6; Post Office, 4; Navy, 2; Interior, 2; Agriculture, 1; Commerce, 2; Labor, 2.

*The controller and his assistant are by law given one long term, made ineligible for reappointment to insure absolute financial and political independence.