The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 31, 1901, Page 9

N Ay Nl SR BY WALDON FAWCETT BLE portion of the inks of the White the official residence f the United > pass in t Room te House—a realm sightseer catches conside ansion and carried to the fhe Blue Room mber of rooms were new carpets lald, vided. a silver pol- electric motor, om end extensive e made }n the stable he engineer officer must r the fuel supply of the This entails nowadays an e of about $306 & year, or a lit- f what it Jid during It is estimated that will end during the r of 1992 1t will cost $30,000 to care with an adai- g of the house of business at the the daylight hours 1 a better idea of how erests of the Govern- btained anywhere else Washington. The Presidential offices to be closed during a for there is some 1 it be only n Washing- ¥ goes to his office t, and, after a ng papers, takes after breakfs he day. 1 of lunch time it is uout interrup- fter On Tues- roings there are Cabl- Congress 1s In apart several he ¢ oon. whe e e hour when any citizer ] siness with the President may call b r the programme happed out may stated that the Pr cified time daily to e to papers of state ns of , DAV bearing President the four thou s mail at the White H A wagon from the generai postoffice calls @t the White ree times each day—morning, a seldom does 50 letters are d g of hundreds of is of various kinds ¢ feeling rums high, as e crisis, the daily 3 s up to 500 or 600 let- tter of fact, many of the e to the White House e directed to some one of . ments, had not the 1 mething was to be g the ear of the Chief misdirected episties thwith to the head- h of the Govern- with which they are con- uch as it is the policy dministration to acknowi- of every letter which the White House the outgoing as large as and usually t received. e are never less than three stenog- at work answering the Presi- J , and frequently Leen necessary on occasions to ““bor- clerks fromsome of the departments ny unusual event is liable to overwheim the correspondence bureau at the White House. For instance, during the Spanish- American war the inquiries of solicitous relatives for the men at the front swelk | | | | | | | THE PRESIDENTS STENOGPARHERS WOITING THE LETTERS OF REPIY 702 THE CORRESPONDENCE (OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE the matl to gigantic proportions, and, at- ter President McKinley made public his letter of acceptance in the summer of 1900, there was received an average of sixty congratulatory telegrams per day for the space of 2 week. Of course only a small proportion of the letters which reach the White House come under the eve of the Presid Scarcely a dozen a day are such as to & mana his personal attentlon, and mayhap many of these may be answered by the private secretary, after consultation with the Chief Executive. Naturally such in- junctions as “Personal” and *Private” cannot be regarded in opening the White House mail, and many expedients ary adopted by prominent men who send let- ters which they do not desire to have pe- rused by any person save the chief offi- cer of the republic. A favorite plan is for the writer to place his initials in auto- graph in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope. All the clerks have come to recognize the initials of the men clo the President, and their letters go t without molestation. The man who bears the brunt of the cor- respondence at the White House is the secretary to the President. Until the days of President Buchanan each incumbent was obliged to provide his own secretary, but from that time forward Congre made provision for this official. Originally the salary was fixed at §2500 per year. Af- ter a score of years or so it was raised to 2500, and during President Cleveland's acministration it was raised to $500), at which it Temains to the present time. Nowadays the two assistant secretaries to the President each receive more than did the secretary of a quarter century ago. ‘The secretary, of course, dictates all the letters sent out, and, indeed, President McKinley writes but few letters with his own band. Save In the case of communi- cations to close friends or relatives, he it “ DADF OF THE WHITE HOUSE WITH HESSENGERS AWALLING THE ARRI\AL OF 1HE PIORIVING dictates all his letters to stenographérs, ewritten sheets, President gurated an inno- messages to an stant secretary and revising the copy just befoke it goes to the printer. Managing Receptions. One phase of the business management of the White House which might appear insignificant and unsuitable to classifica- tion under this head, but which is never~ theless diffficult and perplexing, is the conduct of soc!al affairs. The secretary to the President and the engineer officer in charge of the White House and grounds wrestle with this problem jointly. The worst phase of the matter is found in the ming and never ending avalanche of persistent people who seem willing to move heaven and earth to se- cure an invitation to a social function at th White House. Not only must the &.anting and refusal of requests and com- overwhe THE SUNDAY CALL. ST 3 1) OF-THE EXECUTIVE MANSION ( TELEGRAPY PAOM) U PREFSIDENTS “INTELLIGENCE GFFICER™ / A plaints made by letter and otherwise be kept from the President and his wife, but a nicety of decision is frequently neces- sary in sending out invitations for state dinners, etc. Finally, there are the re- quests from delegations of all imaginable kinds visiting Washington that the Presi- dent tender a reception to each particu- lar party. Decidedly the most wonderful feature of the working apartments of the White House, however, s the telephone and tele- ASST SECKEIARY FPRUDEN CARRYING THE PRESLIENT S MESSAGE TG CONTRILY graph room, or the telegraph, and cipher bureau of the executive office, as it is officially designated. The room is In charge of a United States signal corps officer, Colone! Benjamin F. Montgomery, who has been detailed for the work. This rather small apartment has been aptly termed the “nerve center of seventy mil- lion people,” and, indeed, its sympathetie nerves cover the glove. It is the only telegraph office’ in the Government which is never closed. It keeps communication open between the White House and the President, wherever he may be; it trans- mits the confidential messages from the Government to American army and navy officers and diplomatic representatives abroad, and it keeps so closely in touch with events all over the world that should Edward VII die to-morrow President Mc- Kinley would probably be the first man in America, aside from the telegraph operators, to learn of it. This unique headquarcers of commuud- cation is conducted on the policy of sys- tem, method and concentration, or, in other words, the idea is to do away with the necessity for a large force of opera- tives and to save time. Thus by means of novel devices a half dozen telegraph operators are enabled to do work which under ordinary circumstances would re- quire from fifteen to twenty men. For {nstance, there is a switchboard accom- modating twenty wires, and by this means 1t is possible to secure a direct wire to any city in the country, and this may be “held” for any length of time without danger that any other than the official business will go over it. Direct connec- tion may be made with any of the oceanic cables, and, while it !s customary to send cablegrams through the New York offices of the various cable companies, the oper- ators have under stress of unusual cir- cumstances worked dircct with the last land offices of the cables at Sydnegy, Cape Breton. Always in Touch With President. Most marvelous of all, perhaps, is the manner in which communication is kept up with the President when he is travel- ing by rail. The White House office has a complete itinerary of the trip, and by means of a system of reports from train dispatchers the exact location of the Presidential train is always known and a message may be placed in the hands of the executive at almost any moment dur- ing the tour. But in the White House, as elsewhere, telephonic communieation s, to a considerable extent, supplanting the telegraph. In the bureau at the White House is a cable box holding fifteen tele- phone wires, and a long distance tele- phone wire may be reserved exclusively for the President’s use, just as might a telegraph line. For Instance, during the President's vacation visits to Cantor, when the various Cabinet officers went to the telegraph room to communicate with him he has frequently talked direct to the ‘White House for hours at a time. THE AZRONAUT HE recent balloon voyage of First | Il Lieutenant von Hildebrandt of the Royal Prussian Balloon Section and Dr. Berson, as described by the former in the German periodical, Die Rundchau, is of much Interest to balioon- ists, Dr. Bergon elready holds the record for attalning the greatest height, 29,280 feet, in his balloon ascension at Stassfurt. The interest excited by ®his and simflar trips to the higher atmosphere led to the for- mation of an International Aeronautic Commission, the purpose of which was to have a number of simultaneous ascensions made at varfous geographical points In Europe, thus the better to study the phy- sical properties of the atmosphere. At the meeting in September last at Paris it was agreed to make balloon ascensions on the first Thursday of every month. On Janvary 10 last a great number of such ascensions took place, the most interest- ing of which was that of Dr. Berson and Lieutenant von Hildetrandt. The ascension was made at Berlin. Orig- inally it was Intended to make as high an ascension as possible, but a cloudless sky, indicating the possibiity of remaining a WHO ROLDS THE RECORD FOR GRERTEST HEIGHT TAKES A TRIP EQUALLY REMARKARLE FCR DISTANCE COVERED. long time at a low level without loss of ballast, tempted the (wo observers to try to cross the Baltic Sea. There were several other favorable elir- cumstances. In the (irst place the balloon reached the coast without any loss of bal- Jast; in the next place the wind was blow- ing stralght toward the north, at low levels even northwest, the most favorable direction for making the shortest trip across the water, and finally the bailloon arrived at the coast sc early that the ob- servers could hope tu cross the fifty-five mile stretch to Denmark by daylight. The last condition did not quite hold, since the twilight was well advanced be- fore their arrival at Frelleborg, Sweden; but then the observers were both tried and experienced craftsmen. ‘The meteorological instruments carried were an Assman psychrometre (wet-and- dry-bulb hygrometer) composed of two mercury thermometers, one dry, the other molst, to determine the moisture in the air; an aleshol thermometer for great ele- vations (last year a temperature of 41 de- grees C. was found In the upper air on a similar occasion); two anerold barometers, a barograph, and a plack bulb thermome- ter to measure the intensity of the sun's rays. A flask contatuing 500 liters of oxy- gen at atmospheric pressure for breathing at high altitudes completed the outfit. The voyage began at 8:17 a. m., with a surface temperature of 21 degrees F. Ber- lin was crossed at an elevation of about 600 feet, and by varying the elevation it was discovered that up to 2400 feet eleva- tion the wind blew right In a westerly ai- ‘rection, between 2450 and 4500 feet in a straight northerly direction, and at higher elevations more to the eastward. At 2900 feet the temperature was 15 de- grees C. higher than at the earth's sur- face (generally the temperature is lower about 1 degree C. for every 300 feet of ascent); no degrees C. (32 degrees F.) was reached at 7800 feet and the surface tem- perature (21 degrees F.) at 9800 feet. The lowest temperature could not be measured as it was dark when the greatest eleva- tion was reached, and the balloon was nat furnished with electric “l"ltl It was not till they reached the vicinity of Neu Strelitz, after two hours' travel, that the observers gave up the idea of a high ascension and decided to cross the water to Denmark or Sweden. They hail been going about twenty-seven mnestn hour, and could therefore hope to reath land in Denmark at any rate. The coast was reached at 1:15 p. m., near Stralsund, and at 2 p. m. the island of Rugen was crossed. At 3:30 p. m. the bal- loon stood over the middle point of the stretch of ‘water and at 4 p. m. the sun set. The cooling of the alr, with result- ing cooling and contraction of the balloon gases, forced the adventurers to throw ballast overboard. The compass was used to determine di- rection of travel while passing over the land, but on the water this became impo«- sible as the observers could not tell which way the balloon was moving. By pouring out sand they could tell approximately their direction of motion and they soen found the balloon was moving too much to the eastward. The ‘balloon was lowered to the reglon of winds moving more to the westward, anu when land came In sight the compass verified their course. The Swedish coast was reached at 5§ p. m. and the balloon made straight for Trelleborg at an eleva- tion of about 1900 feet. Although this time the snow on the a‘-:.” tated sight and orlentation. In crossing the water there was at first great danger of going too far eastward, which would have necessitated crossing the entire length of the Baltic before reaching land. Now the tendency was westward, which would have taken the observers into the North Sea. Consequently ballast was thrown out to reach a higher level and a wind blowing more to the northward, and this was scon accompllshed, the balloon moving northward over Malmo. At this point uarkness set in, At first the observers supposed there was much snow on the ground below them, but they soon learned that it was the effect of a dense layer of clouds, con- sequently they decided to land as soon a< possible. A study of the weather map a1 that time also shows that had they con- tinued their voyage they would have been carrfed to the Kattegat, then to the Skager-Rak, and there taken by the then prevalling east wind and blown into the North Sea. . As {t was the observers after great dan- ger in crossing two lakes and a large ‘wood !(the tow line dragging and the bas- ket touching the tops of the trees) landed in the deep snow, about fourteen miles north of the railroad station of Markaryd, in_the Province of Smaaland. highest point reached (10,240 feet) ‘was just before the landing. HANDLING T/ FRESITENTS MAIL This is only a small portion of the sur~ prising things which are being accom- plished by means of the telephone at the ‘White House. Thure are private telephone wires connecting th: Tixecutive Mansion with the Senate and House of Represen- tatives, that the President may talk confidentially with the Vice President or any member of Congress: but surpassing this in point of insuring secrecy is a pecu- liar telephone system which connects the President with the offices of the varlous members of the Cabinet. This is auto- matic in its action; the central station be- ing in the garret of the White House, and there is. consequen “hello girl” overhear any secrets of state. Some absolutely original expedients have been resorged to In this wizard cabl- Det of the White House in emergenciea. On some occasions an operator recetving a long telephonic message would repeat s0 to no it word by word to a graphophone, to be transcribed to the President at his letsure. and more wonderful still, graphophones carefully gauged as to speed have beea made to record long messages clicked offy bv the telegraph truments. This scheme can be resorted to when the office is rushed with work, the operators trans- eribing the records on the various cylia- ders at their leisure. The telegraphic messages which come to. the White House may be in one of ten different codes. The State Department, the War Department and the Navy Dg, partment each has three different codes, and the President has a private cods. Aa operator will, as a rule, recognize Iin- gtantly what code is being used. If a sus- picion arises that a code has been discov- ered by any person outside the proper au- thorities it may be changed at any time, as, for instance, during the Chiness trouble, when it was suspected that the Celestials had obtained possession of & copy of the State Department code. The telegraph operators stationed at the White House are the very pick of the profession. They always take messages direct from the wire to a typewriter, and a speed of seventy words per minute Is not account- ed anything out of the ordinary. The operators work In three “shifts,” the hours being from 9a. m. to S p. m., 5 p. m. to midnight and midnight to § & m. re- spectively. There are usually four men on duty all the time, although the number has ranged as high as eight or tem men per “shift,” making & total force of from twenty-four to thirty men. Maintaining Secrecy. The precautions for maintaining seerecy as to the contents of official messages are, of course, elaborate—how elaberate may be imagined from the total absence of “leaks” of any kind, notwithstanding the fact that advance Information as to gov- ernmental action would frequently mean & profit of mililons of dollars for its fortu~ pate possessor in Wall street. In the first place, the most unquestionable credentia’s are necessary In order to obtain admis- sion to the Telegraph Bureau at all. Tha precautions taken in the cass of the tele- phone system connecting the Whits House with the desks of the Cabinet officers have already been explained, and the tale- graph operators use what are known as secret sounders, so that even wers an- other telegrapher in the room he could not ascertaln what was passing over the wires. Finally, the White House opera- tors invariably know just who is taking thelr messages at the other end of the line, and if the communication is one of * importance they are likely to call for & man in whom they can repose confidence, —————— Onme of the officers who plays an impore tant part in spending the money which it costs to maintain the White House is the steward. The entire domestlo disburse~ ment is under the control of this digni~ tary, who is heavily bonded and receives a salary of $1500 per year. The steward engages all the White House servants, save the chef, coachman and footman, ‘who are hired and pald by the President. The steward also purchases all the sup- plies for the White House table and re- plenishes household stores when neces~ sary, but he is held to strict account for all expenditures and must even report at the end of the’year the breakage of china., Congress makes a yearly appropriation of $5000 for the housekeeping equipment of the White House, but the President must pay for the subsistence of his family and all the domestic employes, There are minor detalls In the manage- ment of the home of America’s chief ex- ecutive, Several persons are employed regularly in the laundry, and the same is true of the conservatory, The White House stable also requires the services of a number of men, in addition to the coachmen and footmen, There are also even the man who Is sent once each week to wind the thirty clocks in the White House, and the disbursing officer of the Presidential house, who pays almost every person connected® with the mansion save the President, who reccives om the first day of each month, direct from the treas- » & check for more than $4008,