Therefore, if Congressmen really had wisdom and looked ahead, they would
rid themselves of responsibility for these appointments, would abolish
the necessity for confirmation by the Senate, and would thus enable the
President to classify them under the Civil Service law and merit system.
But we have made progress and I am not discouraged about it. Ultimately
we shall get the Senate to consent to give up that power, though at
present the Democratic majority in the two Houses is fierce against such
a suggestion, and quite naturally so, for, while the Republican party
has been in control for sixteen years, the trend into office has been
Republican and the Democrats wish to change it. That is human nature,
and I am merely regretting, not condemning it. Perhaps if the
Republicans come back into power after four years, they will not be
quite so hungry as the Democrats were after sixteen years of famine, and
we may have a little less wolfish desire to get at the offices.

The time taken up in the consideration of minor appointments by
executive officers, the President and Cabinet officers especially, is a
great waste and no one can know the nervous vitality that can be
expended upon them until he has had actual experience.

Of course they lead to some amusing experiences, for there is nothing
which gives such a chance for the play of human impulse as
office-seeking. I remember having a lady come into my office when I was
Secretary of War. Her boy had passed the examination for West Point, but
a medical board had examined him and found that his chest did not
measure enough for his height. She came in to urge me to waive that
defect. I explained to her the necessity for great care in the
appointment of army officers, because if, after being commissioned, they
had any organic trouble, they were disqualified for further discharge of
their duty, and would be retired on three-fourths pay without rendering
any real service to the government. She listened with gloom to my
explanation, and asked me to look at the papers. I took them in her
presence and went through them. I found that the young man had, on the
basis of 100, made 93 per cent in all his mental examinations. That
isn't done by every candidate for West Point, and there is no reason why
we should not have brains as well as brawn in army officers. So I looked
again at the measurements and concluded he was a man we ought not to
lose. I told her: "Madam, I did not have so much