Handling the Mail at the White House
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WHITE HOUSE SECRETARIES AT WORK.
GROUP OF WHITE HOUSE STENOGRAPHERS.
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(Copyright, 1902. by Waldon Fawcett.)
IF the president of the United
States were obliged to pay postage
on every Dlece of mail matter'
VB9?! sent out from the White House
the expense would amount to
one-sixth of his salary. Since President
Roosevelt has been In office the mall ad
dressed to the chief magistrate has bcn
the heaviest In history and It Is steadily
growing rather than diminishing In propor
tions. Probably no other one man In tho
world receives every day in the year so
many personal letters as are sent to the
president of the United States, and very
certainly no other man receives communi
cations of such varied character. At the
present time anywhere from BOO to 1,000
letters are received at the White House
every day. In addition to this hundreds
of pieces of printed matter are received
every day.
To consider and answer the half a mil
lion communications which come to the
presidential mansion each year requires
the almost continuous services of upward
of a dozen men. This, too, without taking
Into consideration the employes of the
general postofllce at Washington, who are
detailed to distribute the president's mall.
The nBt step in the handling of the
Whte House mall at its destination Is
taken by the trusted employe of the White
House, who makfs three or four trips
dally to the postofllce to secure the mall.
Upnn the arrival of the letters at tha
White House they are turnrd over to a
clerk whose sole duty is to open the en
vclcprs and unfold the letters. The com
munications next pass to a clerk who
sorts the missives. Many of the letters
pertain to what might be termed routine
governmental matters and are turned over
to one or another of the execu:lve depart
ments. The great bulk rf the president's
mail goes to his secretaries, and most of
It they answer over their own signa
tures without ever troubling the busy chief
magistrate with the matter.
What the President Heads.
The president dors not peruse personally
one-tenth of the letters which are ad
dressed to him. Indeed, fifty communica
tions a day Is a liberal estimate of the
number which comes under his eye. The
letters which by reason of their seeming
Importance or the doubt of the secretaries
as to their proper disposition do flnal'y
pas the gauntlet and come Into the hands
of the president himself are disposed
In one of thret vays. In the case of many
of them he turns the letters over to the
secretaries with an Indication of the char
acter of the r-ply to be sent. To a few
of the letters the president dictates re
plies which he signs personally, and to a
very limited number of personal friends
he pens confidential letters. President
Rcosevelt writes very few autographs let
ters. Naturally such Inscriptions as "per
sonal" and "private" cannot be regarded
in opening the White House mail, but
there are ways In which the initiated may
Insure their communications reaching the
. president personally. The approved ptan Is
for the writer to place h!a in t'als or name
In autograph In the lower left hand cor
ner of the envelope. For Instance, a con
fidential note from the president's personal
friend. Senator Lodge, bears In the corner
the Initials II. C. L In a majority of rases
the provision of these safeguards is super
fluous, for the clerk who opens the mall
kaa come by experience to recognixe In
' atantly tha handwriting of relatives and
Intimates of the chief executive, and
their letters go through without molesta
tion. Sometime Individuals not personally
known to the president, but who have
learned of the plan In rogue, seek to reach
his ear by placing their Initials on a mis
sive, or occasionally even resort to tha
ruse of affixing the Initials of aome one
known to be close to the chief magistrate.
Such efforts never avail, however, for if
the deception la not detected by the assort
ing clerk the schemer's letter Is turned
back Into the proper channel by ;he presi
dent when be detects its character.
How They Are Answered.
The work of answering the presidential
mall Is a task of herculean proportions.
An effort la made to acknowledge in some
manner every communication sent to the
White House. Five or six stenographers
are constantly employed typewriting the
letters dictated by the president and his
secretarlea. Naturally great numbers of
letters can be answered by what are
known aa "forms" that Is phraseology
arranged to cover any and all Inquiries on
a certain subject. For Instance, the hun
dreds of people who, after the president
has delivered an Important address or sent
a message to congress, send congratula
tory letters and telegrams to the White
House all receive letters of acknowledg
ment and thanks which are practically
Identical.
The general public and particularly the
feminine portion of it appears to cherish
the belief that, whereas there Is no possi
bility that a letter can reach the president
Inviolate, there Is reasonable surety that
a missive to a member of his Immediate
family will reach its destination unmo
lested. This Is utter fallacy, for every let
ter addressed to Mrs. Roosevelt or any of
the children passes through through exactly
the same channel as does the mall designed
for the bead of the household and the
chances that It will ever come under the
eye of the intended recipient are quite as
remote. The general mall for the various
members of the Roosevelt household ruuBt
all come under the scrutiny of Assistant
Secretary William Loeb, Jr., popularly
known aa the "president's right hand man,"
and the social activities at the White House
and the prominence into which Miss Alice
Roosevelt has been brought by tho christen
ing of the kaiser's yacht and other events
has necessitated the devotion of an un
precedented amount of time to thla class of
correspondence.
Takes Tare of Invitations.
Another Important and decidedly arduous
duty which has fallen to the lot of Mr. Loeb
is the management of the voluminous cor
respondence connected with social activities
at the White House. Tho dispatch of the
invitations for dinner, luncheons, balls and
receptions Is not so serious a matter, since
all those designed for residents of Wash
ington are delivered by mounted messen
gers, but the replies help to swell the
volume of the regular stream of mall and
these make work for the office force under
Mr. Loeb's direction, for each declination
or acceptance must be properly tabulated
and each name checked off, ao that It will
be possible to estimate accurately the num
ber of prospective guests at any forth
coming function.
Every rich man of any prominence la
America receives dally a number of tho
oddest request Imaginable, but it Is safe
to say that the communications in no case
compare In novelty and absurdity with tho
curiosities which crowd the White House
mail bags. There are letters humorous
and sad, missives pleading and threatening
fcnd communications of praise and censure.
Many of the letters received are Infinitely
sad, but a far greater number are In some
degree ludicrous.
Appeals for Personal Aid.
Most numerous possibly are the appeals
of persons who wish the president to aid
them to secure posltlous either in the gov
ernment service or elsewhere. The "beg
ging letters" form a vast proportion, rang
ing all the way from the importunatlonn of
I
professional beggars to the requests of
churcheB and charitable organizations seek
ing subscriptions. It may be noted that
every appeal for aid which bears the slight
est evidence of possible worthiness is
turned over to some charitable organiza
tion In the community from which it has
emanated. Great quantities of anonymous
letters are received and a surprisingly large
number of appeals comes from persons who
seek to enlist the aid of the president In
paying off mortgages. Finally there are
the threatening and "crank" letters of vari
ous kinds and the number of communica
tions of this kind received is almply
astounding. Comparatively but a small por
tion of them, however, are deemed of suf
ficient Importance to warrant investigation
by the secret service.
Many of the letters addressed to the
president are Induced by newspaper com
ment. A striking evidence of this was af
f. rded recently when an item went the
rounds of the press to the effect that the
White House waa infested with rats. No
sooner had publicity been given the re
port than there was an avalanche of let
ters recommending various plans for get
ting rid of the rodents. Manufacturers of
rat poisons and traps donated their wares
and one solicitous citizen sent five cats
which were declared to be famous rat
catchers. This latter donation still further
complicated matters for the correspondence
corps, for a report was printed to the effect
that the felines were being persecuted by
Jack, the White House dog, and this
brought a number of Indignant protests
from sympathetic women who denounced as
an outrage the supposed cruelty.
Letters to the Family.
From the day the announcement was
made that Mies Alice Roosevelt had been
chosen to christen the yacht of the German
emperor the letters addressed to the daugh
ter of the White House increased In num
ber until they threatened to rival those ad
dressed to the president himself. Many of
the persons who wrote to Miss Alice of
fered suggestions relative to the launching.
Many women besought her to uee water In-
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WAITING FOR THE) WHITE HOUSE MAIL,
stead of wine in the christening and others
suggested that the baptism be made with
flowers.
The president, Mrs. Rooeevelt and Miss
Alice have all three come in for most gen
erous attention on the part of merchants
and manufacturers seeking the endorsement
of articles of various kinds. Mrs. Roose
velt receives proffers of sufficient eatables
to stock a grocery store and both women
are deluged with the wares of soap makers
and manufacturers of toilet preparations,
many of whom plead for endorsements.
Any gifts which are received at the White
House with a request for endorsement are
immediately returned. It will doubtless
surprise many persons to learn that threat
ening and denunciatory letters are sent to
the women of the presidential household as
well as to the chief executive. Thus Miss
Roosevelt's participation In the christening
of the emperor s yacht has brought forth not
a few rabid expressions from cranks who
are agitated by anything touching even re
motely monarchical institutions.
Executive Scrap Hook.
One member of what might be termed the
correspondence bureau at the White House
devotes his time to clipping the marked
articles relative to the president and to
pasting these extracts In large scrapbooks.
President Roosevelt is unlike hie predeces
sor in his methods of keeping In touch with
public opinion. The late President McKln
ley was wont to order the submission to
him of every publication of any prominence
which commented on topics bearing upon
national policy. President Roosevelt does
not do this, but he is a great newspaper
reader and thus keeps pretty closely in
touch with affairs generally.
The stationery used at the White House
Is white and bears inscriptions In purple.
When President Roosevelt took up the reins
of government all the old stationery was
discarded and a new supply printed in order
to enable the substitution of the words
White House for executive mansion as the
official designation of the nriirt Pflttnt rod .
rlonIO Cnnnt.l .
opcum paper is provided for tho
leuere wnicn the president signs personally
and also for the social correspondence of
Mrs. Roosevelt and Miss Alice. All en
velopes in which are dispatched communi
cations bearing upon public business bear
the inscription "White House Official" and
are transmitted through the malls without
postage stamps or other franks.
With the increasing demand upon th
time of the chief executive and the In
evitable curtailment of the number of call
ers whom he can see personally the volum
of White House mall has grown surpris
ingly. In order to prevent being over
whelmed the secretaries frequently work
at the executive office until long past mid
night, day after day. However, the work
has been systematized to a marvelous de
gree. as may be imagined from the fact that
of all the thousands of communications han
d ed during the past half a decade not a
Ingle one has been lost.
Not Yet Too Late
Portland Oregonian: The Joke reeled out
or the stage entrance and fell prone across
the endman'a trunk, which the property man
incline1"" '0Werlng gent,y down the
"Alaa!" it muttered, when the fresh air
had revived It somewhat. "I am too old
and feeble to work longer in the minstrel
show. '
We were shocked at this astounding news,
but after a moment's reflection we felt able
to speak words of encouragement
"Cheer up, old fellow!" we said, sooth
Ingly; "there are still comic operas to be
written."
At this the Joke Jumped up excitedly,
and was soon on its way to the railroad
office, to inquire the price of a ticket to
New York.
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