Burns Enters the Cabinet.
At the last election the Liberal and Labor parties swept everything before them, and Burns was selected from among the Laborites for a place in the cabinet. He had said on one occasion, while a member of the London County Council:
"No man is worth more than five hundred pounds a year." His salary as president of the Local Government Board is two thousand pounds.
"What about that 'ere salary of two thousand pounds?" one of his Battersea constituents asked.
"That is the recognized trade-union rate for the job," Burns answered. "If I took less I would be a blackleg."
"What are you going to do with the fifteen hundred too much?" persisted the questioner.
"Well," answered Burns, "for details about that you'll have to ask the missus."
The coming of Burns into office shook things up considerably. The Local Government Board has to deal with the Poor Law administration, public health, and the general control of the authorities established by the Local Government Act. There were several purely ornamental posts, at good salaries, on the board, and there were plenty of inefficients holding office. The first day of Burns's tenure he called his private secretary, a man holding office from the previous administration, and started to dictate letters.
"You're going much too fast," the man protested, "I really can't keep up with you."
"How many words do you write a minute?" Burns asked.
"Words a minute?" echoed the man in a puzzled voice. "Really, I never counted."
"You don't mean to say you're not a stenographer!"
The man was shocked to think that he should be looked upon as a stenographer. He was private secretary to the president of the Local Government Board, and nothing else.
"See here," said Burns, "this office has work to do, and you won't be of much use to me unless you know shorthand. I'll give you every afternoon off to learn it. I expect that it will take you three months. Till then I suppose I'll have to put up with slower methods."