White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

With this act, the Capital City’s aspect changed. Mrs. Wilson closed the White House to visitors and locked the gates to tourists and all except those with definite appointments. To save and produce, she borrowed a flock of twenty blooded sheep from Bel Air farm in Maryland and turned them loose upon the White House lawns to keep the grass in order, in place of a labourer, and, incidentally, to grow a profitable crop of wool. So well did these sheep follow the aim of their distinguished shepherdess that, when the first shearing time came, ninety pounds of wool were cut and two pounds sent to each state to be sold for Red Cross work. More than fifty-two thousand dollars was made. The bidding ran high in some places where there was keen desire to possess White House wool. The next shearing, which proved almost as profitable, was turned over to the Salvation Army for its fund raising.

Mrs. Wilson had no desire for publicity or for doing spectacular things either to promote the popularity of her husband or herself, but she used every personal effort to promote and inspire many of the different phases of war work that the participation of the United States demanded. Every woman of the Cabinet followed her lead.

Mrs. Marshall was a host in herself. The home life of the Marshalls had become traditional for the devotion between the genial, humorous Vice President and his wife. In all of the twenty-odd years of their married life, they had not allowed themselves to be separated overnight. Mrs. Marshall had always kept a bag packed ready to depart upon a moment’s notice for any trip the one-time Hoosier governor might elect to take. She campaigned with and for him, and her understanding and support aided him not only in his election, but also in his filling the very difficult rôle through eight years as understudy to President Wilson.

Mrs. Marshall infused a delightful spirit in the group of Senatorial wives over which she presided. Their weekly luncheons became informal clearing houses for all of their individual problems, and developed into an institution of force and achievement. Their work in volume and quality during the war was an example to the women of the land, when “Do your bit” had become a household slogan.

None of the ladies of the Cabinet gave more royally of her time and energies than Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the Secretary of State. She had been known, trusted, and loved since her girlhood in the Foster home when her father was a Cabinet Minister. Her chairmanship of a measure insured its success. She was head and shoulders in the Red Cross, the Y. W. C. A., and every other organized relief measure where her personal interest and backing might count. No snarl of red tape or personal friction in any of the great projects was too complicated for her diplomatic wisdom to adjust.

Mrs. Herbert Hoover gave her time and strength to one of the great weak spots—the care of the government workers—the planning for accommodations for housing and feeding in a city that tripled its population almost overnight without the facilities or the expert knowledge of expanding to meet the growing demand. From her experiences with her husband during the Boxer uprising, where he obtained his first fame as a food administrator, and during his work on the Belgian and other relief councils upon which she had served with him, Mrs. Hoover had learned skilfully to combat hardships imposed by war. With practical common sense she set to work to convert available empty houses, when such could be obtained, into dormitories with the simplest of necessities and a few of the comforts of home, for the thousands of young women who flocked to Washington to enlist in clerical service. As men were released for war service, women had to take their places. Mrs. Hoover began in her husband’s Food Conservation Bureau and gradually found herself in demand for a problem of army proportions.

Mrs. Josephus Daniels, wife of the Secretary of the Navy, sister of Worth Bagley, of Spanish War fame, was the good angel for the men of the navy, while Mrs. Newton D. Baker, wife of the Secretary of War, was tireless in her promotion of the welfare and comfort of the soldiers. Recreation seemed to be the big necessity. Mrs. Baker sang as often as her strength would allow, and gave her executive powers to promoting the organization of community service.

Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo worked in the interest of Liberty Loans. She and Mrs. Longworth were conspicuous in this type of activity. Later, when the terrible scourge of influenza hit the Capital and war workers died like flies, Mrs. McAdoo, wife of the Secretary of the Treasury, came to the rescue with a diet kitchen to supply all of the invalids connected with the Treasury Department with broth and nourishment. This work was enlarged and continued through the utilization of trained Girl Scouts until the last of the dependent convalescents no longer needed it.

Mrs. Albert Sidney Burleson found a stupendous task in looking after the many employees of the Postmaster General’s department, and the same was true of the wife of Attorney General Gregory.

This record does not begin to sum up the contribution these women and all other women workers made to the war cause, but is given as an illustration of the serious attitude toward the war taken by the First Lady of the Land and her official family.