Anecdotage

William C. Redfield, Secretary of Commerce for five and a half years under President Wilson, like Mrs. Miles Poindexter, is not averse to airing his discoveries about official Washington. He has a series of articles appearing in The Outlook entitled From Congress to Cabinet-- more or less a courtesy title. Judging from its beginning, it is an anecdotal description of officialdom, some of it dull, some of it old, some of it trivial, all of it disconnected. But there are some bright spots. Extracts:

"The Senate of the United States is said to be the greatest deliberative assembly in the world. There ought to be no doubt about this. The Senators admit it. ... But it is often difficult to visualize the Senate because of the Senators. . . . There is a great deal of Senatorial 'cerebral elephantiasis.' . . . Senators differ, of course. Most of them find it natural to be gentlemen as well as Senators. In others this happy combination is not adequately revealed. . . . Things are done and left undone in Congress which the country would not tolerate if it knew. . . . It is doubtful if there is any other place where more unrewarded, unselfish work is done on behalf of individuals and causes than in the United States Senate."