Woman Secretary?

She is tall, brown-haired, pearl-necklaced and, according to Sunday magazine articles, "superbly formed." In office hours, in sombre office attire, she looks perhaps more resolute than charming, and most of the pearls are hidden beneath her dress. But at social functions in Louisville, in Washington, grimness mellows into dignity, and the pearls, uncovered, hang in a double strand of gleaming white. A friend of hers is Dr. Hubert Work, Republican National Committee chairman. Not a friend of hers is Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, Representative-at-Large-Elect of Illinois. She is Mrs. Alvin T. Hert, and she received last week a hearty endorsement-by-rumor to be the first woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet.

The rumors which last week named Mrs. Hert as potential Secretary of the Interior gave as her qualifications for this position business ability, political experience, services to the party. Widow of the late Alvin T. Hert of Kentucky, for many years National Committeeman, Mrs. Hert has been since 1924 vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, State chairman of the Republican women of Kentucky, and in charge of organization of Republican women throughout the country. She is also chairman of the board of the American Creosoting Co., founded by her husband, and is said to have increased its business 30% within a few years after his death. During the presidential campaign, Dr. Work, frequently harassed, found in Mrs. Hert a faithful fellow worker. Mrs. McCormick, indeed, is said to have described her as a yes-woman for the doctor. Mrs. McCormick also stated, after the inauguration of the Hert boom, that possibly in another ten years there might be a woman who would merit a Cabinet position.

Believers in the Hert rumor apparently felt that a woman in the Cabinet would please women voters, and that Mrs. Hert was the logical woman to be chosen. The general opinion is, however, that the rumor has little basis. It was noticed that Dr. Work, widely quoted as the chief exponent of the Hert cause, last week issued a sharp statement deploring "publicity"' given to "conjectures" concerning the Cabinet, and disclaiming any influence in its selection. The doctor was so emphatic as to suggest the inference that he had been scolded again.