ous; and the
worst evil we can do is to persuade a man to trust to anything save his
own powers and dogged perseverance. Nevertheless, the Secretary of the
Treasury can shape a policy which will do great good or great harm to
our industries; and, moreover, he has to work out the financial and
tariff policies which he thinks the President and the party leaders
demand. The position is therefore one of the utmost importance.

The Postmaster-General has to deal with more offices than any other
official, for he has to control all the post-offices of the United
States. He is the great administrative officer of the country.
Unfortunately, under our stupid spoils system, postmasters are appointed
merely for political reasons, and are changed with every change of
party, no matter what their services to the community have been. This is
a very silly and very brutal practice, and all friends of honest
government are striving to overthrow it by bringing in the policy of
civil service reform. Under this all these postmasters will be appointed
purely because they will make good postmasters, and will render
faithful service to the people of their districts, and they will be kept
so long as they do render it, and no longer.

[Illustration: J. Harmon, Attorney-General. J. D. Morton, Agriculture.
H. Smith, Interior. W. L. Wilson, Post. Gen.

President Cleveland. J. G. Carlisle, Treasury. H. Herbert, Navy. R.
Olney, State. D. Lamont, War.

A MEETING OF THE CABINET.]

The Secretary of the Interior has to deal with the disposal and
management of the great masses of lands we have in the West, and also he
has to deal with the management of the Indians, and with the
administration of the pension laws. All three are most difficult
problems, and their solution demands the utmost care, patriotism, and
intelligence.

The Attorney-General is the law officer of the government. He sees to
the execution of the Federal laws throughout the country, and appoints
his agents to do this work in every district of every State, and he also
advises the President and heads of departments on all legal matters.

The Secretary of Agriculture is a man of mixed duties. A good many
bureaus of one kind and another are under his supervision, and most of
the scientific work of the government is done under him. Some of the
scientific bureaus, however, are under other departments. The work done
by these scientific bureaus, as by the coast survey and the geological