Mr. J, D. Long, Secretary of the U. S. Navy.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 9110, 2 July 1898, Page 4

Mr. J, D. Long, Secretary of the U. S. Navy.

John Davis Long was born in 1838, the son of parents neither poor nor rich, but able to give him a good educasion, He took his degree in 1857, before he was 19, and then 'kept school " while he read the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1861, but did not find success in practice in his native town, and had to do some more teaching before the law and politics combined took him in 1874 into the Maine House of Representatives. Hia popularity was immediate, and he was Speaker in 1876, 1877, and 1878. He was an ideal Speaker, and made so high an impressions that he was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1878, and Governor 1879-81. Next year he was elected to Congress, and in three years' representation made a close personal friend of Major McKinley, who. in 1897, needing a good man in the Navy Department, made him Secretary As Secretary his habits are those of a business man who fully values his time and who cares enough for himself to be strict, not only in obtaining his rightful hours of employment, but also those of the rest and the recreation. He did not rent a big house and plunge into the whirl of society routine that invites some public men to waste their time and strength. He lives at a private hotel, not teo far from the Navy Deparment to make it difficult for him to walk from his rooms to his office avid back twice a day. He ia as punctual as a clerk who is under the observation of a doorkeeper. Once in'his office, with his private secretary, Mr L. H. Finney to assist him, he devotes himself at once to the examination of correspondence. Until that work is done there may be! no interruption of it. When the hour has arrived for receiving visitors, on business, or to pay respects, the Secretary, while very courteous, does not keep any visitor long. There are no prolonged seances in his office. Yet no one goes away under the impression tlut any rude force has been used to get rid of him. Dispatch is observed at all times. He sees readily the point in a report made to him by a subordinate, and keeps all business needing his action in quick motion. An hour and a half is devoted to lunch, and then come 3 the signing of the mail, which includes also, almost every day, the approval of orders that may be questioned, criticised, or changed by the Secretary at the last moment.

When Mr Long leaves his office, as he usually does soon after, his desk is clear. Etc makes it his business to begin new every morning. This practice is greatly appreciated in afl the bureaus of the department. A lagging Secretary, or one who undertakes, in mistaken devotion to duty, to scrutinise details already passed upon by men of experience and ot trust and capacity, throws back the entire department, and has been often a waste of time without corresponding gain in improved discipline or substantial economy. And with all his responsibility and his labour the Secretary, by observing early hours and cultivating a philosophical calmness, is in better health than when he went to Washington, somewhat fearful lest his strength should prove unequal to the strain of work in peace times. He did not care for t%* fuss and feather* of office; he does not crave the showing of the Secretary's flag or the booming of the Secretary's salute. It is his ambition to so conduct the affairs of the Navy Department that its pages may lose no lustre, and that the poUcy of President McKinley may be entitled to the approbation of all just men.