Sic Transit

The Nebraska State Bar Association sat at Omaha. Before it rose Mr. Leslie M. Shaw and launched an argument.

He asserted in effect: A man can be President of the United States only if elected to that office. If a Vice President assumes the duties of President, he remains legally Vice President. He is President dc facto but no President dc jure except by election. Therefore, Theodore Roosevelt had one term in office as President, ran for a second and was defeated. Therefore Calvin Coolidge is about to enter his first term as President this March. If he runs for President again in 1928, he will be running for a second, not a third term.

This argument is likely to be heard more and more between now and 1928. But who is this Mr. Leslie M. Shaw and how did the argument happen to occur to him ?

Mark Sullivan, famed Washington correspondent of The World's Work, recently listed him some men whose fame has waned:

1) LYMAN J. GAGE, LESLIE M. SHAW, FRANKLIN MACVEAGH.

2) CHARLES EMROY SMITH, HENRY C. PAYNE, ROBERT J. WYNNE.

3) JOHN D. LONG, VICTOR HOWARD METCALF, GEORGE VON LENGERKE MEYER.

To these might be added :

4) LUKE E. WRIGHT, JACOB M. DICKINSON, HENRY L. STIMSON.

5) WILLIAM H. MOODY, CHARLES J. BONAPARTE, JAMES C. MCREYNOLDS.

6) ETHAN A. HITCHCOCK, RICHARD A. BALLINGER, WALTER L. FISHER.

Mr. Sullivan asked of the first group, and it may well be asked of the second group: "How many of these men can you identify?"

All have been members of the Cabinet during the last 25 years. The first three were Secretaries of the Treasury; the second three, Postmasters General; the third three, Secretaries of the Navy ; the fourth, Secretaries of War; the fifth, Attorneys General; the sixth, Secretaries of the Interior.

It will be seen that Mr. Shaw was a Secretary of the Treasury. He served from 1902 to 1907 under President Roosevelt. His connection with Roosevelt suggests why he happened to think of the question of third terms. Some day, not 25 years hence, may not Mr. Mellon be referred to as "one Andrew W. Mellon"?