Visitor

Into the House, where gentlemen were delivering themselves of opinions on the pared-down Naval Building Bill, strolled Curtis Dwight Wilbur, towering Secretary of the Navy. With a smile here, a nod there, he took his amiable way to a seat in the front row of the chamber.

The chamber exploded violently. Representative Huddleston, diminutive Democrat from Alabama, trotted down the aisle and went into action under Secretary Wilbur's nose.

"I am against the presence of any Cabinet official on this floor at the time a matter is under consideration in which he is so vitally interested," he told the startled Mr. Wilbur. "I regard the presence here of this official as notice to Congress that it is not capable of dealing with this question without Cabinet guidance, and in remaining here, the Secretary of the Navy does so over my protest and I regard it as exceedingly bad taste."

Secretary Wilbur gulped and twisted in his front row seat. He looked around the House in pained astonishment. Representative Abernathy put out to give help. "The rules of this House provide the privileges of the floor to members of the Cabinet," he said. Mr. Wilbur seemed relieved, until Mr. Abernathy continued unkindly, "I am not a special admirer of the Secretary of the Navy."

Neither, Mr. Huddleston wished to make plain, was he. "It may be a very good thing that our law be changed," he remarked sarcastically, "so that Cabinet officials may contribute something to the wisdom of the matter under discussion as well as their handsome appearance."

Mr. Wilbur gave the appearance of a very embarrassed Secretary. But he did not retreat. Representative McClintic, vociferous Oklahoman, respectfully informed him that "a Cabinet member ought to have sufficient judgment to know better." Mr. Wilbur blinked and stayed. Republican Leader Tilson got up to meet the storming Democrats with the ambiguous remark that it was a great pity that Cabinet officials did not come to Congress more often, and the Messrs. Hudson and Britten assured him that Secretaries Taft and Josephus Daniels used frequently to mingle with Congressmen on the floor of the House. Mr. Wilbur stayed to the bitter end.

Political commentators in the U. S., notably the late Frank I. Cobb of the Dem ocratic New York World, have often urged responsible Cabinet Government for this country. In England, Cabinet executives are not only permitted, but are required by custom to go before Parliament to explain and defend bills proposed by the party in power. In the U. S., political parties can, and regularly do, evade responsibility by shifting it, as may be convenient, from executive to legislative or vice versa.