Page:Forty years of it (IA fortyyearsofit00whitiala).pdf/225

 electric chair on the following Friday, and the judicial temperament who at that time happened to be chief justice calmly said that the application would be taken under advisement and a decision handed down in due course, which, at the earliest, was the following Tuesday morning. But the governor half an hour afterward said, "Oh, well, don't worry; if the court doesn't act, I'll reprieve him," an example, perhaps, of what I had in mind when I was writing those vague thoughts about making government human. But executive ability! I had, and still have, great admiration and reverence for that

But Tom Johnson leaned over that afternoon, as we sat there in the committee room of the House at Columbus, and laughed and whispered:

"It's the simplest thing in the world; decide every question quickly and be right half the time. And get somebody who can do the work. That's all there is to executive ability."

I looked at him in amazement. He had grown quite serious.

"There's another thing," he added. "Don't spend too much time in your office. A quarter of an hour each day is generally too long, unless there are a whole lot of letters. Of course," he went on reflectively, "you can get clerks who can sign your name better than you can."