Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/319

 Knox asked Roosevelt to appoint me to the Supreme Court of the United States, the hero of San Juan Hill inquired:

“What would the newspapers say?”

Even now events were so shaping themselves as to afford later an opportunity to hostility, since the commission to erect a new capitol building, which commission I permitted to remain unchanged, had begun their work.

By this time the administration had been completely organized and such changes as it was thought advisable to make had been made. Thomas J. Stewart, the Adjutant General; Israel W. Durham, the Insurance Commissioner; Nathan C. Schaeffer, Superintendent of Public Instruction; J. T. Rothrock, Commissioner of Forestry, and James E. Roderick, who became head of the Department of Mines, were inherited from the last and former administrations.

Frank M. Fuller, Secretary of the Commonwealth; Robert McAfee, Commissioner of Banking; N. B. Critchfield, Secretary of Agriculture; Dr. B. H. Warren, Dairy and Food Commissioner, and A. Nevin Pomeroy, Superintendent of Printing, had been recommended by Quay. Joseph W. Hunter, State Highway Commissioner, had been recommended by Senators Sproul and Roberts, John C. Delaney, Factory Inspector, had been appointed at the request of Charles Emory Smith. William E. Meehan, Commissioner of Fisheries, had been appointed on the recommendation of Henry F. Walton, Speaker of the House. Hampton L. Carson, Attorney General; Bromley Wharton, Private Secretary; Thomas L. Montgomery, State Librarian; H. A. Surface, Economic Zoologist, and James M. Shumaker, Superintendent of Grounds and Buildings, were my own selections. They all proved to be faithful to their duties and, with two exceptions, they never gave me cause for criticism. Durham was disposed to insist that his work should be conducted from Philadelphia rather than from the department at Harrisburg, which was unsatisfactory to me. Warren, a tall, slim man, with dark eyes and a furtive Rh