In a word, there could not have been a better proof
of Lord Cromer's dictum than Hay's career. I remember talking on the
general subject to Hay, who in effect agreed, and later I also said the
same thing to President Roosevelt. I told him I thought it was a great
pity that the Presidents of the United States and other holders of great
offices did not encourage young men of brains and also of great
possessions, coming from families with great influence, local or social,
to become, when young, private secretaries. There would be a double
blessing produced thereby. It would help to bind men of wealth and
influence to the public service, and would get them trained to fill in
later life the great offices of State--Cabinet Ministers, Ambassadors,
and special commissioners. If a young man had been a member, say, of the
President's official family for four or five years and had then gone
into business or even into leisure, he would, granted that he was a man
of intelligence, have received an insight into affairs which might be of
great use to the nation later on. I even went so far as to dream that
the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Great
Britain might have an occasional exchange of secretaries and so get a
certain number of people on both sides of the Atlantic who knew
something about the arcana in each government.
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