Secretary Stevens

Famous quotes containing the words secretary and/or stevens:

    The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It was obviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    There are these sudden mobs of men,
    These sudden clouds of faces and arms,
    An immense suppression, freed,
    These voices crying without knowing for what,
    Except to be happy, without knowing how,
    Imposing forms they cannot describe,
    Requiring order beyond their speech.
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)