The Coeur D'alene Press

GARFIELD'S LONG NAME.

If He Signs It In Full He'll Be Writing All the Time.

James Rudolph Garfield, the new secretary of the interior, will have to change his official signature if he hopes to escape pen paralysis or to have time to perform many of the multitudinous duties of his cabinet office.

Mr. Garfield has made a practice of signing his name in full, but the Interior department officers predict that unless he comes down to plain "J. R. Garfield" he will have to spend most of every working day in merely attaching his autograph.

The late John Addison Porter, who was secretary to President McKinley for awhile, signed his name in full and stuck to it, even after he found that it cost him many hours of additional work.

President Roosevelt had to come down to "T. Roosevelt" when he was assistant secretary of the navy. But he didn't like the change and went back to "Theodore" after he became president.

The present secretary of state has been obliged to adopt "E. Root" as a time saving signature.

James Burton Reynolds, assistant secretary of the treasury, who has to sign more than a thousand treasury warrants some days, does not write his name in full, but the abbreviated signature is a thing of wonder. It resembles the diagram of a yacht race, with thirty-seven separate strokes of the pen and when completed resembles the course of every yacht indicated.

Efforts made to secure authority for government officers to sign with a rubber stamp have proved unsuccessful. Law officers have decided that this method is not legal.