Letter from William Loeb, Secretary to the President to Secretary of the Interior E. A. Hitchcock

THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON October 17, 1905. My dear Mr. Secretary: In pursuance of the conversation at the Cabinet meeting to-day, the President has notified the representatives of the three press associations that hereafter no information will be given to any one about anything that has occurred at a Cabinet meeting. It is un- dignified and improper that such information should be given out. It is not seemly that Cabinet officers should be approached as they leave the Cabinet to obtain such information, and it is ospocially distasteful to the reputable newspaper mon who are among the staunch- est friends of good government that there are in Washington, to be forced into thus approaching mombers of the Cabinet. And if any of the Cabinet of ficers, on returning to their of fices, then tell some special newspaper correspondents what has occurred at the Cabinet meeting or give any information or hint about it to any man, they there- by impose upon the representatives of the press associations this very disagreeable and unpleasant task; and in such case the fault lies not in the least with the newspaper mon but with the Cabinet mem- bers themselves. The president, therefore, earnestly requests that every member of the Cahinet realize that he is under a moral obligation never under any circumstances to tell to any one what has