One of the Cabinet ministers disagreed with the majority on a vital
question, and rose with a threat to resign. One of his friends advised
the chairman to do anything to recover his aid, whereupon he sagely
said:
"Our secretary a national necessity?--how mistaken you are! Yet it is
not strange--I used to have similar notions. No, if we should all be
turned out to-morrow, and could come back here in a week, we should
find our places filled by a lot of fellows doing just as well as we
did, and in many instances better! It was truth that the Irishman
uttered when he answered the speaker: 'Is not one man as good as
another?' with 'He is, sure, and a deal betther!' No, sir, this
government does not depend on the life of any man!"
* * * * *