Wilson and McAdoo

Recently completed and very much enjoyed Erik Larson's Dead Wake. As I have enjoyed all his books. A handful of quoted passages. Page 27.

Archduke Ferdinand has just been assassinated in Serbia and the world is rapidly sliding into World War I. Wilson is simultaneously absorbed by his wife's condition as she lies at death's door.

"It's incredible - incredible," Wilson said, during lunch with his daughter Nell, and her husband, William McAdoo, secretary of the Treasury. Wilson could give the incident only scant attention, however. At the time, his wife lay gravely ill, and this alone consumed his heart and mind. He cautioned his daughter, "Don't tell your mother anything about it."

We recently have had the chattering glasses preoccupied with Donald Trump's son, daughter and son-in-law having formal and informal roles in the White House, ignoring that having family members in appointed positions has often been a pretty common occurrence in the past.

But father and son-in-law (Wilson and McAdoo) as President and Secretary of Treasury? I had forgotten that. In fact, I probably did not know it. I recognize McAdoo but I am not sure I ever knew he was Wilson's son-in-law. That is a pretty eyebrow-raising concentration of power within a family.