The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-09-02
SIDE.STEpING THE ~ :.
VICE PRESIDENCY

Leslie's Monthly did a good thing for
itself when it secured the exclusive SER
vices of Congressman Bede as q cOntribu-,
tor, Those of US who know Bede and
know what bright stuff he can write will
always want to get the magazine to
what Bede has written and the people
who do not know Bede as we know him
here, in Minnesota will. soon findi7 him
out. For the September Ieslie's Bede; has
written an article entitled, ''Side-Stepping
the Vice Presidency Here are a few
THE vice president is the only official
nonenity in our system of government.
He is elected for four years to loaf around
the throne and wonder what is going to.
happen. incidentally, he presides over the
senate when in session if he feels like it,
but is not a member of that body and has
no speaking acquaintance with any sub
ject before it. He has no patronage, no
voice in public affairs, no seat at the coun--
Gil table-no push nor pull anywhere in
the scheme Of government-but is like =
second husband agreed on in advance and
held in suspense and suspicion, who as q
| matter Of taste must not obtrude himself
upon the marriage feast nor the bridal
! tour. His business is to keep still. He
| is the great American clam and is held in
| escrow pending conditions which it is
hoped will never occur to make him shuck
himself and come out in the open.
while his joys are few his, sorrows are
! many, for how oppressive it must be to
| him in the light of recent events to look
the senators full and fair in the face and
wonder the roll is called whether they
will answer present or not guilty. 1t
can no longer be truthfully said that the
| senate is a legislative body without con-
| victions, and may we'll inquire
! whether such environment would not
prove7actually~ hurtful to sensitive natures
i like those of Charles Warren Fairbanks
ands1enry Gassawav Davis, whose whole
lives have been given up to dealing with
! civil codes and soft coal To be sure,
/ both of them have been in the senate, and
4 to be forewarI1ed is to be forearmed, 50
! that neither one. if elected need be ike
the man who saw a prairie fire coming
and was burned to death because he
! didn't have "a match. =, - -.
1 -"Suppose the lease of~some innocent man;
4 unaccustomed to- evil: associations who has
been ruthlessly thrust into the vice presi-a
i dency-and the uncertainties of politics
make such thing possible-what would,
= be the effect Of such associations upon
4 him? - r ,:-' - -.
"As he. looked quietly down from his
splendid isolation upon the thirty or forty
nillionaires about him in the senate cham
Der, could he help wondering to himself if
they had paid their taxes for the last fiscal
year? Once thinking along this line,
/ would he not soor ask himself who did
pay them if they did not? So
! Must he not ofttimes in reminiscent
mood be panied as he recalls the fact that
five Of. his predecessors died in office
"a Their than endure 1t, While Uncle joe
Cannon burrowed himself out of sight
into the butt end Of the English language
and ate smokeless tobacco until the party
leaders had kidnapped Fairbanks and
placed him in cold storage to await the
action of the recent republican convent
ttiOn. y
"Ref1ecting on these things, an innocent
loud 7a,,t sod NV
his surroundings. must see with voiceless
sorrow his certain finish. And as he be-
holds the honors showered upon the
speaker of the house, the big man of the
legislative branch Of our government; as
potent as the president to promote or
defeat legislation, he must feel like neg
>, alive quantity raised to the m tn power
and vaccinated with innocuous desuetude.
Had he any influence with the govern
ment he would abolish the office and fine
. himself the extent of his salary for obtain
ing money under false pretenses. = .
For four years he has really nothing to
do but to think. of the Tnsanitary condi-
tion of the White House and read obituary
, notices. 80 %&egG 49, 80 -
: .,"Old men are very often nominated for
l. vice president, as was done by the de-
mocra cy in 1888 and the present year. The
chief reason for this is. that the office is
: the last, thing anybody wants. And then,
: too just to have and to hold ard not 20
be adding is apt to drive young man
to. treason, strategen or spoils--or all of
f them There is nothing like giving a
. man something to do and getting his mind
, off his thoughts, if you wish to, uplift him,
and no vice president under 81 or SO years
of age ought to be idle. OF course, when
. any vice president sees a senator rise III
> his seat full of isthnian canals and Pana-
: ma revolutions, and without a free deiiv-
; cry he feels over so. and there are over
: eighty that feel just as he does. :"
|, If we must have a vice president, why
: not make him superintendent Of the boz
tanical garden and distributor CT bou-
quets, so that he could work his way ur
: to the White House by buttonholing the
= people?'
: For the October number Bede will tel
how he came to be congressman.