Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-10-13
SENATOR KNOX

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~ dim and distant figure to the people of
Pennsylvania. He had an air of belonging
exclusively In Washington. Even his own
constituents had come to think Of him as one
who could survive only in tho peculiar
atmosphere Of mingled politics intellec-
tualism and business theory which surrounds
diminishing group of men in the Senate
who arc somewhat unjustly called stand
pattcrs.
This sense Of aloofness was duo 10 the
Junior senator himself. TO his temperament
and tho unusual circumstances Of his rise in
politirs. lie had none Of the contacts with
tho crowd Witch Mr.. pCnrOse has always
maintnined He never had to got down into
tho wctcr uf n state campaign and Swing
around the circle" of the sixty seven coun-
tics He wnS not a hand shaker. His ap-
pointmCnts and elections to important offices
came about automatically through the party
system and he remained therefore a poll
tcian who was not and never pretended to
be "of tho people,
If TO believe heartily and sincerely in
given ser Of principles and to stick to these
principles through all the emotional storms
and stampCdcs that sweep the country at
intervals is to be standpattcr, Knox might
have been called one. Rut the character of
the service which he rendered to the Nation
and to his State was such as to relieve him
of any suspicion Of dnllness or mere oppor-
rurt>m in the eyes Of informed observers at
Washington.
As Attorney General under Roosevelt,
Knox. who had boon advertised by his
enemies ms "a corporation man. dealt the
corporations one Of tho hardest blows they
ever received whom ne fought and won the
Northern Securities Railroad merger case
II" pressed that fight US enthusiastically as
any youthful 2calot might have done. per
sonaly arguing the case in the higher courts.
As Secretary Of State in President Taft s
Cabinet Knox shonc less brightly than he
did as Attorney General. He was banketed
by the cloud that descended on Mr.. Taft's
Administrations But he again asserted the
practical quality of his mind by fostering
American business interests abroad. He
became known aN tho inventor of dollar
diplomacy" But the American people have
since learned by experience that the cultira-
tiou Of commercial relations in foreign mar
kets is n pretty good thing tn do. no matter
what nam" YOU put upon the process.
The mind of Senator Knox has often
been compared with that Of Elihu Root. 1t
was brilliant, agile and resourceful mind
sophisticated, touched with cynicism aud
cold. II was better mind than is found
ordinarily among Senate leaders.
1t has been snid of Knox that he fought
| Mr.. Wilson because Of intellectual convic
| tIon, while Senator Lodge was lighting the
| President for purely political purpose.
| This implied difference Of motives suggests
| the view Of Knox generally held in Wash .
! ington.
Few men in the Senate denied the un-
usual intellectual capacities Of the junior
! Senator from Pennsylvania. But most ot
! the Senators who believe that they speak
| for a new and better time had little affec
! ton for colleague who was frankly and
obviously the advocate Of doctrines and
methods accepted and tested in the past
Because Knox was in sense a politica
| .trnugcr 10 the people of bis State, r..
| death will not leave them With the intimate
! sense Of loss or even personal sorrow that
ordinarily attends the passing Of a familiar
need Of balancing forces of conservatism In
| Washington will feel that the sudden anc
tragic death of Knox involves very definit,
| loss 70 the Nation. For we are comint
| more and more to realize that intellectual.
ism is Of value IN government even when 4
is without the moving elements Of visior
and human sympathy.