Evening star., 1936-07-14

lie Office and yet is as much II not
more familiar with the problems OF
government than almost any man
who has run for the vice presidency
in many years. AS newspaper pub
Usher. both in New Hampshire and
in Illinois. Mr.. Knox has had to Ia
miliarize himself with national queS-
tions. and in his pre-convention cam
paign he covered more territory than
any other candidate and thus be-
came acquainted with conditions In
various parts of the country.
Col. Knox has called himself the
FIRST mate" ready to do whatever
the skipper" Gov. Landon. wants
him to do in the development OF the
party strategy. But the colonel is
not likely to be the obscure running
mate that Vice President Garner was
IN 1882 and is likely to be in the
1896 campaign.
Aid Would Be Asked.
The Vice President nowadays sits
At the cabinet table. He can make
himself as useful or as useless TO tne
President as he chooses. Gov. Ian
don is the kind of man who. II elect
ed, would in all probability insist on
making use of the administrative anu
executive background whlch Col'
Knox has developed in his business
experience over many years.
The colonel is known throughout
the newspaper world. for instance, as
the man who economies and VINO
does it impersonally. He has cut
budgets so often and kept expenses
down so we'll that he has been at
times a target of attack by Vlctlms Oh
his economy program.
Certainly when it comes to cutting
Government expenses the next Presl-
dent of the United States will neeo
all the help he can get and all tne
ideas of how to approach the PROB
lem that can be mustered. The vice
presidency as an office has undergone
little change even though it has be-
come the custom for Presidents 10
invite them into the cabinet room 1or
the regular meetings.
AS presiding officer of the united
States Senate, the Vice President
casts his ballot when there is a tie
vote on a pending bill and the rest
of the time he may or may not give
to the duties of interpreting the rules
Entirely apart from this, Vice Presl-
dent Garner, on the other hand, has
been a sort of liaison officer between
the White House and Capitol Hill
and some of the best bits OF persuao-
ing on the matter of getting votes for
administration measures has been
done by Mr.. Garner on behalf of Mr..
Roosevelt.
May Change Office Type.
So. IN selecting Vice President who
Is capable of team play with the
President there are possibilities for
good government. 1t may we'll hap
ben that Col. Knox will, if elected,
rhanpe the entire character OF the
vice presidency SO that it will cease
to be thought of in cynical vein by
political folk or by the public gen.
erally. The Throttlebottom version
of the vice presidency recently given
in a musical satire probably did more
to impair the prestige OF the vice
presidential position than anything
else. but, on the other hand, the
travesty was only reflection of the
attitude of passive acquiescense which
Vice Presidents, either for modesty
or other reasons, had themselves
adopted.
MY reason for thinking that Col.
Knox, if elected, will bring to the vice
presidency an interesting change Is
that he has the faculty of original ap-
proach This is illustrated by story
some of his former comrades in the
war will tell about him when he was
In command of an ammunition train.
Not content to remain behind the lines
and supervise the shipment of ammu
milton to the battle front, he per-
suaded the regular line officers that it
was better for him to command from
the front lines, where he could judge
the requirements Of the Artillery regi-
ments he was supplying. He made
his headquarters at the front and was
thereafter given larger responsibility
by reason of his aggreSsiveness than
any other commander of ammunition
trains in his area.
The colonel is a vigorous cam
paigner, fluent speaker and is likely
to carry the brunt of much of the at
tack in the present contest His ac-
tivities will be well worth watching
in this campaign for. to all intents
and purposes, it is really Landon-
Knox ticket, two-man fight that
will be waged this time. The two
leaders are in frequent conference and
thoroughly understand each others
plans for the campaign. Out of this
harmony of operation in the pre-
election battle may come valuable CO.
operation in the event that Gov.
Landon and Col. Knox are next
January inaugurated as President and
xy,an p~nSsda,,t yocparf;voJx,