The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-04-28
'ATTACk OF HEART CAUSE
 OF PASSING
Officials s Death Leaves Big Gap in
 War Cabinet

WA0nlNdlON Apru So.--ScCAc- tary of Navy Frank Knox, TO. died suddenly at o'clock this afternoon (EWT) at his home as the result of an attack of the heart. The Secre- tary became ill last week.
 The death was announced by Acting Secretary of Navy James V. Forrestal over the Navys loud speaker system and he asked all Department employees. many of whom were at lunch in cafeterias, to pause in activities out of respect to Knox.
 Knox was stricken with a "gastro intestinal upset" while attending the funeral last week of John A. Mueh- ling, his business partner for the past 40 years in Manchester. New Hampshire.
 He returned to his office Tuesday morning but about two hours later became i'll and went home. The Sec retary suffered severe heart at- tack and retired to bed in the af> ternoon.
 Forrestal automatically heconea Acting Secretary following the death of Knox. the first of the Presidents Cabinet members to die since Secretary of Navy Swanson in July. 1889.
 President Roosevelt still vacation ing in the south. was kept advised of the sudden change in the condi- tion of Knox and was then notified of his Secretarys death.
 At the death bed were Mrs. Knox, Assistant Secretary of Navy Ralph Bard, Mrs. BerG, Assistant Secre- tary of Treasury John L. Sullivan, Jr., Dr. Fred Bushmeyer, pastor of the Mt. Pleasant Congregational: John F. O'Keefe and Capt. Lyjan s. Perry, aide to Secretary Knox.
 As republican newspaper pub fisher who had fought President Franklin D. Roosevelt on almost every domestic issue, Frank Knox agreed to become membr of his cabinet in l940 because he believed the European war was wrecking Americas isolationism and he pas |sionately wanted the United States to get ready to fight.
 Despite the anguish of partyline purists, the 66-year- Knox. who had been the COP Vice Presidential nominee in 1886, became Secretary of the Navy and Henry L. Stimson, cabinet veteran of two earlier Re- publican administrations, was made Secretary of War for the second time in his life.
 Read Out of COP.
 Hardly were the appointments an- nounced when the Republican Na- tional Committee, meeting to or ganize the 1940 campaign, read the two men out of the party with the assertion they could no longer speak as Republicans. From some Demo- crats, as well as Republicans arose cries of political maneuver" and coalition government" But the President and his new Secretaries denied any reasons ex- cept service to the country in darkening hour. Neither of the two Colonels, as they were called in their first world war days, partici- pated in the Presidents successful third term campaign. For both there was work of feverish urgency to be done-materially and psychological ly the nation must be prepared for var
 Knox. who always considered one of the Secretarys main jobs to be uper-salesmanship for the Navy, began to spend considerable time before Naval committees of Con- gress and public meetings. He called for bigger and better fleets. always hammering on the idea that the Navy was the first line of defense.
 A Prophetic Warning
 He backed the Selective Service program. supported unlimited aid to Britain. called up naval ana marine reserves as fast as thev