New-York tribune. [volume], January 04, 1920, Image 67

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MAGAZINE
SECTION
3feaj |tork
STr?mni.
PART VII TWELVE PAGES
MAGAZINE
SECTION
SUNDAY, JANUARY ?, 1920
PART VII i TWELVE PAGES
For Once the Limelight Shines
On a Vice-President of the U. S.
How Tom Marshall, a Humorous, Kindly, Tactful
Man, Makes the Most and the
Best of His Office
f
By Theodore M. Knappen
Washington, D. C.
THE events of the last four
months have brought the
Vice-Presidency into un?
wonted prominence and im
?jM?rtanee and have directed attention
as nett aa responsibility to Thomas
Rfley Marshall.
President Wilson's long illness,
which has not been construed as
the "disability** mentioned in the
Constitution, has at least been con?
strued as social disability, and it has
devolved on Mr. Marshall to wel?
come foreign personages and other?
wise act for the President where
the acting could do nothing more
thM rafoe a question of etiquette.
Moreover, hundreds of people in
this eountry, and even some foreign
parliaments and governments, con- j
eluded that during the President's!
illness, M well as during his long ab-1
unces in France, the Vice-President ?
automatically would exercise the
routine functions of the President's
office.
For some months now people here
and there throughout the country
have been telling their woes to the
V'tce-Preadent. Petitions for par?
dons ?f federal prisoners have been
a?dressed to him ; parents with boys
in some sort of military troubla have
petitioned him for relief, and even
a few job hunters have asked him
for appointments.
In many cases these communica?
tions are prefaced with some sort
of statement to the effect that as
s'
President Wilson was in France, c?
was ill, the signatory sovereign
American wc_? just naturally writ?
ing to the man designated to act
for the President.
Even Diplomats Err
Certain foreign statesmen, par-;
Bwrtentary bodies and minor states '
nave addressed official document.*, to !
Um instead of to President Wilson, j
?tnd now and then even a foreign
diplomat or commissioner has con
Mini tt to be his duty to call on
tt? Vlet-President, inasmuch as he
wold not see the President.
To the last the Vice-President has
?ff?tined m his dry way that a Vice
President is never Vice-President
? ? ? that he never acts for a
"?-ident. However, Mr. Marshal!
*?* "glad to see them just the
?me."
It is to he doubted whether any
?f these foreigners clearly grasped
&? fact that the "heir apparent" of |
?? American Presidency is about
??near to the President as North
? to South, generally speaking. A i
monarch trams the crown prince to j
"? B* weeessor and takes pains to ;
^initiate Mrajnto the mazes and mya
twl?* of policies of state and state
CI*"' A. President never takes a
?lee-President into his official con
*?*???? except now and then, in a
*??*-* tort of way.
?? mam who at any moment in
*?* nncertain world may become
'"??^?l h*? no opportunity to learn
.*? ?m of the Presidential office.
?? *??iident rarely, if ever, seeks
?T"*v*,l *? know? nothing of
ft***OBt___ policies OT Presidential
2#,**R*e*? ?nd whan ha arise? to
?*?* the Administration or cham
r* *?? of its proposais he 1?
/*****?* ???-* a? much private
?***?*?? M the White House
*? Wilson Admhdatration enjoys
???*?*"??? ?? ?Ms iwptett it
tmt?V*n h?m ** B?*W?? *?
^ ** **? CtmittotfiUm does not
?F ?flk?sl relations in
*F*? ?k? VmUm* and-the
man who may be President, there
is usually the gulf of party faction
between them, the President repre?
senting the currently dominant
wing of the party and the Vice
President the other. It has hap?
pened quite often that they were
opposing candidates for the Presi?
dency itself.
Often Politically Opposed
Then, again, the Vice-President
is a part of the government on the
legislative rather than the executive
side. His real job is chairman of
the Senate. In a contest between the
executive and legislative branches
of the government he might well be
opposed to tlie President, especially
when the same party controls both.
When the Wilson Administration
came into power there was much
talk about making the Vice-Presi
dent the real party leader in the
Senate, in the sense that he would
be the Administration's representa?
tive and would be charged with the
responsibility of pushing forward
Administration measures. In this
way it was suggested that the Ad?
ministration might approximate tc
the advantages responsible cabinet
governments have of being in direct
charge, in the dominant lawraaK.,^
body, of their own proposals.
Nothing came of the talk, how
ever, and Mr. Marshall has con
tinued to be as much of a wall
flower as most Vice-Presidents hav?
been, so far as intimacy or influ
ence with the President is con
cerned. To make himself comfort
able he has summoned his innafc
Hoosier humor to his aid and, whil<
taking seriously his functions a
President of the Senate, has mad'
i fun of himself as a Presidentia
j substitute.
Only superficial observers, how
; ever, have been deceived by tb
badinage of the Vice-Pre3ident con
cernfng his office as Presidentia
successor. The wise ones know tha
Thomas Riley Marshall is a man o
parts. He has presided fairly am
done much to soften party and pe?
sonal rancor In the Senate, and ha
often promoted desirable legisla
tion by unassumingly bringing con
flicting Senators together. He get
along with people and influences a
around hit? to get along. Of cours?
it is chiefly in the lobbies that Mi
Marshall exercises this informt
personal influence? but he som.
times finds a way to do it from th
President's chair 'in the Senat
chamber itself.
The Peacemaker
One day when Senator Lodge an
Senator Hitchcock were becomin
; very angry at each other and sow
form of dangerous hostility a]
peared to be impending, Mr. Ma
shall rapped for order and ai
nounced that he had.a commujiici
tion to read to the Senate, Suppo
ing it was some sort of messag
from the President, or some oth<
official statement of great impo
tance, the Senators suspended the
altercation while the Vice-PresWen
with all possible gravity, read a le
ter from some citizen in Wiscons
conveying the Joyous informat!,
that he was the father of a promi
ing baby who would be named aft
the Senator offering the best nat
present in return for such honor
In the laugh that followed i
man from Massachusetts and tl
man from Nebraska lost tty
acerbity. Like most Americai
there are few times or places th
appear to Mr. Marshall to be i
consonant with some sort of "joi
ing." The 20th Engineers "joshe
each other ?a their torpedead tnta
port sank under their feet, and the
majesty of the Senate does not awe
Mr. Marshall. On one occasion
pretty nearly all the speakers Were
giving their views of "what ^.this
country needs." Mr. Marshall lis?
tened to many versions of the na?
tion's need. Suddenly he bent over
the thronelike desk of the Presi?
dent of the Senate and whispered
i audibly to Rose, the Assistant Sec?
retary of the Senate:
"Rose, what this country needs
is a really good 5-cent cigar."
A concurring chuckle vibrated
through the Senate. The time and
place of the remark mad? it humor?
ous, but it was loaded with earnest?
ness, coming from a man who had
?
1
lived for fifty years in Columbia
City, Ind., or like small places. In
them the quality of 5-cent cigars'1
looms large.
Speaking of Columbia City
(Whitely County, pop. 2,975), such
communities are nowadays the chief
habitat of the original and uncon
taminated Americans, and there are
about twenty thousand of them that
boast at least one such successful
country lawyer as Tom Marshall
was for some thirty-three years.
And as long as they and their good
lawyers flourish the Republic will
be a good bet. Chance picked up
one of them and, after trying him
for four years as Governor of In?
diana, made him Vice-President of
the United States for eight more.
Chance offered him political
honors just once before it led the
Democrats to nominate Marshall for
Governor of Indiana, in 1908. On
that occasion Marshall ducked the
proffered nomination for Congress
with the explanation that he was
afraid he "might be elected." At
the same time he informed the
party men who wanted him to go
to Congress that if they should ever
have any governorships to dispose
of he would like to be considered
as available. Ha became available
after the third ballot in the Dem?
ocratic State Convention of 1008,
when It was seen that if something
didn't happen the anti-Taggart can?
didate would be nominated. Some?
thing happened on the fourth bal?
lot, and Tom Marshall, previously
, m* ?f the humble Mt_$qa rans." DM
nominated., to the equal satisfaction j
of both factions.
The Taggart men declared that
their votes elected him, and the
anti-Taggart men boasted of the
fact that the Taggart candidate had
been defeated. The result was
that a united and enthusiastic party
put Tom Marshall over for Gov?
ernor that year, though Taft car?
ried the state on the national ticket.
So, at the age of fifty-four our easy?
going village lawyer held, as Gov?
ernor of Indiana, his first political
office.
How he came to be Vice-Pr?si?
dent everybody knows. He took his
honors as part of an ordinary day's
work. His age helped him to keep
his balance, he says.
"If I had been nominated at
forty-five," he explains, "politics
would have ruined me."
Love at First Slight
When plain Tom Marshall, typi?
cal American of the best small town
variety, moved into the Executive
Mansion of Indiana from the homely
little residence in Columbia City, he
took with him a typical small town
wife. She had been Lois Kimsey,
daughter of the clerk of court at
Angola, Ind. Acting as special
judge of some sort, Marshall, in
1895, apparently a confirmed bach?
elor of forty-one, went to Angola
and, naturally, became acquainted
with Miss Kimsey, who was acting
as her father's secretary.
Love at pretty near first sight fol?
lowed and marriage soon afterward.
Some Marshall Epigrams
Publio sentiment is not publia
opinion.
* ? ?
All I ?wer got out of politics
was to lose my home.
* ? *
/ am not ths hind of aroctama
Honist who thinks wo own reclaim
' anything by locking it in a tafo,
i. .? ? '? *
// Americana believe anything
at all, it is that God moda men
one by one, not in platoons, by
brigades and divisions.
* ? *
Jesus Christ was more than a
reformer: He was a regenerator,
e e e
H is w*U io long for ths ?h?lt
it is necessary to deal toith the
real.
? # *
Ths time when I am liable to
bs wholly wrong is when I know
that ? am absolutely right.
? ? ?
7 do not talk polities between
campaigns and afterward t re?
gret what I said in them.
? * ?
/ believe that there is no finer
form of government than the one
under which we live, and that I
ought to be w?ling to live or die,
as Ood decrees, that it may not
perish from off ths earth through
treachery from within or through
assaut* from without
<
j These pictures show Mr.
and Mrs. Marshall and
their adopted son, Morri?
son Marshall; a snapshot
of the Vice-President
crossing the Capitol
grounds in Washington,
and Mrs. Marshall
Since then literally all the days of
their lives have been spent together
?no separation having been for as
much as twenty-four hours.
That and what everybody knows
is about all there is of Tom Mar?
shall's biography. Concerning his
ancestry, he simply says that his
family "came out of Virginia" in
his grandfather's time, and that on
both sides he is of Revolutionary
stock. The fact is that he is of the
Marshalls of John Marshall, and
also of the Carrolls of Carrolljon.
His father was a country doctor and
his mother raised him devoutly in
the Presbyterian Church and wanted
him to be a minister, but he side?
stepped that career for the law after
some time spent in the public
schools at Port Wayne and other
places and graduation from Wabash
College. He was admitted to the bar
at the age of twenty-one. Then his
friends, he says, were good enough
to give him plenty of business, and
so he just went on practicing law,
being active in the church, reading
"omnifariously" (as a stenographer
made, him say in the "Who's Who"
data), but "carelessly." He soaked
himself in the Bible and thus in?
fallibly laid the foundation of an
excellent literary style and stored
away the meat of many wise dis?
courses.
Also, in these years at Columbia
City, North Manchester (where he
was born in 1854), and in other
small towns he accumulated a wealth
of anecdotes and tales that smack
of the life of the plain people of
America, which, like Lincoln, he
can tell by the hour if somebody or
some occasion starts him. Before
the cares of war made President
Wilson such a lonely man he liked
nothing better than to get Mr. Mar?
shall into a story-telling mood.
Here's one of his stories:
Lawyer Marshall was sitting in
his little office when a genial book
agent entered and undertook to sell
him a new edition of the Bible,
"full morocco, annotated," etc. Be?
fore the agent was through with his
description of the merits of the new
volume Marshall interrupted him
to ask who the- author was.
"W-h-hy, this is the Bible," ex?
plained the agent,
"I am fully aware of that?" an?
swered Marshall, in full soberness,
"but, I ask again, who is the au?
thor?"
Again the salesman explained that
he was offering the Bible. Again
Marshall demanded the'name of the
author, and the demand and the ex?
planation were repeated in varying
forms again and again.
Finally the man of the books gath?
?red up his samples, retreated to the
door? and then,{with one hand <m thi
t>-_____?
knob, turned around and shouted:
"You pin-headed fool and blither?
ing idiot, it's the Bible!"
A good, solid, cultural education,
years of "omnifarious" even if care?
less reading and the quiet of village
life for meditation on books and his
experiences and observations have
equipped Tom Marshall to be an
essayist and an honored member of
the distinguished "Indiana school"
of literary men, but his friends say
that he is intellectually lazy and
uses his literary skill, therefore, only
en such things as speeches, proc?
lamations, magazine articles that are
corkscrewed out of him and other
writings that he cannot dodge. But
when he undertakes to "write a
piece," he does it painstakingly and
well.
Religious publications, because of
his strong religious bent and keen
interest in church work, can usually
extract an article from him when?
ever they apply?if he' does not see
them coming. The Masons (he's a
33d degree-er),the Odd Fellows, the
Moose and all the rest of the "join?
ers," the universities, the commercial
clubs, the churches and all the thou?
sands of organizations of the great?
est country for organizations since
time began go hunting Vice-Presi
dents for banquet and convention
trophies at least once a year and,
while he does fall for some of them,
the public will never know what
watchfulness and wariness the inno?
cent-looking Mr. Marshall exercises
in keeping out of range and avoiding
their cunning traps.
One He Dodged
Soon after coming to Washington
Mr. Marshall, to his huge delight,
sidestepped one invitation and let
it go soaring on toward the White
House.
"This is the pastor of the Presi?
dent's (church," said* the voice at the
other end of the phone, "and I would
like to make an engagement with the
Vice-President."
Secretary Thistlewaite thought the
President's minister ought to be good
for an appointment with the Vice
President almost any day, so> he
made it the next day at 11.
It was a minister, all right, whe
arrived on the dot?-but of the Ethi?
opian variety. Mr. Thistlewaite hac
his misgivings, but if the President
had joined the African Methodist oi
some other church reserved for col
ored people he wanted to know abou
it?so the "President's minister" wai
ushered into the Vice-President's pri
vate office.
"You see," he explained, "I'm th
pastor of President Wilson's church
and we'd be highly honored if you
Mr. Vice-President, would favor u
with an address next Sunday eve
ning."
"I try to keep up with ?church new
in a kind of a way," answered Mi
> Marshall, "but I must have ovei
looked the President's uniting wit
your congregation."
The reverend gentleman then ?ea
plained that when President Wilso
' first came to Washington he picke
out a certain Presbyterian church t
? attend. A little later the ?colore
brethren bought the edifice, the whil
congregation having moved on.
i ! Unfortunately, Mr. Marshall lia
11 ?as engagement which precluded M
accepting this invitation, but he art?
fully suggested that President Wil?
son be approached.
"Do you think he would accept ?'*
asked the preacher.
"He ought to," returned Mr. Mar
shall; "it's his church, isn't it?"
The rest of this story might be
continued by Joe Tumulty.
One day Mr. Marshall went Into
his office in the Capitol, just off th"
Senate chamber, and found a tour?
ist sitting at his desk writing. Slight m
o? figure and not at all prepossess?
ing in manner, the man at the desk
took the Vice-President for another
one of those thousands who annual?
ly make the pilgrimage to the irren'
Capitol.
"Thought I'd just write the folk,
and tell them that I was sitting ti?
the Vice-President's desk," be ex?
plained.
And then, after five or ten min?
utes :
"Now, how would you like to ait
down in the Vice-President's chair?"
And he surrendered it to his sop
posed brother of the pilgrimage.
Mr. Marshall sat down and went
to work.
"You act just as if you were the
Vice-President," commented the
man who had surrendered the place
of honor.
"That's the hard part o. H,"
answered the Vice-President.
Mr. Marshall is counted a good
manager of men, but Mrs. Marshal!
manages him. Friendly and affable
and always at home among humans
as he is, she long ago concluded
that he was not a good mixer, in
that he was too fond of a cigar, a
book and a few old friends to be?
stir himself to meet and entertain
people. So she keeps him spurred
up on the social side of life in
Washington, but it is a social life
into which the Vice-President In?
troduces as much humanity and
from which he extracts as much
enjoyment as possible. Among the
"drop in" intimates of the Mar
shalls are the Brazilian Ambassador
and Senhora da Gama and Senator
Swanson and Justice Mc Reynolds.
They attend the Church of the
Covenant, live at the Willard Hotel
in the winter 'and the Wardman
Park Inn in the summer and gen?
erally enjoy the moderate life of a
Washington family with some social
duties and only $12,000 a year.
Mr. 3_fc.rshall profoundly believes
that if men who profess Christianity
would only be Christians there
would be mighty few problems un?
solved. He conceives of govern?
ment chiefly as an arrangement for
providing rules in the game of life
and seeing that the rules are ob?
served. He doesn't want the gov?
ernment to get Into the industrial
and commercial game itself. H<
thinks one good, vital Sunday school
ia wor?h all the schools of ?oeiaHsm
in the world, and that there is mora
promise of a better world in sn
energized church than there is in all
the modern theories of improve?
ment by law.
"No one will ever convince me
that the Church," he recently wrote,
"is not a divinely appointed organi?
zation ?pon earth: that it Is not a
hospital where men and women ara
ito be reborn, not once, but at leaH
enea a vraak, and aooa, I ho-ee. ?aw
*