HARDING—THE MAN.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1921, Page 4

HARDING—THE MAN.

I THE BIBLE, LINCOLN, AND > ROOSEVELT. | A PEN-PICTURE AT .MARION. (London paper). : Insufficient attention is being paid ! here to the political developments in the United States, where .Mr Harding, . the President-elect, is forming a Cabinet whose relations with Great Britain 1 are likely to be among the most muj mentous events in our history. I Not enough attention is given here to the various causes of the present-Anglo- ; American frictions. From the point of : view of the average American, good relations cannot exist until the question of the world’s oil supply has been settled. The ownership of the island of Yap, cable control, the Irish Question, and half a dozen less important matters, while insufficiently reported in ! the British newspapers, are the cause ol ■ acute controversy in the I nited States. ; The following account oi -Mr Harding the man, and also of Mrs Harding, by a well-known American descriptive writer, is well worthy of perusal, j Mr Edwin l. Hill, in the New York 1 -‘Herald,” gives a very interesting and attractive picture of Mr Warren C. Harding, the President-elect of the , United States, at Ids desk in Ids little : office in Marion, Ohio, at work on the 1 "most difficult job I ever tackled--making a Cabinet.” ! "Look at this,” said the Presidentelect, Sweeping a hand over the mindI staggering accumulation of mail upon the yellow oa.k flat-top desk. "Pretty nearly till of this bears on the Cabinet, ll seems, at times, as if everybody in the United States was trying to .help me to.select my Cabinet. Don’t misunderstand me about that. It think it is wonderful. . . . "This is what I want. The most important assistance, in my judgment, that c-aii come to a President is the voluntary, intelligent expression of opinion ; the manifestation oi a will to help. I’m glad to get it. I want it all along the line of my coining labours. Why, it is the way we get team wok, I and team work is the thing the l nited States has got to have in the next lour I voars.” I; ’ THE PRESIDENTIAL POLICY. [ : Mr Harding has always been a great 1 believer in the value ol team work. I "When I started out in politics, up- | wards of At) years ago,” lie said, "I 1 said to myself: 'Warren Harding, I you are going to succeed in politics you are going to do it by getting men to work with you rather than against you. , You arc going to watch your step with ! : the idea of keeping off other folks’ toes, i You won’t get hig tilings done in this i world without friends and wcll-wish-

; "That is still the main principle of :my life,*’ he odded. lam taking that : i ule into the Presidency "iili the -de- : termination to apply it to domestic problems and to international problems. ... 1 am going to he the ibci sideut most di iim-tly. 1 have very definite not ions about the dignity of the , ofTkc, about, what if stands for, hut 1 am going to do my hast to carry to the Presidency wiiat I possess oi' tact and of respect for the tights of others, and of the conviction that the men 1 make my associates can he trusted.” | THE LINCOLN TEST. There arc three things in Mr Harding’s office which he values far above all others. One is an engraving of Lincoln, the second a portrait of Roosevelt, and the third a Bible, covere I in black leather and much wont, i These are his inspiiations as ho sits making Ids Cabinet. "Don't you think,” he said to ,l!r Hill, "that a Cabinet composed of the qualify of American citizens who would bate been acceptable to Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt., and who reasonably meet the matthoo 1 test of the Bible, is a pretty good com option ? That is tile kind of Cabinet I hope to have.” Mr Harding think.: the: t! govenii: cut of the e-uiiiiiy. v.oui i i.oi r t 1 o -v. or. e ii ii had more of the real spirit of religion in it. Although he has always or on it g: at leader of the Bible, he says, "i have never read it so closely as in the mist weeks, when my mind has been bent upon the work I must shortly lake up. I have obtained a good deal of inspiration from the Psalms of David and Iri.i.-i muiiv passages of the 1 nr Uo.|! !-, and (boro is still wisdom |a ihe a." mgs of okl Solomon.” LOOKING THE PART. ’lk.' ies;u:ii-ib ; liiios of these recent weeks, says Mr Hill, have left their impress on M r Harding’s physical nod u ental aspect : “He seems somehow bigger, as one estimates Ids outlook. It is an intangible suggestion, but it isjis obvious as the physical fact that his hair is a little greyer and Ids shoulders just a trifle more bent, lie is not the Harding that was seeking the Presidency. He is now the President-elect, his very receptive mind immensely expanded, his talent competency strikingly develop'd. . . .

There seems to be something about the ! tremendous power for good or ill, the ! tremendous responsibility of the Prosi- ; deucy that can lift the intellectually and temperamentally fitted man up to its j overwhelming demands. Without any I doubt this has been title in the ease of | .Mr Harding.” j Mr Harding’s existence at the moment is tt most exacting one. "I’ve never worked so hard in my : life.” he says, "and J’ve known what : work is. I’ve been the editor of a j struggling country newspaper, you j know. That spells hard work. It j would he all right if you could got exer- ■ oGo. . . . I’m used to bodily exercise; ! I’ve got to have it to keep my brain lit. 1 can’t think clearly when T’ve | been compelled to stay indoors for days j on end.”

j Although he rises regularly at 7 a.in. ! Air Harding finds the day till too short and wishes he could work for its whole ■ 21 hours. ! A HOMELY BREAKFAST TABLE.

"Airs Harding usually joins me tit breakfast; an old-fashioned family custom,” he says, “but 1 like the pleasant look of her across the table; site seems to keep cheerful when she sees me. I make a pretty substantial breakfast too. Occasionally Airs Harding herself makes the waffles, and, if her husband does say it, they are the finest waffles in any man’s world. ... If there are country sausages with the waffles, I don’t spurn them. . . . Mrs Harding also shines at coffee making.” At nine o’clock Mr Harding goes to

his office, and except for an hour for lunch he is there every day except Sunday until 5.30 or G o’clock.

He has a vast mail. The general average of what he calls "personal letters—many of them from men who seek posts in the Government or from men recommending otherfc for posts —- is about 300 a day. -Most of this correspondence he answers by dictating to one or another of his secretaries, hut there are many, letters to which he replies personally in longhand. He is also inundated with freak and begging letters. MRS HARDING’S POST BAG. Many similar letters find their way to Mrs Harding, large numbers of them being from women. One woman wrote to her suggesting that Senator Harding’s upper lip should he remodelled by surgery, as lie could not be a successful President otherwise. Another man wrote to point out that, it was equally impossible for Mr Harding to be a first-rate President unless he grew a heard. .Many women write to her about the League of Nations, and most of them, it is interesting to note, denounce the project. One Woman wrote to Mrs Harding virtually demanding the honour of supervising the redeeoration of the White House, and suggesting, with not too much good taste, that it was imposible for anyone coming from Ohio to know how the White House should he treated from the decorative point of view, j It was on this matter of the AVh’te House, hy the way, that Mr Hill put : an interesting question to the Pro admit , elect. j "I have heard you sav on ii'.cr.* ih;.n one occasion,” he said, "that w ; med : a return to simpler standards ol living 'in the United States—less show, less obvious money spending. Do ou intend to do anything as President to impress that belief on the country. "1 scarcely know what I can tin,” Mr llarding answered. "I certainly am not going to set myself up as tin arbiter of either manners of dress or good taste. Mrs Harding and 1 do not like pomp and parade. If there is anything in the world we flinch irom it is shon and ostentation. We shall live according to our light in these matters, as simply and democratically as may l>c. If in that way the White House can set an example, well and good.’’ —bhcph