tution, and its maintenance through due respect for law. He looks with as much concern upon the tendencies toward anti-government as did Colonel Roosevelt, and if elected will be equally determined to secure due respect for the law as the chief guarantee of the protection of human rights under the law. Not the law itself, so much as the respect for its authority. If objectionable, enforcement is the best guarantee of desirable modification or repeal.

Harding makes a sharp distinction between constitutional sanction and statutory cnactment. He is not responsive to the theory that constitutions should be as easily changed as laws can be enacted. The former, he declares, should be stable, while the latter may change from day to day.

He also believes that too much is expected from legal enactments. The country suffers from too many rather than too few laws. He has small patience with the promise of superseding the laws of nature by the laws of a legislature, whether in the world of production and consumption or especially of business prosperity. The recent tendency to look to legislation as a cure-all invites the demand for remedies by law; and when these are not forthcoming, attacks upon the Government for failure of duty are inevitable. Hence the typical anti-government propaganda emanating from many sources of unrest, which embody themselves in various associations, political and social.

Harding's political theories are Hamiltonian, both from study in political science and experience in the operations of government. He religiously believes in the "checks and balances" of the Constitution. He looks upon that instrument as did the fathers, as the "palladium of our liberties." The coördination of the three departments is fundamental with him. He is totally incapacitated to assume as a proper function of the executive any interference with the constitutional functions of either the legislative or the judicial.

Not ultra-Conservative

Government with him is not only a theory but a practicality. His studies emphasize the separation and independence of the coördinate departments of our Government as the feature that most sharply differentiates this from all other governments; and his public service enables him to view each from the angle of the other two. This exlains his abiding faith in the courts, and

his demand for their independence from other departments, in order that freedom of decision may be assured untrammeled by outside influence. However, this independent position does not and should not forestall legitimate criticism.

This attitude toward our fundamental institutions, and especially our organic law, has led to the charge of some publicists that Mr. Harding is too conservative. It will be readily conceded by those who know him that his is not the extreme type. He is neither so conservative that he cannot start, nor is he so progressive that he cannot stop. His record in the Senate is the last word in evidence of his attitude toward progressive measures, every one of which he has warmly supported.

A Public Man of the McKinley Type

He belongs to the McKinley type of statesman in his attitude toward men and measures. Notwithstanding his admiration for and close relation to McKinley, he was not in the onset a partisan of Senator Hanna, since he was one of Senator Foraker's lieutenants when that militant Republican leader had such commanding grip upon the young men of the party. Harding does not belong to the "hammer-and-tongs" class of public men. He reaches his conclusions in deliberation rather than by intuition. Quick decision is sometimes sacrificed in the interest of correct judgment. Such process avoids frequent blunders but does not prevent criticism. The impulsive leader is usually admired for the mistakes he makes upon the ground that he meant well. The rational leader is apt to be criticised, if not condemned, because of his caution, and is tardily forgiven for his mistakes. Blaine and Roosevelt belonged to the impulsive type of leadership, while Lincoln and McKinley belonged to the more cautious and conservative.

A Leader Who Welcomes Counsel

The Republican nominee is sensitive to the good opinion of the public. While selfapprobativeness is a marked element in his composition, his caution is not from fear of loss of favor, but rather from his abiding desire to be always found on the right side of public questions, and approved by the believers in justice and the "square deal." Critics see in this attribute a lack of aggressiveness. But it is quite similar to the attitude of Lincoln and McKinley.

Like those two leaders, Harding-wel

comes counsel. Like them, however, he makes his own decisions after consultation. Before and during the convention that named him as the Republican standardbearer he was advised and urged to do certain things to which he earnestly listened, but which he declined to do. One of his distinguishing characteristics is his welcome of counsel of men who can assist him. He is not afraid of embarrassment by the advice of men of ability. Should it be his honor to form a Cabinet, he will surround himself with the ablest men available for the work to be assigned, as did Lincoln, McKinley, and Roosevelt.

A Strong Believer in Party Organization

Harding has no patience with the man who rails at political parties as inherently evil. He believes in party government as essential in a democracy. He also believes in both the necessity and the efficacy of political organization as the only way by which public opinion can find expression in sound legislations, especially so in a country where the people are sovereign. Because he is a strong party man he concedes the value of an opposition party. He believes in holding the party in power strictly responsible for the conduct of national affairs, and for that reason commends the importance of a strong minority, whereby the people can correct at the polls at periodic times through such minority the errors due to the policy of the majority.

Like McKinley, he will not seek an election as a non-partisan; but unlike Wilson, if elected he will be President of all the people rather than the chief of a political party. He has no apology to offer for the existence of responsible party organization, and has little patience with those who are continually complaining about too much politics. On the other hand, he is an advocate of the doctrine that only when no interest is shown in politics will the public service suffer, and the public weal be disregarded and allowed to go by default.

Record in the Senate on Foreign Policy Although Harding's political activities had. been identified with the State rather than the nation, save as he had figured as a leader in the councils of the party and in National and State conventions, he entered the Senate well equipped to deal with the serious problems involved in the war. was not pleased with the conduct of our

He

foreign affairs, especially in the humiliating "watchful waiting" policy in Mexico, and in the note-writing habit of President Wilson, who, for two and a half years, counseled against becoming "nervous" when preparedness was demanded, during which time our national honor was contemptuously assaulted, and at last our national life was threatened, as evidenced by the famous Zimmermann note of January 19, 1917.

Early Advocate of Preparedness

Harding was one of the strongest advocates of a program of preparedness for the protection of American honor and the safety of our national life. When the President, in his near-fatal phrase-making ability, notified the world that America had entered the war to make the world "safe for democracy," rather than in defense of her honor and her life, Senator Harding was among the first to indicate that America should not deem herself called upon to reorganize the old world or to set up any particular kind of government in Europe. That job was for the people of Europe in their self-determination. Recent events in Europe disclosing the attitude of certain countries toward us for supposed interference with their plans are sufficient comment upon his position.

He had been among the first to see the certainty of war, and was alive to the needs of the hour. To bring the country to a sense of danger from a foe three thousand miles away was the first task, and no small one. He seized the earliest opportunity to press the claims of Colonel Roosevelt to head a division in Europe, and introduced and secured the passage of an amendment to the military bill to that effect.

This was not alone because of his desire to please the great American who wanted to go; but the Senator knew that no other single event would so arouse all America to the real situation, and the need of preparation to meet it. I have heard him express his regret that the Administration not only declined to allow Roosevelt to participate personally in this crisis of the nation, but also saw fit to discriminate against the Colonel's friend, the distinguished General Leonard Wood, who apparently gave offense to the President because he was the first man to call attention of the country to our state of unpreparedness at the time when war seemed inevitable, and the President counseled calmness, declaring that he would not

change his position "even if there are those. among us who become nervous."

war.

Some members of Congress, and Harding was included in the list, were deeply concerned over the problems to result from When the armistice came it found us less prepared for peace than we had been for war. The probable complications to arise at the peace table in Europe were apparent. Harding's warning had already been sounded on the Senate floor. The President was to be pitted against Europe's greatest and most astute statesmen, intent upon securing the best possible advantage to atone for the awful suffering. America's

representative was to be submerged in this atmosphere surcharged with the great crisis, and under the pressure of appalling events backed by the most powerful advocates living.

Favors a World Court

The well-known predilection of President Wilson toward the League of Nations idea, his open avowal of it as the one and only demand he should make of Europe, immediately compelled the closest scrutiny of the proposal. When the League Constitution was made public February 14, 1919, Harding, on the Foreign Relations Committee, was among the first to see the dangers to our sovereignty and independence, if accepted as proposed. He at once demanded such changes as to safeguard the nation. He condemned the League as reported; he demanded the continued normal development of international law as the basis of control of international relations which permitted arbitration of justiciable questions, by continuing a policy formulated by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe, and further developed by Lincoln and every Republican and Democratic President since the Civil War, to and including Taft.

Harding looked with favor upon the establishment of some world court to adjust justiciable questions by judicial process, which could lead to disarmament in due time. Non-justiciable questions could be met by conciliation by the nations, through association when the questions arise.

The imminent complications to arise from the League as proposed by the President alarmed many leaders both inside and outside of public life. Harding felt the danger keenly. He was one of the first to request that the Treaty and the League be considered separately, to avoid continuing a state

of war until a widely disputed question could be agreed upon. And he was greatly distressed over the President's threat, upon his second sailing to France, that he would bring the Treaty back with the League so intertwined that the rejection of the League would compel the rejection of the Treaty.

The Chicago platform fits his ideas on the League issue as well as if he had written the plank, and he will be the legitimate standard bearer to lead the country in the contest in which American sovereignty and independence will be safeguarded, whatever be the final form the Treaty and League shall take.

Why He Was Nominated

His nomination was the climax of a conjunction of forces both political and personal. His strong position for law and order; his defense of national honor; his struggle as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee to safeguard national sovereignty and independence; his sound philosophy of economics and finance; his sturdy insistence upon the integrity of American initiative in business enterprise for the investment of capital in the employment of labor at a scale of wage to maintain the American standard of living; his determination to maintain equal opportunity under the law upon the basis of the square deal, with due regard for the rights of all; his consistent advocacy of the extension of American trade through the establishment of a merchant marine under the American flag to carry our foreign commerce; his varied experience which has given him the sympathetic touch with all classes of our population; his fearless demand that the public interest must first be subserved, together with his sturdy yet mild-mannered personality which universally commands favorall combined make him the logical nominee of his party at this hour of commanding need.

Elements of Popularity

The progress of the Chicago convention from start to finish epitomized this leader's political growth. Starting with no advantage of organization, and even with a slight defection in certain quarters in his home State (not to be regarded seriously save as a handicap in a convention), his assets were hosts of friends and no enemies among the delegates, who hoped the time would come when they could get back of him.

showed an increase of

nearly twenty.

The next ballot put him in fourth place. The next, the seventh ballot, he took third place. When the convention adjourned for consultation after the eighth ballot he was still third, but was already scheduled as the winner, which place he took immediately upon reconvening.

The enthusiasm, both of the delegates and of the great audience, was perfectly normal. Harding was and had been the logical candidate of the whole convention. Quite naturally, friends of other can

which constantly brings to mind the mildmannered and beloved McKinley, will find him more acceptable than the usual candidate named by a heated party convention. Mrs. Harding's Part

No attempt to sketch this man's career can leave out of consideration the powerful and

didates, whose interest had been stirred into white heat, were disappointed-but less so than if any other man had been chosen. Harding thus becomes the candidate of all the party, not only by the law of conventions, but by the good will and rational enthusiasm of all the voters who heretofore have called themselves Republicans, or Progressives of Republican origin and affinity.

Mr. Harding will become, with the progress of the campaign, a popular candidate. The entire people, when they come to know his ability, his worth, his desire to serve the public interest, and his strong personality,

wholesome influence of Mrs. Harding, a stately American woman of the very best womanly qualities. All during his mature life has he felt the worth of her influence. She has been his constant companion and adviser in all his ambitions, in triumph and defeat. In the days preceding and during the convention she was by his side to counsel and advise him. She has unlimited confidence in him and is now, as she ever has been, his safest counselor and his most confident supporter.

At Chicago Mrs. Harding might be said to have been his manager. No step was taken without consulting her, and her advice was rarely, if ever, ignored. I talked with her in the headquarters late on the night preceding the Senator's nomination. Her absolute confidence in the ultimate triumph was a tonic to all the "boosters" of her famous husband.

Warren G. Harding's present position is the logical outcome of genuine worth in our country of the open door to success. He is to-day a splendid example of American achievement, and stands out as an inspiration to the American youth, a fresh demonstration of Emerson's dictum that America is but another word for opportunity.