The Mirrors of Washington | Page 9

to accept authority, and

authority is strong in small places. The acceptance of authority implies
few risks. It is like staying in Marion instead of going to New York or
even Cleveland. It is easier, and often more profitable than studying
hard or thinking deeply or inquiring too much.
And Mr. Harding's is a mind that bows to authority. What his party
says is enough for Mr. Harding. His party is for protection and Mr.
Harding is for protection; the arguments for protection may be readily
assimilated from the editorials of one good big city newspaper and
from a few campaign addresses. His party is for the remission of tolls
on American shipping in the Panama Canal and Mr. Harding is for the
remission of tolls. Mr. Root broke with his party on tolls and Mr.
Harding is as much shocked at Mr. Root's deviation as the matrons of
Marion would be over the public disregard of the Seventh
Commandment by one of their number. His party became somehow for
the payment of Colombia's Panama claims and Mr. Harding was for
their payment.
A story tells just how Senator Kellogg went to the President to oppose
the Colombia treaty. After hearing Mr. Kellogg Mr. Harding remarked,
"Well, Frank, you have something on me. You've evidently read the
treaty. I haven't."
A mind accepting authority favors certain general policies. It is not
sufficiently inquiring to trouble itself with the details. Mr. Harding is
for all sorts of things but is content to be merely for them. A curious
illustration developed in Marion, during the visits of the best minds. He
said to the newspaper men there one day, "I am for voluntary military
training."
"What would you train, Mr. President," asked one of the journalists,
"officers or men?"
The President hesitated. At last he said, "I haven't thought of that."
"But," said one of his interlocutors, "the colleges are training a lot of
officers now."
This brought no response.
Another who had experience in the Great War remarked, "In the last
war we were lacking in trained non-coms; it would be a good idea to
train a lot of them."
"Yes," rejoined Mr. Harding eagerly, "That would be a good idea."
A more inquiring mind would have gone further than to be "for

voluntary military training." A quicker, less cautious, if no more
thorough mind would have answered the first question, "What would
you train, officers or men?" by answering instantly "Both."
In that colloquy you have revealed all the mental habits of Mr. Harding.
He was asked once, after he had had several conferences with Senator
McCumber, Senator Smoot, Representative Fordney, and others who
would be responsible for financial legislation, "Have you worked out
the larger details of your taxation policy?"
"Naturally not!" was his reply. That "naturally" sprang I suppose from
his habit of believing that somewhere there is authority. Somewhere
there would be authority to determine what the larger details of the
party's financial policy should be.
Now, this authority is not going to be any one man or any two men.
The President, his friends tell us, is jealous of any assumption of power
by any of his advisers. He is unwilling to have the public think that any
other than himself is President. A man as handsome as Harding, as vain
of his literary style as he is, has an ego that is not capable of total
self-effacement. He will bow to impersonal authority like that of the
party, or invoke the anonymous governance of "best minds," calling
rather often on God as a well established authority, but he will not let
authority be personal and be called Daugherty, or Lodge or Knox or
whomever you will.
The President's attitude is rather like that of the average man during the
campaign. If you said to a voter on a Pullman, "Mr. Harding is a man of
small public experience, not known by any large political
accomplishment," he would always answer optimistically, "Well, they
will see to it that he makes good." Asked who "They" were he was
always vague and elusive, gods on the mountain perhaps. There is an
American religion, the average man's faith: it is "Them." "They" are the
fountain of authority.
As Mr. Harding knew little competition in Marion so he has known
little competition in public life which in this country is not genuinely
competitive. Mr. Lloyd George is at the head of the British government
because he is the greatest master of the House of Commons in a
generation and he is chosen by the men who know him for what he is,
his fellow members of the House of Commons. An American President
is selected by the newspapers, which know little about him, by the

politicians, who do not want a master but