Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-09-09
BY JAMES A. EDGERTON.
~ HE nomination of Warren

|" HE nomination Of Warren g.
Harding for governor OF Ohio
Il not only gives assurance of one
OF the warmest fights IN the
history of Buckeye politics, which has
not been entirely devoid Of warm
fights, but also holds out q welcome
promise that in some rare Instances
the newspaper man may come into hts
own.
Harding has been a newspaper man
ever since he was nineteen years old,
or all of the time at least when not
engaged in holding Office or stumping
the state. He took a paper when
everybody said it was going to die
and had to borrow money to raise the
purchase price. That called for a
large combination of faith and grit, and
the same qualities were required for
some years afterward to keep the thing
going.
Go it did, however, which was fortu-
nate from several standpoints. For
one thing it gave the Republicans Of
Ohio q candidate for governor when
they needed one very much, and for
another it prevented Harding's cheer
full friends, who had predicted the
papers early demise from coming
around and saying, II told you So"
circumstances Favor Harding.
Harding's nomination came as the
result of a peculiar combination It
was practically the field against George
3. Cox of Cincinnati and his candidate,
Judge o. B. Brown Of Dayton James
R. Garfield had announced that II he
did not get his platform his name
would not go before the convention,
and when the progressive" tariff
plank, the recall and certain other OF
the Garfield planks were rejected by
the resolution committee he made
good his word. Carmi A.. Thompson, !
one of the three leading candidates /
before the convention and regarded In |
some quarters as a favorite of Senator |
Dick, also withdrew.
This narrowed the fight practically |
to Brown and Harding, although there
were scattering votes for other candi- /
dates, Garfield and Nicholas Longworth |
receiving the bulk of these.
One of the most stirring features Of /
the balloting was the attempt of Guy |
ahoga county to start a stampede for |
Longworth. Mrs. Longworth, who |
was seated in the gallery, was OBJ
served to frown at this and vigorously
shake her head, looking the while In
tently at her husband on the platform,
who had a frown on his own face.
Both, however, Joined in the applause
when the advance of the Harding
wave submerged all other candidates.
Old Enemies In Alliance.
Politics never made stranger bed
fellows than in the joining Of forces
that led to Harding's nomination. Gar
field was there with the progressive"
strength and, although he had aroused
the hostility of the administration by
his attitude in the BallingerPfnch
controversy. he readily Joined hands
with the Taft forces to prevent the
nomination of the Cox candidate.
Harding had been referred to as
Foraker candidate, yet, despite the old
Foraker-Taft feud, the administration
was forced to accept him. The result
was practically a Taft-Garfeld- Fora
ker-Burton combination. 1t is a long
lived political animosity which sur
wives the year of its birth. The po-
lidcal enmities of yesterday become
the friendship of today and are again
the enmities of tomorrow.
Harding has long been known as the
best stump speaker In Ohio" Any
body who is acquainted with Ohio
stump speakers realizes the transcend
ent quality of that praise. Originally
a Blaine man, he later became wor-
shipper at the shrine of Foraker. Now
he is a leader in his own right. For
some years a state senator, he was
afterward offered the nomination for
congress, but declined, one reason CIV
en- by his friends being that he already
had the gubernatoria1 bee in his bon
net 1t was a case Of hope deferred,
however, for the nearest he could get
to the governors chair was his cleo
ton as lieutenant governor, which
gave him the title even though it did
not carry the power to shake the off,
cial plum tree.
Editor of College Paper
Harding was born In 1855, the son of
a physician who served In the civil
war. He had the journalistic bug
even in college, where he was one Of
the editors of the campus paper. No
sooner was he graduated than he
started ON his newspaper career on the