The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1910-08-03
Ohio Editor Shaped Career
With Statehouse at CO.
lumbus as Ultimate Des-
tination-Curiou Combi-
nation of Erstwhile Po-
litical Foes Name Him.
By JAMES A. HDcHRToN.

!
III 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 a welcome
| promise that in some rare instances
the newspaper nan may come into his
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
aud 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 a candidate for governor when
they needed one very much, and for
another 1t prevented Harding's cheer
full friends, who had predicted the
papers early demise, from coming
around and saying, 81 told you So"
Circumstances Favor Harding.
Harding's nomination came as the
result of peculiar combination. 1t
was practically the field against George
r. Cox of Cincinnati and his candidate,
Judge o. b. Brown of Dayton. James
X. Garfield had announced that If 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 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 20 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 Ballinger Plnchot |
he readily Joined hands |
with the Taft forces to prevent the |
of the Cox candidate.
Harding had been referred to as |
Foraker candidate, yet, despite the old |
feud, the administration
was forced to accept him. The result
was practically a Taft-Garfield-Fora-
combination. 1t is a long
lived political animosity which sur
Yves the year of its birth. The po-
Iiucai cnmities of yesterday become
he 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
.nt quality of that praise. Originally
A Blaine man, he later became a wor-
shipper at the shrine of Foraker. Now
be Is a leader in us own right For
some years state senator, he was
lfterward offered the nomination for
congress, but declined. one reason Civ
~ BY his friends being that he already
na5 the gubernatorial bee in his bon
Jet. 1t was a case of hope deferred,
however, for the nearest he could get
10 the governors chair was his cleo
ton as lieutenant governor, which
gave him the title even though 1t did
lot carry the power TO shake the Off
,ial plum tree.
Editor of College Paper.
Harding was born in 1865, 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
Did family mule, riding 1t into Marion,
the county seat 1t may be that that
ma rticuIar mula will hecome as famous