Evening star., 1920-09-02
HARDING BORR0WS
BASE BALL TONGUE
T0EXP0UNDC CREED
Tells Cubs U. S. "Muffed" at
Home and Then "Struck
Out" at Paris.
By the Associated Press.

! MARION, Ohio, September 2.-Put-
! ting his political creed into the YER
nacular of base ball, Senator Harding
delivered front-porch speech today
to the players of the Chicago Ma
tional League club. appealing for bet
ter team work by the American ma
tion ION the home grounds, under the
rules"
Many issues, including the league
of nations, one-man government, pre-
paredness and progressivism were
! touched on by Senator Harding in de-
ciaring his love for the great Amerf-
can game. The Cub players had come
to Marion to play special exhibi-
| tion game late in the day as a per-
sonal compliment to the nominee.
In another speech. delivered to a
committee representing several as
sociations of teachers, the senator
| said the low compensation of teachers
had brought on a crisis in educa-
ton, and pledged himself to do every
thing in his power to secure better
pay for the profession.
Will Confer With Knox.
Both of the addresses were short.
and the greater part of the day the
candidate reserved for conference
with Senator Knox of Pennsylvania, a
lCTHcT TcpuU1lCdH ocCEetdTy VI oIdtS.
on the league issue. 1t was understood
that many detailed features of the new
association of nations proposed by
Senator Harding swere to be taken up
during the visit of the Pennsylvania
senator here.
Saluting the base ball players sim
ply as Cubs" Senator Harding
plunged directly into his discourse on
political issues as analogous to the
problems of the diamond.
Il pay to you,' he said. my tribute
to base ball, because 1 like the game.
just like every other real American.
1t has been in the blood for over
half century, and it has helped us as a
people. Of course, there has been
vast improvement since the early game,
but I am sure it is not reactionary to
remind you that you still try to hit
the home plate. There are progressive
ideas, but it rejoices the average
crowd of rooters to note an old-fash-
ioned Tinker-to-Evers-to-C
"It's Great to Be a Rooter..
II like the tension of a tight game
1t is great to be rooter. 1t is fine to
see him in recognizing a great play,
but I like his partisanship. That is
the explanation of base ball popu-
larity. We are all partisans OF some
team. I am sure l rejoiced as much
as Garry Hermann when the Reds
copped last year. / feel the same way
in big national matters. I like to
think of America first. I want our
country to float the championship
pennant in the contest for human
achievement.
You can't win ball game with a
one-man team. like a pitcher who
puts the ball over and trusts his field
ers to play their stations. Maybe it is
old-fashioned. but l am for team play.
am opposing the one-man play for
the nation. Too much tanning out, too
much unpreparednesS. National nu-
preparedness for war cost many
precious lives and endless billions in
waste. and unpreparedness for peace
is costing billions more and holding
, US in anxiety and uncertainty.
"It is my observation that the ma
tional team now playing for the
United States played loosely and
muffed disappointingly in our do
mestic affairs. and then struck out at
Paris. No one can dispute the Ameri-
can team played badly when it got on
a foreign field.
Urges Team Work I'm America.
LAS a spokesman for the repubM-
can party 1 am urging team play in
government on the home grounds
with all the home fans behind us. and
team play when we represent America
in the all-the-world series. There are
too many men batting above three
hundred to rely on one hitter.
"And l am advocating something
~, Do CoL,r,p