The Cordova daily times., 1920-12-23
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1920
REPUBLICANS MUST ACCEPT UN'
 DIVIDED RESPONSIBILITY

It was hardly necessary for Senator Harding to deny that he intended to select members of the party of oppo- sition as members of his cabinet. The story was started by newspaper cor respondents who had run out of any thing else to write about.
 The American people expect Presi- dent Harding to assume one hundred per cent responsibility on behalf of himself and his party. Senator Hard ing has often spoken of his belief in party government as the one practic- able method of responsible govern ment. This means that President Harding and the Republican congress and the Republican party must as sume full responsibility on March 4, 1921, and not attempt to divide re- sponsibility by dividing authority.
 One of the chief virtues of party government is that party representa- lives in public authority must consid- CT the effect of their official conduct upon the future of the party which has placed them inc opower, and to which they must look for a continu aEce of their authority. To make good for their party they must make good in their program of public serv- ice Members of the cabinet are the
 II of the administration. They should be able to act and to advise in full loyalty to the head of the admins tration and to the party in power.
 The law provides for the appoint Rent of many representatives of the party of opposition on boards and commissions wisely made bipartisan Such selections should be made from bona -fide members of the Democrat party. It has been the custom of the Wilson administration to violate the spirit if not the letter of the law by using such appointments as rewards to professed Republicans who have been of service to the administration or to the Democratic party by dislOy- alty to their own party.
 But in so far as the Republican party has been vested with responsi- bility by the voters, it should assume full authority. It is true that hun dreds of thousands of men and wo- men heretofore affiliated with the Democratic party voted the Republi can national ticket on November 2nd. They did this, however, because they desired change from conditions cre- ated by their own party leadership and with the desire that the Republi- can party should try to do better. not by evading or dividing, but by unre- servedy accepting responsibility in national government.
 The recognition" of any element or group involved in the appointment of one of it's members to public place is a negligible factor in the popularity of an administration. The hundreds of thousands of Democrats who voted the Republican ticket are not inter- ested in having some few of their number chosen as appointees of Re- publican administration except in so far as this may be legally necessary or essential to the efficient discharge of public responsibilities. The new administration will be judged by it's record of public service. That record can most easily be made good by the choice of executive agents and advis- CTS in complete harmony with the policies and the program of the ad nfnistration. A bipartisan cabinet, therefore, will not be one of the fea- lures of the Harding administration.