The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-07-08
A BUSINESS MAN FOR THE
PRESIDENCY.

Warren C. Harding, next President
of the United States, will be the
first business man by occupation to
become President of the United
States.
There have been 81 Presidents. hold
ing Office Of chief executive through
out period Of 131 years; all soldiers,
lawyers, planters or publicists by pro-
fession; not business man by occu-
patton in the whole long line. War
rem G. Harding will be the first bust
ness man and first newspaper man to
succeed to the office.
Yet the office of President deals
with the biggest business concern on
the earth-the United States of Amer
lea. The American government is a
great corporation in which hundred
and ten million people are stock hold
ers. From that corporation the people
must draw dividends, or to it they
must pay assessments. 1t deals vital
ly with the welfare of private trade
and industry, upon which depends the
material prosperity of all these mill
ions. Yet until now, in all our century
and third of history, not one bust
ness man by occupation for the big
gest business post on earth.
Under the present national admin
lstratlon the government has broken
down completely on the business side.
1t was Democratic Senator who de-
clared that under the present man
agement every department had col
lapsed Through lack of competent
business direction the machinery of
government has been so incompetently
handled that the situation calls loudly
for the services of a salvage CORPS.
Waste, extravaganza, Incompetence,
inefficiency, have cost the people bill
ions. They have heaped hugh burdens
of taxation on the backs cf the people.
They have undermined the faith of
They nearly lost the war through the
failure to furnish our soldiers at the
front with proper equipment, and
through debaugh of waste at home
they brought initiation, profiteering
decentralization in public and private
affairs, in its wake. These abuses,
due to lack of business sense on the
part, primarily, of the President of
the United States, still menace the
very solvency and safety of the ma
ton.
Along with all this breakdown in
the management of the nations own
business affairs, has been a totally
wrong attitude on the part of the gov
ment toward legitimate business en-
terprise, accompanied by an effort to
make the government itself the uni
versal employer and provider. The
machinery of government has been
utilized, under the camoufage of war
necessity, to politicalize industry.
More interested in politics than in
business, for which the head of the
administration confesses aristocratic
scorn, the aim has been to build up
the public payrolls and destroy the
private payrolls of the country. We
have had, as someone has well put it,
too much of politics in business and
too little of business in politics.
Out Of this chaos comes loudly the
call for the reconstruction hand of n
real business man; one who has ac-
tually wrought in the field of practical
business affairs. The answer for that
call is the Republican nominee for
President, Warren G. Harding, who,
in a typical American community,
built large and thriving business,
under adverse conditions, from the
ground up, and who, through years OF
actual contact with men and things
in the business world, knows what
business means and how it should
properly be conducted.
There is a world of theories and
words, and a world of things and
deeds. Too many protesting to be
statesmen dwell in the former, and too
often, charged with great responsible
ity, they make a mess of practical
affairs. Warren G. Harding is a
product of the school of practical ex-
perience; graduate of "the univer-
sity of hard knocks" The great bust
ness problems of government, now
foremost because of the oppressive
burdens of taxation, the vital neces-
sity of reorganizing the government
on business basis, and the immedi-
ate need of giving to American bust
ness enterprise and American agri-
culture and American labor the en-
couragement essentials to ward off
widespread commercial calamity as
the aftermath of war-these condi-
tons call for man in the Presidency
who in the world of practical affairs
has learned to deal with business
problems in a business way.
a nd sO in PpCnOpSn tO thiS i'm m o1i-