The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-24
GILBERT GIVES HIS
 IMPRESSIONS OF
 HARD|NG'S SPEECH
Everything Staged to Bring Back Reminders of Re-
 publican Days Gone
By CLINTON ". GILBERT

Marion, O.. July 2S-(Special) )--Warren Gamaliel Harding-one uses the middle name because it is part of the picture was formally notified yesterday of his nomination to the presidency with the perfect background of his own home town, with his neishbors taking part in the show as they would in old home week or in farmers picnic.
 What you saw all about him was America-Amerca as it was, some would say, and the master of the ceremonies gave little touch of archism with the marching clubs wearing white high hats or the perspiring paraders from Canton clad as in 1896 in black silk hats and. the long-tailed coats affected by under takers. occasionally known as Prince AL bert. But it was America as it is. leav- ing out the 1896 stuff, for Lawrence, Kan, Cedar Rapids, Ia, Loganport, Ind, and thousand other small towns and cities are exactly like Marion.
 It is an America of well-kept lawns. shady streets. prosperous. respectable. al- most untouched by modern industrialism. with no congested population where the struggle between men is not bitter, where life is simple and from the point Of view of New York, Chicago or PhiladeI- pEia, little Arcadian. but an America well worth preserving.
 MT. Harding has his roots in Marion. He has lived there most of his life, only becoming a senator in recent years. He las prospered there moderately, not hav- ing the commercial ambitions of his rival. who, starting with nothing, felt the sharp stimulus of industrial Dayton and made himself very rich while still a young man. He lives in simple house on a modest street. It is the best residence street n Marion, but still it is a mod est street. The houses upon it are frame houses such as persons of modern in- comes would occupy except here and there a pretentious brick house built by some maker of steam shovels or other product which Marion has recently come to manufacture.
 The candidates house Is frame house of not particular architecture such you would find thousands of in small cities of the country You go along the best residence streets of such towns and you see a house little larger than oth- CTS with a rotunda at one end of the porch. You know at once by this elabora- ton that it is the residence of one of the leading citizens It is not big house. the Harding house having ten rooms but the rotunda at the right end of the porch marks it off from the rest of the houses on Mount Vernon street. which have only straight porches across the front
 It is painted dark green, trimmed with white Maple trees and one horse chest nut shade the lawn, which has been cov- cred two inches deep with road dressing stone to stand the wear and tear Of the front porch campaign.
 From the steps of this front porch Mir ,tI ,fr,y o1y y1pfi H. cation ceremonies in the afternoon, greet ed the marching clubs which arrived.
 The Americas Club of Pittsburg came early -aring capes in spite of the neat and high white hats, which were handed down from the Blaine campaign; the Canton Club in the formal frock coats eand high hats of the Mckinley days, the struggling Detroiters who come from an upstart town and don't know the fine traditions of uniform and marching pre- served in Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Canton and other places with memories gong back to the eighties.
 MT. Harding shook hands and acknowl- edge cheers and applause till he was tired smiling and saying graciously, Glad to meet YOU, boys" When Mrs. Harding stood on the steps beside him he said: ..i am glad to have you boys see the head of this household in the good old-1asn- toned way, unconscious of how many
  The boys replied :"The next first lady or the land" falling into the good on Amer icanism. It was an affair between neigh- Lcrs and the actual neighbors of the can didate stood about outside the ropes which were there merly to reserve the crushed stone covered lawns for the pa raders. the national committeeman watching what happened proudly, sympa- ttet.cally, middle class people, quite sim nlv. almost rurally dressed
 And the speech of acceptance oenVereu ,, the afternoon at Garfield Park was in perfect harmony with that back ground. It was the speech of a man wno Inows America in some of it's kindliest. most lovable aspects and who wants .o teen America what it vas. what ne rrnvs if to be today What the people of Emporia, Kan. Canandaigua. N. r. and a thousand other towns Ike Marion' know it to be.