Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-13
THE TOUGHEST JOB
WHEN man has been elected to

w idency of the United States he must
prepare to encounter an unprecedented and
highly colorful assortment of tribulatons on
the rough rond that leads from November to
March and from the tranquility of his own
fireside to the guarded seclusio9 Of the White
House.
The voyageur will have no useful guide
posts to steer by in dangerous areas. He
will be neither President nor private citizen.
Having lost the rights of one, he cannot yet
enjoy the saving privileges Of the other.
Many of the responsibilities of the Office for
which he is chosen weigh upon him, yet he
can have none of the help that Is needed to
sustain the burden. He will have no rest.
Though he might seek the farthest place in
the deepest wilderness for an interval of re-
taxation, there when he arrived he would
find vast committee Of his warm hearted
countrymen high hated and with banners.
For visiting President elect Americans
would find a band at the worlds end, and
they are never at loss for speaker. 1t
is a way We have.
So a man who yearns only to fish and to
relax his nerves is specched at all along the
route from happy obscurity to the most ex-
alted public Office in the world If he does
not speech back he is looked upon with
doubt. And when he does speech courteously
he is sure to be misunderstood. His way
is lined with snipers. Every word that he
may utter is seized. submitted to passionate
scrutiny in microscopic minds and held up
to changing lights by those who look to it
for hidden meanings. Meanwhile the prog
ress of the successful candidate proceeds to
the thunder of the feet of pursuing job
hunters.
Mr.. Harding went South for rest. He
is not having it. Every syllable of his
every speech is studied and turned about by
prophets and spectators here and abroad,
who are trying by that means to get a pri
vate view of his plans and purposes.
In his most recent address the senator said
| casually that the lives of American citizens
| who go abroad on lawful errands always
| should be protected. There is nothing revo.
| lutionary or strange in that assertion. 1t is
the sort of thing that every public man has
| said on occasions when 1t became necessary
| TO talk in familiar generalities. Yet there
were people who read into that simple sen
tence a veiled threat against Mexico. Had
the President to be said that Americans on
lawful errands had only debatable rights in
foreign countries he would have been ad-
yertised to the world as a revolutionary in
interpetional affairs.
Mr.. Harding said repeatedly that he has
not yet made up his mind in relation to thu
general question of his cabinet or the larger
questions of foreign policy. So the poll
ticians and a few of the special correspond
ents have instantly proceeded to make VI
lis mind for HMM print The job is at
tempted almost every day. One group ha
decided that the next administration will b.
reactionary. Another Is equally sure tina
| II will be radical and that Hearst, johnson
md Frank A. Munsey will form super
cabinet consecrated to a theory OF prou
isolation and unprecedented armament
Still another clique of seers has found some
thing in the stars to indicate that we sha'
slim peacefully into the League of Nation
without further delay.
What Mr.. Harding said before he wen
on what he thought was to be vacatio
was that he would make no important deci
sion until after he had an opportunity
obtaip the help and advice of the best
informed minds in both political parties.
Ia only fair TO assume that he was in earnest
and indeed there is nothing to indicate tha
he did not say exactly what he mean
Against the gossips and the snipers he ha
M defense. Were he now President
would not have to make impromptu speecht
In order to be polite. and besides, he woul
he able to talk with authority and under
standing of affairs that thus far are an
must be in other hands.
In reading the news from Texas the
days II is we'll to remember that there Is
. word in any language that cannot be
tpisted as to have new and startling mear
;nvs not contemplated by the casual speake
|