The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-05
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)
a Letter From Mr.. Harding.

are addressed to him or said about
him; but somebody has been good
enough to call my attention to your
letter in the Public Ledger of June
%. Most likely you do not expect
reply. because open letters usually are
closed incidents as soon as the vanity
of the writer is appeased; but there
was one phrase of yours so thought
fully helpful that want to make ac-
acknowledgement. A great many people
tell me what ought to be done, but
so few of them tell me precisely how
to do it. You have told me how to
reduce my golf scores. Now that is
very real and valuable advice. 1 am
going to try out your recommended
ton. and I hope I will not show you
up as q. faker in the result which at
tafns. If your recommendation works
out, will be SO grateful about it that
l will be asking you down to Wash
ington to witness the result of your
wisdom, and we will invite Ring
Lardner and some of his stuck-up as
sociates to come along and show them
how an Indifferent golf score can be
made a highly creditable one by
throwing away the driver and giving
100 per cent devotion to the brassey.
I have not thought it necessary to
reply to your remarks concerning the
WOIl0 SAIOdlAO1Is 1t
less of worry than some of our good
friends incline to bestow upon It.
WARREN G. HARDING.
We trust we have violated none of
the weil-known ethics in printing the
presidents letter. AS a rough, I'M
tutored son of the elemental middle
west; we have none too fine a grasp
on the ethics of any given situation.
But the city editor with whom we
discussed, as man to man, the pro-
priety of the thing encouraged us.
go ahead and print it, he said.
Nobody will believe you got letter
from the president; they'll think
you're kidding" Thus we were re-
assured, but not entirely convinced.
One picture persists in memory. 1t
is that of Theodore Roosevelt back
ing a covering reporter for the Kan
sas City Journal against the corner
of a corral at Sharon Springs and
telling him in no uncertain language
the grfevous error he had committed
in quoting a president of the United
States. And if you do it again." said
Mr.. Roosevelt, as he tempered the
wind to the shorn lamb, 81 shall be
very angry" OF course, the repor-
ter was a poor fish. He had the
story of the ages and he didn't write
a line about it. It was a thing to
look upon and weep. The poor fish
president of the United States. He
had been bawled out before a large
and conglomerate crowd consisting of
statesmen, correspondents, brakemen,
blacksmiths, cattiemen, loiterers and
peasants, and he didn't write a line
about 1t. But we digress. 1t is the
fault of those of us who have
reached the middle years that we find
our keeneSt enjoyment in talking of
the yesterdays. The point we wish to
make is that this is the first col
urnn to which a president of the
United States has contributed And
by the same token Mr.. Harding is the
first president to- make a column.
The thing that enthralls us about
Mr.. Harding's letter is his quasi
promise to give us a crack at Ring
Lardner, the big stiff. The president
does not know how nearly he struck
home in that light and airy jest. In
going on ten years we have induced
but two laughs from Adelaide. If she
has laughed once at this fellow Lard
ner she has laughed thousand times.
Anything he writes is good for a laugh
from Adelaide. She has even gone
so far as to insist that we read his
stuff, which is the browning insult.
And every time we do a piece of man
Sled English draped in the idiomatic
pecUliarities of Centerville Township
all over the country accusing US of
trying to initiate Lardner and won
dering why we are not loading cement
or operating a ferryboat on the Usage
river. That's the situation, Mr.. Pres
ident, in our own home and elsewhere.
May your game prosper beyond your
fondest expectations. For the one
boon we really crave is that of catch
ing this big stiff Lardner ION a good
eighteen-hole course and giving him
the trimming of his life. From what
they say of his game, it would be no
our self-esteem and give us talking
point, both at home and abroad.
Mostly, tho, we shall prize the pres
idents letter because 1t indicates the
tumult and the shouting have neither
ruffled nor fooled him. And he isn't
falling for any of the bunk" Most
reply because open letters are usual
ly closed incidents as soon as the van
ity of the writer is appeased-" No
man with such accurate judgment of
men and motives and so keen a sense
of humor will go far wrong in the
the administration of public affairs
from multiplicity of reasons. Ono
OF these reasons is a failure to under
stand men and motives and another is
the inability to turn a serene, untrou-
bled face toward the tapping of the
pack. Mr.. Harding apparently has
both of these faculties. at think it re-
quires less of worry he says In re-
ferring to a certain situation, "than
some of our good friends incline to
bestow upon it." In that sentence
Mr.. Harding expressed the cardinal
recipe for getting on in affairs-re-
straint in thought and language,
punctuated with a smile.
Norman Hapgood has been proposed
for membership in the Society of
Aching Hearts. The nomination must
take the usual course, but we are GER
tain concerning the action of the
Membership Committee that Mr..
Hapgood's card has been made out
and forwarded to him.
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