The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-19
HARDING BOARDS
 TRAIN AND TALKS
 WITH BEST MINDS
President elect Dodges Hun gry Republican Job- Hunters By Hurried Trip on Train.
 Preparing for Vacation
By ROBERT T. SMALL

Marion. O., January 1S.-(sreciaIo
 President-elect Harding's introduc-
 tion of novelty into his "best
 nsindv conferences by taking two-
 of these .'best mindsv and boarding
 . train for Cleveland with thcm.
 may be followed by the adoption of
 such . practic from time to time
 aurig his term in the White House.
 On the train the senator had m op-
 Rortunity to talk far more than
 three hours without interruption.
 There were no job seekers on .he train and no one waiting in the ante room. Former President William How ard Taft frequently used to take ad- vantage of train trip to hold some of his more important conferences and all ways contended that tne only real iso- Iation a chief executive could have was on a speeding "rattler.''
 Mfr. Taft often. would take several members of his cabinet with him when he would journey from Washington to New York or Boston and accomplish much public business while on the rails. On one occasion when Mir. Taft was making five days voyage down the Mississippi river from St. Louis to New Orleans he carried four members of his cabinet with him ana the whole state of the union waz discussed and digested.
 ~GUESTS" TAKEN ALONG
 Mir. Harding went to Cleveland to att tend to some personal business, and in order to catch the train had to inter rupt a particular busy lot of confer ences. The two men with whom he de- sired to spend the greatest amount of time were Charles Dewey Hilles, repub- lican national committeeman of New York, an dformer national chairman, and Will H. Hays. the present national chairman and prospective Postmaster General in the Harding cabinet. So he took them along bag and baggage. The plan proved 8 great success, and Mir. Harding had 8 most satisfactory time of it; He returned from Cleveland this morning
 MT. Harding, it would seem at this time, temporarily has put the business of Cabinet making aside. He is almost finally certain in his mind as to six of the more important positions, and is content that the other four should wait, for he will not make any announce ments until he is ready to name the en- tire official family just before the in- auguration. MT. Hays insisted yester- day that he knew nothing of Mir. Hard ing's cabinet plans. This was prior to the trip to Cleveland. After that trip the national chairman would not dis cuss the matter
 HUGHES BARS HILLES
 Mir. Hiiles undoubtedly would be a member of the Harding cabinet if 1t were not for the fact that the next Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, comes from New York, and it appears likely Mir. Harding will adhere to the old cus- tom, which forbids the selection of two cabinet officers from the same state To defy this old tradition, as Mr. Wilson did at times, would be considered in Marion as poor politics. MT. Hiles helped to conduct the Harding campaign as a member of the executive committee Of the national committed. He is man of particular fiber and is generally admired by the President-elect.
 As the time approaches for him to leave Marion for the south, MT. Harding is being deluged with invitations, all of which he has had to decline, or will have to decline, when he gets the time to write his regrets Most of the invita- tions come from Florida. but the only one the President-elect has accepted is to spend two weeks on the houseboat of Senator Freiinghuysen of New Jersey. After the houseboat jaunt is finished, MT. Harding will settle down, probably at hotel in St. Augustine. where his time will be his own and where he can catch up with the affairs which will accumu- late during the isolation of the voyage on the Indian river
 GOLFERS ARE URGENT
 A great many of the invitations have to do with possible stops on his way tc Florida or on the way north for the in auguration An invitation he particularly regretted to decline was to attend the Southern Tariff congress in Atlanta the last few days of the month.
 This invitation carried with 1t an op- portunity to meet at an informal din : ner many of the editors of southern snewspapers. Still more attractive was the inducement of golf game over one of the several fine courses in Atanta, with Miss Alexa Stirling and "BoDpy Jones forming one-half of a fine TOUT some.
 Miss Stirling is the youthful nationAi woman's champion, title she has heid for several years. and Bobby Jones was a semifinalist in the last amateur championship and stood second among the amateurs in the national open cham pionship won by Ted Ray at Toledo last fall. Atlanta is the particular home of e~lf;u~ ctarc and Mr Harding would