New-York tribune., 1921-01-11
Harding Tells Delegation
From Tennessee He Will
Name Kentuckian; May
Get War or Navy Post
Ohioan Slated for
Attorney General
Belief Strong That W eeks
Will Get Bakers Place:
Many Booms Punctured
By Carter Field

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.-A. r. Hert.
of Kentucky, will certainly be in the
Harding Cabinet.
Mr.. Harding himself gave this infor-
nation to visitors in the last few days
who were urging the appointment of
James A. Fowler. of Knoxville, Tenn,
as Attorney General. Mr.. Fowler was
Assistant Attorney General and later
assistant to the Attorney General, and
served during the latter part Of the
Roosevelt Administration and during
the entire Taft Administration.
Mr.. Harding's idea, as described by
his visitors, was that he had already
recognized the "Solid South" suffi-
cently by the decision to appoint Mr..
Hert. The Presidcnt-elect did not say
to what post he would assign the
Kentucky national committeeman, but
it is thought here that he will be as
signed either to the War or Navy De-
partment, and that ex-senator John W.
Weeks, of Massachusetts,, will have
the other service portfolio.
If Mr.. Weeks persists in his disin-
clination to take the navy post it is not
unlikely that he will get the War De-
partment and that Mr.. Hert will be
named as Secretary of the Navy.
Powerful support from the Senate Mill
tary Affairs Committee has been put
behind Mr.. Weeks for the War Depart
ment, and in the last few days promi-
nent Republicans outside of the SEN
ate have aided in the attempt to con-
vince Mr.. Harding that Weeks should
be Secretary Bakers successor.
Tennesseean's Boom Bursts
Definite decision of Mr.. Harding to
appoint Mr. Hert and his statement of
his decision as a Heason why he should
not appoint a man from Tennessee to
other booms which have been indus
triously initiating here and elsewhere.
There is now very little ground for
hoping that any one from the terri
tory south of the Ohio and Potomac
rivers will be in the Cabinet except
Mr.. Hert.
One Of the booms thus affected is
that for ex-senator Newell Sanders, of
Tennessee. Mr.. Sanders has been the
backbone of the Republican organiza-
tion in Tennessee for some years, and
the fact that he had a talk with Har-
ding when the President elect came to
Washington for the opening of Con-
gress gave rise to considerable gossip
that he would be put in the Cabinet.
This was given color by the fact that
Tennessee was the only one of the old
Confederate states which went for
Harding.
Another of the booms pricked by the
news brought back from Marion is that
Of A. Bascom Slemp, member of the
House from Virginia and Republican
National Committeeman. John M.
MOrehead, former member of the House
from North Carolina, is another South
erner whose qualifications for Cabinet
honors were being boosted, but who is
now eliminated.
Hcrt Loyal to Harding
There is no surprise here that Har-
ding should be willing to give Hert
anything the Kentuckian desired. Hert
was friendly to Harding's candidacy
from the first, though he was commit
ted to Lowdcn. When it was seen
during the last few days of the Chi
cago convention that Lowden could not
be nominated, because of the fear of
the delegates that the disclosures Of
the campaign expenditures committee
would be too much of load for him to
carry during the campaign, Hert be-
came tremendously important. He alb
solutely dominated the twenty-six Ken
lucky delegates. The Wood people. in
fConttnued on nssa three\