Evening star., 1921-03-04
PRESIDENTS GREATEST DESIRE
VIII TO HEAR WELL DONE" IN 1925
Close Friend Calls Him Genial and
Courtly, But Not Talkative-Never
- Promises the Impossible.

necessary to appear undecided about
this thing"
He said. Il am undecided. 1 may
appear SO. That is all right. 1t won't
be cheating. anyway
One learns from a thousand in
stances that Harding has a profound
contemp; for parade, for the device
he calls window dressing" and for
the product known to Americans as
bunkum.
Opponents have said Harding likes
to talk vaguely to audiences" He
likes to talk to audiences. but those
who have been at hand while he has
addressed great many hundreds OF
thousands of people in many places
know also that he likes to talk prin-
cipaIly because he finds in oratorical
expression a personal social pleasure
"a contact between his personality
and his hearers. Immense audiences
sometimes greet him. but there is al
ways a sense that he likes smaller
crowds better.
81 can get close to them" he says.
During the campaign it was always
difficult to make him remember that
his words would be read the next
morning by millions and that they
counted in a campaign: he was inter-
ested in the eighty people who had
come down to Kentucky railway
crossing. where upturned faces re-
sponded to his fine appearance. the
play of his voice. and his intense de-
sire to enter into them.
To them. as to every one. Harding.
with more care than most public men
one has ever known and liked. avoids
promising the unattainable or being
definite about the indefinite
will Not state Cure-Alls.
There would be nothing vague
ieh NJ H.
niteIy TO cut down the income tax or
make out of hand a sweeping reduc-
tion in the cost of living or to settle
all industrial troubles with one dose
of nostrum. Harding will not state
cure-alls. penaceas or quick and ex-
pedient convictions. \ man who Will
state them with a flourish. relying
upon the undoubted truth that the
public has a short memory. Will al
ways get the credit of being virile
and decisive: hut Harding says. NO
| won't cheat en-.
He likes cour:ly manners. almost
old ia shioned manners: he likes stately
words But he likes the courty
manners because they seem to him
to express the consideration and the
kindness he really feels toward even
those persons he does not understand.
he likes tnc "OTuS DeCduSS thcs
seem to him to express his sincere and
ardent disposition to transmit state |
of mind: he would not use phraseol-
ogy to conceal or diSsemble.
No one who has been close to him
fails to know that he is naturally
man who has remained humble and
has liked simplicity. 1t would be a
if he were to lose that charm
of his personality, for it is not only
q quality which invites peoples
affections. but il is a quality which
gives to him access to knowledge OF
the aspirations. and indeed the very
nature of parts of our population
with which a publisher who has come
from prosperous snail city to the
Senate is not yet familiar. Harding
has too great desire to represent
all the people to lose his humble SIM
plicity.
He comes to the presidency with
knowledge Of it's present
problems and increasing appreciation
OF how easily the greatest Of states
men might disappoint the lightly |
conceived expectations of a people in |
a state of readjustment. 1t il sound |
supposition that fle comes with a con-
viction. grown to full size during the !
campaign. that it is not SO much Of |
IN achievement to be the President
on March 4. 1921. but that it would
be a real achievement to have thesl
American people say to him on March |
:, 1925, We'll done"'