The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-03-07

thousands who stood in the sunlight of
vertiahle spring morning. peering through
the glass doors of the executive mansion
hoping to catch a glimpse of the new chief
magistrate and the first lady of the
land
For the first time since the cloudy days
of the war, the gates had been thrown
open and men, women and children
walked freely again in the grounds OF.
the White House. fingered beneath the
porticO as of old and felt closer to the
distinguished occupants of the executive
mansion, closer than ever before. That
phase of the new administration which
prompted Mr.. and Mrs. Harding to
throw open the gates seemed to fill the
air with a spirit of comradeShip which
the people of Washington have not felt
in many a day. 1t was not that the Will
sons meant to be distant. The White
House grounds were always open during
the first four years and were closed as a
precaution in the days when bomb throw
ing and ince1diarism destroyed many a
factory in America and even threatened
the capitol building itself, When Mr..
Wilson came back from Europe the
gruonds were kept closed because of his
breakdown in health and the desire to
keep curious eyes from the wheeled chair
which gave its distinguished invalid in
termittent outings.
President and Mrs. Harding had their
kinfOlks for breakfast and the sensation
of going about the White House. inspect
ing its many historic rooms and decora-
| tionS, its many luXuries and COnvenienceS,
was as natural as it was American.
| There was no Disgusting the pleasure that
was written in the joyful countenancc of
| Mrs. Harding who, from the start, has
wondered if she were dreaming or if it
We're really true that she would occupy
/ the White House. She has always told
| her friends that she was afraid something
/ ll ma of inf
| rupt. 1t was n woman's superstition
which was happily. dispellcd as she
| found herself in the sacred precincts
| where so many women have longed ant
will always long to be, there to WELD the
| scepter of social power which goes with
| the exalted position of the first lady OF
! the land
| Mrs. Harding, however. is not to be
mistaken for the kind of woman who
having reached an eminence, comes tC
look down on her former friends and aSSO
ciates. Rather, she is the woman who
will always try to make her friends fee
that being in the White House cannot and
will not change her. If she has any ambi
ton, it Is to prove to her friends that
she is still Florence King Harding. "a
they knew her in the social circle of tn,
senate, and still the companionabl,
woman whom the folks back in Marion
learned to love and admire.
The new president was happy to b.
able to show the White House to hi
aged father. No president in the mem
DRY of this generation has had that pc
cullar privilege, though no doubt many
president has wished with all his hear
that he might have shown his parent wha
he had achieved. Turning quickly from
the festivities of the executive mansion
! Mr.. Harding went TO his offices and sat a
the presidential desk there which has beer
unoccupied virtually since the war whel
Mr.. Wilson got accustomed to transact
ing business in his study in the Whit
House proper.
Herbert Hoover, secretary of commerce
was right on the job ready to talk busi
ness with President Harding. Nj
Hoover Is of a nervous Temperament
which likes to get at things without fus
4 or ceremony and without delay. He ha
a long conference with the President prf
B sumably about the affairs of the depart
4 Inent of commerce. which is to be reoI
gained. Henry Wallace. secretary C
agriculture dropped in to pay his RI
4 spectS and to urge that the present aSsis
tant secretary be promptly appointed t
! succeed himself until some other arrang,
4 ment could be made.
Indeed, the task of the next few day
Is largely OF routine character. TIL
transition between the old and new az
mInistratiOn Is carried on largely by a,
4 sistant secretaries and under officials VIII
must keep the wheels of government goin
until the cabinet secretaries are familia
with their new jobs. For instance. i
handling foreign relations, cablegrams an
L. kilograms of vital Importance come i
during every hour of the dIay and nigh
and the senate confirmed Norman Davi
as under secretary of state knowing tina
the latter will resign soon but wishin
nevertheless to have an experienced of
n clal to sign messages in the name of til
Z United States government Mr.. Davi
has for several weeks been carryin
y things forward conserving America
rights and refraining from any actio
that might commit the new secretary {
state to any policies which he might late
on be unable to change
J The government has passed into ne,
hands, willing hands, eager hands, el
| thuSiastic for service. The desire to max
a record and win the plaudits of hun
dred million people is a. stimulus whic
cannot be described. It must be oil
served to be appreciated and Ware
Harding has started earnestly, hopeful
and pOnSclpnt " m. Nx-;Y, hot