Omaha daily bee., 1921-06-05
Many Note
Versatility
OF Harding
Ability of Intense Concentra.
ton and of Quickly Trans
ferring Mind to Next Topic
Causes Comment.
Rail Question Paramount
BY N. 0. MESSENGER.

fCopyright 1921, by The Washington Starr
Washington, D. c., June 4.-(Spe-
cial Telegram. president Hard
ing's versatility in dealing with a
number of great questions of wide
ly differing import is noted and
commented upon by his official
family and others who come in con-
tact with the circumstances. He has
the power of intense concentration
upon the subject of immediate at
tention and of transferring his mental
grasp quickly and completely to the
next topic, although it may be as
wide apart as the poles in tenor
from the one last considered, while
he carries along the same effective
concentration.
He is regarded as fortunate in the
possession of this faculty. He would
be in bad way if he did not have it,
considering the fact that each cab
met member brings to him his own
particular troubles, varying from the
other fellows, and which to him,
naturally, are vastly more important
than any others.
In addition, he frequently energies
from cabinet meeting to take up
with congressman, with business
men, with hnanciers, or with rail-
road and labor men still another line
of public questions to which he must
apply his attention Immediately, to
the temporary exclusion of all other
subjects. His faculty in doing this
successfully commands the adn1ira-
ton of those who observe it.
Many Questions to Consider.
When one stops to consider the
public questions of first magnitude
which the president of the United
States has had to consider in the
past three months, the number
seems almost overwhelming and he
has had to consider them from the
viewpoint of at some time being
called upon possibly to render de-
Gliding verdict upon them.
1t is all very we'll to talk about
the constitutional limitations of the
chief executive, of his keeping with
in his own bailiwick, and, all tina.
sort of thing, but the fact is, and is
we'll recognized to be, that in recent
years the trend has been altogether
toward the country's leaning more
and more heavily upon him, while
at the same time insidiously. though
unquestionably, putting more power
iE his hands thereby.
This is being done by the people
themselves. In the past there has
been criticism that here and there a
president has himself sought to
grasp and exercise power beyond
the scope of his executive Office.
Whether that has been true or not
is question open to argument and
the pros and cons approached
through party and political avenues.
Democrats would deny that their
president had done so, republicans
averring to the contrary, and repub-
1icans for their part indignantly re-
futing such an irnputation against
their executive.
Submit to Executive.
But there can be no dispute of the
assertion that congress has at times
yielded, indeed volunteered, submis-
sion to the executive judgment and
will, and that the people. in times Of
great stress and uncertainty, have
turned appealing eyes toward the
White House with the demand that
the president Of the United States
whoever he might be at the time,
should take the lead. Only very re-
Gently the striking mariners prac-
tically offered to rest their entire
case in the presidential hands.
The number and magnitude of the
questions the president has had to
bend his attention upon are well
known to every reader and hardly
need rccapitulation, unless to recall
them in detail to mind. Not all, to
be sure, are subject to his decision
or final dictum, but to his review,
advice and suggestion.
The first big question and the one
most susceptible of yielding to. influ-
ence exerted by the chief executive
is the foreign policy of the United
States toward joining an interna-
tional association to preserve the
peace OF the world from unnecessary
aggression, President Harding in
dealing with this subject has had the
good fortune to please to gratifying
degree all shades OF thought upon it.
Not that he has been a trimmer, not
that he has been carrying water on
both shoulders, not that he has been
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