Evening journal., 1921-03-04
Nv RAYNTOND CTAPPFR

Omitted Press staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON, March 4.-"No-
body made Warren Harding-he
made himself"
with eyes flashing Indignation at
what she believed to be an attempt
to belittle her husband, Mrs. War
rem G. Harding snapped out these
words to me as she stood in her
front yard out in Marion, Ohio, one
morning last fall.
The campaign was at its height.
Stump speakers were painting the
Republican presidential candidate
as a puppet going through a public
performance that was manipulated
from behind the scenes by clever
politicians.
Mrs Harding, accustomed as she
was to the open fighting OF a hot
politician campaign, could not re-
strain her resentment under what
she earnestly felt was a gross injus-
tice to the man at whose side she
had struggled beginning back in the
days when she was circulation man
ager for her husbands newspaper.
The new President and his wife
are today at the zenith of a career
that has consisted largely of hard
work AS boy Harding painted
barns for farmers living in his
neighborhood in Morrow county,
Ohio. As young man he subbed
on the old Marion Democrat and
, was fired for being too outspokenly
Republican in his politics. Early
middle life found him struggling
with his own little newspaper, try
ing to squeeze a living out of it.
In those days Mrs. Harding, daugh-
ter Of Amos King. Marion's rich
man, spent her days at the news
paper office. She managed the news
boys, counted the papers off Of the
press for them, collected subscrip-
ton money and kept a sharp eye
out for new business. She is a hus-
tier by instinct and as a girl in
sisted on earning her own pin money
by giving piano lessons.
Then Harding was elected to the
state Legislature. became lieutenant
governor of Ohio, was defeated for
governor. ran for the U. S. Senate
and came back and today enters the
White House as the twenty-ninth
President of the United States.
So Mrs. Harding who had seen
her husband toiling through these
years could not bear to have him
robbed Of the credit she felt was
due him.
But their success has not made
them proud. There is a simplicity
ia President Harding. He is a plain
man from a small middle western
town, who considers his rise In the
world due more to hard work than
to genius or brilliancy And he
goes into the White House feeling
that way about himself.
"The country has been almost
wrecked by great men, he said,
talking to some of his friends one
night recently. Il believe the world
needs good old-fashioned horse sense
now, more than it ever did before
and II / can bring some of that
good sense TO bear on our problems
l believe I will have made a gem
uine contribution to the country's
welfare"
That is the frame OF mind in
which this man from Ohio passed
through the White House doors to-
day and took up one Of the most
difficult jobs in the world. II is that
/ frame of mind which sometimes
causes people who do not understand
/ him to say he is weak and uncer-
! tain of himself. But his advisors
/ know better than that.
Don't you ever think Harding is
weak" one OF them said. His ef-
/ fort TO keep an open mind TO hear
all sides OF a question to give every
man an opportunity to state his case
may sometimes appear to his own
| disadvantage"
The inside history Of the cam
paign and the selection OF the cab
met disclose several instances of
| Harding's firmness once his mind
has been made up.
During the campaign Harding was
l closeted all OF one hot summer day
in an upper room of his headquar-