Cleveland County herald., 1921-05-26
MIR. HARDING MARKS TIME

WlthnndraWaI ot the AdmlnlStfaClOn opposition in the Senate to the Borah naval-holiday amendment is anything more than an adriot parliamentary maneuver.
 Mir. Harding changes his mind and shifts his position so frequently that nobody knows where he stands on the disarmament question. One day he is mildly and benevolently in favor of it with reservations, and another day he is making an old-fashioned "by-theEternal' speech to the navy. One day he protests against the Borah amendment as an unwarranted invasion of the Executive powers, and another day world is passed around in the Senate thhat the Ad- ministration does not care to make an issue when the question comes to vote.
 In the mean time there is also the House to consider, and MT. Harding's s control of the House is much more l sure than his control of the Senate. The President was not enthusiastic about the Knox resolution at the time it came to vote in the Senate, but he kept his hands off and then held it up in the House, where it is still waiting his convenience.
 Much may happen to the Borah amendment before the Navy Appro- priation Bill as amended by the Sen- ate has run the gantlet of the House and the conference committee. The essential fact in regard to this whole controversy is that the President has shown little interest in the matter of disarmament, regardless of popular sentiment and equally regardless of the warning words of his own Secre- tary of the Treasury, who has to de- wise means of raising the money that is spent so lavishly for military pur- poses.
 MT. Harding has never actively op- posed disarmament conference and has allowed it to be known that he will take up the question with the AL terest in the matter. Plainly it is lies, but he has displayed no real in something that makes no strong ap- peal to his sympathhies, and in so far as he is pushed along by economic pressure he seems to be going un- willingly. It is evident that an ag- gressive attitude on his part would command the instant support of tax ridden country which cannot under stand why it should spend $750,000- 900 more on armament for 1922 than it spent in 1916, when nearly all Eu- rope was at war, but MT. Harding re- mains languid and lukeWarm, never straightforward and unequivocas
 It is yet to be shown that even if negotiations for disarmament are au- thorized by Congress he will enter whole-heartedly into a conference with the other great powers. These inferences may be wholly unjust to MT. Harding, but they are certainly sustained by his record as it now stands.
 The President could easily make his position clear, and there are no foreign problems that make clarity inexpedient. The rigid limitation of competitive armament does not cut across any other question of foreign relations of which the country has knowledge, and it is at the basis of the most important economical issue with which the Administration has to deal.
 Why MT. Harding chose to mark time is a political mystery for which no adequate explanation has been advanced. If the recent events inthe Senate indicate a change of purpose on the part of the President, 1t IS change that is altogether creditable to him and one that he will have no cause to regret.