The Washington times., 1921-06-20
POLITICS IS NOW
|. UPON HONEYMOON
IN WASHINGTON
Hapgood Finds Period of Good
Will for Administration
Pronounced.
By NORMAN HAPGooD

The honeymoon" in Washington
discourse, means that period OF good
will for a new administration In
which there Is comparatively little
opposition. In the case of the pres
ent administration the honeymoon"
has been rather more pronounced
than usual.
One reason for this more pro-
nounced honeymoon" has been the
feeling of all factions and parties
that the problems confronted were
40 ominous that opposition enough
would come out of the complicated
facts.
Another reason was the enormous
majority of one party in the election,
in the Senate and in the House. This
tidal wave made the Democrats so
helpless that there was in reality
nothing more effective for them TO
do except to wait.
Democratic opposition cannot
mean anything for a long time. The
only opposition that can matter is
Republican. In my opinion .he SYM
pathy of the general public is still
overwhelmingly with Mr.. Harding
and his Cabinet, so that the rumb-
lings that are just now heard inside
ent threat to the Presidents con-
troll
Just before Tilden went to Europe
to see what he could do for American
tennis he and three other experts
played on the white House court for
The entertainment OF the President
During the contest the Presidents
adopted dog. Laddie, dashed onto the
court and prevented Tilden. johnson,
williams, and Washburn from going
on with their game.
The President endeavored to recall
the dog, who paid no attention to him.
The man standing next to me OBJ
served:
'Iaddie obsy about as we'll as SEN
ator Borah.'
At that time. only a few weeks ago,
Senator Borah was about the only Re
publican who was taking his position
altogether independently of the wishes
OF the Administration. Practically all
OF them were waiting. partly for the
end OF the period of general good will.
but more especially for the appoint
ments, particularly the postmasters,
to be made.
Probably there Is one custom that
degrades our politics more than the
one that has grown up Of having the
Presidents appointments passed OF
not by the Senate as whole and i'm
partially but by the Senate or Sem
ators representing the party in the
particular State where the appointee
resides.
When the clause was put in the
Constitution that the appointments
should be confirmed by the Senate
what was sought was a check on bal
appointments. One OF the worst
usurpations of the Senate was build
ing up n system, In place OF the one
Intended. by which the Federal ap-
pointments could be used as political
plunder to strengthen tho machine
by the individual Senators.
II you read the papers carefully
you will observe that when Senators
growl over appointments made by a
President of their own party. IL Is
rever because the appointee is below
STANDARD. IL Is always because II
some local factionsl division.
whether or not Senator I,odre was
peeved because the President seIeotea
Harvard professor for a technical
position on Hoover's recommendation
las has been asserted and deniedl the
very idea of necessarily consulting a
Senator in such a case Is ridiculous
Yet under our system Il Is natural
Senator Lodge is due for a desner-
ately hard night next summer. wben
he comes up for reelection.