Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1921-03-16
wEDNESDAY, MARCH l6, le9l.
Personal Appointments

I L. ii be recorded that Tho first serious
l. criticism which has been visited upon
President Harding since his inauguration
did not proceed from enemy sources. 1t
did not arise from partisan Democratic in
terest. 1t came straight from Republican
members OF the United States Senate. and
from the Old Guard group. at that.
The nomination of DR.. Sawyer. old and
faithful friend of the Hardings, TO be Il
acknowledgements in the army, aroused Re
publican leaders. and although executive
sessions OF the Senate are presumed to be
secret and sacred, they are neither. The
debates tina, take place behind closed doors
of that body usually are accurately reported
in ali the papers. and the Republican con-
ment upon the Sawyer appointment proved
to be no exception.
Mr.. Harding's party associates could find
no excuse for the commissioning Of DR..
Sawyer, and they plainly said as much. To
take this highly respectable country doc
tor from civil life and elevate him at a
single throw to tho rank of IL brigadicr-
general in the regular army appeared to
them 10 be n remarkable act of the adj
ministration, and while most of the Re
publican Senator'S felt under the necessity
OF voting for the confirmation. they let
1t be clearly understood that they voted
with distinct reservations.
Perhaps the Senator'S who voted for the
Sawyer confirmation with the least satisfac-
ton, public or private, were those Repub-
licans who had eXcoriated Woodrow Wilson
when that gentleman ycnturcd. a few veal RS
EGO, to promote Past Assistant Surgeon Cary
T. Grayson. of the United States Navy. TO
be a rear admiral III the Naval Medical
Corps. This. too. was a personal appoint
ment, although officially v it was insisted that
DR.. Grayson had earned his new rank by
distinguished seryiccSt. i.
Mr.. Wilson was Widely ccnsured for this
mark OF fayoritism toward his personal ply
stefan, but nowhere more bitterly assaiIed
than on the Republican side OF the United
States Senate. And ii is an interesting
fact that john W. Weeks. then a Senator
from Massachusetts, and now Secretary of
War, led the fight against the confirmation
or DR.. Grayson as a ranking officer of the
navy. Mr.. Weeks happens at the moment
TO be the man who discovered a means OF
recruiting a brigadier-gencral from civil
life and who prepared DR.. Sawyer's com
mission.
Much was said during the recent cam
paign OF the "old-fashioncd administration"
which Mr.. Harding would give the country
II he should be elected. Standards of other
days would he returned to, we were
promised. Ways and means OF transactipc
the nations business which had been aban-
5dcned by President Wilson would he re-
sy!yed and the American people would be
treated 10 an old, yet new. lavor in admin
istrative procedure.
Perhaps the Sawyer appointment is a sam
pie OF the old-iashioned processes. II il
IDS, and II 1t rs a forerunner OF other incl
dents OF like character. the strict construc-
stionists OF the Senate are in for an nm
happy time. VIII they fight this sort of
thing, or viii they become mere apologists
Tor the man in the White House?