The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-16
ON SECOND THOUGHT

A Letter to Mr.. Harding.

ing you going on two years is that
you're a pretty good President, but
You might say you have not got no
party at all. Every time look at the
Republican Party today I think why
DID L waste all them tears when Jim
Blaine was defeated. 1 am perfectly
willing to let the tears I shed over
Mary Jane Holmes Tempest and
Sunshine" ride That was a lachrymal
disturbance there was some excuse
for. What I would like to do is go
out to Oregon where they have got it
and don't know what to do with it,
and exercise the referendum and the
recall on the tears have shed for the
Republican Party. 1t makes me think
of Charlie CuIberSOn. Charlie was at
the county seat serving on the jury in
a murder case. The night they locked
the jury up so they could maybe agree
on a verdict Charles wife run away
with the hired man. The neighbors
seen them leaving about O'Clock.
About 10 o'clock the same night
Charles barn burnt down and licked
up all his livestock, grain and agricul-
tNral implements. The only thing
that was saved was the grindstone.
The next morning a couple of the
neighbors went into town to break the
news to Charlie. who was still locked
up. They hated to do it, but some
body had to. Charlie wasn't what you
would call strong-minded at the best.
They were afraid the news would up
set him. But all he said when they
told him was. That's the most ridicu-
lous thing ever heard Of"
Well, Warren, the idea of me and
you belonging to a party with La
Toilette and Borah and johnson and
Brookhart and Capper and all that
outfit is ridiculous: I won't say those
But if they are Republicans me and
you are sun dogs. It's good deal
worse on you than it is on me. I don't
have to associate with them and am
not responsible for anything but the
column. But you have got to associate
with them, and they are some who
want to hold you responsible for them.
Say what you will, the Republican
postoffice address. For that matter.
neither is the Democratic, Party. The
only difference is that the Democratic
Party don't get much mail.
expect you seen IN the papers
where I am running Sam Blythe for
President. I want to explain that to
you. 1t don't mean 1 am not going to
be for you in 1924. Just between our
selves, I don't think Sam is going to
get very far. The dub golfers are all
scared of their lives. They are afraid
if they stand up for their rights no
body will say, you got a sporty
course here" The way come to start
President was this: L got mad because
they tore up the golf course. Hon
estly, Warren, you being the same
kind of a golfer 1 am, you should see
it. They are not a shot on that course
you can play without getting into a
trap or a bunker. Well, 1 got mad
about it and I said to myself I'll do
what every other citizen of this coun-
try does when they are something he
don't like. I'll start me a political
party of my own. 1 think it's as good
as any of the parties that has been
started lately, but am not over opti-
mistic about it.
When I first written you now nearly
two years ago, Warren, I give you
some advice. I told you what this
old wallop. Take a poke at them,"
I says. Those was my very words, or
approximately so. have been in poll
tics little myself 1t is all right to
or'let somebody do it for you, but after
the election what you want to do is
knock their heads together. 1t is the
only language they understand. They
say you are getting ready to implant
the old wallop, Warren, but you ought
to of started it sooner. This thing of
trying to be a gentleman is all right
in it's place but it won't get you any
where with the Republican Party. as
they call it. What 1 am afraid of.
Warren, is that you are taking the job
too seriously and letting it worry you.
have not seen you lately-I have
never seen you but twice-but in your
pictures you look as serious as an
editorial writer. You take an editorial
writer and let him get all worked up,
say, over the way the Navajo Indians
are being robbed of their birthrfght,
and he is the most serious looking
spectacle in the known world. Maybe
he never saw a Navajo Indian, or an
Indian of any kind. Likely he never
saw a birthright. But let him once
give contemplation to the thought that
the Navajos might conceivably. in
some remote contingency, be robbed,
and that makes him a cave of gloom,
flaming sword and pillar of fire.
OF course. he gets over it as soon as
he writes his editorial on account he
thinks him writing an editorial about
it will fix it. Now, don't say you are
as serious as an editorial writer. 1
Just say you look as serious as one,
and you can take it from me know
all the signs and symptoms because
1 have been an editorial writer and
maybe would be yet, only got a mis-
taken notion that it was easier to write
column.
If you can just get the idea Warren,
that nothing matters much or lasts
long and that they are>nothing funnier
than what Bert Taylor remarked was
the so-called human race, and that it
is funnier in Washington than any
where else in this country, you'll soon
lose that editorial writer look. You
take this Representative Knight from
your State and Adelaide's. 1 see
where he says the Republican Party
has got to be reorganiZed and took
back to Lincoln or something calam-
itous is bound to happen to it. To my
way of thinking nothing could happen
to the Republican Party that has not
already happened, but like Babe Ruth,
I am willing to leave that lay Ever
since 1 can remember somebody has
been taking the Republican Party
back to Lincoln, and look where
they've got it. But I never knew a
fellow who wanted to take II back to
Lincoln that wouldn't be out of a job