Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-04-21
HARDING IN
POSITION OF
PARTY BOSS
President Is Expected
to Continue
Role.
GET THINGS DONE
Seems to Be Purpose
of Man i'm White
House.
Special to Indiana Daily Times
and Philadelphla Public Ledger.

by r REDEhAO WILLIAM VILE.
WASHINGTON, April 21.-Republican
party leaders in conference at Washing
ton this week are q unit in declaring
that President Harding's resumption Of
party leadership has had an electrifying
effect throughout the country. They re-
fer to his successful captaincy of the
fight IN the House of Representatives
against the pacifst -reductiOnist attack on
naval appropriations.
The Presidents stand for q treaty
Navy and on the bonus bill are the best
things he's done in q long time was the
way a Republican organization leader of
national renown expressed himself.
Apparently the expectation Is wide
spread that what Mr.. Harding now has
begun In the direction of party com
Inander in chief. he will not abandon
o. o. P. managers are convinced tns
country, the Republican party and even
he recalcitrant majority in Congress ara
-eady for the kind of big stick" the
present occupant of the White House
knows how to WELD. They are in no
fear President Harding will try strong
am" methods. They declare he doesn't
have to. But they are quite as positive
that the time has come when Mr.. Harding
aust give up his temperamental disin-
clination to coerce and do some genuine
leading.
FELLOWS IN STREET
sEAIAND ACTION.
The organization captains-the fellows
who are In Main street somewhere every
day. or whose business = is TO hear from
Main street-insist that the .tuff Hard
ing gave EN-" last week, on the occasion
Of the naval personnel victory, is what is
wanted, and wanted badly. II is con-
fdeutly asserted, for example, that if the
President viii do for an adequate Army
what he has just accomplished for an
adequate Navy, he viii command as solid
support in Congress and outside as was
vouchsafed him when the naval appro-
priatiOn bill went TO its final passage.
Mr Harding thinks a minimum strength
for the Army is $50, 900 as against the 49,
900 which the Pacifst- reductionist clique
eapouses The same element that fought
the treaty navy" now have massed forces
against the Army which Secretary Weeks
and Generals Pershing and Hartford rec
ommend. They are not likely to find Mr..
Harding friendly to their theory that the
national defense act with its provisions
for citizen training threatens to turn
America into an armed camp"
Republican leaders, as the 1922 cam
paign approaches, are finding that Presi-
dent Harding Enthusiastically is the
party's strongest asset. They are per
come an even more potent asset If he
sdheres to the policy of constructive
party captaincy. The country Is in
pretty sore headed mood on num-
Der Of political issues. the leaders are
finding The bonus" is as unpopular
VITA the business community as n fnan-
cisl panic. There is a bitter clamor for
action on the tariff bill. regarding what
the commercial world thinks there has
been unnecessary dillying and dallying
Taxpayers, large andSsman, are dissp-
ppointed that there has been no larger
measure of relief for them IN any OF the
proposed revenue legislation.
NATION DISPLEASED
WITH POLITICAL ROW.
Another thing that the President Is
hearing from his political lieutenants IS
that the Nation is seething with discon-
tent over chronic chaos in the internal
revenue division OF the Treasury Depart
ment. 1t is difficult to make business
men, firms and corporations believe that
after thirteen months Of the Harding
Administration the Republican regime is
not to blame for the continuing disorder
in internal revenue affairs.
The party managers are being called
upon TO explain the why and wherefore
of it. That situation is at the bottom
of the threatened "upheaval" In Commits
sioner Blair's bailiwick
As Republican strategists view the
political battlefield. they see the Demo
cratic host disorganized. as 1t has not
been for many years. Wilson -Tumulty-
Cox Reed McAdoO dissension with all the
issues and side issues Herewith assOci-
ated. are visualized as compromising for,
if not entirely wiping out, the inter-
.
and there. It Is because the enemy is be-
lieved TO be shot to pieces" that Repub-
lican managers are anxious for rank
closing, aggressive leadership in their own
camp. They profess to be convinced that
President Harding in the chaotic condi-