The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-23
A Timely Editorial
Harding and l024

what Tor the present may DC Ca' ken as the official announcement that President Harding will be q candidate for reelection was made Saturday afternoon in Miami by Attorney General Daugnerty. This supplements the recent predictions made by Secretary Hoover and by Senator Watson of Indiana. Their forecasts lacked the ring of author ity. The statement of Harry Daugh. erty vibrates with authority when he comes off the presidential house. boat, the Pioneer, and says:
 The president will be a candi-
 date in 1924. You may be sure
 of that. -. The president will
 have no opposition for the nomi-
 nation. There is no other candi-
 date except one who always runs.
 He will be renominated and re-
 elected because the party and the
 country will demand it.
 The announcement may be SC. down as the result of the first two weeks of the "Cruise of the Pion. eer." The president has had { chance to think things over. He had very hard summer, In mid. winter things were rather gloomy congress was as obdurate as a Mis- souri mule. The memory of No. vember, 1922, ranked. Washing. ton was full of lame ducks. Mrs Harding was very sick. The skies of Washington were gloomy and g malign influence seemed to brood over the place. Tie president good friend, Harry Daugherty, was ill. The weather was evil.
 The administration is feeling much better now. President liar. ding's nerves have been laundered and starched by soft sea breezes and warm Florida suns. Physically rested and mentally freshened, he feels now that he can wrestle witt the sixty-eighth congress and walk on into the 1924 campaign. Mrs Harding's health has been big fac. tor in the decision and she is great. ly improved. Harry Daugherty is almost himself agam.
 The announcement at Miami will further deflate a number of presi- dential balloons that have been shrinking slowly since the Hoover prediction and the Watson speech, The candidate of the conservative section of the republican party has been picked. As the attorney gen. eral sees it, President Harding will enter the national convention un- opposed except for Senator LaFol- lette, "who always runs." The "un- written law" that president is en- titled to try for second term holds. To refuse the president will mean that the republican party is repu- diating a republican administration and, therefore, it's own record.
 The announcement at Miami must be taken at it's face value; and vel that decision will not be clinched and riveted until midsummer Pres ident Harding will cross the mid west, the great plaina. the mountain west and the west coast twice be- fore the leaves turn. He will make a score or more speeches, many of them in the beart of 1022's insur- gency. A stethoscope will be ap- piled to the country across the AL leghenies. Its political blood-pres- sure will be taken and it's heart beats counted. The president will listen to the growing of the grass roots and measure the depth of the political creeks. He is an old cam paigner, wise in winds, tracks and signs.
 Then, if all seems we'll and the political signs seem right, the Daugherty announcement will stand and be supplemented. If not, well, the announcement was Harry Daugherty's. after all.