Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-29
HARDING BELIEVES
ECONOMIC ISSUES
WILL DECIDE VOTE
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Leased Wire Service to Tie JoGrnal.)
(CnnYright. 1923

Geased Wire Service to Tie JoGrnal)
Copyright, 1921
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla, March
27.-Assuming that President FIar-
ding is renominated in accordance
with Attorney General Daugherty's
prediction, what will be the issue?
This question has been propounded
in the presidential party again and
again since the political discussion
Of a week ago began.
Mr.. Daugherty says taxation will
be paramount. Former Governor
James M. Cox, Democrat, says it
will be the European economic sit
uation, and the Harding adQinistra-
TONS failure to help American farm,
ers and producers by supplying an
export market. William Jennings
Bryan thinks it will be special priv
iIege, the policies exemplifled by
ship subsidy and he adds a bellet
that Senator La Follette's charges
concerning the oil situation will play
a prominent part in the campaign.
President Harding himself is of
the opinion that the campaign will
turn entirely on economic issues. He
believes the electorate will be sway
ed in 1924, as it has been in the
past, on the question of whether
there is universal employment and
living wage. Rarely has it hap
pened that an administration or a
party in power has not succeeded
itself when the country was enjoy
ing a reasonable measure of pros
perity-this is Mr.. Harding's theory.
Analyses Vote of 1920
1t will be promptly suggested that
the defeat of the Democrats in 1920
after an unexampled period Of pros
perity would seem to be an eXcep-
ton to the political rule, but Mr..
Harding does not think SO. He has
often discussed the 1920 contest
with his friend and he has said that
if nothing else had crept into the
campaign apart from the prosperity
issue the result might have been dill
ferent. He thinks the accumulated
grievances growing out of the war
and the issues of reconstruction
were big enough to submerge the
question of prosperity in 1920. I'VE
want a change" of personnel was
the cutlery then.
What the president means, there
fore, is that ordinarily when there
are no extraneous issues, the domi
nant thought of the country is more
likely to be economic than any
thing else. In other words, he
looks for an old-fashioned kind of
campaign, the sort that is reminis-
cent of the Sound money" slogan
of 1896 or the cry of the full dinner
pail of 1900 and 1904 and the warn.
ing against ''rainy days" which the
electorate was urged to take to
heart in 1908.
Mr.. Harding is all the more i'm |
pressed by this line of reasoning be- |
cause of the universal enthusiasm |
with which the people generally |
seemed to greet the promised pro |
gram of a return to normally" |
which at the outset, he gave as the |
objective of his administration. This |
would make the 1928 issue some.
thing like this: HAS the country |
returned to normaIcy, and if not has
it progressed sufficiently along the |
road to warrant a change or a con-
tinuance of the same leader?"
The Democrats would take up the |
naturally by pointing to
the higher level of wages in the
years of the Wilson administration
as compared to the incomes of the |
workers in the last three years. To |
offset this, the Harding administra-
ton would attempt to prove that |
there has been a drop in the cost OF |
living.
PrOgressives Begin
Both Senator LaF'ollette, Of WIS
consin, and Senator Ladd, of North
Dakota, have already begun on eco
nomic questions, the one charging
that the price of gasoline will rise
through illegal combination of the
producers, and the other contendiEg
that the price of sugar is soaring
Secretary Hoover is
alive to the dangers of excessive oil |
and sugar prices, and Attorney Gen
eral Daugherty is keeping a watch
full eye on the probable prices Of
coal under the arrangements 10 he |
in effect next year between miners
and operators.
1t looks truly as if the high cost
Of living which played such promi-
nent part in sweeping the Demo
Gratis into power in the house of rep
in the middle of the
Taft administration and which help
ed considerably in putting the Dem
Ocratic party in power in the White
House as we'll as both branches of
in 1922, will be in the fore
ground once more in 1924. The Re
publican orators will eXhort the peo-
pie ito sit steady in the boat and
don't rock it., while the Democrats
will endeavor to tempt the electorate
Oy detailed Renaissance of "the
good old days of 1918 and 1919 I'm.
Ter Democratic rule"
f PEOPLE Draft Hard