Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-08-31
EULOGIzES HARDING
CONTINUED From Page one)

earnest man whom we had chosen
for the greatest office the world
knows.
In our busy, intense struggle for
success we are given to looking al
men narrowly, selfishly with our own
microscopes. Is he placing chief en-
phasis on the things we severally
deem most important? Is he using
all his influence in the interests OF
organized labor or of the farmer or
does he fully grasp the importance OF
the success of big business? Is he
holding the railroads in check and
lowering freight rates or is his policy
such that the many thousands OF
small investors in railroad securities
will receive their little revenue from
the same regularly? Is he on the side
of the miner or operator in the coal
business? Is he for the factory man
or the farm hand? Can he reduce
taxes and at the same time increase
the salary of the friend of mine in
some federal office? If / went to
him would he give me an office in
the Treasury department, for l am
absolutely unable to earn a living at
anything else? Would he favor the
erection of postoffice at Jerusalem
Crossroads or spend a few million
dollars in dredging Skunk creek
where it crosses my forty-aere lot?
All these things are factors in the
judgment of friendly and unfriendly
critics of public men. Such petty
matters are the medium by which
some people measure a President,
and woe to him if he has sense
enough to tell us his business is to
care for the interests of 11O, 100000
people, of whom more than a hun
dred million have never thought in
unselfish terms of the American gov
eminent, only what they could get
out of it and never what service they
could be to their nation.
Mr.. Harding was inaugurated on
March 4, 1921. Never in the history
of the nation had there been such
crisis in national affairs. When
President Grant was inaugurated
our public debt was much less than
$4,000, 100000, and we had an an
nual interest charge of over thirteen
hundred million dollars. In 1921
we had Just passed through
war which in number of men en-
rolled, money expended, territory
covered, loss of property and life,
surpassed all the wars for centuries
combined. Practically nothing was
owed us by outside nations in 1868.
over 81, 1000 was owed us by
England, France, Italy, Belgium and
other combatants in 1921. This could
be charged off against the $4,000
600 900, to be sure, but to collect 1T
or any portion of it and to prevent
these debtor nations repudiat1ng
their entire debt was most delicate
problem of statecraft. 1t is not set
led yet, but as an adjustment with
England has been ratified the rest
will follow in due time. No nation
ever had $11, 00O,O0O,000 due from
other nations or third of that
amount, and more than all else at
a time when the value of exchange
had shrunken from the 20 per cent
of England to the 95 per cent of
and Poland and the utter
of all the Indebtedness
of Russia. Value of exchange means
the value of a nations currency or
money in comparison with some stan
dard.
Added to this was the wild orgy of
extravaganza on the part of millions
of our own citizens due to the in
crease of 100 to 800 per cent in
wages and the profits on merchan-
disc. There was also the graft and
greed necessarily attendant upon a
spending a billion and
quarter month for many of the
between 1917 and 1919.
This graft had been checked in the
years of 1919 and 1920 and the
expenditure very largely re
luced, but the effect still remained
and what would have been a panic
N 1921 was forstalled by return
If confidence Kindly note I am not
discussing the responsibility of the
Wilson administration for these con-
litions. They were inherent and in
,vitable in the vast preparation for
var in such short time.
President Harding was wise
enough to choose advisors and adj
officers of the largest
,alibre and back of them stood the
,alm, always friendly chief. l pre-
ume we will never know how much
Hughes, Mellon and Hoo
yer at least owed to his masterful
guidance.
It was eight years after the Civil
Var before the panic came. / ques-
ion if we fully recovered from it be-
ore the dark days of 1898. We have
many things to make right yet, but
here is no danger of a panic unless
ONE unforeseen complications arise.
When one takes a large view it seems
hat we are nearer normally than a
road visioned man could have ex-
'ected in fifteen years. A nation is
much like a person in that the shock
f an operation is often more serious
han the operation itself, takes long
r to recover from the shock than
he removal of appedix or tonsils or
THAT not. So, to recover from the
hook of a great war is more serious
han the bloodshed and destruction
f the war itself. In an estimate of
he results of Mr.. Harding's short
administration we should consider
his most carefully.
All that / have just said seems ]
tatistical. 1t has not been largely
onsidered in the newspaper esti-
hates of Presiden Harding. I ques-
On if some of our congressman have ]
lilly sensed it, but l tell you friends, |
D have held this nation so nearly 8