Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-08-29
OUR PRESIDENTS
WORK TOD HARD
PEOPLE SHOULD INSIST THAT
THEY MUST NOT OVERDO
AND THUS BREAK DOWN.
VICTIMS OF IDEAS OF DUTY
Wilson Paid the Penalty With Illness
and Harding With Death, and Prob
ably Roosevelt's Life Was Shortened
by Twenty Years.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

BY EDWARD 3. CLARK
Washington. When the news
reached Washington that President
Harding was dead the officials of the
government asked question which has
been asked before: Twill the Amerf-
can people ever come to the point of
insisting that their chief executives
shall not work themselves to the
breaking point?"
Leaving out all question of sorrow
and sentiment, the United States gov
eminent suffers when it's chief execu-
tive is incapacitated, and it suffers
also when the presidency through the
death of a chief executive passes to
another man. Everything is disrupted,
temporarily at least, and the govern
ment ceases for a time properly to
function.
1t was known long ago that Presi-
dent Harding was overworking, just
as it was known that Woodrow VIII
son was overworking, and in an older
day that Theodore Roosevelt was over
working.
Woodrow Wilson was stricken on a
western trip when he was laying the
cause Of the League of Nations before
his fellow countrymen. He had borne
the stress of wartime troubles and
the hardships of European negotiations
which he undertook in person. On
top Of this he insisted, against the
or xyin Of ~; f,,so +nI,
ing the platform in America in behalf
of the cause which he had at heart.
Paid the Penalty of OVERRIDING.
President Harding had not only the
troubles Of an administration beset
with difficulties consequent on the war,
but he met with unusual domestic pol
icy difficulties because Of disagreements
with some of the leading members of
his party. The Presidents trip to the
South in the spring did him good, but
even that trip in a way was a working
trip. In the heat Of the summer he
started on a long journey, one of the
hardest journeys ever undertaken by
a president of the United States. He
paid the penalty of OVERRIDING.
Every president Of the United States
seemingly feels that he ought to carry
message to the people two or three
times at least during his administra-
ton. The idea of the presidents has
been that they must give an account
of their stewardship and that the peo-
pie expect it of them. In view of what
happened to Woodrow Wilson it is
the feeling of Washington officials that
the country readily would have under
stood and have approved of a deter
mination on Mr.. Harding's part that
he would rest rather than travel.
A few weeks before he left for the
Northwest President Harding told the
newspaper correspondents here that
he believed he could get a much bet
ter understanding of what was neces-
sary for the rehabilitation Of Alaska if
he should make a tour of personal
study and observation He felt that
the Alaska trip was duty and he,
like other presidents, felt also that
he ought to visit his constituents in
the various states. What some of the
government officials hope is that in
the future presidents may come to be-
lieve that their duty to the administra-
ton as an administration is paramount
to any duty which will tax strength
and imperil life.
Roosevelt Seemed TireIess.
Theodore Roosevelt was a great
traveller and a great worker. Seem
ingly he was tireless; there was no
holding him. After he left the presi-
dency he went at once to Africa and
there suffered hardships. He was a
glutton for more hardships, and the
majority of people think that South
America killed him. He lived to the
age Of sixty. With his constitution he
probably ought to have lived to the
age of eighty and probably would so
have lived if he had not been an apostle
Of the gospel of constant work plus
recreation which in his case was also
work.
William II. Taft as president trav-
eled more than any other chief execu-
tive in the history of the United States,
but Mr.. Taft was an easy traveller. He
made all his work easy. Tempera-
mentally he was different from any
presidents Of modern times. If be had
not been the difficulties and disappoint-
ments that he met as president, plus
his strenuous travelling, probably
would have prevented him from being
physically fit to occupy the high po-
sition that he holds today.
Probably no American excepting one
who lives, so to speak, on the spot,
realizes the work that falls to the lot
of every president Of the United States
even in times of ease from worry over
great governmental problems. Every
hour of the presidents working day is
filed. People who have no business
to see him insist on seeing him. lie