Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-08
HARDING REALIZES
CONGRESS INJURED
REELECTION CHANCE
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal
(CoDVriphf 1909

| ORMOND, Fla, March 6.-PreS1'
| dent Harding had his first day of
retrospective thought on the trip
down here, the first twenty hours
| away from official routine since last
summer. Half of Mr.. Harding's first
half term is a matter Of history,
but inseDarably associated with those
| two years is the conclusion that the
second half of the administration
really will decide whether President
Harding will have an opportunity
| Of reelection.
The president has no illusions
about the status of his administra-
ton in. the eyes Of the public. His
many years in politics have taught
him self-appraisal. He knows even
better than the critics who have
just finished a microscopic analysis
of all the water that has gone over
the dam since Inauguration day what
impression each act of his admin
istration has made. His newspaper
| experience, which it's perennial dag
nosis of public ills, has enabled him
to look somewhat impersonally at
the whole political situation as it
concerns him.
The president would chart the
curve of his administration abruptly
downward for the autumn months
following, of course, the simultane-
Gus outbreak Of rail and coal
strike with the many effects of each
on industry and the household. Since
then the struggle has been to bend
the curve upward again.
In Lap of Congress
The political fortunes of the presi-
dent, to a large extent, were in
trusted to congress, which body had
the chance to increase or diminish
the prestige Of the Repubncan
partys chieftain.
Probably the last in the world to
blame anybody else or shift respon-
sibility for his own political mis-
haps is Warren G. Harding. But
he doesn't need to point to the Ill
effect which congress has produced
by it's lack of teamwork with the
executive. Members of his own
party are doing it for him.
Hardly a man of the so-called adj
ministration group in the senate and
house will contend that congress
has Increased the political prestige
of the president. Rather do they dis
| cuss among themselves how much
damage has been done by the lack
of cooperation.
The defeat of the ship subsidy bill
was a bitter pill to swallow. Not be-
cause of the merits Of the proposal
itself, but because it proved that a
Republican president with a big ma
jority in both houses could not get
the passage of a bill sponsored as an
administration measure. If America
had a parliamentary form of govern
ment and Mr.. Harding were prime
minister he would be joining Mr..
Lloyd George in that Wilderness
where premiers go when they can
not get vote of confidence.
Mr.. Harding feels, however, that
his party had the votes, but that the
Democrats, by virtue OF the senate
rules permitting unlimited debate,
killed the shipping bill.
May Be His Defense
This will be his defense. 1t will
serve to answer attacks on the
stump and to feed fuel to the flames
of campaign oratory when the record
Of the administration is under fire
in 1924. But there is another SEES
sion Of congress coming when the
margin will be operative unless Mr..
Harding and his lieutenants discover
an effective way Of dealing with re-
volt inside the party.
Whatever reflection one may in
dulge on the events of the last two
months, whatever explanation may
be made by the individuals who dis
like to look at adverse facts, the
truth is the much-dreaded insurgen-
cy which destroyed party solidarity
in Mr.. Taft's administration has
raised it's menacing head again.
Congress has gone from Wash
ington for nine months, but in it's
wake is left trail of experiences
which furnish the key to the fu-
ture. Attempts at leadership have
not been lacking. What, for in
stance, was the purpose of naming
Senators Lenroot, of Wisconsin, and
Wadsworth, of New York, to be
floor leaders if not to substitute the
vigor of youth for the veteran
membership Of a steering committee
which found itself failing to func-
ton at critical moments?
Senator Lodge has been through
a severe trial in the last four years.
His efforts to reconcile conflicting
factions have been unavailing. No
leaders have risen to his aid
through individual achievement. In
the old days men won their places
as leaders by earning the respect of
their colleagues. But today it is
different. Powers of leadership are
curtailed. Senators who have to
go through primary elections are
less interested in what leaders tell
them.
Old System Changed
"Ah, but you don't vote in my
primaries, Mr.. President" is the
way more than one senator has
answered an argument for party
solidarity on an administration pro-
posal. In the era of Aldrich and
Cannon, leaders didn't have to wor-
ry about that kind of retort. They
merely sent word to a Republican
convention and a recalcitrant mem
Der of congress had hard time
getting re-nominated. Federal of
flee holders had much to do with
those local conventions. The ma
chinery of party government was
effective.
Today there are almost as many
conceptions of what the Republic
an party should stand for as there
are individuals in it. Party solidari
ty means relatively little to men
like Senator Brookhart, of Iowa;
Senator La Toilette, of Wisconsin:
Senator Norris, of Nebraska; Sena-
tor Ladd, of North Dakota, and
others who have gained their Ideas
of Republicanism in their own pri-
maries.
The nub of the whole matter is
that group of men who were
elected as Republicans have failed
to stand with their fellow Republic
ans in parliamentary tactics and
have formed makeshift coalitions
with the Democrats. Mr.. Harding
has not found way to beat that
combination Of circumstances. And