New Britain herald., 1930-10-08

$S00,000 memorial to the late Presi- dent Warren G. Harding and Mrs. Harding. It is said to be one of the most magnificent piles of marble in the country memorializing the life in splendor with Grants Tomb in New York and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
 Now it is self evident that such specimen of magnificence, erected to the memory of a departed President, would under normal conditions be dedicated with pomp and circum- stance, with the President of the United States and members of his Cabinet and other Governmenro off cials eager to be present.
 The President every year attends much less important gatherings than dedication to a pile erected fol the memory of former First Citizen
 Yet the Coolidge administration. when the monument was completed two years ago, and the Hoover ad- ministration since Mr. Coolidge re- tired to Northampton, have carefully refrained from signifying a desire to have anything to db with such a dedication.
 Neither have other administration officials, or the head men. in the grandoldparty, evinced any desire to participate in a grand dedicatory ceremony in Marion. Many of them would like greatly the opportunity to deliver an address for nationwide consumption at such an event; but not at Marion.
 The reason for such reluctance, of course, can easily be determined. The memory of the oil scandalS dur ing the Harding administration have not died down, and there ap- pears to be a feeling that for the administration to participate in such dedication would be accepted by too many voters as evidence that the party approves the scandals.
 In fairness 1t must be said that no such assumption could be entertain ed by logical minds. But the admin istration of Mir. Hoover, like every other administration. knows full we'll that logic does not always sway voters, nor that 1t does 50 even on the average. If 1t did perhaps we would have different kinds of cleo tions, or at leas. we would be con- fronted with sounder and more req sonable electioneering.
 Now the Nation discovers that the dedicatory ceremonies have been in definitely suspended. Harry M. Dausherty, former attorney general in the Harding cabinet and himself remembered as a stalwart lieutenant for the defense in the oil scandals. himself makes the announcement. MT. Daugherty, remaining loyal and firm to the memory of his former chief, adds a bristling statement that pos sesses clements of truth so far as failure to properly honor a dead President is concerned.
 President Hoover, we believe. could have journeyed to Marion and couched his language in such care fully chosen words that nobody but a halfvit would see anything in his participation in the dedicatory cere- monies except proper honors paid to the memory of a departed friend and former President.
 Mir. Hoover could have done this graciously and with effect, had he willed. It was due to President Harding that MT. Hoover was placed in the Cabinet, which proved the route to the presidency. Thoughtful persons cannot help concluding that despite all the trials and tribulations of the Harding regime, its mistakes, it's uncertain record, there should have been no holding back in per forming the duty of the living to the memory of the presidential dead.