1920:1 Republican National Convention 



The kindly- disposed American people are patient, 

 too patient, under it all. Their social fabric is solidly 

 woven, frayed along the edges only, and if affairs go 

 badly they say with the elephant in the Hindu tale: 

 "It will pass, it will pass/' 



The Republican Convention had been a rather 

 spiritless affair, a similar absence of any acknowl- 

 edged leader and the intense heat of Chicago con- 

 spiring to make it so. The unquestioned choice of The 

 the great majority of the people of the United States, P f P le '* 

 regardless of party, was Herbert Hoover. But to the 

 politicians the accession of an idealist with unexcelled 

 business ability was doubly unwelcome, and Hoover 

 in turn cared little for their aims or methods. Further- 

 more, the cumbersome primary law, devised in the 

 interest of local "favorite sons," debarred the party 

 at large from effective voice in the selection of candi- 

 dates. The two most prominent at the time were 

 regarded by party leaders as impossible, and a final 

 choice then fell on the man with the fewest enemies. 

 Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio was known President 

 mainly as an amiable gentleman, the editor of a Harding 

 provincial newspaper, who had always voted with the 

 majority of his party. His nomination evoked scant 

 enthusiasm, although his election was a foregone 

 conclusion. Later events give him a higher rating. 



5 



The I9th of January, 1921, the seventieth anni- 

 versary of my birth, was made the occasion of a very 

 unexpected tribute of appreciation on the part of a a 

 host of men and women whose paths have crossed 

 mine. For more than twenty-five years my wife has 

 marked the recurring day by inviting a small circle 



H 777 3 



