This brought no response.

Another who had experience in the Great War remarked, "In the last
war we were lacking in trained non-coms; it would be a good idea to
train a lot of them."

"Yes," rejoined Mr. Harding eagerly, "That would be a good idea."

A more inquiring mind would have gone further than to be "for
voluntary military training." A quicker, less cautious, if no more
thorough mind would have answered the first question, "What would
you train, officers or men?" by answering instantly "Both."

In that colloquy you have revealed all the mental habits of Mr.
Harding. He was asked once, after he had had several conferences
with Senator McCumber, Senator Smoot, Representative Fordney, and
others who would be responsible for financial legislation, "Have
you worked out the larger details of your taxation policy?"

"Naturally not!" was his reply. That "naturally" sprang I suppose
from his habit of believing that somewhere there is authority.
Somewhere there would be authority to determine what the larger
details of the party's financial policy should be.

Now, this authority is not going to be any one man or any two men.
The President, his friends tell us, is jealous of any assumption of
power by any of his advisers. He is unwilling to have the public
think that any other than himself is President. A man as handsome
as Harding, as vain of his literary style as he is, has an ego that
is not capable of total self-effacement. He will bow to impersonal