son set forth his conception of the Presidency. When he became President, he put that conception into practice. He has frankly dominated the Government. He has been content only to work with executive associates whom he could control. He has undertaken not to consult with Congress but to direct it. The very manner of his delivery of his Messages to Congress, his insistence upon his decisions in legislahis decisions in legislative matters (sometimes without revealing his reasons, as in the question of Panama Canal tolls), his appeals to the people on personal grounds, becoming so pronounced as to lead him to term those who disagreed with him impertinent and ignorant, and not least his personal conduct of foreign affairs in disregard of the popular judgment for which he had himself asked-all are but examples of a deliberately formed and openly acknowledged policy. When, after blocking preparedness, he called this country to war, it was only after affronts directed by a hostile German Government to him as the Nation's Executive. After the country went into war he was endowed by Congress with an unprecedented personal authority in which the people acquiesced because of the requirements of war, but under which during two years of virtual peace they have become restive. This kind of personal government, this oneman power, the people wish terminated. Another element in the policies and practices of President Wilson's Administration which the American people wish to replace with something different is the kind of idealism that has shown itself incapable of expression in practical form. They are not unmindful of the peculiar and great difficulties that have attended the waging of war on an unprecedented scale thousands of miles from home, nor of such remarkable achievements as the preparation and administration of the Selective Service Law and the successful transportation of hundreds of thousands of citizen soldiers across the seas; but they remember the events which led up to the proclamation of "Peace without victory" as an ideal, followed by the grim reality of Château Thierry and the Argonne; they remember the promises about Liberty Bonds and the promises about Liberty Bonds and the unprevented drop in value; they remember irritating taxes and the avoidable waste. In the light of experience, they have determined to see whether another party cannot be more successful in connecting ideals with reality and reality with ideals. As a result partly of personal government and partly of an impractical idealism, the American people have seen their foreign affairs almost hopelessly tangled. They know very well that their country has few real friends in the world to-day, and they want a change. They are by no means all agreed as to just what ought to be done; but they see very clearly that what has been done has not worked. They watched with interest, and some of them with eagerness, the experiment of the League of Nations. Whatever they may have thought of it in theory, they see that it is not making headway in practice. Whether it is due to the inability of personal government to work under a Constitution requiring consultation with the Senate, or whether it is due to the sort of idealism that insists on drawing up a utopian plan without due reference to the facts, or whether it is due to both, the League is at present an unproductive piece of machinery. The American people have seen a theory tried with little regard to results; now they are ready to see if another party can get results with little regard to theory. The election is not so much a vote for Mr. Harding and the Republican party as it is a vote for the only alternative to Mr. Wilson and the Democratic party. And it is well that it is so. The President-elect and his party associates will be the more likely to set themselves to finding a way to prove that the alternative is better. Already it is clear that the contrast after the Fourth of next March will be sharp. Mr. Harding has made clear not merely by his words but by the whole expression of his mind and temperament that he be A SELF-PORTRAIT OF HARDING Nothing that we have seen throws more light on Senator Harding's personal qualities, particularly The first is a quotation from an interview with Mr. Harding by Edwin C. Hill, which was published in the New York "Herald" October 31, two days before election : : "You want my honest opinion, don't you? Well, here it is Woodrow Wilson will have his place in history as one of the most intellectual figures of a century and a half, a man of wonderful mentality, a man of fine ideas usually. But the trouble with Wilson is that he has never understood the people. That has not been his fault altogether. Lacking real understanding of the people, he let his personal ideals carry him to impossible lengths. He failed to understand that in this. world of ours great good is only obtainable by harmonious action, by good understanding, by compromising differences, and getting to something like a practical working basis of action. The American people can never be driven, although they are willing to be led. There has been Wilson's great blunder." The second is a statement of Mr. Harding's journalistic creed, which he gave to every reporter and writer on the Marion "Star" during his active editorship of that journal: "Remember there are two sides to every question. Get them both. "Be truthful. Get the facts. "Mistakes are inevitable, but strive for accuracy. I would rather have one story exactly right than a hundred half wrong. "Be decent, be fair, be generous. "Boost-don't knock. "There's good in everybody. Bring out the good and never needlessly hurt the feelings of anybody. "In reporting a political gathering give the facts, tell the story as it is, not as you would like to have it. Treat all parties alike. If there is any politics to be played, we will play it in our editorial columns. "Treat all religious matters reverently. "If it can possibly be avoided, never bring ignominy to an innocent man or child in telling of the misdeeds or misfortunes of a relative. "Don't wait to be asked, but do it without the asking, and above all be clean and never let a dirty word or suggestive story get into type. "I want this paper so conducted that it can go into any home without destroying the innocence of any child.” lieves in consultation, in co-operation between the executive and the legislative, in not overriding opposition but rather in bringing together those who seem opposed and finding a common ground, in ascertaining facts and shap ing plans in accord with them, in letting theory wait on understanding. In his whole attitude Mr. Harding presents an antithesis to both personal government and impractical idealism. This election does not, cannot, mean that the American people have suddenly lost their idealism and become sordid and selfish, have lost their ambition to take part in world leadership and desire to follow the glory of a great victory by retreating to a policy of isolation, that from being a nation of pioneers they have become a nation of quitters. It means that they do not I believe that the organization of a world progressivism, for it is not reactionary to see that damage to the foundations. of Government shall be repaired. Among the voters there were many thousands who believed that this was not a time for change, that President Wilson's stewardship should have been approved, that the further trial of his plans and policies should have been intrusted to Mr. Cox and his party. If they are good Americans, these voters will acquiesce in the verdict. They will set themselves to the task of using their influence to the end that what is good in the Wilson Administration is not lost to the country, that the dignity and strength of the executive is not absorbed by the legislative branch, and that in the effort to secure plans that will work there shall be maintained the The election is not a desertion of spirit of sound ideals. THE DAY AFTER IN THE METROPOLITAN PRESS F the editorials appearing during the campaign in the newspapers supporting Governor Cox were to be believed, the country was headed for disaster, perfidy, and militarism unless Governor Cox was elected. Now that the Nation in unprecedented fashion has chosen, not Mr. Cox, but Mr. Harding, it is natural for us to turn to the most influential of the Cox supporters to learn how they face the end predicted. Among the most intense advocates of Mr. Cox's election was the New York "World," In its leading editorial of November 3 the "World" says: As to Mr. Harding himself, the "World" can only wish him well. It is easy to abuse Woodrow Wilson, but to succeed Woodrow Wilson in the White House is a man's job, and Mr. Harding will not have the aid either of a united party or of those dominant qualities that can batter down opposition. He will have to go with a tide that runs erratically and treacherously, and the very voters that have put him into the Presidency to do the impossible will be ready to destroy him at the first sign of failure. Though not recognized, like the York "Times" is a Democratic paper. The League of Nations issue, the Policies of domestic moment will engage Mr. Harding's attention, policies of which the importance for our prosperity and welfare cannot well be exaggerated. . . . His problems will be the Nation's, and he will have the loyal support of the Nation in his endeavors to solve them. The hope that he may have a successful Administration will be universal. However nominally independent the New York "Evening Post" has been, it was as devoted to the cause of Governor Cox's election as either the "Times" or the "World." But its editorial comment on the result does not appear to be quite so gloomy as theirs. It pinned its faith to the League of Nations, and now it renews that faith by finding ground for hope in Mr. Harding's enlightenment. We quote the following from its comment: The colossal protest was against Woodrow Wilson, and everything that from every conceivable angle might be attached to his name. Resentment both against the Treaty and against delay in the Treaty, resentment both against the high prices of which were here until the other day and against falling prices to-day, resentment against the "exactions labor up to the other day, and against the industrial decline and rising unemployment to-day-all these opposites combined in one great weariness, into one mighty desire for a change. Warren G. Harding and the Republican party have profited thereby.... As against the Hearsts and the Johnsons and the rest of the motley who hail the death of the Treaty and the League, these men -Hoover, Taft, Root-must know that the Treaty cannot be rejected without inviting catastrophe, and that world co-operation for peace cannot be abandoned without our breaking faith with the dead in the Great War and with the generations of the future. These men, if they have been sincere in their protestations of faith in a League, must now begin to fight as they have not fought before. The support that went to James M. Cox because he stood manfully for a great ideal will rally behind Harding if he is true to that ideal. The two leading Republican papers in New York are the New York "Herald" (which has succeeded the old familiar "Sun" of the morning) and the "Tribune." The satisfaction which both papers feel is tempered with a sense of responsibility before the party they support. They agree with their Democratic contemporaries that the vote was a vote against the Wilson Administration. The difference is that they approve of this revolt and expect better things of the Administration of President Harding. The "Tribune describes this revolt and expresses its expectation in the following words: The country was weary of Wilsonism in all its inanifestations. It liked as little a foreign policy which intro duced discord among our allies as it did a domestic policy which has brought the country to serious adversity. It was tired of parlor Bolshevism in high places, and likewise of a pretended pacifism whose proposals are practically always in the interest of poor Germany. It would have no more arraying of class against class and asked for an Administration intelligent enough to realize that only by accelerating production is the cost of living to be reduced. Extravagance, incompetence, narrowness at Washingtonall these and many others were in the minds of voters as they marked their ballots.. Senator Harding has steadily grown. in public estimation since his nomination. He has shown reserve power in avoiding the making of vote-getting promises. This is a good omen. The misrepresentations from which he has suffered lie broken at his feet. He may wisely determine to forget them and to remember only the responsibilities of his mighty position. The New York "Herald's" editorial appears under the signature of its owner, Frank A. Munsey, and concludes as follows: The price of victory is good service. In no other way can a President of these United States repay the people of the Nation for the confidence they have in him in electing him to the first office in the land, in electing him to one of the most exalted posts in all the world. Senator Harding's place in history will rest with the men he calls to the service of his Administration. If they have youth, clear heads, genius for their jobs, honesty, loyalty, and the realization that the Government expects and demands of them the best there is in them, his Administration will handle the business of the Government better than it has ever been handled before. Fortunately Senator Harding comes into the Presidency a free man. His Administration is not mortgaged to politicians, to financiers, or to aspirants for official honors. This National Government of ours has no jobs for political hacks or political pensioners. This National Government of ours has no jobs that may be checked out as rewards for political services. This National Government of ours recognizes no such obligation to any man or to any woman or to any political party. The President who checks out Government jobs to pay personal obligations isn't checking from his own bank account. "To the victors belong the spoils " is a doctrine that has no place in this enlightened day. TO-DAY IN THE LANDS OF HOMER AND VERGIL SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE L I-THE GREEK EXPANSION ACHIEVEMENTS OF VENIZELOS, NATION-BUILDER OOKED at from almost any angle of vision, participation in the war has resulted fortunately for Greece. Two and a half million of Greece's people who before the war were living under a foreign yoke have been brought under her flag. Economically Greece is in a stronger position than most of the late belligerent states of Europe, and politically she has the backing, actually, if not acknowledged, of the strongest power in Europe to-dayGreat Britain. How comes it that this little country, which did not enter the war until 1917, and then with no guarantees as to her share in the settlement, should have been so completely successful at the Peace Table? The answer to that question is Eleutherios Venizelos. Abroad, the greatness of Venizelos is universally recognized a statesman much greater than his country, is the common verdict. At home, on the contrary, so strong is the old Royalist party and so bitter the feeling against him that it may be that even now he will be unable to carry out his plans for the good of his country. I have just come from Athens, where the Constantine movement is strong, and where, in the heat of the preelection campaign, charges of questionable character are freely made against the President, and particularly against his party. When the Greek Government, on July 29, signed the Peace Treaty, it meant that Greece was to 1 When I asked an American official how I should address Venizelos, be said: "As Mr. President or Your Excellency."-E. M. Wide World Photos "ABROAD, THE GREATNESS OF VENIZELOS IS UNIVERSALLY RECOGNIZED." IN GREECE, HOWEVER, PARTISAN FEELING IS SO BITTER AGAINST HIM THAT IT PROMPTED AN ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE IN WHICH HE WAS SERIOUSLY WOUNDED possess southern Epirus and the Macedonian littoral as far as Monastir, Thrace, the Smyrna district of the Asia Minor littoral, and at the same time, by an agreement entered into with Italy, she receives all of the Dodecanese Islands held by Italy since the Turkish war with the exception of Rhodes, and that will also be turned over to Greece if Britain relinquishes Cyprus to her. Thus 60,000 square miles of territory become hers, which includes all the principal ports of the eastern Mediterranean. Salonika, the guardian of the eastern Mediterranean, has been hers since the Balkan wars, and to that she has now added Gallipoli, the guardian of the Dardanelles Straits, and Smyrna, the principal port of western Anatolia. In addition, in the hinterland lie the rich fields of Macedonia, hers by the formal recognition, now accorded by the Powers for the first time, of the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913; Thrace, with the richest tobacco fields of eastern Europe, and capable, in addition, it is estimated, of producing revenue sufficient to wipe out the entire foreign debt of Greece, while the rich agricultural soil of the Smyrna district would go far toward achieving the same result under modern intensive cultivation. In the Near East one often hears the question put: Can Greece hold all this territory which has come to her? Just over the border of Epirus are th Albanians, whose national consciousness is rapidly awakening. Macedonia is seething with unrest, the spirit of sabotage is everywhere, and secret societies are springing up on all sides. Farmers who have been in America dare not import modern agricultural machinery for fear war will come and destroy it all. The farms are not producing, and this in a country where three crops a year could be raised: nobody is doing anything. The Greek |