layed our entering the Court for now two years, although President Harding, President Coolidge and Secretary Hughes have never wearied in urging our entrance. Only an aroused public opinion can make the Senate of the United States appreciate that the people of this country are attached to the idea that the reign of law and justice must govern in the relations between the nations of the earth. And it behooves us all to contribute what little we can to the organization of that public opinion. In that task this organization is performing a most useful work.

XIX

REMARKS AT HARDING MEMORIAL

MEETING*

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We are here to attest our respect for our late President, Mr. Harding, and to express our sincere grief that his life has been ended at a time when it had reached its highest point of distinction.

On an occasion like this it does not suffice to speak in terms of mere encomium. We would rather use that discrimination which our late President would himself have preferred in any appraisement of his character and his achievements.

The first thing that forces itself upon our thoughts is quite independent of those events which will be written into history as the products of Mr. Harding's statesmanship. That is the universal respect with which he was regarded among all classes of our people high and low for the charm of his personality, the simplicity of his nature and the kindliness of his character. From these qualities there sprung a sympathetic understanding of the mass of the American people who are ever ready to do their part in sustaining the President of this great country when they are convinced that he is doing his best to discharge the arduous duties of his burdensome office.

Made at White Sulphur Springs in August 1923, shortly after the death of President Harding.

In his methods, his temperament and his outlook, both in private and public affairs, Mr. Harding satisfied the requirements of true American citizenship. He was nearer a type as fixed by tradition and general acceptance than some of the more brilliant statesmen our country has produced.

Born and reared in a small Ohio town, a newspaper owner and editor, by natural transition entering public life as a state senator, Lieutenant Governor, a defeated candidate for Governor, United States Senator and finally President. Displaying no attributes of great genius he yet had qualities in eminent degree which philosophers and moralists rate high in human character, that is simplicity, a real sympathy for his fellow man, a keen intelligence and, the greatest intellectual faculty of all, a finely balanced judgment founded on a rare instinct for justice. These things the American people understand because they are the qualities by which they aspire to conduct their own affairs; and it is by their exercise that Mr. Harding has been so successful in making the American people understand the reasons that inspired him in his public acts.

His is a simple history. Counting himself always a citizen of the small town where he was born, not aspiring to figure in great business or journalism in the centers where he could have found alluring opportunities, leaving Marion only to serve his country in its capital, his body is returned to his home where it may rest in the family plot among old friends and neighbors as they are called to their reward. It is not the common history of a modern statesman, but it has a simplicity which makes an appeal to the great majority of our fellow citizens who live their lives where they were born, pur

suing their daily tasks, faithful to correct ideals, and honored and beloved by their neighbors.

I recall a personal incident that well illustrates the true simplicity of this man. On the night that Mr. Harding was nominated for President, as I had the honor of supporting him in the Convention, I called to congratulate him. Going to the small hotel at which he was staying and making my way through barriers, I found Mr. Harding helping his wife in the packing of their trunks. There was not a trace of undue elation in his demeanor. He was bent on returning to Marion, to his friends and neighbors.

Turning to the achievements of Mr. Harding in statesmanship I must confine myself to narrow limits—more would be inappropriate and would extend my remarks to undue length.

The benefits of representative government are not mere privileges. They are to be enjoyed only if they are earned by the continued performance of the duties which citizenship imposes and without which our institutions could not endure. Mr. Harding illustrated in his own life, both public and private, what is thus demanded as the price of civil liberty. For he founded his conduct upon moral principles, his sense of duty was intuitive and he was a just man.

Another quality which has not been attributed in large measure to Mr. Harding was courage. It was not of a blustering or explosive or impulsive kind but it was the bravery which did great things without ostentation. I must close my tribute with a reference to two of these acts which I think will write his name high on the roll of our Presidents for his noble statesmanship. I refer, first, to the Washington Conference and the

treaties which resulted from it and, second, to his proposal that America should become a member of the World Court already functioning for the adjudication of international controversies upon principles of International Law, instead of being left to the hazards of political expediency.

manner.

Mr. Hughes under Mr. Harding's direction, while the League of Nations delayed acting under the Covenant constituting it, came forward with a definite plan for reduction of armament, and by proposing to reduce America's own armament practically forced the great nations of the world to do likewise. There also emerged from the Conference treaties which dealt with Far Eastern and Pacific matters in a most comprehensive These results completely removed the menace of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, the widespread suspicion in America of Japan's motives and the genuine fear of the Japanese that America contemplated an attack upon them; and they went far to allay the wounded pride of the Japanese because of the discrimination in our laws against them, predicated upon an assumed racial inferiority. The atmosphere in the Far East and in the Pacific was completely cleared of a spirit of unfriendliness. Under the leadership and influence of Mr. Harding the difficult task was accomplished of creating the will to have peace among all the great nations having interests in the Far East; and the war spirit which had lurked there for some time was completely dispelled.

No nation in the world other than America could have accomplished these results nor could this country have achieved them without the courageous and statesmanlike leadership of Mr. Harding. History will count the Washington Conference as one of the most