The country was tired of the high thinking and rather plain
spiritual living of Woodrow Wilson. It desired the man in the White
House to cause it no more moral overstrain than does the man you
meet in the Pullman smoking compartment or the man who writes the
captions for the movies who employs a sort of Inaugural style,
freed from the inhibitions of statesmanship. It was in a mood
similar to that of Mr. Harding himself when after his election he
took Senators Freylinghuysen, Hale, and Elkins with him on his trip
to Texas. Senator Knox observing his choice is reported to have
said, "I think he is taking those three along because he wanted
complete mental relaxation." All his life Mr. Harding has shown a
predilection for companions who give him complete mental
relaxation, though duty compels him to associate with the Hughes
and the Hoovers. The conflict between duty and complete mental
relaxation establishes a strong bond of sympathy between him and
the average American.
The "why" of Harding is the democratic passion for equality. We are
standardized, turned out like Fords by the hundred million, and we
cannot endure for long anyone who is not standardized. Such an one
casts reflections upon us; why should we by our votes unnecessarily
asperse ourselves? Occasionally we may indulge nationally, as men
do individually, in the romantic belief that we are somebody else,
that we are like Roosevelt or Wilson--and they become typical of
what we would be--but always we come back to the knowledge that we
are nationally like Harding, who is typical of what we are.
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