One of
the headquarters attaches handed him a copy of the paper. Mr.
Harding read the dispatch and was angry.
"That man Root," he exclaimed, "has done more harm to the
Republican party than any other man in it! He is always pursuing
some end of his own or of some outside interest." He started away;
then turned back, still angry, and added: "You remember the Panama
Canal tolls incident. That was an example of the kind of trouble he
has always been making for the party."
Many reasons have been given why the President passed over the
obvious man for Secretary of State. Mr. Root himself, who would
have taken the place gladly as an opportunity for his extremely
keen intelligence, but who did not seek it, thinks that the Senate,
flushed with its recent victory over Mr. Wilson and desiring itself
to dominate foreign relations, conspired to prevent his choice. The
Senators did oppose Mr. Root, but their lack of influence with the
President has been sufficiently exposed by events.
The real obstacle to Mr. Root's appointment was Mr. Harding's
distrust of him, the instinctive feeling of a simple direct nature
against a mind too quick, too clever, too adroit, too invisible in
many of its operations. Mr. Harding, being commonplace himself,
likes a more commonplace kind of greatness than Mr. Root's. Those
who were close to him said the President feared that Mr.
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