"BACK TO NORMALCY" WITH PRESIDENT HARDING

Memorial Address by Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State.

IN the Presidential campaign of 1920, Warren Gamaliel Harding, the Republican candidate, received 16,138,914 votes, as compared with 9,142,438 cast for Cox, the Democratic candidate. It was the largest plurality on record. Taking office March 4, 1921, President Harding became ill while returning from a trip to Alaska and succumbed to a stroke of apoplexy in San Francisco, August 2, 1923.

His advocacy of American participation in the World Court and his calling of the Washington Arms Conference, as recounted in preceding pages, were outstanding acts of his Administration. Shortly before the treaties drafted at the Conference were signed, President Harding declared that their ratification would give his Administration a secure place in history. Otherwise it would be of only passing interest.

Secretary Hughes paid our twenty-ninth President this tribute at the official memorial exercises held in the House of Representatives, February 27, 1924.

MORE than two years had passed since the Armistice and we were still in a technical state of war. Rejecting the compact framed abroad, we were without an effective agreement establishing peace, opening the appropriate channels of intercourse with former enemies and safeguarding essential rights. We had expended about $40,000,000,000 on t h e World War and in August, 1919, our national debt had reached its highest point at $26,500,000,000, or about 10 times the amount of the national debt at the close of the Civil War. Our people were subject to a colossal burden of taxation. In 1917 the Federal Government's revenues from taxation were $1,035,000,000. In 1919 they had risen to $4,023,000,000, and in 1920 they mounted to $5,722,000,000. Economic conditions gave cause for the keenest anxiety. Our basic activities were hard hit in the inevitable reactions which followed the great expansion which was necessary to meet the demands of war. Nearly 5,000,000 workers were unemployed, and the country was looking forward with grave apprehension to a period of unparalleled suffering if conditions did not improve. As President Harding observed, "in the then existing temper of people everywhere, overwrought and exasperated at contemplated sacrifices barren of results for good, these conditions involved a menace to society." Already, some were recommending a policy of public doles, a most desperate resort. Uncertainty and instability had followed the relaxing of the tension of the great struggle. The time for debate had passed; debate had been had. It was time that a controversy which could have no result but increased bitterness should end and that the path of permissible helpful effort should be sought. President Harding met the need of the hour. That need was conciliation and cooperation ; he incarnated both.

He at once determined to end the technical state of war and to establish the necessary formal peace; and this he achieved with the least loss of time and in the only practicable way. He sought to relieve agriculture, to foster industry, to conserve the interests of our merchant marine. There was "a frank and confident appeal to a great people to apply their soundest sense and to cling to tried and trusted methods." There were conferences on unemployment and on housing. There were meetings of the representatives of industry, of labor, of transportation, of civic and commercial bodies. President Harding rejoiced in the opportunity to bring "all groups, classes, interests and sections into a splendid cooperation." Proceedings were taken speedily and efficiently to dispose of the governmental transactions incident to the war and requiring adjustment. President Harding went to the root of domestic problems by insistence on the immediate reduction of national expenditures and the lifting of the burdens of war taxation. He endeavored to reduce the staggering load of war debt by a gradual liquidation which the strictest economy could alone make possible. Said he : "Our current expenditures are running at the rate of approximately five billions a year, and the burden is unbearable. There are two agencies to be employed in correction : One is rigid resistance to appropriation and the other is the utmost economy in administration. Let us have both."

By the remarkable efficiency of his organization of budget control, by the wisdom of Treasury management, by appropriate legislative and administrative encouragement of commerce and industry, by intelligent and organized attention to the problem of unemployment, the prophecies of cynics were brought to naught, confidence was restored and, despite the exigencies that still remained and the important measures of relief still needed, there was achieved an extraordinary degree of progress. With industry revived, labor was fully employed. On June 30, 1923, the national debt had been reduced to $22,400,000,000 and the Government's program now calls for a reduction of half a billion a year. The indebtedness of Great Britain to the United States was funded on a sound basis, putting, as the President well said, "a fresh stamp of approval upon the sacredness of international obligations." The cost of government that is to say, the expenditures of the Federal Government (exclusive of expenditures payable from postal revenues and the principal of the public debt) which had amounted to $6,139,000,000 in 1920 and to $4,880,000,000 in 1921, was reduced to $3,647,000,000 in 1923. The Treasury was able to balance the budget and close the last fiscal year with a surplus of $309,000,000. And by virtue of this successful administration of the Government's business the people are now able to look forward with the utmost gratification to a further reduction of the tax load. In meeting domestic exigencies, in planning every remedial endeavor, President Harding constantly sought cooperation. He was not merely the Chief Executive but endeavored to be the effective coordinator of the functions of government. Wherever he worked, whether in the limited range of early activities or in the broad sphere of national leadership, the mainspring of his action was always the intense desire to harmonize, to find a way of agreement, to bring about teamwork. He hated strife, his gospel was that of understanding.

It was with an intense desire to contribute to the promotion of peace and to find avenues of helpfulness that he contemplated the chaotic conditions left by the Great War and our relations to other peoples. His was not the spirit of a narrow or selfish nationalism. He wished no commitment which would forfeit or impair the independence and liberty of action which was the heritage of the Republic. But he desired to safeguard this fortunate detachment from the ambitions and rivalries which had vexed the Old World, not only to conserve our own security but that America might use her freedom for an enlarged service. Let these eloquent words of his inaugural address reveal his conviction and his outlook:

"The recorded progress of our Republic, materially and spiritually, in itself proves the wisdom of the inherited policy of non-involvement in Old World affairs. Confident of our ability to work out our own destiny, and jealously guarding our right to do so, we seek no part in directing the destinies of the Old World. We do not mean to be entangled. We will accept no responsibility except as our own conscience and judgment, in each instance, may determine. Our eyes never will be blind to a developing menace, our ears never deaf to the call of civilization. We recognize the new order in the world, with the closer contacts which progress has wrought. We sense the call of the human heart for fellowship, fraternity, and cooperation.

"America is ready to encourage, eager to initiate, anxious to participate in any seemly program likely to lessen the probability of war and promote that brotherhood of mankind which must be God's highest conception of human relationship. Because we cherish ideals of justice and peace, because we appraise the international comity and helpful relationship no less highly than any people of the world, we aspire to a high place in the moral leadership of civilization, and we hold a maintained America, the proven Republic, the unshaken temple of representative democracy, to be not only an inspiration and example, but the highest agency of strengthening good will and promoting accord on both continents."

These were not idle words to catch a transient applause. He meant what he said. He knew what it was vain to attempt ; he had no illusions as to causes of European disorder. He knew that the evils which afflicted Europe could find no cure except in the abatement of strife and in settlements which could not be imposed from without, but could only be achieved when the Powers directly concerned had a will to peace and were willing to agree. But his clear perception of existing difficulties made him only the more keen to find some opening for helpful effort, some way to further the cause nearest his heart, the cause of world peace, and that way was found [in the Conference on Limitation of Armament].

President Harding . . . literally wore himself out in the endeavor to be friendly. . . . He desired to make the trip to Alaska in order to see for himself its wonders, to appraise by personal examination the resources and exigencies of that great territory. Having been in office over two years he wished to address the people upon the achievements of his Administration and to present directly to them his conception of the solution of urgent problems. Above all, he craved the inspiration of direct contact with the people in many communities and the assurance of their personal interest and kindly support. That to every Executive, however masterful, is the wine of life. . . . He made his journey to Alaska, and in the course of six weeks delivered about eighty-five speeches, many of which had been carefully prepared and were most instructive discussions of a vast range of topics, such as the international court of justice, transportation problems, agriculture, law enforcement, taxation and expenditures, national business conditions, social justice, development, reclamation and water utilization, the territory of Alaska; and there was another address, which he had written and personally released for publication but was unable to deliver, giving a comprehensive review of foreign relations.

It was just before the breakdown that he stepped on foreign soil at Vancouver and voiced our historic friendship for the people of the great Dominion. "What an object lesson of peace is shown today, he exclaimed, "by our two countries to all the world. No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers; no huge battleships patrol our divided waters; no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Our protection is in our fraternity, our armor is our faith ; the tie that binds more firmly year by year is ever-increasing acquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens, and the compact is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honorable dealing, which, God grant, shall continue for all time."