The 29th President of The United States, Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding: Prior to his appointment, Warren G. Harding stated that "the current need for America is not the heroes, but to heal, no standards, but normal, not revolution but restoration, not agitation but adjustment, not surgery, but serenity; not the drama but the dispassionate, not the experiment but the team; not submergence in international affairs, but keep triumphant nationality .... "the democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches" an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea. " The same method was effective, since Harding's statements remained uncertain in the League of Nations, in contrast to the passionate crusade of the Democratic candidates, Governor James M. Cox of Ohio and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thirty-one distinguished Republicans had signed a manifesto assuring voters that a vote for Harding was a vote for the League. But Harding interpreted his election as a mandate to stay out of the League of Nations. Harding, was born near Marion, Ohio, in 1865, he became the editor of a newspaper. He married a divorcee, Mrs. Florence Kling De Wolfe. He was a trusted person in the Trinity Baptist Church, director of almost all major businesses and a leader in fraternal organizations and charitable enterprises. He ordered the Citizen's Cornet Band, available for both the republican and democratic meetings; "I played every instrument but the trombone and cornet" he said once.

Harding's undeviating Republicanism and vibrant voice, plus his willingness to let the heads of the machine set policies, led him away in Ohio politics. He served in the State Senate and as Lieutenant Governor, and successfully ran for Governor. He directed the nominating speech for President Taft at the Republican Convention of 1912. In 1914 he was elected to the Senate, which found "a very nice place" A fan of Ohio, Harry Daugherty, began to promote Harding for the 1920 Republican nomination because, he explained later, "like a president." While a group of senators, took control of the Republican Convention of 1920, when the major candidates deadlocked, they turned to Harding. The he won the presidential election by a large margin unprecedented 60 percent of the popular vote. Republicans in Congress easily got the President's signature on their bills. They eliminated wartime controls and slashed taxes, established a system of federal budget, restored the high protective tariff, and imposed tight restrictions on immigration.

For 1923, the postwar depression seemed to open the way to a new wave of prosperity, and newspapers cheered Harding as a wise man been conducting his campaign promise - "Less government in business and more business in the government". Behind the facade, not all of the Harding administration was so impressive. The comments started coming to the President that some of his friends used their official positions for their own enrichment. Alarmed, she complained; "My ... friends ... they are the ones that keep me walking on the floor at night!" Looking battered and depressed, Harding traveled west in the summer of 1923, taking with him his upright Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover. "If you know of any great scandal in our administration," he told Hoover, "you, for the sake of the country and the party would expose it to the public or keep it?" Hoover recommended post, but Harding feared the political repercussions. He did not live to discover how the public would react to the scandals of his administration. In August 1923, he died in San Francisco of a heart attack.