Warren G. Harding

President of the United States (1921–1923)

• Born: November 2, 1865
• Birthplace: Caledonia (now Blooming Grove), Ohio
• Died: August 2, 1923
• Place of death: San Francisco, California

President Harding adopted compromise politics in economics and foreign affairs in an attempt to guide the United States through readjustment to great social and economic changes. The Harding administration is, unfortunately, best remembered for its improprieties, notably the Teapot Dome Scandal, in which the secretary of the interior improperly leased government oil reserves to private interests.

Early Life

Warren G. Harding was born in Caledonia (now Blooming Grove), Ohio. His father, George Tryon Harding, was a homeopathic doctor who practiced for a few years in the town of Caledonia before moving the family to Marion when Warren was sixteen. His mother, Phoebe Dickerson Harding, after bearing eight children, attended the same Cleveland homeopathic institute as her husband and joined him in practice in Marion. Harding’s youth was occupied with family chores and working for nearby farmers. After ascending the grades in the one-room schoolhouse in Caledonia, he attended Ohio Central College, an academy a few miles from Caledonia, graduating from the two-year institution in 1882. He was quick-witted and did well in school, although he was never studious. Following graduation, he taught school for a single term, a period long enough to convince him of an aversion to teaching, just as a few months of reading law were sufficient to dispel interest in the legal profession.

When Harding moved to Marion, it was a growing town with a booster mentality. Harding contributed to the city’s reputation by playing in the local brass band at nearby towns and in Chicago, an excursion he arranged. With financial assistance from his father, he acquired the failing Marion Daily Star in 1884. Two young friends from Caledonia who had entered this venture with him left the enterprise within a few months. By hard work, attention to detail, modernization of the production facilities, and constant support for civic progress in Marion, Harding built the Marion Daily Star into a successful paper by 1890. In addition, he joined an array of civic and service organizations and was among the best-known citizens of the town by the time he married the widow Florence Kling DeWolfe in 1891.

As the town of Marion and the Marion Daily Star grew apace, Harding’s political influence also increased. He was a leader in the Marion County Republican organization during the 1890’s and entered politics as a candidate for the Ohio Senate in 1899. He won that election and subsequent reelection in 1901; in 1903, he was elected as lieutenant governor under Governor Myron T. Herrick. He was a popular figure in Ohio Republican circles from the outset, as his political style of conciliation and persuasion appealed to leaders of a party that was rancorous and bitterly divided for three decades prior to World War I. From 1905 to 1910, Harding left the political arena to run the Marion Daily Star, which now assumed statewide importance because of the reputation of the owner. He lost as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 1910, largely because of the emerging rift between Progressives and regular Republicans. He achieved national recognition two years later, when he nominated William Howard Taft at the Republican National Convention, although he alienated many of the Progressives forever by derisive references to Theodore Roosevelt. In 1914, he handily defeated both Democratic and Progressive candidates in the election for the United States Senate; off to Washington, he left behind a reputation for amiability and achievement.

Life’s Work

Harding was not an outstanding senator. He did not make any memorable speeches during his term, he introduced no legislation of national importance, and he had one of the highest absentee rates on roll-call votes. He continued to make friends, however, including another freshman senator, Albert B. Fall of New Mexico, and the wealthy Ned and Evalyn McLean, owners of the Washington Post. His prestige within the party increased following his keynote address at the Republican convention in 1916. He generally supported Woodrow Wilson’s wartime legislation but voted after the war with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge’s strong reservationists against the League of Nations. His political strategy on Prohibition, a popular issue in Ohio, was to vote in favor of the amendment, while acknowledging that he was a “wet” who thought that the people in the states had the right to decide the issue.

Harding announced his presidential candidacy in 1919, at the urging of several of his friends, and, on the advice of political ally Harry M. Daugherty, he set forth with a cautious strategy to win support. When the Republican National Convention of 1920 became deadlocked between Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, General Leonard Wood, and Senator Hiram Johnson of California, Harding received the nomination for several reasons: he was from the key state of Ohio; he was well-known, if not distinguished; he was not associated with strong stands on controversial issues; and he was acceptable to most elements within the party—he was, in the political parlance, “available.” Harding made an effective campaigner. Speaking mainly from his front porch in Marion, the handsome candidate with classic features and silver hair looked statesmanlike. He promised a return to “normalcy” and had little trouble defeating the Democrat, James M. Cox, as he received the greatest majority of popular votes of any preceding presidential election.

As president, Harding launched the era of normalcy by supporting financial initiatives that posed an alternative to the prewar Progressive policies of Woodrow Wilson. His appointment of Pittsburgh banker Andrew Mellon as secretary of the treasury presaged a conservative financial program, which included cuts in government spending, higher tariff rates (the 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff), and corporate tax reduction. Shortly after entering office, Harding signed the Budget and Accounting Act, which created a Bureau of the Budget accountable to the president; bureau director Charles Dawes immediately implemented a program to reduce government expenditures. As a fiscal conservative, Harding vetoed the 1922 soldiers’ bonus bill, a plan designed to pay a cash bonus to veterans of World War I. A compromise tax reduction plan emerged from Congress as the Revenue Act of 1921, which Harding signed. Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace successfully pressed for the passage of farm relief legislation in 1921 and 1922.

The implementation of much of Harding’s program for normalcy was a result of strong cabinet members and Harding’s tendency to allow much latitude to congressional leaders. His conciliatory approach to presidential-congressional relations, however, was unsuccessful in some areas. Midwestern senators and congressmen, who formed the so-called Farm Bloc, fought the administration’s agricultural policies and urged stronger measures; Progressives in both parties opposed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff and repeal of the excess-profits tax. Harding’s defense of Truman Newberry, accused of gross overspending in his Senate race in 1918, also stirred controversy. By early 1923, Harding was more often a congressional antagonist than mediator.

In foreign policy matters, Harding for the most part followed the lead of his legalistic-minded secretary of state, Charles Evans Hughes, and the Senate leadership. Following a general policy of nonintervention in matters under consideration by the League of Nations, the administration nevertheless assembled the Washington Disarmament Conference in 1921, which dealt boldly with problems of naval development in the Far East. In addition, the administration settled some remaining problems from World War I, such as peace treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, and adopted a noninterventionist policy toward Latin America.

The Harding administration is, unfortunately, best remembered for its improprieties, notably the Teapot Dome Scandal , in which Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall improperly leased government oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California, to private interests. While Harding himself was not directly linked to the wrongdoing, he bears much of the blame, owing to his appointments of the men responsible for these affairs: Fall, a former Senate colleague and friend; Veterans’ Bureau director Charles Forbes, who bilked his agency until discovery by a congressional investigating committee; and Harry M. Daugherty, Harding’s attorney general, who was accused of selling government favors, along with his and Harding’s “Ohio gang” friends, from the infamous “little green house on K Street.” Harding had a penchant for appointing his cronies to these and other positions, which were well beyond their abilities.

Accusations about these scandalous affairs and a subsequent Senate inquiry drove a tired Harding from Washington in June of 1923. With other government officials and Mrs. Harding, he took a train across the country to look into developments in the Alaska territory. After a hectic trip to Alaska, the party came back via California; Harding suffered what was later diagnosed as a mild heart attack on the train but seemed much improved on arrival the next day in San Francisco. He died a few days later, however, on August 2, while resting in his hotel. His body was taken to Washington for funeral services on August 8 and to Marion for burial on August 10.

Significance

Harding’s career was a reflection of midwestern life in the nineteenth century. A product of a small town in Ohio, he adopted the virtues for success in that environment. He demonstrated his sense of civic responsibility by joining merchants and businessmen in local organizations, and he used the columns of the Marion Daily Star to boost Marion’s economic growth. He was popular, both socially and as a speaker, although his forceful speeches were often ponderous. His success in this narrow arena, as well as his likable personality, helped lead to political success. As he ascended the ladder of Ohio politics, his availability for national office became apparent. However, in the larger context of national politics, Harding lacked the intellect and training to understand and deal adequately with the forces for change, which propelled many of his contemporaries into the prewar reform movement.

In some ways, though, Harding’s administration compared favorably to that of his predecessor, Woodrow Wilson. For example, aside from miscalculated choices of friends for some appointments, Harding did surround himself with men of high caliber in his cabinet. Herbert Hoover, as secretary of commerce, was the liberal of the cabinet and was instrumental in organizing the Unemployment Conference of 1921; Henry C. Wallace, secretary of agriculture, was a friend of the farmers, who thoughtfully pursued progressive agricultural policies during the farm crisis of the early 1920’s; Charles Evans Hughes, secretary of state, fashioned a better record in Latin American policy than did his predecessors; and Andrew Mellon, secretary of the treasury, John W. Weeks, secretary of war, and James J. Davis, secretary of labor, were all competent.

The policies of normalcy represented a somewhat old-fashioned response to the upheavals of war and economic and social change; while Harding pursued his policies as an adjustment to these changes, his program was carried on by Calvin Coolidge and, to a lesser extent, Herbert Hoover. In pressing policies to allow for economic expansion and economy in government, Harding applied his political talents for compromise and melioration to assuage congressional opponents. While some historians have pointed to his growth in office and more effective leadership of the nation by early 1923, he did not live to develop any newfound talents. Had he lived, he undoubtedly would have been hamstrung by the scandals that broke shortly after he died. Hampered by his background and limitations, he did his best in a difficult time. Unfortunately, this was an area where his availability could be of no use.

Bibliography

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