Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1920 — HARDING WINS MANY FRIENDS [ARTICLE]

HARDING WINS MANY FRIENDS

RECENT TOUR ADDED MANY SUPPORTERS TO REPUBLICAN NOMINEE’S CAMPAIGN. ’.V X v • wV' St. Paul, Minn., Sept 6.—Senator Harding off the front porch, mingling with the folks in the crowd, exchanging jests and telling stories, is as likable a personality as has ever leaned over the rail of a private car. * His trip from Marion Was interrupted by two back platform talks. Perhaps they should be called conversations. They weren’t speeches. They were not about campaign issues but about general things like the wonders of America and the opportunities of our country, about rural life, and boyhood reminiscences awakened by the sight of rural folks—a sort of rustic anthology. Get On Stump. Anybody traveling from Marion to St. Paul with Senator Harding on this first adventure off the front porch couldn’t but wonder why the republican managers consented to Senator Marding’s modest program of front porch speeches. These same managers are hoping that the effect of the journey on the Senator himself will be to persuade the nominee of the necessity of making more trips. He found himself fascinated by the experience. He didn't intend to make any speeches or talks en route. He had expressed himself against back platforming, yet the appeal of the crowd was irresistable. ' Good Campaigner. And when Senator Harding comes out and shakes hands and manages to have a suitable greeting for everybody, whether the individual be the leader of a band or a farmer or a laborer or a war veteran, the sum total of his effort is as good as any campaigners in recent years. The republican managers think this trip will settle the thing—that Mr. Harding will make more trips hereafter. Of course, the truth is, Senator Harding always was a good campaigner. In other years, he has stumped the country for the republican ticket &nd he knows how to, handle crowds.

Fundamentally the objection to a big campaign tnp has been the necessity. of making numerous speeches, and Senator Harding has. been a firm believer in the idea of preparing’ carefully a few addresses that could be distributed to the newspapers in advance and examined deliberately in the editorial offices .of the country. This trip shows that Mr. Harding . can meet the folks an<f make a good impression and keep his campaign discussions for the larger meetings. He will not talk extemporaneously on vital matters. Tentative Schedule. Meanwhile the republican leaders are thinking up schedules for Senator Harding to follow arid the plan,' tentative though it is, seems to call for journeys east and west from Marion —not as far as the coast perhaps but westward. The senator mil surely go to New York—all candidates usually do toward the end of October. It wouldn’t be wise for him to get to Chicago until the republican primaries are over. In fact, in several states the national ticket is trying hard to avoid entanglements in factional fights withiM the party- It will be recalled that Mr. Hughes struck a snag, in California in 1916 by entering that state before the primaries ‘ had settled the issue there.