nomination of Mr. Harding. Mr. Harvey did not go to Chicago with
the intention of supporting Mr. Harding any more than any other of
the candidates, except Wood and Hiram Johnson, whom he despised.

He and the Senate oligarchy that coyly took the credit for
nominating Mr. Harding turned to him when it was manifest that the
machinery was stalled. Mr. Harding owes his nomination to a mob of
bewildered delegates. It was not due to a wisely conceived nor
brilliantly executed plan.

I doubt very much that George Harvey and President Harding had much
in common until Harvey was invited to Marion. At that time the
"irreconcilables" were beginning to be afraid that Elihu Root and
William H. Taft were about to induce Mr. Harding to accept a
compromise on the League of Nations. Harvey served the purpose of
restoring the equilibrium. At the same time it is quite probable
that the President was impressed by a mind so much more agile than
his own. It was reasonably certain that it would not be diverted or
misled by the intricacies of European diplomacy. And there was
never any doubt of Harvey's Americanism.

The President's selection of Mr. Harvey for the London post is, of
course, accounted for in other ways. There are some persons who
profess to believe that Mr. Harding preferred to have the militant
editor in London and his "Weekly" in the grave rather than to have
him as a censor of Washington activities under the new regime. It
can be said definitely that a sigh of relief went up from many a
Republican bosom when the sacrilegious journal was brought to a
timely end. And this did not happen, it is to be observed, until
the nomination of George Harvey to the Court of St. James was duly