NEW REGIME IN WASHINGTON

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 191, 9 May 1921, Page 3

NEW REGIME IN WASHINGTON

CHANGES AND POLICY PROBLEMS.

Three notes, according to the Washington correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian.” were struck in that city as tho new Administration got to work. "The first is the note of simplicity and accessibility. The Hardings are "homey” people. They set out to restore the good old-fashioned American ways—"the same,” one paper puts it, "as mother used, to make.” Hence the initial symbolic act of removing the policemen from the barriers of the White House, and throwing open tho gates, so that the people may not only come near, but may "peek in” at the windows and see the President at work. It is easy, however, to exaggerate the importance of this kind of open door. Even Mr. Wilson favoured it at the beginning. Tho White House, he declared, would be open to all office-seekers. Tho protective < a . rrier had soon to be restored. The IVilsonian exception is not named by Mr. Harding. In the circumstances it cpuld not he. Eight long years in the wilderness have produced a multitude of deserving Republicans to be provided for, and the President, in bewilderment beyond his open door, will soon be ready with the Biblical cry of distress, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to our windows?” "Tho second note to be struck is that of bustle. The Republicans are resolved to Jet the country know that it has a .Chief Executive once more. Mr. Harding is described as going very early to his desk, restoring to the White House and the Capitol a sense of something doing. After all, a whole year and a half has gone by since Mr. Wilson was struck down. And the third note is that of conference and confidence. The President is ready to consult almost anybody. He begins, as befits an ex-Sena-for. by inviting nne-quartej' of the Senate to dinner and starting them on a discussion of a few urgent questions—such, for example, as the peace resolution, taxation. and the tariff. "The extraordinary difficulties confronting the new Administration are at once revealed. During the election it was nobody's business, within the victorious party, to emphasise the absolute contra? dictions on the international issue between Elilru Root. Henry Cabot lodge, and Hiram Johnson. Since the election people have conspired to postpone the test of policy until the Republicans were actually in the seat of authority. Now, a« they address themselves to the task, the two things they are made to realiss ere first that certain decisions on questions of immense gravity must be reached at once, and secondly, that the party has returned to power—and to bo vast a range of power!—without having resolved its own inner confusions or attained even •o much as a small common measure of .policy in respect of the world crisis.”