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Show SIDELIGHTS ON ! PRESIDENT HARDING Warren Harding was distinctly a fsrm boy. He helpea in the clearing and rul'.iavtion of the land, and learned to fell trres. chop wocx!, split rails and plant and hoc corn. In the winter he had chores to do before and after school. H grew up strong of boly and sunny of disposition. At the age of 14 he entered Ohio Centrol College, Col-lege, a school of the academy grade, at Iberia, Ohio. At intervals he stop, ped school to earn money to continue and nil his vnrntions were devoted to earning money. He cut corn, painted , a bnrn, drove a team for a rontrsctor I grading the roadbed of the Tooele tt , Ohio Central railwny, and taught a district school. One summer he raised eighteen bushels of wheat on half an acre of ground which his father gave him. During this period he played an alto horn in the Iberia brass band, but ! this was for recrention rather than for pav. i More important in its influence on his later career, he learned to set type and acquired his first contact with newspser work. When president. Mr. Harding still rarriod as a luck piece the printer's rule which he used when "'sticking type." As editor of his college pnper he showed nn aptitude nnd a liking for journalism. Later he purchased the Marion Star and had ninny obstnrles to overcome in making the taper n success. To ndd to his dif ficull ics the editor of The Independent, Indepen-dent, the competing daily allackcd him so bitlerlv that Harding on.-e threatened threat-ened to "mop up the .street'" wilh him if his opponent did not stop "Iving." The provocnt ion must bnvn been severe se-vere for Harding's methods before and after was always to win bis way by ron.-ilint ion. Willi his ability, energy niul cnur- tesy. Harding finally won the good will of th people of Marion for th Star. He devoted hmielf to booming the town and made friends among the i.-.isiness men. They turned advertising advertis-ing his way nnd at last, aided grvatlv by Mrs. Hsrd-.ng, who worked witri her hmtwind in his office the Star "arrived," "ar-rived," and its editor became a power in the community. Mrs. Harding's father was Amos Kling. a lending business msn of Mar-ion. Mar-ion. He strongly opposed her marriage marri-age to Harding, which took place in l'-Wl. Th Star had not yet become the success It was Inter and Kling underrst imnted its proprietor. In her work for the Star, Mrs. Hnr-.ling Hnr-.ling did no writing, but took up Ihe management of the circulation ami the newsbovs. She literally snved the pennies pen-nies tnVing the coin home with her until the collection was large enough to be banked. Warwick, in a sketch of his former pnrt ner, snid : "I have seen W. G. marching down to the bank with a gallon of pennies in either hnnd. I was always curUius to find out how many pennies made a gnllon but never found out." Tiler never wns n strike in the of-flre of-flre of (he Star. The employees n mvi railed Harding "V. G." nnd esteemed es-teemed him ns a comrade. When the 1 apcr became firmly established, he rgani7.ed n stock companv, in which '.he pcrmsncnt employees held shares. When HntdiiH relinquished his control con-trol of the Star in June lll'J.'l. it was a prosperous newsnnprr with the largest circulation of nnv paper in n c-tv of ItO.non in the middle went. It had n full lelegrnphio service, the latest type of perfecting press, eight linolvpo machines nnd lil'lv rmploveos. 1 nrvdy through Harding's elforls f-t.lonos nn, railroad shops went to Marion dining Ihe years ho ran the paper, converting the one-time farming farm-ing town into an important manufacturing manufac-turing city. Harding's ability to "talk on his feet" probably led to his entrance into politics, although as owner and editor of a successful paper in Ohio he would have had political influence in any event. He aligned himself with the Republican party even before he was a voter and soon became a member of the Republican county committee at the meeting of which he was a regular attendant. Ha made his first political speech in the earlv KO's in the hamlet of Mart?, near Maoti. His second . speech at Scottstown so pleased an o.d 'Lincoln Republican that the veteran rushed up to him and said: "oung man, you have the gift of gab. Xep j it up and some day you'll be president of the United Suites. This not unusual but infrequent. y fulfilled prediction indicated at least and appreciative aditor and there were many who praised the young campaign ' speaker. His oratory attracted the at-i at-i tcntion of the state Republican leaders land soon he found himself billed to i speak with McKinley, Foraker and i other notables. Thais developed Har- ding's close friendship for McKinley, I his predecessor in the White House, to whom he has been so often likened. |