or, incidentally ridiculing some of
his own countrymen's war ideals, President Harding and Secretary
Hughes, gravely and with rather obvious emphasis, tried to set the
matter aright as best they could. But there was no hint of
reprimand; only a fervent hope that the mercurial Harvey would
remain quiescent until the memory of the episode passed.

The quondam editor, now the representative of his country on the
Supreme Council, in which capacity he is even more important than
as Ambassador, represents a new strain in American politics. His
mental habits bewilder the President, shock the proper and somewhat
conventional Secretary of State, and throw such repositories of
national divinity as Senators Lodge and Knox into utter confusion.

Harvey plays the game of politics according to his own rules, the
underlying principle of which is audacity. He knows very well that
the weak spot in the armor of nearly all politicians of the old
school is their assumption of superiority, a sort of mask of
benignant political venerability. They dread satire. They shrink
from ridicule. A well-directed critical outburst freezes them.
Such has been the Harvey method of approach. Having reduced his
subjects to a state of terror, he flatters them, cajoles them, and
finally makes terms with them; but he always remains a more or less
unstable and uncertain quantity, potentially explosive.

There is not much of the present Harvey to be gleaned from his
earlier experiences, except the pertinacity that has had much to do
with his irregular climb up the ladder. He was born in Peacham,
Vermont, where as a boy after school hours he mounted a stool in
his father's general store and kept books. At the end of the year
his accounts were short a penny. Because of this he received no
Christmas gift not, as he has said, because his father begrudged
the copper more than any other Vermont storekeeper, but because he
was meticulously careful himself and expected the younger
generation to be likewise.

This experience must have been etched upon Harvey's memory; no one
can be more meticulous when his interest is aroused. To money he is
indifferent, but a misplaced word makes him shudder. Writing with
him is an exhausting process, which probably accounts for the fact
that his literary output has been small. But the same power of
analysis and attention to detail have been most effective in his
political activities. In these his divination has been prophetic
an