WARREN G. HARDING and WILL H. HAYS
Appointment of a postmaster for Buckley, Washington
Civil Appointment signed: "Warren G. Harding" as President and "Will H. Hays" as Postmaster General, 1p, 18x14½. Washington, 1922 January 27. Appointment of Forest W. France as Postmaster at Buckley, Pierce County, Washington, about 20 miles east of Tacoma. WARREN HARDING (1865-1923) was a newspaper editor, Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and U.S. Senator (1915-1921) before becoming the nation's 29th President. The surprise nominee of a deadlocked Republican convention, Harding won a landslide victory over Democrat James Cox from a public tired of Woodrow Wilson's internationalism and ready for what Harding called "not nostrums, but normalcy." Harding interpreted his victory as a repudiation of the League of Nations, but did promote other measures - including a naval disarmament conference - to reduce international tensions. Harding took a narrow view of Presidential powers. While he appointed many capable men to his administration, including Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon and Charles Evans Hughes, he was undone by others and by corrupt friends. Harding died while on a tour of the Western U.S., and was thus spared the worst of the developing Teapot Dome scandal. WILL H. HAYS, (1879-1954), who had been Harding's campaign manager, was Postmaster General from March of 1921 to March of 1922. Untouched by the financial scandals of his colleagues, Hays later served as President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, which created the puritanical "Hays Code" of conduct in films produced by Hollywood. Vertical folds, 1 touches first "r" in Warren. Creased. Lightly soiled.