s, picnics, shows, and
leads in parades. So when Warren Harding joined the Caledonia Band, he
felt quite grown up and impressive, perhaps more so than when he was
elected President.

Not until 1882 did Dr. Harding trade his farm and move to Marion. His
son had by that time been graduated from the Ohio Central College.
Like many another young man of those days, he taught a term of school
after leaving college. But he did not plan to remain a teacher. For a
time he thought of the law as a profession, and also made some efforts
to sell insurance. But his early knowledge of a printing office and
the making of a newspaper influenced his tastes and desires.

His father had acquired an interest in the Marion Star, a struggling
Republican paper in the county seat. Warren Harding became the editor.
He had held this office only two weeks when he went to Chicago to the
Republican National Convention hoping to see James G. Blaine nominated
for the Presidency. While he was in Chicago, his father sold the Star
and so upon his return Warren Harding, a Republican, became a reporter
on the Marion Mirror, the Democratic paper.

In those days, the admirers of James G. Blaine wore high, gray felt
hats. Warren Harding wore his when he went about Marion gathering news
for the Democratic paper. Soon this annoyed the editor of the Mirror
and young Harding was told he must stop wearing his "Blaine" hat. He
refused, and so lost his job on the paper.

The night of election day, when Cleveland was elected President,
Warren Harding and two old Caledonia friends decided to buy the Marion
Star. That was the beginning of an ownership that has lasted ever
since. There were plenty of hard days for the young editor but with
prophetic insight he wrote and published in the Star:

"The Star is _not_ going to change hands but is both going to go and
grow."

Friends laugh and joke about the hard struggles of the Marion Star and
the difficulties of the editor to make the paper go. They tell of
times when Editor Harding didn't have money enough to pay the help.
Nevertheless, he made the paper both go and grow, and these hardships
only endeared him the more to the citizens of Marion. In the end he
overcame all difficulties and his fellow citizens felt proud of his
success.

Warren Harding had a strong sense of fairness and justice. When he had
been editor but a short time, he wrote out his newspaper creed. Today,
any reporter, who enters the service of