ABSTRACT
The Harding administration came to power faced with a number of difficult national problems. The campaign had ended with a surplus in the committee’s coffers, permitting Butler to maintain some of the publicity activities as well as to cooperate with the congressional campaign committee in the forthcoming midterm elections. National Chairman Adams, for example, had been using the chairmanship as a platform from which to castigate World War allies and oppose Harding’s efforts to gain American participation in a World Court. A survey of the national committee members a few days later showed that forty-six of the fifty-three were for Coolidge. The president had indicated in May that he wanted William M. Butler as his national chairman. Political commentators generally interpreted the selection of Sanders as an effort to symbolize the regularity and prestige of the Coolidge following and the importance to be given to rural-agricultural interests in the Midwest.
