Moscow, Idaho
He tried school teaching for a year, but having had a smell of printers ink while sticking type for his college paper, the lure grew into the newspaper field. His family, meantime, had moved to Marion, in an adjoining county, where he obtained his first newspaper; where his life interests were centered thereafter. Mr. Harding's ambition was to become a publisher and it was realized at the age of 19, when he bid in the Marion Star at a sheriff's sale. The paper was purchased under a heavy mortgage and his friends have often said that the struggles and hardships which were his in making this paper a success had much to do in fashioning his career and developing a broad patience and tolerance which were his chief characteristics.
Whatever his other attainments, Mr. Harding's greatest pride was in his professional accomplishments, and training as printer, editor, and publisher. Nor did the interests and exacting duties of his high office give him a dull delight in putting about a composing room. On his first trip back home after his arrival, he went to the Star office, pulled off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, borrowed a chew of tobacco, and helped "make up" the paper. His luck charm was a printer's rule, carried always in a vest pocket. 