A Note on My Harding Research

The information I posted during 2020 mostly covered Warren Harding's front-porch campaign from his home on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Marion, Ohio. The campaign officially started on July 31, 1920, and ended on September 25. The plan was to post daily on events that occurred exactly 100 years ago that day, but I shared other information as well. You'll have to read bottom-to-top if you want to follow the campaign from Day 1.

I used the open web for some of my research but also information accessible by using my library card or my subscription to www.newspapers.com. The most useful resource was the Marion Star, which was owned by the Hardings at the time of the campaign. I also browsed online copies of other newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Star, and the Dayton Daily News, which, in 1920, was owned by Harding's Democratic opponent, Governor James M. Cox. I also posted information from other newspapers that covered Harding's trips away from Marion during the campaign.

Another great resource I used was Dale E. Cottrill's The Conciliator, a 1969 biography of the president that expanded an earlier bibliography of Harding's speeches. An online version is available at the Internet Archive, but I used a hard copy borrowed from the State Library of Ohio.

Readers should not construe anything posted here as a political statement on my part. I just like Harding as a historical topic.

7/23/2020

Friday, July 23, 1920

With the notification ceremonies completed, the Marion Star publishes this statement:
Senator Harding has asked the Star to express his very genuine gratitude to everybody in Marion who participate in making so notable a success of yesterday's notification. Senator Harding is really more than grateful, he is very proud of the home town.
The task was no ordinary one, it was not easy. It is very difficult to specify the various contributors, from humblest to the Civic association officials of great responsibility. Men and women alike, boy scouts, service men, city officials—all did the thing so well that this paper is glad to convey the deep gratitude Senator Harding feels.
Telegrams from around the country pour into the Harding campaign headquarters. The laudatory ones are shared with the press, including this one from Massachusetts: "Your acceptance speech was in itself a sermon from Mount Marion, the gospel which will echo across the world and live in the hearts of men, placing our party on the highest run of its progressive ladder and you as the savior of America and the peace of the world. Thank God for giving you to lead us."

Harding spends much of the day at the Westbrook Country Club in Mansfield, the second time he has been there this week. For this round of golf he is joined by Senators Elkins of West Virginia, Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, Hale of Maine, all of whom have played with Harding in Washington. Senator Frelinghuysen was an overnight guest of the Hardings. Mrs. Harding joins them on the golf outing.

The proud citizens of Marion will already be able to see news footage from Thursday: "Moving pictures of the Harding Notification" will be shown tonight at the Grand.

Sources:
  • "Are Jubilant Over Address." Marion Star. 23 July 1920.
  • "Motor to Mansfield for Golf Game Today." Marion Star. 23 July 1920.
  • "Mr. Harding's Gratitude." Marion Star. 23 July 1920.
  • "Senator Harding and Fellow Senators Here for Golf Game." Mansfield News-Journal. 23 July 1920.
  • "Wires Commending Republican Nominee." Marion Star. 23 July 1920.
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