Tuesday, August 31, 1920 (GOVERNORS' DAY)

Senator Harding hosts "Governors' Day" today and welcomes a number of politicians who start to arrive early this morning.

Today's speech is nicely summarized by a report in the New York Times: "A continuation of the reclamation policies begun by Theodore Roosevelt, under a larger and more liberal plan that insures equality of privilege and opportunity, was the plea made by Senator Harding in addressing ten Governors and three Republican candidates for Governor who spent today with him here." Reclamation is described elsewhere as "the menace of too much city population and not enough farm population."

The governors are:

• R. Livingston Beeckman, Rhode Island
• Thomas E. Campbell, Arizona
• Robert D. Carr, Wyoming
• James P. Goodrich, Indiana
• Frank O. Lowden, Illinois
• Samuel R. McKelvie, Nebraska
• Peter Norbeck, South Dakota
• E. L. Phillip, Wisconsin
• William C. Sproul, Pennsylvania
• William D. Stephens, California

The candidates are:

• Arthur M. Hyde, Missouri
• E. F. Morgan, West Virginia
• J. A. O. Preus, Minnesota

Others in attendance include ex-governor William Spry, Utah; Clarence J. Brown, candidate for Ohio lieutenant governor; Simms Ely of Denver; George Stephan of Denver; and William Lloyd of St. Louis.

Here are two photographs of Harding and Representative Joseph Cannon, former Speaker of the House, who is in attendance today.

Here's another of Harding with E. F. Morgan of West Virginia:

In this group shot, Harding is ninth from the left.

Here's the same photograph, cropped, in a contemporary newspaper:

Governor Lowden offers these words: "We admire you, Senator Harding, more than I can say for the dignity and self-restraint with which you discuss public questions. We approve most heartily of the devotion you have to Constitutional Government, and we not only admire your public utterances, Senator Harding, but we applaud the fact that you do not resort to charges against the opposition. It is entirely beyond my power to express the regard we feel for you because you do not hold false promises to the people.."

Harding's introduction:

Your Excellencies: — It is a mighty pleasing thing to greet you as the official representatives of several of our great commonwealths, and especially gratifying to me to be able to take up with you, for brief discussion, one of the most interesting and timely problems of the day. I refer to that of reclamation and development in the great and wonderful West. What a wonderful land is ours! No one has ever come to a full realization of the physical incomparableness of these United States. Nature has been very generous with her bounty and has given us, in the great and measureless West, a variegated and picturesque empire, as beautiful as Switzerland, multiplied many times over in extent, and with a diversification of industry and enterprise which Switzerland could not develop because her mountains are well nigh barren of the riches which characterize the Rockies and the Coast ranges.

After the speech and lunch, the group heads to Garfield Park to attend the annual picnic of the local Grand Army post (although it is the first one in three years). Again the New York Times: "Senator Harding planned this visit because he knew it would please his father, Dr. George T. Harding, a civil war veteran. The candidate and the ten Governors gave up most of the afternoon to the Grand Army men, and the veterans made the most of it. Every one made a speech." Periodically during the speeches, a governor would leave to catch a train.

In Columbus, Cox and Roosevelt visit the Ohio State Fair.

Sources:

• "Attending Fair." Mansfield News-Journal. 31 August 1920.
• "Cooper Post Picnic Is Well Attended Today." Marion Daily Star. 31 August 1920.
• "Governors' Day Over at Marion." Mansfield News-Journal. 31 August 1920.
  
• "Menace Seen by Nominee." Marion Star. 31 August 1920.
• "Notable Visitors Are All Pleased Yesterday." Marion Star. 1 September 1920.

Monday, August 30, 1920

Senator Harding starts his work week with another trip to Mansfield to play golf, this time with Gifford Pinchot, who is described as "one of the last of the former progressives to smoke the pipe of peace with Senator Harding." Pinchot was a member of the Bull Moose Party, which Theodore Roosevelt founded in 1912. His reasoning for forgiving Harding for political conflicts during that contentious election: "I want to help get this country out of the control of the Southern reactionaries by which we have been ruled for nearly eight years."

The newsreels of the Jolson visit are ready to show at the Grand downtown.

Sunday, August 29, 1920

As usual, it is a slow Sunday in Marion, although campaign staff release statements and announce the content of telegrams received in response to Harding's speech on the League of Nations, all of which are in the same vein as the one sent by Jacob Gould Schurman, president of Cornell University: "Cordial congratulations on your league of nations speech today. The substance is extraordinarily good, the style very fine and the presentation very masterly and convincing. Your position will win the country."

According to the New York Times, Harding will focus the rest of the campaign on "two issues -- foreign relations and reconstruction problems," such as cost of living and banking.

Sources:

• "Harding to Ignore Dispute." New York Times. 30 August 1920.
• "To Speak on Reclamation." Marion Star. 30 August 1920.

Saturday, August 28, 1920

This is a "gala day" in Marion as delegations from Minnesota and Indiana come to hear "the most important pronouncement which Warren G. Harding, Republican nominee for president, has so far made from his famous 'front porch.'"

Minnesota Delegation

This delegation arrives at the station at 9:30 this morning. According to the Star, "Thirty-five in the delegation are from the iron county, including seven from Hibbing, said to be the wealthiest village in the world."

Louis L. Collins, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of the state who "is only five feet tall [and] is known as the 'Little Corporal' of the Rainbow division [in the Great War], presents his delegation to the candidate and crowd. "It was Ohio infrantrymen that shouted the name of Senator Harding for president then, and they were from Marion. The whole United States is shouting it now."

Collins and Harding pose for a photograph at the executive offices next door to Harding's home:

Indiana Delegation

Members of the Harding Club of Indianapolis arrive by special train in the afternoon. Indianan Will Hays, chairman of the national committee, returns to Marion to head the parade, alongside Senator New, also back in town, and Elias J. Jacoby, president of the Harding Club.

Other signs on display include "Cox visited President Wilson in the White House, but he never will move in" and "Indiana is Cox sure that Harding is the next President."

Jacoby, a Marion native and acquaintance of Harding, introduces the delegation from the front porch. "Hoosiers have come here to pay you their profound respect and they bid me give you the assurance that 'when the frost in on the pumpkin and the fodder's in the shock' they, with many thousands of others back home, will, with an overwhelming majority, present you with the electoral vote of Indiana."

Harding's Speech

Senator Harding comes out against the League of Nations in a front-porch speech to Republicans from Indiana and Minnesota.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Indiana Delegation: I greet you in a spirit of rejoicing; not a rejoicing in the narrow personal or partisan sense; not in the gratifying prospects of party triumph; not in the contemplation of abundance in the harvest fields and ripening corn fields and maturing orchards; not in the reassuring approach of stability after a period of wiggling and wobbling which magnified our uncertainty — though all of these are ample for our wide rejoicing — but I rejoice that America is still free and independent and in a position of self-reliance and holds to the right of self-determination, which are priceless possessions in the present turbulence of the world.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Harding "declared here today that he would take 'all that is good and excise all that is bad' from both The Hague Tribunal and the Versailles league in forming an association or league of free nations that would 'make the actual attainment of peace a reasonable possibility."

Mrs. Harding tells a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "After that speech this afternoon I do not believe that there is anyone who can say that they do not know where Warren Harding stands."

In 1924, J. Hampton Moore, who served as mayor of Philadelphia, recalled the day.

August 28th, 1920, the day the accompanying photograph was taken, Senator Harding, then Republican nominee for President, made his celebrated "porch front" speech in favor of a World Court, as opposed to the League of Nations. The Hardings included Mrs. Moore and me amongst their luncheon guests that day. Others present being Colonel George Harvey, Will H. Hays, Charles G. Hilles, Senator George Sutherland, and Harry Dougherty. Throughout the luncheon and during exercises on the porch, Mrs. Harding was the life of the party, a charming hostess at table and a delightful welcomer in the receiving line. Thousand were present that afternoon during which Mrs. Harding was always by her husband's side. The photograph was taken from the sidewalk after the crowd had dispersed. The car in the back ground was the Mayor's official car. --J. Hampton Moore

Sources:

• "Harding Seeks Best in League and Hague Court." Indianapolis Star. 29 August 1920.
• "Harding Talks of New League." Marion Star. 28 August 1920.
• "Marion Cheers State Pilgrims at Front Porch." Minneapolis Star Tribune. 29 August 1920.

Images:

• The photograph of the Hardings and the Moores is in the digital collections at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Friday, August 27, 1920

Senator Harding, Mrs. Harding, and several friends travel by car to Galion, Ohio, this afternoon. The candidate gives a speech at an "athletic tournament of employees of the Erie Railway," which he describes as "a campaign speech about play":

This occasion of your athletic tournament furnishes me with an opportunity to present to you and later on, I hope, to as many Americans as I can reach, something for all of us to think about deeply. 

From time immemorial the nations and races which have been fit to assume leadership in the world were those whose people knew how to excel in athletic sports and had not forgotten how to play — and how to play hard. The great civilizations — those which have left a profound effect upon the development of mankind, those which have contributed not only to exploration, to the extension of orderly government, to supremacy of arms but even in greater measure to the thought and philosophy of the world have been the nations that developed athletic sports — who know how to play. There was Greece, famous for the original Olympic games; there was Rome, that for centuries kept alive the customs of athletic competition in her arenas; there is the United Kingdom, great extender of enlightenment to far comers of the earth. Japan, leader in the Orient, built her power and her alertness by a tradition of training in competitive games such as wrestling and sword play. And, thank God, there is America, the stronghold of liberty and the square deal, which still can take the honors in the world's competitions in healthy sports.

I am glad to make a campaign speech about play. I believe that play, not mere entertainment, not reading comic strips or "passing the time," as some say, but real play, play that gives a man or woman a chance to express himself or herself as an individual, is one of the finest assets in our national life and one of the best builders of character. 

However, he covers many topics, and the Star leads with the news that he "declared that some day railway workers will hail the Cummins-Esch law as the greatest forward step in the history of railway legislation." That law put the railroads back into private hands.

Let me tell you the things which are in my heart about railway employment. No matter what any one tells you, no matter what your own erroneous impressions are, no thoughtful man in business or private life, no earnest man in public life is without a deep concern for the good fortunes of every railway worker, in the shop, in the yards or office, on the track or on the trains — every man in the service. We may differ about the way to best conditions and the assurances of soul and contentment in your work, but we are agreed about the ends at which we aim. 

In the evening, the women in Marion celebrate the suffrage victory with a demonstration through the city and a visit to the Harding residence:

As reported in the Star, "Pauline Foreman, ten-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Foreman, dressed to represent 'Uncle Sam' and accompanied by Muriel McMurray, four-year-old daughter of Dr. and Mrs. James Wilson McMurray, dressed in the suffrage color of yellow, preceded the women and attracted much attention all along the line of march. Little Miss Foreman carried the ballot for women, tied in the suffrage colors and her tiny companion, in her own sweet self, represented the womanhood of America."

Sources:

• "Cummins-Esch Law Is Praised." Marion Star. 27 August 1920.
• "Senator Called Regular Guy by Erie Workers." Marion Star. 28 August 1920.
• "Suffrage Victory Is Celebrated by Women." Marion Star. 28 August 1920.

Thursday, August 26, 1920

Senator Harding has to once again make it clear he is not attending the Ohio State Fair.

In the first place I have never made any sort of acceptance for a speaking engagement at the Ohio State fair. At no time have I made any reference to a proposed attendance on the part of Governor Cox or any program he should follow during his attendance. I have absolutely no interest therein. I do have an interest in the success of the Ohio State fair, as does every other citizen of Ohio. I have not found it possible to arrange to attend because of other pressing matters of very great importance.

The candidate meets members of the Marion County Teachers' institute, who've marched to Harding's home from the departmental school building:'

This is really a very happy experience. I am very happy to have your call. Of course, you think we always say that, but I speak with the utmost sincerity. My mind runs back to something like thirty-eight years ago — which, of course, none of you ladies can remember — when I was myself in attendance as a teacher at a Marion County Institute. I had only come from college the year before, and I did what was very much the practice of that time — turned to teaching in my abundant fullness of knowledge, merely as a temporary occupation. If I only knew as much now as I thought I knew then, I would be abundantly capable of fulfilling the office for which I have been named.

Wednesday, August 25, 1920

A delegation from Wyandot County, north of Marion, is on Harding's lawn today. In his speech, Senator Harding discusses the women's vote, and the effects of the Great War: 

It is significant that the women are here as a part of your numbers. It is likewise becoming. Clothed as they soon are to be with the right of suffrage, it is a fine example of their appreciation of the responsibility of this added duty of citizenship that they observe this first opportunity to show their interest and concern in matters political. Whatever differences there may have been over the granting of the right of suffrage to the women, there can be no question as to their fitness, their capacity, their patriotism and their earnestness. Whenever the American women determine upon a course they have universally made a complete success. They will regard their obligation with seriousness and always with a concern for their country's welfare...

Tuesday, August 24, 1920

Today is the busiest day in Marion since the nomination ceremonies on July 22; it is also a milestone in presidential campaign history because it is the first time that national celebrities are used to publicize a candidate.

Thousands of people want to see the stars who have traveled from New York to visit Senator Harding. The seventy members of the Harding and Coolidge Theatrical League, including Al Jolson and many other "names," are greeted by a crowd at Marion Union Station, including members of the John Hand band from Chicago, who will support the festivities on Harding's lawn today. A reporter for the Marion Star "was reminded of circus day in viewing the large numbers of citizens who crowded the station platform eager for a glimpse of the stars," who arrive at 7:34 a.m.:

The local citizens have an opportunity to also see Charles Evan Hughes, the previous Republican nominee, who is also here to visit Harding and is on the same train as Jolson and his friends; he is not aware that they'd be traveling together. The procession moves from the train station to the Marion Club, where the stars are served breakfast. Hughes heads to the Harding home for a conference with the candidate.

At the Harding home, another crowd gathers in anticipation of the festivities. The band positions itself to the right of the Harding's walk. Someone carries a sign with the message "We Want a Man Like Teddy":

Al Jolson opens the program by presenting Florence Harding with a roll of names of league members. Here she is holding the roll; Jolson is to her left:

Here's a photograph of Mrs. Harding pinning a boutonniere on Jolson:

Jolson explains that the members in attendance had a busy season ahead of them but still traveled to Marion: "[Y]ou realize how important it is to elect Harding and Coolidge." He mentions the actors who sent regrets, including some names that resonate a century later: Irene Castle, Mary Pickford, and Pearl White. 

Jolson and the band perform a "Harding, You're the Man For Us," a new campaign song that Jolson wrote for the occasion (but never recorded). He also sings "Swanee," one of his signature tunes; the crowd sings "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and the band offers a performance of "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight."

Harding uses the speech as another opportunity to criticize the current president:

There are many plays especially written for notable stars and their presentation has depended on the work of one portraying genius. There is, of course, a fascination in the one-lead drama, but it makes the spectator very much dependent upon one individuality, and if the star should be incapacitated for any reason, there is inevitable disappointment. I think it is a very practical thing to suggest that our American popular government ought not to be a one-lead or a one-star drama of modern civilization. I want to commend the policy of each and every one having his part to play, and we all must play with enthusiasm in order to perfect the whole production. We have been drifting lately under one-lead activities and I am sure the American people are going to welcome a change of the bill. For the supreme offering, we need the all-star cast, presenting America to all the world.

A lunch is held at the Sawyer farm and dinner is provided later. The actors leave Marion in the evening.

Sources:

• "Stars Frolic Around Porch." Marion Star. 24 August 1920.
• All these pictures, except one, are from the Ohio History Connection. The photograph of Mrs. Harding pinning the boutonniere on Jolson is from the Smithsonian Institute (but is cataloged in the same alphanumeric way the OHS photos are).

Tuesday, August 24, 1920 (CHARLES EVANS HUGHES)

Charles Evan Hughes, the previous Republican candidate for president, travels on the same train to Marion as Al Jolson and the members of the theatrical league. On the front porch, he tells a crowd of thousands:

We do not want a trickster. We do not want a shrewd politician. We do not want one who is isolated, who is removed, but we do want a man of courage, possessed of sound common sense, who has an appreciation of American institutions and who knows how to conduct great affairs in according with the spirit of our institutions. We want one who will give us a high standard of administration. We want some one who will, taking account of the great obligations of the most resourceful people of the world, enter upon the performance of these obligations and carry them successfully in a manner consonant with the maintenance of our national security. Such a man is Senator Harding.

According to reports, Hughes "was having the time of his life. He joined in the chorus of 'Mr. Harding, You're the Man for Us,' and with the rest of the crowd helped Blanche Ring in the singing of 'Rings on My Fingers.'" Later that evening, before leaving for St. Louis, Hughes releases a statement in praise of Harding, "a man of rare poise, high-minded and sincere."

Here are pictures from Harding Collection at the Ohio History Connection:

• Hughes (on the left), Harding, and an unidentified man (unfortunately) stand outside campaign headquarters, which is next to the Harding home:

• Hughes speaks to the crowd from the Harding front porch. If you look closely you can see Harding standing behind Hughes, looking at his notes:

• Hughes is still speaking, and Harding, in the same position as above, is easier to see:

• Harding, Jolson, and Hughes stand next to an incorrectly identified actress (I don't believe it is Blanche Ring):

• A photo of Harding, actor Eugene O'Brien, and Hughes will be published in numerous newspapers over the next couple of months, as shown here:

Sources:

• "Hughes Declares Harding Best Man." New York Times. 25 August 1920.
• "Hughes Praises Harding." New York Times. 26 August 1920.

Tuesday, August 24, 1920 (AL JOLSON)

These photographs from the Harding Collection at the Ohio History Connection are displayed in order of the alphanumeric coding on the pictures themselves. I assume they're chronological.

Al Jolson on the Harding front porch:

Al Jolson and [maybe] Blanche Ring (to his right):

Senator Harding and Al Jolson:

According to contemporary reports, Jolson is leading the crowd in the singing of "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

Tuesday, August 24, 1920 (OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS)

Senator Harding greets actresses from the theatrical league. Florence Harding is to the right. I love how happy the actress is shaking the senator's hand:

"Senator Harding shaking hands with Blanche Ring":

And more:

Senator Harding and Florence Harding, holding the roll:

Leo Carillo, Al Jolson, and Eugene O'Brien:

Tuesday, August 24, 1920 ("PLAYERS' DAY IN MARION")

Here's how an unimpressed New York Times described today, from an editorial it published on Thursday, August 26:

It must have been a pleasant relief for Mr. Harding's intellectuals to see and take part in this blithesome interlude staged by the sons and daughters of the Rialto. The Harding and Coolidge Theatrical League was out for a lark. Marion must long remember the incursion of these charming nymphs and simple children of Pan from Broadway. Mr. Harding must have been charmed with the hymns changed by his callers. Yet, great as is the energy and the metrical ingenuity of one of these productions, it was hardly calculated for the Marion latitudes. Take this stanza, for example:

Harding, you're the man for us
We think the country's ready
For a man like Teddy
One who is a fighter through and through

Waiving the question of Mr. Harding's resemblance to Mr. Roosevelt, the latter's well-known delight in smacking august Senators with derisive epithets must have been the compliment rather painful to its recipient. Moreover, such is the regrettable fondness of actors and actresses for chaff, that the last line of the following passage may be thought by a cynical a friendly but irreverent gibe:

We need another Lincoln
To do the nation's thinkin',
And, Mr. Harding, we've selected you.

Mr. Harding's remarkable gift of edification, his bent for anagogical interpretation, his talent for turning each porch party into an occasion of political and moral favor, were again show...

A jaundiced caviler might suggest that Mr. Harding's idea of popular government is the old reliable Senate stock company, full of veteran, robustious players, and differing from all other troupes in that it insists on managing, not being managed. Away with such leaden-paced and crabbed thoughts! Marion's Players' Day was a vision, a delight and a desire.

Source:

• "Players' Day in Marion." New York Times. 26 August 1920. 

Monday, August 23, 1920

Senator Harding will hold four events this week, one of which on Friday will take him to Galion, Ohio. Today, he travels, once again, to Mansfield for a round of golf.

Campaign staffers announce that Charles Evan Hughes, the Republican nominee in 1916, will be in Marion tomorrow for his first conference with Senator Harding since the nomination.

And, in case you forgot, the New York Evening World finally announces the winners of its campaign slogan contest. Here are the four Harding winners from 40,000 entries:

• Government, Like Charity, Begins at Home; Harding Will First Solve America's Problems. ($25)
• Make America Safe for Americans First, Then the World Safe for Democracy. ($10)
• See That Harding Hangs His Hat on the Peg Where Wilson's At. ($10)
• I'll Tell the World That Harding's Bold; Never Bartered, Bought or Sold. ($10)

The four Cox winners are just as underwhelming. And, it should be noted, the Harding campaign has yet to announce the slogan that inspired this contest (and others across the country).

Tomorrow's a big day!

Sources:

• "Eight Prize Winners in Contest for Best Campaign Slogan." New York Evening World. 23 August 1920.
• "Judge Hughes Here Tuesday." Marion Star. 23 August 1920.
• "National Committeeman from South Dakota Calls on Nominee--Visitors for the Week." Marion Star. 24 August 1920.
• "Schedule of Engagements Up to and Including September 17 Is Announced." Marion Star. 23 August 1920.

Saturday, August 22, 2020 (ROAD TRIP!)

I traveled to Marion, Ohio, this morning! In the era of social distancing, I was there and back within three hours, which included travel time and exteriors-only site seeing. It was a great morning!

The first stop was east of Marion to see the latest Ohio History Barn. The Ohio History Connection unveiled it in July to mark the Harding centennial:

The second stop was in Marion at the Harding home on Mt. Vernon Avenue. I have been there twice, once in the 1990s and another time in the 2000s. Decades before that, as a fledgling history buff, I sent a letter to the Harding house requesting information about the president (you know, a typical hobby for a kid in elementary school). The letter I received is the reason I am still obsessed with Harding today. Someone took the time to add a hand-written note about Harding in the corner of the official response; no one from the other presidential sites did that. That still makes me smile to this day.

Even though it's currently closed because of renovations and the pandemic, I felt excited to be there. That's a by-product of immersing myself in all things Harding this year.

Here's a photograph of the front porch from the backyard:

You aren't able to stand on the porch right now; it's been roped off while renovations are finished.

Here's a photograph of Mt. Vernon Avenue from the sidewalk in front of the Harding house. Marchers from downtown would have come from this direction.

And here's the new Warren G. Harding Presidential Library and Museum, which has been built behind the Harding house. The opening is indefinitely delayed by the pandemic, but when life returns to normal, this will be one of the first places I go:

I'm including a picture of the Harding Memorial, even though it's not a direct link to the events of 1920. It was the third and final stop in Marion:

No one was at the barn at the same time I was; no one was at the Harding house; but there was a family of five at the memorial, although the grandfather was the only one who seemed interested in being there.

I've placed some other photographs within earlier posts about the McKinley flagpole, campaign headquarters, and the press headquarters.

Sunday, August 22, 1920

A typically slow Sunday: Senator Harding is still hosting Colonel George Harvey, his weekend guest. He is greeted by and visits with a group of baseball players and veterans from the Soldiers' Home in Sandusky, Ohio.

Saturday, August 21, 1920

Senator Harding works today on his speech on foreign policy, which he plans to deliver next Saturday the 28th. According to the New York Times, "Extra precautions are being taken...to prevent any advance information of the speech leaking out. Republican managers predict that it will be probably the most important campaign utterance by the Senator since his acceptance speech."

Senator Harding and Colonel George Harvey, a weekend guest and the editor of Harvey's Weekly, then travel to Columbus in a "driving rainstorm" to play golf and have dinner at the Scioto Country Club.

In June, the New York Evening World describes Harding as "an imperturbable golfer [who] drives ball straight as an arrow" and prints these "photographic studies of Senator Harding on the links":

Harding "picking his driver"..."putting"..."playing an iron shot."

More speaking dates are announced by campaign advisors, including a visit on Tuesday by the members of the Harding and Coolidge Theatrical League, led by Al Jolson.

Sources:

• "Harding Speech Closely Guarded." New York Times. 22 August 1920.
• "In Position of Bryan in 1896." Marion Star. 21 August 1920.
• "Photographic Studies of Senator Harding on the Links." New York Evening World. 21 June 1920.

Friday, August 20, 1920

Another lull in the campaign: In the morning, Senator Harding says that he will not attend the Ohio State Fair on Tuesday, August 31. Governor Cox had accepted the same invitation, hoping to turn the opportunity into a debate between the two candidates. "I am sorry that Mr. Harding will not be there. I would like to have this joint debate because I know that the stand which I have taken on these issues in unanswerable..."

In the afternoon, Harding travels again to Mansfield for a round of golf. The return trip is described in the Mansfield News-Journal:

Coming home in the twilight over a bad stretch of roads, the Harding automobile was bumped severely in taking a bad railroad crossing. So badly damaged was it that it was barely able to limp into Galion, 15 miles away, at a snail's pace.

At Galion, a call was put in for another car to come out from Marion, 25 miles away, and while it was enroute the senator and his friends dined at a railroad eating house. The steak and potatoes offered there made a hit with the party.

Coming on into Marion, the new car blew a tire, causing more delay, and it was 11 o'clock before the senator finally drew up before his Mount Vernon avenue home, a tired candidate from 18 holes of strenuous golf and the mishaps of the road.

Sources:

• "Cox Fails to Get Debate with Rival." New York Times. 21 August 1920.
• "Real Business for Campaign." Marion Star. 20 August 1920.
• "Senator Has a Troublous Trip by Auto from Mansfield to Marion." Mansfield News-Journal. 21 August 1920.

And this is included here because it's cute:

Thursday, August 19, 1920

For the second consecutive day, Senator Harding delivers two speeches. His first, to a group of Civil War veterans from Hardin County, Ohio, is "brief" and shared here in its entirety:

You have paid me a very exceptional compliment, and it is a joy for me to come over here to greet you. I don't think it has fallen to the lot of any man in the capacity of a candidate to have a greater tribute paid to him than the call of such a body of veterans of the Civil War. When I stop to think of the long period that has passed since you went to the front in 1861 it brings to me a new realization of what you did, first in your service to country in preserving nationality and second in laying down your arms and returning to citizenship, giving to the country the leaven of patriotism. 

From my earliest recollections I have a distinct remembrance of Civil War soldiers in their activities of citizenship and their marked influence in political progress. If the millions of sons who went forth in the defense of our national rights in the World War can turn to a new birth of patriotism as you did, that will compensate us for all our part in the great world struggle. The man who goes forth to offer all on the altars of country returns a better patriot. We need a new birth of patriotism in our country. 

You didn't enter the war to free the slave, although that was a becoming ideal. You didn't go to war because you hated any group in the South or to establish any new conception of justice. But you entered the conflict because you found the Union was threatened; you went to save the Union and nationality. 

There have been a variety of opinions as to why your grandsons went to war. Your sons went to war with Spain for humanity. Some have said that your grandsons went to war for democracy and some that they went forth to insure that there would be no wars in the future. If we went to war for democracy, shouldn't we have gone in when it first started? And if we went to war to insure that there would be no more wars, shouldn't we have gone in before so many millions had been sacrificed? 

The simple truth is that your grandsons went to war when Congress made the declaration because our nationality and rights had been threatened. Then it was possible to call the sons of America to battle. 

That doesn't mean that when the war is over we should surrender what we went in to maintain. If I am elected president of the United States and it is within my power, there will never be a surrender of that which you have handed down to the generation of today.

In the afternoon, members and former members of the Ohio General Assembly marched to the Harding Home to hear a lengthier speech, described by the New York Times as "an exhaustive defense of the Senate." This is the part I liked best:

I remember a very amusing incident which happened in the Senate debates relating to the adoption of a modified cloture rule. It ought to be said, in passing, that the proposition for cloture came from an executive who looked upon the proceedings of the Senate with more or less contempt. In the progress of the debate, a very eminent senator, who argued very earnestly that an hour was ample time for the intelligent and ample discussion of any pending question, required an hour and a half of his time to utter all that he had to say on that particular subject.

Harry Daugherty speaks briefly, and Florence Harding is greeted by the crowd.

This evening, Harding plays host to Harry L. Davis, the Republican nominee for governor, Frank B. Willis, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, and George H. Clark, chair of the Republican state advisory committee. They discuss plans for the campaign.

This cartoon - "Harding's Conception of the Ship of State" - will appear on the editorial page of the St. Louis Star on Saturday:

Sources:

• "Achievements Accomplished." Marion Star. 19 August 1920.
• "Harding Defends Senate as Saving Our Nationality." New York Times. 20 August 1920.
• "Harding's Conception of the Ship of State." St. Louis Star. 21 August 1920.
• "Old Soldiers Greet Nominee." Marion Star. 19 August 1920.
• "Party Plans Are Taken Up." Marion Star. 20 August 1920.

Wednesday, August 18, 1920

Tennessee ratifies the 19th amendment, and Senator Harding releases a statement about the historic event:

All along, I have wished for the completion of ratification, and have said so, and I am glad to have all the citizenship of the United States take part in the presidential election. The Republican party will welcome the response of American womanhood, through its appeal to the confidence of all our people.

In Marion, Senator Harding greets a delegation of Native Americans in the afternoon.

I have heard something about the dissatisfaction of many Indian residents but it has not been my good fortune to hear of it in detail. I think we will agree about the basic principle that the American Indian is as much entitled to a square deal as anybody in the republic, and if we are called to responsibility he will get it.

While we are talking about democracy and human rights, I think we had better bestow them on the native American rather than sacrificing American lives in trying to bestow it thousands of miles across the sea. I believe in bestowing them on Americans first. You take that message back to your people from me, Whether I am elected to the presidency or not, I am still a member of the senate for a little while and I will be glad to add my voice and efforts to see that the Indian gets a square deal.

Members of the Society of American Indians, which was established at Ohio State University in 1911, had visited Governor Cox yesterday, which led one of the speakers to inadvertently address the Republican candidate as "Senator Cox," to which Harding quipped:

I don't blame you. He's a pretty live fellow. But that's all right. I'll be President, anyway.

Harding then travels to Lincoln Park to deliver a speech to an Ohio lumbers dealers' association. The speech is all about lumber (so no excerpts here).

This editorial cartoon (of which I only understand the Cox part) is published in today's Washington Times: 

Sources:

• "Harding Says Start Idealism at Home." New York Times. 19 August 1920.
• "Indians Call on Nominee Today." Marion Star. 18 August 1920.
• "Is Glad to Have All Citizenship Take Part." Marion Star. 18 August 1920.
• "Lumber Needs for Country." Marion Star. 19 August 1920.
• "Senator Harding Smokes Pipe of Peace with Indians." Marion Star. 23 August 1920.
• "Suffrage Wins Battle Today." Marion Star. 18 August 1920.

Other Information:

• "Warren Harding: Wanted Assimilation by Way of Citizenship." Indian-Country Today. 19 July 2016.

Tuesday, August 17, 1920

Because managers at national headquarters and Senator Harding himself have received numerous requests to bring delegations to Marion or entice Harding to locations outside the city, an "important conference...is being held [today] at Harding headquarters for the purpose of arranging a complete schedule covering all of the nominee's dates from now until October 1."

The six managers putting "their heads together over a large sheet of cardboard on which were blue-penciled rectangles for every day from now until the first of October" are:

• Harry M. Daugherty - member of the Republican National Executive Committee
• Will Hays - chairman of the Republican National Committee
• Albert Lasker - in charge of publicity*
• Senator Harry S. New (Indiana) - in charge of the speakers' bureau
• Carmi Thompson - former Ohio Secretary of State
• Henry C. Wallace - publisher of the Wallace Farmer

Here's the same photograph, which is published in the Des Moines Register on August 23. Hays is second from left, Harding third, Albert Lasker sixth, Daugherty seventh, Christian ninth. Others identified in the wire photo is William A. Grant, director of the Republican pictorial division and Buckley Ward from West Virginia.

Harding "listened to suggestions and then vetoed nearly every request for him to leave Marion during the next six weeks." He did agree to discuss foreign affairs during a speech on August 28, instead of at the Minnesota State Fair on September 8, and he confirmed two other speeches: a Labor Day speech in Marion ("among people who know his labor record") and the one previously announced in Minneapolis.

At the end of the day, Harding drives Hays to Crestline, 30 miles northeast of Marion, to catch a night train to New York.

Sources:

• "Harding to Clarify His Treaty Attitude." New York Times. 18 August 1920.
• "To Speak Here on Labor Day." Marion Star. 17 August 1920.

* For the centennial, I am re-reading John A. Morello's Selling the President, 1920: Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Harding, which I will discuss at some point.

Monday, August 16, 1920

Senator Harding has a busy day at campaign headquarters. He starts work on his next front porch speech, scheduled for Thursday. He chats with the press; according to a report in his own paper, "He discussed with newspapermen the work ratification of suffrage would entail in registering the new voters and counting ballots. He said that an unusual delay in receiving returns will be inevitable if the amendment is ratified in time for the women to vote in November."

The candidate is quoted as being "more and more convinced of the impracticability of running the other half of the world from this half. I can that there will be little of the present foreign policy if the Republican party succeeds. There will be a complete reversal." This statement inspires this editorial cartoon. originally published in the Chicago Tribune:

The New York Evening World is still receiving and posting slogans:

• Ohio is the State, Marion is the town, Harding is the man.
• Harding, the man of might, will surely fight for the people's rights.
• A better county and a better world demand a better President--Harding.

Governor Cox will speak this week in Columbus, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana; and at a "Cox day" celebration in Canton, Ohio.

And the readers of the Albuquerque Morning Journal find an editorial cartoon on their front page today in which Harding and Cox are in front of the classroom presenting "the Great League of Nations Joint Debate" while "landlords" harass the "public":

Sources:

• "Are All Our Little Boys and Girls Paying Strict Attention to the Lesson?" Albuquerque Morning Journal. 16 August 1920.
• "Complete Revision of Foreign Policy Is Harding's Aim." Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 17 August 1920.
• "Conditions in Indiana Good." Marion Star. 16 August 1920.
• "Harding's Position." Pittsburg Sun. 21 August 1920.
• "Presidential Candidates Preparing New Speeches." Harrisburg Telegraph. 16 August 1920.
• "Revive Old Epitaphs and Adapt Them for Cox---Harding Slogans." New York Evening World. 16 August 1920.

Sunday, August 15, 1920

A slow Sunday at Harding headquarters, although the week ahead is expected to be busy with three delegations scheduled for visits.

This editorial cartoon is published in today's Arizona Republican:

Harding (on the left) and Cox (on the right), on falls over the White House, speak in unison:

I'm really amazed and disgusted;
Your party is not to be trusted,
But while I deplore you,
The fall is before you,
And your rotten, old barrel will be busted.

The camera operator in the bottom left corner provides direction: "Hey! One of you register joy."

Men of Marked Contrast

At some point during the summer of 1920, Charles Grant Miller interviewed both candidates for an article in Editor and Publisher, which was reproduced in numerous newspapers, including in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on August 15, 1920. Under the title "'Close Up' of the Next President Shows Two Candidates Men of Marked Contrasts," Miller contended that "Harding is mellow, Cox metallic." Here are some excerpts and a composite photograph "which pointedly illustrate the contrasting personal traits set forth in Mr. Miller's interview" (whatever that means):

The two Ohio editorial candidates for the presidency are men of marked contrasts. In seeking to show some of these contrasts I shall not overstrain; indeed there scarcely could be overstatement...

Harding's headquarters are in a plain, two-story cottage next door to his own home in a quiet shady street of a country town. A lean and sleepy-looking policeman is the only guard...

There is a small front parlor for those who most wait, and the little room in which the senator does his work, receives visitors, holds conferences and issues statements to the men of the press is in the rear. Upstairs are more secretaries...

How different at Columbus!

To get to Cox one enters the grounds of the State House, flanked on either side by great guns and statued [sic] statesmen, mounts broad granite steps, passes between giant pillars into spacious corridors, crosses a vast rotunda walled with famous historical paintings and swings open the massive mahogany door of the offices of the governor... And the governor is still beyond other massive doors, other secretaries, other doorkeepers.

Yet Senator Harding, amid his simple surroundings, is a courtly and commanding figure; Governor Cox, for all his magnificent setting, is dapper and democratic...

Harding is very tall, rather slender and slightly stooped; Cox is short, stodgy and square...

Harding's calm grey eyes look at one frankly; Cox's graze eagerly, inquiringly.

About Harding's mouth is a kind but firm expression; about Cox's an eager inquisitiveness...

Saturday, August 14, 1920

The Longworths return to Cincinnati this morning. At noon, on his porch, Harding meets the members of the Coburn's Minstrels after they perform for him.

Senator Harding's campaign aides announce that the candidate will deliver an address at the Minnesota State Fair on September 8, while also denying the trip is a change to the front-porch campaign: "The senator let it be known that an agricultural speech in the West has been in contemplation since two days following his nomination."

Governor Cox travels to Wheeling, West Virginia, today to make his first campaign speech outside of Ohio.

Sources:

• "To Speak Here on Labor Day." Marion Star. 14 August 1920.
• The image is from a newspaper published August 14, 1920 (but not taken on this date).