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.

8/20/2020

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:

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