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.

8/21/2020

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.

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