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.

8/07/2020

Saturday, August 7, 1920

Senator Harding meets a few callers in the morning but spends much of the day with Senator Charles E. Townsend of Michigan. After their lunch, the two of them travel to Mansfield to play golf. In an interview with the Mansfield News, caddy Junior Reynolds says, "Mr. Harding pays good, too. Just this afternoon I went around the links twice with him, and he paid me $1.80. A caddy is supposed to get only thirty cents an hour." (Reynolds is not the caddy in the picture, even though it accompanied the interview and was taken at the Westbrook Country Club.)
In Dayton, Governor Cox accepts the Democratic nomination in front of a crowd of 50,000. 
Marion Democrats travel to Dayton to march in the parade: "We're Here Jim. We're All from Marion."

They have a goat with them:


As suggested by the headlines from Cox's Daily News, the candidate covered a wide-range of topics in his speech: "FAIR RETURNS FOR CAPITAL AND LABOR; COLLECTIVE BARGAINING URGED - Reduction of Taxes, Law Enforcement and Punishment of Profiteers Promised, and Fostering Attitude Toward Agricultural Development, Education and Other Proposals Stated--Woman's Suffrage Endorsed."

The New York Sun-Herald reminds its readers that the "length of Senator Harding's acceptance was a disappointment to us because such important declarations by nominees for great office of president of the United States out to be read by all American people. They do not read them when they are so very long. We are the more disappointed then, at the length of Governor Cox's speech by as much as it roughly fills 50 per cent more type than Senator Harding's did."

Sources:
  • "Interpretations of Good Faith That Do Not Disturb 'Vital Principle', Governor Cox's Stand on League." Dayton Daily News. 7 August 1920.
  • "It's Great to Carry for the Next President, Says Caddy Who Handles Senator's Sticks." Mansfield News. 8 August 1920.
  • "Marion and Franklin County Delegations at Dayton." Columbus Dispatch. 8 August 1920.
  • "Senator Townsend Is Caller Here Today." Marion Star. 7 August 1920.
  • "Some Press Comment on Speech Delivered by Governor Cox." Mansfield Star. 10 August 1920.
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