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.

8/17/2020

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.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)