Thursday, September 30, 1920

Senator Harding receives visitors and attends to business today.

Sources:

• "Full Faith in Progressives." Marion Star. 1 October 1920.
• "Senator Harding and Party Return Home." Marion Star. 30 September 1920.

Wednesday, September 29, 1920 (WEST VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY AND OHIO)

Sistersville, West Virginia

"The nominee's first address of the day was made at Sistersville at 7:30... There was a crowd at the station with a band [that played 'Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here']. Senator Harding said that in America the public ought to start the morning with the memory of yesterday."

Parkersburg, West Virginia

"Harding left his train here long enough to go uptown and speak to a crowd that packed the local theater. He took his place on the stage with the curtain down, and footlights were turned on and the current went up with the band playing. The audience broke into a storm of applause. Outside, the streets were packed for blocks." 

Harding also speaks from his automobile outside the theater. "In one of two speeches he made...he replied to Governor Cox's comparison of the slogans of 'America First' and 'Deutschland Ueber Alles'":

I have been preaching to my countrymen the gospel readily expressed in two words, namely, in all our thoughts, in all our actions, and in all our purposes let us be for "America first."

Ravenswood, West Virginia

"School children had been granted a half holiday [to hear the candidate]":

I have been riding along the Ohio River this morning, noting the small towns and the activities of the agricultural communities and have been thinking all the way home, how from the village and the farm we call the boys and girls into the great responsibilities in our city life. It is up to us from the wholesome rural sections, with all our freedom and inspiration, to influence the great cities and make it possible for all of the men, women, and children to enjoy the rights and privileges that God Almighty intended them to enjoy, in spite of their determination to crowd together in the great cities...

Enroute to Huntington, West Virginia

Harding's train derails between Parkersburg and Huntington.

Mason City, West Virginia

"Speaking to a crowd at the railway station, [Harding] compared his abandoned private car to the American car of state":

The great car of state, going forward to the fulfillment of national engagements, somehow got off the track last year over in Paris, and it left things in very bad order, and I think maybe in crossing the trestle of internationalism if it had not been for the guard rail on constitutionalism in the senate, to prevent us from completely leaving the track, we might have had a very serious wreck for the United States. So I am telling you that instead of trying to put up a broken-up car back on the track, let us cut it loose and go on and keep our engagements will all the world.

Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Huntington, West Virginia

Here Harding discusses "President Wilson's failure to carry out the will of Congress with regard to abrogating the commercial phases of certain treaties as provided in the Jones Shipping bill. He said the President had failed to act because some jealous nation across the sea objected":

I do not intend that any foreign nation, no matter how big or how jealous, shall ever tell America what conditions we must trade under in order to do business with the world.

Ashland, Kentucky

Harding delivers an open-air speech to an audience of 15,000, "largely composed of river men and mountaineers from three states":

I note by the morning papers that someone has taken up the slogan of "America First" and tried to compare it with that used by the Germans during the war. Somehow or other the comparison has appealed to me, and I note that in a colloquy between my Democratic opponent and a citizen of German origin, it was attempted to make the slogan 'America First' an appeal of selfishness and an ultimate menace for us in our relations with the rest of the world... I warn you my countrymen, let's not have one man dictatorship in the United States...

Ironton, Ohio

"Thousands of people thronged the district around the Elk's Home at Ironton to hear Harding speak about 4:30 Wednesday evening. Fourteen decorated automobiles carried the Harding special party from Central Park, Ashland, [across the Ohio River] to Ironton..." Harding offers a short speech:

We do not want super-government in these United States. I am not a superman but just one like all of you present...

The party is rushed to the special train.

Portsmouth, Ohio

"Senator Harding spoke to thousands of Portsmouth people who jammed the space around the N. & W. station, Tenth and Waller streets, shortly after six o'clock Wednesday evening... [He] could barely talk about a whisper, and it was only with great effort that severely taxed his physical powers that he could make himself heard by the crowd."

Marion, Ohio

The Harding party returns home just after midnight. Harding will tell journalists tomorrow:

It is my deliberate judgment that the people of this country are tired of things as they are, that they do not believe the administration at Washington has done right, and that they want a change.

Sources:

• "Ashland Hears Ohio Senator." Marion Star. 30 September 1920.
• "Autocracy Denounced by Harding." New York Tribune. 30 September 1920.
• "Great Car of State Got Off the Track in Paris, Says Sen. Harding." Meriden Record-Journal. 30 September 1920.
• "Great Meeting at Ironton." Portsmouth Daily Times. 30 September 1920.
• "Hot Retort Is Made to Cox in Harding Speech." Dayton Evening Herald. 29 September 1920.
• "Senator Harding and Party Return Home." Marion Star. 30 September 1920.
• "Thousands Here Speech at Depot." Portsmouth Daily Times. 30 September 1920.

Tuesday, September 28, 1920 (WEST VIRGINIA)

As the Harding special heads to Wheeling, West Virginia, the Republican candidate is "greeted at a dozen wayside stations and made half a dozen speeches," according to his hometown newspaper. Elsewhere, it is reported that the "heat has made his trip unusually trying, and his voice showed the strain of last night's speech in Baltimore..."

The location of these photographs is not identified in the record, but this gives you a sense of what occurs at each stop:

The speeches are made on the rear platform during short stops at:

• Grafton, West Virginia
• Fairmont, West Virginia
• Mannington, West Virginia
• Cameron, West Virginia
• Moundsville, West Virginia

Grafton, West Virginia

At his first speech in West Virginia, Harding is greeted by more than 500 railway workers and residents of Grafton; he again describes his support of the Cummins-Esch railroad act:

Railroad workers are coming to understand that they can get their troubles adjusted by a recognized authority under this law. If the administration were now carrying out the provisions of the act requiring pro-rata distribution of coal cars to mines the situation would be infinitely better.

Fairmount, West Virginia

Hundreds of the Fairmount residents who planned to see Harding show up to the station too late to see the candidate; the Harding special arrives at 9:27 a.m., 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Harding does greet a crowd of 1,500 and speaks briefly during the 10 minute stop. "America First was the keynote of the brief address...and the return of government to a sane and safe policy and for cooperation in meeting conditions thrust upon the nation as an outgrowth of the great world war." As the train pulls out, Harding is heard exclaiming "Why did they call 'all aboard'? I could have talked longer."

Mannington, West Virginia

The Harding special arrives in Mannington at 10:10, with fewer disappointed citizens: word is sent from Fairmount that the train is ahead of schedule. Harding gives a 10-minute speech to a crowd of 2,000, including a delegation of school children.

Cameron, West Virginia

Harding's speech here - and at Fairmount - is "devoted to the advocacy of representative government and to a plea that the United States maintain its integrity and never surrender to a league of nations the right to summon its sons to war."

Moundsville, West Virginia

"Mountaineers were conspicuous" when Harding "voiced his hope for better education and declared his faith in 'an educated America.' He also pleaded for loyalty by all foreign-board Americans, saying that those who availed themselves of American opportunities owed the debt of 'absolute loyalty' in return."

Glover Gap, West Virginia

Harding requests a special stop at Glover Gap, "a mere water tank," after he learns that a group of school girls will wave as the train rolls through. There, "he talked happily with a crowd of girls at the station, telling them how to make apple butter pie," telling the group "The most beautiful thing in all the world is a young girl, with her sleeves rolled up, baking a pie and helping mother."

McMechen/Benwood Junction/South Wheeling, West Virginia

"Senator Harding's train stopped at Benwood Junction for 12 minutes. There was not a large crowd gathered, and Senator Harding, minus his hat, stepped from the train and walked along the platform the length of his train, greeting and chatting with men, women, and youngsters."

Wheeling, West Virginia

The train arrives in Wheeling around 1 p.m. As reported in tomorrow's Wheeling Intelligencer, "It was the greatest day for Ohio county Republicanism since the famous Roosevelt demonstration in 1900, and there are many who witnessed the Roosevelt demonstration who think that Harding Day surpassed the Roosevelt reception in enthusiasm and attendance. Wheeling simply went Harding wild yesterday."

A crowd greets the Hardings at the station; they are taken to the McLure hotel for a reception and some rest. After the reception, Harding speaks from a balcony to eight or nine thousand people who could not get into the auditorium for tonight's speech. His "brief talk brought hearty bursts of applause."

Harding's main speech is about business:

Government is a political and not a business agency, but it does a good deal of business, nevertheless. The business of our government is enormous in extent and is constantly growing greater and more complex. It is carried on, however, by methods so crude, so wanting in plan and system, that if it were a private business of equal magnitude with fixed resources, instead of public business with well-nigh unlimited resources, we should have gone into liquidation and closed our doors long ago. No private business can possibly survive without keeping its expenditures within the limits of its income, but the government goes on, year after year, with no real effort to maintain the balance between income and outgo. No business can be carried on successfully without a strict application of business methods, and government business presents no exception to the rule. Hence it is that this government of ours, in its financial and business operations, would long ago have proved a colossal failure were it not for the power which it possesses to take from the pockets of the people unlimited monies to renew the lavish stream which flows from its treasury. 

Sources:

• "Harding Gets Big Reception." Bucyrus Evening Telegraph. 29 September 1920.
• "Harding's Speech in West Virginia." Indianapolis News. 28 September 1920.
• "Harding Wins West Virginia." Wheeling Intelligencer.. 29 September 1920.
• "Senator Harding Praises Fairmount's Industrial Process." Fairmount West Virginian. 28 September 1920.
• "Senator Is In West Virginia." Marion Star. 28 September 1920.
• "To Join Parade." Marion Star. 28 September 1920.
• "Wheeling Is Enthusiastic." Marion Star. 29 September 1920.

Monday, September 27, 1920 (MARYLAND)

Baltimore, Maryland

The Harding special arrives in Baltimore at 3:30 p.m., 15 minutes late. The schedule will include an informal reception at the Southern Hotel then a speech at the Fifth Regiment Armory. "It was recalled that the armory has accommodated between 25,000 and 30,000 persons and the 'planning committee' says it prepared to break the record tonight, if necessary."

Over 20,000 people are in attendance when the Hardings arrive at the armory at 7:45 p.m. In the speech, according to his hometown paper, the candidate promises a "merchant marine policy, insuring accessibility to all the markets of the world, linked with a protective tariff system to foster production at home":

Fellow-Americans: It is a great privilege to meet this assemblage. Maryland has a large place in the consciousness of America. Your citizenship has been identified with stirring events in our country's history. You are adding richly to our national store of learning and letters. For many of us, the teeming waters and fruitful shores of Maryland have long made existence more gracious.

But your city and your state have come to stand for sterner things. America looks upon a newly-set stage today. The old order has passed, never to return. The World War has wrought changes as stupendous in the economic intercourse of nations as in their political relations. Our commerce, our trade, our agriculture, our industry, our finance — all are different, in their present phase and in their future prospect, because of the war and its aftermath. Old contacts have been broken, new forces have been aroused. There has been a shift in vital centers, and cities, like individuals, are facing new opportunities, and greater responsibilities... 

A heckler, the first of the campaign, interrupts the speech and is arrested. 

The Harding special leaves for Wheeling late this evening after two new cars replace the ones damaged in the accident this morning. Per the Indianapolis News, "One of the cars substituted and occupied by newspaper men was used just a year ago as a part of the train on which President Wilson made his 10,000-mile speaking trip for the league of nations."

Sources:

• "Harding Coming Today; Big Welcome Planned." Baltimore Sun. 27 September 1920.
• "Harding Given a Big Ovation." Marion Star. 28 September 1920.
• "Harding Heckled on League Issue as 20,000 Cheer." New York Times. 28 September 1920.
• "Harding's Speech in West Virginia." Indianapolis News. 28 September 1920.

Monday, September 27, 1920 (PENNSYLVANIA)

The Hardings are on their way to Baltimore. Campaign staff announce that three additional speeches will be made in West Virginia on the return trip from Maryland for a total of six in that state.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Party Jolted: "Senator Harding's private car, 'Ideal,' was jolted considerably and the newspaper correspondents in the car directly in front of it were badly shaken up, but neither damage nor injuries resulted, when a slowly moving switch engine sideswiped the reporters' car as the Harding special pulled out of Pittsburgh early this morning. Some windows in the 'Sumter,' the reporters' car, were broken. All the occupants were asleep when the bump came."

Altoona, Pennsylvania

The Harding special arrives in Altoona at 7:15 this morning. Harding speaks "under difficulties of the engines on adjoining tracks making considerable noise":

I come from a railroad town, and it is a pleasure to me to meet some any of  many of you so early this morning... You have gladdened my heart by your appearance here so early this morning. I love old Pennsylvania. All the Hardings I ever knew came originally from Pennsylvania and I have, therefore, some claim among you. I like your state because you are a Republican state, but I also like it because it never fails to correct those things which are wrong...

Lewistown, Pennsylvania

The candidate is met by a small crowd and makes "a short address from the rear platform in which he advocated a change in administration and in the event of his going to Washington and their not being satisfied with the change they should make another one as speedily as possible, he also called attention to the fact that too little interest was taken in the government of the people by the people themselves." Harding greets the "'Wisto' King who presented [him] with a bottle of his great balm of life and what about the only one who did get a chance to shake him by the hand."

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

According to the Harrisburg Telegraph, "Harrisburg was honored today with a brief visit by the next President of the United States... He came in almost unheralded on his way from Marion to Baltimore, but the time he spent here was filled to the brim with enthusiastic greetings on the part of hundreds of admirers and deep interest in the city on the part of the candidate. Not even Colonel Roosevelt in the heyday of his career ever put in a more strenuous hour in the Capitol city."

Harding's train arrives in Pennsylvania's capital at 10:35 a.m. Repairs are needed after the morning jolt near Pittsburgh. As soon as the train stops, the senator descends into the crowd to shake hands. "Harding was quite patient in his handshaking and rather democratic, shaking hands with all who came within reach. When a photographer attempted to get his picture the Senator posed and when the photographer became somewhat flustered and spoiled a plate or two Harding remarked 'Better wind it up.'"

Harding and the lieutenant governor take a walk down Market Street, "stopping wherever a few people were congregated to allow the Senator to shake hands. Women received as much, if not more, attention than men."

Harding enters a store on that street to "purchase a cap. While he was making the purchase all other sales in the store ceased. Everyone was watching the Senator make a choice. He bought a gray cap for three dollars."

Harding then meets government employees at the Capitol and stops at a downtown hotel for the opening session of the state chamber of commerce convention: "Senator Harding spoke for but a few moments, emphasizing the need of business in politics and the intention of the G.O.P. to provide a business administration."

Harding returns to the station in time for the scheduled departure at 11:20 a.m.

York, Pennsylvania

The Harding special stops in York at 12:15 p.m. This stop is arranged by the mayor, who, upon learning this morning that the train will be in the town for water, sends a telegram to Harding staff in Harrisburg.

"After a few words of greeting to the Yorkers, in which he introduced his wife as 'his boss,' the senator addressed the cheering crowd. He said that the people want to return of representative popular government and that the only way to have such government is to put the Republican party in power":

In an industrial city such as yours, you who work for wage want to know the permanence of your employment and of the compensation which it brings to you. You can't have the present high level of wages unless you give high efficiency in return. Do that. It is your duty to your county... See that you elect, not only a Republican president, but a congressman from every district in Pennsylvania.

Harding is now behind schedule. 

Sources:

• "Change Made in Itinerary." Marion Star. 27 September 1920.
• "Crowd Greets Harding at Lewistown." Altoona Tribune. 28 September 1920.
• "Harding Enthusiastically Greeted on Unheralded Visit to State's Capitol City." Harrisburg Telegraph. 27 September 1920.
• "Harding Given a Big Ovation." Marion Star. 28 September 1920.
• "Harding Here for 45 Minutes, Visits Capitol and Store." Harrisburg Evening News. 27 September 1920.
• "Harding in City for 10 Minutes, Will Talk." Altoona Tribune. 27 September 1920.
• "Harding Party Off for East." Marion Star. 27 September 1920.
• "'My Boss,' Harding Introduces Spouse." York Dispatch. 27 September 1920.
• "Party Jolted." Marion Star. 27 September 1920.
• "Sen. Harding Is Platform Speaker Here." Altoona Tribune. 28 September 1920.

Sunday, September 26, 1920

The Hardings are visited in the morning by four Slavic street musicians from Cleveland, who perform several songs on their violins. Mrs. Harding invites them into the house for a waffle breakfast.

The Hardings spend the afternoon reminiscing with members of the Harding Newsboys' Club, a group made up of over a hundred former carriers of the Marion Star:

Webb C. Hayes, son of the late president Rutherford B. Hayes, is also in Marion today to extend an invitation to Harding to be a guest at the dedication of a solider memorial at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, Ohio, on October 4. Harding will share the platform with Governor Cox.

The Hardings, and a party of campaign staff and journalists, leave Marion on three special cars for the second trip outside Ohio. They are due in Baltimore, Maryland, at 3:16 tomorrow afternoon.

Sources:

• "Extra! Old Harding Newsies Make Call." Marion Star. 27 September 1920.
• "Harding Starts on Eastern Trip." Burlington Free Press. 27 September 1920.

Saturday, September 25, 1920 (TRAVELING MEN'S DAY)

"Senator Harding we are coming 600,000 strong"

"Senator Harding we represent business and we want you to represent us"

"We trust you with our homes and our interests"

"The whole d---- family has agreed on Harding"

Delegations arrive in Marion today for Traveling Men's Day and are arranged in four divisions for a parade to Harding's home:

• The first division includes the officials who will speak and men from Illinois, New York, Philadelphia, Boston (on Park boulevard)

• The second division includes a Columbus band and delegations from Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Springfield, and Urbana (on Olney avenue)

• The third division includes delegations from Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Toledo (on Leader street)

• The fourth division includes delegations from Akron, Canton, Delaware, Newark, and Zanesville (on Blaine avenue)

Senator Harding greets them in the afternoon:

My Countrymen: Long before money was a dependable means of exchange, long before banks and clearing houses were even thought of the barters of trade were the advance agents expanding civilization. The primitive man produced from the soil for his own sustenance, but when he began turning nature's bounty into surpluses, people undertook their exchanges, and the exchange of products was attended by an exchange of ideas, and the world developed and advanced accordingly. It was in these exchanges that the first traveling men of all civilization became the ambassadors of education and art, the bearers of ideas, and the surveyors of the widened fields of human relationships. The paths of cargoes 

were the highways of exchanging ideas, and the men who bought and sold, the traveling men of old, were the foremost exponents of the world's commerce and its attending civilization. 

The traveling men of today maintain their eminent relationship to the life and progress of our people. Business is the life blood of the nation, and these business agents are unfailing in their reflex of progressive thought and the convictions of the American people. We find them everywhere, always alert, always pushing ahead, always eager to add to the volume of business which is the barometer of our material good fortune and the base of ah our boasted attainments.

Friday, September 24, 1920

Twelve hundred visitors from West Virginia travel to Marion to hear Senator Harding:

Judge Vandervoort, Congressmen Woodyard, Fellow Americans: I am very happy over this pilgrimage. I have, as Judge Vandervoort has said, come a good many times into your wonderful state, not only as a matter of duty but as a matter of very keen pleasure. I have come into West Virginia not alone because you are neighbors of Ohio and think and aspire as we do in the Buckeye state, but because it is good to come among the live, aspiring, achieving population of your remarkable new state. I have come there to worship at the shrine of him who made the first great impassioned stroke for modern American freedom, I delight to come among you because there is a type of citizenship in the mountains of your wonderful state that has no counterpart in all America. And I tell you, my countrymen, if the day ever comes when the spirit of America, which God forbid, should ever fade although sometimes it would seem to do so — I say, if the day ever comes when the spirit of America should seem to fade, you could go in the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee and still find the soul of the United States of America 

alive.

It has been my fortune in some twenty years of political life to do considerable campaign speaking, and I like to say it to you, I have never found any section of our glorious country so delightful and so inspiring to visit as in the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Thursday, September 23, 1920

Employees of the Ohio Mutual Plate Glass Insurance Company join delegations from the Ohio Dental Association and Crawford County to hear Senator Harding speak on his front porch. Harding tells the crowd from Crawford County:

...you ought to vote for me because your county is named for a distant kinsman of mine. Those of my particular branch of the Hardings are of kind of Colonel Crawford, who was burned at the stake when fighting in behalf of advancing the cause of American civilization.

His newspaper describes the point of his speech as "awakening the conscience of the ignorant and the misguided to the fact that the best social welfare worker in the world is the man or woman who does an honest day's work":

The conservation of human resource is even more important than the conservation of material resource; but I desire to call your attention to the fact that one depends a great deal on the other, and that the two form a benevolent circle. This fact is forgotten by many persons. On the one hand, there are those with a strong sentiment to improve the conditions of the less fortunate or by a policy, even more wise, to prevent the development of unjust social conditions or low standards of health and education, and to maintain our position as a land of equal opportunity. So fixed do some of their eyes become on the human resources of America and on occasional misery and suffering, that they even become impatient with those who are working to build up by industry, wholesome business enterprise and productivity, the material resources, and consequently, the standards of living of our people. 

On the other hand, there are other persons who, in the main, I believe are not heartless or selfish but who are so intent on their tasks of manufacturing and commerce, driven perhaps by that impulse for creation which is so often misinterpreted as mere money-hunger, that they forget that the men, women and children about them, sometimes in their employ, are not mere commodities and are not even mere machines to be consumed, worn out, treated without love and tossed aside, but are human beings whose welfare in the end is so intertwined with that of every other human being that the imperfections, the poor health, the neglected old age, the abused childhood, the failure of motherhood in any one of them becomes an injury and a menace to us all.

Before his speech, after a men's glee club from Bucyrus sings "America," Harding offers this:

There was a deep bass somewhere in the glee club that touched me just a little more deeply than usual, and as the members of the club sang this grand song, and as this vast audience joined so earnestly and enthusiastically in the singing of the last verse, I wonder how any American could catch the soul and spirit of the song and prefer a conglomerate flag of the league of nations to the Stars and Stripes.

Sources:

• "Honest Day's Work Big Thing." Marion Star. 23 September 1920.
• "No League Flag for Old Glory." Marion Star. 24 September 1920.

Wednesday, September 22, 1920

Two more campaign trips, subject to change, are announced:

• Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, starting October 6
• Chattanooga, Louisville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, starting October 12

Harding heads to Mansfield in the afternoon "for what may be the last round of golf he will get before election."

Sources:

• "Harding Trip to Mid-West." Marion Star. 22 September 1920.
• "Ohio Theater of Final Fight of Campaign." New York Tribune. 23 September 1920.

Tuesday, September 21, 1920

At noon, Harding meets the Republican chairs of Indiana's 12th district, who share the following account: "Was Senator Harding busy? Yes, he certainly was, but he possesses an assurance and calmness of manner that is surprising. He has time enough to meet everyone and treat them with the utmost consideration. Tuesday he met United States senators, only next to be called on by farmers passing in their flivvers, and probably next in line would come a half dozen working men of his home town, then the governor of an important state, then some state party leaders, then some brother Elks, then some Lincoln highway transcontinental tourists, for the national thoroughfare passes his door - well, he showed the same consideration for everyone and not a person leaving but would say, 'Senator Harding is a 'mighty fine fellow' or 'words to that effect,' as the saying goes..."

Senator Harding holds two afternoon events today. He delivers a speech to the Loyal Order of Golden Hearts of the World, a fraternal organization whose members have traveled by automobile from Columbus:

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a very gratifying thing to have your call. I like the suggestion that Mr. Mannington has made, that you are a fraternal organization given to patriotic devotions. You know the world has found itself lately very much committed to the ideas of fraternity. It is the natural outcome of a new understanding of our relationships. Fraternity is one of the most natural things in life. You have seen it in the organization of men into small groups, of women in their societies. You often see it in the animal life, where Nature has somehow implanted in them love of life and at the same time the love of fraternity and association together, and if you stop to think about it you will discover that in animal life there is the fraternity of protection and mutual advancement. This finds expression in our human relationships in various forms. I do not suppose there is a people in all the world that has so developed the fraternity idea as we have in the United States. I have sometimes wondered how many fraternal orders there are, some secret, some open.

The second event features Lillian Russell, who is introduced by Harding as "one of the eminent women of America, long distinguished for her notable, successful and highly honorable career on the American stage, who in her present life has thought fit to refrain from professional pursuits in order to render a great service to American womanhood." Russell's speech is intended for the women voters in the crowd: "I remember my mother often said, 'Dear women friends, never deplore the manner in which the men have governed the country. Give them all the credit that is due them. Never aspire to be president, never aspire to be a senator or even a representative, but do aspire to have the vote in order that you may help your men, the men of your family, your husband, son.'"

Sources:

• "Chairmen to See Harding." Fort Wayne Sentinel. 20 September 1920.
• "Lillian Russell Shares the Front Porch with Senator Harding Late Tuesday Afternoon." Marion Star. 22 September 1920.
• "Republic Chairmen of Twelfth District Spend Day with Senator Harding at Marion." Fort Wayne Sentinel. 25 September 1920.

Tuesday, September 21, 1920 (LILLIAN RUSSELL)

Lillian Russell's visit to Marion is well documented, such is the power of celebrity, even a hundred years ago:

Monday, September 20, 1920

Senator Harding speaks to a delegation of Civil War veterans and a delegation of supporters from Kentucky and Tennessee:

My Countrymen all: This is a very unusual occasion, and you have made my heart very glad this morning. I count it a very fine thing that we should have present this morning the sons of the state which gave to America the immortal Lincoln, under whose inspiration you fought, along with these representatives of the Grand Army of the Republic and kindred organizations, which gave to America the indissoluble union and preserved our nationality. 

Somehow or other I find myself with a new deference, a little higher regard for the Grand Army today, if that be possible, than I ever had before. We are talking nowadays very much about preservation of American nationality, and I never speak of it without the full consciousness that had it not been for you there would be no nationality today to preserve. 

And I like to think of the blend of Kentucky and Tennessee with the sons of the North who saved the Union. I like to think that in this year 1920 there are few wounds of the Civil War remaining, there are few evidences of sectionalism in our national life; and there is no one who regrets the winning of the war by the North and the preservation of this wonderful land of ours...

Sources:

• "North Joins South Today." Marion Star. 20 September 1920.

Sunday, September 19, 1920

This morning the Hardings greet Akron members of the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) who are headed to a national encampment in Indianapolis. Because it is Sunday there are "no bands, no flags, and no speech making," according to the Star.

A G. A. R. member will tell the Akron Beacon Journal this when he returns from Indiana: "On our train leaving Marion on Sunday a week ago we had 448 passengers and a straw vote showed only 15 of them for Cox... I tell you the whole country is sick of Wilson and his league of nations and there is no question but what Harding will sweep the country..."

Saturday, September 18, 1920

Harding's first speech of the day is described by the New York Times: "Meddling abroad threatens not only entangling alliances, but a country divided into national groups, according to Senator Harding, speaking from his front porch today to delegations of foreign-born citizens representing thirty nationalities, who came to Marion from New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago. Their visit was largely due to the work of Senator McCormick, who introduced them to Senator Harding, and the Foreign Language Division of the Republican National Headquarters":

My Countrymen: You are, in large part, men and women of foreign birth, but I do not address you as men and women of foreign birth; I address you as Americans, and through you I would like to reach all the American people. I have no message for you which is not addressed to all the American people, and, indeed, I would consider it a breach of courtesy to you and a breach of my duty as candidate for high office to address myself to any group or special interest or to any class or race or creed. We are all Americans, and all true Americans will say, as I say, "America First!" 

Let us all pray that America shall never become divided into classes and shall never feel the menace of hyphenated citizenship! Our uppermost thought today comes of the awakening which the World War gave us. We had developed the great American Republic; we had become rich and powerful, but we had neglected the American soul. When the war clouds darkened Europe and the storm threatened our own country, we found America torn with conflicting sympathies and prejudices. They were not unnatural; indeed they were, in many cases, very excusable, because we had not promoted the American spirit; we had not insisted upon full and unalterable consecration to our own country — our country by birth or adoption. We talked of the American melting pot over the fires of freedom, but we did not apply that fierce flame of patriotic devotion needed to fuse all into the pure metal of Americanism...

In the afternoon, Harding heads to Garfield Park to attend a gathering of the Knights of Pythias:

Brother Beatty, Brother Knights and Ladies: I did not know when I journeyed to join you a little while in your picnic that I was going to be called upon to make a speech, but I am getting so much in the habit of speech-making that one more does not matter. 

It is more a matter of deep gratification to come and greet you. I do not know but what it is rather significant, anyway. I recall that some six years ago when I aspired to a place in the United States Senate, the Knights of Pythias of Marion gave me a brotherly reception that was attended by the distinguished brother who has just presented me this afternoon, and there was an augury in it that turned out very fortunately afterward. Whether you are of my party or not, I am willing to believe that the attendance here and the presentation by Mr. Beatty means something of success just a little bit later on...

Friday, September 17, 1920 (CONSTITUTION DAY)

Delegations arrive from Ashland, Champaign, Cuyahoga, Defiance, Knox, Logan, Ottawa, Putnam, Tuscarawas counties, among others, including, as usual Marion County Republicans:

Senator Harding offers this opening:

There is abroad in the land a spirit which seeks to weaken the adherence of the people to their constitution, and which recklessly challenges its worth. It is well, therefore, to have one day in the year set apart for the clearing of our vision and the regeneration of our faith. 

To assail or belittle the flag is to invite and incur the just and passionate resentment of all country-loving men, but the constitution may be attacked or disparaged with impunity, and, all too often, with approval; and yet the one is but a symbol — though a very precious symbol — while the other is the very warp and woof of our national existence...

Sources:

• "Three Speeches Away From Front Porch." Marion Star. 16 September 1920.
  

Thursday, September 16, 1920

Senator Harding is working on his speeches for Friday and Saturday. In the morning, he is visited by James R. Garfield, son of the former president. Later, the campaign announces that Harding's next trip outside Ohio, his second, will take him to Baltimore, Maryland (September 27), Wheeling, West Virginia (September 28), and Ashland, Kentucky (September 29). If he travels west, it will be no farther than Denver, Colorado.

Sources:

• "James R. Garfield, Here Today, Talks of Loaded-Dice Play of Democrats." Marion Star. 16 September 1920.
• "Three Speeches Away From Front Porch." Marion Star. 16 September 1920.

Wednesday, September 15, 1920 (PLAYING HORSESHOES)

Senator Harding plays horseshoes this morning:

In the afternoon, he travels to Columbus.

Sources:

• "Urges Joining of Some Party." Marion Star. 15 September 1920.

Tuesday, September 14, 1920 (DELEGATION FROM CALIFORNIA)

Telegrams in response to the Republican victory in Maine are received at Harding headquarters, including one from Governor Calvin Coolidge: "Nothing can prevent your election."

As reported in the New York Times, Senator Harding, in a speech to a delegation from California, calls "for the adoption of an 'American first' policy of immigration that would admin only aliens capable of easy assimilation and who would become imbued quickly with the American spirit":

Americans: I greet you who come from far places, with deep gratitude for the honor you have done the cause I represent, which I believe is the cause of all the people of America. 

There is no sectionalism in the United States, and if we all, by tolerance and justice and patriotism, stand together — the North and the South, the East and the West — we will perpetuate that spirit by which America has had her being and her glories, coming through stress and storm at times, but always coming through. 

"America First" — That spirit, my friends, is behind our individual citizenship which conceives government as being the expression of a community of interests and not a paternal or autocratic, or one-man source of pretended benevolence. It is an absurd idea that government may be the distributor of magic resources. The only resources of a government are the resources that its citizens put into it. 

Let us not allow those who would like to retain the autocratic power which the war put into their hands to deceive free Americans with the delusion that "democracy" painted as a sign over their works conceals the fact that they have robbed us of true democracy. They have set up a one-man dictatorship which they, of course, desire to perpetuate and which finds in their various spokesmen the expression, "We are in full accord."

The man on the right wears a ribbon that states "California Solid for Harding":

Californians in front of campaign headquarters

Monday, September 13, 1920 (MARION HARDING-FOR-PRESIDENT RAILROAD CLUB)

Members of the Marion Harding-for-President Railroad club march to the Harding home in the afternoon. Banners in the crowd include:

• Future Parades, November 2, Mt. Vernon Avenue; March 4, Pennsylvania Avenue
• The Government Must Change Conductors, Harding Is the Man
• Harding Gets Our First Vote
• Harding Never Sleeps at the Switch
• Harding Was for Us, So We Are for Harding
• Harding Will Not Sidetrack Us
• He Is a Good Neighbor, So Will Be a Good President
• Let Harding Pilot the Train of State
• Our Support Measures in Carloads
• Safety Always with Harding at the Throttle
• Safety First, Elect Harding

According to the Star, the "nominee raps rail control of government":

Gentlemen of the Harding and Coolidge Railway Employees Club: It is source of very special satisfaction to have your call, and be able to talk to you concerning some matters relating to the restoration and operation of the American railways. I rejoice in the opportunity to speak to you concerning the appreciation of our people of the railway activities by which they are served...

Sunday, September 13, 2020 (HARDING IN THE NEWS)

Warren G. Harding is in the news today.

Sunday, September 12, 1920

It's Sunday. The Hardings travel to Columbus for the day.

Saturday, September 11, 1920 (MIDWESTERN BUSINESS MEN)

Senator Harding speaks to delegations of business men from Chicago, northern Indiana, and Michigan and, according to the Indianapolis Star, calls for "an end of governmental meddling and bungling in the financial world ad a return to an era of 'sober business'":

Americans: Most of you are business men, and through you I would like to send a message to all those Americans whose interest is American business. We are the great business nation of the world. We shall be able to save that business and prosper it by a fair measure of common sense, and we ought and must do it. We will consult the able and honest men whose counsel may be summoned by the Republican Party. We will restore representative government, and replace the distended executive powers and extreme centralization which nearly eight years of misnamed democracy has brought us. We will preserve a willingness to listen to the will of the people, and will construe the desire for a common good fortune to mean the necessary good fortune of business, which is the life-blood of material existence...

Seven hundred from Illinois arrive in the morning. Another 500 men from Indiana arrive in the mid-afternoon and wait until 400 men from Michigan arrive two hours later.

Harding receives another cornet, this one made in South Bend:

One has to blow his own horn in the world but I don't like the man who blows his horn too blatantly. When I was a member of the band we always had to stick to the tune. In the campaign I want to stick to the tune...

From the South Bend Tribune: "This photograph shows the head of the Indiana processing passing through the [court of honor] on the way to listen to Senator Harding."

 

Friday, September 10, 1920 (BLACK DELEGATIONS)

Twice today, Senator Harding greets representatives from numerous Black organizations, including convention attendees from the Baptist church and the Methodist church and members of the National Equal Rights League.

General John J. Pershing, his overnight guest, speaks to both crowds, telling one: "The colored people of America are to be congratulated upon their magnificent showing at home and abroad during the war and we are all to be congratulated, for without that support we would not have been able to win the victory as early as we did."

William H. Lewis, an assistant attorney general under President Taft, tells the candidate, "The pilgrims you see before you at this hour are on the road to Washington seeking a rehabilitation of their status as American citizens. The road to Washington this year leads through Ohio, through Marion, not Dayton. We pause to pay our respects to you, sir, as the standard-bearer of the party to renew our pledge of fidelity and devotion to the party of our fathers, the party of freedom and human progress, to pass the word on to our brethren to meet you again at the White House on the fourth of March, confident that we shall receive the same cordial greeting there as you have given us here..."

(The Hardings and General Pershing, just behind Florence.)

Harding offers the same speech twice:

Americans: I greet you as workers in the cause of a noble religious purpose, and I shall address you, insofar as I am able to do so without thought of my position as a candidate of a party for high political office, and with my interest centered upon you, upon your aspirations, and upon the contribution of your people to America. I will center my interest also upon the contribution of America to your people and upon the justice which, in America, must never relax vigilance, not to create an equality that is worth nothing if it be not earned, but an equal opportunity for all men and women to achieve and hold the full recognition of their own merit, capacity and worth. 

Too much doctrine based upon another principle has been loosed upon a war-worn world, abroad, particularly in Russia. There has grown up the idea that by some impossible magic, a government can give out a bounty by the mere fact of having liberty and equality written over its door, and that citizenship need make no deposits in the bank of common weal in order to write checks upon that bank. Here at home — we have had too much encouragement given to the idea that a government is a something-for-nothing institution. But I say that citizenship is not based upon what one can get, but that it is based upon what one gives. I say — and I wish that I could speak through you to all Americans — "Let's Serve!" 

Under that slogan of good citizenship there is no reason why you should not hold your heads high. You, who are assembled today, and your race in America, have the good sense, as all thoughtful Americans have, to know that it is only in a country where merit, capacity, and worth of men and women are recognized and rewarded, that merit, capacity, and worth are developed. You, and I, and good Americans, of whatever color, blood or creed, know that the aspiration of all men is equal opportunity to create recognition of differences between themselves, and that no injustice known to men can be greater than that of the tyranny and autocracy that labels itself Democracy, or Bolshevism, or Proletariat, and enslaves all men and all their ambitions and all their freedom with the iron hand of mediocrity. The American negro has the good sense to know this truth, has the good sense and clear head and brave heart to live it and I, assuming to speak a truth which America ought to know, proclaim it to all the world that he has met the test and did not and will not fail America. 

I proclaim more; I assert to all the world that America has not, and will not fail the American negro. If there are those who doubt me let them look to the record — the record of the colored race in American citizenship, and the record of America in giving opportunity. 

Your very presence in assembly, coming from great organizations dedicated to high religious purposes, is enough to cause any man to give recognition in his heart to the great contribution to American citizenship which is found in the capacity for deep religious faith among people of your blood. America needs the deep religious faith. She needs it whether it comes from Catholic, Jew, or Protestant. She needs it in her citizenship, and I recognize that the best of America is our spiritual life and not our material possessions, and that if America ever lets her spiritual life die, she will no longer be the land we love. 

The expression of that spiritual life, alive in the hearts of the people of your blood, has, I believe, been the basis for the achievements of the American negro. They are great and amazing achievements. They have been wrought, not from words, nor false claims, but by patience, tolerance, restraint, and by the earned rewards of that merit, capacity and worth of citizenship of which I have spoken.

Let all true Americans know that the census of 1910 showed that over 67% of the men and 54% of the women of your blood were gainfully employed, a larger percentage in both cases, than the rest of us Americans. 

Let America know that the churches of the colored race have increased during a little more than half a century from 700 to 43, 000. Let her know that home-owners have increased from 12,000 to 600,000 and farms operated from 20,000 to one million. Let America know that literacy among colored people has climbed from 10% to 50%. 

Let all true Americans know and recognize that during the war the colored race of America invested one dollar of every five they owned in war bonds. Let them know that 340,000 colored boys were in our Army, with only one case of conviction for avoiding the draft. 

By when we Americans of whatever color, render tribute to the record of the American negro, let us not forget to render tribute to America under whose institutions and among whose people their record was made. For I tell you — and through you I tell all Americans — that if your people have progressed in so amazing and inspiring manner, it must have been that America gave you opportunity. If you have risen by your merit, capacity, and worth, and not by agitation and violence and revolt against our institutions it is proof that you have prospered under our institutions, and have loved them. 

If the men and women of your blood have given, as we all desired to give a great outpouring of treasure and blood upon the altar of patriotism, it is because the truth was in your hearts — America has given you her great blessing of justice. 

You have it, and you shall have it. It will be good American citizenship that will continue to accord it to your people, If I have anything to do with it, it shall also be good American obedience to law. Brutal and unlawful violence whether it proceeds from those who break the law or from those who take the law into their own hands, can only be dealt with in one way by true Americans, whether they be of your blood or of mine. 

Fear not! Here upon this beloved soil you shall have that justice that every man and woman of us knows would have been prayed for by Abraham Lincoln. Fear not! Your people by their restraint, their patience, their wisdom, integrity, labor, and belief in God will earn the right to that justice, and America will bestow it.

Sources:

• "Harding Talks G.O.P. Doctrines to Negro Folk." Chicago Tribune. 11 September 1920.
• "Spokesman for Negro Baptists." Marion Star. 11 September 1920. 

Thursday, September 9, 1920 (GENERAL PERSHING)

Senator Harding is on his way home to Marion.

Janesville, Wisconsin

From the Janesville Daily Gazette: "Word that Harding's car was being pulled by the Chicago train did not reach the Gazette until 8:30 this morning when bulletins were immediately posted in the business district and prominent Janesville republicans notified... Despite the drizzly rain, about 600 cheering Janesville republicans crowded around the platform of the Harding car as the nominee, smiling and nodding, stepped out to greet the people...":

As I came into your beautiful little city, it reminded me of my own town, Marion, Ohio, and as I thought of its many similarities, I could not restrain myself from feeling that for the United States t o try to run Europe would be as utterly ridiculous as for Marion to try to tell you how to conduct your affairs in Janesville...

"The train began pulling out as the senator was talking, and he bowed his farewell." 

Chicago, Illinois

Harding stops at the Northwestern station in Chicago, where the special cars are attached to a regular passenger train. At the station, he is met by General John J. Pershing, in civilian clothing, who is on his way to Washington, D.C. Harding extends an invitation to Pershing to travel to Marion before he heads further east. The general accepts.

Huntington, Indiana

"Because his special car had to be detached from the train and a diner put between it and the remainder of the train, and because the train would be stopped in a place of the years dangerous for a crowd to gather, no attempt was made to get a crowd to greet him in this city."

Rochester, Indiana

From the Indianapolis Star: "Fifteen hundred people gave Senator Warren an ovation when he made a three-minute talk at the Erie railroad station here late this afternoon...":

There can be no short cut to attainment. Men talk new ideals, but time alone must be involved in order that those ideals may be realized. As I note in this agricultural district, the result of the path of the plow, I see that we still follow agriculture as in days gone by.

As the train pulled out of the station, Harding shouts: "We want you to help us get America back on the right track." 

Marion, Ohio

On the last leg of the trip, a steward clears the dining car so all of the passengers on the train can shakes hands with the Hardings and General Pershing. "Announcement had been made through the train that the reception would be held, travelers applauding the news and men and women filled the diner when the senator and his party went forward from their private car."

A crowd greets the party upon its return to Marion. The Hardings return to their home; Pershing is taken to the Marion club then to the Harding home where he will spend the night.

Sources:

• "Cheer Harding at Rochester." Indianapolis Star. 10 September 1920.
• "Harding Reads Victory Sign in Gopher Welcome." Chicago Tribune. 10 September 1920.
• "Harding Returns to His Home at Marion." Huntington Herald. 10 September 1920.
• "Sen. Harding Stops and Talks in Janesville." Janesville Daily Gazette. 9 September 1920.

Wednesday, September 8, 1920 (MINNESOTA)

Harding spends the day in Minnesota.

9:15 a.m.—Special train arrives from Chicago. 

9:30 a.m.—Automobile parade through downtown St. Paul.

Crowds gather on the route to see the parade. Harding rides with the Senator Kellogg, Governor Burnquist, and the president of the State Fair board.

10 a.m.—Arrive at the State Fair for visit to exhibits.

11 a.m.—Talk to farm boys and girls.

On the fairgrounds, Harding first speaks to 300 prize winners at a "farm boys' camp" who greet the candidate with a song called "Here's to You, Senator Harding":

Boys, here's to you in return. I like to show my good wishes to a bunch of prize winners wherever I find them in the United States of America. I like fellows who can win...

[Out] of the American farm comes the most promising citizenship of the Republic. And I want you winners to go on in leadership and lead America into the full realization of the possibilities of this wonderful land of ours.

Harding moves to the Women's building to inspect pottery and home sewing then the art exhibits in the Fine Arts building. He is presented an oil painting, "The Minnesota Valley" by Knute Heldner. 

In the Fine Arts Building, Harding is presented an oil painting - "The River" by Knute Heldner of Minneapolis:

Mr. Roe, Ladies and Gentlemen : I am very happy to accept this most pleasant gift, and since it comes from you I am going to leave to you to decide where it is to be exhibited. I was very deeply impressed by the remarks of Mr. Roe relating to the development of Art in this wonderful country, and it suggests to me the remark that nothing so signally testifies to the progress of America and the advance of human kind as does the Association of Art with the struggle, the practical struggle for subsistence. And I congratulate you as fellow countrymen that in America, where we are less than a hundred years old in our development, we are now having, with agricultural progress, time, interest, and concern, for the development of art, which adds to the refinement and enjoyment of the practical life. 

Harding visits the agricultural building, where he meets members of the "Minnesota Girls' club," the Horticultural building, livestock buildings, and the horse show. 

12:15 p.m.—Luncheon tendered by Fair board.

1:30 p.m.—Address before grandstand.

According to the Marion Star, "Senator Harding's [second] speech was devoted solely to agricultural matters and among his hearers were thousands of farmers from the great wheat belt of the Northwest." A crowd packs "an immense grandstand and bleachers and [is] standing on the banks of the racetrack waiting for the automobile races scheduled for after the speaking":

Fellow-Citizens of Minnesota — It is a matter of very great satisfaction and a very particular interest to me to join with you in this notable exhibition of the agricultural industry of your wonderful state. I come to you with a common interest and a very common concern for the welfare of our country. While it is in my thought to speak to you specifically concerning agriculture, I want to so convey my thought as to have it known that I am thinking not of the welfare alone of those engaged in agriculture, but the welfare of agriculture as it relates to the good fortunes of the United States of America. I very much deplore the present-day tendency to appeal to the particular group in American activities. It has become a very common practice to make one address to those who constitute the ranks of labor, another to those who make up the great farming community and still another to the manufacturing world and its associates in commerce, and to other groups of less importance. There is a very natural and a very genuine interest in each and every one, but the utterance of a political party nominee ought, in every instance, to be inspired by a purpose to serve our common country. If America is to go on and come to the heights of achievement, we must of necessity be "all for one and one for all."

The caption on the photograph, published in the Star Tribune: "Senator Harding is here shown 'telephoning' his message to 30,000 State Fair visitors before the grandstand yesterday afternoon. The electrical voice-carrying instrument was used to carry his speech to the farthest corner of the bleachers and grandstand."

However, as reported in the Greenville Daily News-Tribune, "[Harding] had to hold his manuscript in one hand and a mouthpiece honnerted [sic] to the amplifying device in the other hand. He would forget himself and begin to wave it around in a gesture. The chairman had to remind him several times during the speech to hold the instrument to his mouth."

3:45 p.m.—Automobile parade up Nicollet avenue, Minneapolis.

Harding is escorted to Minneapolis by members of the Hennepin County Republican committee.

4 p.m. to 5 p.m,—Public reception at Lincoln club of Minneapolis, Second avenue south and Fourth street.

A line of 3,000 people pass through the club rooms to shake Harding's hand. Per the Star Tribune, "The restrictions against a partisan appeal, imposed at the State Fair, were lacking and the nominee spoke plainly on his attitude on the part America is to play":

Ladies and Gentlemen : After having experienced a really wonderful visit to the great Minnesota State Fair — concerning which I understand there is unanimity about its being the greatest state fair in the United States of America, there being no dispute at any rate in Minnesota — and having spoken on at least three different occasions, one does find himself incapable of answering all the calls for addresses. But I am very happy after this wonderful spirit which you have made manifest to somehow have an opportunity to say a friendly word to all of you and express the gratitude of a son of Ohio for this very cordial welcome from one of the sister states that was builded [sic] out of the great Northwest territory which marked really the beginning of America as a Nation.

I am very glad to come and say to you as a fellow Republican, interested in the same cause in which you are interested, that we have a common project to carry out in this year 1920, and it is up to us Republicans to take the lead and ask everybody in the United States to help us save this country of ours. I do not mean that we possess all the patriotism in the land, but somehow I am growing more convinced from day to day that the Republican Party has the capacity for government, and in addition to that I know that we are consecrated to the preservation of the American Constitution on which this Republic stands...

6 p.m.—Dinner at home of Mrs. Harding's cousin, B. F. Meyers, St. Paul. *

8 p.m.—Public reception on steps of state Capitol, St. Paul.

Harding shakes hands of well-wishers for over an hour. The governor, Minnesota senator, Republican nominee for governor, and other candidates are in the receiving line with him.

10 p.m.—Special train leaves for Marion, Ohio.

Sources:

• "30,000 on the Line." Minneapolis Star Tribune. 9 September 1920.
• "Harding Heard in Northwest." Marion Star. 8 September 1920.
• "Harding Minneapolis, St. Paul Schedules." Minneapolis Star Tribune. 8 September 1920.
  "Harding on State 'Front Porch' Today." Minneapolis Star Tribune. 8 September 1920.
• "Harding Pleads for a Definite Farming Policy." New York Times. 9 September 1920.
• "Marion Isn't Porch Gossip." Greenville Daily Tribune. 25 September 1920.
• "Ohioan's Foreign Policy Keynote Enunciated at Lincoln Club." Minneapolis Star Tribune.9 September 1920.

* Although publicized, the report the following day is that the dinner was held at Senator Kellogg's home.

Tuesday, September 7, 1920 (ON THE WAY TO MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL)

Senator Harding makes his first campaign trip outside of Ohio. A special train leaves Marion at 7:30 a.m. The Hardings are joined by "George B. Christian, Jr., private secretary to the senator; Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Sawyer; Frank Gibbs, secretary to Harry M. Daugherty, member of the Republican National Executive committee; Judson C. Welliver, director of publicity at Harding headquarters; James Sloan, secret service operative; and a number of newspaper men."

Spencerville, Ohio

As reported by the Spencerville Journal-News, "Perhaps the shortest speech that Senator Warren G. Harding will make during his entire campaign was made at Spencerville Tuesday forenoon... Senator Harding was enroute from Marion to the state fair of Minnesota over a special train on the Erie. The train had stopped for a few minutes at Spencerville for a new supply of water for the tender, and Senator Harding stepped to the rear platform of the back coach, just as the train started. A number of Spencerville men attempted to shake hands with the Senator and his words of caution followed":

Boys be careful. Don't get hurt.

Huntington, Indiana

Harding speaks to a "crowd of more than 200 enthusiastic citizens who received him at the Erie station at 10 o'clock Tuesday morning":

Let me say to you, my fellow countrymen, it is a very great compliment to have you come down to greet us in passing and I very gladly return your greeting. If it were possible in our hurried schedule to stop and meet you all personally that would be an added pleasure. 

I take it that you are interested alike in the welfare of our common country, but I know human nature well enough to know how natural it is to be interested in the things that specifically and more particularly concern us as individuals. And I happen to know Huntington. We are neighbors. We are linked by the Erie Railroad, and I take it that you residents of this great railroad center, with hundreds of men in the railway employment and active in the citizenship of this community, are more interested in the railway question than any other. But I would not talk to you solely as railway workers or as fellow citizens interested in the railway problem because we are interested in the good fortunes of America, and the railways of this land are the nerve lines by which we get our energies, through which we are kept in communication, by whose transportation our industries and our farms are made to prosper, by whose connections we are kept in touch with one another, and America becomes one people...

Tne report in the New York Times suggests that six to seven hundred people meet Harding's train here.

Fort Sheridan, Illinois

The Harding train arrives in Chicago at 3:30 p.m. Because of a change in the schedule, the train does not stop at the Englewood station, where a crowd has gathered to greet him; instead the Hardings stop at the Dearborn station. Former front-runner for the Republican nomination, General Leonard Wood greets the Harding party and takes them to his residence at Fort Sheridan. Per the Times, the "cars sped rapidly along Michigan Boulevard on the road to Fort Sheridan. The streets were crowded with pedestrians and traffic, but only one man in front of the Art Institute showed signs of recognizing the Senator."

The Chicago Tribune reports that "Senator Harding visited Fort Sheridan hospital, shook the hands of several hundred wounded soldiers, passed from bed to bed, and spoke a few words of sympathy and cheer to each."

Mrs. Harding and Mrs. Leonard Wood; General Leonard Wood and Senator Harding

Here's a photograph of Harding greeting the wounded men:

Deerfield, Illinois

Harding's party then drives to Deerfield, "where he found himself at home among villagers, who crowded about him to show him their babies":

It is mighty nice of you to come out and greet us in this informal way. It has been a very great pleasure indeed to grasp you by the hand and know you face to face. You know that is the gospel I am preaching this year for the people of the United States, that is a better understanding of our mutuality of interest in everything done in this country. 

I have been thinking today of the wonderful development of the Northwest. We take things so readily for granted that we never stop to think what made us what we are. This section of the country in its development is not yet a century old, and in this brief time we have been building this wonderful country of ours, we have been working to the perfection of a new civilization and a habitation and a condition which are the pride of all Americans...

Sources:

• "Harding on Trip Talks From Train." New York Times. 8 September 1920.
• "Harding Visits Fort Sheridan and Deerfield." Chicago Tribune. 9 September 1920.
• "Senator Harding and Party Leave This Morning for Chicago and Minneapolis." Marion Star. 7 September 1920.
• "Senator Harding at Spencerville." Spencerville Journal-News. 9 September 1920.
• "Senator Warren G. Harding Makes Short Speech as His Train Stops in This City." Huntington Herald. 7 September 1920.