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.

9/27/2020

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.

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