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.

9/29/2020

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.

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