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.

10/26/2020

Tuesday, October 26, 1920

Another day of rest, although, according to the Marion Star, Harding issues "a denial of reports that Washington D. Vanderlip, of California is in Russia acting as his agent.... [A] dispatch said Secretary of State Colby had announced the state department had received a telegram...to the effect that Premier Lenin, of the Russian Soviet government, had informed H. G. Wells, the English writer, that [Vanderlip] had visited him and claimed to represent Senator Harding." Harding has no idea who the man is.

Harding's newspaper prints this full page ad for Republican candidates:

While the Chattanooga News shows its readers "What the Election of Harding Means":


Perhaps in response to this editorial cartoon, Harding will declare later this week "that he was not the candidate of any clique or combination, but was absolutely 'unpledged' and 'unbossed'...'I believe I am the freest man that was ever nominated by any party for the presidency of the United States.'"

Sources:
  • "Akron Greets Ohio Senator." Marion Star. 29 October 1920.
  • "Harding Never Heard of Washington Vanderlip." Marion Star. 27 October 1920.
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