June 8, 1920. Republican Convention, White House visitors, Churchill on uniforms.

Prominent woman Republican, Helen V. Boswell, at Republican Convention.

The Republican National Convention opened in Chicago on this day in 1920. There were six possible nominees for the position of Republican candidate going into the convention, including one surprising name in the list.  The candidates were:

Warreng G. Harding.
Leonard Wood.
Frank Lowden
Hiram Johnson
William Sproul
Nicholas Butler
Calvin Coolidge
Robert LaFollette

How LaFollette, the famed "Wisconsin Bolshevik" made that list is a mystery.

The convention was wide open so any of those running could have been chosen going into the convention.

On the same day Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks visited the White House.

Pickford and Fairbanks.

Fairbanks and Pickford had only recently been the subjects of a potential scandal when it was debated whether a prior divorce by one of them (I forget which one) had been finalized prior to their marriage.  Apparently it was worked out by now.  It was the second marriage for both, and it wouldn't be the last one as they'd divorce in 1936 and each would remarry again one final time.

Winston Churchill addressed parliament on the subject of British military uniforms, which was part of an overall debate on the subject.  He stated:

I propose to deal with the general aspect of this matter in a general statement. Although it may not completely answer all the points raised, I think it will be better if hon. Members have the opportunity of having this statement in their minds, and then they can see whether it is necessary to put down further questions next week. 

The only expenditure which will fall upon this year's Estimates in regard to full dress for the Army is that in respect of the Foot Guards, which are to be immediately supplied with full dress during the current year. The Household Cavalry have had full dress throughout the War, and it is only a question of maintaining this. The troops, of course, have a free issue. 

As regards the officers, new entrants will receive a grant of £150 towards the cost of uniform, and those who joined during the War will get £150, less the amount of outfit grant already received, which in most cases is £42 10s. The re-issue to the Guards and Household Cavalry troops of full dress stands in a special position on account of the ceremonial duties which these troops discharge in the capital of the Empire. 

The extension of full dress to the other branches and units of the Service, which my military advisers also consider desirable, will be spread over the next four or five years, unless it should be decided, when the Estimates are reviewed next year, that this programme should be abandoned. Ample notice will be given to all units, and no existing stock, either of khaki or khaki uniforms, will be wasted. Khaki with the cap or steel helmet will remain permanently the working service dress of the whole Army. There is not, nor ever has been, any question of its abolition. 

The only question which is now before us is the issue of full dress uniform to the Guards, and the retention of full dress uniform by the Household Cavalry. This involves an expenditure, not of £3,000,000, as one would suppose by reading a certain class of public criticism, but of £140,000 for other ranks and £20,000 for officers. This expenditure has been included in the Estimates of the present year. If we had decided against re-clothing the Guards in full dress and maintaining the full dress of the Household Cavalry, we should have to supply them with another complete new outfit of khaki at a cost of £30,000. 

The total avoidable expense is, therefore, not £160,000 but £130,000, and £130,000 and not £3,000,000 is the figure to which the Government is at present committed.

The abolition of full dress for the Household Cavalry and the Guards would mean that the Household Cavalry uniforms and the uniforms of the Household Cavalry and Guards bands, and approximately 7,000 bearskins now in stock, would become useless, and this would involve a waste of fully £80,000. The total net expense involved in re-clothing the Guards and retaining the Household Cavalry in scarlet is thus £130,000, while the total waste involved in discarding the existing stocks of full dress would be approximately £80,000. The transaction would therefore appear to be not unjustified, even from a purely financial standpoint.