Tuesday, June 5, 1923. North Casper to become part of Casper

It is simply unimaginable to me that North Casper was not always part of Casper.  I had, truly, believed it was.

Not so, apparently.

Weimar asked for a new reparations conference with the Allies, seeking to transfer 2.5 billion, in gold marks, of materials over a five-year period, and then 1.5 billion of the same for a period of time after 1928.

A huge Shriner's convention was in Washington, D.C.

This seems almost impossible to imagine now.

I don't know much about the Shriner's, other than that they are somehow associated with the Masons.  At one time, Protestant male membership in the organization was extraordinarily broad.  Indeed, while Catholics were and are precluded from being members of the organization, by way of Catholic Canon law and tacit preclusion, I know one devout Catholic locally who was.

The organization was hugely influential at the time.

President Harding, it would appear, was a member.

President Harding opened the national convention of the Shriner's, whose parade this was, with a speech that, in veiled form, criticized the Ku Klux Klan.

Secret fraternity is one thing. Secret conspiracy is another. In the very naturalness of association, men band together for mischief, to exert misguided zeal, to vent unreasoning malice, to undermine our institutions. This isn't fraternity. This is conspiracy. This isn't associated with uplift; it is organized destruction. This is not brotherhood; it is the discord of disloyalty and a danger to the Republic.

Harding's reviewing Shriner parade.

On the same day, the White House released Harding's Voyage of Understanding tour itinerary, featuring nineteen stops by train in the U.S. and Canada. The itinerary was to have been:

June 20 Washington, D.C.

June 21 St. Louis, Missouri

June 22 Kansas City, Missouri

June 23 Hutchinson, Kansas

June 24 Denver, Colorado

June 25 Cheyenne, Wyoming

June 26 Salt Lake City, Utah

June 27 Cedar City, Utah Visiting Zion National Park

June 28 Pocatello, Idaho

Idaho Falls, Idaho

June 29 Butte, Montana

Helena, Montana

June 30 Gardiner, Montana Visiting Yellowstone National Park

July 1 Gardiner, Montana

July 2 Spokane, Washington

July 3 Meacham, Oregon

July 4 Portland, Oregon

July 5 Tacoma, Washington Boarded the USS Henderson

July 6-25 Alaska Via the USS Henderson

July 26 Vancouver, British Columbia Via the USS Henderson

July 27 Seattle, Washington Via the USS Henderson

July 28 Portland, Oregon

July 29 Merced, California Visiting Yosemite National Park

July 30 El Portal, California

July 31 San Francisco, California

August 1 Los Angeles, California

August 2-3 Santa Catalina Island

August 4 San Diego, California

Harding would not complete the trip.