Wednesday, February 27, 1924. Congressional Memorial for Harding.

 

Wednesday, August 8, 1923. Warren G. Harding's funeral.

Warren G.  Harding's state funeral occured.

 

And once again, I can't help but note that Harding was far younger than the two ancient front-runners for next year's Presidential election.  The odds of the winner dying in office, whomever he is, are better than his living through his term.

The Garda Síochána, "Guardians of the Peace", the Irish state police, were formed.

Thursday, August 2, 1923. The Death of Warren G. Harding.

Warren G. Harding died suddenly at 7:30 p.m. in a San Francisco hotel. As readers here know, he had been ill for several days prior.  His probable cause of death was a heart attack.

Harding had been traveling the US, including Alaska, in his Voyage of Understanding.  He was well liked during his period in office, and he was deeply mourned in the U.S., and around the globe, following his death at age 57.

Following his death, his reputation has declined.  He had not really wanted to be President in the first place, and it turned out that while he was personally not involved in them, his administration was scandal ridden.  Harding was not free from scandal himself, however, as he'd had at least two affairs during his marriage, the first of which was to a woman who may have been a German spy. The second would lead to the birth of an illegitimate daughter, his only child, a fact which was hidden during his lifetime and contested by his widow thereafter.

Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, daughter of Warren G. Harding,

Harding was seemingly unprepared for death and indeed, while he looked much older, at 57 he wasn't all that old.  His medical care while ill has been criticized as hastening his death, but at the time little could be done for strokes (which was what his death was attributed to at the time) and heart attacks were frequently fatal.  Given the history of his illness, there's reason to suspect that he may in fact have suffered a heart attack several days prior, or at least was suffering from heart problems several days prior.

Florence Harding, his widow, was fiercely protective of his legacy and reputation.  In photographs, she rarely appears to be happy while they were in the White House.  Very unusually for the age, she did not wear a wedding ring.  Harding was her second marriage, and she was slightly older than he was.  She'd die the following November at age 64.  Blaesing, who lived a quiet life and avoided commenting on her parentage, died at age 86 in 1995.

Most Americans would not learn of the Presidents' death until the following day, when newspapers hit their doorsteps.

As an aside, Harding's death remains relevant to the present age, and actually shows us how things have improved and not.  Medically, physicians may well have detected Harding's heart condition before it proved fatal, if they had our current abilities in that arena.  This is not necessarily so, however, which points out that our two top contenders for the Oval Office today are literally on death's doorstep.

Also of interest, in the era it was obviously easier to keep personal secrets, as Harding had done for many years.  Keeping an illegitimate child of a President unknown is almost unimaginable today.  But also of interest is that it would have been a devastating scandal had the news broken.  As recently as President Clinton's term in office, an affair was scandalous, but now there's real reason to wonder if it would be.  Indeed, a certain section of former President Trump's support comes from Evangelical Christians (although not all support him), which undoubtedly would not have occurred had Trump lived in the 1920s.

Saturday, July 28, 1923. President Harding falls ill.

President Harding cancelled visits to Oregon and Yosemite National Park as he was ill with what was believed to be ptomaine poisoning.  He remained in bed in a special locomotive car.  

Secretary of the Interior Herbert Work did address a crowed at Grants Pass, Oregon, stating:

It comes about that during our last day at sea many of us were attacked by a temporary indisposition, not due to seasickness but to food put up in a can. I will not say what the item of food was, for thereby I might depress the value of the canned product.

The Tribune noted that Harding was on board the train, but as this was likely a morning edition, it didn't report his illness.  This was not the case everywhere.

Saturday, July 14, 1923. Harding in Anchorage.

President Harding visited Anchorage, where he and Mrs. Harding painted their names on a section house.

Direct link to something else, apparently, going on in Anchorage on the same day.

The Ku Klux Klan holds its first "Konvention" in Washington state.

Once again, it's really hard to imagine this occurring today.

The French celebrated Bastille Day, even though there's next to nothing to actually celebrate about it, or the French Revolution in general.

Oh well, it's a party, there was music, and the girls were there.

Monday, July 2, 1923: Officers behind bars, French seize Krupp factory

President Harding, continuing his Voyage of Understanding, was allowed to take the controls of a locomotive, fulfilling a boyhood ambition.  It was an early electric locomotive.

U.S. President Harding in the cab of a Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("Milwaukee Road") boxcab electric locomotive, July 2, 1923. 

The trip took Harding to Spokane, where he addressed a crowd on public lands.  In his address, acknowledging the growing conservation movement that had received a large boost during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, he argued that use of public resources from public lands, rather than locking them up, preserved them.  He also more or less correctly anticipated the size of the US population in 2023.

The sad story of a woman killed by a sheriff's deputy for failure to dim her lights was playing out with officers now behind bars.

And the French seized a Krupp plant.

Pope Pius XI sent a letter to the papal nuncio in Berlin appealing to the Weimar German Republic to try to make its reparations payments and to cease resisting the French.  Basically, an appeal to try to restore the evaporating peace.

On reparations, Allied delegates at the Conference of Lausanne made their final offer to Turkey.

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.

Friday, April 27, 1923. The IRA calls it quits, The Pro Treaty Sinn Finn depart, New Country Club, Harding and Work.

Having already effectively ceased combat operations, as they'd already lost the war, Éamon de Valera announced that the Irish Republican Army was prepared to agree to a ceasefire.

On the same day, Cumann na nGaedheal ("Society of the Gaels) a political party of pro treaty former members of Sinn Féin was formed.  It would merge into Finn Gael in 1933.

For residents of Casper, familiar with the Country Club, the origins of it were in evidence in this day in 1923.

Quite an assortment of other news as well.

And not just in Casper, but all around, it would seem.

The horse jumping over car photograph, probably last popular as horse jumping over Jeep during World War Two, was in vogue.

Jack Prestage on Tipperary in this case.

President Harding, whom we now know should probably have been in a clinic, visited the Tri State Clinic.

Warren G. Harding, who was in the last year of his life, was 57 years old at the time of his death. . . a good 20 years older than Donald Trump is now.  People don't really "live longer", contrary to the common claim, but they don't die as young due to various factors and heart attacks and strokes kill fewer.

Still, It's insane to be electing a President over 70 years of age.  It's questionable, really, to be electing somebody to their first term over 60 which means, if my restrictions mean anything, that I wouldn't be qualified.  I'd do a better job than either of the main candidates, I'm quite certain, which disqualifies me to start with, but age ought to.

In this photo, Harding didn't really look well.

And the guy third second from his left, as viewed, looks annoyed.

Huber Work accepted a resolution from his postal clerks.

Thursday, February 15, 1923. Forbes quits from long distance, Veterans gather, Greece compounds the injustice.

Gathering at USS Maine memorial on the 25th anniversary of its sinking.

Charles R. Forbes, the Director of the U.S. Veteran's Bureau, resigned the position from his self-appointed refuge of Europe, following suspicions that he had been selling surplus supplies at huge discounts to contractors for kickbacks.  His confrontation with Harding on the matter had resulted in a physical altercation, with Forbes reportedly begging Harding to be allowed to depart for Europe prior to resigning.

The Scottish born Forbes had lived a colorful life, having been a Marine Corps musician at age 16, an engineer, a soldier in the Army charged with desertion and ultimately discharged as a Sergeant First Class after only eight years of service, employed in the construction field, and a Lieutenant Colonel in World War One.

He'd be prosecuted for conspiracy to defraud the Federal Government and end up serving 20 months in prison.  He'd live until 1949, dying at age 74.

Greece expropriate additional dwellings from the Albanian Cham Muslims in order to free up dwelling space for expelled Greeks from Turkey, thereby compounding the injustice.

Albanians had nothing to do with Greece's situation and the event signals out how Greece, in some ways, set the table for the disaster it was experiencing.  Turkey was being barbarous to the Anatolian Greeks, but the Greeks had not been kind to the Anatolian Muslims.

And this also demonstrates how something that began in World War One with good intention, independent nation states comprised of free peoples, was morphing into expelling minorities from lands they'd occupied for eons.

Margaret Lindsey Williams, working on her portrait of President Harding.

Thursday, May 18, 1922. Harding at meetings on the work.

Warren G. Harding's speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was broadcast on a local Washington, D. C. radio station, making Harding the first President whose voice was heard over the airways.

On the same day, fifty steel executives agreed to reduce the twelve-hour workday in the industry at a dinner in which Harding made the request.

Monday July 25, 1921. Ignoring the vote and things not being what they seem.

On this day, a century ago, the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union's treaty was signed in spite of national opposition to it, which was expressed in the form of a "no" vote during a referendum on the topic.

I suppose the fact that the people didn't want it, and they got it anyway, is a lesson in more than one way.

The treaty united the economies of the two countries.

Princess Fatima of Afghanistan secured an audience with President Harding through the offices, oddly enough, of notorious imposter Stanley Clifford Weyman.

The princess, her family, and Weyman, in Naval uniform, with another imposter, in top hat, we discussed recently.

Well, in actuality nobody was who they seemed to have been, except President Harding.  And as we've discussed before, even Harding wasn't completely who he seemed to be in some ways.

Anyhow, Fatima wasn't really a princess.  In spite of her best efforts to secure an audience with Harding, she hadn't received one, which is no surprise as Afghanistan, at that time, was far from an American concern. The distant country had just received its independence and was of very little interest to the distant United States.

Fatima wanted, apparently, to be a princess  and secure positions for her three sons.  Weyman took note and posted as a Naval officer and actually secured an audience for her.  Be that as it may, it didn't achieve anything for her or anyone in this photo, except perhaps for Weyman who secured some notoriety.

Weyman went on to sting of later such false flag type of acts before being shot to death attempting to stop a robbery in 1960.  The police detective at the time noted that he knew Weyman's history, but what he actually did in his final act was brave.

Of note, one of the things that the New York Times reported on, regarding the would be Princess Fatima, is that she had a diamond stud in her nose, which was regarded as very exotic at the time.

June 24, 1921. 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Cigar Makers, and Mondell visiting Harding.

11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  June 24, 1921.

The text on the photo reads:

"Just before passing in review before the Department Commander in this closely massed formation on June 24, 1921. (About 400 vehicles). No motor failed and formation remained intact, a record that will rarely be equalled and never surpassed. Tiemann N. Horn, Colonel 13th Field Artillery commanding. To General John J. Pershing, with the compliments of the brigade. R. L. Dancy, Army & Navy Photographer.".

Employees of 7-20-4, R. G. Sullivan, Cigar Factory, Manchester, N.H., no. 192, 100 [percent] Members of Cigar Makers, International Union, June 24, '21

On the same day, the employees of a cigar factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, were photographed.

As was President Harding with Wyoming's Congressman, Frank Wheeler Mondell.  Apparently that inspired President Harding to don an exceedingly large cowboy hat.

Mondell was originally from St. Louis, Missouri and had become a rancher and farmer in Wyoming, as well as a businessman involved in railroad construction.  He'd was Newcastle's mayor from 1888 to 1895 and served in Congress from 1895 to 1896 and then again from 1899 to 1923.  He was the House majority leader in the 66th and 67th Congresses.

May 23, 1921. Cities on the Red River, Harding on Memorial Day, the Seeger's go camping.

Moorhead, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota, are a across the Red River from each other.  On this day in 1921 they were photographed. 

In Leipzig, war crimes trials commenced. Only twelve Germans would stand trial, but the concept of trying an enemy combatant was a new one which became established as a result of the Great War.  The results were mixed.

Also on this day, President Harding issued a Memorial Day address, which stated:

Our republic has been at war before, it has asked and received the supreme sacrifices of its sons and daughters, and faith in America has been justified. Many sons and daughters made the sublime offering and went to hallowed graves as the Nation’s defenders. But we never before sent so many to battle under the flag in foreign land, never before was there the impressive spectacle of thousands of dead returned to find eternal resting place in the beloved homeland…

These dead know nothing of our ceremony today. They sense nothing of the sentiment or the tenderness which brings their wasted bodies to the homeland for burial close to kin and friends and cherished associations. These poor bodies are but the clay tenements once possessed of souls which flamed in patriotic devotion, lighted new hopes on the battle grounds of civilization, and in their sacrifices sped on to accuse autocracy before the court of eternal justice.

We are not met for them, though we love and honor and speak a grateful tribute. It would be futile to speak to those who do not hear or to sorrow for those who cannot sense it or to exalt those who cannot know. But we can speak for country, we can reach those who sorrowed and sacrificed through their service, who suffered through their going, who glory with the Republic through their heroic achievements, who rejoice in the civilization, their heroism preserved. Every funeral, every memorial, every tribute is for the living–an offering in compensation of sorrow. When the light of life goes out there is a new radiance in eternity, and somehow the glow of it relieves the darkness which is left behind.
Never a death but somewhere a new life; never a sacrifice but somewhere an atonement; never a service but somewhere and somehow an achievement. These had served, which is the supreme inspiration in living. They have earned everlasting gratitude, which is the supreme solace in dying…

I would not wish a Nation for which men are not willing to fight and, if need be, to die, but I do wish for a nation where it is not necessary to ask that sacrifice. I do not pretend that millennial days have come, but I can believe in the possibility of a Nation being so righteous as never to make a war of conquest and a Nation so powerful in righteousness that none will dare invoke her wrath. I wish for us such an America. These heroes were sacrificed in the supreme conflict of all human history. They saw democracy challenged and defended it. They saw civilization threatened and rescued it. They saw America affronted and resented it. They saw our Nation’s rights imperiled and stamped those rights with a new sanctity and renewed security.

We shall not forget, no matter whether they lie amid the sweetness and the bloom of the homeland or sleep in the soil they crimsoned. Our mindfulness, our gratitude, our reverence shall be in the preserved Republic and maintained liberties and the supreme justice for which they died. 

Warren G. Harding

 The professor Charles Seeger family went camping.

The baby in the photo is Pete Seeger.

April 18, 1921. Service.

On this Monday, April 18, 1921, Edith Barnett, who had died serving as an American nurse in far off Siberia, was remembered with a tombstone marked in English and Russian.  She had died of Typhus while serving as a Red Cross nurse there.

Some Gave All: April 18, 1921. "Grave of Edith Barnett of New Yo...:  

April 18, 1921. "Grave of Edith Barnett of New York City. An American Red Cross nurse who died in Siberia, Aug. 15, 1919. Monument placed at Tomsk, Siberia on April 18, 1921. Photograph taken on April 19, 1921"

Ontario voted, in a plebiscite, to ban the sale and importation of alcohol by a 60% margin.  An attempt at repealing the ordinance the following year by the same means failed.

How would you have voted?  I'm not a teetotaler, but I'm sure I would have voted for the measure.

Jacksonville Florida was photographed from the St. John's Bridge.

View of the Jacksonville Florida St John's Bridge, April 18, 1921.

President Harding seems to have had a busy day greeting groups.

Harding with Community House Kids.  I'm not sure who they were, but it appears to probably be a church based group.

Harding and Women's Commission for World Disarmament.  The group obviously did not succeed in its goals.

Gen. Herbert Lord of the Quartermaster Corps received an award consisting of draft horseshoes.

I don't know the actual occasion, but it may have been recognizing his service which was principally in administering its budget.  He'd go on to occupy the position of head of the OMB, although under a different title at the time, in the Harding Administration.