New-York tribune., 1920-11-01
Bone Traces
Ancestry Lie
To Cox Train
(ContIrued from raoe ene)

ated would en5er a home which hap
pened to have a Harding picture in the
window Representing herself as g
Republican worker, she would engage
the housewife in conversation about
the election.
Isn't it terriblc.' she would say
what contemplate stories the Demo
Gratis are circulating about our candi-
date 7'
'What stories?" the Republican
housewife would inquire, with natural
curiosity.
"Why, l really hate to talk about
them the worker would respond. "but
you know they are saying that Har-
ding's great grandmother was a negress.
Isn't it terrible tor them to dig up
things like that, which he cannot help?'
Judging from reports from the bor-
der states this system must have been
pursued by literally thousands Of paid
workers on behalf Of Cox. Use Of cir
eulars, with pictures of Harding with
negroes. was another favorite device,
hundreds Of thousands Of them having
been circulated in Ohio Indiana, West
Virginia and the border states.
A little slip of paper with the words
in very large type: Keep the White
House White,' was very widely circu-
lated. An appointec of Governor Cox
showed me one Of these in the State
House at Columbus last week, saying:
around?'
Incidentally, no one takes the re-
sponsibility except the pitiable Pro
fessor Chancellor, whose dismissal by
the faculty Of his college the Demo
cratic New York Times indorsed
editorially this morning.
In connection with Professor Chan
ceilor the only man who has openly
championed the lie about Harding's
ancestry, there is an interesting fea-
ture. Chancellor asserted that the
negro blood was on the side of Har-
ding's father.
The story, however. the Democratic
politicians quickly realized could not
be utilized, because Hardings father
Is alive and very much in evidence,
ana no one who looked at the fine
old fellow could possibly believe it,,
40 matter how bitterly partisan he or
she might be.
SO the Democratic workers were in
Structcl to say that the negro blood
was on the side Of Hardngs mother,
the poor lady having been dead
for some ten years.
There are some very good pictures
of the late Mrs. Harding in existence,
however, one btlug printed tIlS Weeh
in The Saturday Evening Post-the
same issue which made Cox so angry.
This picture tells the world what every
resident Of Marion who knew the late
Mrs. Harding has been telling investi
gators ever since the campaign opened
that there was not a chance on earth
Of Mrs. Harding having had a drop OF
negro blood in her veins.
A curious thing about this negro
story, and also about practically all the
other filthy stories which are being cir
culatcd in this campaign, involving, be-
sides this one about Harding, Cox
Vic Donahey and Harry l.. Davis, the
opposing candidates for Governor, is
that most of them seem to have started
III Dayton, CoX's home town. Several
men who have spent great deal OF
time attempting to run them down tolc
me that they traced them back to that
city.
| have spent considerable time with.
IN the last month in the states oi
Maryland West Virginia, Kentucky
and Missouri, and everywhere fount
that this story has been widely cir
culated and that it was turning votes
from Harding 70 Cox