The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-08-04
HARDING ELECTED
BY RECORD VOTE
WAS COMPROMISE CANDIDATE IN
192O-WOOD, LOWDEN, JOHNSON
IN DEADLOCK

Washington - Ca P.) Although
coming to the White House with the
/ greatest majority ever given a presi-
Dental andidate-approxim T.
! 900, 0,000-Warren G. Harding entered
the field as compromise candidate.
1t was upon him that republican party
leaders were able to unite after the
deadlock between Major General
Leonard Wood, Governor Frank o.
Lowden of Illinois, and Senator Hiram
Johnson of California, had threatened
to carry the 1920 Chicago convention
over long days of fruitless balloting.
Mr.. Harding was not dark horse
in the strictest sense of that term.
He had been candidate for the nom
ination from the first, entering his
name in the presidential preference
primaries in his native and other
states. He captured most of the
Ohio delegation, but was unsuccess-
full elsewhere.
Declaring that the preference pri-
mary had given him vote which
the ground at Chicago, surrounding
himself with managers, widely ex-
perienced in national policies and
convention work.
On the first convention ballot he
received 64k votes, drawing support
from the south and west to supple
ment his strength from his own
state. He held this level fairly well
on the other three ballots that day,
June II, and the next day saw his
nomination on the tenth ballot after
a landslide which stripped the dead
locked candidates of the great bulk
Of their support.
With the expected deadlock devel-
oping right at the start of the first
day of the balloting, the party lead
ers, many of them colleagues of Mr.
Harding in the senate, recessed the
convention and entered into a series
of conferences which lasted through
out the night. Early the next morn
ing it became known that Harding
was regarded as the man most likely
to break the deadlock should none of
the leaders be able to muster the
necessary majority for nomination.
Grows Second Day
The first ballot of the day disclosed
that there had been considerable
overnight accession to the Harding
column and his strength continued to
grow with each successive vote. Gen
eral Wood lost heavily when the
drift got going and Senator
Johnson also went steadily down hill.
Fearing landslide was impending
The Johnson managers obtained re-
ess and in the dramatic succession of
conferences that followed the fate of
the candidates virtually was sealed.
On the next ballot-the ninth
Governor Lowden released his in
structed delegates to Harding and the
ohio senator's total vote was swelled
to 3741a, the largest any candidate
1ad received up to that hour. The
delegates to the Harding camp, his
official nominating vote being 692. s
Hurrying from Chicago to Wash
ngton, Mr. Harding speedily put his
affairs in order so as to give all his
line and energies to his campaign. !
He returned to his home in Marion {
On July and accepted the nomina- t
ion on July %, then, like his friend l
md mentor, William Mckinley, he {
conducted front porch " campaign !
1t his home, addressing scores of s
delegations that came from far and 8
lear to visit him.
He made occasional speaking trips,
,oing as far west as Iowa and as far
EAST as Baltimore. Also he made a t
rip into the south, speaking in Ten c
lessee, which alone of all the south f
,rn states gave him majority in the L
election which came on his 55th birth c
lay. |