Tales from the North

Continuing last Saturday's Graphical History Tour, we've got some century-late-breaking news out of Minnesota!

In a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the late Cushman Davis, Minnesota elected Farmer-Labor candidate Magnus Johnson.

"Way Up in Alaska" by Harold J. Wahl in Sacramento Bee, July 19, 1923

The Senate seat won by Johnson had been held by Republicans since 1859. Fellow Farmer-Laborite Henrik Shipstead had been elected to Minnesota's other Senate seat in 1922 — a seat that had been held by Republicans almost as long, except for Charles Towne's 54-day term in 1900-1901.

"I've Seen 'Em Come..." by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1923

Edward Gale's Third Party Graveyard fails to include the Prohibition Party. By 1923, the Prohibition Party's principal campaign plank had been hammered by both major political parties into the U.S. Constitution. (That the 18th Amendment would eventually be negated by the 21st was still a decade into the future.)

The Greenback and Populist Party platforms of looser monetary policy and abandonment of the gold standard would eventually be adopted and passed by the Progressives and Democrats. This is how third parties' success is truly measured: do their issues become adopted by either or both the Democrats or Republicans?

"Some Consolation for the GOP" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1923

Where Gale gets it wrong is that the Farmer-Labor Party was not the "third" party in the Minnesota Senate race. John McCutcheon correctly notes that the Democratic Party was scarcely a factor. Johnson won the election with a commanding 57.48% of the vote to Republican Governor Jacob Preuss's 38.69%. Democrat James Carley was sent home with a measly 3.83% of votes cast.

"Powerful Katrinka Loses Her Composure" by Harold Talburt for Scripps-Howard Newspapers, before July 26, 1923

The Farmer-Labor Party and the Democrats would eventually join forces in 1944, strengthening both. Minnesota's DFL is one of only two affiliates of the Democratic Party with a name different from the national party. (North Dakota's Democratic-Nonpartisan League is the other.)

Your humble blogger provided the backstory on Fontaine Fox's Powerful Katrinka back in April.

Alaska Daily Empire, July 10, 1923

Meanwhile, President Harding was on his western non-campaign swing, making the first presidential visit ever to Alaska before heading south again. 

"Cinderella and the Golden Galoshes" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1923

His plans were to visit Vancouver, Canada and several cities on the U.S. west coast before sailing down to the Panama Canal and stopping at Puerto Rico on the way back to Washington, D.C.

"Somewhere in Alaska" by Daniel Fitzpatrick in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 16, 1923

Daniel Fitzpatrick, drawing from a city Harding had already left, used the occasion to accuse administration foreign policy as being adrift; but cartoonists in cities still on the president's itinerary rolled out the welcome mat. 

"Getting Ready for the President" by Frank Kettlewell in Oakland Tribune, July 23, 1923

I see a lot of similar editorial cartoons in this period — especially in summer months — welcoming visiting conventions of all kinds to town. Even the best and brightest pens and grease pencils of the day would let the Shriners and Tulip Fancier Society know how thrilled they were to play host to them.

"Just Watch Our Smoke" by O.C. Chopin in San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1923

But Florence Harding took ill in Alaska, and her husband experienced abdominal pain after rushing through a speech at Washington State University. His doctors diagnosed recurrence of a previous heart problem, but falsely reported to the public that it was ptomaine poisoning due to copper-tainted clams.

Harding cancelled a stop in Portland, Oregon, arriving by train in San Francisco on July 29. Although he was visibly exhausted, he insisted on walking from the train to the car that took him to the Palace Hotel. The official announcement was that he was expected to fully recover and complete the trip.

But the next day, it was reported that Harding had developed pneumonia, and his condition was pronounced "grave."

"Renominate the President" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 1923

The Chronicle nevertheless ran this Bronstrup cartoon on July 31 alongside an editorial in moderately large print advocating a second Harding term. A second editorial, below the first and in regular type, acknowledged Harding's illness and regretted that he was unable to complete his San Francisco event schedule.

I have to wonder whether Bronstrup drew this portrait in case the worst were to come to pass by the newspaper's deadline. It's rather dark for an All Hail! cartoon

On the other hand, the sketch by R. H. Sommer (obviously drawn from the same photograph) on the front page of the Alaska Empire three weeks earlier is similarly dark, and that was published while, as far as the public knew, Harding was in perfect health.