Today -100: July 21, 1920: He must know the nation

Franklin Roosevelt criticizes Harding’s front-porch approach to campaigning, calling it un-democratic. “[I]t is just as important for the candidates to get in touch with the United States as it is for voters to have a chance to see and hear them. No man having the viewpoint merely of Ohio, or Massachusetts, or New York, is fitted to be president or vice president. He must know the nation.” And hey, guess who’s already visited all 48 states?

The Olympic Committee refuses to let Ireland participate as a separate nation. Irish athletes refuse to compete under the British flag.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford are mobbed when visiting the Paris Central Markets (Les Halles, I presume). “Mary was rescued by three hefty butchers, who shoved her into a meat cage and locked the door to keep the crowd from her.” Sure.... rescued....  And to prove that life in the 1920s really was exactly as depicted in the movies of the period: “A fat woman dressed in green silk stumbled and fell into a crate of eggs.”

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