Books and Manuscripts

President Warren G. Harding Considers Selling His Hometown Newspaper

Washington, (D.C.), etc., September 22-November 6, 1922. Group of six typed letters on White House stationery, signed by Warren G. Harding as President of the United States, to John Griffiths, a dealer in newspaper publishing equipment based in Poughkeepsie, New York, regarding the sale of Harding's Ohio newspaper, The Marion Star. Each letter one sheet and measuring 8 7/8 x 7 in. (225 x 178 mm), each with original White House mailing envelope. Lot includes four carbon copies of Griffiths' letters to Harding, as well as two of Griffiths' autograph draft letters to Harding, one Western Union telegram from Griffiths to Ernest L. Owen, an interested purchaser of the paper, and one typed Western Union telegram from Owen to Griffiths. Condition varies, generally well preserved, scattered soiling to Harding letters, carbon copies of Griffith letters with scattered chipping and loss along edges.

Harding purchased the Ohio newspaper The Marion Star in 1884 when he was 19-years-old for $300. Over the following three decades he was intimately involved with the newspaper's operations, and grew it from a semi-defunct paper with low readership to one of the most successful in the state. During his stewardship it became a favorite of Ohio's political class for his neutral reporting standards on statewide politics, and he was respected by his employees for his fairness and tendency to share company profits. Harding successfully wielded this esteem and power to gain entry into state and, eventually, national politics, and quickly rose from the Ohio political scene to the presidency in under 20 years.

At the time of these letters, Harding was considering selling his majority share in the newspaper. He was approached by newspaper equipment dealer John Griffiths, who was acting as intermediary for potential buyer, Ernest L. Owen, a fellow Marion, Ohio resident whom Harding knew from his early newspaper days. In response to Griffiths' September 22 offer to buy the paper for $350,000 (over $6 million in today's money), Harding replied the same day that he was not, "in a position to make an immediate and definite reply," since a quarter of the newspaper was owned by "young men who are now making it a greater business success than I was able to do when I was actively in charge," and, "would not think of pursuing any course which did not meet with their cordial approval." Eight days later, on September 30, Harding wrote to Griffiths asking if Owen would be available to come to Washington for an interview with him concerning stipulations Harding had before an agreement for the paper's sale could be made. Harding writes that the minority shareholders, "are makers of the paper and I would not want to enter upon an arrangement that did not show becoming concern for their loyalty and their contribution to the paper's success." On October 7, Owen sent Griffiths a telegram requesting he stop negotiations with Harding due to Owen's difficulty in getting financing for the venture from Marion banks. On October 10, Harding wrote to Griffiths stating that he, "could have said in advance that if he (Owen) were undertaking his plan of financing the proposed purchase in Marion it would be a futile undertaking. Marion is too small a banking community to deal with such a problem easily." Concerned that his plan of selling the newspaper may have become known in Marion, in an October 27 letter to Griffiths, Harding confesses "his disappointment that he (Owen) may have discussed the possible purchase of the Star among the banking forces at Marion." Griffiths replied four days later assuring him of the "confidential manner in which the possibility of the sale of the Marion Star was handled."

Although the sale did not materialize, Harding went on to the sell the newspaper the following year, in June 1923, to Brush-Moore Newspapers for $550,000 (over $7 million in today's money). Less than two months later, in the morning of August 2, President Harding died unexpectedly from complications related to cardiac arrest. In the late 1960s Brush-Moore sold their portfolio of newspapers, including The Marion Star, to the Canadian-based Thompson Newspaper chain for $72 million, at the time the largest newspaper transaction ever. The Marion Star is currently owned by The Gannett Company.

Marion, Ohio played an outsized role in Harding's political career, and during his campaign for the presidency served as a symbol of his humble and homespun roots-based political persona. It was from his home in Marion that he held his "front porch" campaign during his presidential run, inviting the public and press to his front lawn to hear him speak his case for Commander-in-Chief.