1924 National and Pennsylvania Republicans “SAFE–SANE–STEADY”
Another election has just passed, this one with little fanfare. No federal offices were at stake and only judicial ones at the state level. Many county and local officies were not up for election and some of those who were had only one candidate.
The flier above for the 1924 Republican Party candidates caught my eye when I was looking through a file on elections at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. The gentlemen certainly look “SAFE–SANE–STEADY.”
Even though 1924 was a presidential election year, it wasn’t an exciting election. The American Presidency Project shows that Coolidge won with 54% of the popular vote. Democrat John W. Davis carried only the “solid south” and Progressive candidate Robert M. LaFollette only took his native Wisconsin.
Who were these 1924 Republicans and where is the York County connection?
Incumbent Calvin Coolidge had been vice-president and became president in 1923 upon the death of Warren Harding. The economy was good and Coolidge rode in on that. If things are going well, people aren’t apt to vote for change. (If it ain’t broke–don’t fix it.)
Coolidge is known best for talking little. His running mate, Charles G. Dawes, talked too much. Dawes had won a Nobel Prize for his Dawes plan to salvage the economy of post World War One Europe, but he alienated much of the Senate, as well as Coolidge, by using his 1925 inaugural speech to long-windedly attack the rules of the Senate.
The state candidates include Edward Martin, who was successful in his candidacy for Auditor General. He later served as state Treasurer and Adjutant General and was Governor from 1943 to 1947. Fellow Republican Frank M. Trexler seems to have served a long time as a Superior Court judge.
The York County connection is Samuel S. Lewis (1874-1949), Pennsylvania Treasurer from 1925 to 1929, Lieutenant Governor from 1939 to 1943 and Secretary of the Department of Forest and Waters from 1941 to 1954. During his term he donated 35 acres of his farm to the state. It was combined with the Stine Arboretum and another 35 acres from the adjacent Almoney farm to form the Samuel S. Lewis State Park in Lower Windsor Township. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources added another 14 acres in 1999 for a total acreage of 85 acres. The park is best known for the spectacular views of the Susquehanna River and surrounding countryside and it is a great place to fly kites.
Follow the links below for more York County politics of the past.
Democratic Press staunchly Democratic.
Mudslinging in the 1832 York County election.
Blazing political rally in Red Lion.
Log cabin headquarters for Harrison.
Commerce and government in Hanover.
Hartley wants U.S. capital here.
Peter Bott upset about Tax Collector job.
Reluctant politician.
