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The children of U.S. cabinet members at Easter, April 1922. Photo from the National Photo Company collection. View full size.
When you compare this picture with the "Meet the Hazels:1916" picture you can get a sense of the true disparity in America around that time. The haves and the have-nots, and not much has changed since then either.
That little girl on the left end has a great "WTF" look on her face..
Will Hays (Postmaster General at the time, and the future deviser of the Hays Code), James J. Davies and Edwin Denby may have had children in that age group. Hays married in 1910, Davies in 1914, and Denby in (IIRC) 1911, and all married younger women.
I'd bet some of them are the children of Labor Secretary James J. Davis (1873 - 1947). According to Wikipedia, he was married and had five children. In 1922 he wrote, "THE IRON PUDDLER - MY LIFE IN THE ROLLING MILLS AND WHAT CAME OF IT" and in it he mentions that he was still a bachelor in 1913. Therefore, his oldest child could have been no more than about seven years old when this photo was taken.
...maybe. Members of Harding's cabinet, including the infamous Ohio Gang--Daughtery, Denby, Fall--as well as the distinguished Andrew Mellon and Charles Evans Hughes, were men well past their active parenting years. (I know, I know, there are exceptions to that generalization: I'm the 60-year-old father of a 12-year old daughter.) My guess: these are grandchildren, or perhaps children of White House staff members, out on the South Lawn of the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll.
Denny Gill
Chugiak, Alaska
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