THE PRESIDENCY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 14 June 1924, Page 7

THE PRESIDENCY

HOW CANDIDATES ARE CHOSEN

ROLE OF THE BRASS BAND.

The quadrennial uproar which tradition demands shall accompany the nominating of candidates for the Presidency of the United States is already beginning to be distinctly heard, . writes the New York correspondent of "The Times." The Democratic Party has set 24th June as the date for its convention, and ha£ chosen New York for the place. For five months the campaign has been carried on, and, it might be thought, should give simple time for leisurely preparation, but democracy, which goes out to name its candidates, not with a brass band, but with many brass bands and with an organising enthusiasm as painstaking as Max Heinhardt gives to the managing of a stage mob, suffers from no such illusion. Precisely as the Republicans will do in their turn, the Democrats have gone to work without a moment's delay, to prepare the campaign.

I Choosing the city, for the convention I was, in fact, no small part of the preparation. New York won, because, in bald fact, it was the highest bidder. It offered 255,000 dollars (nominally £31,000), which was 5000 dollars (£1000) more than San Francisco, its nearest rival, could afford; and the National Committee, with a deficit of 200,000 dollars (£40,000) on its hands from the 1920 campaign, was only too glad to find so easy a way to solvency. Like the otlier bidders, New .York promised more than merely the money. There would be no raising of prices in•the hotels and restaurants—no "gouging" anywhere. Special entertainments and travel facilities of all sorts would be provided for the convention delegates and . for, 200,000 other,, .visitors who might be expected to come in their train. There were other promises, too. On the National Committee's side there was an agreement that tho convention | would Be kept in session for a certain minimum ' number of days, so that the i-New York business men who contribute "to the convention fund might have a 'sporting chance of getting s some of ;' their money back. • I WORK OF THE CONVENTION, Within 24 hours after New York was chosen the National Democratic Committee had-taken over a floor in an "uptown" hotel for its headquarters and the local committee a floor in the Woodworth building "downtown"—to say nothing of the suites of rooms engaged by .the backers of particular candidates. Each had named a long list of sub-com-mittees, with chairmen who will devote most of their time to the work of the convention. Within 48 hours plans for the seating arrangements for 18,000 ' persons in Madison Square Garden had been completed, and tentative allotments on places had been made for 700 Press representatives and about 400 tejegraphists. Not only will the convention's doings be 'sent out to newspapers throughout the United States and to1 many abroad, but they will be broadcast by wireless so that they may bo heard by 30,000,000 persons.

When the convention actually meets the hall will be perfectly decorated with flags and bunting. The delegates, many of them picturesquely dressed, following the informal standards of the West and South-west especially, will be grouped around standards bearing the names of their States in bold black lettering. 1 here will be a powerful brass band, ready for- any service to excite enthusiasm, to drown sporadic acrimonies, to head a stampede procession around the floor. All these services bands have been called upon to perform in the past. And there will be, inter alia, the privileged eccentrics on tho floor and in the galleries, making, one would say, a nuisance of themselves, but by Americans readily tolerated as long as they seem to be "funny."

The nominations will be made from the floor, the chairman of .each delegation naming its choice as the roll of States is called in alphabetical order. Alabama, it may bo, will bo persuaded to give way to Illinois, or Pennsylvania to Texas, as part of the game. There is a fine strategy in naming a candidate at exactly the psychological'moment, for invariably a considerable number of the delegates are influenced'by mob feeling Of course, nearly always the reaL nun- ' ing of the candidates is done in quiet and wholly unadvertised meetings of a few powerful leaders gathered" in a hotel room. Because of tho rule in domocratic conventions which repuires tho votes of two-thirds of the delegates to make a nomination effective, it 'is seldom possible to muster in -advance for auy ono candidate more than a strong nucleus of votes, so that in a way the convention itself ultimately names the party choice, but unconsciously its range of selection is within narrow limits. However, to lend excitement to the sessions there is always the possibility that a stampede will occur such as mads William Jennings Bryan the candidate in 1896. " . DEMOCRACY AT WORK. There will bo "favourite sons" of different States, some of them real candidates, some of them without the ghost of a chance. It makes no difference which they are; the speeches proposing and seconding them will bo equally long' Of oratory, indeed, there will be' virtually no end—always supposing that this convention as not unique. And when at last, the voting comes, with the delegates worn from loss of sleep, and with their nerves ragged from too much tobacco, too much excitement, and too little fresh ah-, there will b«; asi uuroar of cheering and bimd-ul.iyinc and thumping of boot heels and" c'rashiii<' of overturned chairs. A hundred delo-

gates will leave their places at once, shouting and cheering, waving flags and banners wrenched loose ironi their standards, and for 15 minutes or so will parade wildly up and down the aisles, while the band brays frantically, "Hail, hail, the' gang's all here," or some other time-honoured favourite. Ten minutes after the noise has subsided thero will be another sudden outburst and another parade. So it will go on until, finally, the course of voting—after a few roll-calls, or ' a score—leaves it no longer to be doubted who is to be nominated; and then will begin the greatest scramble of all, the struggle to "climb on the bandwagon"— to identify one's self with the winning faction.

With all the disorder, democracy will be at work. It ib more likely that the successful candidate will prove to have been the real choice of the party, fulfilling the people's will.