WILD SURMISE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 12

WILD SURMISE.

CON V ENT lON CONTR ASTS. NOMINATING A PRESIDENT. HAPPENINGS IN 1920 AND 1924 COMPARED. Contrast, if you please, the national conventions of this year with those of 1920, writes Silas Bent in the New York Times on Bth June. Then the Democratic nomination, although uncertain, as it must be usually under the two-thirds rule, was not the matter of wild surmise it is this year. Then the Republican outcome was a gamble, made the more uncertain by revelations of huge preconvention slush funds; this year it is a prearranged formality, consisting mainly of keynoting and platforming and flag-waving, with the main jockeying over who is to occupy second place. It is a contrast, indeed, that the Republicans are meeting this year in Cleveland. Their five prior conventions were held in the barn-like old coliseum at Chicago, scene of the memorable battles with Theodore Roosevelt and “hell-roaring” Hiram Johnson. Chicago had been a favourite, not merely because it was centrally located and big enough to accommodate the crowd, but for the sentimental reason that only 200 miles away was Ripon, where the Grand Old Party came into being 70 years ago. Reason enough; but this year the Lake Erie breezes will waft away from the delegates whatever memories or odours may drift in their direction from the old stamping ground. General Leonard Wood, Governor Frank O. Lowden, and Senator Johnson, were the three strong men when they went into the 1920 convention. Johnson’s adorers gave him an ovation on his arrival as great as any the Colonel ever knew, and he addressed them, Rooseveltian fashion, from a hotel balcony. Senator Warren G. Harding, as he was then, didn’t figure as a strong contender. On the first ballot he polled only 65 votes —discarding fractions; actually he had another half vote. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler had 69, although he wound up with only 2. Lowden had 211, Johnson 133. It was anybody’s race. The delegates, perhaps humming to themselves the familiar “Hail, hail!” voted for Wood and Lowden as though the Senate investigating committee hadn’t turned up a single dollar mark. The future President’s vote fell off on three or four ballots, then began to pick up surprisingly, until on "the tenth he leaped suddenly 200 beyond the required mark, and the thing was done. But think of the dark horses; Governor Calvin Coolidge, of Massachusetts, was one of them. He had 34 votes to' go, and wound up with only 5; so he was solaced with the VicePresidency. Governors Sproul, of Pennsylvania, and Allen, of Kansas, were others. Many supposed that in case of a deadlock Charles Evans Hughes would be asked to lead the party again. Senator Knox was talked of, although the Old Guard preferred Sproul of his State. Senators Borah and Sutherland and Poindexter and Lenroot also figured in early voting. Secretary Hoover, then Director of Food Relief, was thought by many to be a strong probability, although he did not attend the convention, and in fact figured only negligibly in the voting. Will H. Hays himself (to use the terminology of filmdom), then chairman of the Republican National Committee and extremely popular, was regarded as an emergency hopeful; and he actually did poll a vote on the last ballot. There were other dark horses of the favourite-son variety. Senator La Follette went in with 24 votes, Senator Warren with 1, T. Coleman du Pont with 7. From the first it was apparent that Wood and Lowden couldn’t carry the burden of the Senatorial revelations through that melee. The General fought to the last ditch, staunchly supported by Theodore Roosevelt Junr., Senator Moses, and former Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson; and he actually came out of the fray with 156 votes. Lowden fell off to eleven. His vote dwindled the more, perhaps, because two of his delegates had acceptd large sums from his fund prior to the convention and were unseated at,the convention because the Senate committee had proved it. But there were 156 delegates who stuck to General Wood. Penrose was ill, otherwise the result might have been different, He delegated Senators Lodge and Smoot and Murray Crane and one or two others of the Old Guard to run the convention for him, but they couldn’t do it, even with Lodge as chairman. AT. Hert, of Louisville, now dead, was the nearest thing to a national boss there, and he was a rich but not a remarkably astute politician. The convention was stampede-proof anyhow. Most of the elder statesmen present were veterans of 1912, and had piloted the’ steam roller over the Colonel. They saw to it that Hiram Johnson, who hoped to win the Wood and Lowden delegates, got nowhere, which was their main objective; and then, to mollify him, offered the VicePresidency. He rejected it with contumely, and missed his chance for the White House. The Wood and Lowden treasure chests -were the talk of the country all during that convention. There had been spent on Wood’s behalf more than a million and three-quarters, and for Lowden more than 400,000 dollars. Senator Johnson’s campaign expenditure before the convention had been nearly 200,000 dollars. The public condemned the huge expenditure as a scandal, and voted overwhelmingly for the ticket. The Democrats spent in the whole campaign 2,358,252 dollars. Before the Republican convention the candidates for the nomination spent 2,857,551 dollars. After the convention the Republicans spent - nearly eleven millions.

As a sardonic sidelight on that golden campaign, Colonel William Cooper Procter, whose- name has long been associated with Gamble, sued his associates on the Wood campaign committee to make them share with him 800,000 dollars he said he had spent from his own pocket. The General had lost, the Colonel had lost, and there wasn't so much as a consulate on the horizon, much less an ambassadorial post. The Democrats met out in San Francisrto, "having given the Republicans first voice, as usual, in choosing and promising. Before they met, Governor Cox was regarded by many a.s the likely candidate for the nomination, because William G. M'Adoo blushingly said he would not permit his name to be put before the convention. Yet on the first ballot M‘Adoo had more votes than anybody else. He bad 26fi and Mitchell Palmer had 2oG, while Cox was trailing with hut 18-1. Governor “AI” Smith had 109. These were the leaders, although Smith's wetness hurt him more then than his followers seem to think it will now. In the final balloting his name had disappeared. The dark horses? Not all of them looked so dark before the convention

as they did when the roll call began. There was John AY. Davis, for instance, who was 'regarded in some quarters as a strong contender. He began with 32 votes and ended up with 52. And there was the usual array of Senators —Glass and Simmons and Underwood and Williams and Hitchcock- and Owens, Secretaries Meredith and Daniels (as they were then) were contenders for a. while, and so were Homer Cummings and “Jimmy” Gerr aid. Rain bridge Colby had a vote, at the outset, and still had it when the final forty-fourth ballot was cast. Mitchell Palmer in the meantime had shrunk to the same size. General Leonard Wood’s name, despite his fate at Chicago, received four votes on the first ballot at that convention. Hearst got a vote, and so did Bryan. The then Vice-President Marshall started out but didn’t finish. Carter Glass was working for M'Adoo then, as he is now. The Virginia delegation was instructed for Senator Glass then, as it is now; but, since we are looking for contrasts rather than parallels, how about this? At the outset of the convention there was a great ovation to Woodrow Wilson. The New York delegation, reined in by the late Charles F. Murphy, would take no part. A parade formed and began moving around the hall. Murphy remembered Ireland and held his men fast. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt, with two or three courageous followers, tried to wrest the New York standard from Tammany. There was a fist fight, a. wild scrimmage, and Roosevelt emerged from the tuijnoil with the standard, which he bore triumphantly in the procession. To-day Roosevelt is managing the campaign of “Al” Smith, Tammany candidate for the Presidency. Contrasts abound in the political comedy. ; President Wilson’s attitude was the puzzle of that campaign. From his sickroom he would send no word to indicate which candidate he favoured. Even after Governor Cox was nominated there was a period of public doubt as to whether he would take up the Wilson banner and espouse the League of Nations. He did it, and still he and Roosevelt had managed to retain the support of Tammany? Nearly all the delegates to the 1920 convention were uninstructed. That made the situation all the more difficult, when the winner must have twothirds of the 1092 votes. Some were instrutced, to be sure. James W\ Gerard had won the pledge of South Dakota’s ten delegates. The twenty from Oklahoma were instructed to cast a. complimentary vote for Senator Owen; the twenty-four from North Carolina to do the same for Senator Simmons; the sixteen from Nebraska to do likewise for Senator Hitchcock. But the twenty-eight from. New Jersey meant business on behalf of Edward T. Edwards, and so. did the twenty-six from lowa, in regard to E. T. Meredith. When Governor Cox went into the convention he had only the instructed delegation from his own State and the Kentucky delegation. This was a total of seventy-four votes, but. the Governor was much stronger on account of pledges, as the first ballot revealed. M'Acloo, for that matter, had only ten instructed votes at the outset; but he polled 266. He spent no ( money before the convention. Mitchell Palmer spent more than anyone else, 59,610 dollars; and the total pre-convention expenditures were only 120.000 dollars. *

That the Democrats required fortyfour ballots to nominate, while the Republicans at Chicago had required but ten, may seem to indicate that the Republican pre-convention prospect was not so uncertain, after all. It indicates nothing of the Chicago a majority served to nominate. The Old Guard was preoccupied with Hiram Johnson. The Senate clique was busy trying to put over one of its own number, and profited by the fact that the lieutenants of Penrose were blocking Johnson’s game. The inside histories of these conventions, the true stories of how by bickerings • and strategy and promises votes are pulled this way and that, are seldom, if ever, told. At San Francisco most of the delegates were foot loose at least after the first ballot, and the fight was long-drawn because it takes a lot of work to get twothirds of a. big convention into a- single block.

Death has invaded the ranks of leadership and bossdom on both sides during the last four years. President Wilson and President Harding are gone. These are losses in leadership, in bossdom the Republicans have lost Penrose and Hert. Philander Knox is dead, too, but then he never took more than a. casual interest in politics. His heart wasn’t in it. He accepted what was offered to him on a silver tray, but he strove for no political honours. Probably >he felt relieved when Penrose decided in 1920 that the Hid Guard should get behind Sproul instead of behind him. In him the Republicans lost fine Cabinet material but not an adroit politician. ’ 0,1 the Democratic side, Charles F. Alprphy most powerful of the party bosses has gone to his reward. He was for “Al’ Smith in 1920, with Governor Cox as second choice, This year he was unreservedly for Governor smith, and managed his campaign watered and tendered and tilled it until his death last April. Despite this casualty, the Smith boom seems to so along right heftly. Tn fact it’« uncertain whether the loss has helped or hurt the Governor.

There is the question this year of a third party led by “Fighting'Bob” La bolette. It is commonly supposed that there was no third party in 1920, hut that is not quite true. The other parties, such as the Si lisle Taxers and the Socialists and the Farmer-Labour-ites, are ignored because they couldn’t muster strength enough to ‘be worth noticing. None of them had a leader ol ouch commanding stature as La rollette, unless Debs be so accounted by bis admirers. Strictly speaking ou-'s is not a two-party Government. Lot those who- believe we always earn from the past draw Their own mssons from ,thc campaign of 1920. ■Now, as then, Republicans have to lace a scandal in which the corrupt use o! money is involved. Now. as then prohibition and taxes are factors, and the League of Nations is likely to be. Now, as then, Tanunany has its favourltP Die Republic ans go lorth this year under a tested leader, known to the nation, with the v hole public to audit his executive conpl C '^-r\ qualities of leadership: while the Democrats are casting about for a standard bearer and may possibly hit upon one' as little known to the "electorate as was. Warren G. Harding in Draw up your own equation from those facts, and see whether X or A is the bigger