Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-06-17
NAMING. A CANDIDATE
FIGURES PROVE IT a COSTLY
UNDERTAKING.
rhe Two Leading National Conventions
viii Involve Expenditures ENeeeain''
Two Millions of Dollars = HOW Tue
Enormous Expenses Are Dlsl'1ea'

| Two millions of Dollars How the
rro,o,a Expenses Are Divided.
Tha country is getting ready to spenu
| rather more than million dollars III
| nominating a candidate for the pfes1-
| dency at Chicago in the three or ioui
DAYS beginning June p, when Tue NJ
! publican national convention IS 10 De
| held. 49,
| Tn three or four days beginning July
G at least as much will be spent LOT
like purpose by the Democratic natlon-
| NJ convention, to be held IN 81. LOUIS.
| As the Democratic convention seeihs
likely to be the more strenuous OF the
two and may last longer, more money
viii probably be spent Id 81. LOUIS
than in Chicago. It will certainly cost
| 60. 600 O0O to place the two leading
presidential candidates before the peo-
Die. and this big sum will be cohsiu-
erably larger If either nomination.
should be holly contested. These 1g-
ures may seem excessive, out mere are
few facts to bear them out:
Needs Small Army.
In the first place, it will take pc
tween 1000 and 5000 men and women
TO run the convention and report It's
proceedings. This small army VIII De
divided into five general classes, OF
which the delegates will be most I'M
portant, numerically as well as other-
wise. They will number about 2,ooo,
half being actual delegates and half
aIternates. To be exact, so far as the
Republican convention is concerned,
there will be 972 delegates from the
States, and an average Of four each
from the six territories Of Alaska, Ari-
iona. Hawaii, New Mexico, Oklahoma
and Porto Rico, or "A in all, making
total Of 996, or grand total of dele
gates and alternates Of 1,S92.
The convention staff'' includes dep
uty sergeants-atarms, ushers, messen-
gers, pages and doorkeepers. Based on
the average of past conventions, there
will be 200 deputies, 200 ushers, 200
messengers, 200 pages and 100 door
keepers-0OO all told-and there Inay
be- more.
Next come the newspaper men--and
women-including shorthand reporters,
correspondents, photographers, artists,
telegraphers and messengers. There
will probably be about a thousand Of
them in all; between 400 and 500 press
seats are always reserved in the con-
vention hall, with the assumption that
at least half Of the newspaper repre-
sentatiyes in the convention will do
their work elsewhere than in the hall
itself-at the hotels, in committee
rooms, etc. Possibly the number of
actual working newspaper folk at the
national convention may not be more
than 400 or 500, but at least a thou
sand press credentials are undoubtedly
given out always.
Last comes the miscellaneous class,
and it is very miscellaneous indeed 1t
includes the national committeeman
as in number, one from each State),
their private secretaries, stenograph-
ers and clerks, the working office force
Of the sergeant-at-arms (as distinguish
cd from his convention staff'D, the
employees at the various candidates
headquarters, and "all not otherwise
classified" These latter would swell
the miscellaneous class to 500 at least
at convention before which several
candidates were to be placed in no1ni-
nation, as may be the case at st.
Louis this year. The visiting attend
ance" averages about 100000
Railroad and Hotel Bills.
1t is safe to assume that the aver
age round trip railroad fare paid for
the 400 persons who run and report
the convention will be So each, or
$66, OOO-some Of them will pay a good
deal more, for they come from all
parts Of the country-and that the
visiting attendance" pay So In round
trip fares each, or O,OOO-$166, 900,
all told, for the railroads. The retnrns
to the hotel and other entertainment
purveyors will be much larger, even
II the convention lasts only three DAYS.
This will be it's minimum length. no
matter how peaceful it's deliberations.
Figuring the hotel and other expenses
of the 24,40O people Who will run, re-
port and attend the convention at $40
a day each, the total will be $780,, 900,
and the grand total of money paid to
the railroads and the city will be $685.
900.
Nearly all the big daily newspapers
of the country depend upon the Asso-
GATED Press for their routine conyen-
ton reports, though some receive them
through other sources, and there are at
loast 100 that send from one to ten
or fifteen people Of their own to the
convention city to do special stunts Of
one sort or another. At low esti-
mate these papers will spend 100000
for special reports, telegraph tolls, pho
tographs, etc. Besides, there will he