Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-14
National Conventions Always
Cost a Pretty Penny.
FACTS AND FIGURES
MORE THAN 1000 PEOPLE TAKE
PART IN EACH.
Sergeant alarms is the Business
Manager-Proftable Invest
ment for a City.

Written for The Evening Star by Osborn Spencer.
This country is getting ready to spend
rather more than a million dollars In nomi-
mating candidate for the presidency
little more than month from now at Chi
cago in the three or four days beginning
June 81, when the national republican con-
vention is TO be held.
In three or four days. beginning July @,
at least as much will be spent for a like
purpose by tie national democratic con-
vention to be held in st. Louis. AS the
democratic convention seems likely to be
the more strenuous of the two and may last
longer. more money will probably be spent
in St. Louis than in Chicago. 1t will GER
tainly cost two millions of dollars to place
the two leading presidential candidates be-
fore the people. and this big sum will be
considerably larger If either nomination
should be holly contested. These figures
may seem excessive. but here are few
facts to bear them out.
In the first place. 1t will take between
four and five thousand men and women to
run the convention and report its proceed
ings
This small army will be divided into five
general classes. of which the delegates Will
be most important numerically as well as
otherwise. They will number about 2,OoO,
half being actual delegates and half alter
mates. To be exact so far as the repubn-
can convention is concerned, there Will be
9I2 delegates from the states and an aver
age of four each from the six territories OF
Alaska Arizona. Hawaii, New Mexico,
Oklahoma and Porto Rico, or "A In all,
making total of 996, or grand total OF
delegates and alternates of 19S2
Convention Staff.
The next class includes the convention
STAFF of the convention sergeant-at-arms,
which is sometimes more and sometimes
less than a thousand. The sergeant-at-
arms is practically the business manager
of the convention. For political reasons.
and because the members Of his staff serve
mostly without pay, he is allowed to ap-
point as many as he chooses and the Vari-
Gus national committeeman, delegates anu
other political personages may demand.
His convention STAIR includes deputy
sergeant-at-arms, ushers, messengers
pages and doorkeepers Based on the aver
age of past conventions, there Will De ~
deputies 200 ushers, 200 messengers, -UO
pages and 100 doorkeepers-9OO all told
and there may be more.
Next come the newspaper men-and wo-
Notwithstanding shorthand reporters, corre-
spondents, photographers, artists, teiegfa-
piers and messengers. There will probably
be about a thousand of them in all; be-
tween 400 and 500 press seats are always
reserved in the convention hall, with the
assumption that at least half or the news
paper representatives in the convention
will do their work elsewhere than In Inc
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 4OO or
800 but at least thousand press creden-
tials are undoubtedly given out always, n
very respectable proportion going to rep
resentatives of country weeklies ana vail
Gus obscure periodicals.
Last comes the miscellaneous class and
1t is very miscellaneous indeed. 1t includes
the national committeeman forty-nve IN
number, one from each state), their pri-
waite secretaries, stenographers and clerks,
the working Office force of the sergeant-at-
arms (as distinguished from his "convan-
ton staff') the employees at the various
candidates headquarters and "all not 9th
erwise classified" These latter would swell
the miscellaneous class to 500 at least at
a convention before which several can
didates were to be placed in nomination,
as may be the case at st. Louis this year.
Over Four Thousand.
In tabular form those who will devote
the major part of their time and energy to
the convention. a business, during it's
continuance, may be represented as fol-
lows:
Delegates and alternates ..........-........ 1000
sat