Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-14

/ tically the entire rebuilding of the interior.
i The seating arrangements have TO Dc re-
| modelled and the lighting has to be modl-
| fled. Special committee rooms, neaoquart-
ers for telegraphers, writing rooms Av %
| correspondents and q restaurant have 70
| be Installed: and hundred other Things
| have to be done which would not occur 10
| the ordinary mind, but which men VINO are
convention wise know to be positiveiy es-
sential.
| These things are all looked after by the
| convention sergeant-at-arms. He ieads e
| strenuous life for weeks IN advance ol ing
gathering itself, and sometimes has num-
dreds of carpenters, plumbers and other ar
| tisans working for him many days.
| Where the Money Comes From.
+ Like his convention stan, the sergeant
alarms serves without pay. though his ex-
penses are met by the local fund and the
paw of his office force comes from the
same source, as also do the official ex-
penses of the national committee. When.
as sometimes happens, the contributions
/ of the convention city do not equal the
| convention expenses proper. the balance Is
made up from the regular campaign funos
| of the party.
| Most of the convention fund Is sub
scribed by the railroads and hotels, which
are. of course, the CHER benenciafies,
| though often various business men ana
public-spirited citizens. swell the sum with
| substantial contributions. The railroads,
| hotels and other refreshment places get
the bulk of the money spent by those who
! attend the convention.
| The average visiting attendance" at ma
tional conventions has been variousiy esti-
| mated by experts, and probably overeStd-
mated by most of them, Guesses OF 5o.VUO,
$4,000 and even 100000 sometimes seem
1 justified to the novice by the crowds Wnlcn
| flock to the convention, but the majority OF
the convention crowds is always MADE up
of local people. Bearing this IN mind, ana
taking into consideration the views or the
/ railroad men, who ought to know, It is saIe
4 to put down the visiting attendance at ten
| for each delegate and alternate-Say. ZoVuO
| or thereab outs. With this as a basis, some
| idea may be obtained as to the probable
! amount of money spent on the convention.
/ It is safe to assume that the average
round-trip railroad fare paid by the T. 400
will be SIS each, or $66000-some of them
| will pay good deal more. for they come
! from all PARTS of the country-and that
the visiting attendants pay 80 in round,
| trip fares each, or 000-$166,00O, all
| told for the railroads. The returns to the
| hotel and other entertainment purveyors
will be much larger, even IL the convention
| lasts only three days. This Will be It's
minimum length, no matter how peacerul
| its deliberations.
A Good Investment.
Figuring the hotel and other expenses
| CT the "a, 40 people who will run, report
| and attend the convention at $40 day
each, the total will be 10000, and the
grand total of money paid to the railroads
and the city will be $s0S, 900. Accepting this
tic tai. which is under the probability, even
should the convention be a short one, as
correct, it will be seen that the money put
up by the city and the railroads to run the
convention proper is less than 10 per cent
of the returns. In this light the investment
doesn't seem foolish.
| 1t Is not possible to estimate the prob
able cost of reporting the convention so
simply. These figures, kindly furnished by
General Manager Melville E. Stone, show
how much 1t cost the Associated Press to
report the various conventions of 1895:
Republican. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS So, 2oO98
Democratlc .$l26UO.74
Populist and silver. s.. 10000
Gold democrat. ....................$3 So, $50 Is
s31,221s7
AS there will probably be only two big
conventions this year, and the republican
convention. at least, will be short one,
the Associated Press will probably be called
upon to expend not more than $4,000 In
convention reporting. 1t takes about ten
stenographic reporters and fifteen CORE
spondents and editors to cover a conyen-
ton for the Associated Press and as the
figures given above show, the cost of the
convention reporting is in direct ratio to
the length and strenuousness of the gather
ing.
Reporting the Convention.
Nearly all the big daily newspapers of
the country depend upon the Associated
Press for their routine convention reports
though some receive them through other
sources, and there are at least a hundred
that send from one to ten or fifteen people
of their own to the convention city to do
special stunts of one sort and another At
a low estimate these papers will spend
$4,000 for special reports, telegraph tolls,
photographs. etc. Besides, there will be
special expenditures, extra wires, private
messages and the like along telegraphfc
lines, quite outside the newspaper service.
of at least $4,000
To recapitulate, the itemized cost of a
three-day national convention will be about
as follows, at the least:
Convention expenses proper. paid for by
the railroads and the convention city. -. SIS 900
Railroad fare OF delegates. alternates,
sergeant-at-arms' convention staff"
newspaper men national committee
men and others in the miscellaneous
class "a, 400 people in alb at SIS each. &C. 600
Railroad fare of 20,000 visiting atten-
dants" at IS each. ................... 100 600
Hotel and other expenses of "a 400 per-
sons, including all visitors. those who
run and those who report the conven-