The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-15
Ry Osborn Spencer.

/
| lars in nominating q candidate for the
| presidency a little more than a month
! from now at Chicago in the three or
! four days, beginning June Il, when
| the National Republican Convention
| is to be held.
| In three or four days beginning
July g. at least as much will be spent
| for a like purpose by the National
| Democratic Convention, to be held in
| St Louis. AS the Democratic Con-
vention 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 certainly cost $2,000,000 to place
! the two leading presidential candidates
| before the people, and this big sum will
| be considerably larger if either nomi-
nation should be holly contested. These
| figures may seem excessive, but here
are a few facts 20 bear them out.
5000 Men Run the Conventions.
In the first place, it will take be-
| tween 1900 and 5000 men and women
to run the convention and report it's
| proceedings.
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 1000, half be-
ing actual delegates and half alter
| mates. To be exact, so far as the Re-
publican Conve.. ton is concerned,
there will be 972 delegates from the
states, and an average of four each
from the six territories of Alaska,
Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico Okla
homa and Porto Rico, or a grand total
of delegates and alternates of l.
982.
The next class includes the con-
vention staff" of the convention SER
tn ia N2FhiP &c aafi t,1o
more and sometimes less than 1000.
| The sergeant-at-arms is practically the
business manager of the convention.
For political reasons, and because the
| members of his staff serve mostly with
out pay, he is allowed to appoint as
many as he chooses and the various ma
| tional committeeman, delegates and
other political personages may demand.
| His convention staff" includes deputy
| sergeants-at-arms, ushers, messengers,
pages and doOrkeepers. Based on the
| average of past conventions, there will
be 200 deputies, 200 ushers, 200 mes
! sengers, 200 pages and 100 doorkeep-
| ers-900 all told-and there may be
! more.
| The Newspaper Force.
Next come the newspaper men-and
women-including shorthand reporters,
! correspondents, photographers, artists.
I
will probably be about a thousand of
| them in all; between 400 and 500 press
| seats are always reserved in the con-
vention hal, with the assumption
| that at least half of the newspapers
| representatives in the convention will
| do their work elsewhere than in the
! hall itself-at the hotels, in commit
| tee 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 thousand
| press credentials are undoubtedly CIV
| en- out always, very respectable pro-
| portion going to representatives of
| country weeklies and various obscure
| periodicals.
Last comes the miscellaneous class,
| and it is very miscellaneous indeed. 1t
| includes the national committeeman
| Qorty-five in number, one from each
| state), their private secretaries, ste
nographers and clerks, the working Of
| flee of the sergeant-at-arms las dis
| tinguished from his convention
staff'O, the employees at the various
candidates headquarters and ''all not
| otherwise classified" These latter
would swell the miscellaneous class to
| 500 at least at a convention before
| which several candidates were to be
! placed in nomination, as may be the
case at st. Louis this year.
In tabular form those who will de-
| vote the major part of their time and
energy to the convention, as a bust
| ness, during it's continuance, may be
represented as follows:
Delegates and alternates 900
| Deputy sergeants-at-arms ........ 200
| USherS OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 2OO
| Messengers ....... ...........''... ZUU
RACES ...... .''''..'''''.''' lOU
| DoOrkeeperS ............... lU0
| Newspaper men and women (cor-
respondents, stenographers, ar
lists, photographers, amateurs,
etc.) 49,. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. ,OO0
| Miscellaneous Qncluding nation
| al committeeman, boomers and
all intermediate classes) ........ 500
| TOTAL f,fUU
For many years the direct expenses
Of the national conventions have been
paid by the cities in which the con-
| ventions have been held Newspaper
readers generally are familiar with the
quadrennial bids put in for the con-
ventions by New York, Chicago, Phil
adelphia, st. Louis and other places;
the bids of late years have ranged
from $4,000 to SIS, 1000, and have gener-
ally been large enough to pay all the
| expenses of the convention proper,
with sometimes a small surplus.
The Heaviest Expenses.
The heaviest single item of expense
| to be met by the convention city is
the furnishing of the convention hall.
! This year both conventions will be
| held in buildings that have been used
! for similar purposes before, but some
times the hall has to be built from the
ground up. In 1900 Kansas City had
| to do this for the Democratic Conven-
| ton. When the structure was nearly
| completed it took fire and was burn
| ed. and the local Citizens Committee
had hard time getting the second hall
| ready in time.
Even when there is a good con-
vention hall in existence, it almost
always has to be refitted, and some
! times this means practically the en-
| tire rebuilding of the interior. The
| seating arrangements have to be re-
modelled and the lighting has to be
i modified. Special committee rooms,
headquarters for telegraphers, writ
ing rooms for correspondents and a
restaurant have to be installed; and
a hundred other things have to be
done which would not occur to the
ordinary mind, but which men who are
convention wise know to be positively
| essential.
The Sergeant-at-Arms.
These things are all looked after by
| the convention ergeant-at-arms. He
| ctrapt1o11a life for yyaalxG in adj