The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-25
HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN BUTTON Article Is Manufactured By the
 Millions MANY BRANDS AND BREEDS Have to Be Ready the Instant of the Nomination-Thus 1t Is of Im-
 portance for Makers to
 Guess Right.
MANY BRANDS AND BREEDS
From the Washington Herald.

If you should ask an authority on cam- paign buttons how many buttons were being manufactured daily he would tell you at least half a million. This he would consider conservative estimate a steady, cheerful production every min ute of about $40 smiling little Tafts and grifnly meditative little Bryans. figures a writer in the Boston Transcript
 There are three remarkable things about campaign buttons-that so many, many millions of them are put in circulation, that so few of them are visible to the casual observer and that the process of getting them on the market involves a prophetic quality that actually picks the candidate before the conventions have nominated them. On the day that Taft was nominated several million Taft but tons were delivered in Chicago. On the day that Bryan was nominated several million Bryan buttons were delivered in Denver. A large share of these buttons had been manufactured as far away as New Jersey. Roughly speaking they were worth about half cent apiece at whole sale and their total value reached some where in the neghborhood of $40000 or s5O,0O0-which may well serve as a mod est hint at the financial aspect of this apparently trlV1al business.
 Betting on the Nominee.
 Thousands and thousands of dollars, in short, are thus practically wagered on the opinion of few individuals as to the outcome of the conventions. The largest company behind these S.OOO0O0 or s,00O,OOO smiling little 'Tafts and grimly medita- tive little Bryans guessed right. But some of the other button people guessed wrong. As a result we read soon after ward of a small dealer who committed suicide because he had invested his whole small fortune in the wrong button. He had guessed that Roosevelt and Johnson would be the nominees of the two great parties.
 But why, you wonder, should button man take such desperate chances on any thing so doubtful as the result of a polit- ical convention? Because the precise mo- ment for disposing of buttons is the mo- ment of greatest popular excitement, the button seller, like the newsboy, aims to profit by catching the crowd even while It IS still gazing at the bulletin board. But to do this he must take long chances. The jobber who orders buttons of the manufacturer assumes all the risk after the buttons have been delivered. The faker who buys his buttons of the job Der pays on delivery and must stand or fall by his own judgment The manu- facturer who makes up vast number Of buttons in order to be ready to supply the market in competition with other manufacturers at the instant of the rush of orders that follows the decission of the convention must take his chances of pro- yfding himself with vast number of but tons for which there will be no demand whatever.
 Naturally the button manufacturer meets this condition in the most economic way possible. He reduces the risk by bringing to bear upon the political situa- ton the keenest available judgment In one large button factory salary of $12- GOO year is paid to the man whose voice is most influential in deciding which of the possible candidates is likely to be- come the real one, and this man has his several lieutenants, who are only a de- gree less influential. Concerning the fu- ture of national convention, 1t would be difficult to find anything more acutely authoritative than the council of war of a group of these button generals.
 Enormous Output.
 Although the political button is only one among many the frequency of cleo tions of one kind and another, taking the country as whole, gives to 1t something of the character of an endless stream that develops once every four years into a raging Niagara. Then the millions and millions of potentially presidential faces come in strips from the printing press, are cut out into little round portraits by sort of mechanical doughnut cutter, are whisked over disk of metal and under another round sheet of transparent eel luloid, fastened in place with a clasp and there you are ready for the bosom of the potential partisan. ''vote for - and Prosperity is a motto that fits just as well around the couatenance of Can didate Taft as around that of Candidate Bryan-but if the button man has any inclination at all if tends little toward the cheerful Ohioan, for, so far, Taft enthusiasm seems to be absorb Ing the larger number of buttons.
 Competition naturally brings into the held at election time wide variety of buttons for each candidate, but public taste selects from among them with A. conservatism peculiar to the season. The political button is button apart, a but ton, apparently, to be taken seriously However decorative may be his designs, the manufacturer receives his largest or Aers for the simple unadorned portrait of the chosen candidate. Thousands and thousands and thousands of button wear CTS go in for decoration-preferably some-. thing with touch of red, white and blue other kind of button whatever. and -but many more thousands and thou- sands and thousands prefer the undecor- ated portrait. The reason, according to the manufacturers, Is that many man will adorn himself with a political button who wouldn't voluntarily appear in any these men naturally prefer the quiet and business-like.
 What Buttons Cost.
 These buttons range from four inches in diameter-which are very expensive and cost $75 thousand-to about the size of nickel. when you can get them for e450 a thousand if you are economical and purchase in 100000 lots. They cost more when you are patriotically minded to buy them of a street vendor and less when you get them for nothing from the party managers at the end of rally. What is most interesting about these designs is their excellent Craftsmanship and almost invariable good taste. The element of humor in political campaign ing finds no place on the political button. If you wish to be funny" you may in- deed adorn yourself with one of the Presidential Billies"-a little celluloid goat with picture of your chosen can 6idate and the cheerful motto, 'fWho is your Billy?" Or you may ask your friends to marvel at the remarkable like ness of Candidate Bryan to General Washington as shown on folding card on which is picture of Washington with the face cut out and Bryan's in- serted under it. while a complete por- trait of Washington stands on the oppo- site leaf for purposes of comparison. The likeness, however is little too start ling, for 1t leads attentive observer to the conclusion that both of these por-