The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1908-06-18

fonventions-the dark horse" For the
benefit OF the new voter who may not
have read up rigidly in political his
tory may be stated that a dark
horse Is just as human as any other
candidate, being a man brought for
ward and nominated in a deadlock.
though not considered as entered in
the race prior to the convention.
Hayes was dark horse. So was Car
field. So was Benjamin Harrison in
1883. Dark horses, as you see, run
pretty we'll.
After the presidential nominee is de-
clared the convention goes through
similar performance In relation to the
vice presidency. By this time most of
the Whoopers have the whooping
cough or the wheezes and are begin
ming to abate their enthusiasm. They
don't care much about the second place
on the ticket anyway. Yet it would
seem that the vice presidency should
be held in almost as high esteem as
the presidency. The Republican party
has elected seven presidents. But there
have been ten Republican presidents.
The vice presidency accounts for the
difference. Andrew Johnson, Chester
A. Arthur and Theodore Roosevelt as
to his hrst term became presidents as
the result of conventions naming them
for the @ice presidency. Each of them
served almost the entire term of the
man higher up on the ticket
| h -
quire much time to nominate a vice
presidential candidate. Usually several
| states put forward favorite sons-when
the favorite sons will stand for it. Mr.
Roosevelt wouldn't stand for it in Phil
adelphla at the 1900 convention until
he was persuaded by the overwhelm-
ing enthusiasm of the delegates. Of
course one of his reasons for refusing
at first was that he was governor of
New York and "Boss" Platt and his
cronles had cooked up a scheme to
make Roosevelt vice president in or
der to eliminate him from New York
politics. In all proba bility Jonathan P.
Dolliver of Iowa would have been
nominated if Roosevelt had not con-
sented finally to run, and we should
| have had President Dolliver instead of
President Roosevelt after the murder
of President Mckinley. Mr.. Dolliver
is mentioned for the vice presidential
nomination this year. Other names
that have appeared above the horizon
are those of Governor John Franklin
Fort of New Jersey, Congressman
James S. Sherman Of New York state,
Ex-Governor Franklin Murphy of New
Jersey, John Hays Hammond of Mas
sachusetts and Vice President Fair
banks. "And there are Others
Billy Stones Labor of Love.
There is one man connected with the
Chicago convention who deserves men-
ton here, for his arduous work is a
labor of love, and the country at large
hears little or nothing of him. His
name is William F. Stone, but at his
home in Baltimore he is Billy Stone
Mr.. Stone is sergeant at arms Of the
national convention. The late Senator
Hanna picked him for the job four
years ago, and Stone made such a hit
that he was elected to a second term.
Billy. Stone has been about the busiest
man in America for the past month.
It has been up to Billy to see that the
convention hall was put in shipshape
for the gathering.
Do you know what that means? Well,
any day for a month you might have
seen Billy Stone somewhere in the vast
area of tie Coliseum at Fifteenth
street and Wabash avenue, bareheaded
and coatless, directing big crowd of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS plumbers, paint
ers, carpet layers, and so forth. A saw
mill was set up inside the building to
saw the lumber for the special floors
required. Stone worked like the buzz
saw. There was Wild West show in
the arena when Mr.. Stone arrived
After getting rid of the Wild West the
next thing was to get rid of the earths
surface. Stone brought in plows and
mules and plowed up the dirt floor. He
did some of the blowing himself The
loosened dirt was removed with scrap
ers. The flooring was put down, the
glary white walls were painted in har-
monious parrot and canary hues, an
office was built for Chairman New,
committee rooms were constructed, the
big platform was built, the seats for
delegates and spectators were arrang-
ed, and the chairs and desks for the
hundreds of newspaper correspondents
and telegraphers had to be put in the
right place.
But these were merely the big things
that Billy had to look after. They
were easy. The multitudinous little
things to be done were what kept the
Baltimore man awake nights. In fact,
he tied writing pad and pencil to the
headboard of his bed and jotted down
ideas which occurred to him in his
dreams so that he wouldn't forget.
Billy Stone gave his list Of things
needed to the Chicago local committee
| after thinking them all out and imagin-
| IN fhof ho ho1