Evening journal., 1911-11-22
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Wholesale Dinners
That Failed Of Their Purpose
By Holland.

At a time when the late Roswell p. |
Flower, who had national reputation
as a financier and politician, was gov
ernor of New York dS92-94) he told
me with laughter of the mistake he
made when he set out to create an or
ganization in his party which was TO
have in view his nomination for the
presidency in 1884 by the Democratic
party
"Of course, you all know Gov
ernor Flower said, that l made my
debut in national politics by consent
ing TO become a candidate for Congress
against William Waldorf Astor, who
had been nominated by the silk-stock-
ing Republicans in what was then
called the Brownstone district of New
York because all the rich men lived
in brown stone front houses there.
Many of my best friends, clear-headed
men, told me that ! had made fool OF
myself politically by consenting to run
for Congress against william Waldorf
Astor. However, | did run and | beat
Astor at the election of 1880.
We'll, II seemed to me that il was
a good enough man to beat William
Waldorf Astor for Congress | had as
good a right to banker little after a
presidential nomination as any other
man. SO ] laid out a plan of prelimi-
nary organization which put in oper.
alton as soon as / took my seat IN
/ Congress in the winter of 1882. / had
/ rented an attractive house In the fash
| ionable part of Washington. In II was
a large dining room. engaged fancy
chef at a high salary, for ! had de-
cided to capture the members Of the
House OF Representatives through
their stomachs rather than through
their brains
MY plan was this: | told off the
members Of the House in sections of
twenty-five, irrespective Of party, ac-
cording to an alphabetically arranged
list OF the names of the members. To
the twenty-five that headed the list I
sent invitations TO my initial dinner
and with a single exception all came.
We had a good dinner, but something
II couldn't make out for the life OF
me-weut wrong. ! tried TO stir up en-
thusiasm by calling upon one or two
Of my guests to respond to impromptu
toasts. But while every congressman
did Justice to the dinner itself, no one
Of them seemed to have any interest in
any other thing than the viands and
the wines.
After that dinner, | made up my
mind that | had begun wrong in my
method of selecting my guests; that
instead Of inviting my guests in sec
| lions arranged in alphabetical order,
! il would be the better part TO invite
! leaders and surround them with in
conspicuous members. Well, the Sec
ond dinner arranged accordingly, went
off we'll enough so far as the table it.
! self was concerned, but | was con-
siderably discomposed when after my
guests had gone my butler told me
that he heard one member say to an
other: What's Flower doing this for?
"By this time | had got so far into
this thing that ! had to keep 1t up
and dinner after dinner, an unbrokeu
succession OF failures outside the focd
and the wines, were given. At last one
evening, at one Of the dinners at which
Samuel j. Randall was a guest, he
said to me that he would like to speak
to me for a moment after the other
guests had departed.
Roswell he said, when We were
alone, there isn't a Democratic or Re-
publican member OF the House who
hasn't found out by now why you arc
giving these dinners. You are having
no difficulty in securing acceptanccs
to the dinners, for appetizing stories
are told Of the food and drink, but
think you ought to know that your
guests go away from your table laugh
ing at you
"'But, said 1, i've got so far into
this thing I've got to so through will
It,
"'Oh. yes, Randall replied, you've
got to invite them all from A to y. ltl
cost you a pretty penny, and yet you l.
get the experience cheap.
"'What shall | dog | asked.
"'Well. IN the first place. Randall
replied, IL cou are going 20 start Z
presidentl@ campaign in Congres:
you've got 10 serve at least twenty
years. In the second place, you've go
TO quit giving dinners by the wholesale
and instead invite a few chosen friends
to dine with you informally. In th'
third place, you might as we'll give
il up because older members than yoi
are going TO try to get the Democratic
nomination for 1884 The place fo
you TO work up an organization is n
you home district Of New York state
~ took Randall's advice and man
aged to stir up considerable of
Flower boom for President in 1884
But after 1884 all presidential illusion
were dissipated, and | thought that
could be governor Of New York tns
would be all the political honor
would care for"
Copyright. 1911. by e. J. Edwards. al
rights renerved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell O