Evening star., 1912-07-21


Van, Van.
You used UP man!
The pros and cons of the platform and personality of
the candidate briefly shown cartoons many
of which tell with single glance what dozens of
called upon to do in the oldtime campaign and
the cartoonist employed at the national committee
headquarters receives salary larger than that of
United States Senator. The miscellaneous literary out
put from the national headquarters figures UP to the
colossal Two hundred million documents issued for the
Republican campaign, printed IN German, French
Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian Finnish, Dutch,
and Hebrew shipped by the carload to the chairen
of State and local committees, who attend to the dis
tribution.
the politicians exclusive possession of the bill
boards during election campaign, with the theatrical
agents. proprietary goods men, and other trades IN will
ing surrender but the poster all its glory and modern
Spedor of colorng Zone poster issued by the national
committee is printed in five coors a singe-sheet
thograph), the buttons and banners and the various
campaign novelties factors in eectoneerng used
assiduousy by the national committee nowadays that
this kind of expenditure runs far into the thousands OF
dollars
And then-since in the United States as nowhere else
does that modernized maxim of "poor Richard apply,
"He who by his trade would must either bust or ad
vertise'the national committee has to the
advertisement using space the newspapers and popu
lar magazines for the purpose The Republicans in the
last national campaign confined their announcements
the records of the candidates and exposition of
their platform. The Democrats however, solicited
campaign contributions in this way, and waxed all
consciously tre humorous for after proving to the
reader that the of living had in the years of Repub
can power increased faster than his wages, and I'M
pressing his poverty upon him. he was invited to cut off
the coupon the lower right-hand corner and mail it
with five dollars to the treasurer!
THE development of the spebinders organization al
ready referred to is the most effective change in
modern campaigning. 1t also the most expensive part
of the work exceeding in the aggregate any other single
item of the national committee fund One hears stories
of fees of ten thousand dollars paid to noted orators for
campaign services and frequently of fees of three hun
dred dollars night but in the army OF spelbinders the
salary rarely exceeds two hundred dollars week. and
the average is fifty dollars week and expenses. Still,
the pay enveops of some five thousand orators even II
regularly in action, do mount up. The slvery eo-
quence of campaign costs two hundred thousand
dollars and every time great meeting held IN city
like New York the ncdenals call for perhaps four thou
sand dollars If torchlight parade is to precede it,
from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand dollars more
must be provided.
Just how much is accomplished by this modern
torcal army is difficult to compute. The national COM
mittees of all parties claim that converts made IN
this way and that in doubtful districts it has been the
of winning enough votes from the opposition to
make decisive majority. 1t is undoubtedly the most
effective method yet discovered of holding to party
those who have already yielded up their consciences,
and the efficient weapon for routing that dread
General Apathy for awakening an interest in COM
munty of rock-ribbed parzans who nevertheless have
sunk into sort of dgnifed and need stirring up
ito get out the full party strength
For instance, in rural New England politics is allied
to religion; their political fah being part OF tneir IN
heritance, along with belief in the Congregational
church, and there sections of the South where they
are still voting for Andrew Jackson" But the stay-at
home vote is likely to be largest in these counties
unless the spellbinder is sent The method is this:
Local leaders report condition of general apathy to
the national headquarters and Immediately order to
advertise meetings throughout the district is sent by
wire while almost Immediately the spellb1nder
whose itinerary brings him nearest whose stock
of everyday information and illustration and rural hon
esty of speech and manner makes him particularly slta
BILE agent of "rst aid to the apathec country
side is despatched to the spot In due time he arrives,
sometimes accompanied by delegation of leaders to
give ecat to the OCCASION and between the intervals
when the band gee club is performing, he de-