The Detroit times., 1912-06-18
CHICAGO HOTEL LOBBY
RINGS WITH VOICES OF MEN
GATHERING FOR CONFLICT
Ten Thousand Sturdy Braves
Hammer, Hammer on Single
Line of Thought
CONSTANT THRoNG TALKS
Hopeful Group of Supporters
Haunts Suite Occupied BY
Col. Roosevelt

CHICAGO, June l7.-Ten thousand
men, talking OF one topic, eighteen
hours day, wearing channel in
their brains with the constant ham
mer, hammer hammer on a single line
of thought are standing In the hotel
lobbies today half hysterical with
anxiety.
IL will be tremendous relief when
the gavel falls tomorrow AZ the Con-
scum and the convention begins
/ There are countless visitors here
for the convention, but the 10000 are
the men whose fortunes, in one way
or another. are bound up in the result
! OF this weeks balloting.
! The lobby OF the Congress Hotel, IN
which hostelry are the Taft, Roose-
welt and Cummins headquarters, to-
day was TANNED with humanity and
filled with a clamor that resolved II
self into continuous roar The same
questions the same answers, were
repeated twice an hour The tiled
floor is hard on the feet and dele
gates and other politicians shifted
YEARLY from one foot 10 the other.
Yet they stood TO talk, talk, talk.
from early morning on.
II is the same slow. moving crowd,
massed together In little groups, that
fingers in the fetid, tobaccoladen
space A band comes blaring into
the lobby. Everybody crowds about
the delegation II is escorting and a
moment later the crowd takes its
place again in the lobby Upstairs,
in a corner suite on the parlor floor,
is Roosevelt.
His outer door is closed. but there
stands constant hopeful group OF 80
10 40 men. II seems never 10 vary.
Sometimes one gets in 10 see the col
onel. but not often.
The hall and the vast Florentine
room OF the hotel. devoted 10 Roose-
welt boomers. is full OF men and
women. Women. too. are In the Taft
headquarters in the even mare garish
gold room at the far end or the, same
floor, a half block away. Headquar-
tiers for Senator Cummins, OF Iowa
are alongside Taft's. Senator Ken
yon is in charge and Senator Ken
yon's wife shakes hands with 1000
women and twice that many men
each day She is the only woman in
the reception DrlSdue
States quarters are scattered here
and there through Chicago's hotels,
not many people, staying in them The
noisy babbe is in the Congress lobby.
and something might turn up should
anyone stay in a state headquarters.
Once in while one of the leaders
edges through the crowd. string
Of satellites in his wake, and every
body in suspense but only for mo-
nent
The rulers OF the convention remain
out OF sight nearly all the time, and
help thereby TO make the tension
more tense.
On the sidewalk outside the Con
yress Is another crowd. thousand
,r more, shifting in and out. staring.
alking
The talk Is the same: Can he do
u" rs he getting Taft's delegates
Is it true the southern Negroes are
He" in a lobby CONVEX
alton. always is Roosevelt
Sunday night, the vibration OF his
personality was shaking all the crowd !
The Taft men cheered little, the |
Soosevent men much. Saturday night |
I had been a half-andhalf proposi !
ion with fierce quarreling. There !
we're few Quarrels Sunday or today. |
Delegates and politicians. doorkeepers |
nd sergeants-atarms, partisans, all /
re preparing for the battle. 1t will /
,e a royal battle The strings OF the !
ituation are down too taunt. Some
hing Is going TO break soon.
The Oklahoma delegation today !
tarted a boom for Arthur c. Trumbo.
( Muskogee Okla. 10 be vice-presi ,
ent on the Roosevelt ticket. Trumbo /,
president OF the Trans Mississippi |
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