Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-16
BY EARL GOODWIN.

! ST. LOUIS, June 16.-Before Senator
Ollie James reached the physical and
political sminence which he now adorns
he developed a style Of oratory which ha,
but one rival. Even that rival can really
be called an imitation. for 1t is really no,
! in the same class with the Blue Grass
punching bag. style of rhetoric adopted
by the senator. This imitation I speak
OF Is that of Gov. Frank B. Willis OF
OHIO. All parties must have their bat
tering ram squads, and Willis Is the
nead-on collision OF the republican
party, while Senator James has proved
that he not only, has a complete outft
OF words for democratic paeans OF
praise. but he has a right and left
punch to body and head that would kill
an OK. As paean operator, Senator
James Is steam calliope.
All during the week these delegates
here were poking around in the dark
like chap hunting for a collar button
In the. darkest corner of a closet with
out light. That collar button was the
idea they needed to be sure they could
republican party. Gov. Glynn gave
them great hope. but Senator Ollie
James furnished the light He turned
on the blaze and showed up the re-
here as If there would only be forty
eight votes for the entire republican
ticket anywhere, and those votes will
be cast by the republican national COM
mitteemen.
The explanation which Senator James
gave for all Of these mysteries was
the republican party. There isn't an
evil he didn't tie to 1t. He blamed the
g. o. 2. for everything. Not national
calamity. either political. financial or
publican party. And how those dele
gates yelled. Martin Glynn's speech
gave them the ethical points. but Ollie
James gave them the real thing.
Heretofore orators have been con-
tent to liken their favorite candidate
to Lincoln or Washington with more
vehemence than modesty, but there
isn't any more Lincoln for anybody but
the democrats. Ollie James has taken
him right out of the heart Of the re-
ly with Bryan and Alton B. Parker.
During this part of the speech a thing
occurred which probably has no par
allel in convention speeches. The de-
lighted crowd. hanging on the lips of
the speaker with as great love for the
words as ever a silver fanatic showed
for william Jennings Bryan, stopped
the big man in his speech and demand
ed that he back up ana say them over
again. He didn't know exactly what
they wanted at first. but they wouldn't
be still until he had been told they
wanted a second edition Of the same
stuff. 1t was that paragraph in which
he declared that Wilson without blood
shed had wrested concessions from a
great military power of Europe.
He blamed the republican party with
having filled Washington, D. C.. with
lobbyists. and declared the democrats
had driven the lobbyists out and driven
the American people in.
When the crowd broke loose for good
and yelled itself mad, Pat OKeefe. the
Texas delegate who mistook the open
ing prayer for a campaign speech and
yelled his approval of it. led the rough
house. Pat had the only nag larger
than a ten-cent one However. Pats
nag was not the Stars and Stripes, but
the flag of the state of Texas. which
was mistaken far and wide in the con-