The Mena weekly star., 1916-06-22
ABOUT ARK ANSAS PEOPLE and DOINGS Ezz sz By Cilo Harper. Special Iitiie Rock
 Correspondent.

The writer attended the national Econveptions of the Republicans and
 pFogressiyes in Chicago and the
 Democrats in St, Louis. One may
 become a national convention fan,
 just as one becomes a baseball fan
 or q near-beer fan. also attended ! the Republican convention in Chi-
 cago in 1912. when the great split occurred which helped to land the school master governor of New Jer-
 sey in the Presidential chair. All l that IS lacking t0 round out the re- cord is the Baltimore convention in igi2, where the most important l chapter in this great national his
 tory was written.
 The proceedings. the platforms, | the speeches. all the things which
 appeared on the surface. and many
 which appear below the surface, are matters of history. There were something less than a thousand his- t0rians present at each of the con- ventions, and-speaking of the
 shortage of white paper.-several 1 young forests were exhausted for wood-pulp whenever an extra issue
 Of one of the great Chicago or St. l Louis papers appeared on the street. And an extra was issued every few minutes from o'clock in the morn | ing to o'clock the next morning. invariably i cent each. Newspapers are the cheapest commodity there, and people buy them to sit on and
 watch the procession go by, or to | protect their hats from the rain.
 But that by the by.
 In this article the writer does not
 presume to write history, but obser- Natfons and impressions. Seeking | for a dominant feature of the three national assemblies of cOuntry-sav- CTS, the thing that looms biggest is
 their noise Riotous demonstra-
 ton IS the measure Of the individ- ual enthusiasm in partisan achieve ments, the only true standard of personal political prowness: at least
 that is the inevitable conclusion that one must reach from critical com | parison of the three conventions. Again, riot and noise are divisible | into classes. There was the frantic, luncurbed, ebullent, temptuous ac- claim by which the Bull Moose fol- 1 lowers voiced the one idea of their convention, for they knew no one, but the man of Oyster Bay, and We Want Teddy" iterated like the ceas-
 less beating of the sea upon a rock bound coast, was their refrain. That
 was one kind,
 Then there was the funereal,
 for reed, we-have-to-do-th this to- make-showing sort that punctuated the proceedings where the Old Guard was holding the Republican party off the rocks of treacherops progressive coast. At no time was
 the demonstration spontaneous, if we except the single instance when
 a New Mexican Senator, in defiance of the Old Guard, placed T. R. in nomination for the Presidency. Really it was not on the program, altho not unexpected But the hun- dred and some odd Roosevelt del- egates, and several thousand spec ltators in the galleries proceeded to
 give an imitation of an insane asy- Hum on a frolic They kept it up for 70 minutes, had to do it,-cause the three states which had joined with New York in parading for Hughes had scored thirty-three minutes. The Republicans lacked cohesion, but not candidates of the favorite son type. Their sole aim
 and purpose was to block any pos sible stampede to Roosevelt. They offered eight or ten men on the al- tar as vicarious sacrifices and as each was named the delegates from his state tried to start something Frequently 1t ended in a try. The demonstrations lasted all tine way from one minute for the explosive Dupont to thirty-five minutes for the refrigerant Fairbanks But the demonstrants were selfish about it.
 They didn't appear to want to di- vide time with any one else. And
 the galleries were distressingly non- responsive Even the eloquence of Gov Willis in nominating Senator
 Burton. aroused only p minutes of
 counterfeit enthusiasm which may | have been sincere on the part of the Ohio tlag-wavers. and got him but 1 77 votes.
 But at St. Louis it was different. There was genuine, spontaneous. from -the-heart, approval of aiiii things Democratic, that carried con- vietion of its sincerity. The Demo- crats were happy and didn't care who knew it. Their happiness bubbled over on every occasion. and sometimes without occasion. They,
 too- had come with only one purpose
 and their cup of joy splashed over continually. At the opening of their convention, the walls of the Colise- um hulged with thsir shouts as
 each of the li.000 persons present waved flag frantically and sang
 The Star Spangled Banner Their demonstrations were unbounded
 whenever the magic names of Will
 son or Bryan, or the flag were men,
 toned. Everything and everybody
 but the Republican nominee and
 platform were cheered nightly.
 even the Massachusetts delegate who wanted an Irish home rule plank-and didn't get it.