Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-06-11
.SWELTER|NG CROWD
!. PACKS COLISEUM
Streets converging on conven-
ton Hall Blocked by Dense
Throngs
DELEGATES DEMAND hcTIoN
DELEGATES DEMAND ACTION
BY GEORGE NOx Mccain


sands, while other sweltering thousands
we're pouring through the vast struc.
ture's seventeen entrances.
An endless procession Of taxicsbs and
automobiles, headed for the same goal,
drove four abreast along Michigan
boulevard at a snail's pace, so great
was the crush of convention traffic.
It Is a great day in Israel for the
President makers. No one. in this gen.
GRAFTON at least, ever heard Of n ma
tional convention getting down to busi-
ness at the unearthly and unthinkable
hour of 9:20 a. m.
But this apparently Embossed conven.
tion is smashing precedents right and
left. There were hundreds of delegates
and thousands of spectators in the vast
superheated building yesterday who
mentally prayed for boss. Either
that or an efficiency expert who could
show the chaps in charge how to run
a convention in the interest Of time
and public comfort.
To add insult to injury, after push
ing into the Coliseum, the delegates were
not called to order until close to 10
o'clock. And II was hot.
Adjourned Instead Of Working
II Is absolutely the worst bungled
affair Of it's kind ever attended. When
they don't know what else to do they
adjourn. Yesterday was horrible ex-
ample. Instead Of wasting half a day,
as It did, the convention, from II 80
till 4 could have been listening to nom
mating speeches while the platform
sharps were whipping the resolution
into shape. Instead they adjourned till
4 o'clock.
At 4 O'Clock the resolutions were still
missing and from that time on until
@ 10 the great crowd sweltered, sung,
howled and cheered in a frenzy of
prickly heat and slow misery. To make
up for lost time it was decided to start
today at a time when tired delegates,
warning managers and frazzled out
newspaper correspondents should have
been enjoying their matutinal oatmeal
and mackerel.
And now, today. they propose to jam
everything through. The balloting is
to start as soon as the nominating
speeches are at an end.
I neglected to put credit mark
on the side of these geniuses of misman-
agement. They have taken steps to
strangle the would be orators and wind
tanners who devote half an hour to
seconding nominations. There will be no
limit on the length of nominating
speeches. Two seconding speeches will
be limited to five minutes and after
that country Ciceros and budding boy
orators have got to say their say in
two minutes by the chairman's watch.
Song Leaders, Waterloo
The gyroscopic song leader got all
that was coming to him at yesterday
afternoons session. And it was an
plenty. He wore a lemon
colored Palm Beach suit when be first
capered down to the front and began
failing his arms as signal for COM
munity song. The convention took one
look at him and then it howled. The
band, perched way up in the rear,
got its signals mixed and began beating
out a medley, while he was trying to
sing "Let the Rest Of the World Roll
By" Then followed a pandemonium
of discordant noise-ys!ls, groans,
laughter, boots, shouts and the brass
band. He had his nerve with him for
about four minutes and then Chairman
Lodge tapped him on the shoulder and
he retired.
Half an hour later he broke loose
again. He had changed his clothes
to a dark suit. But the camoufage
wouldn't work. He got through four
lines of Hail. Hail the Gangs All
Here" with brave stagger by the band
to help him out. After that he retired
and ingloriously.
The great demonstration at the men
tion of Senator Penrose's name was the
real feature Of the entire day. 1t
swept the convention off its feet and
testified in the most emphatic why to
the man and the position he occupies
in the heart of the Republican party.
The veteran Joseph G. Cannon, minus
his cigar, and second in age only to
DR.. Chauncey NJ. Depew. was then
brought out as a time killer. He
started of with an old trick of the
great John b. Cough. the temperance
advocate of the early sixties.
lie held a glass of water on high
for moment without uttering a word.
The crowd caught on in an instant
with a roar that shook the flags and
made the electric lights blink. Every
body laughingly awaited vitriolic at
tack on the Volstead amendment But
the old war horse fooled them. He de-
clared that, by constitutional amend
ment, water was now the recognized
and official national beverage and II was
up to everybody To obey and respect
the constitutional that some one Of
the unregenerated in gallery yelled
couch -
Uncle" Joe's speech was not the
success that Depew's was. He lacked
I he voice and magnetism. and although
he grew reminiscent and swayed his tall
lank body, and elapsed and unclaspcd
his long fingers and shook his fists on
high, he was cheered not for his words,
which were almost inaudible, but for
his venerable personality and his re-
markable record as Republican.
The reading of the platform was
punctuated and interrupted by the usual