Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1920-06-07
BOSSES RULING
THE CONVENTION
Golden Promises, Jobs and
Purses, Lure Delegates and
Let Others Play Politics.
BY gibson GARDNER,
\. T. A. StafY CORRESPONDENT.

y. T. "A. stan correspondent.
CHICAGO. June Its really a
kind the professional politician
dreams he'll go to when he dies
II not golden streets there are gol-
den purses bulging from their pock-
cts and cloud vista of political jobs
Jobs for everybody, and everybody S
friends and nothing to do but draw
the pay.
Like all good conventions" no.
body knows what will happen 1t has
all the fascination of the grab bag
the farowheel and the horse race.
There are chances to pull "a little
something out You can place a bet
at good odds. You can get real
inside tip maybe. And you can see
a real run for your money.
Professionals in Control.
Like all real old fashioned conven-
tions, 1t is entirely in the hands of
professionals. The public has not had
any chance to mess things up, That
notion that there would soon be pop
ular primaries at which the voters
of the party would decide what can
didate they wanted-that fool notion
has gone fuzzy"
Take 1t from me, boy" says the
stout party without shifting his cigai
There's nothin' in that primary
StuH-lt just an duueu eApeh9e
leave 1t to us-the expense is less and
the money is better placed"
The idea of selecting presidential
candidates by primaries got its knock
out blow in Chicago in 1912 when the
famous eam-roller" convention
rode down the primary candidate, II.
r, and substituted the G. o. P. ma
chine candidate. William Howard
Taft. That was a grand and glorious
victory for machine politics and to-
days convention is the fruit of that
blossom.
Lesser Bosses Replace PrOgressives.
1t Is really a thoroughly old-fash-
ioned convention. There isn't an up
litter. a reformer, high brow, a pro-
gressive, an insurgent or q forward
locker on the ground. When the late
lamented Progressive party was or
ganized all that element was purged
out of the G. O. p and only the stall
warts, the "old guard" the ''regu-
lars" remained The vacancies of the
departed were filled with the lesser
Tobe Herts and Jim Heminways.
And when, in 1915, the ProgreSsives
who wanted to come back, came back,
they We're welcomed to seats in the
back row of the gallery.
100 Per Cent. Republican.
So the organization is a hundred per
cent. Republican.
The same names will figure In the
back-room conferences where the
deals will be made. There IS to be-
gin with, Boies Penrose. of Pennsyl-
vania, the master-mind of machine
politics. Penrose is the dominant fig
ure of this convention. With the dele
gates he will control (and this will in
clude q good block from the South)
he will have more to say than any
other single man.
1t might be an exaggeration to say
that the real Republican convention
will be held in the ten-room suite on
his friends. But the exaggeration
would be slight.
Lookee! So Many Bosses.
Others who were mechanics of the
steam roller convention in 1912, who
will again be in evidence. are w.
Murray Crane of Massachusetts
shrewd little ex-senator millionaire
paper manufacturer. who comes as a
promoter of the Wood candidacy; his
political colleague. Henry Cabot
Lodge, senator and author of treaty
reservations: James A. Heminway
of Indiana, survival of the Fair
banks machine; Herbert Parsons OF
New York; VIM. II. Crocker of Cali
fornia, millionaire voice of the San
francisco Chamber of Commerce;
John II. King of Connecticut, aide-de-
camp to Penrose; Coleman du Pont OF
Delaware, who made a few honest dol
lars in power-the kind that ex-
plodes: A. Tobe Hert of Louisville,
KY; a hard-working and powerful
member of the old guard; S. A. Per-
kins of Tacoma. editor-politician, a
graduate of Mark Hanna's political
kindergarten; Rud Hynicka of Gin
cinnati who knows Ohio politics;
Franklin Murphy of New Jersey. who
has always represented G.. o. z. New
Jersey; Reed Smoot of the Republican
wing of the Utah Mormon Church-all
tried and true and competent to de-
liver.
(lsn,n rin11nd On napn Al