Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-19
WY AsHINGTaN, D. c., June IA
W. A certain hostile critic has
Wv said that we select our pres
idanfial nominees in the

w A certain hostile critic has
Wv said that we select our pres
identical nominees in the
Same way that we execute some Of
That is unfair, of course. but it
is certainly true that the crowd
psychology plays large part in
our national conventions, and in
some instances the dominating part.
There are three main factors in a
gates. alternates and spectators;
second. the little group Of astute,
wire-pulling leaders; and third, the
mass of the people. in the back
ground.
sion is mob. actuated by mob
principles and motives, there can be
no doubt. Gustave LIE Bon, the
French psychologist, first pointed
out that a crowd has a psychosis of
sonalities Of the persons who make
it up are completely submerged; and
since the publication of his book, the
theory has been much elaborated and
discussed. so that nearly everyone
psychology. Crowd emotion would
be better term for it. When a GER
tain emotion, whether of fear, en-
thusiasm,- pity or hatred, seizes sim
ultaneously upon, large number OF
pSlSOhS SdlIICAGu lOSCLuCI II NC
comes like a fluid for which every
mind is a receptacle filled to the
brim. Men who in ordinary circum-
stances would not feel this emotion
at all are, when in a crowd, COM
pletely carried away BY it; 4 man
mentality in a mob than a drop, of
water can retain its identity when
II. falls into a river. That IS why
Saught in lyn,chidng mob, b Re &C m e
weapons; why brave men in burn
ing theaters often become merely
frightened animals; why d1gnlfied
and restrained gentlemen jump out
of their seats and throw away their
hats when Babe Ruth knocks home
run in the ninth.
Conventions as Shows
1t is the chief defect Of our ma
choosing nominees, and their chief
virtue as spectacles that they are
good illustrations of this mob
psychosis; With delegates and spec
tators who form thor hOmog {go1gs
many thousands and are far, too
large for any intelligent delibera-
ton. This is recognized by the lead
ers, who never resort to reason
Orators are chosen for their reson,
amt VOICES anu
and even 50 they. are not much re-
lied upon, for their words are usual.
ly Ineligible to only a small par
of the gathering. Brass bands, or
ganized yelling, waving of flags
marching, sudden display Of ban
ners and pictures, singing-in a
word, noise, rhythm and spectacle
varied by sudden and startling ges-
tures-are the means used by. the
leaders in trying to make this huge
animal the mob g9 which way they ~
essence the same as those used to
make a flock of sheep cross bridge,
or to get q swan of bees into a
hive, or by cowboys to hold bunch
of cattle together in the face of a
thunderstorm. They do not, appeal
least; they appeal to the primitive
emotions which actuate all living
things in masses.
Nevertheless intelligence and
reason are present. at the conventions.
Or more little groups Of leaders who
keep themselves disdainfully clear
Of this sweating, yelling mob, and
who hope to master it and drive 1t.
They have already chosen their can
didate, and thew do everything pos
his direction. They are like small,
but determined man trying to ride
some huge half-tamed beast, uncer-
tain every moment whether they are
riding or being run away with.
Sometimes there are two groups,
each trying to make the unruly crit
ter go it's own way, but usually the
brains are pretty we'll centralized
and the struggle is between. these
organized brains and the fugitive
impulses of the mob.
How Leaders Work
Sometimes of course convention
meets with enough delegates pledged
to one man to insure his nomination.
Then it is perfunctory affair. In
other words, when the critical point
IN the balloting is reached, the lead