Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-06-21

Washington, D. G., June IA certain
hostile critic has said that we select our
presidential nominees in the same way
that we execute some Of our criminals
by mob action.
That is unfair, Of course, but it is
1 certainly true that the "crowd psy-
chology" plays large part In our nation
| al conventions, and in some instances
the dominant part.
There are three main factors in con-
vention-first, the crowd of delegates,
alternates and spectators; second. the
little group of astute, wire-pulling lead
ers; and third, the mass Of the people
in the background.
That the actual convention in session
is a mob. actuated by mob principles and
motives, there can be not doubt. Gustave
lie Bon, the French psychologist, first
pointed out that crowd has a psy-
Ghosts of its own in which the minds
and personalities of the persons who
make it up are completely submerged;
the theory has been much elaborated and
discussed, so that nearly everyone has
now heard something Of crowd psy-
chology. Crowd emotion would be bet
ter term for it. When a certain emo
ton, whether of fear, enthusiasm, pity or
hatred, seizes simultaneously upon
large number of persons gathered to-
| RGlutT, III DeCOmGs IKE d lulu IUI "bith
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, completely car
ried away by it. A man can no more
retain his individual mentality in a mob
than a drop of water can retain its
identity when it falls into river. That
is why kindly and respectable citizens,
caught in lynching mob become blood
thirsty fiends brandishing weapons;
why brave men in burning theaters often
become merely frightened animals; why
dignified and restrained gentlemen jump
out of ther seats and throw away their
hats when Babe Ruth knocks home
run in the ninth.
Conventions as Shows.
It is the chief defect of our national
conventions as means of choosing nonll-
ness and their chief virtue as spectacles
that they are good illustrations of this
mob psychosis With delegates and spec
tators, who form a homogeneous mass
of humanity, they include many thous-
ands and are far too large for any intel
ligent deliberation. This is recognized
by the leaders. who never resort to
reason. Orators are chosen for their
resonant voices and their "eloquence,
and even so they are not much relied up
on, for their words are usually intel
ligible to only a small part of the
gathering. Brass bands, organized yell
ing waving of flags, marching, sudden
display of banners and pictures, singing
i'm a word, noise, rhythm and spec
tacle, varied by sudden and startling
gestures-are the means used by the
| leaders in trying to make this huge
animal the mob go which way they
want them TO go. The means are IN
essence the same as those used 10
make a flock Of sheep cross a bridge. or
to get a swarm of bees into a hive, or
by cowboys to hold bunch OF cattle TO-
| gether in the face of a thunderstorm.
They do not appeal to intelligence or
! reason in the least; they appeal TO the
primitive emotions which actuate all
living things In masses.
Never-the less intelligence and reason
are present at the conventions. They
are present in the shape of one or more
little groups of leaders who keep them
selves disdainfully clear of this sweating,
yelling mob, and who hope to master it
and drive it. They have already chosen
their candidate, and they do everything
possible to scare or lead the herd IN his
direction. They are like a small but
determinant man trying to ride some
huge half tanned beast, uncertain every
moment whether they are riding or be-
ing run away with. Sometimes there are
two groups, each trying to make the un-
ruly critter go it's own way. but usually
the brains are pretty well centralized
and the struggle is between these or
ganized brains and the fugitive impulses
! of the mob.
How Leaders Work.
Sometimes of course a convention
meets with enough delegates pledged to
one man to insure his nomination. Then
it is a perfunctory affair. In other cases,
when the critical point in the banoting
is reached. the leaders manage i'm
mediately to start stampede in the
direction they want the convention to go.
and their man is soon nominated. But
Il this does not happen at once, and the
convention seems far from agreement,
this great uncomfortable mob becomes
| very restless and may start and run in
any direction. It is this condition which
gives the dark horse his chance. Often
he is a ndpicked dark horse" and
his dramatic coup is carefully prepared
by the leaders But not always. In 1895.
for example, the leaders did not want
William Jennings Bryan in the least. He
was a man little known and what was
known about him did not recommend
him to Tammany Hall. When he got up
to deliver his famous speech, he was
unknown to most of the delegates who
looked at him. Yet he stampeded the con-
yentlon IN MS own laVOf, anu got tne
nomination. Why? Because he had a
wonderful resonant voice and a gift OF
sonorous phrasiug. Because the dele
gates were weary of strife and ready
to be swept away by any emotion. The
thing which won the day for Bryan was
his famous Grown of thorns and cross
of gold metaphor. 1t was nothing but
a mellifluous metaphor. There was no
logic in it. He was defending bimetallism,
! which had long since been proved an un-
sound theory of currency. His appeal
was emotional. but was even more
rhythmicaI If Bryan had had a squeaky
voice, and had expressed the same idea
In academic language, he would have
gotten nothing but hoots.. He controlled
| the convention in the same way that
cowboy controls a bunch of steers by
singing a lullaby to them.
Equally primitive was the device which