Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-19
CONVENTION PSYCHOLOGY
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

ers manage Immediately to start a
stampede in the direction they want
the convention to go, and their man
is soon nominated. But 1t this does
not happen at once, and the conven-
ton seems far from agreement, this
great uncomfortable mob becomes
very restless and may start a run in
any direction. 1t is this condition
which gives the dark horse" his
chance. Often he is a hand picked
dark horse" and his dramatic coup
is carefully prepared by the leaders.
But not always. In 1895, for exam
pie, 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 dele
gates who looked at him. Yet he
stampeded the convention in his own
favor and got the nomination. Why?
Because he had wonderful reson-
phrasing. Because the delegates
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 mellifluous meta
phor. There was no logic in it. He
was defending bimetalism, which had
long since been proved an unsound
theory of currency. His appeal was
emotional, but was even more ryth-
mical. If Bryan had had a squeaky
voice, and had expressed the same
idea in academic language, he would
have gotten nothing but boots. He
controlled the convention in the same
way that cowboy controls bunch
Of steers by singing a lulliby to
An Trn,hra11a Naarlv did r.
Equally primitive was the device
which nearly won the nomination for
Blaine in 1892. Mrs. Carson Lake:
whose husband was a confidant Of
Blaine, stood up in the gallery and
began to open and shut a white UNI
brella, thus catching and holding the
eyes of the convention, while sup
porters began to chant the rhythm
"B1aine, Blaine, James G.. Blaine"
Steadily the rhythm grew in volume
Blaine into the nomination and into
the presidency as surely as the reg
ular wash of the waves carries a
boat to shore. But Mrs. Carson Lake
did not realize her Importance to the
moment. She saw her husband down
thought he was reckoning to her.
She went to join him. Without her
white umbrella, the chant and
Blaine's hope of the presidency alike
! collapsed.
In 1908 the Republican convention
! was almost stampeded for Roosevelt
| by the very same trick. deliberately
| repeated. A capitol elevator man OPP
| Grated the umbrella in this case, and
| the chant was -Four, four, four years
more, This demonstration also
| reached large proportions, but it col
| lapsed because a certain oand when
| was hostile to the colonel refused to
| play.
BY such chances are political des-
| TIMES controlled and the leaders of a
! great nation chosen. The convention
is supposed to represent large part
OF the American people, put 1t really
| represents It's own primitive mob i'm
pulses more Or less controlled and
directed by It's leaders. Yet the will
OF the people is in a sense represent
ed. The inchoate, half articulate wish
of the people Is to some extent pres
emit in the mob, and to some extent 1t
controls and conditions the efforts
of the leaders.
Our national conventions were not
always the thrilling spectacles Of
mob spirit run riot that they are
now. Before the Civil war they were
relatively small gatherings, held us
ually in a theater. and few specta-
est and intelligent discussions Of
slavery were held at national con-
ventions in the years just before the
was-such discussion would be i'm
possible in modern national conven-
ton. The convention that nominated
Lincoln in 1854 wa a small and orderly
one, and so was that which chose
Grant in 1872. The convention that
nominaed Blaine at Chicago in '84
was the first to be held in a coli
scum or "wigwam" as it was then
called. and the first to develop. the
typical mob character, with it's thou
sand delegates and alternates and
more than ten thousand spectators.
The national political convention as
a deliberative body persisted in the
excitement Of that gathering.