, 1922-01-14
DRAMArIzING THE NOMINATION.

We all recall the Newspaper stories IF June, 1920.
when the Republican national convention was strug-
Cling with a deadlock, how soLae good brother up
against it for facts turned to romance and wrote a
story reversing the declaration that truth is stranger
than fiction about how the late Senator Penrose sat
" in a sick bed and ordered the nomination OF hard
ing. The Kansas City Star recalls the story and d.
vests It Of the ornamental fiction and comments on
the real facts in this fashion;
"The story that the lase Senator Penrose, wAo was
believed to be dying at the time. came out Of a state Of
coma at Q critical hour Of the Chicago convention and
gave an order that threw the nomination to Mr.. Hard
ing, is q good story and lacks only one detail to make
It Important. That detail Is truth-Mr. Hardings
nomination didn't come in that way.
'swhen Senator Penrose, from his sick bed in Phila-
delphia, gave the instruction recorded, the nomination
already was q certainty. Governor Lowden had re-
leased his delegates, the deadlock was broken, and on
the ballot preceding the nomination Mr.. Harding,
without Pennsylvania's strength, lacked only a few
votes of the necessary number. Pennsylvania had
been voting for Governor Sproul, who never had had
4 lead, and when he released these sixty votes on the
final ballot and they tumbled aboard Ehe Harding band
wagon the result already was assured.
"There are so many inside stories Of how Amer
lean political history is made, and they all so plaus-
IDLY support the general belief that the boss system Is
supreme and infallible, that this dramatic recital with
all its scenic effects probably will be readily accepted
by many. It fits in with all they had heard about Sena-
tor Penrose's power. Il is striking and stirs the i'm
s~gination. 1t shows a national convention hopelessly
entangled and not knowing what to do, and a sick man
n thousand miles away struggling out OF unconscious
ness to utter one of his imperial brevities' and end
the confusion. It is a pity almost that things are not
done that way, even in American politics. We like
to think they are, because we are strong for the Ma
poleonic thing. We like to dramatic everything and
ret sudden and striking effects. If Senator Penrose
bad been a well man and in Chicago and had issued his
order from his room in the Congresses hotel, It would
not have been nearly as good a story, and we wouldn't
have been so ready to believe it. But he was sick in
bed in Philadelphia; he was believed to be dying; he
was indeed unconscious on the day of the nomination.
perhaps at the very hour; but, as his physician tells
us. his subconscious mind was working just the same.
Obeying this mastery his body responds, he RECEIVERS
consciousness at the very moment the Chicago conven-
ton is about to give up and go home, and says to an
attendant, Call them up and tell them to throw It to
Harding And it is done.
"Senstor Penrose undoubtedly was an influential
member of the Republican organization. He was pow
prful in Pennsylvania and in the serrte. There were
stuations in the Chicago convention during the early
halloting when the sixty votes Of Pennsylvania might
have contributed to a different result, but Senator PEN
rose did not use them for such a purpose. Perhaps he
was too i'll to do So. Governor Sproul, who ccptrolled
lshe delegation, held Pennsylvania's votes for himself
until they were no longer effective and released them
to Harding when they weren't needed to nominate
him. But facts are too tame to fit our Homeric re-
quirements for political history Somebody had to
hold the fate of the candidates in his hand. and to
those who will have their dramatics at any cost the
selection of the late Senator Penroses hand will seem
perfectly suitable"