Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1924-06-21

! difficult to get a story out of this one
( Not because there was not a story to
be had, but because the story must
have the names of people who were
doing things and the men of the press
( did not know by sight the men, and the
women too If you please, who were the
moving and guiding spirits of this Re
publican gathering
The old-timerS, the men who have
made Republican history for the last
! quarter Of a century and more. have
/ either disappeared entirei 2, or were
with but few exceptions in the back
| ground. 1t was new and. in many
cases, strange faces one saw upon the
| platform.
who IS the man In the gray suit
/ sitting beside the railing?" asked a vet
eran New York newspaper writer, q
man who has covered every convention
since the late eighties
Search me-" said the man next to
him, another veteran. zone of the nu-
merous interlopers who have butted
into the game to make it hard for us.
Ask Jim Preston"
Preston, the superintendent of the
senate press gallery at Washington, the
/ one man who knew all Of them, the
/ old and the new, was appealed to and
/ informed the perturbed newspaper men
/ that the gentleman in question was
| William NJ. Butler of Massachusetts,
| the incoming chairman of the party.
And so it went throughout each ses-
| sion. The men and the women who,
| to large extent are doing things were
unknown by sight to the newspaper
/ men and they were kept busy trying to
/ catch the names of those who were
4 making motions, reporting to the con-
vention as chairmen of important com
mittees-the names of those who were
I running the show, whether 1t be at the
stated performances or about the com
mittee rooms or the hotel Hobbies.
Old Faces Absent.
The faces Of such men as Senators
/ Lodge, Smoot, Watson and others of
Harry NJ Daugherty, of Mrs. Corinne
| Roosevelt Robinson, of T. Coleman Du-
pont, of Charles y. Hilles and a long
| list of others who filed the speakers
/ platform at Chicago in 1920 were not
seen on the platform at Cleveland. To
! be sure many of them-the majority,
| In fact-were present, but they were
merely among those present. They
were not on the platform sitting in the
I big, easy, leatherupholstered chairs
/ provided for the ultra-dIstingulshed
| Several of them occupied the hard
! bottomed seats arranged In long rows
/ on the floor of the convention hall pro-
| ylded for delegates and 0lternates.
! Others had seats in the guest sections
/ far up In the balconies. and others
wan dered about the rotunda Of the big
/ bull ling with a look of bewilderment
on Il cir faces.
Prominent among those on the plat
form, and the few who were general
! " known. were those members Of the
! Presidents cabinet who were attend
| ing the convention These included
/ Secretary Mellon, Secretary Weeks,
| Secretary Work, Attorney General
/ Stone, Postmaster General New. Aside
4 from Attorney General Stone, a new
conner In the cabinet, these men were
/ generally known by sight at least, but
aside from the temporary and perma-
nent chairman, and some minor Off
cials Of the convention, they were
about the only ones who were known
/ to either the audience or the newspa-
per writers.
II all marked a new deal In the his
tory of the party, a passing of party
! government into new hands. The
/ President and his advisers rather than
the leaders In the legislative branch
are In control. What the result Of the
/ change is to be will De determined
when the votes are counted next No
/ vember.
It Was All Coolidge.
II was a strictly a Coolidge conven-
ton. Quite as much so as was the
! Progressive convention Of 1903 at Chi
cago a Roosevelt convention. They
did what the President would wish
! them to do. they did nothing he
would wish them not to do. It was
convention TINT was satisfactory TO
the great majority Of the delegates.
/ They had assembled to do a certain
lob they had been told TO DO by the
rank and file Of the party az home,
and they did H. Il was all accom-
pished without any great amount Of
/ noise. with no blatant trumpeting Of
! iazz music, with but little oratory
aside from the keynote speech Of the
temporary chairman and the nomi-
mating speech delivered by Dr. N. l.
+ Burton. president Of the University Of
Michigan. in naming Calvin Coolidge
as the standard bearer Of the party
nj the session on Thursday morning.
The usual hurrah the d'a, the verbal
fireworks Of poa-eal convention
were distinctly absent
As for the city Of Cleveland II han
/ died a big job IN a big way. II put
itself on the map as one Of the fore
! most convention cities Of tie nation