The Monmouth inquirer., 1924-06-19

of Illinois
| by Mrs Medill Mccormick of Illinois,
and when proposed to the convention
it went through with but few dissent
ing votes and was loudly cheered by
| the women.
Press Stand Puzzled
There was a continuous commotion
| in the press stand at the Cleveland
show The gray heads of the newspa-
per world who have been reporting
political conventions for years found
it difficult to get a story out OF this
one. Not because there was not
story to be had, but because the story
must have the names of people who
are 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 the Republican gathering.
The old timers, the men who have
made Republican history for the last
quarter of a century and more, had
either disappeared entirely or, with
but few exceptions, were in the back
ground. They were 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
veteran New York newspaper writer,
man who has covered every conven-
ton since the late eighties,
Search me-" said the man next to
him, another veteran. zone of the
numerous interlopers who have butted
into the game to make it hard for US.
Ask Jim Preston"
And SO it went throughout each
session. The men and the women
who to a large extent were doing
things were unknown by sight to the
newspaper men, and they were kept
busy trying to catch the names Of
those who were making motions re-
porting to the convention as chair
men of important committees-th
names of those who were running the
show, whether it be at the stated per-
formances or about the committee
rooms or the hotel Hobbies.
Among Those Present
The faces of such men as Senators
Lodge, Smoot, Watson and others of
the senatorial coterie, of Will Hays,
| OF Harry M. Daugherty, of Mrs.
| Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Of T.
| Coleman dupont, of Charles D. 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 plat
| form sitting in the big, easy, leather
upholstered chairs provided for the
ultra distinguished. Several of them
occupied the hard bottomed seats ar
ranged in long rows on the floor Of the
convention hall provided for delegates
and alternates. Others had seats in
| the guest sections far up in the balco-
MES, and others wandered about the
rotunda of the big building with a
look of bewilderment on their faces.
Marks a New Deal
It all marks new deal in the his
tory of the party 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 be determined
when the votes are counted next No
vember.
1t was strictly Coolidge conven-
ton. Quite as much so as was the
Progressive convention of 1908 at
Chicago a Roosevelt convention They
did what the President would wish
them to do; they did nothing he
would wish them not to do. 1t was a
convention that was satisfactory to
the great majority of the delegates.
They had assembled to do a certain
job they had been told to do by the
rank and file of the party at home
and they did it. 1t was all accom-
plished without any great amount OF
noise, with no blatant trumpeting of
jazz music, with but little oratory
aside from the keynote speech of the
temporary chairman and the nomi
mating speech delivered by Dr. NJ L.
Burton, president of the University OF
Michigan, in naming Calvin Coolidge
as the standard bearer of the party
N at the session on Thursday morning
The usual hurrah. the din. the verbal
fireworks of political convention
were distinctly absent.
AS for the city of Cleveland, it han
died big job in a big way. 1t put
itself on the map as one Of the fore
most convention cities o. the nation.