The Monmouth inquirer., 1924-06-19
ev WRIGHT A. PATTERSON

Cleveland, OFT is over. The Re-
publican national convention of 1924
has passed into history The dele
gates that gathered from every sec
ton of the nation, including those
from Alaska, Porto Rico, the Canal
Zone and the far away Philippines, to
perform a task they had been told to
perform, have completed their labors
and scattered to the four winds. At
Cleveland they ratified the nominal
ton, made by the rank and file of the
Republican voters, of Calvin Coolidge
as their candidate for the Presidency
of the United States.
That convention is comparable to
but few other national political con-
ventions in the history of this nation.
To some extent it was similar to the
Democratic meeting at st. Louis in
1916, at which Woodrow Wilson was
nominated to succeed himself. To
some extent too, it was similar to the
Republican convention held at Chica-
go in 1904, when Theodore Roosevelt
was nominated to succeed himself
after having succeeded to the Presi-
dency. Just as Calvin Coolidge did, by
the dealt. of his chief In all of these
cases there was a lack of competitive
candidates. The delegates had as
sembled with but one man in view for
first place on the party ticket, and
these conventions. like the one just
closed, were but notifications of nomi-
81, od q
in the minds of the rank and file of
the party they represented.
Man and Policies Ratified
But the convention at Cleveland
went even further than those of 1904
and 1916 1t was not the man alone,
but his policies that were to be rati-
fed In the previous instances cited
the policies of the men to be nomi-
mated had been also the policies Of
their party as represented in the legis-
lative branch of the government. In
this case it was, to some extent at
least. a choice between the policies
of the legislative branch and those of
the executive branch as represented
by President Coolidge that the rank
and file of the party were called upon
to judge, and the verdict was almost
unanimous in favor of the executive
branch.
Representative Theodore E. Burton
of Ohio, the temporary chairman, in
his keynote address at the opening
session on Tuesday noon touched a
popular chord when he said:
with some disappointment as one
whose public service has been in a
legislative position. truth compels me
to say that by far the greater share Of
our citizenship looks to President
Coolidge rather than to Congress for
leadership"
That reference to the man and the
policies the delegates we're assembled
to ratify brought forth the first and
one of the notable demonstrations of
the convention.
Several times in that keynote
speech Representative Burton took
occasion to emphasize those policies
of the President as being the policies
of the party, though they differed from
those of the representatives of the
majority of the members of the party
in the legislative branch of the gov
eminent He referred to this in con-
nection with the subject of soldier
bonus legislation, with tax legislation
and with japanese exclusion. On the
latter subject he said: 1T is regretted
that in the passage of the recent bill
the request Of the President for time
for further negotiations with Japan
was refused" Throughout the entire
speech the keynoter praised the poll
cies of the President rather than those
of the Republican representatives in
the legislative branch wherever the
two policies differed But of Congress
he said: Much of the blame visited
upon Republicans in the present Con
gress is not deserved because on
many major questions their party has
not commanded a majority in either
branch"
Many of the men whose faces have
been familiar at Republican nationa
conventions for some years past wert
not to be found at Cleveland at all
Others of the old time leaders were
present, but they were there more as
spectators than as active participants
Senator Lodge, both the temporary
and permanent chairman of the las
Republican convention, was presen
as a delegate. but he had been dis
placed as national committeeman