New Britain herald., 1927-12-29

[ governor that Was simple as it would be efficient. Platt decided to nominate Roosevelt for vice
 president. That was not because
 Platt thought Roosevelt would be a good vice. president or a : good president in case he was
 called upon to serve as presl- dent, nor was 1t because Platt thought Roosevelt Was q good ! governor and deserved promo ton. Platt didn't think Roosc- l welt was good for anything, nor i did many ot the Republican | politicians who were working with Hanna. What Platt wanted l was to be rid of Roosevelt, and here was a chance 10 saw him { off on the national ticket" Thus if was done, over the ob- 1 jections of numerous powerful poli- ricians.
 Tt was similar with Coolidge" says Blythe--and then mentions the details of his vice presidential nomination, which was merely a stop-gap selection along traditional l lines, the idea that when western man heads the ticket an easterner should be the running mate. Cool idge's highest vote for the prcsiden- tial nomination was 5 votes on the first ballot--from Massachusetts, and from that it dwindled 10 five votes on the tenth ballot, when Harding was nominated. Yet, according to Blythe, Roose- welt and Coolidge will stand ace high as presidents in the historical per- spectiVe of the future.
 Now if the people want a change in his method Of selecting candi- dates they need only 10 get hot un- der the collar about 1t, and have sonc say in the nominations through their delegates. How this is to be done we do not know. We'll let Blythe say few words more:
 If the people blow hot here
 and blow cold there, they will
 get the same exactly what they
 have had many times before
 candidate for president whose greatest asset is that he is negli-
 gible enough in all his aspects
 10 be lnotfcnsive 10 everybody. All these boys need is conven- ton jam over two or three good men and they will slip across
 their own choice, who will be ropcd, tied and branded with their brand before they nomi-
 nate him, and will so continue
 for his four years in office if he
 is elected"
 But in spite of the rotten system the same rotten system which nominated Roosevelt and Coolidge as e-presidents-the same writer is eager to say how wonderful the results were when. they became president.
 The method seems to be bad ; but the results sometimes good, is what we get from this political es- say against the politicians and the
 boys who manipulate the national l conventions.
 Perhaps, in the future as in the past, presidents will arrive who will impress the political writers as very
 good, despite the accident of nom- nation.
 We seem 10 get geographical pres
 idents by design anP vice c-presdents by chance; and as Blythe himself admits the chance vice presidents in
 at least two instances surpassed their former running mates in actual ability.
 Perhaps the entire system could 1 be simplified, Providence given an opportunity to make the choice, and the results uniformly good if the conventions merely placed the
 names of all contendcrs on slips of paper. threw them into d bucket, let a blindfolded and beautiful girl grab one from the bottom of the bucket, and thus gave the nomina ton 10 the man whose name was on the slip in the hand of the pretty girl