The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-06-28
old BALLYHOO
WAGON JUNKED
BY TAMMANY
High Powered Statesmen
Get Day in Politics
at ParIeyS.
CATCH UP WITH TIMES
Jim Watson Learned How
Old Tricks Lose Might
at Kansas City.
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
United Press Staff CORRESPONDENT

BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
United Press Staff Correspondent
HOUSTON, Texas, June o.
Politics is CO 'ching up with the
times.
The politics practiced here and at
Kansas City is strictly 1928 model,
very different from what the old
timers are used to.
Ballyhoo is replaced by high-pow
cred craftsmanship.
Cheap tricks of the patent medi-
cine barker of the nineties are be-
ing driven out by the more dig
nified and far more effective meth
DDS of modern craftsmanship.
Governor Alfred E. Smith is in the
hands of expert political statesmen,
just as Herbert Hoover is.
Tammany Tactics Change
Those who came here expecting
Tanlmany, in its hour Of victory, to
stage the greatest political show of
the times were disappointed when
the demonstration following the
placing of Governor Smith in
nomination lasted only twenty-six
minutes as compared withs more
than an hour in Madison Square
Garden in 1924.
The Madison Square Garden
demonstration for Smith four years
ago probably was the most elaborate
example of this sort of pre-
arranged demonstration that was
ever staged. For more than an hour
an ear-splitting din was kept up by
a squad of men in the galleries
cranking fire department sirens.
This was the basis of the Smith
demonstration and 1t lasted until
the boys who cranked the sirens
were wore out.
So, because the Smith cheering
here was only reasonably noisy and
stopped within half the time it
did four years ago, some said that
Smith managers had fallen down
on the job.
In Ranks of Bustle
On the contrary. the Smith cam
paign this year has been conducted
on the new modern lines.
Hoover, the successful Republican,
adopted the new style, and old.
fashioned candidates like Senator
James E. Watson, who still were
using the tricks of the Blaine cam
paign, we're unable to make head
way against it.
Smith and his managers likewise
saw that styles in politics change
and that the old torchlight tactics
of the nineties are as out of date
now as the hustle.
Smiths managers came here
without even a band-an unheard
of thing for a major Democratic
candidate.
A volunteer orchestra of boys
from Oklahoma and a pathetic
looking accordion player are the
only musical accessories to the
Smith campaign here.
Manager Van Nance has forbid
den the Smith group to engage in
spectacular stunts. They mingle
with the delegates, shaking hands
answering any questions about
Smit hif asked, conducting them
selves like well-behaved guests.
The real high-powered work is
done in conferences among key
figures. The New York delegation
did not even march in the parade
around the hall last night-that was
left to other pro-Smith delegates.
Sales Manager Now
Followers of Senator George of
Georgia showed what a candidate
with only a relatively small follow
ing can do.
Although Smith has more than
seven times as many votes in sight
as George, the Georgian put on an
old-fashioned marching demonstra-
ton in the convention just before
the Smith nominating speech. 1t
lasted fifteen minutes, more than
half as long as Smiths and was
marked by almost as much noise.
Republican managers Of the high
er grade have known for a long
time that the arts of the side-show
barker were passe in politics, that
the times had become too sophisti-
Gated for them, and that instead of
impressing anyone, they caused
ridicule.
Smith managers, apparently, have
fallen into line with the times. Old
Tammany, the creator of American
political ballyhoo, has fired it's side
walk acrobats and hired a sales
manager.