Evening star., 1932-06-17
SESSION CLICKS
IN c. 0. P. STYLE
FIare-up Involving DR.. France
Was Only UnscheduIed
Number on Program.
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.


Chicago Stadium was synthetic, ever
mechanized and with only such spon.
taneity as 1900 delegates and alter
mates could convey to room holding
10000 people. The delegates alone
couldn't get it over. They needed the
clank of steel and the sound of brass
If the nomination had come with the
SuddenneSS OF thunder cloud after &
long tense struggle, eleVating here
like Li1dbergh himself returning first
from Europe, still the 1900 delegate.
would have required all the forces oi
modern machinery to express the JOY
of such an hour. And, of course, il
was not that.
The nomination Of Hoover came with
out contest. He is in no sense a rabble
rouser. Not a drop of RooSeveltS riot
ing blood courses in his spiritual veins
Hoover dedramatizes any situation
either consciously or by reason of his
Quaker temperament.
For two years his nomination has
been assured so the announcement of
the event had no element of surprise
and on top of it all the Republican
party is never emotional. The Irish
of the cities are Democrats and the
Republicans who come to national con-
ventionS from our cities are always
responsible, respectable citizens from
elm-shaded suburbs, who drive fairly
high-priced cars.
Gaudy Balloons Dropped.
So Republican conventions of recent
years have been a nice compromise
between meetings of the Bar ASSocla-
ton, the Bankers Association and the
hardware dealers organiZations-not
oil for vol
And there it was fairly successful
synthetic representation of an outburst
OF human acclaim.
The delegates marched, the drum
majors strutted ahead of two bands
some gentlemen from Mr.. Ziegfeld'S
''Follies" let nine truck loads of gaudy
balloons drop out of the ceiling at
appropriate and stimulating moments
the whizZers WhiZZed and the clackers
clacked for decent half hour or SO
and then it was turned off.
Mass production has overplayed Its
hand in all our national conventions
Week after next the Democrats will
come and use the same machinery, the
same whizzers and buzzers and bands
marching robots and whopping morons
to do the same kind of show over and
over again. Probably because Chicago
the Democrats, the galleries will help
to stimulate the spectacle. But Their
help will be lost in the vast distance OF
the architectural cave of Ali Baba
wherein this week Mr. Hoover's human
ants run up and down so futilely.
And 1t all means just nothing. 1t
means nothing despite the hollowneSs
of the days manifestation of delight
Hoover may carry every State in the
Union, or Vermont and Utah may be
his portion, as they were Taft's. The
rollicking rumpus in the convention,
following the nomination of Hoover,
was pure stage management. AS such
1t had no campaign value and fore
shadows no campaign result.
Republican to Core.
Yet, the convention that is now
closed was distinctly of its own kind
Republican to the core. Nothing hap
pened that was not on the program
except little fare-up in which for
mer Senator France, trying to get the
floor to nominate Coolidge, was given
what the boys call the buns rush.
and landed in the basement alleyWay
and later was hustled up to a police
porters all about it.
This was the only untoWard incident
and it meant nothing.
Otherwise the formality of the Re-
publican convention went its appoint
ed way. And a good efficient way it is
If you want to get the job done and
done quickly-to get it done precisely
as it should be done-according to the
rules Of the campaign.
By the rules of tie game it was Hoo
ver's convention. He had right to
build the platform and he did write
it down to the last comma of the last
article-not personally, of course, but
the Hoover influence wrote the plat
form and Hoover read every significant
plank and approved 1t, otherwise ne
wouldn't be running on 1t.
1t was Hoover'S nomination by all the
rights and precedence OF political ira
dition and he took it without fuss
and feathers as a gentleman gets q
disagreeable quarter of an hour over
when he has to meet it.
The President was pledged in all good
faith to the denomination of Curtis
Politicians in the convention, partic-
ularly the young politicians, wanted a
younger man. They couldn't quite
make it.
The Hoover States where cabinet
members live contributed their dele
gates to the Curtis strength. The
Southern delegations followed the ad-
ministration to Curtis as they followed
their leaders when they put the revl-
sion liquor plank across.
According to Hoyle.
PENNSYLVANIA hid her nest until the
psychological moment and then came
clucking in with the IS fuzzy little votes
which gave Curtis the nomination.
PENNSYLVANIA is regular, belongs to the
organization, and goes along with the
White House whatever personal opin-
ions Pennsylvania may hold about the
White House.
So platform, nomination and Vice
President all went through as they
should have gone-quickly, decently
happily without hitch. break o.
hindrance-a most Republican occasion
Efficiency was personified by 1900
men with single mind in great barn
where 20 900 looked down into the arena
and saw a spectacle which they scarcely
understood. 1t was all a mlcrocosm
of government. And America belne
what it is, with its vast geographical
stretches, with its teeming tens OF mil
lions running past the one hunoreo
million mark, with its mountains OF
wealth all clogged up and undlstrlb-
tlted making trouble-to all this comes
our machine age. suddenly telescoping
distance and jamming all this geog-
raphy, population and capital TO-
gether. ~
1t is inevitable that governments. like
conventions, must be oddly formal and
more or less ritualistic, even though we
look back to the elder and happier day
of a smaller nation when it was not so
and could be otherwise. But TODAY life
is what it is and not what 1t should be
The convention closed with perfec,
piece of stage management. The teiiers
had not added up Curtis ma)orltles
hefore Will Hays, former Republican
chairman, moved to name the commit
tee who should notify Curtis OF hi!
domination.
Parties Differ in Temperament.
rrbot uos the c1ickinp system ODer-