Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-16
The Gallery Gods.

method of naming party candidates for
the presidency in secret congressional
caucuses and open conventions attended
by thousands Of people In the galleries
who attempt to dominate the choice
Of the delegates and the framing OF
party platforms by vocal and visual
demonstrations. Yesterdays scene at
Chicago, when the guests" Of the Re-
publican party screamed and yelled
alternately in derision and approval OF
advocates Of one and the other proposals
for the party declaration on the pro-
hibition question, was but the latest
of long series Of such interferences
marking the conventions Of recent years
The wonder is that any results what
ever are accomplished in such condi-
tons. Yet so we'll established Is the
custom OF gallery outbreaks. sometimes
definitely arranged and promoted by
partisans of causes and candidates that
they are accepted as an incident of the
procedure.
The rules OF propriety in the gather
ing of the chosen representatives OF
the people for the highest duty of citi-
zenship are repeatedly violated. Speak
ers are interrupted with derisive shouts,
with insulting taunts. with challenges
to their honesty Names of opprobrium
are yelled. Charges of betrayal are
screamed. Parades are formed that in
wade the precincts of the meeting place
Deafening din is produced by mechan-
ical means, as in Madison Square Gar
den in New York in 1924.
The selection Of meeting place for
the party conventions is and for a
good many years has been governed
by the primary consideration of how
large an audience" can be assembled
in the hall, how many voices can be
mustered to give pep" to the conven-
ton. The city with only small hall,
though large enough to hold the dele
gates and their alternates, but without
accommodations for thousands of gal
meeting. The gallery has become a
fixed feature Of this method of setting
in motion the process Of the exercise
of the free choice of the people of the
country in the naming of the Presi-
dent and the declaration of principles
upon which the candidate Is to stand.
Does it make for good government
thus to select the presidential candi-
dates and to write the platforms in
the presence of screaming mobS and
to the accompaniment OF ribaldry and
insult? 1t was certainly not in the
thought OF the trainers Of the Consti-
tuition, who constructed the organism
Of American administration, that such
should be the case. They planned that
the people should vote for electors
who should represent them, State by
State, with free choice Of all the peo-
pie, without instructions. That plan
did not work satisfactorily and another
was substituted by evolution, with the
electors reduced to the status of
recording boards, acting under the in
structions of the people of their re-
spective States. To insure results NOM
nations were made, first by the caucus
method and then by the open-con-
vention process. Now the convention
has become pandemonium. through the
introduction of the gallery element.
20
requirement of freedom of selection.
1t is marvel that it has survived the
assaults which have been made upon
it by the unrestrained thousands who
have swarmed the galleries and sought
to wreSt the power of selection from
those who have been formally desig-
mated to act as proxies for the masses.