Evening star., 1932-10-09

hHCOPEE and ballyhoo won the
presidency in the campaign of
NM Somebody may wish to add
v that whoopee and ballyhoo have
all the other presidential
campaigns. too; but in 184O the whoopee was
wilder and wetter. and the ballyhoo was more
nearly 100 per cent nonsense.
Most of it was on the side of the Wings
who running for President a war hero
Gen. William Henry Harrison, and for Vice
President they had borrowed from the
other party a Democrat named John Tyler
who was expected to draw in the disgruntled
members of Democracy.
To avoid hurting anybody's feelings, they
omitted the platform altogether! No wonder
they preferred to depend on whoopee and bal
lyhOo rather than facts and arguments.
Their opponents. the Democrats, had plenty
of facts and arguments and plenty Of power
full debaters. They had their candidate and
leader, Martin Van Buren, THE Little Magi-
cian," one of the most astute politicians of his
day. They had possession CT the presidency,
and they had all the prestige-what there was
left Of it-of the great Andrew Jackson.
But the Democrats had two handicaps. They
mderestimated the Importance Of amusing the
voters; Of putting on a good show; of making
political whoopee and ballyhoo Moreover,
they had the panic of 1887 on their hands and
the bitter depression that followed had made
multtudes of voters eager to take rap at Pres
ident Van Buren,
IN this respect, at least, the campaign of 1910
may be said to resemble that of 1882 the
Democrats Of that time playing the role of the
Republicans Of today, as the party in power
The slavery issue then might be compared to
the prohibition question now, as q trouble
maker for the managers Of both parties.
An interesting feature of the 1910 cam
paign, offering possible commentary on the
situation in 1882, was that the effects of the
panic of 1887 were evidently wearing off before
the presidential election came, and the party
In power seemed to be regaining ground
Nevertheless, it was turned out of Office by
the voters.
The overturn seems to have been due largely
to the mdemocratic blunders made by the
Democrats. 1t is at least even bet that
the Democrats would have won if they had not
allowed themselves to be maneuvered into the
position Of sncbbish aristocrats making fun of
the plain people.
One Of their journals, the Baltimore Repub-
hcan, spilled the beans by deriding the Whig
nominee, Harrison in the following widely
quoted words:
"Give him barrel of hard cider and pen
sion of $4,000 year and, word for it.
he will sit the remainder of his days in log
cabin by the side of sea coal fire and study
Auo1dl PiliOSOpuy 1ue WHlS managers
seized upon this b,under instantly
I'RY every possible DEVICE says recent
- writer, "the picture of Harrison as the
log cabin candidate kept before the people,
Stories of his poverty and of his love of farm
work were widely circulated, despite the genel-
GUS scale Of living which had always prevailed
in the Harrison house
'The fact that wing of the home at North
Bend had been originally log cabin was used
as basis for the tale that the Wing candidate,
the friend of the people. lived in a simple log
cabin and toiled in the fields, while the aristo-
crat Van Buren,, loed on a satin couch in a
palace whose furnishings exceeded the dreams
Of avarice."
Over against the log cabin-like simplicity of
Harrison, the Whig candidate, was luridly por-
trayed the palatial luxury of the efete Van
70 of fbo a