Evening star., 1936-06-24

Il
HILADELPHIA, June a (N.A.
- N.A).-Away back in the ear.
hest years Of the Christian era
i there lived in Rome one Of the
worlds greatest reporters from then to
now and even reckoning in the B. C..
period. His name was Juvenal and he
was, in reality, q columnist, only he
used tablets instead of tabloids for his
writings.
For withstanding the pressures Of
the overtaxed people Juvenal wrote
that the government sought to COM
pose the situation and to placate the
people by dread and the circus
games"
OF course, it is far cry from the
first century to the twentieth, from the
battles Of gladiators Of the past to the
battling with the microphones of the
present, but, at that. there is an analogy
that is quite evident here in Philadel-
phia at this Democratic National Con-
vention.
Biggest Show Saturday Night.
We have this extraordinary spectacle
now in progress here and to continue
in an ascending scale OF noise, aug
mentation, splendor and exaltation un-
til 1t comes to the tranScendant cli-
max and elimination Of Saturday
night, when the unanimous choice of
the convention for President will ap-
pear before 10000 cheering, fiagwa
ing, emotional people and accept the
honor that has been conferred upon
him.
That is the circus part Of it. the
grand finale of the circusing of the
week. It will be a great show. 1t will
follow Ave days Of oratory, vaudeville,
entertainment of every kind, both out
doors and in; music by countless
bands, loud speakers bowling hoarsely
on every downtown street corner,
parades. pageants and partisan passion
fiogged to the extreme limit. The
plaudits of it and the talk of it will be
carried to the ends Of the earth. The
cheers will be heard in Sumatra as
clearly as in Sewickley, Pa.
Super Showman's Show.
Juvenal spoke about bread, as we'll
as circus games. That, too, has been
attended to in the magnificent man.
ner. 1t is true that not many of the
delegates to the convention have been
handed bread. So far they are mostly
living on cake. but the convention
lasts until Saturday and it is not
unlikely few loaves for distribution
may come in handy. However. a great
many of the people who sent the dele
gates here know all about the bread
end of it, and that makes the set-up
complete.
have seen a great many national
political conventions, but never one
before like this. 1t has been skilfully
stage managed, produced and ex-
hibited. 1t is q great, hamboyant,
spectacular demonstration of what
can be built about a leading man
in such a gathering by pepole who
know the show business, especially
when the leading man is a superb
and super Snowman himself.
Even in its prologue yesterday 1t
was impressive, and, as it plays its
five acts to the Saturday night cli-
max, it must grow both in intensity
and In excited interest. Those old
Romans were right. They knew their
stuff.
Magnifying Glass Applied.
Owing to the necessities of pub
licity, it is necessary to magnify little
things that happen into big things,
because. as q matter of fact, this
convention has no more news in it
than last years statesmans year
book. Why could it have? There has
never been a question about the unani-
nous nomination of Roosevelt and
Garner. No responsible person has
ever thought that the convention will
not indorse the New Deal in every |
aspect, and no one has even doubted |
that President Roosevelt, as is his
power and privilege, is, and will be, |
the supreme director of everything |
that is said and done officially.
I have seen a great many con-
ventions and I have never seen one !
yet, where the management was efn-
cient, that did not run exactly to |
schedule. That is how this conven-
ton is running and will run. That |
is politics, and there never was q
convention more political than this |
one.
Meanwhile, there have been few,
If any, where the spectacular fea-
lures, the show, the entertainment,
the stage management have been as
we'll worked out as at this one. 1t
is already a great pageant. and it
will work along, in ascending scale,
to Saturday night when they plan q
spectacle that is hoped to impel all
American humanity into ardent sup
port of the President and his policies.
(Copyrisht, 1885. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance Inc0