The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-05-02
Human Side
of the
News
Blu EdUivlC. Hill

/
to be there in the very front now.
When Barley Of Kentucky speaks
them in Philadelphia. I want to
be there, too, in the very front
row. Just one month more ant
the two greatest shows on earth
open up for their quadrennial
performances, the national con-
ventions of the major political
parties Of the United States.
For sheer color Ziegfeld never
could touch them. For sheer
drama they leave a BelaSco far in
the rear. I have yet to meet a
man who has looked on or who
sat in on one Of the memorable
political conventions and who will
not say it was the greatest spec.
tacle of lifetime.
Having been to quite a few my
self, my choice is the Democratic
convention in Madison Square
Garden in 1924 when, after more
than 100 ballots, Smith and Nc
Adoo agreed to throw up the
sponge and let John w. Davis
make the fight, a fight in which
he was beaten before he started,
beaten by the very convention
which nominated him.
That convention may have
seemed funny and childish to
those who followed it in the news
papers or by the radio. In fact,
it was both when you come to
think about it at this late date.
But it wasn't funny to the actors
or to the chorus of 1000 delegates
who Sweated and fumed in the
heat while Alabama voted "a for
Underwood, and New York 80 for
Smith and two for Mcadoo.
BRYAN'S LAST
I can see Bryan now pouring
out his eloquence and shouting to
the galleries:
"ThiS may be the last political
convention ever will attend"
1t was his last.
can look out again on the sea
of faces and study the bitterness
and hate written on each while
the vote was being taken to ad-
journ the convention to another
city, a motion which, if it had
been carried, would have meant
the end of the Democratic party.
Once before Democratic con-
vention had take such a step, and
that step led to the civil war and
the election of Abraham Lincoln.
And then there was the hush, the
pity and sorrow of those faces as
Senator Tom Walsh announced
that down in Washington death
had come to a little boy, the son
Of the President of the United
States.
Some of my older friends tell
me that they will take the Demo
cratic convention of 1896, the
Democratic convention of 1912
and the Bull Moose convention of
1912 as their choice in preference
to mine.
"There never was anything
like that Bryan Gross of Gold
speech; there never win be any
thing like it! So one says with
finality.
II was with Teddy in 1872"
remarks another, land for emo
tiOnaliSm and exaltatiOn only
Armistice Day in 1918 has come
up to what I saw out there in
Chicago"
CHANGE DESTINY
Little things in politics and 20
htical conventions have more than
once changed the destiny Of this
Republic.
AS far back as 1900 Hamilton
elected his arch-political rival, JET
ferson, by throwing the Federalist
support to him in preference to
Aaron Burr.
In 1860, when the delegates of
the South walked out of the Bal
timore convention and put I'D
Breckenridge against Douglas, they
paved the way for Lincoln and the
Republican Party.
It was "a years until the Demo
cratic party returned to power,
and only then because of one
mans spleen. The House Of Repre-
SentativeS in 1867, James G. Blaine
| OF Maine, annoyed by the vanity
Of New York'S Roscoe Conkling,
described Conkling as the man
with the turkey gobbler strut"
In the election Of 1884, Oneida
county, in Upstate New York,
went Democratic for the first
time since 1860. It was Conk-
ling's home county, and the 612
plurality it gave to Cleveland
had Just as much to do with the
result as did the Rev. Burchard's
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion"
speech.
There was 1920 and Frank
Lowden, Of Illinois, was a favorite
for the Republican nomination.
| Into the convention q bomb
shell is thrown: one Of Lowden's
more ardent henchmen had
passed some money to get dele
gates in Missouri.
The result is that the elders
meet in a little, Smoke-filled hotel
room and emerge with Warren
G. Harding. Second place might
have been Hiram JohnSon'S. He
did not seek it, and it went to
Calvin Coolidge.
What about June, 1886?
What can Smith do at Phila-