The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-07-18
wR nFo eaoW

HgoEp feof yeans, the Democrats and the Republicans gather ln some 14IRo city for the ostenAible pur. poe ok selecting candidates for the HrnNldeneg and the Vice. Presidency and Co formulate a party platform. Before tne date of the convention n announced, the backsroomers have already written down the nance of Che slandard. .beareFs. and lhe doOble-lalkefs are already al work on the platform. But every Presidential convention has actually served several purposes. Of which eheBe are a few.
 f--Ht brings hundreds of dele. Nnles thousands of miles from com. Sogtable homes Co perEpire in hotel Eooms which they cannot rent
 a. 10 increases the consumption of llnuor in the convention city by 300 per cent, putting bathtuhs to v@Fw unconventional use.
 s-ft fllls nite clubs to overflow Ing with visiting firelnen and burn. ing cuFtosilies.
 S-Ht gives little men an oppor- tunlty Co carry big signs and ex. change midget ideas.
 me greatest problem Of these conventions is not the selection oi a candidate, but the selection of sleeping quarters. At the recent c Q. ?. conciave, one delegate asked another: "Did you get . room?"
 "What do I want with a r0olnf asked the other. "I'm only going toI be here three daysl"
 A political convention attracts more hangers-on than the circus A newspaper reporter. in Chicago to cover one of the conventions asked his cab driver about a crowd og men he spotted congesting a buzy corner. "Oh. then." said the cahble, ''they're durliks."
 ''Durliks9" queried the reporter. s'whats tfems"
 ~DuFliks." said the driver. "You know-bumsl"
 FEow does a Presidential eandi. date feel just before the conven. aionp On June 1T. 1912. ten days before his parfy's caucus was sched- ailed Co meet in Baltimore. Woodrow wilson wrote to a friend: What we nov look forward to with not a little dread are the possibilities oR the next fortnight in politics. [ find myself dreading it and wishing most devoutly that I may escape. Not that I dread what would be really big and essential and worth while in the whole thing, but all that would go with it-all that ss non-essential. not Of the business merely dlstracting and ex- hausting and hateful without count ing the excessive personal tax Of a campaign. May the Lord have mercy on mel"
 Tha lack of elear-cut issues in the curmnt campaign ls nothing new Tn aDa0, there was little difference between the party blanks of Wn' liam Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren. yet the ensuing strug' gle Ger power. termed the Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign. was one of tho most hectic in American his. torv The Democrats differed with the Republicans on only one issuo in is2s--she League of Na' al0ns--yet the campaign which fol. lowed the naming Of Coolidge and Jol1n ". Davis ignored this issue completely.
 mo Auil gre the much-baily. .hooed s,oliticni conventions. that newspa- neFnlqn ere frequently at their wits end Co dig up an interesting story fo annd back on the wires, The fraufle efforts of radio commenta, tors and feature writers to inject a note of suspense and excitement into the dismal proceedings Of one such convention reminded some ol aas of q world series ball game some years ago. It was one of the oull, ert contests on record, The cfowq was apathetic. The occupants ot tke press box sat tEtdding tneb thumbs. The late Graham Mcha- nee however. reporting the game over the radio, vas beside hlfnselI u'lth exeitement, literally shrseslng fhe details into the niicropnone' .~-v,..- ~s-f,,s. a.aefoFv made here tog