Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-07-15
Song Nearly Unites Convention
Almost Disrupted by Speeches

that somebody In the Alabamf
crowd offered Howard Lanin, thu
band leader, $500 to play Dixie
when half that delegation and al
Of Mississippi's walked out" IN pro-
test over the platform. That event
was another big piece in yesterdays
pattern. without hatred, without
anger" said Alabama's Handy Ellis
Sc We bid you 'good-by."
Then, amid booing and applaud
ing, the two delegations ran = howl
ing gamut down the long center
aisle to the rear Of the hall. It was
q ragged, outlandish column, more
than half of it made up Of scrib-
bling reporters, photographers. try
ing to get to the front to snap q
picture and radiomen carrying port
able equipment on their backs and
talking busily into their micro
phones rs they struggled along.
Forgot About "Walkout."
Some AlabamanS remained to
speak for that State, but nobody
stayed for Mississippi. 1t was an
odd fact that Mr.. Rayburn. his
successor in the chair. Representa-
tive Mccormack of Massachusetts,,
and the convention clerks never
once remembered, in the roll calls,
about Mississippi. Hopefully they
would call her name, and they
seemed always surprised when there
was no answer.
The Truman demonstration, an
other major piece, followed what
undoubtedly was one OF the dullest
nominating speeches ever made to
convention. But 1t opened with
the loudest cheer Of the night,
lasted 40 minutes and raised the
temperature Of the hall from 80 to
90 degrees.
Gov. Phil Donnelly of Missouri
had been warned by the conven-
tons publicity men, that his speech
was not very razzle-dazzle, and
they were certainly right. In %
minutes he got exactly one burst
of applause. You can get some idea
what the speech was like by con-
sidering that this was the line
which drew the applause:
He Is the first President Of the
United States who Is a member Of
the American Legion and the Vet
Grams Of Foreign Wars"
Fragments In Pattern.
Two small fragments of the Thu
man demonstration added more to
the pattern than did the rather
stereotyped posters and signs which
show up in the pictures. The first
was an enormously fat woman In
a green dress who, in q gallery aisle
near the band box, seized a small,
embarrassed man while the band
played Golden Slippers" and made
him dance a frantic hoe-down with
her.
The other was a member Of the
New York delegation who endeav-
ored to persuade his colleagues to
follow him In singing the Stars
and Stripes Forever" Waving his
arms he shouted it out loud and
clear: BE kind to your web-footed
friends-that duck may be some
body's mother"
Mr.. Truman arrived in the hall
about $50 pm, while all this was
going on. He had to wait a long
time before making his appearance,
but of course that was another i'm
portant element of the picture when
it came. He blinked in the bright
lights as they brough him out, wear
ing a white suit and convention
badge with two bars, which indt-
Gates you are an important person.
Band Urks Rayburn.
He took his bows with Senator
Mrs. Truman, Miss Mar
garet Truman and Senator Bark
leys daughter, Mrs. Max Truitt, and
then settled back to wait for his
turn to speak. He roared with
laughter as Mr.. Rayburn, who was
anxious to move the program along,
blew up when he could not get the
music to stop. Mr.. Lanin had played