Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-08-05

70 minutes. Outbursts have beer
getting shorter since then.
The demonstrations, of course
are largely synthetic. True, tn,
delegates like to get out ant
whoop and holler but not 81
much as it appears from a dis
lance.
The humorist, Will Rogers
wrote Of a march staged on be-
half of a candidate about whom
most Of the delegates wer'
apathetic:
"You have heard of shan
battles, where they emulate ;
battle. This was a parade wher,
they emulated a parade"
Astonishing OratOry
Another fixture of the conven.
ton is some astonishing ora.
torial pyrotechnics about "a,
man-who." Here is a choice BIZ
of alliterative broken field run,
ming by Senator Warren G
Harding tlater elected Presi.
dent) when he nominated Viii.
liam Howard Taft in 1912
Profession is not proclama-
ton nor palaver. 1t is not per.
sonal announcements nor per.
ennial announcement. 1t is moi
the perturbation of a people
passion-wrought, nor a promise
proposed"
This seems to have been toe
much even for a convention
crowd. From the gallery some
one yelled. Hey, Senator, who
you nominating, Peter Piper?"
But Senator Ollie James, OF
Kentucky. in renominatinc
Woodrow Wilson at st. Louis in
1916, received an unprecedented
compliment from his audience
1t came during the barooue
passage about Wilson and Worlc
War I, which begins, without
orphaning a single American
child, without widowing a single
American mother, :"
The crowd liked it so well they
demanded a repeat!
Newspapers reported that Sen.
ator James was too bewilderec
for moment to speak. HE
stood with his mouth open, eyes
popping, and his glance dartec
here and there around the vast
hail."
Like Stock Market
Once the balloting begins. a
convention bears some resem-
blance to the stock market. each
vote recording the fiuctuatine
fortunes of the various candi-
dates.
But these fluctuations are not
accidental. They result from he
hind-the-scenes strategy, the
maneuyering Of the floor mana
gers and their lieutenants From
that side, a convention is more
like a giant poker game. a due
of wits Of bluff. Of timing and
tactics.
Each candidate comes to the
convention with a certain amount
If delegate-support, those pledged
to him from the primaries. those
who ike him personally. those
who simply believe he is most
likely to win.
The managers carefully conceal
their exact voting strength
claiming more, or. as
the cliche says, "every vote that
isn't nailed down."
Since most delegates like to be
on the winning side. the strategy
is directed toward convincing
them that we've got enough
votes to win-better get aboard
the bandwagon."
To create the impression that
the bandwagon is rolling each
candidate tries to increase his
total vote with each ballot.
i. Gallery Important
And along with the arguments
and horse trading that takes
place on the convention floor,
the managers may try to start a
stampede in the gallery.
In the 1910 COP convention,
WILKES managers were
accused of packing the galleries
with 5000 people who, at the
psychological moment, began
."We Want Willkie,"
stampeding the convention to
him.
The most spectacular of all
conventions, on many counts,
was the Democratic donnybrook
of 1924 in New York.
1t was a Marathon. 1t lasted
IA days, not counting Sundays,
so long that some delegates ran
out of money and went home
before the finish.